For The Shinies! A Guide For Thief

What about some gearsets that don't include the random augment gear? I mean, most people who come here looking for sets are those who either 1) have not played the game in a while, or 2) haven't played the job in a while. These players ain't going to know how to use the new pieces of gear and how they work with others.

Gearsets which include reforged, vagary, sinister reign (but only equipment with best augments) and escha stuff (which does not have random augments), along with Taeon (because they ain't too hard to augment now) would be very welcome. Personally I've stayed away from all Escha stuff til I get my Mythic done .. so it would be nice to see what to aim for once I start doing all those NMs.

From those gearsets, a player could say .. well this random augment gear could beat this if you get so-and-so, but what we really need first is a basic guideline on what to aim for before we start thinking about all that augmenting nonsense. People like to have something to aim for so they can plan their gametime and target certain things. At the moment players just have to guess, and I'm certain most players don't have a degree in FFXI mathematics; which is why they ask here. :)

I could include my gearsets, my THF has some drops from Sinister Reign, has empy reforged and other stuff, but it has no Escha stuff, so I wouldn't want to post them unless someone responds with interest for it.

I'm curious then if there are discrepancies between our spreadsheets, or if we're simply analyzing totally different situations. In my calculations of high and low level enemies, catering to both Vajra/Sari and Sari/Sari has Vajra winning by a large amount (I don't have the spreadsheet on me so I can't give a value). At the very least there's probably an issue with not having stats for recent high level content, and I'd wager that you may have had more time on THF against higher level stuff, cuz I'm usually stuck on RUN.

Somewhat related, judging by the DMG increases shown for Excalibur, Almace, and Burtgang (which were over 30%), I'm optimistic that the DMG boosts to Vajra, Mandau, and Twashtar will be proportional. Bear in mind that I'm assessing that most of Vajra's power is coming from the SA/TA bonus and having Mandalic Stab as a stronger SC option.

Herein lies the complexity: let's look at the Head slot just for stacked WS. You have a variety of options, including AF, Taeon, Herculean, Rawhide, Lustratio/+1, Adhemar/+1, perfect Lilitu Headpiece. Now, only two of these are true random augments (of which we have an almost complete understanding of the limitations), so you can still get a good comparison. These 9 (counting NQ and HQ abj) pieces have varying degrees of DEX, Crit Damage, and WS Damage, which are the 3 stats that are having the largest contribution in this slot. Gonna take a sip of water.

Ok. So. These 3 stats (between all your gear/buffs) are multiplying together, so what you're really trying to do is find what combination makes the biggest number. The issue is, the more you stack onto one, the less of an impact it will have to keep stacking it, especially if you're sacrificing the other two. I'm sure you probably already know all this, but I do want to repeat it all for some people because it comes up a lot.

Now, I agree that the guide ought to have good starting points and stepping stones for new/returning THFs. I personally don't have the time just yet to finish a guide, but it is something that I feel is essential and I will be including it when I do have more time. I also plan to take into consideration things like costs, with regards to HQ gears or high-end augments that may take a large number of tries. Lastly, I'll finish up the spreadsheet since no one else seems to be working on them, though if anyone else here is good with them, I'd love to have them reviewed for validity.

Yeah I understand the complexities of it. I think a lot of people just need something to aim for, before they do the harder stuff. When I find some time I'll post my sets because they only include Taeon and Sinister Reign as the variable choices.

Jeanpaul, Do you have afterglow, or are planning on getting afterglow on your Vajra? Apparently that will come into play when upgrading mythics.

Nope, not interested. A lot of people pooped their pants in that one thread over the vague statement regarding Afterglow, but I'm ready for whatever challenge they throw at me. I have Epeolatry too, so there's at least one weapon I'm guaranteed to do the non-Afterglow way.

Relic and Mythic afterglows don't seem so bad. You can use trusts for ADL now, and all the new warp points makes farming PW pops easier. No way in hell I'm doing empy though. I can't even be bothered to make an Empy.

Would be funny if they made afterglow for ergon though. Probably 499,999 HP-Bayld or 50 Pristine Yggrete Crystal. "Good news adventurers! The rare tag has been removed from Pristine Yggrete Crystal and it now stacks to 12!"

Hmm this could possibly be an issue also. I'll just wait for your updated spreadsheet and then plug in gear sets and see what comes out. After all yours is more likely accurate than mine due to the odd ways I've tried implementing newer stuff like gifts.

Here goes. Please bear with me, I have not done Escha stuff, I have not got anything from there so I won't have them in my sets. Also, I don't have everything from high tier battlefields, or from Sinister Reign. I've never really taken my THF too seriously, it's there for TH, and DD, if required. I do pretty well, usually parsing high in most situations. I do not spreadsheet, never have, I just eyeball stats and use what I think is best.

