Thief going to be extremely difficult to deal with in PvP?

[MaximumSquid]

Thief may have reduced health and armor to other fighting classes, but there is a few things I can site to support this. . .

The first is the extreme mobility

Forget about stealth for a moment. . .What is your plan to take out a bow thief?
Even with a snare it looks like their teleport is enough to keep them out of reach

Best case scenario they will force you to massively overextend on flat ground
With cliffs and other barriers they might be able to fire on you without retaliation
(good luck trying to spike what you can't catch let alone pressure)

The other thing that is a very big deal is having no recharge on skills

At anytime a thief can pour all of their resources into staying alive
I've already seen examples from the preview videos where a thief is about to die, mashes their self heal, and instantly goes to full health

Is it going to require total shutdown then?
Will the game have a diversion style skill to stop the spam or will we see tactical cheese emerge like a team that chains scorpion wire endlessly till their victim is so far out of range that nothing can save them?

/StuffToThinkAbout

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edits:
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This thread has carried far longer than I had anticipated so for those just coming into it that want a shorter version I make one reply the first and second page, but then don't follow anything else up until page 7. . .

I may edit in some of the key arguments later depending on future information as we receive it

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[Leonora Windleaf]

Initiative only affects weapon skills, i.e. the first five skill slots. The other skills are all subject to cool downs. If anything, the Thief can only pour all of their resources into dealing damage.

The mobility will be interesting to deal with. I'm sure that it will be somehow balanced out, but as of now, I don't know how they would do that.

[Alaris]

Mobility may be an issue, but they need it to survive. It'll be up to you whether to follow them or not. Also, most professions can do at least as much damage at a range as thief and survive it too, so hit & run tactics will be matched unless you forgot to bring your ranged weapon.

The recharge is for attacks. Stuff like stealth, rolls, health etc does recharge like any profession. And attacks gets spent quickly.

[kokabel]

Warriors have skills to help them close the distance to runaway targets, and Elementalists presumably have snares. Guardians have ground-control bubbles. The Thief seems hyper-mobile, but I'm sure the other classes can counter it with correct play.

[LeeMentalist]

Key factor is that Thief needs extreme mobility to use ''Backstab'' to it's full potential so it's not only difficult to deal with the Thief it's also difficult to play one.

e.g. Ranger Venomstrike where it will move away in a very acrobatic style.

-Tjal Lee

[Nemeon Lion]

Frozen condition.

That is all.

[Xunlai Agent]

There appear to be different types of stealth, but at least one of them features the "shimmer effect" and that may allow people with textmod to render it superfluous. I sincerely hope that ArenaNet consider this because otherwise shimmer stealth may be limited or borderline useless in high level pvp where people are more likely to be packing anything to give them an advantage.

[MaximumSquid]

Nemeon Lion:

Chilled is a condition. It causes those affected by it to aquire a blue tint, move at approximately one third speed and become unable to dodge. While chilled, skills already recharging will take longer to recharge.

Trivia:
This condition was previously known as "frozen".

Doesn't sound like it will effect shadow step, but I could be wrong

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Leonora Windleaf & Alaris:

Ok, so a number of skills still have recharge. . .
I'll have to rewatch the video and see where all that health was coming from them

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Tjal Lee:

Mobility is wonderful, but there are times when it can become game breaking if nobody can lay a hand on you

The change to Flame Djinn's haste in GW:1 is a great example of where the mobility was previously too strong

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kokabel:

GW:1 had it's share of nearly unstoppable Assassin and other Spiker Builds. . .

It will be interesting to see what is needed to bring them down

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Xunlai Agent:

I'm actually not that worried about thief stealth. . . I've always considered the shadow step to be far more dangerous

[Nemeon Lion]

Squid, shadow step is not on a small recharge. Considering the enemy is frozen, a condition extremely easy to inflict as an elementalist (and seriously, no team in PvP will go into it without one just because of the frozen condition, mark my words) even if the thief shadowsteps he just delayed his death for a few seconds.

Until the warrior leaps behind him and messes him up. Or the guardian throws up a ward and prevents his escape (which by the way, also blocks his shadow step from teleporting through the ward). Or maybe everyone just pops up their ranged weaponry and starts spiking him down.

Just because a class has high mobility, doesn't prevent him from being countered by ranged damage and mobility-control skills (wards, frozen, etc).

[Skyy High]

Shortbow teleport requires 5 initiative. That means the thief can use it twice in a row, then once every 5 seconds, assuming they do nothing else. I'm not worried.