Support Theif, how would you do it?

[Zexanima.7851]

Before you go flipping tables I'm aware everything about the idea is inferior to some other profession. There are a few builds floating around out there like boon support deadeye but I'm talking something more than just a might bot because might is farted out everywhere now days. If you HAD to play a support thief how would you do it? What changes to thief would make it actually reliable to do?

[Sobx.1758]

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/87686/whats-a-good-support-wvw-thief-build

If I wanted to play support, I would play it on a different class. Not that you're not allowed to theorycraft, go nuts, I'm just answering the question from my perspective :pEven if a new thief-support-oriented espec was on the table, it would need an undeniably strong and unique way of supporting for me to want to play it instead of just swapping to a different support class. That's just not what I expect from a thief.

[Zexanima.7851]

@"Sobx.1758" said:https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/87686/whats-a-good-support-wvw-thief-build

If I wanted to play support, I would play it on a different class. Not that you're not allowed to theorycraft, go nuts, I'm just answering the question from my perspective :p

I think thief could make for a unique way to play support if it had some changes purposed for it. Obviously as it is now it has no place as a serious support but I still find it fun to play with these kind of ideas and see what people can pull from the fringes of 'viable'. Like a WvW combat medic that picks people up who get caught out. Is it really that useful? No, but it's fun to play with these kind of builds. Some times you're able to find interesting interactions of the profession too.

[kash.9213]

@Zexanima.7851 said:

@"Sobx.1758" said:

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/87686/whats-a-good-support-wvw-thief-build

If I wanted to play support, I would play it on a different class. Not that you're not allowed to theorycraft, go nuts, I'm just answering the question from my perspective :p

I think thief could make for a unique way to play support if it had some changes purposed for it. Obviously as it is now it has no place as a serious support but I still find it fun to play with these kind of ideas and see what people can pull from the fringes of 'viable'.

Like a WvW combat medic that picks people up who get caught out

. Is it really that useful? No, but it's fun to play with these kind of builds. Some times you're able to find interesting interactions of the profession too.

My post on that old thread is still pretty much my take on being support of any kind.http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PaxAwqVlNw4YisNWJe6XmteA-zVZYBBBOEVHDxQz9VGdnohXUqdACY9fbvF6PjA-wThat's an elastic baseline of what I normally float around with and along with a DE mirror I change those builds along the way. I can definitely specialize with stats, traits, and kit but this is where my build is at since last log-off based on what I need in general during this matchup. I float around where ever with supply and run cover, interception, and rescue. I might look like I should build more defensively and should think about healing or whatever but I've found that the best version of support I can be is by being everywhere and dismantling all of the little things going on for the other side.

I wouldn't change too much about the core thief to edge it towards a more support design at the risk of moving our offensive goalpost too much.

[Sir Vincent III.1286]

First, you have to figure out what kind of a support you want to be because, by design, the Thief is a very selfish profession. The things the profession can share are already shared by other professions in a group situation, except of course when it comes to Venom, but that's all there is for the Thief as a support -- venom share. Knowing that, what kind of a support you want to be?

Second, the term "support" has a completely different meaning for the Thief. For instance, in PvP, the first support is +1 in terms to getting to a spot where a damage assistance is needed as soon as possible. Of course this in not exclusive to the Thief, but the Thief can definitely offer this kind of a support.

Third, the next kind of support is sneaking. Either the Thief sneaks by himself and eliminate the target in an ambush, or grant an AoE stealth where a group of allies can sneak together and ambush. Back in the days, I used to ran with 2 other Thieves where we chain our Shadow Refuge to have an insanely long stealth time, then we will ambush a single target by Backstabbing them at the same time (instagib). This is how we supported the zerg. Imagine if the whole TEEF guild runs around WvW doing this, imagine the rage. Now that the Thief can cycle between Shadow's Refuge and Shadow Portal.

Finally, a high evasion build can support a team of Deadeye by being the decoy.

So back to my first point, what kind of a support you want to be? Any other kind of support is out of the Thief's reach.

[saerni.2584]

Support thief should bring:

AoE blind and projectile denialBasilisk’s Venom for lots of random CCTeam stealth and revive skillsArea denialLots of on demand CC skills for yourselfAoE poisonAoE weakness application

There are better boon bots. We can probably stack the above into one build and be very helpful in team fights.

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

I've always seen thief support as killing the other guy faster than he can kill your friend. By all means go ahead and theorycraft, but honestly it's not why I play thief, nor what I'd expect from it.

[Zexanima.7851]

@Jugglemonkey.8741 said:I've always seen thief support as killing the other guy faster than he can kill your friend. By all means go ahead and theorycraft, but honestly it's not why I play thief, nor what I'd expect from it.

That's fair and I agree. I don't play thief to do support either. I just like rolling around ideas because theorycrafting.

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

@Zexanima.7851 said:

@Jugglemonkey.8741 said:I've always seen thief support as killing the other guy faster than he can kill your friend. By all means go ahead and theorycraft, but honestly it's not why I play thief, nor what I'd expect from it.

That's fair and I agree. I don't play thief to do support either. I just like rolling around ideas because theorycrafting.

That's also fair. I can't really criticise when I have 4 DE builds in regular use saved in templates for specific enemies and circumstances xD

[Sir Vincent III.1286]

@Jugglemonkey.8741 said:

@Zexanima.7851 said:

@Jugglemonkey.8741 said:I've always seen thief support as killing the other guy faster than he can kill your friend. By all means go ahead and theorycraft, but honestly it's not why I play thief, nor what I'd expect from it.

That's fair and I agree. I don't play thief to do support either. I just like rolling around ideas because theorycrafting.

That's also fair. I can't really criticise when I have 4 DE builds in regular use saved in templates for specific enemies and circumstances xD

Or sometimes you just want to stay at the backline doing lazy damage -- you need a build for that. Nobody said it has to be viable since we're talking about support here.

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@Jugglemonkey.8741 said:

@Zexanima.7851 said:

@Jugglemonkey.8741 said:I've always seen thief support as killing the other guy faster than he can kill your friend. By all means go ahead and theorycraft, but honestly it's not why I play thief, nor what I'd expect from it.

That's fair and I agree. I don't play thief to do support either. I just like rolling around ideas because theorycrafting.

That's also fair. I can't really criticise when I have 4 DE builds in regular use saved in templates for specific enemies and circumstances xD

Or sometimes you just want to stay at the backline doing lazy damage -- you need a build for that. Nobody said it has to be viable since we're talking about support here.

That's true. I usually use a SA CS DE valkyrie rifle build and snipe scourges when I feel that way, but I can understand that.