Thief: Guide to Playing the Job

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Job Overview
Specializing in covert actions, Thieves aim for the perfect opportunity to attack from behind. By usage of their signature abilities Sneak Attack and Trick Attack, Thieves are able to inflict massive amounts of damage without the enemy's notice. In a party, Thieves are expected to control the party's hate levels and trick enemies into thinking that the party's tank is the primary threat.

Thieves also have many tools at their disposal to get out of sticky situations in the game. Not only do they possess the highest evasion rating in the game, but they also have abilities such as Flee and Hide, which allow them to brave even the most perilous areas without fear of death. Additional abilities such as Steal, Gilfinder, and Treasure Hunter make Thief the optimal choice for acquiring gil and items. Thieves also have the unique ability to pick Treasure Chests and Treasure Coffers without the use of real keys.

Strengths

 * Sneak Attack is an explosively powerful ability when used behind an enemy.
 * Trick Attack keeps aggro on the tank and keeps the Thief from getting attacked.
 * Access to the most powerful Dagger weaponskills.
 * Gilfinder and Treasure Hunter abilities allow Thieves to acquire money more easily than other jobs.
 * Able to open treasure chests and coffers without spending time finding real keys.
 * Able to escape from almost any situation with super high evasion, flee, and hide.
 * Master of the Distortion skillchain.

Weaknesses

 * Must compete with other melee characters for party slots, leading to slow invites.
 * Requires more skill and party cooperation than other jobs to be effective.
 * Attacks outside of Sneak Attack and Trick Attack are generally weak and disappointing.
 * Levelling Solo from 6-10 is more difficult then other jobs, due to lack of Offense and Defense.
 * Hard to get party invites until 15, as only use is puller.
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Starting Stats
Mithra - Mithra's high dexterity and agility make them the ideal choice for a thief, as Sneak Attack damage is influenced most directly by the DEX stat and Trick Attack is influenced most directly by the AGI stat. The low strength, and subsequently low damage per hit, inherent to Mithra can make early levels frustrating, but the stronger Sneak Attacks more than make up for it.

Hume - As with most jobs, Hume and Mithra differ very litte. Naturally, a Hume would be second choice for a thief. They have slightly higher strength, but lower dexterity and agility. Like with every job, hume is not a bad choice.

Tarutaru - Past the top 2, the races get difficult to rate. Average dexterity, lousy strength, great agility. Tarutaru make workable thieves, but they suffer from bad physical attacks like the Mithra, but don't have the incredible dexterity to make up for it. The extra agility helps, but a thief would still be better off as a Hume or Mithra.

Galka - Great strength, but it only makes so much difference as the lack of dexterity and agility makes for low damage sneak attacks.

Elvaan - Similar problems as the Galka, only compounded by an even lower dexterity in relation to other races as they level. Elvaan however have the highest STR, and will produce the highest non SA or TA damage.

Support Job Options
Experience Points Parties

The most common subs used in XP parties, and the reasons for using them.

Warrior - Often the sub job selected for those who have not yet unlocked any advanced jobs, warrior is one of the more common subjobs for thief. This subjob offers boosts to strength, along with a number of useful job abilities and traits. Berserk is gained at 30, Double Attack at 50, Attack Bonus at 60, and finally Warcry at 70. With each of these increasing the attacking power of a thief, warrior is by far the most damaging sub available to a thief.

Ninja - The second of the common sub jobs for thief, this sub offers nothing before level 20, little before level 24, and is questionable right up until level 50. At level 20 you gain the ability to Dual Wield. This has a number of benefits. A thief can chose to wield two different types of weapons (commonly dagger and sword) in order to retain the devastating dagger weapon skills such as Viper Bite whilst having the extra damage over time granted by the secondary weapon. The offhand weapon can also be used to grant stat bonuses, commonly to dexterity and agility. Weapons like the Mithran Scimitar and, in the late 40s, the Marauder's Dagger fill this role well. Finally the offhand weapon can be one with a very low delay, such as the Hornetneedle, allowing the thief to gain TP very rapidly. Dual Wield II is granted at level 50, speeding up the rate of attacks even more. Utsusemi: Ichi is gained at level 24 and makes a wonderful addition to a thief's bag of tricks. Thieves are commonly used as the puller in parties, and the ability to negate three attacks makes this job much less stressful. Utsusemi: Ni also becomes available at level 74, giving another three shadows with which to avoid attacks. With A+ rated evasion and both the utsusemi ninjutsu, thief becomes one of the best soloing classes in the game. Overall, a thief with a ninja sub will not put up the same big numbers as one with a warrior sub, but has a much larger bag of tricks.

Monk - A monk sub can be very beneficial to a thief, especially before a thief gets Viper Bite. When used with Sneak Attack, Combo can be extremely devastating at lower levels, despite an E rating in Hand-to-Hand. This sub also offers the job abilities Boost at level 10 and Focus at 50, increasing a thief's attack and accuracy respectively. Dodge, gained at level 30, can also be used effectively with a thief's already impressive evasion to help with pulling. Somewhat more situational and less versatile than either a warrior or ninja sub, a monk sub certainly has its time and place to be used with great effectiveness.

Ranger - Whilst a thief's ranged attack skills are not very high ranked (C- in archery and C+ in marksmanship), they are none-the-less extremely useful. A ranger sub capitalizes on this fact, and can actually be even more damaging than a warrior sub in certain level ranges. Until a thief gets Sneak Attack at level 15, they lack any way to do any serious damage to a mob. By subbing ranger, a thief can used ranged attacks to greatly increase their damage output in the low levels. A ranger sub also compliments a thief's common role as puller in a party. Wide Scan can be of use in certain circumstances, although it must be used correctly. Alertness can also make the difference between aggro and strolling right past a mob or potential link. Access to ranged weapon skills is gained from a ranger sub, although in parties a thief should generally be using their dagger weapon skills. Sharpshot allows a thief to exploit the high TP gain per attack of ranged attacks, and the Accuracy Bonus traits gained at levels 20 and 60 also help increase a thief's TP gain nicely. Another sub that works very well at low levels, and can be used very effictively even after that point.

Still to add - HNM/Dynamis subs, Solo sub(s), NM camping subs, Situational subs.