Thief is your monster assassin vocation that’s excellent at climbing foes and dealing incredible single-target damage. Besides core skills and augments which are all good and you should get, I wanted to rank their weapon skills. Here are the best Thief skills in Dragon’s Dogma 2.
What Are the Best Thief Skills in Dragon’s Dogma 2
There are a lot of weapon skills for each Dragon’s Dogma 2 vocation, and I decided to rank them through tier lists. I have sorted the best Thief skills across the S, A, B, C, and D tiers.
S Tier are skills that any Thief should take and they’re generally useful for any build and playstyle. A Tier skills can deal great damage in boss fights once you get used to them. B Tier and C Tier skills are situational abilities that can also be powerful in specific circumstances. Lastly, I would generally avoid using D and E tier skills since they aren’t the most optimal and are just wasting one of your four skill slots.
As for the Thief ultimate skills Formless Faint and Blades of Pyre, I decided to discuss them in their own special category. This is because they have many aspects, and depending on your situation, they can be a highly potent tool in boss fights or something you can leave behind. Without further ado, let’s dive into our Thief skill tier list.
S Tier
Easy Kill
This is your bread-and-butter parry skill, which deals incredibly high single-target damage if you can activate it as soon as your enemy’s attack makes contact. You get it a bit later on, but as soon as you do, you should pick it up and start practicing the timing. Easy Kill and its upgraded version will carry you through the late game as they work on bosses and make fights drastically easier and more fun.
Gut and Run
Another incredibly high single-target burst damage skill is Gut and Run. It only works when you’re climbing a boss, and it comes with a bit of a learning curve. You only want to use Gut and Run when you want to dismount an enemy. I wouldn’t recommend using it as soon as you climb them. Essentially, the skill stabs the boss and dismounts them while dealing increased damage on weakspots. Your gameplan should be to reach the weakspot, get a few hits in and then use Gut and Run when the boss is about to throw you off or you’re running out of stamina.
A Tier
Helm Splitter
The Helm Splitter is a highly versatile skill that can be used both on the ground and while jumping off a boss after climbing it. The damage from this skill comes from aligning the jump perfectly so that it hits the boss as you’re rising into the air and falling down. If you can combo it with Enkindled Blades or any Mage weapon buff, you can deal incredible damage to bosses.
It’s especially powerful on those that are tall like Trolls, Cyclops, and Minotaurs because each frame of the jump will deal damage. As always with Thief skills, it takes a bit of getting used to but it has a high payout when mastered. You can also hit flying enemies with it and reposition in the air.
Enkindled Blades
A simple and effective personal weapon buff that almost any Thief should take if you don’t have a Mage in your party. It’s highly useful against incorporeal enemies like Phantoms and Specters. Furthermore, you can also use it on Griffons and the wings of flying enemies to set their wings ablaze and force them to land. This is, of course, made redundant if you’re using Tomes or Mage weapon buffs, but otherwise, it’s a highly useful tool in your assassin kit.
B Tier
Biting Wind
Biting Wind is an excellent repositioning and mobility tool when you’re fighting against grounded enemies. I love using this against Minotaurs, Cyclops, and Trolls to both dodge their attacks and reposition to climb on them. As for lesser enemies, it’s incredibly useful against Saurians since you can, in one move, position yourself behind them to cut off their tail and also deal damage to the tail with the slashes from Biting Wind. Plus, you can spam it against groups of enemies to reach high-priority targets in a fight like mages.
Ensnare
Ensnare is probably one of my favorite early-game skills, as it makes flying enemies like Harpies and grounded enemies like Saurians trivial. That’s because Ensnare instantly knocks them down and allows you to use Twin Fangs to finish them off. After all, it’s much better than in the original since in Dark Arisen, you can only fire it at an even altitude, and in Dragon’s Dogma 2, your character auto aims toward flying and ground enemies. That said, it’s not the best against bosses since they won’t react to the pull, and you’re stuck in an animation that you cannot interrupt.
Powder Charge
I haven’t had much practical experience with Powder Charge, but I found it a balanced and useful skill in almost any situation. You can blast away groups of enemies or place them on weak points when climbing larger bosses. Its damage isn’t comparable to higher-tier skills like Gut and Run but it’s highly flexible in that you can dismount the boss, regenerate stamina, and then trigger the explosion.
Concussive Step
This is another great repositioning tool that’s perfect for both evading attacks and getting a head start on climbing bosses. You can run up to a Griffin, for example, activate Concussive Step, hit Twin Fangs on their wings, and you’re already grappling it without needing to climb it. It’s also perfect for dodging AOE attacks, such as fire breath from Drakes. I can see this being included in kits that focus on getting to the weak point as fast as possible and hitting Gut and Run for quick burst damage.
C Tier
Smoke Screen
Smoke Screen can be a decent crowd-control effect and you can even climb up to a bosses’ head and use it to blind them. However, in most scenarios, it’s better to use Gut and Run once you’re on a bosses’ weak spot for incredible damage rather than a blind. I feel like Ensnare and Smoke Screen are much better on Thief pawns rather than your Arisen.
D Tier
Shadow Cloak
Shadow Cloak sounds really interesting and exciting until you realize you aren’t invisible or invulnerable and that it wastes stamina. Groups of enemies will still notice you as you approach them, which defeats the point. It’s only decent against solitary enemies that you can approach from the back while you order your pawns to “Wait!”. Even then, you have to actually deactivate it in a fight, which is a 2-second immobile animation that you would rather use climbing or repositioning.
Pilfer
It’s one of the worst Thief skills as it doesn’t give you anything you could not craft or buy for cheap. Furthermore, to use it, the enemy has to be knocked off balance, and larger enemies have to be downed. So it’s a situational skill that situationally doesn’t give you much. It’s ironic that a class named Thief has such an abysmal way of stealing things. That said, I would maybe reconsider it once we have a full list of what all the enemies in the world are carrying at all times and which one is the best to use Pilfer on for specific valuable items.
Are Formless Faint and Blades of the Pyre Good in Dragon’s Dogma 2?
I didn’t want to rate the ultimate skills along with the others since they’re very specific in how they provide value. First off, you get them by talking to Srail and Flaude at the Unnamed Village, and they teach them to you as a Thief. When activated, Blades of the Pyre makes you explode, dealing AOE damage around you and setting yourself and your weapon on fire. On the other hand, Formless Faint makes you auto-dodge all attacks with a constant stamina drain once active.
Right off the bat, Blades of the Pyre sounds like a horrible Thief skill that has a steep health cost. In most cases, it’s not the best skill to bring. That said, it becomes decently viable if you combine it with Formless Feint since an active FF makes you auto-dodge the self-damage from Blades of the Pyre. So if you really want to bring BotP, combine it with FF, otherwise, just use Gut and Run, it’s a much better Thief damage option.
As for Formless Faint by itself, it’s one of Thief’s best defensive tools that almost makes you immune to all attacks. However, you mostly want to be using your stamina on damage and mobility so this ends up just wasting stamina. Your default dodge is a better defensive tool and it doesn’t cost you a skill equip slot. I wouldn’t bring it unless you’re really struggling or you want to combine it with BotP.
That concludes my best Thief skills in Dragon’s Dogma 2. For more Dragon’s Dogma 2 guides, check out our best pawn vocations and how to unlock the Mystic Spearhand.
