User:Malizia/85 Thief Equipment Guide

''malinote: only known obtainable items are updated for level 85, sorry no Ocelot Trousers! /drool'' ''malinote 2: until we hit level 99, i strongly recommend you DO NOT BUY anything in the "HQ" section of this guide. If it's rare/ex or acquired through non-gil means, go for it; but so much of this equipment will be obsolete in each level cap update that it's not worth spending money on expensive shinies. However, I do recommend making sure your equipment meets the "baseline" criteria. This stuff should be easy and cheap.'' Yay, the best for last! What kind of equipment sets to THFs carry? For each set I'll include a baseline (maximum effectiveness for minimal time/effort/gil) and a higher quality set. Often times it's not really feasible to determine the "best" item for any set, so you'll have to find out what you like yourself! Prices are current as of 9/1/2010, as a cross-server average from FFXIAH. Finally, two notes:
 * Make sure you can swap in your TH5 pieces at any time with any of these sets. I tend to full-time these with monsters that die quickly.
 * Skill > Equipment. Make sure you complete your roles as a THF!

Evasion Set
Your most important set by far, and the one you should prioritize. This keeps you alive and allows you to pull! You'll often find you don't actually have to use it, but you'll be glad it's there when you need it. The emphasis here is evasion, evasion skill, and AGI, where 2 AGI is one evasion, and evasion and evasion skill are about the same. I actually use +movement speed boots for pulling, even though they have -evasion.

TOTAL: Baseline: AGI +12, Evasion +45, Evasion Skill +7, costs 400K HQ: AGI +30, Evasion +103, Evasion Skill +22, Parrying Skill +15, Physical Damage Taken -1%, costs 2.3M+

Daggers
Hey, noticed how I put the evasion set first? That's for a reason ^^ Let's list some daggers! I highly recommend Trial of the Magians daggers, they're fantastic!

DD Daggers:
 * Mandau / Vajra / Twashtar: You get the most damage in a dagger, but at an extreme price of time, effort, and gil. Great if you have it!
 * Sirocco Kukri: NM drop, and lowest delay possible on a dagger. Very nice offhand.  Might soon be shadowed by...
 * Parazonium: Comes in three flavors, two of which Occasionally Attack 2+ Times and have decent damage. Not terribly hard to build either.
 * Kila, DEX+6 Acc+12 or STR+6 Atk+16: These are your new best friends for DD.
 * Kila, add'l effects: The two notable ones are "Weakens def.+15" (earth) and "Impairs evasion+15" (wind). Mini-Angon and mini-Feint daggers your party will love!  Also by far the most painless daggers to make.
 * Magnet Knife / Misericorde: low on gil? This is a super-cheap starting combo for DD. I would quickly upgrade to add'l effect Kilas though since they are SUPER EASY to make.

Specialty Daggers:
 * Thief's Knife: You know why you have this :) Not a DD dagger.  I tend to wear this 100% of the time, but that's because I don't meripo on THF and because in all the events I go to mobs die too quickly to make a dagger swap feasible.
 * Bartholomew's Knife: For the +steal, not too hard to get either. Not a DD dagger.
 * Kila, AGI+6 Eva+16: The new queen of evasion daggers!

Obsolete Daggers, thanks to the Trial of the Magians:
 * Blau Dolch: The former pre-relic king, but now you can build yourself a Kila with DEX+6 Acc+12 or STR+6 Atk+16.
 * Fane Baselard: Same as the Blau Dolch.
 * X's Knife: Very hard to get, but useful for Evisceration. Now you can just get a Fusetto with Evisceration +10% DMG.
 * Azoth: replaced by a Kila with AGI+6 Eva+16.
 * Harpe-style daggers: only used because of their high base damage, now replaced by any Kila.

TP Set
There's plenty of debate about how to fine tune this one, especially concerning the weapons. But rest assured, you want lots of accuracy, and lots of haste, or haste-like bonuses. You might notice the Aurore Doublet Set for low-end and Homam Corazza Set for high-end make a strong showing here, and getting excellent gear here is really challenging because you're competing with so many other jobs.

TOTAL: Baseline: DEX +13, Accuracy +41, Haste +11%, Store TP +8, Attack +32, STR +5, Double Attack +2%, costs 150K HQ: DEX +10, Accuracy +56, Haste +19%, Dagger Skill +7, Double Attack +5%, Dual Wield -5% delay, Triple Attack +1%, Store TP +19, Attack +25, STR +5, costs 2.5M+

