How squishy is the "thief" class?

I main a thief and it's not hard at all. It's about getting in, doing your damage, and getting out.

Assuming a Sword / Dagger combo. This is what I do.

Find a mob, hit hit 4 to throw a dagger to bleed / cripple their movement speed. This dagger bounces and can hit multiple targets.

Hit 2, this is shadow step. It warps you to the mob position, but gives you a spot to warp back out to. Hit 2 at any time to get out.

Use 3, which puts you behind the opponent in a flanking position and gives you better damage (especially with the right traits). 3 turns into a dual stab skill for the next 3 seconds which does good damage.

You also have access to 5, which stabs and puts you in stealth. With the right traits, this will heal, give boons or remove conditions as well.

So basically shadowstep in (2), get behind (3), dual stab(3), normal attack until gets hairy and then shadow step back out or enter stealth (2/5). Easy.

You also have access to F1 which is steal (also a third shadowstep). It can be configured with traits to do other things such as poison. But F1 also has another function, which is 'use the mob's own power against them' So you can use it twice.

You can assign a signet which gives you a big passive boost to your movement speed. You can drop traps that call in other thieves, poison, spikes, throw down caltrops. My elite calls in 2 other thieves.

I can empty a room by sneaking in, laying a thief trap, then dropping caltops and summoning my thief elite. Now I have 3 gunner thieves working over the room full of guys hurting from caltrops with my bouncing daggers making them limp around in confusion. Then I pull out my shortbow and use the posion AOE and scattershow combo.

All my gear is based on toughness and healing power, so I can even be lazy and tank solo most of the time. If things go sour I have my speed signet to roadrunner right out of there. :)

The thief can be squishy if you don't realize that you control the whole fight. Play the thief like Batman or a Ninja, and everything will always happen on your terms.

/r/Guildwars2 Thread