GW2 Thief Discussion

[DrakeWurrum]

last time i checked they had cooldown on their skills from 5-30 seconds and we have none.

And last I checked they could use all eight of their cooldowns one right after another (and then repeat a few more due to shorter CDs coming back up), while we can barely use 3-4 skills in a row.

Trade-offs.

We also have exactly two sources of Daze/Stun. One comes from off-hand Pistol, the other comes specifically from Sword/Pistol. Doing Sword/Pistol and then Pistol/Pistol would still share initiative.
The Daze from off-hand Pistol lasts for 1 second. The Stun from Sword/Pistol dual skill lasts for 0.25, in the last build we saw.

Oh, there is a third, but that one requires you to be stealthed first and positioned behind your target.

[Karazee]

Melee isn't really sub-par if you know how to survive in melee. It's not just dodging and #6.

For someone like me who has always played a ranged class and will be going thief this time around, can you elaborate more on what i need to "know how to survive in melee" please?

[Zeek Daniels]

For someone like me who has always played a ranged class and will be going thief this time around, can you elaborate more on what i need to "know how to survive in melee" please?

Make good use of your stealth skills as well as abilites that allow you to evade.

[Karazee]

Make good use of your stealth skills as well as abilites that allow you to evade.

What constitutes "good use?" Obviously I know there's no need to defensively stealth if nobody's attacking me, but surely there's something that separates the average player from the truly skilled.

[DrakeWurrum]

For someone like me who has always played a ranged class and will be going thief this time around, can you elaborate more on what i need to "know how to survive in melee" please?

It involves things like not standing still and paying attention to boss animations.

[solidsheep]

And last I checked they could use all eight of their cooldowns one right after another (and then repeat a few more due to shorter CDs coming back up), while we can barely use 3-4 skills in a row.

Trade-offs.

We also have exactly two sources of Daze/Stun. One comes from off-hand Pistol, the other comes specifically from Sword/Pistol. Doing Sword/Pistol and then Pistol/Pistol would still share initiative.
The Daze from off-hand Pistol lasts for 1 second. The Stun from Sword/Pistol dual skill lasts for 0.25, in the last build we saw.

Oh, there is a third, but that one requires you to be stealthed first and positioned behind your target.

Imo I find it quite even, I don't feel other classes have advantage over me because they can swap to a weapon be able to use all 5 skills right away. I feel that we have plenty of options and tools to keep our initiative up that makes up for not having cooldowns on are skills and using a initiative resource mechanic.

---------- Post added 2012-08-08 at 11:13 PM ----------

It involves things like not standing still and paying attention to boss animations.

Also gonna add to drake's said, don't feel that because your playing a Thief you have to be in melee rage 100% of the time. Your gonna come across time's where you just wont be able to be in melee and you will need to step back and start using range abilities or running around a rezzing people.

[CrunkJuice5]

so what did they do to sword/dagger

last i checked it was crap cuz of flanking strike but it seems like more people are talking about it now and it sounds like they did somethin to make it better

i was thinkin about goin sword/pistol but i dont like the root effect that pistol whip gives you so i was lookin at sword/dagger lately

[Valeron]

I liked flanking stike, I used it as another evade and that is what a Thief is all about. Don't play it like a warrior.

[Balfire]

So first time really trying a thief during this stress test. Infiltrators Arrow doesn't work if theres an elevation increase? I tried it over every little hill and ledge I came up to and it works fine going down but not up.

[Glytch]

So first time really trying a thief during this stress test. Infiltrators Arrow doesn't work if theres an elevation increase? I tried it over every little hill and ledge I came up to and it works fine going down but not up.

there where some issues similar to this with scorp wire

report it as a bug and try and see if it happens to shadow step

[solidsheep]

WOW poison Thieves are amazing never had so much fun.

[PonyCannon]

wow MH sword is pretty amazing, I liked it before but I love it even more now. It's like the single trolliest weapon I've ever used.

You can teleport through walls and break stuns with the 2 skill. I was participating in multiple fights just teleporting back and forth whenever some1 targeted me. And even if you use the 2 skill then weapon swap you can still use the same return point (which is good and bad in some ways).

[jtgizmo]

Sylvari special, entangled wines or whatever it is - is it bugged or something. I know it is suppose to root the single target to the ground. But it kinda like has delay, by the time it emerges, player usually is long gone from that spot and never gets rooted thus.... am I misunderstanding here something?

edit: its called Grasping Wines

[Matlafous]

Was pretty good stress test and tried so many new stuff with my thief...PVP wise ofcouse...

Tried sword+dagger combo, feels weird....Agains melee it is good because of flanking with skill and crazy mobility, BUT lower damage compare to dagger/dagger backstab style -> when in stealth with dagger, you do massive damage with backstab, but with sword, you just daze enemy....

Next was short bow as second weapon...god weapon if you find yourself on cliff agains multiple enemies clusted up... spam hell out of bomb with poison and watch them die....BUT as finishing weapon, damage is low and playstyle is more like hit and run or hit and kite....

Poison playstyle wise, it was blast compare to heavy backstab for damage style -> this one
going in combat with spider poison (2 might) stunning your enemy with basillisk poison on first hit (another 2 might) and quick cloak and dagger for backstab is pretty good opener for hefty damage...

In all and all, thief is so good to play, meeting with so many enemy thief, watching their different playstyle and outsmarting enemies, have to say GW2 is must buy for me....

[solidsheep]

Got some nice glory10 items thought I would share them.

[PonyCannon]

Loved the Bayonets on my thief ( left picture). Such massive daggers, they looked like slightly shorter swords.

[solidsheep]

Loved the Bayonets on my thief ( left picture). Such massive daggers, they looked like slightly shorter swords.

Was so happy to see they had giant daggers, like some other games. Loved the way it looks on my Thief :P Also had a cool pistol looked like deathray, but i destroyed it last stress test thinking we would not have another one.

[PonyCannon]

What kind of builds were you guys running this stress test? I was playing a sword/dagger + sword/pistol build in pvp. Actually had no survivability issues due to the nature of swords on a thief (teleporting through walls and shit). I wasn't sure about it but it seemed like the sword 2 skill doesn't share a teleport anymore. The ability seemed to reset on swap.

[solidsheep]

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fYAQ...umkNtOYEyOgZHA
That's most effective build I have made it wrecks face 1v1 and in group fights it gives a lot of debuffs to the enemy.
I open to suggestions especially when it comes to runes so give me a hand.

[Hockey Monkey]

It's a pretty decent build to come up with yourself, but I have a couple recommendations. Unless they balance it out, switch roll for initiative with Ambush. I'll explain in a sec.

Next drop Acrobatics down to 10, so you can bump Shadow Arts up to 30. This is where you get Venomous Aura, the most important skill a venom thief can have. All venoms you use are shared to all allies. So that thief you just summoned from Ambush? He is now laying down insane condition damage, same for the elite skill Thieve's guild.

Also, seeing as how you are set up to use steal a lot, put Mug in for your first Deadly Arts trait, does decent damage. Otherwise you look pretty sturdy.