Thiefs - Why are they so strong?

[Yoshimiko]

...What skill are you using where you are critting for that much?

Backstab.

Considering your highest crit is 9k and you feel overpowered... you should try an axe warrior. Im critting people for 13k-17k with my burst skill from axes.

I don't mind that. It might be a little high, but you telegraph that move. It's avoidable. Backstab is nearly instant, they teleport behind you - or are invisible when they use it, and there is no way to avoid it. As an elementalist guarding or capping a point - I can be killed before it's possible for me to respond. I think that's a bit of an issue.

Axe has a required buildup(You have to wack at things for a while), is bright shiny, and has a 2 second charge prior to it, and is relativly easy to dodge(I only got hit by it once before I knew to roll when warriors rear back). Backstab has no buildup, they can use it every 3 seconds(stealth debuff), and is impossible to avoid.

[terrahero]

The only thing i know is rediculous is their downed ability. Immediatly available, short cooldown, invisible and teleport. Its a pain to actually get a kill on a Thief, and this gives them so much survivability from downed state they put other professions downright to shame.

Simply put, you cannot kill a Thief right when he goes down. He can, and will, always teleport and stealth atleast once. Then trying to find him in the heat of battle is a real pain. But other professions have good downed abilities aswell, infact id go as far as to say there is an imbalance in downed abilities. Some professions get flat out bigger lifespan and/or more chances to get up then other professions.

[Well]

Mesmer can be really strong. It is the class i got to play the least. But i had a 3v1 fight against one that basically managed to kill 2 of us before he vanished and managed to run away. I was pretty amazed by his amount of skill in such a short amount of time

That would have to have been me :P After trying to play an offensive mesmer and failing miserably, I made my very own spec (the one I was planning to use before the weekend) and got the results I wanted.

I really had to record that clocktower fight... The amount of swearing must had broke their screens. I just decided that criting for 350 max with any kind of skill must not make me sad.