Thief and the 1v1

It is often said that thief is not meant to be a 1v1 profession. This has been justified based on mobility, on stealth or any other number of factors. However, that doesn’t stop the good thieves from trying and trying and trying.

As a very single target damage profession with a low health pool we have seen other professions receive both damage, mobility and sustain to the point where a thief can’t afford to make mistakes in a fight. The result otherwise is a quick death.

Deadeye damage and potential stealth uptime have masked issues that have relagated thief to a poor +1 compared to most other non-support builds. There are certainly outliers but on the whole Thief has recently been in a holding pattern (minor nerfs or buffs) while major changes elsewhere make us increasingly irrelevant.

This isn’t a “sky is falling” or “thieves suck now” post. This is a place to discuss our place in the sPvP meta. This is where I’d like to discuss whether thief should, given the changes in the overall game, be buffed to allow up to contribute on par with other professions.

So I’d like to talk about specific weapon sets. How they are good and how they need work. Then I’d like to talk about our HP pool and about how every reveal added to the game is a direct nerf to our sustain. We have the ability to give the developers our “expert opinion” because we can’t expect the devs to understand the profession in all its forms and do that for all the other professions too.

@saerni.2584 said:It is often said that thief is not meant to be a 1v1 profession. This has been justified based on mobility, on stealth or any other number of factors. However, that doesn’t stop the good thieves from trying and trying and trying.

As a very single target damage profession with a low health pool we have seen other professions receive both damage, mobility and sustain to the point where a thief can’t afford to make mistakes in a fight. The result otherwise is a quick death.

Deadeye damage and potential stealth uptime have masked issues that have relagated thief to a poor +1 compared to most other non-support builds. There are certainly outliers but on the whole Thief has recently been in a holding pattern (minor nerfs or buffs) while major changes elsewhere make us increasingly irrelevant.

This isn’t a “sky is falling” or “thieves suck now” post. This is a place to discuss our place in the sPvP meta. This is where I’d like to discuss whether thief should, given the changes in the overall game, be buffed to allow up to contribute on par with other professions.

So I’d like to talk about specific weapon sets. How they are good and how they need work. Then I’d like to talk about our HP pool and about how every reveal added to the game is a direct nerf to our sustain. We have the ability to give the developers our “expert opinion” because we can’t expect the devs to understand the profession in all its forms and do that for all the other professions too.

Our place/role in Meta didn't change so far, it is just increasingly more difficult to do, coupled with other professions doing what we do but better. If we take a look at Rev, the only reason why it didn't completely delete Thief out of meta is, as you mention the factors, that it doesn't have the mobility, so can't decap as well.

I for one was always up for making thief excellent at 1v1, just as I was deceived in to believing when creating my thief due to its in game description.

You asked about whether Thief should be buffed to be on par with other professions... I am sure you will hear many (not wrong) opinions that it is other professions who should be brought to thief levels. I however see that as borderline extremely unlikely, so I'd say Thief should definitely get buffs, even though very careful ones, because despite thief being extremely unforgiving and mostly even sub-par in all forms of dmg, we can still see what good players can achieve in direct fights. That being said, Thief can easily become very very OP if subjected to badly done buffs.

Regarding HP, I'd be up for increasing it but not necessarily have it bound by existing HP pools, if I am not mistaken there are three basic pools 19,212 / 15,922 / 11,645 in my opinion Thief could get it's own of 13,500 (+-200)

Regarding Weapon sets I won't comment on that now.

Let's break down the issues;1) Low Health pool - this is completely justified in a physical fight but not in condition damage fight. In a 1v1 fight, the Thief dominates by having the initiative or the first strike that practically puts the fight in an even ground. The Thief can go in and out of range due to Shadowstep and can deny counterattacks from going in stealth or evading. Having low health pool is not always a good way of looking at things, rather you need to look at the effective health pool. If the Thief dodged every attacks that would have dealt 5k damage, their effective health pool grows by that much. This is the same with professions that can block attacks.

If the Thief attacks you and shadowstep back or go in stealth, the Thief denying you from counterattacking. One or two hits will put you in a lower health pool than the Thief even before you get a chance to damage them. This is the most common situation. Due to this, other professions are given higher health pool and the skills to withstand the Thief's onslaught. Without these, the Thief will surely dominate everywhere.

However, the trouble is finding that balance. The more changes they make, the more difficult it is to simulate the effectiveness of the Thief. I am by no mean saying that other profession's kits are justified, rather I am saying that the Thief is well made and most of its kits are justified. The problem really lies not with the Thief profession. The problem is when a heavy armored profession with high health pool can deal as much damage and have mobility as the Thief. That is the problem. I'm looking at you MediDH. Shadowstep and teleport don't belong in the Guardian kit. Anyway...

2) Quick death - any professions making a mistake often lead to a quick death. In my opinion, the Thief is very forgiving when it comes to mistakes. I have seen many Thiefs making huge mistake and still able to escape their impending death. Why? Because other players also make mistakes. In a high tier competitive settings, you are not expected to make any mistake. This is the only setting where mistakes are punished by death because players are trained to capitalized on those mistakes. So if you make a mistake at this level of the game, then you are not suited to this level and the system will de-rank you to a tier that is more suitable for your skills. In a competitive match, sometimes it just a matter of who's going to make mistake first.

3) +1 Mentality - this is a mentality made by the players and whoever is dictating what a Meta build is. Deadeye is actually an attempt to break this mentality. By replacing Steal with the DE Mark, it lowers the mobility potential of the Thief in a +1 role. At the same time, requiring the DE to spend Initiative to build Malice is another indication that this is the direction they want to take the Thief -- to break the +1 mentality. Often times I see Thiefs in a competitive match are utter useless in a team fight, this is because they build for mobility and +1. Competitive isn't just about capping nodes, it's also about taking down players. DE is made to take down players so it's up to the player playing Thief what to build to survive in a team fight. Look at the point system in Conquest, you get 1 point every 2 second per node and you get 5 points per kill. Think about that for second. You get more points per kill meaning you are giving more point to the opponent every time you die. So why would you build your Thief as glass cannon? You've become a liability. DE excels in a team fight equipped with S/P. Once you break the urge to +1 you can actually build something that is more effective in overall situation instead of just map rotation.

4) Revealed debuff - just as the attempt to break the +1 mentality, revealed means nothing to DE. If you compare the skills that applies Revealed to Shadow Meld, no Revealed debuff will stick. However, the flavor of the month Elite skill is Dagger Storm thus effectively ignoring the tool that can counter Revealed.

5) Weapon set - the ideal build for Thief is DE/DA/CS using S/P with Daredevil Rune. This is not a +1 decap build, this is meant to own the node preferably with a Druid partner. Someone else can do the +1 decap. In a good team comp, this build will dominate all team fights and earn points by kills not by nodes.

Unfortunately, the current meta build are recommended made popular by players that doesn't really represents the majority of Thiefs in terms of skills level. I have seen this meta build that even in a high tier competitive match in the hand of the popular players can perform poorly. Until the +1 mentality is broken, I don't expect any meaningful changes for the Thief in PvP. DE build is an untapped potential that nobody is exploring and expecting DE to +1 and decap is the wrong angle to approach this spec.

All the perceived issues that Thief is supposed to have has, in my opinion, already been addressed. The problem lies to the stubbornness and the insistence that the Thief must always keep the role of +1 and decapper -- which I strongly believe is the wrong mentality. If your mind is set in that narrow-minded role, everything about the Thief is an issue.

EDIT: typos

Rather than respond directly I’ll lay out my more specific thoughts and come back to other’s comments later. I wanted to start the conversation but didn’t have the time to fully type things out earlier.

I’d like to start by talking about stealth. Many thieves need it to survive. But it doesn’t stop AoE and it doesn’t regenerate much health. In short, stealth is a precarious survival mechanism that requires active play to utilize effectively. So every additional reveal has reduced this source of survival along with additional AoE effects that put more pressure on thieves despite invisibility.

This has resulted in removal of reveal as an elite mechanic. But it has also emphasized the divide between DE and other thieves. Core thief suffers significantly when only DE is balanced against an anti-stealth build. Daredevil is able to better avoid the issue by using evade heavy builds.

Thieves (all) should have the ability to remove a reveal. Maybe as a function of spending initiative. Remove reveal by 0.25 seconds per initiatve. For example. But I feel we need a core counter to the proliferation of skills that incidental reveal in an AoE.

This doesn’t mean we should have perma stealth. I’ve always advocated for the end of that option. That being said, we need to counter the power creep against builds that rely on stealth for survival, while those builds are still somewhat functional.

