P/D Thief Target of Focus?

[Astriadex.2716]

I enjoy playing Thief and my skill level is about mid gold. I want to think what could help me climb higher is knowing who to focus during a team fight. Who I usually focus is the lowest HP near me and I steal from Warrior/Necro to disrupt enemies that are grouped.  Should I be focusing a support if they have one or just keep doing what I'm doing?

[Avatar.3568]

Focus always low players, and keep and eye on the support, hold your steal for glyph ready if they have tempest or guard, you can also always pressure the support (should be always main target), when you get 2+ kills in a teamfight go out to the map, +/decapp close or far. 

[Eugchriss.2046]

If you want to climb higher as a thief then you should play power herald.

[Astriadex.2716]

1 hour ago, Avatar.3568 said:

Focus always low players, and keep and eye on the support, hold your steal for glyph ready if they have tempest or guard, you can also always pressure the support (should be always main target), when you get 2+ kills in a teamfight go out to the map, +/decapp close or far. 

Do you have a way to detect when a Glyph is being used? I mainly save my steal for Heals as well. Heals are easy to interrupt since the player glows blue.

[Noz.4650]

1 hour ago, Astriadex.2716 said:

Do you have a way to detect when a Glyph is being used? I mainly save my steal for Heals as well. Heals are easy to interrupt since the player glows blue.

It's very easy to tell on guard since it's a signet so it shows on their bar and when casting they put one arm straight up in the air. With tempest it's much harder to tell so you have to be a bit more proactive and aware. No matter what, if the enemy team has a support guard or tempest, be in position to interrupt steal when an enemy is about to go down (as early as possible in case they precast their rez). You might click on the guard and see that their signet isn't up, but don't take any chances unless you're 100% sure it's still on cooldown and be ready with the steal. A trick you can do is click on the guard/tempest and keep them as your personal target as you're bursting the main target so you don't have to scramble to find the support and click on them last second. On some nodes you'll have to break off and follow the support in melee range because they'll try to jump on a no port spot while casting and the only way to land steal is to jump with them wherever they go. You can also try to do a quick blinding powder + sb immob to prevent them from jumping away and you get a free steal.

Edited November 16, 2021 by eksn.7264

[Leonidrex.5649]

7 hours ago, Astriadex.2716 said:

I enjoy playing Thief and my skill level is about mid gold. I want to think what could help me climb higher is knowing who to focus during a team fight. Who I usually focus is the lowest HP near me and I steal from Warrior/Necro to disrupt enemies that are grouped.  Should I be focusing a support if they have one or just keep doing what I'm doing?

if you are stuck in gold as a thief its not how or who you focus, its how you rotate, how fast you move around the map.
I can assure you, to be stuck in gold as a thief you must be wasting loads of time on useless fights.
The most important tips I can give you.
1 Act as if you are on a timer, every second you spend fighting, is a sec you didnt decap far/close, its a sec you didnt win a node for your sidenoder.
2 Dont duel people, unless they are low and you 100% can finish them off dont waste your time ( when you get higher and higher it wont apply anymore, it will be a valid strategy to engage, waste 1-2 important cooldowns and disengage, but in gold it wont matter )
3 The right target is not a support, dps, roamer or a bruiser. The right target is the worst player in the enemy team, focus them hard with the team.
4 This will go against point 3, but focus with the team, its better to focus the wrong person with the team, then the right person alone ( unless you are sure you can solo down but I doubt it )
5 Make every movement skill count, if you HAVE to run, get it over with, dont waste ~30s making sure you cant win, just move on " losing " is not really losing on thief, most other classes move half as fast as thief.
6 Learn stolen skills, necro fear goes through wall, it doesnt reveal you when stealthed, warrior spin reflects projectiles ( its not listed for some reason ), its a whirl finisher, using it in smoke field vomits blinds. Ranger stolen skill is a water field, blast the field to heal allies, leap through it to heal. ETC.
If you are in gold you are not making 1 big mistake that holds you back, you are doing everything wrong, and thats OK.
But since you are thief, actively think where you need to be, thief above all should be thinking if the fight is worth taking, dont lose yourself in ~2min brawls mid.

[Astriadex.2716]

10 hours ago, Leonidrex.5649 said:

if you are stuck in gold as a thief its not how or who you focus, its how you rotate, how fast you move around the map.
I can assure you, to be stuck in gold as a thief you must be wasting loads of time on useless fights.
The most important tips I can give you.
1 Act as if you are on a timer, every second you spend fighting, is a sec you didnt decap far/close, its a sec you didnt win a node for your sidenoder.
2 Dont duel people, unless they are low and you 100% can finish them off dont waste your time ( when you get higher and higher it wont apply anymore, it will be a valid strategy to engage, waste 1-2 important cooldowns and disengage, but in gold it wont matter )
3 The right target is not a support, dps, roamer or a bruiser. The right target is the worst player in the enemy team, focus them hard with the team.
4 This will go against point 3, but focus with the team, its better to focus the wrong person with the team, then the right person alone ( unless you are sure you can solo down but I doubt it )
5 Make every movement skill count, if you HAVE to run, get it over with, dont waste ~30s making sure you cant win, just move on " losing " is not really losing on thief, most other classes move half as fast as thief.
6 Learn stolen skills, necro fear goes through wall, it doesnt reveal you when stealthed, warrior spin reflects projectiles ( its not listed for some reason ), its a whirl finisher, using it in smoke field vomits blinds. Ranger stolen skill is a water field, blast the field to heal allies, leap through it to heal. ETC.
If you are in gold you are not making 1 big mistake that holds you back, you are doing everything wrong, and thats OK.
But since you are thief, actively think where you need to be, thief above all should be thinking if the fight is worth taking, dont lose yourself in ~2min brawls mid.

1) Idk what kind of team comps you have in your tier, but mine is non-existence. I do not have sidenoders, within 5 seconds of trading with someone I determine if I can win or not, if not I leave and decap. If team fight is going south, I leave and decap, no point in staying a losing fight.

 

2) I do not duel people, I fully understand that thief is a +1 class so I should just +1 and decap when it is optimal. 

 

3) I do not know who the worst player on the team is, is there a score board I can check that will tell me? In my matches barely anyone "target" a player. However, on the off chance they do it's the support Druid, Tempest, Scourge, or HB. Reason why I'm asking if I should be trying to focus this tanky person.

 

4) Same as 3, barely people "target".

 

5) #1 explains what I do.

 

6) I know all the stolen skills, I posted I steal mainly from Warriors/Necros to disrupt team fights with AoE fear or blinds.  

 

Thank you for the tips, but I assure you I do everything you listed already. While I do the things above, maybe it's my skill usage that's holding me back like knowing what skills to use in what scenario /shrug. There are many games where I decap so often they just let someone sit on home thus leaving me to have to team fight only. It's why I'm asking if there is a specfic target I should be on the lookout for in a team fight. While I would love to focus the "targeted" player there just isn't a lot of shot callers in my matches. 

[Leonidrex.5649]

@Astriadex.2716
Trust me, to be in gold as thief its not something as simple as skill usage, people can get above gold by never swapping from shortbow.
You THINK you do everything right, but that is the issue, if you think you are not making mistakes, you miss them and dont improve.
Im plat 2 and I roam on builds MUCH worse then thief and I STILL make crap ton of basic mistakes

Also about focus, you identify bad player by :
1 how they play
2 how they position 
3 do they random dodge a lot ?
4 do they waste important skills ?
5 do they know how to kite ?
 

[Astriadex.2716]

6 hours ago, Leonidrex.5649 said:

@Astriadex.2716
Trust me, to be in gold as thief its not something as simple as skill usage, people can get above gold by never swapping from shortbow.
You THINK you do everything right, but that is the issue, if you think you are not making mistakes, you miss them and dont improve.
Im plat 2 and I roam on builds MUCH worse then thief and I STILL make crap ton of basic mistakes

Also about focus, you identify bad player by :
1 how they play
2 how they position 
3 do they random dodge a lot ?
4 do they waste important skills ?
5 do they know how to kite ?
 

Are you the one who put targets in a match? Rarely do people put targets so it's difficult to all focus one when damage is spread. If you are, do you have like a priority list of who to focus first? In my case I think knowing what to do with my skills in a team fight is very important since you just said that people can climb out with a shortbow alone. I swap to shortbow if I'm low, using shortbow 5 to get to nodes, using shortbow 4 to poison downed enemies when they are trying to revive, and shortbow 2 when they are all on node. While I think that's the proper usage of the shortbow, I don't really know. I can really only watch videos to assume I can doing the right thing, how would I see what I'm doing wrong if I can't see it?

[Leonidrex.5649]

4 hours ago, Astriadex.2716 said:

Are you the one who put targets in a match? Rarely do people put targets so it's difficult to all focus one when damage is spread. If you are, do you have like a priority list of who to focus first? In my case I think knowing what to do with my skills in a team fight is very important since you just said that people can climb out with a shortbow alone. I swap to shortbow if I'm low, using shortbow 5 to get to nodes, using shortbow 4 to poison downed enemies when they are trying to revive, and shortbow 2 when they are all on node. While I think that's the proper usage of the shortbow, I don't really know. I can really only watch videos to assume I can doing the right thing, how would I see what I'm doing wrong if I can't see it?

