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User:Dragonspight/Thief: Equipment and Playstyle Guide
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Table of Contents
| Table o | f Contents | |
| As a Thief in FFXI: | Abilities and Traits - Playstyles Race Choice - Subjobs | |
| Equipment: | Hate-Control Thief Equipment TP Burn Thief Equipment |
Introduction
As of the past few months, I've been seeing poorly equipped thieves everywhere. In Dynamis, in my Linkshells, in exp parties, and even just walking around in town. I've gotten into numerous arguments with some of these Thieves about how I feel that their lowly gear and styles of play are reducing their output in parties, and on such a large scale, making it more and more difficult for us to get party invites. I hope to write this guide in order to breed a new generation of DD competent thieves.
(Note: I'm not going to go over thief's non-DD/non-Party uses, such as soloing or Treasure Hunter.)
(Note: When I say "experience points situation" or "party situation", it includes Dynamis, Limbus, and other situations where you aim to quickly kill EM-lowIT mobs as a Party)
A most important thing
- As with any DD, there is one thing that PC players have that can seriously improve their damage: a Parser. A parser will read your chatlog to determine the overall Accuracy, critical hit rate, Average damage, and other nifty aspects of you, and anyone whose damage you have unfiltered. If you play on Xbox 360 or PS2, I'd recommend getting a PC friend with access to a parser to help help see your results. Having one will alleviate "I hit enough without Accuracy Gear" syndrome*, along with many cases of excess Weapon Skill-philia* and "I'm above 60 and only use SATA" disorder*.
(* Not actual medical ailments. Do not contact your doctor if you are experiencing these symptoms.)
- I'll leave finding a good FFXI Parser up to you and the people you can ask.
- It is also possible to parse by hand if you have enough paper, enough writing skill, and enough patience.
As a Thief in FFXI
| ↑Table of Contents |
Abilities and Traits
| ↑↑Table of Contents ↑As a Thief in FFXI |
Feint - Assassin's Charge - Ambush - Aura Steal
Sneak Attack
Sneak Attack Level 15 (recast 1:00, down to :52 with merits): Sneak Attack is a one-minute ability that allows your next attack round to have 100% accuracy (will also ignore a mob's shadows) and your next attack to have 100% critical hit rate along with a boost in damage equal to your Dexterity at the time of your hit. The drawback? You must hit the mob from behind (within approximately 30° either direction.) This can be combined with any physical Weapon Skill or melee attack. This does not work for Magic-based Weapon skills, Ranged Attacks, or ranged attack weapon skills.
- The effect of Sneak Attack will wear off after 60 seconds or one melee attack/melee weapon Skill. Using either ranged attacks, Magic-based weapon skills, or Ranged weapon skills will not cause Sneak Attack's effect to wear off.
Trick Attack
Trick Attack Level 30 (recast 1:00, down to :52 with merits): Trick Attack is a one-minute ability, much like Sneak Attack, that allows your next hit to deal a boost in damage equal to your Agility at the time of the hit and will transfer hate from the hit to another person. This Ability's drawback however is that you need to be directly behind the Party or Alliance member to whom you wish to transfer hate.
- Trick Attack's effect will wear off in the same manners as Sneak Attack's.
- Trick Attack can be used under any Invisible or Hide Status effects without causing them to be lost. This makes it an oddity in the Job Ability world.
Hide
Hide level 45 (Recast: 5:00, down to 4:10 with merits): Hide is, in my opinion, the funnest Ability a Thief has. Along with many uses outside of DD and Party situations, Hide can be used to allow Sneak Attack to gain its full effects from any direction. It is also useful for shedding your hate from mobs if you meet certain requirements.
- I'll go into more detail about Hide later.
Triple Attack
Triple Attack level 55 (Job Traits are always active): Triple Attack is the first of many things that turns thieves' melee damage over time around. As seems obviously, Triple Attack triples you attacks. Its activation is about 5% without merits or gear, and can trigger during melee attacks or each hit in Weapon Skills.
- Triple Attack merits raise the activation of Triple Attack to 10%, and certain gear can raise it up to a total of 14.5%.
- If Triple Attack activates in a round after you use Sneak Attack or Trick Attack with Assassin, the extra hits also have 100% accuracy.
- Note that there's a cap of 8 to the number of hits in a weapon skill, so you'll never seen more than one Triple Attack in Dancing Edge or Evisceration (if Dual Wileind).
Assassin
Assassin level 60 (Job Traits are always active): Assassin gives Trick Attack the accuracy and Critical Hit bonuses that Sneak Attack receives.
Merit Abilities
(Note: with merit abilities, you'll have limited choices. See Job specific merits for more information.
Feint
Feint Merit Ability (Recast: 10:00, down to 6:00 with Merits): Feint adds a drastic Evasion Down Effect to your next melee attack or Weapon Skill that hits the mob. Against exp mobs, the Evasion Down effect is so potent that any competent DD will have capped accuracy against it, and the effect will last from 30 to 60 seconds normally. When you use this ability, you will gain a Buff named "Feint" that will wear off when you hit the mob,hus inflicting Evasion Down, or in 60 seconds.
Assassin's Charge
Assassin's Charge Merit Ability (Recast: 20:00, down to 15:00 with Merits): Assassin's Charge simply treats your next attack as a Triple Attack. It stacks with both Weapon Skills and normal attacks.
Ambush
Ambush Merit Ability (Job traits are always active)) Ambush grants you an Accuracy and Ranged Accuracy bonus (3, 6, or 9 points, respective to the number of merits in the ability) to attacks from behind a mob. I don't know the exact angles "behind a mob" represents, but it's most likely the same as Sneak Attack's angles. This Merit Trait is considered the least useful of the four Thief Merit Abilities, and I whole-heartedly agree. Due to the necessity of being behind the mob, it just isn't active in enough situations.
Aura Steal
Aura Steal Merit Ability (Job traits are always active) Aura Steal adds a Dispel effect to Steal, and may absorb the Dispeled effect (20%, 40%, or 60%, depending on merits of Aura Steal). This trait has few uses in Exp parties, but in Dynamis especially, I find this very useful. In the case of percentage increases from Job Abilities, the Buff is transferred as-in, meaning Warcry from dynamis mobs can increase your attack by upwards of 150. This is also extremely useful in HNM situations, but that's not for this guide.
My recommendations...
- 3 Feint
- 1 Assassin's Charge
- 0 Ambush
- 2 Aura Steal
Playstyles
| ↑↑Table of Contents ↑As a Thief in FFXI |
Hate-Control Thief - How to Play(hate-control - TP Burn Thief - How to Play (TP burn)
For thief, the way you play your job makes a much larger impact on your damage than other common DD jobs. This will always be true. It is important that you know these playstyles since I'll be making equipment guides for each one.
(Note: I have my recommendations for which level ranges to uses these two playstyles. Make sure your party knows if you don't have the gear for a common playstyle before you accept an invitation. It's just like a Ninja who doesn't want to tank.))
Hate-Control Thief
A Hate-Control Thief's main job in parties is to SATA-Weapon Skill the main tank so that they have a very high amount of enmity, thus allowing other DDs to do more damage without worrying about hate, often being Black Mages.
- This type of Thief generally has two types of equipment sets they use: TP gain and Weapon Skill set.
- A TP gain set consists of primarily accuracy, Haste (Status Effect), and Store TP gear. They may also use Attack gear since you don't get any TP for hitting for 0, but this is not necessary for low-defense mobs.
- A Weapon Skill set mostly includes DEX, AGI, and STR at an equal priority. Since this style of play is mostly used with Viper Bite, it usually does not include any Accuracy or Attack. (Sneak Attack makes Viper Bite 100% accurate and the Critical Hit from Sneak Attack, along with Viper Bite's double-Attack mod caps out your attack.)
- This is the type of Thief played most from level 30, when you get Trick Attack,until level 60, when you get Assassin and Dancing Edge.
- The best weapon skill for this is Viper Bite at level 33 (32 with A Dagger Merit).
How to Play (hate-control)
- For this style of thief, you'll want to make sure you let your party knows your current TP. The tank needs to let his hate loosen, the black mages (if applicable) need to prepare to Magic Burst, your Skillchain partner needs to know to get ready, and other DDs need to know not to use Weapon Skills.
- Once you get 100% TP, if your SC partner is not ready, you may want to switch to an actual damage.
- Once you both have TP and are lined up, your Skillchain Partner uses Provoke on the mob to get hate, and uses a Weapon Skill, then you use SATA Viper Bite, the mob turns back to the main tank, and you switch back to your TP set.
- This style of play works best between 30 and 68.
TP burn Thief
Now, the most important part, for this is when thieves start to hurt themselves with their gear. With Hate-control Thief, gear is very straightforward, but with TP burn thief, you need to make many more decisions. Haste or Attack? Meat or Sushi? Shark Bite or Dancing Edge or even Evisceration? Either way, this type of DD will nearly always outdamage Hate-Control Thief on Very Tough to Low Incredibly Tough Mobs.
How to Play (TP burn)
Playing TP Burn Thief is extremely easy, compared to Hate-Control Thief. You engage the mob, melee, and do either Sneak Attack Weapon Skill or Trick Attack Weapon Skill.
- Generally, a good TP burn Thief has all aspects of damage-producing stats on their gear. Haste, Attack and Accuracy along with a few weapon skill sets.
- Since you're separating Sneak Attack and Trick Attack now and have up to three real choices for Weapon Skills, you have many more sets for WS damage.
- Since Trick Attack is highly inneffective damage-wise on its own before Assassin, the TP burn style usually only works before level 15 (Sneak Attack) and after level 60 (Assassin). Also, until level 68, your weapons' damages are relatively low, so you may consider staying with the SATAWS style.
Race Choice
| ↑↑Table of Contents ↑As a Thief in FFXI |
It's empty because race doesn't matter.
The race you choose barely matters really. Go find another guide if you want the miniscule differences in HP/AGI/STR/DEX. Also, if you haven't made your character yet, choose the race/gender/model that you want to represent you in this game. One thing people overlook most in this game is that it's still a role-playing game, and a person with a Taru personality probably won't get very far playing as a Galka.
Subjobs
| ↑↑Table of Contents ↑As a Thief in FFXI |
White Mage
While soloing from 1 to 10(or 20), sub White Mage for less downtime so you can get to partying sooner. Other than that, please don't sub White Mage for Experience.
Monk
Monk sub is viable for partying from 10 to 20 due to Boost (+15% attack, lasts for one hit or Weapon Skill, recast of 0:15). When you get Dual Wield and Attack Bonus from Ninja and Warrior respectively though, Monk becomes obsolete.
Ninja
Ninja is generally the best subjob choice for thief in experience parties from level 20 to level 75. You get Dual Wield I (10% attack speed increase) at level 20, Shadows at level 24, and Dual Wield II(15% attack speed increase) at level 50. Ninja sub is my personal preference over any other sub above 20 and thus is my recommendation.
Warrior
Warrior will arguably have you dealing comparible damage over time with Ninja due to Attack Bonus at level 20, Berserk at level 30, Double Attack at level 50, and Warcry at level 70. However, subbing Warrior, you lose a lot of survivability, so if you're pulling or in a situation where hate shifts easily (i.e. TP burn), this is generally a bad idea.
Ranger
The only other viable subjob for 10 up would be Ranger for the use of Ranged Weapon Skills, Widescan for pulling, Sharpshot, Accuracy Bonus I at 20, Rapid Shot at level 30, Barrage at level 60, and Accuracy Bonus II at 60. If you have a decent ranged accuracy build, you can get very quick TP using Ranged Attacks since their Delay:Second ratio is lower than 1:60, as it is on melee weapons. Subbing Ranger is very inneffective against Warrior or Ninja sub in the TP burn style setup, so don't consider taking this to 75.
Just say "No!"
If you're thinking about seriously using another subjob in an Experience Points Party there is enough wrong with either the Party or your logic to warrant not considering the Party or your choice, respectively.
Equipment
As a Thief in FFXI | Table of Contents | End
Hate-Control Thief Equipment - TP burn Thief Equipment
Your equipment is one of, if not, the most influential factor in how much damage you do. With such in mind, I'm going to attempt to give you the most thorough guide of what I believe to be best for situations.
Hate-Control Thief Equipment
As stated earlier in this guide, a Hate-Control Thief has two primary sets of gear: Their TP set and their Weapon Skill set, however, since you lose TP when switching Main, Sub, or Ranged weapons, I'm going to include those aspects first.
