Current State of Thief

[Anomaly.7612]

Hello!

As an introduction, I've been a thief main since open beta (hello pistol whip meta). I'm still a thief main but sometimes begrudgingly so. I took a long break from the game but have been playing again for a few weeks and I've been curious as to the Thief community's feelings about the current state of Thief in different areas of the game; WvW, PvP, Raids, Fractals, Open World.

After checking various websites containing meta builds for the above areas of the game it seems like Thief offers very little now in terms of build diversity and party support aside from detonate plasma as a staff thief for raids.

I personally prefer to WvW and PvP more than anything in this game and always have. I usually run P/D condi or D/P power for rated PvP, and D/P power for roaming in WvW or Staff if I'm a part of a zerg.

Is it worth it to remain a Thief main at this point of GW2's life? Throughout the years Thief has garnered immense hatred from the community at large due to stealth alone and has resulted in subsequent nerfs to the point that in PvP we're relegated to just a decapper and +1'er since the days of S/D teamfighting seem to be long gone, though Thief always excelled in decapping/+1 merely due to the mobility.

Does Thief still have a spot in all areas of the game or is it worth it to swap to something like Ranger since the ascended gear can still be used? (I don't care for engi's and never have). I've always loved Thief since it really just "clicked" in my brain ever since I watched the professions teaser trailers before GW2 even came out. I'd sit there watching ever class's trailer over and over and was always incredibly intrigued by Thief (as well as necro and ele as far as cloth goes).

What do?

[kash.9213]

WvW:

• Build diversity is mostly fine, feels better than I ever remember it. Some weapon kits aren't great with some trait line combos but usually you can make up for something in Utility slots or maybe a trait switch or two. That can get dicey though when trying to cover aspects like condition clear.
• What are you picturing when you say party support? Apart from something like Smoke Screen, thief group support is mostly deliberate response or interception but can be the one to flip a fight in a clutch play. I have a system for covering people with my build using things like Snipers Scover, Scorpion Wire, interrupts, blinds, etc. None of that would be called party support and to answer your question, no one's really thinking about thieves to fill spots in their squads or groups but people like getting saved so they don't have to waypoint. I wouldn't bother with all the control in my build to just keep people up but you might find a lot of fights easier if you treat everyone like they're behind a breakbar.
• Find out the baseline for what your stats allocation should be in your game mode and you can stretch out with your build more.
• Keep playing thief.

[Infusion.7149]

WVW: It's rather solid if you ran staff daredevil for groups but not an essential class. It's high risk but Vault is one of the few skills that does large damage anymore.WVW roaming: Due to the marked debuff around towers and guards, it isn't advisable to run d/p builds you see in PVP I think. When I roam I usually run s/d or s/p.

PVE: Because quickness and alacrity as well as profession specific boons (i.e. banner/spotter) are so sought after, thief is typically relegated to "another DPS" role unless it's a raid where there is consume plasma to provide the sought after quickness/alacrity. Staff daredevil is a solid damage option but because it isn't a chart topper even though it is consistent, technically the damage from using utility skills that aren't the assassin's signet / signet of agility could be higher (I think the autoattack while doing nothing was 25K).

PVP: It's meta as d/p but s/d could probably still work in teamfights and +1s to rip the many boons out there. You don't want acro anymore since the passive traits are more less deleted (300 cooldown). Most people are running shadow arts for the additional sustain , boon rip, and/or mobility if you are d/p.

[gnotshr.9136]

@Infusion.7149 said:WVW: It's rather solid if you ran staff daredevil for groups but not an essential class. It's high risk but Vault is one of the few skills that does large damage anymore.WVW roaming: Due to the marked debuff around towers and guards, it isn't advisable to run d/p builds you see in PVP I think. When I roam I usually run s/d or s/p.

As someone who solo roams thief 90% of the time..

Lots of thief skills do large amounts of damage, not just vault. Sometimes its just not as straightforward as one might think.

Most roaming thieves are running D/P and just avoid fighting in areas with extra reveals if they need to. The other popular roaming build is the core condi thief. I personally run P/P and have great success with it. Once every few days I'll see a roaming thief with a staff or a sword. Once in a blue moon you'll run into a D/D thief.

As stated above build diversity is pretty good especially when compared to where thief has been in the past. Seem you already know D/P power and P/D condi, which are both viable/meta in both Wvw/pvp.

Keep playing thief.

[Dadnir.5038]

After checking various websites containing meta builds for the above areas of the game it seems like Thief offers very little now in terms of build diversity and party support aside from detonate plasma as a staff thief for raids

Website that show "meta" build don't really go into all builds possible. They merely show the most popular builds at the moment. The thief have never had as much support in him than he got right now, the metabuild focusing the thief on dealing damage just don't try to capitalize on this support.

• Basilic venom is still a breakbar killer (and pretty cheap)
• If you build for it, you can take care of the healing
• If you build for it, you can basically provid the full 25 might stacks and fury for the whole raid. (Even vigor and swiftness for 5 players on top of that)
• You now have a 2 shields against projectiles (for 15 whole second of safety against projectiles) and a group teleport.
• You can still stealth everyone and blast fields
• Venoms can still heal a whole lot while adding a bit of extra damages
• You still got a host of debilitating conditions
• And the stolen skills can give nice extra in term of support (especially DE stolen skills)

The only thing thief might lack as a support is some reliable healing over time access (regen) and damage reduction (protection).

[MindWipe.3028]

the meta is as bad as it has ever been imo.WVW: there is no longer any reason to bring a staff thief anymore as it's damage is completely outclassed by power guard. The only thing it provides is venom share which isnt bad but it isnt enough to justify bringing it over a power guard. In summary while it is useable there is really no longer any reason to bring a thief anymore.

PVP: imo the meta is at least as bad as any other meta there has been if not worse. Reason being is i hate the style of the shadow arts builds. Pretty much you decap and +1 everyone which i find boring. But the real problem is shadow arts pretty hard counters pretty much every other non shadow arts build so you are pretty much forced to run it yourself. I have only found one non shadow arts thief build that can keep up but even then you it prob isnt a favorable matchup but it puts you on even enough ground that you can make it work. In short i hate shadow arts and i wish it would go away

[ArcanistSeven.8720]

After all the nerfs to thief its become a chore to even play thief so i stopped playing gw2 all together i just thought i would stalk the forums to see if anything has changed but it just looks like people are looking just a decent build to play so rip

[Dawdler.8521]

@MindWipe.3028 said:the meta is as bad as it has ever been imo.WVW: there is no longer any reason to bring a staff thief anymore as it's damage is completely outclassed by power guard. The only thing it provides is venom share which isnt bad but it isnt enough to justify bringing it over a power guard. In summary while it is useable there is really no longer any reason to bring a thief anymore.Completely ignoring the fact is still the only class that can abuse permastealth, it makes up a large part of the roaming meta and the only reason it cant claim to be top roamer is the fact soulbeast exist.

[DeceiverX.8361]

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@MindWipe.3028 said:the meta is as bad as it has ever been imo.WVW: there is no longer any reason to bring a staff thief anymore as it's damage is completely outclassed by power guard. The only thing it provides is venom share which isnt bad but it isnt enough to justify bringing it over a power guard. In summary while it is useable there is really no longer any reason to bring a thief anymore.Completely ignoring the fact is still the only class that can abuse permastealth, it makes up a large part of the roaming meta and the only reason it cant claim to be top roamer is the fact soulbeast exist.

Ehh Holo is a pretty big contender for that title, too.

[Slanderman.9532]

i see condi revs too

[saerni.2584]

@Anomaly.7612

Yeah, thief is worth playing. Just got to find a play style you like and then max min it to death until you can't get stronger.

Or play something else. But a lot of thieves like the freedom that thief offers.

[Psycoprophet.8107]

Of course it is worth it to remain a thief main, it's the most OP class with perma invisibility and never dies. Why give up the bestest duelist class ever? How hard is it to press a button to go invisibile and then another to one shot ur opponent, u dont wanna give that up do u? Teef is so OP broken that if u steal just so ull actual pick picket ur opponents gw2 account for u to plunder. Playing it is like cheats enabled emiright:)