I cant give you proper thief skill usage, as I dont play thief. Which is why I know you need to do something seriously wrong to be in gold, as even I got to plat with thief despite being unable to tell shadowstep and roll for ini apart ( yes I always kitten these 2 up somehow ).
All I can tell you its not about combat, but decision making. 
I rarely put targets on really, I either play on side-node where im 1v1 or 1vX or Xv1 so the targeting doesnt matter, or I roam on an absolute glass cannon soulbeast, and it takes more time to target then to kill so I stopped bothering.
You need to be able to tell bad player from a good one to focus properly, its harder to kill a good player on a squishy class, then a bad player on a bunker but I can give you some tips.
1 hard focus a support, but stop if you identify them as a good player, if you do try to avoid any and all fights near them, be everywhere they are not. if its a core guard play around them as they are slow as kitten, by the time they move from mid to far, you can go far, kill a guy and make it back.
2 Dont underestimate how strong SB1 from stealth is or how good shortbow 2 is. Huge mistake I see thiefs do, is switching to D/P and being forced to run without shortbow, its perfectly fine to pressure people with SB1/SB2, against many side-noders its even better. Why run into weaver fire if you can spam 3-5k clusters. Why run into their fire if you can immob them to make them panic waste skills like twist of fate.
3 Against every single side-noder with long block, keep steal for the block ( warrior, rev, ranger ) it screws them over big time, you can head-shot their heal if you are fast ( against engi shield I think you get stunned [ im not sure about this one btw ] but in 2v1 its worth it usually, also dont let them stealth if you can.
4 SB 1 ( auto-attack ) has one of the highest base dps of any basic attack when you get the bounces, against ranger ( loads of them ) this pressures them BIG time, if theys witch to GS they cant get to you, keep close and just whack them, when they waste their dodges go for the kill.
5 some niche tip I can give you is put slow classes in combat, when you see OOC core guard rotating, tap them make them slow. 
Use people as a ladder with swipe/steal to move around faster ( its low cd, if it gets you a decap its worth it ).
6 THIS IS IMPORTANT. keep track of enemy side-noder, if you wanna be a pest, the moment they rotate from the node -> steal to them -> shadowstep towards node -> sb5 spam -> decap -> shadowstep back -> cripple/immob them/put them in combat-> go back mid. All you lose is a shadowstep as ini/steal will be back, and they have to waste ~30-60s ( depending on a spec ) to go back, cap and move back.
7 If enemy side-noder doesnt pay attention, you can fully cap a node and then leave it, its also worth it.

[Astriadex.2716]

3 hours ago, Leonidrex.5649 said:

I cant give you proper thief skill usage, as I dont play thief. Which is why I know you need to do something seriously wrong to be in gold, as even I got to plat with thief despite being unable to tell shadowstep and roll for ini apart ( yes I always kitten these 2 up somehow ).
All I can tell you its not about combat, but decision making. 
I rarely put targets on really, I either play on side-node where im 1v1 or 1vX or Xv1 so the targeting doesnt matter, or I roam on an absolute glass cannon soulbeast, and it takes more time to target then to kill so I stopped bothering.
You need to be able to tell bad player from a good one to focus properly, its harder to kill a good player on a squishy class, then a bad player on a bunker but I can give you some tips.
1 hard focus a support, but stop if you identify them as a good player, if you do try to avoid any and all fights near them, be everywhere they are not. if its a core guard play around them as they are slow as kitten, by the time they move from mid to far, you can go far, kill a guy and make it back.
2 Dont underestimate how strong SB1 from stealth is or how good shortbow 2 is. Huge mistake I see thiefs do, is switching to D/P and being forced to run without shortbow, its perfectly fine to pressure people with SB1/SB2, against many side-noders its even better. Why run into weaver fire if you can spam 3-5k clusters. Why run into their fire if you can immob them to make them panic waste skills like twist of fate.
3 Against every single side-noder with long block, keep steal for the block ( warrior, rev, ranger ) it screws them over big time, you can head-shot their heal if you are fast ( against engi shield I think you get stunned [ im not sure about this one btw ] but in 2v1 its worth it usually, also dont let them stealth if you can.
4 SB 1 ( auto-attack ) has one of the highest base dps of any basic attack when you get the bounces, against ranger ( loads of them ) this pressures them BIG time, if theys witch to GS they cant get to you, keep close and just whack them, when they waste their dodges go for the kill.
5 some niche tip I can give you is put slow classes in combat, when you see OOC core guard rotating, tap them make them slow. 
Use people as a ladder with swipe/steal to move around faster ( its low cd, if it gets you a decap its worth it ).
6 THIS IS IMPORTANT. keep track of enemy side-noder, if you wanna be a pest, the moment they rotate from the node -> steal to them -> shadowstep towards node -> sb5 spam -> decap -> shadowstep back -> cripple/immob them/put them in combat-> go back mid. All you lose is a shadowstep as ini/steal will be back, and they have to waste ~30-60s ( depending on a spec ) to go back, cap and move back.
7 If enemy side-noder doesnt pay attention, you can fully cap a node and then leave it, its also worth it.

Alright thanks! I'll try to utilize my SB in fights more.

[Morwath.9817]

16 hours ago, Leonidrex.5649 said:

I rarely put targets on really, I either play on side-node where im 1v1 or 1vX or Xv1 so the targeting doesnt matter

 

Reminder from friendly Revenant: ability to press "T" and kitten away with Shiro is always nice.