They’re not bad, but you’re probably not easily gonna find spots because eles are generally better and especially pugs get really excited when they see eles to the point where they kittentalk every other potential dps even though most pug eles are actually trash and any other dps would be better.
Best choice would probably be joining a static which is cool with you playing thief.
They’re actually in a very good place. They’re a good replacement for Tempest especially when the extra utility of the Tempest isn’t needed. DPS-wise, they can contend with a Tempest, although an average Tempest will probably still beat an average Thief in practice.
You’ll have to join a group of known people though. PUGs aren’t too fond of deviating even a tiny bit from the meta comp.
I usually post for general DPS when creating groups and let people play the class they’re best at. A lot better than enforcing people on tempest even if they’re not good at it,
Still… groups with competent eles have amazing dps
maybe one day anet will do a raid wing where encounter require a lot of mobility where thief shines then or where stealth really helps but i guess if not then thief will just never be optimal
even though you can definitly use a thief in a coordinated group it wont be the best option
Thief could potentially be safer than ele for new people learning mechanics and/or class rotations.
Where can it use its mobility?
1. Sab on cannon duty. Shadowstep to jump pad at the last moment dpsing until then. Added bonus: if someone fails to throw bomb to you, you can shadowstep back to avoid death from incoming flamewall.
2. Matt. If you get either of the poisons, you’re gonna be the fastest class to drop them off and return (shadow step again).
Can generally go as a DPS class to any fight. Can even stealth people pre-Sloth (mostly for speed runners).
Actually daredevil’s a pretty solid raid class.
You still do more damage than tempests (although the gap isn’t as big as it was before ~100% alacrity uptime through double chrono comp) against any boss not static and big, with strong CC and high mobility.
Tempests win vs. gorseval (big/static target and can orb clear on range), sloth (he’s big, mostly static if tanked in the middle) and keep-construct (this is the boss that really favors tempests even giving them additional damage through tempest defense trait).
So you win vs. vale guardian, sabetha (only slightly more dps here), trio (but who cares for trio anyways^^), matthias (tempests can help clear ice patches; you bring more damage, more cc and slightly more survivability/mobility when poisoned) and xera (higher dps and daredevil is very strong at shard clearing. use your mobility to mellee down the shard in seconds (not gaining any relevant amount of stacks)).
Edit: because i forgot some small detail… All these theoretical dps doesn’t include needed dodges of course. Something a daredevil can do with staff #5 without losing out damage.
Pugs prefer eles, but there are a lot of pugs that would be better off with thieves. A bad thief that only auto attacks will clear 20k dps, a staff ele that only auto attacks will not clear 10k dps. But without dps meters, it is hard to convince people that difficulty of rotation is worth considering.
