Returning Player Thief Elite Spec Viability

[Gunfighter.9152]

I love the thief and revenant but everywhere I turn it seems to get hate.  I do not want to spend months gearing a thief only to not be able to find groups for fractals and strikes (and maybe raids).  My two questions are:  Is it difficult for thief specs to find groups at high end PVE content and which ascended gear/spec should I work towards?  And yes, I have looked at Snowcrows, Metabattle, Hardstuck etc.  I want to hear from the thief community.

[agnlaa.7594]

I don't have any problems but I also don't join PUGs either. I'm in two guilds that run strikes and raids (at least) weekly and bring my thief to every run, no one has ever had an issue. I think most good/competent players recognize that the player knowing their class is most important. That is, playing an A tier class well is going to be better than playing an S tier class badly. People who don't understand that probably aren't great themselves.

[Khlori.6209]

If you join as "hi dps" monke no one will care which class/spec you play as long as you do numbers and do basic mechanics.

[draxynnic.3719]

Most PUGs I've been in don't care about what profession they have doing DPS as long as they're not DPS-racing the healers. Specter is a pretty decent alacdps, but playing it as alacheal is... fiddly. Quickness deadeye exists, but it was overnerfed so I wouldn't recommend it.

Herald is viewed as the best quickness provider nowadays, in both DPS and healer variants, so if you're flexible with builds and willing to switch characters, having a thief and a rev should give you access to every role except possibly alacheal and some encounter-specific roles (and there are some encounter-specific roles that can be performed by deadeyes).