Thief Update - Additional Information

08-25-2011 04:35 PM [source]

Camate Community Rep

As there have been a lot of concerns and comments cropping up about thief lately, here is some additional feedback from the development team. Regarding the Efficacy of Aura Steal When compared to Voracious Trunk, Osmosis, and Absorb-Attri, Aura Steal’s superiority really shines due to the fact that it is possible to elicit a dispel effect regardless of an enemy’s inherent resistances. Also, depending on how many merit points you’ve used to upgrade it, when you consider that you can reach a 100% rate of absorption, despite the recast timer being slightly long, the effects of Aura Steal are by no means weak. While this is only one example, it might be possible to make Aura Steal its own ability and keep its recast timer shared with Steal. However, there is a high possibility that we will need to balance this by reducing the absorption rate as a trade-off, and I don’t think this would be very desirable. We will be carefully looking into things for the revamps to the merit point effects, so we would like to take a good amount of time and hear all of your feedback. Regarding Trick Attack and Decoy Shot Decoy Shot, which is scheduled to be implemented in the upcoming version update, has been balanced more around the idea of controlling your own enmity. (We understand that the effects of Yoichinoyumi/Annihilator/Armageddon are similar, but since this is comparing an ability to a relic weapon, we think that’s an entirely separate discussion.) Let’s take a look at the below comparison: • Decoy Shot Recast: 5 minutes A set amount of enmity can be diverted to another player and any excess enmity will remain on the ranger. • Trick Attack Recast: 1 minute All of the enmity generated at that time can be diverted to another player. In regards to determining the stacking of the Treasure Hunter effect via TA WS, SA WS, and SATA WS The reason why you cannot tell if the effect is increasing is due to the fact that it is difficult to make the log display the Treasure Hunter enhancement effect during a weapon skill. If we try to make the increase display in the log during a weapon skill, the amount of work would be on par with multiple job adjustments, so we do not have any plans of making this particular adjustment. However, the fact that it is difficult to tell when the Treasure Hunter effect increases, means that we will be looking into other adjustments.

so basically they ignored all of the logical posts regarding the under-power of thf, and refuse to fix anything.

I like how they honestly think aura steal would be overpowered if it wasn't tied to steal.

My mind is blown.

Aura steal is a really good ability and I love it, but steal is completely worthless and I only use steal for aura steal now <_<

Buuuuuullllllllllllllllshit

I can pretty much mirrio
This and this alone.

IF their idea to split timers and share them would allow Aura Steal to be put on a ~1-2 minute timer, Split away.

If they're both going to remain 5 minutes, why the fudge would they need to nerf Aura steal? Am confused.

Either way, I think we can pretty much just Assume THF will be about the same level of useful at 99 as it was at 75. I.E TH *** and Sac-puller because they can't contribute anything else to the party.

Really don't wanna go on too big an emo-rage... So i'll stop here :\

Well, at least by now people might start realizing that the devs actually DO NOT play FFXI.

@ Karbuncle do you actually like playing thf? I love my thf :X I just wish they'd give me more ways to control peoples enmity/hate and more ways to avoid damage/deaggro mobs/screw with mobs. Hide is fun~

I don't see how THF is underpowered. RR/GH/Apoc with Evisceration gets me ~3k+ damage, and SA/TA Rudra's Storm can break 5k... With all the Triple Attack gear/merits on top of apocalypse you should be attacking almost constantly- not to mention most of those hits are critical. THF for what it is packs plenty of punch.

Walk outside of Abyssea. Then You'll see just how underpowered the job can be.

On weaker outside content, We aren't that bad. But our abilities really lack the pow they need. I think it was Khim here that showed some pretty interesting parses that THF wasn't terribly weak, but i think they do need something.

Small tweaks here and there would keep everyone happy, but the Devs ignore anything we ask them to adjust, and act like the job is fine.

I don't want this to turn into some stupid "My job vs your job" Debate so i won't go into further detail (not that you're taking it there, but almost every time i mention THF needing improvements, some idiot comes in babbling about how DNC needs this or SMN needs this or SCH needs this blah blah blah acting like since their job isnt good that no other job needs a fix until theirs is fixed).

but there are some small things they could do to THF that would help the job in a huge way and make people happy.


I love the job, I just hate where they're going with it, and i hate that they seem to ignore any problems with it.

Yeah, outside abyssea can be kinda bad, I range from like 600-1.5k(ish)... Unless you're using SA/TA Rudra's Storm- then the damage is pretty solid. I made a WoE dagger and it's working just fine for me... THF is pretty much there for Treasure Hunter, the fact that we can do any damage at all is just a bonus.

On an enmity related issue, I'd like to see an "Enmity Douse" type ability, because even though Rudra's Storm stacks with Trick Attack, I still seem to end up with all the hate... Only time I've ever had the hate consistently transfer was when I'd Trick Attack a BST that would then use Snarl. Weird.

Thats because of the Hate cap :|

Edit: Also, This is a thread with a lot of suggestions made for THF. Some of them big, Some of them small.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/13211-The-THF-Master-Suggestion-Thread-Compilation.-Read-Contribute!

I seriously don't think they understand where Aura Steal actually DOES stand with other Buff-Stealing skills.

Voracious Trunk only has a ~56s recast, with full recast reduction that's 28s. Osmosis is 90s with a minimum of 45s. I don't think Aura Steal can steal anything Osmosis and Voracious Trunk can't and furthermore both of these spells both belong to BLU, a job with a lot of options to drastically increase their Magic Accuracy. A 5 minute cool-down on a duplicate ability is seriously horrible when the ONLY redeeming factor is that it could land on Dark Based mobs where Osmosis will have a floored land rate (and voracious trunk is really tricky to land anyways being a gaze attack lol).

Should let them at least steal 2 buffs with such a long cool-down.

On another note: If they really want THFs to be masters of Enmity control, should've given Libra to them instead of SCH so they know how to Collaborator more efficiently. Though this is a game where teamwork is supposed to be the more important which would be a way for them to cop-out of it and say "bring a SCH".

Nah, drk deserved that more apparently.

This is exactly indicative of the issues facing THF. Expectations are nonexistent. People don't want THFs they want tools with Armlets/Dagger/Poulaines.

THF *can* be competitive in content outside Abyssea, the issue is that the jobs are imbalanced such that the level of gear and skill necessary to perform well as a THF is vastly disproportionate to say... WAR. And our damage caps lower on harder content as well.