Let's Talk Thief

Awesome, thanks for the link!

So far my experience with sword has been a bit lackluster. I think I need to get the hang of chains a bit more because it seems like I want to be either ranged or melee...whereas these weapon sets look like they want you to alternate. IE: Shadow step, pump a few attacks, blind, return to original location + ranged cripple.

Then again...the fact that daggers does not allow me to hit more than one target with the auto-attack gets on my nerves...and sword doesn't have this issue. And of course, if you're dealing with a boss that has boons or PvP/WvW...this becomes much more deadly.
 
Yeah, since very early in the game I've wanted to try alternating D/P and P/D for that reason since they seem to be designed as opposite. Stepping in with D/P for melee, then popping out with P/D for range. In my limited experience, though, pistol feels kinda wimpy.

So far I'm just doing general leveling on my thief, and not really liking the D/D style, which is what I remember from playing thief shortly after launch.

Gonna try some S/D next. I kinda like the idea of letting the auto-attack do more of the work, and using initiative skills for utility rather than initiative skills doing the heavy hitting.
 
Enok said:
pistol feels kinda wimpy.
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im running 30/20/20/0/0 and #3 on dual pistols is hitting over 5k damage at its peak
this does chew up initiative rather fast so inbetween uses of skill #3 i use the skill #1 auto attack to stack some bleeds
if i get swarmed by a mob i drop dagger storm and melt down almost all of the mob.

i'd like to find a way to keep the high damage and invest into trickery for more initiative capacity and faster initiative gain


when using roll for initiative i've found it more useful to F1 steal first so when i get rolled back im still within pistol range
 
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Oh, yeah, sorry. Unload hits hard. Was thinking of P/D.

I've also seen warnings on getting too reliant on /P #5 blind, because it isn't as easy-mode at high level.
 
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I have already hit lvl 7, and unlocked all weapon skills. Now I am finding I have a problem with all of the jumping and rolling around the thief does. I can just see myself throwing myself off of a cliff or platform. I may have to axe the thief early and pass on the name to someone else.
 
ursen said:
I have already hit lvl 7, and unlocked all weapon skills. Now I am finding I have a problem with all of the jumping and rolling around the thief does. I can just see myself throwing myself off of a cliff or platform. I may have to axe the thief early and pass on the name to someone else.
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jumping around alot is a squishy class's best friend
it has saved me alot of times
not to mention the shadow refuge skill hides me so i can res my allies

don't give up yet..put a shortbow on it and pretend it is Cristeen lol
 
my new build i just made is working out great
i call it "leap and sting"

Traits
Deadly Arts 25 (III,X)
Critical Strikes 30 (V,IX,XI)
Trickery 15 (IV)

Armor = Valkyrie
Runes = Infiltration
Accessories = Valkyrie with equisite beryl jewels (or as close to those stats you can get)

skills
Hide in shadows
Roll for Initiative
Shadow refuge
Signet of shadows
Dagger storm

Stats that impressed me;
Power - 2169
Attack - 3198
Health - 17785
Critical Damage - 91%

skill thoughts to keep in mind:
Infiltrators strike secondary skill is a stunbreaker
roll for initiative is a stunbreakers
hide in shadows is a stealth,heal regen
shadow refuge is a stealth healing

Combat Breakdown:
step 1 = on the sword/pistol set use skill #2 to leap in then skill #3 (pistol whip) hits for around 3-5k damage at its peak
use skill #2 to leap back away from foe

step 2 = F1 steal then swap to pistol/dagger and use skill #3 you stab and shadow step back out of foes range
skill #1 will start stacking bleeds and skill #2 will stack vulnerability making your damage improve considerably
swap back to sword/pistol and hit skill #2 to leap to foe and repeat process/steps 1-2
(this is the basic rotation i started with when i first played around with it.)

Afterthoughts:
not only can you damage fast but foes have a tough time to get you in an AOE spot or hit you often
after some time playing in fractal lv20 i found step 1 can be repeated more than once before you go to step 2 if you choose
the damage from pistol whip can hit over 7k when foe has vulnerability (depending on amount of stacks)
not to mention minor trait exposed weakness (deadly arts 25) adds 10% more damage if your target has a condition
once your target gets below 50% health grandmaster trait executioner (critical strikes 30 #XI)
will add 20% more damage per hit until foe is dead and your superior runes of infiltration boost damage when foes drop below 50% health

overall it is alot of fun..i dont have all the gear yet so im using rare equipment till i have enough tokens or gold to get the rest

the damage is massive
the mobility is fast
but one thing this build lacks is toughness
so jumping in dropping heavy damage and getting out of dodge is a key factor
if you need to kite use pistol/dagger skills #1,#2 to add bleeds and vulnerability and speed up the fight a bit


here is the build link for those who would like more details that i either forgot or was too lazy to type out lol
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRA...fAs6Mo5LB-jgxA4rBRn+KiGbNsIas6FMlJRUt7oIa1A-e
 
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-rc5ksQN3M

This is a video of thieves sneaking into a tower while one of their enemy servers takes it from the other enemy server. They then wait inside stealthed until everyone leaves and they can take the tower in peace.

Since they are using area stealth, I don't see why you couldn't do it with a couple of thieves and several other members of other professions. Does area stealth from blast finisher into a smoke field have a cap on how many it can affect?
 
Enok said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-rc5ksQN3M

This is a video of thieves sneaking into a tower while one of their enemy servers takes it from the other enemy server. They then wait inside stealthed until everyone leaves and they can take the tower in peace.

Since they are using area stealth, I don't see why you couldn't do it with a couple of thieves and several other members of other professions. Does area stealth from blast finisher into a smoke field have a cap on how many it can affect?
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im not sure..i was aware i could use this method to keep myself stealthed but never knew it could stealth allies too
i know blinding powder will stealth allies and shadow refuge also but if this works it is a continous stealth
now i have to go to the mists and try it out lol..ill post after i find the pros and cons to it
thanks for sharing
 
I think the trick is stealthing with combos, not skills. Blinding Powder and Shadow Refuge cooldowns are too long to perma-stealth a group.

A blast finisher into a smoke field, however, causes area stealth. So the thieves use Pistol #5, Black Powder to put down a smoke field at a cost of 6 init. They then spam Cluster Bomb into it for Area Stealth application. CB costs 3 init, but with infusion of shadow you get 2 back whenever you stealth, so you can spam CB as long as the smoke field lasts. With Patience you're renewing Init even faster because you're in stealth the whole time.

It'll be interesting to see if the new anti-stealth traps will provide a counter for this.
 
Leveling in my 50s at the moment, and liking S/P, but I've been using SB as my other weapon. I'm liking the teleport for covering distance and ranged AoE.

Can you explain a bit about your choice to go all Valk gear? Looks like huge crit damage, but only 20% crit chance. Of course, all the Power on the gear is making your base damage good without the crits.

This is an area I'm really trying to get my head around, gearing the thief.
 
Enok said:
Leveling in my 50s at the moment, and liking S/P, but I've been using SB as my other weapon. I'm liking the teleport for covering distance and ranged AoE.

Can you explain a bit about your choice to go all Valk gear? Looks like huge crit damage, but only 20% crit chance. Of course, all the Power on the gear is making your base damage good without the crits.

This is an area I'm really trying to get my head around, gearing the thief.
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the reason i chose Valkyre
Power = bigger hits
Vitality = bigger health pool due to thieves naturally being squishy (even with 30 pts in shadow arts toughness just isnt good enough IMO)
Critical Damage = when i do achieve a critical hit, it hits massive

there may be better armor types out there for this build
but so far it is working great and i should be upgrading my armor to exotic Valk soon
 
Makes sense.

On my Mesmer I did all Rabid gear for Prec/Toughness/Condition Damage because I was running a Cond build. On My Ele I use all Knight's for Power/Prec/Toughness for damage and tankiness.

But for some reason on Thief I keep thinking maybe it would be best to balance rather than specialize. Precision for crits, but power will help base damage which then makes the crits even better. Vitality is good for DoT, Toughness for spike, right? Which makes me think Vit because Thief doesn't have as much condition removal and bottom tier HP, but Toughness seems pretty crucial for WvW with all of the AoE flying around and thieves/mesmers/warriors building for spike damage.

Thinking out loud, as it were.

One of the things I've noticed on Thief is that people can go condition or power/prec on the very same weapon sets (as opposed to, say, Mesmer where staff leans condition and sword power). D/D looks very conditiony at first glance, but people also have success running crit builds with it.

As I'm still in my fifties, I'm stuck with 2 stat gear for a little while longer, so I haven't really gotten into it yet, but I've been thinking in anticipation.
 
Someone please argue the case for keeping the thief class, even after all weapon skills acquired for the title. It must include an open and shut case for those of us who are slow to learn anything more than the basic face roll on the keyboard, up to lvl 80.
 
I'm definitely finding it the most challenging profession I've tried to level. Everyone complains about Mesmer being hard to level, but I found it to be pretty smooth. Thieve's active defense definitely presents a challenge.

Can't really provide a defense for you, Ursen, with your conditions. Nevertheless, bamfing around and stealthing is so awesome I'm committed to keep going until I get this profession down. One dragon event (on my ele) provides enough cash for a whole lot of armor repair for my poor thief. :D

If you believe 90% of the forums community, Thieves are easy-mode in WvW. ;)
 
Enok said:
I'm definitely finding it the most challenging profession I've tried to level. Everyone complains about Mesmer being hard to level, but I found it to be pretty smooth. Thieve's active defense definitely presents a challenge.

Can't really provide a defense for you, Ursen, with your conditions. Nevertheless, bamfing around and stealthing is so awesome I'm committed to keep going until I get this profession down. One dragon event (on my ele) provides enough cash for a whole lot of armor repair for my poor thief. :D

If you believe 90% of the forums community, Thieves are easy-mode in WvW. ;)
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amen to that..for what they lack in toughness the stealth-in and stealth-out damage is awesome.
my other toons are collecting dust cause im having too much fun on my thief (eventhough im lv80 lol)
 
K, reporting back in...I am loving Sword/Pistol. Being able to area blind repeatedly has made my thief much more playable to me. Now that I'm starting to get some traits where I get X on stealth...it's also getting easier there.

Really liking thief now that I'm closing in on level 60.
 
RyanB said:
K, reporting back in...I am loving Sword/Pistol. Being able to area blind repeatedly has made my thief much more playable to me. Now that I'm starting to get some traits where I get X on stealth...it's also getting easier there.

Really liking thief now that I'm closing in on level 60.
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same here..nothing is more fun than leaping in,droping a smoke powder blind and pistol whipping them lol
 
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