Steal

Steal

30  

Profession

Thief (skill list)

Slot

Profession mechanic

Game link

External links

API

“

Shadowstep to your foe and steal from them.

  Range: 1,200

— In-game description ^[?]

Stealing is a mechanic unique to the thief profession. By using the steal skill (F1 on the Mechanic Bar), the character will shadow step to the enemy and steal an item from them. Stealing has no activation time and may be performed during other actions without interrupting the action, and can even be used while disabled. After an item has been stolen, it will be "pocketed" and will be stored in the F2 skill until used.

Each enemy in the game has a small pool of possible items to steal. For example, a character may steal an egg from a moa and use it as a healing item, or steal feathers from it and use them to blind enemies and stealth themselves. Instead of a randomized pool of abilities, Raid Bosses and specific enemies in these encounters each have a special, powerful ability that can be stolen from a list of four options that can only be found in Raids. In PvP the stolen items are profession-specific, for example the thief can get a Whirling Axe from a warrior. Players don't lose items stolen from them; the thief just gains access to the associated stolen skill.

Most items that can be stolen can be found as bundles, and usually function in the same way. These ground items can interfere with stolen items, especially if the stolen item and the ground item are the same. Usually, the stolen skill will be lost if the bundle is used, and vice versa.

Benefits from and recharge of stealing don't require the steal to be successful. Using Steal without a target in range will disable the skill for the full recharge time and award any associated bonuses for stealing. Similarly, using Steal on inanimate objects will incur the full recharge time without awarding an item, but the bonuses will be activated, and the Mug trait will damage the target.

Stolen skills

By profession (PvP/WvW)

Profession	Skill	Description
Guardian	Mace Head Crack	Daze your foe.
Revenant	Essence Sap	Throw energy at your target, slowing them.
Warrior	Whirling Axe	Spin and attack nearby foes. You can move while spinning.
Engineer	Throw Gunk	Throw gunk at target area to inflict a random condition.
Ranger	Healing Seed	Grants regeneration and removes conditions from yourself and nearby allies.
Thief	Blinding Tuft	Throw a handful of hair, vanishing in stealth and blinding nearby foes.
Elementalist	Ice Shard Stab	Stab and chill your foe.
Mesmer	Consume Plasma	Gain all boons.
Necromancer	Skull Fear	Strike fear into nearby foes.

Skills stolen from NPCs

Skill	Equivalent bundle	Description
Blinding Tuft	Tuft of Hair	Throw a handful of hair, vanishing in stealth and blinding nearby foes.
Bone Crack	Bone	Stun your foe.
Branch Bash	Wooden Leg	Launch your foe, breaking the branch.
Club Shock Wave	Ettin Club	Smash the club on the ground, knocking down foes in a line in front of you.
Consume Plasma	Plasma	Gain all boons.
Drink	Elixir of Heroes	You become invulnerable.
Eat Egg	Griffon Egg	Restore health and initiative.
Essence Sap		Throw energy at your target, slowing them.
Exploding Venom Sack		Cover the target area in a poisonous cloud.
Healing Seed	Seed Pod	Grants regeneration and removes conditions from yourself and nearby allies.
Ice Shard Stab	Corrupted Ice Shard	Stab and chill your foe.
Mace Head Crack		Daze your foe.
Rusty Scrap Strike	Rusty Scrap	Bleed, poison, and weaken your foe with a strike from your rusty scrap.
Shoot Rifle	Bombardment Target Marker	Shoot your foe, launching them back and making them vulnerable while pushing yourself back.
Skull Fear	Ancient Cursed Skull	Strike fear into nearby foes.
Throw Coral Shard	Coral Shard	Throw a coral shard at a foe to cause bleeding and vulnerability.
Throw Crystal Shard	Crystal Shard	Throw a crystal shard and bleed a foe.
Throw Feathers	Moa Feathers	Throw a handful of feathers to blind nearby foes. Stealth yourself.
Throw Gear	Gear	Throw the gear at your foe, stunning them.
Throw Gunk	Gunk	Throw gunk at target area to inflict a random condition.
Throw Lava Rock	Lava Rock	Throw a lava rock that burns your foe.
Throw Net	Underwater Net	Immobilize foes by throwing your net.
Throw Rock	Rock	Throw a rock to knock down your foe.
Throw Scale	Drake Scale	Throw the scale to bleed and poison your foe.
Tooth Stab	Tooth	Stab and bleed your foe.
Use Scepter		Use the scepter attack with a random effect. 50% chance to stun your target with a Lightning Whip.  50% chance to burn the area around you with an unblockable Flame Burst.
Use Staff		Use the staff to create random attacks. 50% chance to damage and stun foes with a Chain Lightning that strikes up to three foes.  50% chance to damage and burn a single foe with a Fireball.
Whirling Axe	Axe	Spin and attack nearby foes. You can move while spinning.

