Thief: Ranged or Melee

[akires]

I noticed there were a few other thieves on here, and I was just wondering if you were planning on using swords and daggers or pistols/bows? Or a combination of pistol and melee? I love playing both, so I'll just go with whatever I feel like at the time or whatever the current need is. And that's why I love GW2! I'm interested in hearing everyone else's thoughts.

[Loggahead]

Hmmm... I must say that I REALLY liked playing a Thief using a shortbow. I will have a Thief alt and definitely plan on a shortbow primarily and am not sure what I will use for the 2nd weapon set. Definitely melee on set two. Possible pistol offhand for blinding groups...

[jade]

i liked the dagger/pistol set-up alot didnt get to play around with all the combos yet though

[theactualkarly]

When I played as a Thief during the second beta weekend, I used dual daggers and switched to dual pistols. I had a good deal of fun using stealth while playing with daggers then jumping back, switching to pistols and unloading.

[jade]

yeah - i thought about that same set-up- but didnt get to play long enough to get 2 pistols to try it

[orion]

I second the shortbow for some nice aoe damage. I used the dual pistols for single target and also played with dual dagger or dagger pistol. Even in the low level newbie zone I preferred to keep at range as I felt a bit squishy, especially on multiple targets or during a dynamic event.

[orion]

Like how the ranger sneaked into your thief thread? I gots moves!

[jade]

once i got into the habit of strike, then move out, strike, move out - it was alot better with the dynamic events- i didnt stay melee the whole time - strike & move worked soo much better

[Zypher Wynn]

I like both ranged and melee. Used both in the beta. However when the game goes live, odds are I will be a melee thief with a sword and dagger. Pistols are fun but feel they will be overused. Besides, I play my thief as more of an assassin so the melee set fits better with that.

[danomeon]

If and when I get around to making a thief alt, I plan on using the ranged pistols for a swift run and gun style of play. Having a thief profession that allows me to stick within my comfort zone of ranged damage is really enticing.

[Loggahead]

Aug 14, 2012 10:08:09 GMT -6 orion said:

I second the shortbow for some nice aoe damage. I used the dual pistols for single target and also played with dual dagger or dagger pistol. Even in the low level newbie zone I preferred to keep at range as I felt a bit squishy, especially on multiple targets or during a dynamic event.

The shortbow has a great AoE skill for an exploding arrow that when activated, fires a single arrow that splits into 3-4 exploding arrows. You activate when you want the arrow to split and if timed just right, you can split it right before it hits the ground and do major damage to everything in the AoE circle.

[akires]

I'm just super excited to be able to play a sneaky rogue with a bow. That's how my main characters in Oblivion and Skyrim are, and it's my favorite play style. In most games it's usually sneaky daggers/swords or in-your-face bows, like a ranger.

Also Logga, I think it would be cool to have a sub-forum for each profession, but that's just me. It may not be worth it yet.

[danomeon]

Aug 14, 2012 12:01:25 GMT -6 akires said:

I'm just super excited to be able to play a sneaky rogue with a bow. That's how my main characters in Oblivion and Skyrim are, and it's my favorite play style. In most games it's usually sneaky daggers/swords or in-your-face bows, like a ranger.

Also Logga, I think it would be cool to have a sub-forum for each profession, but that's just me. It may not be worth it yet.

Logga mentioned earlier that this might be reserved for when we have a lot more guildies, as right now a lot of them might be ghost towns of discussion.

Anyways, regarding the thief, I think it looks like one of the more interesting classes to play in that it has both a prominent melee and ranged playstyle that can be played along with one another. I'll probably be shifting towards the ranged style of thief play more often than not.

[Loggahead]

Aug 14, 2012 12:01:25 GMT -6 akires said:

I'm just super excited to be able to play a sneaky rogue with a bow. That's how my main characters in Oblivion and Skyrim are, and it's my favorite play style. In most games it's usually sneaky daggers/swords or in-your-face bows, like a ranger.

Also Logga, I think it would be cool to have a sub-forum for each profession, but that's just me. It may not be worth it yet.

My favorite FPS game is Thief: The Dark Project and I have loved the entire franchise thus far. Because of Thief, I have always enjoyed playing sneaky archers in my fantasy games.

I agree on the subforums and like Dano pointed out, I will make them once there is enough discussion to justify making them for each profession. At that point, I'll move all of the threads to their respective sub. How does that sound?

[akires]

Sounds awesome! I must have glossed over that part. I was at work haha. I purchased Thief: Deadly Shadows for $2.50 from Steam a while back but never got around to playing it. I hear great things, though.

[morgwath]

I don't think there is enough distinction between Thief and Ranger. They both have ranged and melee skills, they both have skills that allow you to move close in or far away quickly. Only real difference is rangers have a pet. It's like they took the assassin and ranger from GW1 and mixed them together and drew skills out of a hat to give to the thief or ranger. Not that either one isn't fun to play, FAR FROM IT. but i honestly can't remember which had which skills at the moment because they blended together in my head. I started to comment on a certain thief skill i liked, but then i second guessed myself and i think it was actually a ranger skill.

[jade]

i think the movement mechanics of the thief make it play a little different from how i would play the ranger - but since i've only played each for a few hours, i cant make too big a judgement yet, other than that I love the thief

[danomeon]

After playing the thief in the recent stress test, I can say that I like two builds in particular - The full-ranged capability of duel pistols and the combination of one dagger and one pistol.

Dual pistols allows for a purely ranged style of play and has an awesome barrage ability (the 3 key, I believe it is called 'unload') that is just a blast to use. Tagging an enemy with the body shot and then running away from it as I unload shot after shot from the pistols is really satisfying, and I love the deep booming sounds the pistols make. Seeing smoke trail from the barrels of the pistols is a real visual treat as well, Arenanet outdid themselves with how the guns look and sound in this game.

On the other hand, pistol in one hand and knife in the other allows for a mainly ranged style of gameplay. The pistol dishes out most of the damage like in the dual pistol combination. however, with this particular build if an enemy gets too close the 3 skill can be used to stab the enemy and quickly port away, a great escape mechanic.

so, here's my perspective on these two: Pistol-pistol is pure ranged damage without much in the way of escaping, but pistol-knife is still ranged damage, but it replaces that awesome unload skill with a great 'getaway' ability. My preferences on those two combos seem to shift around as I think about them. I'll play around with it all even more when I start on my thief alt.

I did not get a chance to try dual-dagger in this stress test, unfortunately. the stress test shut down before I had a chance to level the final skills for that combo.

[akires]

Unfortunately I didn't get to play my thief enough to unlock all of my skills. I only got the first 3 unlocked with pistol/dagger, dual pistol, and dual dagger. With dual dagger I actually was killed by a single wasp. I don't know if I'm just newbie or if thieves are just really weak at that level with only 3 skills.

I would really like to try a mesmer and get more in-depth with the guardian, but I guess I'll have to wait for launch. Even if there's another stress test there isn't enough time to test out all the mechanics that I would like to test.

[jade]

I dont think the thief is weak - but they are not a "stand still and hit" type of class - constantly moving and dodging kept me alive while dealing out decent dmg. I had to be on the move more than in other theif-type classes from other games.