New Thf :(

your reading comprehension is terrible.

Nope, never mentioned the tier cures being used and I do not run a LS so they are not my WHMs.

If OP's friend really meant "weapon rank" that refers to a specific way that your weapon interacts with your fSTR caps.

(Weapon Damage/9) rounded down gives you your weapon rank. Your floored fSTR is -(Weapon Rank). Your fSTR ceiling is (Weapon Rank)+8.

Take Mandau (90), DMG 49. This is a weapon rank of 5 (49/9=5.4444, rounded down). This means that your fSTR floor penalty is a -5 and your fSTR ceiling bonus is 13 (8+5). Given that it takes 4~6 STR for a fSTR tier, to guarantee that you cap your fSTR with Mandau you need to melee in 80STR over the monster's VIT.

This is part of the reason why the superior 2H damage formulas are so imbalanced. With a weapon like Ukonvasara you have a weapon rank of 14 which makes your fSTR cap at 22. That higher cap means more STR can be translated into actual damage which generally means radically higher damage caps. Also because other jobs equip STR for their WS they increase their fSTR bonus when they put on WS gear. We don't get to do that when we put on DEX gear. This imbalance translates even in Abyssea where fSTR is effectively capped. Outside of Abyssea capping a 22 fSTR bonus would be ridiculous but inside all that STR from cruor buffs actually goes to fSTR bonus. But we don't get the same benefit as Thieves because we cap fSTR very fast and anything leftover is overkill that doesn't help us at all.

Back on the subject of daggers, higher damage daggers, like Harpes, have better weapon ranks because ranks are based solely off straight damage. Also it is worth noting that weapon rank is based off flat base damage. If something has base damage 1 and a latent effect of DMG+300, the weapon rank is still based off 1 base damage. This used to be a big factor in why Blau didn't perform as expected in the main hand.

This doesn't make Harpes necessarily the best dagger. Weapon Rank is merely one factor that can make a dagger superior damage-wise.

To answer OP's question, imo the best dagger is a damage dagger.

Every DD job's primary goal is damage; any specialization is there for variety and complimentary bonuses. I view Thief as a Rogue/Assassin style DD -- a fighter whose deals their damage with speed and uses special attacks that utilize surprise (sneak attack, trick attack) to cripple opponents. Certain skills may augment your ability to solo (Evasion Bonus) or your appeal to groups (Treasure Hunter) but those are your bonuses not your core purpose. Your core purpose is damage. Therefore your primary weapons should be daggers that deal the most damage. That doesn't mean the dagger with the highest damage (Harpes), just the dagger that, all things considered, hurts the most.

Mandau and Twashtar would sit atop the totem pole according to my view. After that you should roll with either a DEX Kila+2 or Twilight. Right now I think Triplus is the best offhand to any of those as a mainhand.

However if you aren't going to live up to your potential as a DD and just want to dual box, you're fine with AGI Kila +2 daggers

Twash>Mandau>Str kila>Perfect yataghan>Twilight is how I see it for mainhand

after spending 120k D.notes i got 2 perfect yataghan " DMG+8 cirt. hit dmg +6%"
and with 2 agi kila ready ... i guess i'll work on 1 str kila +2 now :D


one more question :P

which better enh. Dual Wield or haste ?
in other word which should be better for TPing Nusku's Sash or Twilight belt/swift belt " no twilight belt yet xD " and ignore the double atk part just want to know which one win dual wield or haste