The Thief seems to be the flavour of the month at the moment which is strange because the profession has always been a pain in the backside. Although it still feels one dimensional, Backstab is clearly the twin sister of Hundred Blades. Is it fun hitting other players for over 15,000 damage in a single rotation? Yes. Is it fun being on the receiving of 15,000 damage? No. I have a thief (as well as a mesmer and engineer) and while I love the initiative mechanic, it is a little simplistic at times. My issue with backstab however is that like hundred blades, it’s pretty difficult to do anything about it unless you’ve all your skills available to use in your defence. A good glass cannon thief will obliterate almost any profession but can also die in seconds. I see this as a fair trade off, even if being backstabbed instantly infuriates.

My biggest issue with the thief at the moment is the fact that ArenaNet have almost encouraged the Backstab build by the signets and traits they’ve implemented; what else did they expect? Bringing other skills up to the mark, as well as other weapon sets might make the problem so much more bearable. I’ve only ever seen double dagger, or sword/dagger thieves in tournaments and the reason for that is all other weapon combinations are poor. Making these changes might also encourage other thieves to take a second weapon set besides the shortbow, as it appears 99.99% of thief players can’t live without it.