Having trouble with Thief

And yet I can do really well in PvP with my guardian and engi, both core metabattle builds. What am I doing wrong? I try to play it safe, but whenever someone sees me I'm usually done for and get killed extremely quickly.

Thief is a "+1" ambusher. Look for vulnerable targets, jump in and unload your burst, leave and go decap a point. You're not a teamfighter. Also make sure you're using PvP builds and not PvE builds.

You may get a lot more help if you post in the Thief sub-forum

Thread will likely be moved by a moderator so I’ll answer your question.

In general, thief requires you to play more carefully than other builds with strong active defenses. You will want to pick a target, do you damage and then retreat. You will often need to stealth to break target and avoid getting focused down.

That said, you have strong ability to apply damage fairly flexibly from anywhere. You can use teleports to gap close and be sure you can land melee damage. Your range damage can likewise be significant depending on your build.

This means you tend to be the person who will finish off the target or distract a DPS opponent to keep your team from getting killed. You need to learn how to pick the target that needs to go down to win the fight for your team. That means you pick and apply a damage spike faster than anyone on your team.

In a phrase, play aggressive but know your limits.

Yes , your main job is to decap and plus 1 fights. Any 1 vs 1 or even fights; then run away and look for a decap. The best advice is either for the one shot builds that can get you in and out of fights or the META builds that are build with the same thing in mind but more utilities for more situational you might be in. Youtube shorts gaming when he did thief pvp guides which he teaches rotation though the points and what to look for. And other experience people that main thief like Sindrener and Vullan.

Welcome to thief. Your struggles you are getting now is just the beginning...

@ALF.2576 said:And yet I can do really well in PvP with my guardian and engi, both core metabattle builds. What am I doing wrong? I try to play it safe, but whenever someone sees me I'm usually done for and get killed extremely quickly.

What build are you playing?

For one the class in respects to the S/D build in conquest is harder than anything else on any profession on metabattle. Scrapper and Firebrand both are some of the easiest classes in the game right now. Outside of SA Deadeye, you need to work on game knowledge and practice a lot to survive in meaningful ways on thief relative to the other professions.

Your existence on thief in PvP is to create outnumbered fights and decap enemy points. You're not a 1v1 threat to good players on strong builds and do not have the resources to sustain 1v2+ on-point unless you massively out-skill your enemies, which also depending on the class demands they also not be very good, either.

There is no cure-all, otherwise. Learn everything there is to know about the limits of the class, and then about every other class. Practice and play with purpose, and pay attention to the map to shut down your enemy's uncontested points. There should be absolutely no idle time as a thief "waiting" for something to happen. You're the point playmaker due to your mobility rather than strictly being a kill/capture threat.

I would suggest trying out the meta d/p build to get a real feel for the role of a thief. This takes the mobility is a thief to the max, and for me was the build that made thief click. Wooden potatoes did a few games of the day on dp back in November or December, and I think he did a great job of explaining the role.

You have to realize as a thief that you are only good in the following situations

1. Decapping. You burst away to far, spend 5 seconds decapping, then burst back to mid. In this time your cool downs tick and you are ready to hit someone again
2. Pressuring an opponent WITH SOMEONE ELSE. You should almost never fight alone. Find someone who has been in a fight and come in and, in ten seconds, blow a bunch of cool downs to swing the fight. You aren't much good in a sustained fight, so after 10 second or so you should be thinking about your next rotation.
3. Chasing deadeyes. As an SD or DP thief you can pretty much shut down an average deadeye. This is about the only 1v1 I regularly take. You'll also have to duel other thieves in mirror matchups.

Thief is a weird beast. At first I felt like a glass pop gun. No power and no sustainability. Now I sometimes still feel that way, but I sometimes feel like an untouchable force. I find the mobility extremely fun and extremely addicting. On a good match, you can swing fight after fight, and keep the other team staggered by decapping to make fights easier for your team. If you try to team fight too much, you feel impotent. You aren't good at sustained pressure, in general.

Disclaimer: I'm in gold, so the are much better people to listen to on these forums.

@ParanoidKami.2867 said:

@"ALF.2576" said:And yet I can do really well in PvP with my guardian and engi, both core metabattle builds. What am I doing wrong? I try to play it safe, but whenever someone sees me I'm usually done for and get killed extremely quickly.

This build: http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Thief_-_Marauder_S/D

And thanks everyone, I really appreciate the comments! I'll gladly accept any information I can get. :)

If you have the possibility to record your games and dont feel bad about posting them here or privately to me im sure most of us will give you feedback.

Just a thought :)

With no screen shake!!

@bluri.2653 said:If you have the possibility to record your games and dont feel bad about posting them here or privately to me im sure most of us will give you feedback.

Just a thought :)

@Fat Disgrace.4275 said:With no screen shake!!

Hahaha I don't feel bad, this Friday I'll record a game on my thief and you guys can critique me all you want. :)

@ALF.2576 said:

@bluri.2653 said:If you have the possibility to record your games and dont feel bad about posting them here or privately to me im sure most of us will give you feedback.