@Alatar.7364 said:

@saerni.2584 said:It is often said that thief is not meant to be a 1v1 profession. This has been justified based on mobility, on stealth or any other number of factors. However, that doesn’t stop the good thieves from trying and trying and trying.

As a very single target damage profession with a low health pool we have seen other professions receive both damage, mobility and sustain to the point where a thief can’t afford to make mistakes in a fight. The result otherwise is a quick death.

Deadeye damage and potential stealth uptime have masked issues that have relagated thief to a poor +1 compared to most other non-support builds. There are certainly outliers but on the whole Thief has recently been in a holding pattern (minor nerfs or buffs) while major changes elsewhere make us increasingly irrelevant.

This isn’t a “sky is falling” or “thieves suck now” post. This is a place to discuss our place in the sPvP meta. This is where I’d like to discuss whether thief should, given the changes in the overall game, be buffed to allow up to contribute on par with other professions.

So I’d like to talk about specific weapon sets. How they are good and how they need work. Then I’d like to talk about our HP pool and about how every reveal added to the game is a direct nerf to our sustain. We have the ability to give the developers our “expert opinion” because we can’t expect the devs to understand the profession in all its forms and do that for all the other professions too.

Haha I was deceived too by the description, I want to play a 1v1 ninja asssasi. Which is what the stupid description described. Instead I get this squishy +1 thing that’s less effective than other classes, tbh I ve been trying out gadget holo, much bettter +1, so is rev. Rev is just a better thief.

I enjoyed DE while it lasted. The sniper assasasin theme was cool. But now with stealth nerf and nothing defensive to take its spot. It’s basically dead. People will say press skill 4. But that’s pointless, all dp thief needs to do is dash forward and skill 3. N u r dead. Sure u can switch to melee and duel it out. But you don’t have the evades etc that core n dd has. The damage is still there sure. But every other class can do the same amount of dmg but has sustain so that arguement is pointless.

@saerni.2584 said:Thieves (all) should have the ability to remove a reveal. Maybe as a function of spending initiative.

I have to say NO. I don't believe that any Thief updates should revolve around Revealed. I have said this from the start that Revealed is such a discriminating mechanics against Thief since it shuts down the Thief's entire SA trait line. It is so bad that it should not have been implemented in the first place.

Revealed should only function as that, to reveal an invisible character. No lingering debuff and no other nonsense like preventing re-stealth. It should be just an effect that removes stealth.

I am not really a theory crafter, so I don't know how this could be done, but I think the Thief should be at least as tough as the Warrior in a 1v1. Fine, don't give us a ton of AoE or blocks or invulns or all the other defensive things the heavy classes have. That's not what Thief is about. Do it somehow with our defensive kit of evades, mobility, and stealth. Perhaps buff those juuust a little, then give us back some of the damage we have lost. I don't think we should be able to facetank like a Warr or Guard (or Engi or Ranger or etc), and I like the tension we get from having very little room for error in our fights, but it would be nice if the Thief's role matched up a bit better to the class description given during character creation. The only time Thief has truly played like this for me was during DE 1.5 running the s/p stunner build, and it should be possible across Core, DD, and DE.

To me, a good example of this is what happens when we end up facing a bunker ele or something similar and we just can't push enough damage through the defenses and heals of those builds without a +1. Giving us truly superior single target damage against things like this might be a good thing to add to our current +1/decap role.

@JonnyForgotten.4276 said:I am not really a theory crafter, so I don't know how this could be done, but I think the Thief should be at least as tough as the Warrior in a 1v1. Fine, don't give us a ton of AoE or blocks or invulns or all the other defensive things the heavy classes have. That's not what Thief is about. Do it somehow with our defensive kit of evades, mobility, and stealth.

stealth doesnt hold a node, mobility only helps you if you can kite out of the AoEs without leaving the node, however there is plenty of AoEs that will cover the entire node. now that leaves us with evade, i dont think evadespamm builds is the way to go tho. i think the best option to improve sustain, would be to improve thief hard CC.

i think our ini system holds us back the most. not that we have ini instead of cooldowns, but more that this resource is for 2 weaponsets, that forces us to have a very decent ini regen rate wich then again makes skills spammable. spammable skills means that no skill can be made really strong. our stronger effects on weapon skils like LS, PW or Unload all have a channel time/build up to make sure they are not applied too fast. it also makes weapon swap infight not have such a significance, wich allows us to carry shortbow with little drawbacks. if that mobility is made a more serious investment, then we can have more nice things. one option to change this would be to apply individual initative bars to each weaponset with slower regen so that you need to use both sets infight. (havin both weaponsets with the same combination will share the ini like other profession do share the cooldown). with a limit to spamming the skills, we can have much stronger effects (CC/dmg) on our weapon skills. another option would be to make skills have effects based on previous used skills (therefor combos) to make it less efficient to spamm and give room for some powerfull effects.

@MUDse.7623 said:\ another option would be to make skills have effects based on previous used skills (therefor combos) to make it less efficient to spamm and give room for some powerfull effects.

Hmm. . . .may be on to something there.

@JonnyForgotten.4276 said:

@MUDse.7623 said:\ another option would be to make skills have effects based on previous used skills (therefor combos) to make it less efficient to spamm and give room for some powerfull effects.

the main problem with combos is however that if the resulting effect is good it might give incentive to use skills when you dont need their effects just for the buildup. so its pretty difficult to design, where 2 ini bars and stronger weapon skills in return could be easier.

@MUDse.7623 said:i think our ini system holds us back the most. not that we have ini instead of cooldowns, but more that this resource is for 2 weaponsets, that forces us to have a very decent ini regen rate wich then again makes skills spammable. spammable skills means that no skill can be made really strong. our stronger effects on weapon skils like LS, PW or Unload all have a channel time/build up to make sure they are not applied too fast. it also makes weapon swap infight not have such a significance, wich allows us to carry shortbow with little drawbacks. if that mobility is made a more serious investment, then we can have more nice things. one option to change this would be to apply individual initative bars to each weaponset with slower regen so that you need to use both sets infight. (havin both weaponsets with the same combination will share the ini like other profession do share the cooldown). with a limit to spamming the skills, we can have much stronger effects (CC/dmg) on our weapon skills. another option would be to make skills have effects based on previous used skills (therefor combos) to make it less efficient to spamm and give room for some powerfull effects.

Individual initiative bar for each weapon set has been requested since the dawn of time. In addition, to make Preparedness a baseline effectively increasing the base init bar from 12 to 15 init. Since we use init for both offensive and defensive, it make perfect sense. So far, ArenaNet disagrees on that and I've given up of waiting for them to change their opinion.

As was mentioned above, I too believe that giving Thief access to more hard CC skills would be very good. So far we got only Basivenom, which frankly for elite on 40cd is quite shit compared to stuff like Bullscharge or Shield Bash which both have lower CD, longer CC duration and dmg on it. I don't think Basivenom being "shareable" makes it Elite worth it, for a class that was advertised as 1v1 spec, nor does it's unockable effect.

Sure there's Scorpion wire, but hell we all know how that "works". Bandits Defense is a perfect example of what Thief needs more of. In a different form and without the block phase, this could be transformed in to core thief utillity set.

Elite spec that makes thief not be able to use ranged weapons/"shadowsteps" etc and make it a 1v1 orientated duelist

There are a couple things that I think need to be addressed to really start down a path of opening thief up more and I will outline them below.

First off I think anet needs to take a look at traits taken like preparedness for example which was already mentioned. If they made that baseline and replaced it with something else that would allow us to experiment with other specs that are used less and not have trickery as a staple just to get the extra initiative. I am not saying trickery isn't good outside of that but it would be nice to open up choices a bit.

Bring back the skillful play that they have removed from thief and abilities to self buff. I hate the fact they removed short hopping with heartseeker and the lead attacks change was also crap without any movement of the damage. The blinding powder change as well should be reverted.

This last one is kind of wishful thinking but shows possibilities with the new P/D shadow strike. Give EVERY thief dual attack a follow up skill that is free cast. This would reward good gameplay and is reactive to the player do something. For example shadow shot on D/P if you hit could allow you a follow up that knocks down your target for.

