How are thieves nowadays?
For PVE, thieves are about the same as they were before, in that they fulfill the exact same roles: stealth, defiance stripping, high single target damage, blind spam, etc.
Though personally I would say they were buffed on two fronts. Revealed training works really well for D/D single target rotations, giving thieves a good reason to finally go 30 into Deadly Arts. Though in full zerker, it is only an 8% or so increase in damage, it is still better than having to go with Sundering Strikes or Combined Training.
On the more defensive side, I’m finding invigorating precision to be useful. It essentially doubles the potency of Signet of Malice, and in more unorganized and chaotic settings, Invigorating precision often pays for its own damage loss by maintaining the scholar rune bonus perpetually. For the defensive-minded zerker thief, it is definitely worth a look if you find yourself constantly under 90% health, or constantly dying.
It is still hard to justify going more than 15 points into any other line. You hit shadow arts for infusion of shadow and not much else. You hit acrobatics for feline grace and not much else. You hit trickery for flanking strikes or thrill of the crime, and that is it.
I can’t speak much personally for the other categories. But, as far as I can tell, Bewildering Ambush on condi thieves is lethal in roaming/small scale WvW, and roaming/sPVP thieves are still great at bursting down non-bunker classes.
I don’t have opinions. I only have facts I can’t adequately prove.