For The Shinies! A Guide For Thief

-SA / TA reduced to 30s base
-TA transfers 20% of thfs current hate along with the hate provided via dmg
-Accomplice reduced to 3m recast(so 1/3 for collab/accomp) if it could target alliance members that would be great.
-Hide always works and is 3m recast
-Give the job some level of subtle blow

Whether hate control is relevant these days or not, THFs usually just not great at it to begin with, job can steal hate a good deal but it has nowhere to place it natively if it could more easily dump or transfer it'd atleast have a fairly unique niche

Yeah I've stated many times, and Nynja's likely correct that THF is kept "weaker" intentionally by SE because of Treasure Hunter. They're still stuck in 2010s era. And I've stated in several other posts, almost every THF job ability has the absolute worst recast times and the least useful modern game application. It's not just a couple, they're ALL bad (minutes SATA which still has a long timer). That's not by accident. I still remember an era before Nyame when THF was absolutely busted on wave3 bosses. That style of fight is no longer a thing

Was talking about this the other day when I saw the new ring. What is TH even used on these days? Maybe Dynamis and Omen?

Besides tagging for Treasure Hunter with Aeolian Edge or Gandring, you don't even proc TH in Omen Swarts. Maybe you do it for Ou on extra drop slot/hands armor. But I'm still not sure it works on bodies or accessories based on how Thorny has described in on the past. Even in dynamis, you just kill and let stuff fall. You might intentionally proc Volte bosses like I said, but that's it. Cloud Of Darkness HTBF? Idk Procing TH doesn't feel worth it anymore.

I literally posted a few posts ago how modern content has almost no need for TH (limbus, sortie, ody) or raising TH beyond tagging and listed examples.

I'm trying to find the post where they say thf has to be neutered because of TH, and while I cant find it, I did find some gems.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/11492-Screwed-again-Proposed-THF-job-adjustments.?p=153704&viewfull=1#post153704


Granted this is 14 years ago, still hilarious that the thought process is "well you can raise TH, so you dont need Subtle Blow".

Well thief is on the prime dagger is it not? Don't they compare relatively well with a dnc using the same dagger?

I clicked on this thread expecting Somalians.

THF vs DNC in same party with same buffs / debuffs, THF will do more damage. Problem, again, is that you're limited to 6 slots. Why bring THF when you can bring WAR (Warcry for other DDs in PT), DRG (Angon), DNC (haste samba, steps), etc. The straight damage you lose from DNC instead of THF, you more than gain from having haste samba and / or steps...

I hope beyond hope, that they revisit job balancing. They acknowledged it was up there on the survey in their follow-up to it, so maybe I'll get my wish on the 30th anniversary.

By their logic of TH(i know its an old post) drops should be 1% or below without a thf considering how much they weigh it vs actually improving the job

It never used to be this way, because I distinctly remember THF at one point being very close to 2-hander damage in terms of DPS. THF was almost always used before DNC, I would say DNC's current use is more of a modern adaptation of a DD (I still remember CPing in Dho Gates and people laughing "what does that job really do?). People didn't know where to fit it into groups; it couldn't tank well, couldn't heal that great, there were better jobs for zerg (pre Nyame Grand Pas shenanigans, you just brought Mighty Strikes WARs or SAMs to everything), and it was just a niche dagger user that very few people valued/understood. The only time my DNC for years ever got invited to stuff was during the Qiqirn Ambuscade. People like Xolla used it heavy in the JP community, but I don't remember seeing it among NAs until recently.

THF was stronger than DRG before WSD traits. DRK was very slow when LR fell off, and MNK was highly undervalued as a "Weaker" DD (still kinda is, wrongly). Pre Nyame, NIN couldn't keep up with THF at all, and neither could BLU. Everything shifted after Nyame introduction. And Savage Blade of course pretty much destroyed the spike DD landscape, because now everyone could deal damage. So why bring a THF who can ONLY do damage when you can bring a COR, BRD, RDM and DNC who can deal damage AND add buffs/enfeebles? THF didn't age well.

Go back and look at any older videos of harder content clears, there's almost never a video with a DNC in it. There were no "travelling" events like Sortie or Segs where you might want Jig. Box Step and Haste Samba just weren't as mainstream in the rotation of allthebuffs, you normally just brought GEO since Geomancy was absurdly broken. Now that everything nerfs Geomancy, you're forced to bring a secondary source of Defense Down after Dia3 to guarantee attack cap. And of course with the high introduction of PDL gear and Aria, now you really need to hit that cap to see numbers, so DNC fit in perfectly when Geomancy got knocked down a peg. Climactic is also incredibly busted, and THF has nothing comparable to deal that kind of spike damage that quickly. THF simply had nowhere to fit in, just like Veydal said.

how does the new limbus set look for us? worth grabbing?