Weaponskill Set
What? A separate weaponskill, sneak attack, and trick attack set?? Sure! If you want to maximize your damage, having three different sets allows you to maximize the potential for each ability, use them separately from each other, and even separate them entirely from your weaponskills. If you're really up for it, you can even have different sets for each of the three weaponskills you'll use: Dancing Edge, Shark Bite, and Evisceration. Oh, and while we're on the subject of weaponskills, let's talk about how to use them without SATA:
 * Dancing Edge is your bread and butter. Five hits, uses DEX and CHR as stats.  You'll want to focus on DEX and accuracy here.
 * Shark Bite makes light skillchains. Two hits, uses DEX.  I'd focus on DEX and attack here, but make sure you have enough accuracy to hit twice!
 * Evisceration makes dark skillchains. Five hits, uses DEX, and interestingly enough can score critical hits on each hit!  This is extra snazzy if you have, say, an X's Knife (good luck!).  Otherwise this is pretty much the same build as Dancing Edge.  If you don't have enough DEX to reliably critical hit (at least 120 with gear) you might want to stick to Dancing Edge.
 * Mandalic Stab is a lot like Viper Bite: it has a multiplier to your damage, and it's worthless without SA or TA. Since you should always be stacking this, focus on your DEX and Attack.  Makes light skillchains.
 * Mercy Stroke makes fun of the other weaponskills because they don't require a Mandau. If you're special enough to have the relic weapon, you probably don't need this guide! :p But for everyone else who's dreaming about it, you'll want plenty of STR for this build, and of course plenty of gil to spend.

Let's just do the DE/Evisceration set here; it's decent enough for SB as well and you can always make modifications as you have more gear to play with! The Hecatomb Harness Set does quite nicely here once you get access to Sky and Einherjar / HNM, and the Dragon Harness Set does quite nicely until then. Also, if you thought the TP set was hard to get... wait until you try this one :)

TOTAL: Baseline: DEX +34, Accuracy +7, Attack +42, STR +9, costs 180K HQ: DEX +57, Accuracy +24, Dagger Skill +7, Double Attack +5%, Attack +41, STR +33, costs 14M+

Sneak Attack Set
Take your WS set, and get rid of Accuracy for more DEX, STR and Attack! There's also a lively debate on the usefulness of -delay/haste items (such as Suppanomimi and Skadi's Visor) and +Movement Speed items here. They aren't as potent as the Hecatomb Harness Set, but they potentially increase the number of attacks you get in general (for -delay/haste items) and increase the likelihood that you can actually land your sneak attack (movement speed items). Remember how I said no one's going to line up your sneak attack for you anymore? And that mobs are likely to turn when you least want them to? Well with +movement speed you can turn around (to avoid missing your sneak attack), run around to their new backside, and actually hit them for your spike damage much faster than if you, say, wore pieces from the Dusk Jerkin Set. At least that's the theory anyways... you'll have to decide what's best for you :p

TOTAL: Baseline: DEX +38, Attack +42, STR +9, Haste +6%, costs 160K HQ: DEX +54, Dagger Skill +7, Haste +5%, Dual Wield -5% delay, Attack +61, STR +15, Increases Critical Hit Damage + ??%, Store TP +12, costs 5.7M+

Trick Attack Set
Unlike with the other sets, this is going to require completely different equipment. Might want to take your time with this one.

TOTAL: Baseline: AGI +35, Attack +34, STR +13, Haste +6%, costs 160K HQ: AGI +50, Trick Attack adds extra 15% of AGI, Dagger Skill +7, Haste +5%, Dual Wield -5% delay, Attack +29, STR +8, Increases Critical Hit Damage +??%, Store TP +7, costs 5.4M+

Ranged Set
Some might say you actually get two ranged sets, one for accuracy (landing status bolts) and one for DD (THF/RNG). I'd say the accuracy one is going to be used much much more; if you need a THF/RNG DD build you can take this build and add some +Ranged Attack (free malihint! change the Jaeger Mantle for an Amemet Mantle +1!), and switch to guns. Guns! For something completely different, THF/COR is now an option with Quick Draw, but now you're looking for AGI, ranged accuracy, Magic Accuracy, and MAB. Hmm, maybe that's a set I'll add later!

TOTAL: Baseline: AGI +17, Ranged Accuracy +59, STR +9, costs 120K HQ: AGI +12, Ranged Accuracy +131, Ranged Attack -5, Marksmanship Skill +5, STR +4, costs 11.3M+

Steal Set
There's no HQ here, there can be only one steal set!

TOTAL: Steal +15, Steal +18 when HP ≤ 75% and TP ≤ 100%, costs 135K

Utsusemi Set
By request, we're going to do a pure Haste / Fast Cast set. Since the purpose of this set is to cast Utsusemi as fast as possible, secondary stats here will be evasion types. This doesn't take enmity into account; you may need to swap pieces if you're trying to tank.

TOTAL: Baseline: AGI +16, Haste +15%, Evasion +24, Evasion Skill +7, costs 315K HQ: AGI +6, Haste +25%, Evasion +13, Evasion Skill +10, Fast Cast + 6% (cast) / 3% (recast), costs 200K+

Unknown Pieces
These have yet to be found, but assuming they exist in game could replace suggestions here: