DAILY MANIFESTO

Roll A Thief In Guild Wars 2

Posted on Tuesday, April 24 @ 16:09:02 Eastern by Daniel Bischoff

I absolutely hate the Thief class. Name a game and the thief is most likely be the worst "thing" in the game. Thieves are typically completely ineffective in combat, their powers are pointless, and any money you get because of their abilities is a waste. You end up with more than enough money in the end anyway.

That's why I decided to play as a Thief when ArenaNet and NCSoft invited me to check out the beginning human faction areas in Guild Wars 2. Why would I bother playing a class I'd want to main when the game finally came out?

Of course, now I've royally screwed myself because I actually like playing as the Thief in Guild Wars 2, mostly thanks to the way combat, skill trees, and progression happen in ArenaNet's upcoming MMO. Here's why:

My thief rolled with a dagger out the gate. Using the dagger a lot unlocked some cool abilities. I could do a plain ol' slashing attack, or I could do a leaping attack, or I could use a dart and teleport to the enemy really quickly. Still, two slots remained lock to me.

That's when I picked up an off-hand dagger and unlocked two more abilities. I quested a bit more and stumbled upon more loot, and quickly watched it pile up, assuming many of the weapons were not usable by my class. I was a stupid thief anyway.

A dev came up behind me and told me to equip the handgun I had just picked up. That's how I became a "holyshitbadass" thief.

With my pistol, I could mix ranged attacks and direct attacks. I'd charge into battle firing my pistol, finish the gap with a leaping knife attack, punch that ugly Charr right in the mouth, kick up a cloud of gun powder, and then gain temporary invisibility and kick start my health regeneration as I snuck away from the front.

Then I picked up a bow and arrow.

Luckily, Guild Wars 2 gives players the ability to switch between two weapon sets on the fly. When I exhausted the knife attacks, I picked up where my thief started to retreat from battle. I vollied arrows and stung the enemy from far away. One attack even allowed me the much needed space after my close encounter.

If my health needed more time, I could pin my opponent with a knock-back arrow that also acted as a quick dash in reverse. By the time those attacking centaurs knew what was happening, I was well out of harm's reach.

Of course, you could be one of those other totally lame thieves too. I mean, that's your perogative. Skill points allow you to play your class copmletely different from any other really, awesome thief in the game. It's the one time having three of the same class in a group wasn't a huge bore.

We'll have more on Guild Wars 2 the rest of the week.

Related Games: Guild Wars 2

Tags: guild wars 2, ArenaNet, PC, MMO, NCSoft, preview

Comments

tinymhg
Joined: Jun 2011

Posted: Apr 24th, 2012 at 4:39 pm
Sounds fun, but me no MMO.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Apr 24th, 2012 at 8:00 pm
No subscription! And it doesn't feel much like an MMO.

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Bras
Joined: Jul 2008

Posted: Apr 24th, 2012 at 4:45 pm
Daniel,
Have you played WoW?

Because this Thief class reminds me a lot of the Rogue class (My last main was a lvl85 rogue)

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Apr 24th, 2012 at 8:02 pm
No, I've never played WoW, and I really can't... It used to be that I'd get addicted, now it'd probably feel archaic compared to GW2.

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Jonathan_Leack
Joined: Jan 2012

Posted: Apr 24th, 2012 at 9:19 pm
I don't know about that. I play WoW about 4 hours a day 7 days a week and I feel it's more modern than 90% of the games out there. It has a SOUL.

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Bras
Joined: Jul 2008

Posted: Apr 25th, 2012 at 8:10 am
Yeah, and the abilities you mentioned have long been in WoW in some way or another, I think you are doing yourself a favor by not playing it, I was addicted to it because I only did PvP with some friends. Then my friends left and so did I.

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sandineyes
Joined: May 2008

Posted: Apr 24th, 2012 at 5:26 pm
Excuse me, Mr. Bischoff, but in the original Dragon Age (the second game just sort of made a mess of the combat and difficulty), thief was a great class, even a mandatory one for the party for traps and lockpicking. I remember rolling an archery focused thief, which was probably the most overpowered skill set in the game, barring walking bomb spells. Also playing as a thief meant you could get in backstab position and just not waste the squad member slot on another rogue.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Apr 24th, 2012 at 8:03 pm
Haven't played that, but it sounds like that Thief is badass for the same reasons my thief was badass.

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Jonathan_Leack
Joined: Jan 2012

Posted: Apr 24th, 2012 at 9:16 pm
Rogue in WoW is badass too.

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213EDD
Joined: Sep 2007

Posted: Apr 24th, 2012 at 5:45 pm
copmletely eh? I like this word.

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Jonathan_Leack
Joined: Jan 2012

Posted: Apr 24th, 2012 at 9:12 pm
Just got accepted into this weekend's beta for pre-ordering the game. I can't wait.

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NickKmet
Joined: Jan 2007

Posted: Apr 24th, 2012 at 9:42 pm
I'm considering pre-ordering. I played a lot of the first Guild Wars games. I'll probably pick this up if it gets good reviews.

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