After 3 weeks of on-and-off play, my thief is past the midway point of the leveling process. That’s not to be confused with the amount that the game has to offer. No, I suppose Khamae hasn’t even reached a quarter of that yet. My map exploration is around just a third. I haven’t been to a dungeon yet. I haven’t even touched PvP (and that may be much later). So, when I say Khamae is past level 40, I mean to say I have a bit of PvE thief-play under my belt. And I’m ready to talk about it.

I have a knack for picking the harder classes to play off the bat. I started off playing GW1 as a ritualist, which didn’t become the class or majority choice until towards the end when they got majorly buffed. I think it is a reflection of how I tend to instinctively choose things that make my life a bit harder. But I suppose that means I get bored if there weren’t a challenge. It also means I’m quite stubborn. I’ll gripe and moan and complain, but I’ll stick with it because the payoff when something goes my way is rewarding enough to make me want to keep going.

Just yesterday, I was ranting to a gulidie about constantly dying. After spending a week or so exploring other starter zones, I decided to go back to the zones that matched my level and gear (as I was still wearing level 20, 30 stuff at level 40). I have been scanning through forums and glad to feel that I’m not alone in this, but there are the few players who insist that we’re simply “not playing it right.” From what I’ve read, thieves are supposed to be mobile, condition dealing players. I have a lot of fun when I’m wielding my sword/pistol (S/P) combo, but my dagger/pistol (D/P) combo is what I generally use the most. Why? Because I find better daggers than swords. However, the S/P combo has more mobility with being able to jump back and forth compared to D/P. Not to mention, I can whack multiple enemies in one blow. With D/P, I can launch myself, but then I have to evade, backpedal, or simply get stomped. I sacrifice the ability to hit multiple opponents for a faster swing rate. There are a couple of utility skills to help with mobility, but then I would sacrifice my damage and healing utilities. I prefer melee combat as, again, it provides a challenge, but I do keep a pistol/pistol (P/P) as my second weapon set for range.

Which brings up another observation. I simply do not do enough damage. As a thief, I expect to be poisoning a mob to death and making quicker kills from condition damage than just my weapons alone. However, I’m sitting there, wailing away at my enemy. Oh, and the guy I killed a minute ago? He respawns and joins in the fight as I’m trying to stay mobile. Frustrating? Oh yes.

These two issues, not enough space to move around without aggroing another mob and not dealing enough damage, contribute to making certain personal quests a living hell to do solo. Down the Hatch, which has a drinking game as the first activity that I enjoyed very much, was overshadowed by my NPC champion companion simply being too weak (and a joke for his champion portrait) and me not being able to stay alive because of it. After 4 runs (including a couple that got bugged), I had to recruit a guildie who had more firepower to help me out. That later turned into a couple hour long adventure and we picked up a third person to go through the storyline and have fun. But let me return to soloing.

(Some mild spoilers ahead.)

(Ready?)

(Okay.)

(You asked for it.)

When my character was finishing up the Lost Parents quest chain, she was presented with a series of quests that involved choosing between one of two orders’ plans. She first went with Vigil (Brute Force), then Order of Whispers (Track the Seraph), and finally the Priory (Speaker of the Dead).

I didn’t enjoy Brute Force that much as it was basically a siege quest with enemies portaling into the little parcel of land you are defending but with no visible portals. I was running out there to whack one, then had to run back because it reached an invisible portal. Not to mention, I had to do it twice because it was bugged. I also kept running into issues when tapping the action hotkey (“F”). I wanted to loot, but instead found myself talking to an NPC while fighting off a mob. I believe they are changing the priority in an upcoming patch (possibly today), but as I was playing through it, it was getting very annoying. I wish they would implement an AoE loot mechanism like RIFT did. Actually, it was quite surprising to find I needed to loot every single body… and one last thing about this quest, which has nothing to do with playing the thief, is the greeting dialogues (voiced) didn’t match the severity of the situation. A child asked if I wanted to play, but the dialogue window said something else that did match. It broke, a bit, the illusion of constancy which I’ll talk about in another post.

Track the Seraph, similarly, did not leave me very happy. Agent Ihan basically told me what to do, then sat back and watched the show. I was assisted with a number of level 16 allies who kept dying because the mobs were level 24. I spent about 2/3 of my time just resurrecting my allies because I would be mowed down otherwise. Finally, there were 3 level 26 enemies that I was expected to fight off. At level 24. Yes, I was capped at level 24. I’m soloing this quest. The handful of allies got mass-resurrected, which helped, but they got mowed down quickly. There was one other ally who stayed alive long enough to help me kite around the keep for the last mob. I was able to solo it and I was very happy when I was successful. Oh, I suppose I should mention I was level 30 when I did this quest, so I did pop my elite which summoned 2 more thieves to help me. I died once and it was a close call nonetheless.

The last quest, Speaker of the Dead, was the one I enjoyed the most. It felt correctly balanced with the thief. My NPC ally was the perfect distraction/tank. The waves of wraiths coming in through the portals were not so numerous I felt overwhelmed, but were manageable. The waves didn’t overlap and waited until the previous wave was defeated. The final champion boss was where my NPC ally came in handy. As I was kiting around with my dual pistols, he would grab the attention of the boss so I could stop my kiting for a moment (kiting gets boring after a while, especially when I do as meager damage as I do). As soon as the boss started coming after me, I started kiting around again. It was a lot of fun because I didn’t feel frustrated at all. (Not to mention, I really liked Alastia Crow’s clothes as it reminded me of my ritualist.)

I thought about basing my choice on which order to join based on those three quests, but eventually decided to give the Order of Whispers a shot as they matched most closely what Khamae would lean toward. I have had a lot of fun with the Order, especially with apple-loving Tybalt as my mentor. However, that doesn’t change the fact that playing the thief is the most frustrating time I have had.

I believe I “die” (gone past the “downed” state) about the same amount as I would in any other game. GW1 did not have a repair cost, but GW2 does and that makes dying less appealing. However, when I’m in the downed state and soloing with no one else around, I can move around, sure, but the mob will still chase after me. Even after I use my smoke screen to supposedly hide me, they can still spot me. The UI changes so I can’t tell what conditions I have on me (poison, bleed) which would break stealth. Attempting to heal myself also breaks stealth. Being downed and alone, I feel I might as well just skip trying to stay alive. Throwing rocks rarely gets me revived and if I do, I end up back in the downed state because I’m so squishy.

Thieves, as they are, do not feel up to solo-status. There is too delicate a balance between power and survivability. Staying mobile in an open PvE area means potentially aggroing another mob, raising my chances of dying. I have had more fun playing with friends than I have solo-ing. Thieves are better as support players as they cannot do that much damage up-front and they are constantly running around, which means less damage done overall.

On one of the forums I read, a player mentioned that the classes are supposed to support a wide variety of play styles. A few other replies mentioned that one of the more common play styles of playing a thief like a warrior, but instead of relying on heavy armor and more on dodge, is not one of the play styles supported. Thieves get two-shotted if they are lucky, one if not. The secret to playing the thief successfully in PvE is not yet common knowledge and those players who insist on “mobility” are often talking about PvP. If I ever figure it out, I will post it.

Frustrating? Yes. Fun? Absolutely. Rewarding? Usually rare. Knowing when to admit defeat vs. knowing when you can do it is a distinction that is not always clear. As I mentioned in the beginning, I manage to choose challenges over the easier paths. Maybe it makes me a better player. Maybe it makes me frustrated and want to throw a brick at my computer. Either way, I’m sticking to playing my thief as my main. (And woe to my guild when I start ranting.)