Thief: no cooldowns, a resource instead of timers

The thief breaks the game’s central rule. Every other class has weapon skills on a recharge. The thief has none at all.

In their place sits initiative: a shared pool spent on every strike and refilled slowly.

What that changes in practice

You can press the same strong skill five times in a row. Or stretch the pool across a long fight.

Instead of waiting for a cooldown you are constantly deciding how much to spend now and how much to keep. It is the most interesting mechanic in the game and the least merciful to a newcomer: empty the bar early and you stand there with an auto-attack, dying.

The thief also has low health and medium armour. The cost of a mistake is the highest of the nine classes.

Steal and stealth

Steal shadowsteps you to a target and takes an item from it, a temporary skill that depends on what kind of enemy you hit. So it is a gap closer, an attack and a random tool at once.

Stealth makes you invisible, and out of it come Stealth Attacks, one per weapon. Playing a thief is the loop of vanish, strike, vanish.

Dual-wield skills

With a one-handed weapon in each hand, the third skill becomes a combined one, drawn from both hands together. Dagger with dagger gives something different from dagger with pistol.

The number of combinations is therefore larger than the number of weapons.

Weapons and skills

Main-hand: dagger, pistol, sword. Off-hand: dagger, pistol. Two-handed: shortbow, rifle, staff, scepter.

Skill types: Deception, Preparation, Signets, Tricks, Venoms applied to weapons, and Shadowstepping for instant movement.

What it brings to a group

The thief works best against a single target and worst against a crowd. In group content it is taken for specific jobs rather than for damage: strip something, reach somewhere, revive an ally under stealth.

In WvW it is among the most unpleasant opponents you can meet, because seeing one before it hits you is close to impossible.

The elite specialisations

Daredevil (Heart of Thorns) brings the staff and a third dodge. The sturdiest version and the right one if you are only trying the class out.

Deadeye (Path of Fire) brings the rifle and sniping: you mark a target and build malice to load one large shot.

Specter (End of Dragons) uses shadow magic, Shadow Shroud and wells. This is the healer thief, and it plays as strangely as that sounds.

Antiquary (Visions of Eternity) adds skritt helpers and the risky Double Edge skills.

Advice for a newcomer

Do not make a thief your first character. It is a strong class that teaches you the wrong habits: you get used to having no cooldowns, and the other eight classes are built on them.

If you want one anyway, take Daredevil as soon as you hit 80. The extra dodge saves you more often than any button.

The comparison against the other eight sits in the overview.