Skillful thief had great sustain with its ports and abundance of evade frames. Problem is is a 1v1 u can outplay most classes but their sustain outlast the thief’s damage forcing it to disengage or rely on one trick poney mechanics like backstab etc,add to that most classes out dps theif in straight up fights adds to the issue. This reliance on mechanics like back stabs leads to more salt and thief is op/annoying threads lol

Revert lead attack changesRevert blinding powder changeLower backstab damage a lot and add a utility or hard cc to it to make it part of a rotation.10% increase to damage on all skills except vault(has enough) so if a thief out plays its opponent using evade frames it does enough damage get through the sustain classes have these days and can get a down in a reasonable amount of time. Right now classes like soulbeast/holo/fb etc can out dps a thief while also out sustaining them.seeing as the chances of arenanet lowing the overall sustain in the game is almost none.

My thoughts though I’m no great thief

@omgdracula.6345 said:Give EVERY thief dual attack a follow up skill that is free cast. This would reward good gameplay and is reactive to the player do something. For example shadow shot on D/P if you hit could allow you a follow up that knocks down your target for.

What would and S/D do? Leave as is?

@Alatar.7364 said:

@omgdracula.6345 said:Give EVERY thief dual attack a follow up skill that is free cast. This would reward good gameplay and is reactive to the player do something. For example shadow shot on D/P if you hit could allow you a follow up that knocks down your target for.

Yea. I thought about it, but it technically already rewards you for dodging an attack with part 1. So I feel they could leave it. The harder one would be death blossom. I think death blossom would be cool if they upped the stacks per hit and changed the condition. Start with bleed if you hit two targets the next adds poison, then maybe even add a third tier that does one other condition.

@"bluri.2653" said:Elite spec that makes thief not be able to use ranged weapons/"shadowsteps" etc and make it a 1v1 orientated duelist

Diablo 3 monk had some gap closers, don't remember very well, but it was a fun unarmed class and had a nice momentum based build up, kind of like acro/daredevil staff synergy as long as you kept hitting stuff to not lose the momentum.

@"Psycoprophet.8107" said:Skillful thief had great sustain with its ports and abundance of evade frames. Problem is is a 1v1 u can outplay most classes but their sustain outlast the thief’s damage forcing it to disengage or rely on one trick poney mechanics like backstab etc,add to that most classes out dps theif in straight up fights adds to the issue. This reliance on mechanics like back stabs leads to more salt and thief is op/annoying threads lol

Revert lead attack changesRevert blinding powder changeLower backstab damage a lot and add a utility or hard cc to it to make it part of a rotation.10% increase to damage on all skills except vault(has enough) so if a thief out plays its opponent using evade frames it does enough damage get through the sustain classes have these days and can get a down in a reasonable amount of time. Right now classes like soulbeast/holo/fb etc can out dps a thief while also out sustaining them.seeing as the chances of arenanet lowing the overall sustain in the game is almost none.

My thoughts though I’m no great thief

I would take this. Except for "lower backstab a lot" because we already have a 1 cool down for missing which happens a lot thus, I rather just do a heart seeker instead because I know it would hit. I do like the utility or hard cc with reduce damage to backstab and increase damage(Lead attack revert and increase 10% for other skills) for the other skills. You would see more thief brawling.

• I only main thief(2 years) but not great thief either.

Bluri would be a good person to suggest thief changes that would allow thief to be a more capable brawler though I’d be important for him to consider realistically the mojority of thief players won’t ever be performing at his skill level so that would have to be a factor lol.not that arenanet has a history of listening to knowledge players. I’d be cool if thief was changed in a way that more weapon sets were viable,it’s a cool class theme just seems like a lot of skills are so week resulting in spamming of the same couple skills and although initiative system is great it doesn’t help the spam problem

@Psycoprophet.8107 said:Bluri would be a good person to suggest thief changes that would allow thief to be a more capable brawler though I’d be important for him to consider realistically the mojority of thief players won’t ever be performing at his skill level so that would have to be a factor lol.not that arenanet has a history of listening to knowledge players. I’d be cool if thief was changed in a way that more weapon sets were viable,it’s a cool class theme just seems like a lot of skills are so week resulting in spamming of the same couple skills and although initiative system is great it doesn’t help the spam problem

That is one of the problem, ArenaNet just keeps on lowering the skill bar. They are making updates to appeal every professions to a wider range of players (e.g. casual players). So to players with a lot of experience with the Thief, the updates are all boring and lacking improvements to the Thief's true potential.

