Stealth and reveal is perfectly fine how it is (asides from trolling in WvW). If thieves get revealed each time a stealth attack misses, this will happen:
spvp: Dagger mainhand will be extremely weak. A thief stealths? Put up aegis/gear shield/arcane shield/whatever and wait. Simply wait. Either the thief attacks and gets revealed (while no damage from backstab is taken) or you have a free 3 seconds to capture the point while the thief just wasted 9 initiative (or a utility) to stealth.
WvW: Thief is stealthed, gets blinded or sees the enemy blocking… well, attacking would be stupid. So what will the thief do? Right, he waits for stealth to expire and simply stealth again. And again. Since thieves in wvw usually take 30 in shadow arts, there will be even more “perma-stealth” and more people crying about this unfair stealth mechanic.
Regarding shotbow #3:
Yes, it’s a little stupid. Simply increasing the initiative cost istn’t the best solution. It would not only punish the “evade spam” but also “proper” use of it, i.e. a quick evade to a hard hitting attack while creating a little distance.
Personally i really would like to see a sequence skill, just like FS/LS. It would prevent spamming the skill over and over while still being equally effective if only used once.
Regarding shortbow auto:
It is also perfectly fine as it is. As somebody else already mentioned: it would be the same if a thief asks for an engi nerf, because engis counter thieves.
Counters are fine. You can’t balance 8 classes without some builds/weapons/whatever countering others.
Shortbow auto isn’t a garanteed win against any mesmer, it isn’t a hard counter like automated response is to condition builds.
The issue is. they go stealth, and there’s no counter play. I can blow cooldowns/dodges trying to avoid the incoming damage, but they just stealth again if they don’t get the attack resetting the fight in their favour and your manouveres achieved nothing.
To people who say ‘You can predict where they are in stealth!’. Don’t, I mained a thief for a year, and if you’re any good on one your oponent has no idea where you are.
Counter play is to prevent the thief from stealthing. It is only difficult against D/P thieves, which use 9 initiative to stealth, which is a lot.
Of course you can predict a thief’s movement, and of course it’s not a guaranteed win. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. A thief doesn’t have infinite teleports.
A troll thief in wvw with 30 SA…. well, thats a different story. But the reason some thieves i know (including me) go 30 SA is simply because of how broken condition bunkers are. Without condiremoval and regen in stealth you wouldn’t stand a chance.
Edit: reagarding risk/reward:
Thieves will always be the class which can disengage easily. It is how the class is designed and will most likely not change.
However that doesn’t mean playing a thief means no risk. Every time you go into melee range to backstab someone you are in danger, especially in team fights.
Having multiple escape options doesn’t equal low risk when fighting.
(edited by Paulo.8459)