User:Malizia/95 Thief Equipment Guide

malinote: only known obtainable items are updated for level 95! ''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 5/24/2011, as a cross-server average from FFXIAH. Finally, two notes:
 * Make sure you can swap in your TH6 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! 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. And wowza, this set is getting expensive! It's practically the only thing that costs money anymore.

TOTAL: Baseline: AGI +18, Evasion +49, costs 270K HQ: AGI +52, Evasion +135, Evasion Skill +10, Parrying Skill +10, Physical Damage Taken -1%, costs 3.1M+

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!
 * Parazonium: Comes in three flavors, all of which give you more attacks. The OA2-4 dagger is the easiest to build, although extremely tedious - it takes a whopping 4650 kills and 9 NMs to make!  The other two are just as slow to make, in their own special ways.
 * Kila, DEX+9 Acc+15 or STR+9 Atk+20: 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.
 * Auric Dagger / Rapidus Sax / Triplus Dagger / Twilight Knife: all very useful offhand daggers. Rapidus Sax isn't all that useful once you get capped Haste on your TP set, but the other three (along with a Parazonium) all serve the same purpose: more dagger swings!  We're not going to go mathcat here and figure out which one of these many options is the bestest, but you should feel happy with any of these.
 * Magnet Knife / Misericorde: only use these temporarily until you get decent Trial of the Magians daggers. You don't want to be 90 and still carrying these.

Specialty Daggers:
 * Thief's Knife: You know why you have this :) Not a DD dagger.  I tend to wear this 100% of the time in events, because generally 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+9 Eva+20: These evasion daggers keep getting better!

TP Set
You want lots of accuracy, and lots of haste, or haste-like bonuses. The Aurore Doublet Set has a lot of good baseline pieces, and your fully upgraded AF3 is pretty much unbeatable. Use accuracy snackies like Squid Sushi or Marinara Pizza. There's a big push now for Subtle Blow since you actually might want to TP on NMs, so if you want to modify this set to account for that here are some considerations: /NIN (15), Enkidu's Harness Set (16), Alcide's Attire Set (20), Failnaught (5), Slither Gloves (5), Agasaya's Collar (5), Peiste Belt (5), Heed Ring (7), Rajas Ring (5). Almost no matter what gear swaps you make, you're going to lose some TP effectiveness!

TOTAL: Baseline: DEX +9, Accuracy +41, Haste +20%, STR +2, Attack +18, costs 120K HQ: DEX +35, Accuracy +37, Haste +26%, Dagger Skill +12, Double Attack +13%, Triple Attack +6%, Dual Wield -8% delay, Store TP +6, STR +13, Attack +36, Critical Hit Rate +4%, Subtle Blow +5, augments Triple Attack, only costs time!

Weaponskill Set
Yes, absolutely! A separate weaponskill, sneak attack, and trick attack set! Three different sets allows you to maximize the potential for each ability and use them separately from each other. You get more damage using SA and TA solo (yes, this means you will have to be able to WS without them) and you get more chances to apply the TH bonus. If you're really up for it, you can even have different sets for each weaponskill. Let's talk about how to use these 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 pretty much the same build as Dancing Edge.  If you don't have enough DEX to reliably critical hit you might want to stick to Dancing Edge.  If you have Atma of the Razed Ruins or other Critical Hit Rate / Critical Hit Damage bonuses, you might want to only use this.
 * 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 requires special shinies like a Mandau or a Clement Skean. It's our only STR based weaponskill, so stack STR and Attack.
 * Rudra's Storm requires you to spend a lot of time doing Dagger Trials and camping NMs. If you have it, treat it like Mandalic Stab or Viper Bite: lots of DEX and Attack, and always use with SA or TA (preferably SA since it's so DEX intensive).

Let's just do the DE/Evisceration set here; it's decent enough for SB/MS/RS as well and you can always make modifications as you have more gear to play with! Also, if you thought the TP set was hard to get... wait until you try this one :)

TOTAL: Baseline: DEX +47, Accuracy +11, STR +10, Attack +37, costs 100K HQ: DEX +54, Accuracy +55, Dagger Skill +7, Double Attack +9%, STR +21, Attack +83, costs 1.5M+

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 +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 +48, Attack +41, STR +8, Haste +4%, costs 90K HQ: DEX +68, Attack +53, STR +21, Haste +0%, Dagger Skill +7, Dual Wield -8% delay, Increases Critical Hit Damage +5%, Store TP +12, costs 1.4M+

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 +53, Attack +22, STR +9, Haste +6%, costs 110K HQ: AGI +75, Attack +20, STR +5, Trick Attack adds extra 15% of AGI, Dual Wield -8% delay, Increases Critical Hit Damage +5%, Store TP +7, costs 1.8M+

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, 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 +29, Ranged Accuracy +68, STR +4, Ranged Attack +8, costs 105K HQ: AGI +17, Ranged Accuracy +117, STR +4, Ranged Attack +25, Marksmanship Skill +5, costs 900K+

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 150K

Utsusemi Set
There was a request for a pure Haste / Fast Cast set, but I decided to make it go poof! Want to make one? Take your TP set (which should have 20-26% haste!), swap out non-haste equipment for evasion equipment, and consider a few more pieces: Loquacious Earring, Magoraga Beads, and Homam Cosciales for Fast Cast. If that drops your haste too low, try Homam Manopolas or Ballerines.

Unknown Pieces
These have yet to be found / fully understood, but they could replace suggestions here: