I checked with someone involved with assassin design a little while back, and Vanish was never designed to work as often as it did. It sort of slipped through, and never got fixed until much later, when people took a fresh look at the class and pinpointed some of the reasons why skilled players basically don't die playing them.

An unstoppable skill (short of lag/paralysis, which stops nearly anything) that removes you from combat and does it in a confusing way for your opponent... shouldn't work often. If there were more counters to it (the way Curse and other abilities take out Word, or needing to get out of combat (and risk accidentally casting it after being re-engaged) for Teleport, etc., I'd feel more sorry for them. But as of now, I really don't.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com