UserWiki:Arietti

just keeping this here

This guide is aimed at levels 60 to 69 (which is as much experience as I have so far) this job becomes a bit simpler at 60 when you receive the assassin job trait and you can function more like a DD during a party

There’s a lot of useless information relating to the THF job. I’ve seen it all. This article’s purpose isn’t to teach you how to SATA. Everyone but the lowest scrubs can do that. This guide focuses on levels 60 and above. I’ll cover the earlier levels briefly but it is past 60 that this class’s potential is really unlocked.

I’d estimate that at least 70% of THFs don’t realise the potential of their job. This was my first job. I took it upon myself to learn all I could about it. All it really comes down to is looking at the basic stats and abilities to realise what a job is most effective at. For some jobs it’s obvious. Paladin for example gets four defense boost traits. Their job abilities and spells all generate a large amount of hate. It’s the game’s only true tanking class. A paladin’s number one priority is gaining and keeping hate. Its second priority is damage mitigation.

I’ll say it now, a THFs biggest strength is not dealing damage. This is the attitude that created the army of one-dimesional thieves wearing more than 2 pieces of AF at any time. Thieves like this are directionless and a pain to party with. Don’t be one. Because our number one is something other than dealing damage (I’ll deal with this later) it means we have to try harder to be a benefit to a party. This means no TPing in AF legs, no WSing in Black Cotehardie and no one-gear-set-wonders.

Remember you’ll never outdamage higher end DD jobs whose job it is to deal damage. That’s not what this job is about. If you want to be putting out epeen numbers go to your mog house and talk to moogle about changing your job to SAM. Please, for the good of us all. We don’t need half-arsed AF thieves giving us a bad name.

For those of you that don’t know this yet:

A thief’s main strengths are as follows

1.	Staying alive. No other class in the game can stay alive like a thief can. We do it better than anyone else. Our job abilities are all geared towards self-preservation. A thief is self-sufficient, first and foremost. I’ll run through individual abilities later but honestly, take my word for it, when the shit hits the fan, no other job has as many options in order to get out alive than thief does. Our natural evasion, job abilities and ninja sub job allows us to survive an incredibly long time in seemingly hopeless circumstances. This makes thief perfect for questing and sneaking around areas with mobs twenty levels higher than you are.

2.	Accumulation of wealth. Treasure hunter is one of the least understood and most desired job traits in the game. It doesn’t require an explanation. You just need to know it’s there and working for you. At level 45 you gain Treasure hunter II and with it the ability to accumulate gil twice as fast as any other job. Don’t ever forget this and start complaining about being poor. Use your natural traits and go and farm. At 70 and 74 this trait is further increased bringing you additional chances as getting items from mobs with the player-named treasure hunters III and IV. Remember this trait does not work on armoury crates and therefore items obtained through BCNMs.

Okay now that’s out of the way I’ll run through job abilities and explain their use:

Perfect dodge: Don’t ever think twice about using this. You have to be on your toes. A couple of times recently I’ve used this whilst getting hit hard pulling in the mire (through my own error) and it’s kept me alive long enough for the pt to finish fighting the previous mob.

Steal: You gain this at level 5. At this level it’s not of much use except stealing beastcoins from gobbies etc. As you get higher in levels you have opportunities at extra gil using this ability. Take them. Particularly look out for Gold and Platinum beastcoins and an easy way out of your Maat fight. This is also one of the few places your AF will serve you well.

Sneak attack: Before sneak attack your damage will be low. You have nothing to compete with other melee before level 15 other than your ability to use Acid bolts with a C+ skill when pulling. When you first get sneak attack it is an extremely powerful ability and you will pull hate with it. You may even eat a few deaths as the gap between yours and other classes’ evasion is slim at this point and you will not have access to utsusemi until level 24. After you gain utsu though, the three shadows should be enough to keep you alive long enough for the tank to tear the mob from you. As you get higher in levels, this ability will deal less and less damage comparatively.

Flee: So much more than just a sprint from your Mog house to the AH. I can’t count how many times this ability has saved me in the past. Your AF boots add 15 seconds to this which could mean the difference between life and death. Macro them in to bypass the animation, saving time.

Trick attack: Allows you to transfer enmity from your next attack onto the person directly in front of you. Keep in mind this JA can miss before level 60 when used on its own.

Mug: Don’t rely on this to get you anything but a few gil every now and then. The best mobs to use this on are NMs and, in particular, HNMs. Also, if it matters to you at all you can usually mug more gil from thief mobs than any other class.

Hide: A nice little trick sheds all aggro from sight mobs. Can be adapted to scent tracking mobs by using a deodoriser item and to sound mobs by fleeing out of range (40’) and then using the ability. Can also be used as an alternative to invisible if you’re so inclined.

Accomplice and collaborator: Recently added JAs which allow you to steal enmity from a party member. Don’t expect to pull hate with these for more than a few seconds. The most obvious use that springs to mind is taking hate from a DD who’s dealing too much damage so your tank doesn’t have to exert himself.

Gear choice

As stated above, you are not the best DD out there therefore your gear is that much more important if you want to keep up in an exp party, NM fights, or whatever. There are a few key stats you should go for. For TP gain you need accuracy first and foremost. Most exp mobs are quite a few levels above you and you can’t afford to miss hits often as this will result in slower kills and therefore less overall exp per hour. Consider also adding attack and a bit of STR gear to keep your hits up and above single figures. As a thief the damage on your weapon is low as is your strength so you need some help to not hit for 0s a lot.

Some examples of accuracy and attack gear you can use

Scorpion harness: staple body piece. Widely known and required for solo and, to a lesser extent, partying. It’s a bit overrated for party play but gives needed accuracy at the level you can equip it.

Sniper’s rings: Your holy trinity of accuracy gear is your scorpion harness and two sniper’s rings. The HQ versions of these are very expensive but the NQ have dropped in price over the past few years. I don’t recommend woodsman’s because of the evasion loss.

Peacock amulet/ charm: Difficult to obtain but a godsend for your TP gain and dancing edge setups. I’ll talk more about argus later as it’s something you should be camping if you ever want to see a good dancing edge in an exp party. If you’re fighting anything below IT, however, switch this out for a chiv. Chain where the strength is more welcome.

Battle gloves: Only use these in your dancing edge macro unless you have nothing better to wear for TP. Which you do, in the form or rse if you’re hume or taru.

Amemet mantle +1: Definitely get the hq version of this

DEX and AGI gear for SA and TA respectively.