These days, Thief struggles to find its place in GW2. Thief’s stealth abilities used to be essential in dungeons and WVW, but recent balance changes have made stealth one of the game’s less useful attributes. What’s a Thief to do in a world where no one needs stealth?
Best Thief Builds
For ideas on how best to play Thief, we recommend the Snow Crows and MetaBattle builds, as these are carefully-tested and kept up to date with the current meta.
Thief Stealth
Stealth is what sets Thief apart from other classes in Guild Wars 2. Thief has access to a long list of stealth attacks and stealth movement skills in addition to the The thief’s stealth utility skills.
Stealth was once considered critical in dungeons, where a Thief can stealth their entire party through some of the worst mobs. However, between the decline in popularity of dungeons, and the power creep which makes mobs trivial for players to fight, Thief has lost its edge.
Stealth is not particularly useful in PVE. You get the same effect by hiding behind a rock to break an enemy’s line of sight. And hiding behind a rock has the advantage of not taking up a skill slot.
WVW Thief
Stealth continues to be useful in WVW, where Thief is one of the few classes which works well as a solo/roaming build. The “solo stealth roaming thief” is such a popular and difficult-to-counter build that it is frequently the topic of angry map chat.
Thief Steal Mechanic
Thief’s special profession mechanic is the ability to “steal” an item from an enemy. This is less interesting than it sounds. In fact, it’s arguably the worst special class mechanic in the game.
You don’t steal an actual item from the enemy. Instead, you steal a special attack or ability which is bound to your F2 key. Few of these “stolen” items are worth using.
Thief Weapons
The best thing about Thief, and the only thing I personally use it for, is to dual-wield Quip/Quip (the confetti pistol) and The Dreamer (unicorn shortbow). In this dazzling capacity, Thief is unparalleled.
Thief Elite Specializations
Daredevil: This is one of the better Elite Specs out there. The dodges in particular are useful in PvP and WvW.
Deadeye: Good damage, but it’s vexing to constantly find yourself locked in place while “sniping.”
