Those who have been intimately following ArenaNet's ambitious MMO Guild Wars 2 will know that the studio has been slowly revealing the game's eight professions over the last year. At PAX East next week, ArenaNet had planned to reveal the sixth profession, the Thief, but footage of the profession was leaked early this morning. I had a chance to try out the Thief myself last week, and the profession left a very strong impression.

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The Thief can equip any combination of guns, daggers, swords or a bow, and like all professions, the abilities at the Thief's disposal changes based on what you have equipped. Each weapon results in a very different feeling character -- perhaps more varied than any other class I've had the opportunity to try to date. The Thief uses a resource called "initiative" in addition to mana. Thieves have a maximum of ten Initiative. Most Thief skills cost some amount of Initiative, with more potent abilities costing up to five, and none of the Thief's weapon abilities have a cooldown. Given the small maximum of Initiative, managing the resource is the main challenge with the class.Initiative regenerates at one point a second, which allows you to fight at a fairly consistent pace without letting you spam your strongest skills. There's a profession ability (not tied to which weapon you're using) called Roll For Initiative (ha!) that moves the Thief well away from his current position, while giving him an Initiative boost. Let's take a look at what the Thief can actually do:With two daggers in hand, the Thief has the ability to backstab, dive in for an attack and immediately stealth (but only for a short time), and a very potent ability called Leaping Death Blossom. Leaping Death Blossom sends the Thief spiraling over its enemy, dealing damage with every twist. If someone (like an Elementalist) has thrown down an effect like fire or electricity, the Thief will pick it up and add it to his attack.If the Thief is double-fisting swords, he plays much more defensively, with moves that send him leaping back as he strikes, and another that causes him to leap straight back into battle. With swords, the Thief becomes very agile. While he can't necessarily take much damage, the Thief can avoid a lot simply by dodging.A Thief with two guns is a terrifying force. With Barrage, the Thief fires a flurry of bullets at his target and picks up any elemental effects along the way. Another move lets the Thief cripple his enemy, slowing their movement. I successfully kited a few bad dudes around without getting hit with this. If an enemy gets too close, the Thief can jump back with a shot from his guns, giving him the extra range he needs.Finally, the Thief can wield a bow. The bow is a surprisingly versatile weapon, but requires a lot of skill and planning to properly use. The Thief is capable of launching an explosive shot to hit an area for high, focused damage, or a cluster bomb to hit a much wider area. The cluster bomb can be detonated whenever you want, which means you can detonate it close to the ground for a tight impact, or high in the sky to split the bombs everywhere. A separate ability poisons the ground (which can be combined with other skills) while another teleports the Thief wherever he targets. They all require you, the player, to target the area manually, which can get hectic in the heat of battle, making staying at range all the more important.But what would a Thief be if he didn't steal? That's why, regardless of weapon, the Thief can target an enemy and steal an item from them. Each enemy in the game has a small pool of possible items to steal (this includes opposing players). Items function as temporary weapon skills, and can be immediately used for a range of effects. I was able to steal an egg from a Moa and had the option of eating it for health or throwing it as a weapon, while I stole Gunk from a worm-thing that inflicted random status effects on my opponent when I used it. I was told that the Thief will always use the items he steals in a Thief-y way. Like, if I steal a shield from a Warrior, I'm not likely to use it to block -- I'm much more likely to throw it like a Frisbee for extra damage.The Thief felt highly skill-based, and even very early on I could tell that there were certain ability combos that would work exceptionally well. Poison Weapon and Barrage together is absolutely devastating. The emphasis on movement for the Thief makes playing the profession feel like I'm playing an action game, and the ability to steal items allows for a little random fun, and gives the Thief some added utility in a fight.Of the six classes so far, the Thief might be the toughest to learn, but might also be my favorite. Let us know what you think of the Thief in the comments below!