• See list of stolen skills by creature/profession

Skills stolen from Raid Encounters

Skill	Description	Acquired from
Detonate Plasma	Grant boons to nearby allies.	Broken King, Eater of Souls, Eye of Judgment, Eye of Fate, Kenut, Light Thief, McLeod the Silent, Matthias Gabrel, Mursaat Overseer, phantasms that appear during Keep Construct encounter like Jessica the Benevolent, both Ancient Invoked Hydra and Wyvern Matriarch from Qadim.
Unstable Artifact	Shadowstep to a target location, immobilizing enemies in the area. If a downed ally is in that area, instead shadowstep them to you and partially revive them.	Cairn the Indomitable, Conjured Greatsword, Deimos, Dhuum, Dhuum's Enforcer, Dhuum's Messenger, Gorseval the Multifarious, Keep Construct, Rigom, Sabetha the Saboteur, Vale Guardian and all colored guardians
Soul Stone Venom	Use a corrupted soul stone to remove conditions on allies and apply a stack of venom for each condition removed. Allies that hit with this venom will initiate a strike that originates from the thief.	Nikare, Slothasor, Soulless Horror, Xera
Throw Magnetic Bomb	Throw a bomb that continuously pulls enemies to its point of impact.	Conjured Shield and Conjured Warrior, Berg, Zane and Narella, Kernan, "Knuckles" and Karde, Guldhem, Samarog, Saul D'Alessio, Qadim and his Wyvern Patriarch and Apocalypse Bringer

Related traits

 Deadly Arts

•  Serpent's Touch — Stealing inflicts poison. While in the downed state, your attacks apply poison.
•  Mug — Deal damage and gain life when stealing. This attack cannot critically hit enemies.
•  Improvisation — You can use stolen skills twice. One random skill category is immediately recharged when you steal.

 Shadow Arts

•  Hidden Thief — Stealing grants you stealth. Gain increased movement speed while in stealth.

 Acrobatics

•  Swindler's Equilibrium — Successfully evading an attack while wielding a sword or spear recharges Steal. Swords and spears deal increased damage.

 Trickery

•  Kleptomaniac — Stealing gives you initiative.
•  Thrill of the Crime — When you Steal, you and all nearby allies gain fury, might, and swiftness for 10 seconds.
•  Bountiful Theft — Stealing grants you and all nearby allies vigor. You rip boons from your target and grant them to nearby allies.
•  Lead Attacks — Increases damage and condition damage per initiative spent. Steal gains reduced recharge time.
•  Bewildering Ambush — Stealing also applies confusion.
•  Sleight of Hand — Stealing also dazes the target. Reduces the recharge of Steal.

 Daredevil

•  Endurance Thief - Gain endurance when you successfully steal from an enemy.

Version history

For a detailed skill history, see here.

Patch	Changes
December 02, 2015	Removed this ability's target requirement. This skill will no longer attempt to fire (and go on cooldown) on enemies outside of its maximum distance.
June 23, 2015	Specialization update: This ability has now been split between F1 and F2. The steal button remains at its default F1 position, whereas stolen items are now located in the F2 slot. Stealing while the F2 slot is filled will overwrite the currently existing stolen item if the slot already has an item in it. Steal has had its base range increased from 900 to 1200. Steal recharge has been reduced from 35 seconds to 30 seconds.
March 16, 2015	This skill will no longer activate if a valid path to the target cannot be found.
September 10, 2014	Fixed an issue in which thieves were unable to hit with this ability while using a movement skill.
July 01, 2014	Fixed a bug that caused players to occasionally steal an item from targets they could not reach by shadowstepping.
April 15, 2014	Fixed a bug in which this skill would be obstructed after shadowstepping to the target if there was an obstacle between the thief and the target upon activation.
June 25, 2013	Reduced the recharge to 35 seconds.
March 26, 2013	No longer initiates autoattacks.
August 28, 2012	Game release: Steal has been added to the game.

Trivia

• At one point during early development, stealing would force a bundle in the character's hands. This was accompanied by a trait which allowed the thief to "pocket" the stolen item, which later evolved into the stealing system as it functions today.

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Skill types and profession mechanics