Only you would be blind enough to post about being friends in a PVP thread Torg. That is a whole new level of special right there. The irony is brilliant.
I dont play this game any more I admit but I know the history behind stealth tools and their use and abuse. Havent logged in in some time so this "AOE being useless" aspect is news to me.
I thought that with the balancing there might be some new items to counter this sort of thing? To me it seems pretty obvious that the TSS needs to be removed from the rare pool and recreated as a storebought weapon. It should then have its PSI requirement lowered to 30 and it should be able to be used by anyone with the right level of skill. It would give PEs another skill to complement their "utility" builds and remove one more headache for the PPU.
It should also cancel out ANY stealth effect on the caster too. This would do 2 things for balance A) remove the stealth of the opponent as intended but also B) remove it from the caster so that he cant abuse the right to wield it either by stealthing himself whilst his opponent cannot.
It would work like a rock paper scissors type scenario I would imagine. The only drawback I could see would be your average hybrid possibly just wrecking spies before they had the chance to fight back. But that said I dont actually know if hybrids are viable in the current end game.
Id have to leave that sort of argument to you guys.