Alka brings up a question I was actually pondering the other day... is there really a point of having a thief these days? I have one with 120 stealing / 100 snooping / etc but haven't played him in years. I found that when I did sit around at a champ spawn trying to steal scrolls that it typically wasn't worthwhile because it required the perfect storm (I needed to be close to the players going damage without being revealed / needed to be near the right guys / needed to be able to quickly see their scrolls / they needed to have a 120 drop / I needed to steal the scroll and then make it out alive). Needless to say the chances of all these happening were slim so typically I find it better just playing at an off-time (or ghost shard) and solo'ing the champ myself to get 6 scrolls (6 chances at a 120).
Assuming I'm not stealing powerscrolls and I'm not stealing the once a month type drops like the painting in Doom; is there really anything worthwhile to steal? Even though I haven't used the smuggler's edge, I'd probably agree that stealing from monsters / bosses has very limited benefits so I'd be interested to hear what other people are doing with their thieves (outside of Siege).
Before my move to Siege, I played a thief on Atlantic quite a bit and I could definitely see why you would wonder if there is really a point to playing a thief. Insurance is the thief's worst enemy so the only thing really worth stealing on a consistent basis is powerscrolls. Occasionally, you will catch someone with an uninsured item. Once you do it for a while, you start to notice patterns in the way people set up their packs which makes it easy to quickly identify an item which may be uninsured. As far as the "perfect storm" requirement for stealing at a champ spawn, that's only partially true. There are tactics that can be employed to increase your odds of success and survival, but some of these are closely guarded secrets that are learned either through experience or taught to you by other thieves. It truly is a commitment and not a get-rich-quick scheme, most people would not think it worth their time. Thieving requires incredible patience and will likely not make you rich or popular with the community.
I do advocate that everyone should at least try it for a time as there is nothing quite like it in any other game. There is something about going face-to-face with another player and coming out ahead when you know that the other player can and will tear you limb from limb if you make even the slightest mistake. You get a rush from it. If you smoke, make sure you got a pack on reserve.
But, yeah, the truth is that if you want action, excitement, adventure, and the chance to make a tidy profit with stealing, Siege is the place to be. Stealing is much more difficult on production shards since there is passive detect and the players you see there are mostly fully geared hardened PvPers using 3rd party programs. Production shards are a great place to practice tactics, and even though it is more difficult, it just feels kind of cheap to me, like playing against an AI. On Siege, it feels much more genuine, it's hard to explain, I guess you'd have to try it.