Thief: Guide to Weapons and Armor

Notice
This guide (until sufficiently edited for this to warrant removal) is based off a person who leveled Thief quite a long time ago, and has never surpassed the level 37 mark on Thief. Until enough outside help warrents the removal of this notice, understand that this guide may ignore recent additions of gear that did not exist approximately 8 months ago. It will also only focus on lower level THF gear until another with more experiance can improve this guide. ~Andres

Main Weapons
Due to the nature of Daggers, at low levels, their low DMG rating and relitively weak Weapon Skills makes them poor options for the soloing and early partying. Also, since the first Dagger Weapon Skill that works really well with Sneak Attack and/or Trick Attack is Viper Bite, many Thief's will use either Hand to Hand or Sword weapons at the early levels. Both Fast Blade and Combo stack fully powered with Sneak Attack, and at early levels, the lower skill rank has a lesser effect on weapon skill.

Dagger
Since many Daggers come with beneficial effects, Ninja is the most common sub in order to Dual Wield two daggers. Warrior may be used before level 20.


 * lvl 1 Bronze Knife
 * lvl 7 Beestinger or Blind Dagger
 * lvl 9 Brass Dagger
 * lvl 12 Dagger, Silence Dagger, or Spark Dagger
 * lvl 20 Decurion's Dagger and/or Mercenary's Knife
 * lvl 23 Corrosive Dagger (optional)
 * lvl 25 2x Federation Knife or Windurstian Knife
 * lvl 28 2x Archer's Knife (Nice to use to build TP with a Crossbow.)

Sword
Swords are the recomended choice of the soloing levels of 1~10, due to their higher DMG rating, more powerful 1st weapon skill, and relitively same attacking speed of a dagger. In the early party levels, this or Hand to Hand weaponry is most commonly used, since at Level 15, Sneak Attack is far more effective with these weapons. If using a sword, most Thief sub Warrior or Ninja.


 * lvl 1 Wax Sword
 * lvl 7 Sapara
 * lvl 10 Royal Archer's Sword
 * lvl 12 Brass Xiphos (most skip directly to Scimitar)
 * lvl 13 Scimitar
 * lvl 18 Fire Sword, Flame Sword, Iron Sword, or Iron Sword +1
 * lvl 19 Small Sword (often used as an offhand weapon for a long time due to +DEX, with one of lvl 18 swords as mainhand)
 * lvl 27 Gladius (Often skipped for Mithran Scimitar)
 * lvl 28 Mithran Scimitar (Note: Often expensive, usually dual weilded, nice bonus to DEX however)
 * lvl 30 Centurion's Sword (Note: debatable if better/worse than Mithran Scimitar)

Hand to Hand
Hand to Hand weapons recieve less skill than Swords for a Thief. However, with a Monk subjob, they provide a decent amoutn of damage and speed. Combo is likely the strongest Weapon Skill until Viper Bite when combined with Sneak Attack, but in exchange a THF must lose some of its Accuracy and Attack offered by Swords. Althought this is slightly compensated for in many Hand to Hand weapons. This is not recomended until level 15, to combine Sneak Attack + Combo, to use earlier is to merely weaken yourself usually. Monk is the only viable sub for this choice of weapon, due to Martial Arts.

This assumes use of Knuckles only from 15 till approximately level 30, this is not recomended otherwise.


 * lvl 15 Bastokan Knuckles or Republic Knuckles
 * lvl 20 Metal Knuckles (Only use if you obtain +1 version)

Those are seriously the only two Knuckles I recomend for those levels. Both offer relitively high DMG for hand to hand weapons and +Accuracy.

Ranged Weapons
Thief have a wide variety of ranged weapons avaliable to them, and since THF are likely one of the best classes for pulling, this is a good thing. The typical/cheapest pulling device for a Thief are a Boomerang, due to its unlimited uses and a bommerang with +AGI for THF. However, Marksmanship is also a potencially useful thing for a Thief to use, a well placed Acid Bolt at the beginning of a fight is one great way to improve damage output. Ranged weapons are also another great way to help gain TP.

Another benefit of a THF pulling is for SATA. As the puller, a THF has control of when the monster arrives at camp. If timed well, a THF can land 2 SATA's within the span of a few seconds, instead of only one.

Bow
In the Soloing levels, a well placed bow and arrow shot can destroy near half of an anemy's HP. At party levels, it can place a decent damage first hit on the enemy. Also, the longer delay allows a THF to stop the shot easier if something occurs to the party.