Just a thought :)

@Fat Disgrace.4275 said:With no screen shake!!

yeah make sure u turn off camera shake before i flame you for that

How cute y'all think thief can only +1 thief can 1v1 but you would need an off meta build and to learn to play it propperly. 1 shot thieves are also a 1v1 of sorts even if it is a sign of broken game.

@Jack Redline.5379 said:How cute y'all think thief can only +1 thief can 1v1 but you would need an off meta build and to learn to play it propperly. 1 shot thieves are also a 1v1 of sorts even if it is a sign of broken game.

ye in gold tier anything is possible

@Jack Redline.5379 said:How cute y'all think thief can only +1 thief can 1v1 but you would need an off meta build and to learn to play it propperly. 1 shot thieves are also a 1v1 of sorts even if it is a sign of broken game.

Of course a thief can have success in 1v1, there are a lot of people out there that are new and just learning to play,arnt very good yet etc or just made real bad misjudgments through the fight lol. U fight a equal or slightly less skilled soulbeast,holo,guard list goes on and u’ll end on ur back far more often than them,off meta build or not. Course I could be proven wrong anything’s possible:)

@Jack Redline.5379 said:How cute y'all think thief can only +1 thief can 1v1 but you would need an off meta build and to learn to play it propperly. 1 shot thieves are also a 1v1 of sorts even if it is a sign of broken game.

No 1 said they can't 1v1, it's just normally best not to, even in wvw.

@Psycoprophet.8107 said:

@Jack Redline.5379 said:How cute y'all think thief can only +1 thief can 1v1 but you would need an off meta build and to learn to play it propperly. 1 shot thieves are also a 1v1 of sorts even if it is a sign of broken game.

Of course a thief can have success in 1v1, there are a lot of people out there that are new and just learning to play,arnt very good yet etc or just made real bad misjudgments through the fight lol. U fight a equal or slightly less skilled soulbeast,holo,guard list goes on and u’ll end on ur back far more often than them,off meta build or not. Course I could be proven wrong anything’s possible:)

Agreed. Plus he was talking in Pvp. So taking 1 vs 1 fights is a bad idea because it waste time....bruh. Your speed is great for decaping and rotating the fights. And decent burst which is good for +1-ing.We all 1vs1 all the time with thief in wvw because of why? THERE IS NO TIME LIMIT for us to care about so we can brawl and wait for CDs.

@bluri.2653 said:

ye in gold tier anything is possible

you still owe me that duel so i amnot taking rank into consideration #buyyourlegerank

@Xenji.4907 said:

@Psycoprophet.8107 said:

@Jack Redline.5379 said:How cute y'all think thief can only +1 thief can 1v1 but you would need an off meta build and to learn to play it propperly. 1 shot thieves are also a 1v1 of sorts even if it is a sign of broken game.

Of course a thief can have success in 1v1, there are a lot of people out there that are new and just learning to play,arnt very good yet etc or just made real bad misjudgments through the fight lol. U fight a equal or slightly less skilled soulbeast,holo,guard list goes on and u’ll end on ur back far more often than them,off meta build or not. Course I could be proven wrong anything’s possible:)

Exactly what u just said is what makes a great thief,utilizing its strengths and not trying to play against its weaknesses. Chancing a 1v1 in pvp is a waste of time and a un needed risk when u can be using the mobility in better way to win the match. Some good known thieves aren’t known to be great because they can duel great but because they can read the matches/builds their fighting,make quick descision than uses the thief’s tools in their favour to win matches. A great soulbeast or holo dueler may be able to put duel a lot of the top theif players in straight up duels but if the thief knows this avoids being in a situation where it’s at a disadvantage and wins matches because of this who is the better player, I’d say the thief is

Thief can 1v1 but it excels at being a +1 and decapping to pull enemies out of a fight. There are very few favorable match ups, but a +1 is always favorable. Pulling an enemy out of a fight that might even things up or give your team an advantage is always favorable. 1v1 is the last thing you should think of doing as a thief.

@Jack Redline.5379 said:

@bluri.2653 said:

ye in gold tier anything is possible

ok ill duel you np since u say u can beat anything ill go boonbeast ok?

@bluri.2653 said:

ok ill duel you np since u say u can beat anything ill go boonbeast ok?

I haven't said I can beat anything. I said I as a Thief can 1v1, but if you will feel more sure with your soulbeast against a gold tier thief (as you love to point out) be my guest. I am not afraid to loose against Boonbeast and if I would win I will be proven right twice over. we can go to some server with Areana so we fight over point. The one who caps it wins. Since you want to go Boonbeast I say it is only fair to go for 3 wins.

@Jack Redline.5379 said:

@"bluri.2653" said:

ok ill duel you np since u say u can beat anything ill go boonbeast ok?

"How cute y'all think thief can only +1 thief can 1v1 but you would need an off meta build"

What can it 1v1?

@"bluri.2653" said:"How cute y'all think thief can only +1 thief can 1v1 but you would need an off meta build"

What can it 1v1?

Other classes maybe? I haven't said you will always win only that Theif is a viable 1v1 class. 1v1 on point if i am correct means you fight over point and one who caps it wins you dont need to kill the enemy. If you cap the point you won and you can run for your dear life as far as i am concerned. The 1v1 means the one who wins the point = points for team is winner. If enemy dies in the process is just an easier way to cap the poin