In this Dragon’s Dogma Thief Build Guide, we’ll be talking about the Thief vocation in Dragon’s Dogma 2. This guide will contain everything you will need to know when starting out as a thief. Playing as a thief will emphasize how important being stealthy is, as you’ll be utilizing skills which will help you with that. We’ll be discussing things such as the basics of hitting enemies, stamina management for thieves, stealth climbing, skills, equipment, and augments you’ll be using in this Dragon’s Dogma 2 Thief Build.

A Thief’s Role – Dragon’s Dogma 2 Thief Build

The Thief in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a pure DPS melee class that focuses on attacking quickly, rather than hitting with big swings like a warrior would do. They tend to dart in and out of combat, and they can climb enemies effectively. You’ll be utilizing your tools so that you’ll be able to fulfill the role of a thief in this game. Your main focus will be to deal damage fast, without attracting as much attention to you as possible.

Effective Pawn Pairings for a Thief Build in Dragon’s Dogma 2

As stated earlier that the Thief’s role in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is to dart in and out of combat, you’ll be wanting to fill in the gaps of what you’ll be lacking as a thief. You might want to have a tank to distract enemies, which a fighter will be. If you want to have a healer that could support you, a mage will be an effective pairing. If you want pure DPS, an archer will be good for you. It will be up to you and your playstyle, as any pawn will work well with a thief.

Basic Mechanics of a Thief Build in Dragon’s Dogma 2

Playing a Dragon’s Dogma 2 Thief Build, you are going to be attacking a lot with your regular and heavy attacks. A thief attacks rapidly, so repeatedly hitting enemies with your attacks will deal a lot of damage. These attacks won’t consume stamina so you could freely do that. Using the thief’s heavy attack by pressing the Y or triangle button can backstab enemies that are vulnerable or laying on the ground. If the enemies are off-balance, holding down the heavy attack button will pin them down to the ground. These attacks will deal additional damage to the enemy.

Your focus will mainly be on being stealthy. You will have a skill that allows you to cloak, which prevents enemies from noticing your presence. This will be good for sneaking up on the targets and engaging them in combat. Thieves do not do well in direct combat, so you don’t want to be toe-to-toe with enemies that are hard to damage.

An ability that is unique to the thief is Swift Step. This ability allows you to dodge an attack right as it lands, and also helps you get behind enemies so you could backstab them. Swift Step has invulnerable frames, so there’s a specific timing for dodging attacks. This costs no mana, so make sure to use this ability as often as you can. Learning Swift Step will be very useful when playing as a thief.

As mentioned above, climbing is a big part of playing this Dragon’s Dogma 2 Thief Build. You can use a lot of your skills while climbing, which is unique to a thief. You can buff your weapons and use abilities like Gut and Run to deal a huge amount of damage.

Stamina Management for a Thief Build

Stamina is very important to any character in the game, as you’ll be vulnerable for several seconds if you run out of it. There are a couple of ways to manage your stamina as a Thief in Dragon’s Dogma 2. It is not ideal to sprint around in combat as a thief, so it’s best to avoid sprinting. When you want to get in range of an enemy, you want to use Cutting Wind. It will consume stamina but use it as much as you can to avoid sprinting.

You’ll need to learn to manage your Shadow Cloak ability when in combat. It will slowly drain your stamina as you have it equipped, though once upgraded it’ll stop draining your stamina. You will, however, not recover stamina if Shadow Cloak is equipped. Managing your stamina will be easier once you upgrade the ability, because you won’t be draining much stamina unless you sprint. You will have to learn when to unequip Shadow Cloak if you have to recover stamina.

When climbing as a thief, you need to pay extra attention to stamina compared to other vocations, especially with how important climbing is to a thief. If in case you do run out of stamina, you should jump off of your target to prevent yourself from being vulnerable.

A tip for creating a thief is to create a small character. You will be recovering stamina faster while also having less stamina consumption. It’ll be easier to maintain your buffs if you have these characteristics.

Skills to use as a Thief in Dragon’s Dogma 2

Biting Wind | Cutting Wind

Cutting Wind will be you gap-closing skill. You will keep dashing all over the place, while allowing you to attack. This will be the bread and butter of the thief, as you’re always going to be using it. It’s good for initiating combat early on. It also allows you to transfer to another enemy after a kill without using too much stamina.

Enkindled Blades | Ignited Blades

Ignited Blades is an attack that sets your blades on fire. This is really nice to have, especially if you don’t have a mage in your party buffing you with fire. Even if you have one, you can still buff yourself with it without depending on your mage. You can use this ability when you’re mounted on an enemy, or when you’re climbing on enemies, as this will give you extra damage when fighting.

Gut and Run | Draw and Quarter

Another skill that I like to use is Gut and Run. You can use this skill when you’re mounted, or if you’re climbing up on an enemy. Using this skill will do a huge amount of damage by hit the enemy’s weak points with your blades, then jumping off. The downside of this skill is that you’ll be jumping off of the creature. You can use this right before you run out of stamina, so you have to make sure you have enough stamina when you land.

Miscellaneous Skills

Shadow Cloak | Shadow Veil

Shadow Veil is a very situational skill, that is if you want to play as a stealthy thief. This is really good to have if you’re running alone or if you have less pawns with you, this skill is a must. Shadow Veil allows you to sneak up on enemies and dispatch of them without them knowing what’s going on.

Ensnare | Implicate

Implicate is another situational skill. This is a skill that could pull enemies down from ledges, pull flying enemies out of the sky, or topple large creatures off-balance. This skill is hard to pull off, as it won’t work as often as you’d want it to work. However, when it works, it works extremely well.

Helm Splitter | Skull Splitter

Helm Splitter is a skill that makes you spin while hitting repeatedly. A problem with this skill is that it doesn’t really go forward as much as you would want to, so it’ll make you miss a lot of your attacks. You also can’t make your character to collide with a large creature as it interrupts the spin.

Thief Build – Augments and Equipment

For Thief augments, you’re going to want anything that would improve your stamina. Stamina recovery augments will be good for your character. Having stamina recovery will help if you’re generally planning on not getting hit. You’ll also want to have augments that will increase your damage.

As for equipment, it will be the same as augments. You’re going to look for equipment that will either improve your stamina recovery or increase your damage output. You can also obtain a ring that increases your backstab damage. Stamina recovery equipment will be very important, as it’ll help you use Shadow Veil and other skills more often. You will want to stay away from knockdown power, as that will not be your goal as a thief. You can also focus on finding equipment that provides strength to reduce the weight of weapons, so you’ll be lighter.

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That concludes our Dragon’s Dogma 2 Thief Build Guide, and we have many others as well for you to check out. You can use the Dragon’s Dogma 2 Wiki as well if you have further questions.