Thieves

[kash.9213]

4 hours ago, Grand Marshal.4098 said:

Tbf that's Deadeye

The old "I know you are but what am I" switcheroo. Classic. 

[DeceiverX.8361]

On 1/8/2023 at 5:59 AM, Grand Marshal.4098 said:

Tbf that's Deadeye Shadow Arts Super Speed

FTFY.

[T G.7496]

Deadeye, in particular, is one of the worst game design decisions I have ever seen.

[Acemos.2856]

For those struggling against ranged thieves, use reflects, bubble skills, and line of sight! If you're struggling against thieves that stealth for more than a couple seconds at a time, use reveals! Thieves are great roamers because of their mobility and stealth, if you can force them to sacrifice those things by using terrain and skills, you can hinder their strength. Try to think about ways to utilize your positioning, skills, and environment more.

[TrollingDemigod.3041]

28 minutes ago, Acemos.2856 said:

For those struggling against ranged thieves, use reflects, bubble skills, and line of sight! If you're struggling against thieves that stealth for more than a couple seconds at a time, use reveals! Thieves are great roamers because of their mobility and stealth, if you can force them to sacrifice those things by using terrain and skills, you can hinder their strength. Try to think about ways to utilize your positioning, skills, and environment more.

Use reflects > teefs waits you out > you die > 10/10 profit for teef.
Use reveals > your class has no reveals > you die > 10/10 profit for teef.
Use trap/paint reveal > teef teleports 35161387513658713 meters away from you > comes back after marked wore off > you have no supply for another trap/paint > you die > 10/10 profit for teef.
Use line of sight/terrain > teef teleports after you > you die > 10/10 profit for teef.
*Confused unga bunga*

[Sahne.6950]

4 hours ago, Acemos.2856 said:

For those struggling against ranged thieves, use reflects, bubble skills, and line of sight! If you're struggling against thieves that stealth for more than a couple seconds at a time, use reveals! Thieves are great roamers because of their mobility and stealth, if you can force them to sacrifice those things by using terrain and skills, you can hinder their strength. Try to think about ways to utilize your positioning, skills, and environment more.

pfft. Just use celestial.

why tryhard when you can simply use the 80booster gear and you will never ever die to a thief again.  People these days.....

 

btw if you guys want a actual tip against thief:

-remember they are invis, not invuln.

-When they try and backstab it only hurts when they actually stab you in the back.  now listen close.... and this is a secret pro gamer move, that only the best of the best can pull off......   YOU NEED TO SPIN AS FAST AS YOU CAN.   I am dead serious. if you turn into a beyblade they will only hit you in the flank loosing 70% of their dmg... you will receive a noodle 700 dmg hit and they are visible right in your face. From there on you need to pull down your trousers and start smacking your buttcheeks on the keyboad, because you and everyone else, is playing Celestial this will be enough to kill them.

 

(are we really complaining about thieves in 2023? what a joke.)

Edited January 13, 2023 by Sahne.6950

[Dieselface.5193]

On 12/21/2022 at 11:19 AM, solemn.9670 said:

Can someone explain to me how DE/thief mains manage to crit for like 6k per rifle 2 use? When I do it in full zerk scholar rune with a few trait buffs I get like 3.5k maximum lol

Or am I just imagining things/maybe it's just an elementalist main problem

Binding shadow, often overlooked skill. Knocks down, strips boons, applies poison, applies immob, and most importantly applies 15 stacks of vuln. Definitely an overstacked skill. It'd probably be more balanced if they just removed the vuln. 

Edited January 16, 2023 by Dieselface.5193

[TheGrimm.5624]

On 1/13/2023 at 5:04 AM, Sahne.6950 said:

pfft. Just use celestial.

or don't be in glass. I don't do as well on my thieves since don't follow the class mechanic of break and re-engage. Hence on my thieves I die more than I should. But prefer that way versus the anger runaway thief whisperers. Love it when they pop stealth and use their rotation and then run away. Next you get the angry whisper you are hacking and then they block you. Versus no, I brought some armor and condi cleanses and you ran away after your rotation failed. Hence why I defend when people want WvW to use the sPvP stat sets, we need defensive gear as well depending on what you are doing. Running a glass build in WvW has its own positive and negatives.

[cyberzombie.7348]

On 1/16/2023 at 10:24 AM, TheGrimm.5624 said:

I don't do as well on my thieves since don't follow the class mechanic of break and re-engage.

Trust me as someone that used to struggle with thief in my early year, dueling in PvP 1v1 servers helps a lot.

[SamuelW.2685]

Holy crap this is the most obvious bait thread I've seen on the forums so far and people are still falling for it a month later

how

Edited January 18, 2023 by SamuelW.2685

[Jitters.9401]

On 12/19/2022 at 3:40 PM, Gehenna.3625 said:

There is nothing that you can counter stealth with.

Target painters and play defensive before you pounce.  My mesmer dps WvW roaming build is fairly squishy so i can only take a couple of hits.

 

My dodge is set to my "alt" key with my thumb ready to press at any moment.

I keep 20 supplies on me at all times so I can throw 2 traps in a fight of need be, but rarely does that happen.

 

I usually have my inventory opened... made as small as possible set above the "6,7,8,9,0" keys. In the top left shared slot I keep my painters. 

 

If it is me going to initiate the fight and I'm mounted, I can still equip the painter so it is ready to throw when I dismount.  Dismount, Throw, then play defensive.  Deadeyes usually wait for the mark to reveal themselves (from stealth) before they use an attack skill. It is kinda a panic thing to stay stealthed as long as possible.

 

I'm fully ready to hit dodge then press my attack. they attack, Dodge then Weapon Swap to activate my energy sigil. I also run stamina regen food because you need to be able to maximize the number of times you can dodge. Alternate between dodges and defensive skills (like block) as needed.

 

Most times you can tell where the thief will appear based upon their heading and the few seconds they can remain stealthed when marked. I run a specific ranged ability, that if it hits then great, but the main purpose is to remove aegis before my heavy attack hits.... just in case they somehow have aegis active.

 

Deadeyes usually stay ranged and use shadow step. Just remember. If they were in front of you, they will dodge stealth, shadow step, shoot you from behind or the side... they will press the skill a 2nd time to teleport back to the location they just left.... so just be ready to dps smash them at that location while they reorient themselves. Try not to waste a skill because they shadow stepped back to the start point. Technically they have 15seconds to shadowstep return, but almost every deadeye I come across uses it right away to disorient you and get you to waste a combat skill.

 

If the deadeye initiates the attack... you will hear the sound effects for "Mark". The moment you hear that, dodge. I usually dodge to the left and spin clockwise while equipping a target painter. They usually get me with their next shot, but I now have them marked. Then it goes the same as usual for the fight.  They try to maximize their stealth before revealed and that allows my energy sigil + stamina regen food for optimal usage. 

 

I also run the sigil that turns my target into a moa bird. If the opportunity allows, I take a hit while casting it. Doesn't matter if they use that "horrible" #2 skill to imob me. They are now a Moa bird. I teleport near and burst the hell out of them. The teleport near is because they will try to sprint out of my range and I prefer that does not occur.

 

If they are not put into the downed state... they run away. For far away, and the fight is won. If they go into the downed state, the fight is won. If it is a deadeye though, I reserve the right to let them perish slowly to punish them for their arrogance at thinking I was easy meat. 

Even if this may be a bait thread, it is better people know as many ways as possible to fight the crazy stealth mechanics in the game. 

 

 

Edited January 18, 2023 by Jitters.9401

[Daxia.1425]

Yes

[solemn.9670]

On 1/13/2023 at 1:17 AM, Acemos.2856 said:

For those struggling against ranged thieves, use reflects, bubble skills, and line of sight! If you're struggling against thieves that stealth for more than a couple seconds at a time, use reveals! Thieves are great roamers because of their mobility and stealth, if you can force them to sacrifice those things by using terrain and skills, you can hinder their strength. Try to think about ways to utilize your positioning, skills, and environment more.

Appreciate the helpful tone here

But this is the equivalent of "just dodge! Just use cleanses!"; sometimes it feels unfair because it is unfair

[TheGrimm.5624]

16 hours ago, SamuelW.2685 said:

Holy crap this is the most obvious bait thread I've seen on the forums so far and people are still falling for it a month later

how

It was and Xen knew what they were doing and made us chuckle. But now its just a spot for some bantering. All good.

[TheGrimm.5624]

17 hours ago, cyberzombie.7348 said:

Trust me as someone that used to struggle with thief in my early year, dueling in PvP 1v1 servers helps a lot.

That's why I like the DD. Was a nice addition to the class. The staff does give a good bruiser feel still these days. Now granted you can't be the ping pong ball of death that it once was. Used to be fun to bounce right down a zerg and come out the other side of it. And man that made it easy to get them to chase you and get decoyed. Always a blast. May have to get that alt out some this weekend. 

[kash.9213]

4 hours ago, solemn.9670 said:

Appreciate the helpful tone here

But this is the equivalent of "just dodge! Just use cleanses!"; sometimes it feels unfair because it is unfair

The simple stuff still holds up and has held up over a lot of games over the years. Using line of sight and topography is underused by a lot of people. Doing anything, as opposed to nothing, is still not a very popular defense against Stealth Attacks. So many people don't even pan camera often to pick up Stealth signs, portal sounds, or large map movement lag. I think the skill that has the highest connect rate for me on Stealthed players is still Cloak and Dagger by just swinging where I know their trajectory and plotting should put them. I'm normally covering people and it's just kind of a given at this point to look around before a fight rolls up on any side to see a whole lot of nothing going on, then surprised Downed State face a few seconds later. 

I know a fight involves more than a few simple actions, but that dodge or cleans can say nah to a sequence they had to budget for if you can read the body language to know if you can sit in a circle or in line of sight and shake something off or if it's going to be something you really need to mitigate. 

It's not unfair. It's annoying to a lot of people because of total invisibility for the duration, which is understandable. I could go with a partial opacity that gains or loses percentage based on proximity like in Age of Conan, but I think it's mostly fine right now if the problematic aspects of some builds and skills can be looked at. 

Edited January 18, 2023 by kash.9213

[primatos.5413]

nrefteefplz111

[cyberzombie.7348]

On 1/18/2023 at 12:12 PM, TheGrimm.5624 said:

That's why I like the DD. Was a nice addition to the class. The staff does give a good bruiser feel still these days. Now granted you can't be the ping pong ball of death that it once was. Used to be fun to bounce right down a zerg and come out the other side of it.

Same I used to run a heavy bruiser using s/p & staff, it was a real powerhouse until both weapons got nerfed. Still can pull it off on marauder/zerk/assassin but unless a squad is melee pushing I can't stay in zerg fights as long as I used to.

[Svarty.8019]

On 12/20/2022 at 10:56 PM, Daxia.1425 said:

I like this post, made me laugh and nod. Do something about stealth! 

Doing something isn't what happens at Arenahat.