What should I do with a downed opponent?

I'm somewhat new to pvp, I play thief and I need to get better. To this end I have some questions.

When an opponent is in a downed state should I use the finish him action or just proceed to damage them until they die? The finish action takes some time which I sometimes don't have when there are other opponents nearby. What's generally faster/safer?

When I've just downed another player and someone else from his team comes along and starts to heal him, what should I do, it has happened (particularly when there is a lot going on) that someone is downed and he gets help and I can't stop someone from helping them. Should I target the downed player? His helper?

Thanks.

This depends entirely on what else is going on around the body, whether they are directly on a node, whether a rez for them might happen and what will do the most to stop the rez.

Damage until they die is the safest bet

Leaving down body is very risky nowadays because ressing is too fast and too easy

What shall we do with a downed opponent,What shall we do with a downed opponent,What shall we do with a downed opponent,Early in the morning?

Weigh heigh and up she risesWeigh heigh and up she risesWeigh heigh and up she risesEarly in the morning!

Knock 'em off the point until they've respawned,Knock 'em off the point until they've respawned,Knock 'em off the point until they've respawned,Early in the morning!

Weigh heigh and up she risesWeigh heigh and up she risesWeigh heigh and up she risesEarly in the morning!

Spike 'em in the chest with an invuln finisherSpike 'em in the chest with an invuln finisherSpike 'em in the chest with an invuln finisherEarly in the morning!

That's what we do with a downed opponent,That's what we do with a downed opponent,That's what we do with a downed opponent,Early in the morning!

In teamfights as a thief you just want to damage them down since it'll be safer for you. If people res steal on the guy ressing cause you can interrupt the res. If they are solo, bleed them out so it takes them longer to get back into the game.

If there’s any amount of damage from other enemies nearby, just cleave the body unless you can use Shadow Step to stomp at a safe distance. Also, make sure to drop a poison on the body to reduce revive speed. Also stun enemies if they try to revive. This can often get you two kills when an attempted stomp can result in you getting downed instead.

In fights against 1 target, bleed out the target if you can (keep them from healing, but let them die as slow as possible) unless there’s an enemy nearby that will try to Rez or if you need to rotate somewhere else. In these cases you can stomp, but make sure to safe stomp with blind, stealth, teleport or whatever you need to make sure it lands.

If you go to stomp a Mesmer, stealth, wait a second, then start stomping. Most mesmers will use their stealth as soon as you use yours, which means they will reappear just before your stomp finishes casting.

/sit, /sit, /sit, /sit, [up arrow]; Enter, [up arrow]; Enter, [up arrow]; Enter, [up arrow]; Enter.

Always stomp/kill for the +5.

@bleakcabal.9650 said:I'm somewhat new to pvp, I play thief and I need to get better. To this end I have some questions.

When an opponent is in a downed state should I use the finish him action or just proceed to damage them until they die? The finish action takes some time which I sometimes don't have when there are other opponents nearby. What's generally faster/safer?

When I've just downed another player and someone else from his team comes along and starts to heal him, what should I do, it has happened (particularly when there is a lot going on) that someone is downed and he gets help and I can't stop someone from helping them. Should I target the downed player? His helper?

Thanks.

A good question but not an easy one, young padawan. This is an issue with which even players as high as plat 3 struggle with, and get wrong occasionally. Your answer depends on what the class of each player affecting the outcome is, and requires a ton of knowledge about the classes in the game. If the downed opponent has help, you'll need to assess what their best play is, and adjust to it. There's even a third option, to not touch the body at all. This is called rotting. Rotting is usually done when the opponent is not on point, can't move on point, doesn't have allies to immediately help and isn't a ranger(pet res). Rotting is valuable because it delays their respawn, giving you more time to keep snowballing the map.

There are a few rules to follow though:

A. Don't try to stomp eles, thieves or mesmers until they've used their skill 2 unless that's exactly what you're trying to bait. You may want to cleave instead anyway.

B. Be aware of what the opposing team is fielding, and where the most risky players are rotating. Firebrands and Blood necros will snap resses the fastest. Necros can move the body away from your stomp via Transfusion. Other classes that are less common, but good ressers nevertheless, are druids and scrappers.

C. If you have an interrupt ready, target the ressing player. You need to be aware of Stability on them though as that will make interrupting harder. Steal is likely to strip their Stability, and interrupt as well. That's one of the reasons why blowing Steal early is not the best idea. If you don't have either option, make sure you cleave them both regardless of which one you're targeting. Firebrands that are using Signet of Mercy you will have to interrupt, or they will probably get the res.

D. Stolen Skills can be helpful when finishing. Plasma gives Stability, Aegis and Resistance. Skull Fear is an Unblockable CC, especially useful vs focus-bubbled Guardians. Feathers give Stealth. Whirling Axe from warriors is really good at cleaving warriors in downstate, since both their 1 and 2 skills are projectiles which the skill reflects. Rangers, Thieves and Engineers also have a projectile as their downed 1 skill.

E. As a thief it's generally safer for you to cleave. That said, a good option is a Shadowstep-stomp if you have it available. Utilize Stealth and Blinds as well.

What should I do with a downed opponent?Give him a hug, he probably needs the emotional support.

Like others here have said, you're going to want to take into account what's going on around you. Are you solo against two, is it just you and your downed body, do you have an ally nearby?

If you're a thief and you are in a 2v2, your best bet is to leave the body rotting (term for letting a downed player slowly dwindle to death) and cleave/interrupt the reviver with headshot, dagger storm, poison, ect. Your ally should know this same fact and should be assisting you in cleaving.

A dead body is a magnet that a lot of times can turn a fight, as when enemy revivers aren't invuln, they're super defenseless.

If you're 1v1 and you own the point, rot the heck out of that body. If you can knock them off the point and start to move away, only to tap them when they start bandaging, even better. This creates a snowball effect which you will eventually understand the full value of.

If you're 2v1, you have a few options — including run and impact the map elsewhere — but the riskier (and more impactful) one being a shadowstep stomp. It's not always really enough to just do an invisible stomp against good players. If I saw a thief stomping my ally when I was +1ing, I'd do an AOE cleave. Some thieves counteract this by stealth+shadowstep stomping. The essence of this is to shadowstep away from the body, then shadowstep back. Let's say you used your shadowstep to gap close to the body, you can use your shadow return while stomping and steal to complete the stomp. There's so many crafty ways to actually shadowstep stomp.

Also, don't listen to everybody on here, and as always....try things out to see what works for you.

@phokus.8934 said:Always stomp/kill for the +5.

Like I mentioned, shocker that you'll find bad advice on forums. ^

be annoying just like any other thief, take advantages of the class, stealth-stomp.

@Mbelch.9028 said:

Also, don't listen to everybody on here, and as always....try things out to see what works for you.

@phokus.8934 said:Always stomp/kill for the +5.

What if you lose by 4 points due to time? See. Always. +5.

there you go thief starts at around 9:20overall with direct dmg builds it nowadays is often faster and safer to just keep dmgingif you won't get the kill or stomp of cause someone rezzingit might be better to run away instead of wasting time or even get killed in a 1 vs 2

What you should do depend a lot on each fight, it's hard to give an absolute answer to your question. That said, a good thing that you can do is to poison the downed foe (yes it's a dirty move but it can prevent this foe from being rezzed quickly). After that it depend on to many things and your options can range from keeping the foe in down state as long as possible to stomp it as fast as possible.

@phokus.8934 said:

@Mbelch.9028 said:

Also, don't listen to everybody on here, and as always....try things out to see what works for you.

@phokus.8934 said:Always stomp/kill for the +5.

If you play it right, your team will always get the kill. If you stomp right away every time, you're just... not smart.

Stomp if you are not in immediate danger

Cleave the downed body if you are pressured

Use invuln/port stomps if you can

If someone starts ressing them, use hard CC skills to interrupt on the one(s) not downed

Learn when to safely bleed them out and when not to

Always assume guardians will attempt a signet ress, look for the animation and symbol

If a blood necro tries to ress, your best bet is to apply poison, cleave with all your might or try stomping before the ress completes. Interrupting the blood necro still helps, but most of the time won't be enough.

@"rng.1024" said:

4. If someone starts ressing them, use hard CC skills to interrupt on the one(s) not downed

I just wanted to comment on this one for anybody reading who isn't a thief, because sometimes you can actually CC the downed body in a pinch (Engi Rifle 4, Guardian Hammer Push, Ect.) If you know you don't have enough CC to both remove stability & again CC the rezzer. I do this a lot and it works wonders, as it stops the rez and often confuses a lazy rezzer.

@"rng.1024" said:

5. Learn when to safely bleed them out and when not to

Also, it's worth quoting this again to show how important this truly is.

If you play thief you get to have the ultimate swag stomp, shortbow 5 -> start stomping -> shadowstep on the body -> shadowstep back -> steal.

@"rng.1024" said:

7. If a blood necro tries to ress, your best bet is to apply poison, cleave with all your might or try stomping before the ress completes. Interrupting the blood necro still helps, but most of the time won't be enough.

I wouldn't try out stomping a blood scourge res, its a good way to get interrupt chained. You're better off applying poison and cleaving with aoes or specifically switching focus to the necro

@everyman.4375 said:If you play thief you get to have the ultimate swag stomp, shortbow 5 -> start stomping -> shadowstep on the body -> shadowstep back -> steal.

It‘s swag af yeah sure but imo not needed (overkill) and a waste of steal.