 * lvl 1 Shortbow
 * lvl 7 Self Bow
 * lvl 15 Windurstian Bow
 * lvl 24 Wrapped Bow
 * lvl 36 Composite Bow

Arrow

 * lvl 1 Wooden Arrow
 * lvl 7 Bone Arrow
 * lvl 14 Iron Arrow or 15 Fang Arrow
 * lvl 17 Beetle Arrow
 * lvl 19 Poison Arrow
 * lvl 24 Silver Arrow
 * lvl 29 Horn Arrow
 * lvl 35 Sleep Arrow

Crossbow
Unlike a bow and arrow, the first Crossbow is not avaliable to a THF until the soloing levels are traditionally over. However, unlike a Bow + Arrow, a crossbow has status bolts that can weaken a enemy before it arrives at camp when used to pull or damage.


 * lvl 10 Legionnaire's Crossbow
 * lvl 12 Crossbow
 * lvl 25 Power Crossbow (+1 AGI, keep this for TA if your pulling with crossbow)
 * lvl 40 Thug's Zamburak (Nice for the AGI+ and Ranged Acc+)

Bolt

 * lvl 10 Blind Bolt
 * lvl 15 Acid Bolt (Very useful bolt, lowers DEF of enemy. One DEF Down effect nomally lasts the entire battle, so switching Bolts is a good idea because of the price of these.)
 * lvl 20 Sleep Bolt (Extreamly useful for soloing. Able to use Sneak Attack in the middle of a solo fight.)
 * lvl 25 Venom Bolt (Extreamly Cheap bolts, Low Delay, High Damage. Nice to build TP with)
 * lvl 25 Bloody Bolt (Pair'd with the other bolts, allows a THF to be able to solo a T+. Blind to help keep shadows up if subbing NIN. Bloody Bolt to gain back HP when you take damage. Sleep Bolt for when you need to recast Utsusemi.

Throwing Weapons
Most popular pulling tools due to the shortest time in delay, and infinite use. There are +DEX and +AGI throwing weapons, and a +ACC throwing weapon, leaving a few good choices for a THF for this weapon even when not pulling. Keep in mind though, Changing a Ranged Weapon will also Reset your TP.


 * lvl 6 Coarse Boomerang
 * lvl 14 Boomerang
 * lvl 19 Flame Boomerang
 * lvl 24 Wingedge
 * lvl 28 Chakram
 * lvl 33 Long Boomerang (This has +2 AGI, best ranged for SATA use for a while)

Armor
A Thief, unlike most jobs, is allowed to fully concentrate on a set of armor devoted only to two things usually. +DEX and AGI for SATA, and Damage gear, since a Thief after level 30 will be able to transfer almost all enmity gained onto another person of the party. However, during the levels of 15-29, Thiefs can generate a large amount of hate from damage from Sneak Attack alone, and usually must incorperate some defense gear (Although at level 24, Utsesumi from a Ninja sub is usually sufficient). Equipment change macros are common for Thief, because alot of gear that has +DEX or +AGI, often is poor in other stats for melee such as STR, Accuracy, and Attack.

To use a purely +DEX and +AGI set of gear for THF is not advised. A daggers low DMG rating makes a hit of 0 on a high defense IT monster very possible. 0 Damage equates to 0 TP, and Weapon Skills play an important role for THF.

Head

 * lvl 1 Bronze Cap
 * lvl 7 Leather Bandana
 * lvl 9 Compound Eye Circlet (due to THF's high Evasion, many keep this over higher DEF gear under the hope of avoiding more attacks as a result. It is also a very nice piece for soloing in the 10-15 range)
 * lvl 10 Royal Footman's Bandana
 * lvl 16 Bone Mask or lvl 17 Lizard Helm
 * lvl 20 Trader's Chapeau
 * lvl 21 Beetle Mask
 * lvl 24 Emperor Hairpin or Empress Hairpin (extremely expensive/hard NM to camp, but also almost perfect for a THF. Offering Evasion, +DEX, and +AGI. If acquired, this piece can last for an increadibly long time. Keep until at least 50's for both Attack and SATA set.)
 * lvl 27 Brass Mask
 * lvl 30 Mercenary Captain's Headgear or Noct Beret +1
 * lvl 41 Voyager Sallet (The only piece I can think of that competes with the lvl 24 Hairpin. Use for Attack set.)

Body

 * lvl 1 Starting RSE, Aketon, or Bronze Harness
 * lvl 7 Leather Vest
 * lvl 10 Legionnaire's Harness or lvl 11 Brass Harness
 * lvl 16 Bone Harness or Lizard Jerkin
 * lvl 18 Garrison Tunica (Relitively expensive, but only piece that offers any +DEX for a while. Up to person)
 * lvl 21 Beetle Harness
 * lvl 27 Brass Scale Mail
 * lvl 30 Mercenary Captain's Doublet
 * lvl 33 Consider RSE for DD set. None have enough +DEX/AGI to warrent macroing in for SATA

Hands

 * lvl 1 starting RSE or Bronze Mittens
 * lvl 7 Leather Gloves
 * lvl 10 Legionnaire's Mittens or Royal Footman's Gloves
 * lvl 14 Battle Gloves (best gloves for Attack for quite a long time due to +ACC, decent Defense, and Evasion)
 * lvl 27 Hume, Taru, and Elvaan have viable RSE. Hume may desire to wear full time, Elvaan should macro in for SATA, and Taru should use in Melee, macroing in +DEX/AGI for SATA when possible
 * lvl 30 Mercenary Captain's Gloves (macro in for SATA)
 * lvl 38 Mage's Cuffs (Macro in for SATA)

Legs

 * lvl 1 Starting RSE or Bronze Subligar
 * lvl 7 Leather Trousers
 * lvl 16 Bone Subligar or lvl 17 Lizard Trousers
 * lvl 21 Beetle Subligar (for DEF) or Garrison Hose (Good gear for Melee and SATA, but pricy)
 * lvl 25 Republic Subligar (Debatable if better than Garrison Hose for DD, macro in Hose for SATA if you get these)
 * lvl 30 Noct Brais +1 (macro in for SATA)
 * lvl 31 Elvaan have perfect RSE to macro into SATA, Galka is debatable.
 * lvl 34 Bastokan Cuisses or Republic Cuisses (if in area where effect takes place, is best melee leg gear, if not, consider macro in for SATA if not Elvaan)Windurstian Brias is also a solid pick with the evasion +2. (can be very effective while pulling)

Feet

 * lvl 1 starting RSE or Bronze Leggings
 * lvl 7 Leather Highboots or
 * Leaping Boots/Bounding Boots (Extremely powerful THF footwear. However, it is very expensive or a fairly easy NM hunt. A level 15(TH1) THF can solo the NM)
 * lvl 16 Bone Leggings or lvl 17 Lizard Ledelsens
 * lvl 20 Royal Footman's Clogs
 * lvl 20 Strider Boots (Very very hard to get, but movement boost is fun.)
 * lvl 24 Winged Boots (same as Leaping/Bounding, but with more DEF. Don't get them unless you already have them. the DEF+ isnt worth the extra amount of gil you spend.)
 * lvl 29 Almost all RSE has a use.
 * Hume, Elvaan, and Galka: Macro in for SATA, if you do not have Leaping/Bounding/Winged
 * Mithra and Taru: Use in Melee, macro in +AGI after TA, or Leaping/Bounding/Winged

Neck

 * lvl 7 Feather Collar +1 or Rabbit Charm (Rabbit charm is a rare NM drop, not required)
 * lvl 21 Spike Necklace (very nice with its +STR and +DEX.)
 * lvl 33 Peacock Amulet or Peacock Charm (Very nice improvement to Accuracy, but very pricy, macro in Spike Necklace for SATA)

Waist

 * lvl 1 Blood Stone
 * lvl 15 Warrior's Belt (or +1) (for defense)
 * lvl 18 Brave Belt (Macro out for SA, use for Melee)
 * lvl 20 Key Ring Belt (put in for SATA if you get it, only from quest)
 * lvl 30 Mercenary Captain's Belt (use for SATA)

Back

 * lvl 4 Rabbit Mantle
 * lvl 18 Dhalmel Mantle
 * lvl 21 Night Cape
 * lvl 24 Nomads Mantle
 * lvl 28 Wolf Mantle (+1 suggested)

Earrings

 * lvl 16 Bone Earring (+1 suggested, Melee Earring)
 * lvl 21 Beetle Earring (+1 suggested, Melee Earring)
 * lvl 29 Dodge Earring (+3 evasion is never bad for a thf)
 * lvl 30 Genin Earring (+4 AGI if NIN is subbed, Macro in for SATA)
 * lvl 35 Drone Earring (Macro in for SATA)

Ring

 * lvl 1 Starting Ring
 * lvl 14 Courage Ring (for Melee) and Balance Ring (For SATA)
 * lvl 30 Rajas Ring (Best ring for both Melee and SATA if you have it, reward for finishing CoP.)
 * lvl 36 Puissance Ring (for melee) and Deft Ring (for SATA)


 * Another thing you can do with rings, is get Ranged Acc rings. These can be macroed into the ranged attack for a quick TP boost.