How do you defeat thieves especially D/P ones?

I have a hard time dealing with them, i usually play soulbeast but sometimes druid, i'm comfortable with other classes expect thieves :/

I've been playing daredevil and theres some thief builds I've seen others play which completely demolish mine. One particularly with Sword/Pistol, I didn't stand a chance. Though my enviroments a WvW enviroments.

Usually, it's more of a case is blocking or avoiding as much damage as you can when their using evasive skills, and try to pull them from there smoke screen. When they stealth away try some area of effect attacks if any, or use skills to move away as no doubt they'll be chasing you or running away.

Hmmm, my enviroment is mainly pvp, i can defeat them in wvw cos of the marked thingys, thanks for the tip tho but i would appreciate combos and skills and such ^^

Just duel some. You need to get an internal timing down of when they might dps you. This way, you can try to predict that damage is coming and use a defensive Skill or utility to avoid the damage - even when you can't see them. Then use CC and blow them up. If using longbow, time your rapid fire for when they want go into stealth because it's channel allows you to hit them while stealthed.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/457595104?t=01h10m27s

I have not watched this video. Might be hard to tell what i am doing from his perspective, but its the best i got. Im also not sure what he will say.

Anyway... This was last night, I am the ranger. Now D/P old school thieves were easy to beat. Because it's really easy to interrupt them during blackpowder or the hearstseeker through it. And then punish them. This was a rifle d/p deadeye which I'd argue Is a harder challenge to fight. I think I managed my cool downs well throughout this game against him (was definicely an adustment though since deadeye and d/p aren't too common these days). What's more is I was on zerker ammy. So less hp and squishy. He had full ability to one shot me, he even got a 15k deaths judgement off in a previous match with my 15.9k hp pool.

But these fights in this match should illustrate what I meant about predicting the dmg.

When he stealths, so do I. When I don't have that i block, I dodge, I auto randomly and am ready to hit signet of stone. I try to body block with my pet. Etc.

Few things:

• Count rough estimations on steal CD. From my experience of thief vs thief this is pretty crucial and just by doing that alone you can gain a feel of when their steal is up. This has translated well for me into ranger vs thief.
• Count from the moment they #5 -> #2 -> invis. They only have a small window to get an attack on you. Rapid firing this will most likely have them Blinding Powder (instant invis / stun breka) or shadowstep. That's 1 stun break down .. Normally you have a ~40+ sec window between their stun break usage to land up some cc. So using them wisely is key against d/p thief otherwise they'll take control and widdle you down over time and be more offensive (which is one of their defensives). Although I think most use physical based specs now as I think the cd is lower and with block available to them now without Unstoppable Union it will be harder. _See: Bandit's Defense_
• Bait their shadowstep, once you know that's on cooldown you can chain cc , in the time you cc them after shadowstep is on CD , they will most likely try to steal from ou to interrupt you
• Channeling longbow into stealth

Thanks for all the helps :)

@"Eurantien.4632" said:Just duel some. You need to get an internal timing down of when they might dps you. This way, you can try to predict that damage is coming and use a defensive Skill or utility to avoid the damage - even when you can't see them. Then use CC and blow them up. If using longbow, time your rapid fire for when they want go into stealth because it's channel allows you to hit them while stealthed.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/457595104?t=01h10m27s

I have not watched this video. Might be hard to tell what i am doing from his perspective, but its the best i got. Im also not sure what he will say.

Anyway... This was last night, I am the ranger. Now D/P old school thieves were easy to beat. Because it's really easy to interrupt them during blackpowder or the hearstseeker through it. And then punish them. This was a rifle d/p deadeye which I'd argue Is a harder challenge to fight. I think I managed my cool downs well throughout this game against him (was definicely an adustment though since deadeye and d/p aren't too common these days). What's more is I was on zerker ammy. So less hp and squishy. He had full ability to one shot me, he even got a 15k deaths judgement off in a previous match with my 15.9k hp pool.

But these fights in this match should illustrate what I meant about predicting the dmg.

When he stealths, so do I. When I don't have that i block, I dodge, I auto randomly and am ready to hit signet of stone. I try to body block with my pet. Etc.

What’s your build in this video? I’m noticing you have the buffs from marksmanship on

This is what I have been running.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJARTnE8CNsg1CCO8Cctgl/A7JN8DOa5h3077d51lBCAlI9iA-jZxHABA8IAUqMgE7P4/FA47jAAA