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Justice_Armor_Set

just returned from 2021 still trying to figure out what's good. lotta ACC+ATK+DA+TA+STP+DT looks like it covers everything lol.

malignance set on crack.

it's very good hybrid gear, there's better TP gear in a few slots imo but they lack DT/meva or perhaps just as important depending on context, subtle blow which THF has 0 natively of

The duty set is like gleti's and malignance got together and had a child and this is the output. I think the Body, Head, Legs, and Feet all look incredibly powerful fully ranked up. The only piece that doesn't look better than malignance is the hands. But I think I'd tp in all 4 of the others on thief and dancer and monk as well (barring impetus with monk empy body). It has dt rather than gleti's PDT and it has subtle blow, which as mentioned is really nice. Thief doesn't benefit from the double attack nearly as much as the other jobs, but there's more than enough store tp and TA on them for those 4 pieces to be a net positive regardless.

To put it in perspective our best tp pieces right now, squishiness aside, are Artifact body +4, Empyrean head, R30 Gleti's legs, and Relic feet +4.


Duty Crown - 42 attack, 72 accuracy, 6% haste, 4 Triple attack, 5 double attack, 7 Store tp, 5 DT, 5 subtle blow, 115 magic evasion

Skukler's Bonnet +3 - 61 accuracy, 61 attack, 8% haste, 6 triple attack, 109 magic evasion


Duty Cyclas - 42 accuracy, 72 attack, 4% haste, 5 triple attack, 7 double attack, 8 store tp, 7 DT, 7 subtle blow, 126 magic evasion

Pillager's Vest +4 - 70 accuracy, 4% haste, 7 triple attack, crit damage 6, 119 magic evasion


The legs and feet compare favorably in similar fashion. The duty set is like a thief's tp wet dream lol. It's insanely strong both offensively AND defensively and every thief should want it. The hands are probably a pass since malignance hands has 12 store tp which is silly, but the other 4 are worth building. You can cap haste easily with alabaster earring as well too.

I missed Buukki's post when he originally made it, but it's got a lot of good information. Thief is perfectly fine for damage even to this day. You just haven't seen a lot of it the past few years because of the content we've been given. It doesn't fit well into any of the tier 3 odyssey NMs fights, and it isn't part of the sortie 9 boss strategy. It does fine if you bring it along as a DD for an 8 boss clear and it's actually really good in limbus farms too (does fine in seg farms by extension too if you swap between dagger and nageling as necessary), but the power gap with recent gear has favored some of the other jobs more.

I think the duty set is amazing though and can swing things slightly back in thief's favor. The duty set is extremely defensive compared to thief's normally squishier tp attire, which is a massive sustainability boost for one of the dd jobs that needed it the most. But sustain aside, thief has just as much tp gain as other DD jobs and rudra's and ruthless benefit from the WSD meta just like everything else. So it can still do plenty good if you bring it and have it geared right. The biggest issue with thief is it doesn't buff, so thief won't ever replace bard or cor. Meaning party slots for it are limited. Buukki hit the nail on the head there.

As for not having anything comparable to climactic, I'm going to have to disagree. I know full well how strong climactic is, but if you can land both sneak and trick attack the damage output is comparable. Two criticals that are very strong in their own right is about as good or better than one critical that gets boosted higher. Sneak attack is the harder of the two to land but I've had parties where I can hit it pretty regularly, and bully helps with removing the directional requirement for one in 3 sneak attacks. Climactic is on a 90 second timer and sneak and trick attack are 60 and 50 seconds with merits, so when you factor downtime from running between camps it's reasonable to expect 1 sneak and trick attack for every 1 climactic. It's all about landing those positionals.

Nah. Empy Legs are way too good for MNK.
Other 3 pieces are nice though. Though hands are very close to Malignance and AF+4 feet produce higher overall dps, but at the cost of defensive stats. Again though, MNK sets looks kinda different with Ampulla too. Duty feet and body are still great even then though.

For THF I agree 4/5 or even 5/5 Duty seems really good. Same for DNC.

Yeah, I forget the empy legs too. Monk has a few really high quality empyrean pieces that thief has no equivalent to. The duty set is drool worthy for thief and dancer. I'm not against the duty hands myself, but the difference between them and malignance is pretty small. The other 4 pieces have vastly noticeable upgrades over existing stuff so for the dagger jobs I'm all over these upgrades. The duty hands aren't bad, but they're the lowest priority by far. 4/5 duty for thief is absolutely the future for the class. Massive sustain improvement, better tp gain, and better overall damage. It's amazing stuff.