How many of you are horrible thieves?

[Fluffball]

Do the developers expect you to remember just what each and every enemy and their stolen "skills" do?

I think they do. There aren't that many types of enemies. From playing the game over 2 weekends I already remember a lot of them, and many of them are obvious what you're going to steal.

I sort of suspect they'd like to have a better way of communicating what a skill does. You don't have time to read the description, that's for sure. But you generally fight the same type of enemies for a few minutes, so maybe it's fine like it is. We'll just get better at recognizing the icons.

[Ringsgold]

You can pull off some awesome things with good initiative management and stealth, and I'll admit I'm not very good at it yet.

I normally just use steal as shadowstep and then just use the skill, I guess I'll find out what each icon does eventually.

[ndwolfwood]

I use it as a interrupt / shadow step gap closer in pvp. In pve I just use it to cover ground. It is super strong in pvp though

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[Alaris]

I opted out of the hit & run gameplay, but my 2nd main will be mesmer which is not that far out conceptually.

It's hard gameplay to do well, but it can be pretty strong if done well.

[Barinthus]

I used the "steal" as an initial shadowstep towards the enemy when using Sword & Dagger. Most of the time, I did not look at what ability the steal granted me, I just used it thinking "it will help me somehow".

That pretty much makes me a bad thief, I guess.

This is pretty much the same way for me.

[Mifury]

thief is hard as hell to play

This is funny. It's not at all hard to do well with a Thief. The godliness of steal lies with it's passive traits. Trait it with damage (5-6k damage against light armor) + stealth with a dagger mainhand for instant backstab. Between 8-17k there depending on armor value and critical hits.

[Barinthus]

Yeah - it's a combination of backstabbing, dodging, stealth , right conditions at right moment, stealing, and weapon sets. If you just stand there and trade blows for blows save yourself some trouble and roll a warrior :)

[Arcanum]

for my thief it's basically just *stab* *stab* *triple stab while spinning over my enemy* and a ton of strafing around my target until it dies from excessive bleed stacks :D. It's a shame that the main dagger/dagger only does a single short poison, would've been more sexy if it did bleed instead :P

Don't really use the Steal skill, but haven't traited into that line at all yet (only lvl 30)

Besides that I like the Shortbow for the AoE and on the Dagger/Dagger set, just running around using the Dancing Dagger skill. I need better armour, it's currently lagging behind my own level by around 10 levels xD

[Barinthus]

[QUOTE=Arcanum;5802805]It's a shame that the main dagger/dagger only does a single short poison, would've been more sexy if it did bleed instead /QUOTE]

There are some useful utilities esp venoms but yeah i hear ya.

Im parital to sword/dagger and dual pistols. I admit fire dmg from fiery dragon sword probably influenced me. I do use shortbow for battle/defend events. Traps are nice for kiting and getting yourself some breathing space if needed. Whenever tripwire kd them or neddle trap cripples them, its perfect for shortbow attacks. Stealing isnt necessary but sometimes it can make things easier and i guess i like the randomness of it.

[Mifury]

Yeah - it's a combination of backstabbing, dodging, stealth , right conditions at right moment, stealing, and weapon sets. If you just stand there and trade blows for blows save yourself some trouble and roll a warrior :)

You don't really have much choice though. Unless you have something to break out of stun/immobilize.