"But it's largely a low-risk, low-reward, high-effort class"
lol that used to be the case about 10-20 nerfs ago lol that mobility means next to nothing now. I main Thief a lot in PvP and WvW; I've seen people running S/D daredevil switch to a bow dash, bow 5, dash, bow 5, shadow step; dash and still get caught by guardians, warrior, ranger, mes, and ele's because Anet thought it was a good idea to give the last thing the thief had to every other class, oh and nerf our dmg into the ground so now a warrior hits harder and has our high mobility! Same with guardian mes ele its laughable. not to mention every class can go invis and has shadow step now apparently. I think they will eventually push out the thief by giving what makes this class special to every other class. the only time ive seen this "mobility" give us any advantage is when your using infiltrators strike from behind a wall and u can use objects to help you get a head start or bow 5 to get on ledges. You can still pick on low skilled people who don't know how to handle a thief but this game has been out forever now those people are too few and far between to have any fun in PvP and WvW. You want a high mobility thief play a warrior or guardian you want alot of invis and or condi play a mes or necro, want a sniper thief play a ranger the other classes do these things better then a thief and hit harder from that Anet love