I didnt come across right I don’t think lol I definitely don’t want thief dumbed down and the higher the skill ceiling the better I just don’t want thief in a state of being at a disadvantage in most fights resulting in thief only being effective by a high skill player only being effective with it due to out skilling his opponent MORE than what would normally be needed ifvthat makes sense lol that way thief has a high skill ceiling but is also accessible to players that even after many hundred hrs will never be what would be considered a high skill player. Myself as an example have played thief as a main for year and a half until recently and I’d prob be considered garbage compared to most u guys but not for lack of trying. I get the whole get Gud stuff and that a class shouldn’t dominate if ur new on it just saying it should have a high skill ceiling but also be somewhat accessible to lower skilled players as well to a degree.

@"Psycoprophet.8107" said:I didnt come across right I don’t think lol I definitely don’t want thief dumbed down and the higher the skill ceiling the better I just don’t want thief in a state of being at a disadvantage in most fights resulting in thief only being effective by a high skill player only being effective with it due to out skilling his opponent MORE than what would normally be needed ifvthat makes sense lol that way thief has a high skill ceiling but is also accessible to players that even after many hundred hrs will never be what would be considered a high skill player. Myself as an example have played thief as a main for year and a half until recently and I’d prob be considered garbage compared to most u guys but not for lack of trying. I get the whole get Gud stuff and that a class shouldn’t dominate if ur new on it just saying it should have a high skill ceiling but also be somewhat accessible to lower skilled players as well to a degree.

Well the time you spent with the profession raises your skill level. That's just the fact. I'm not saying that you wanted the Thief dumb down, I'm saying that it is the direction that ArenaNet is taking it. From what I observed with the recent updates, ArenaNet seem to want to make all professions as easy as "pick up and play". Just look at Instant Reflexes and the new Dagger Storm. They are designed for those who cannot effectively evade attacks. And when a high skilled player uses these, it somehow become too OP.

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@"Psycoprophet.8107" said:I didnt come across right I don’t think lol I definitely don’t want thief dumbed down and the higher the skill ceiling the better I just don’t want thief in a state of being at a disadvantage in most fights resulting in thief only being effective by a high skill player only being effective with it due to out skilling his opponent MORE than what would normally be needed ifvthat makes sense lol that way thief has a high skill ceiling but is also accessible to players that even after many hundred hrs will never be what would be considered a high skill player. Myself as an example have played thief as a main for year and a half until recently and I’d prob be considered garbage compared to most u guys but not for lack of trying. I get the whole get Gud stuff and that a class shouldn’t dominate if ur new on it just saying it should have a high skill ceiling but also be somewhat accessible to lower skilled players as well to a degree.

I agree but seems like their adding ridiculously loaded skills like dagger storm and promoting high burst damage thru mechanics like perma stealth back stabs promoting low skill high burst play or vault spamming again low skill high damage playstyle instead of giving theif skill set enough damage throughout to evade attacks skillfully and return blows that actually rewards the thief for skillful evades and attacks. Instead a one or two attacks each weapon set are worth using and spammed so staff is bound and weakening charge auto spam,s/d 3 and auto spam, d/p more tactical but head shot etc seem useless and same as d/ d lol than other classes with high sustain have auto’s that are more damage than thiefs whole skill set so 1v1 seems difficult lol so stealth and backstab half a opponent hp seems like a good option but that’s not the healthiest playstyle. I’m probably wrong on most things lol maybe thief just not for me lol

Like every class (except necro hehe), thief has its cheese builds to be competitive in 1v1. A lot of players look a the classic D/P build which was designed as +1 right from the beginning. And looking at the utility of that build (burst, mobility, gap closers, daze chains, poison fields, stealth at will...) it should not have competitive sustain because that's its only drawback.

Thief suffers from its lack of fight presence in sPvP (must be the 100th time I say that in this forum) - that's the reason why I don't want to have one in my team. It feels too often like a 4v5. Roaming with them is also a pain in the ass for the same reason. Opponents will just drop AOE on you and ignore them as they can't enter the brawl without instantly dying.

So I don't know what was wrong with anet when they introduced deadeye. This was the last spec the thief class needed. It's a bit like scourge for necro players. We had enough 900 range AOE and corrupts - thank you! A few modifications in bloodmagic for core and reaper would have done the job for support builds too. A mobility spec would have been the better decision for spec variety.

Thief definitely needs a brawler spec that does not rely on hit and run. Their evasion attempts with staff daredevil were basically the same as S/D acro before just with a slightly different playstyle.