Before I give the gearsets, I use the following daggers: Taming Sari x1 (augments DMG+13 STR +8 DEX +9), Jugo Kukri +1 and Sabebus (B Path Rank 15). Clearly I use Taming/Jugo for easy stuff.. because it's fun. When I finally get a second Taming Sari with decent augs, it will replace Sabebus for accuracy situations.

Vanir Knife and Atoyac are situational. Together they are best for something like Aeolion Edge spam (good for Abyssea). I also used Oynos Knife for a long time as a way to get haste in Dynamis and Salvage, but I no longer need it for Dynamis (trusts), and I rarely do Salvage.

Also, I like to keep space on my THF, so I don't use too many gears compared to say .. my Corsair, which easily fills my inventory. THF is great because you don't need 70+ pieces of gear to make it work in most things. Obviously, any THF should have TH gear, and I only use Plunderer's Armlets +1 and Skulker's Poulaines +1; anymore TH is wasting a slot. Still using Plunderer's Culottes +1 for Feint. And of course, Pillager's Poulaines +1 for Flee, and Jute Boots +1 for movement speed.

ItemSet 339891

Rarely used now because of the change to Dynamis. Really good Dual Wield set for any situation where you have zero buffs. Not many places for it now, but it's good to make one just in case.

I told a returning player not to focus on Empyreans yet, do your Pillager's set first, and get some relics done as well. Do not aim for this right off the bat. (PS: Daggers may be the wrong way around, Jugo will never be in the main hand)

ItemSet 339892

My main TP set for most things now; unless accuracy's an issue. Really good with trusts, and enough dual wield in there to compensate for lack of buffs.

ItemSet 339893

Like an emergency accuracy set, it assumes you don't have buffs (probably because the mob sucks and dispels buffs, or you died etc.) or the mob is stupidly evasive. Either way it's served me well. 1088 primary accuracy before any buffs (using Taming/Sabebus). Could easily boost further by changing the boomerang to Hasty Pinion +1 or Ginsen. Another (max) Taming Sari would help too.

ItemSet 339894

Generally used for party situations in high-tier battlefields (difficult+). Sacrifices some accuracy for multi-attack stuff. Grounded Mantle +1 is a huge boost in that slot. Zennaroi is hard to get because of Incursion, but is really worth it.

ItemSet 339895

I do have a MDT set .. however I feel like if I seriously NEED a MDT set, chances are I'm fighting something too powerful. So I tend to stick to this all-round set, because it's very rare I fight anything which is only magic-based.

Every THF should have a damage taken set for moments of crisis, it's well worth the investment. Get Dark Rings if you don't have defending/vocane.

ItemSet 339897

Solo SA. Usually paired with Feint for TH boosting. +191 DEX with no buffs, and no DEX added from weapons.

ItemSet 339898

Quite a rare abilty these days. Good to use on any PLD, including Trust PLDs. +194 AGI. (Does not include weapons AGI)

ItemSet 339896

Love Rudra's despite the nerf, it's still powerful when linked with Sneak Attack, 1750 TP (w/ Moonshade), and another WS to form darkness. I used to have an Evisceration set for the downtime, but it seems to be lost, so I started using the Rudra's set instead. Not ideal, but (!), it saves space.

ItemSet 339900

A good Aeolion Edge set requires a lot of different gears. Luckily I have Corsair as well so many of these are crossovers. AOE Magical damage is nice for certain situations. Not sure why Vanir Boots are in there .. I probably don't have any MAB feet.

ItemSet 339899

Still a work in progress. Without weapons it comes to 150 DEX and 192 AGI. I need more job points in Mug effect to see how my set fairs.

Augments - When it comes to augments, I tried for certain things, but I also just accepted certain pieces as they were after the first augment. Honestly I cannot remember details, so I'll just post what I got below.

I didn't try too hard to get these, because I knew they would be replaced eventually. I remember trying for Triple Attack on the Taeon, instead of Dual Wield. It's easy to find dual wield these days.

Floral Gauntlets - acc+13 racc+14 triple attack+2 mdt-3
Taeon Tights - HP+48 acc+21 triple attack+2
Taeon Boots - acc+20 att+20 triple attack +2 crit. hit dmg +1
Canny Cape - dex+4 agi+4 dual wield+5 (max DW)
Taming Sari - DMG+13 STR+8 DEX+9
Sabebus - B Path, ACC+10 DEX+7 DMG+3
Iuitl + Buremte - PDT, MDT. (the more the better)
Darkness Earring - PDT -1 (could be -2 but it's RARE)
Manibozho - A path, att+15 acc+10 str+10
Moonshade Earring - TP Bonus +250, att+4
Samnuha Coat - macc+12 mab+12 dual wield +3
Leyline Gloves - acc+15 macc+15 mab+15 fast cast+3
Atoyac - OAT, mab+10

I'm sure these sets could be better if I paid more attention and had gil to upgrade them further, but I got to this point and decided not to sink anymore into it. It's fine for what I do. Hope this helps someone. If you would like an alternative for a particular slot - just ask!

Yeah, I really wish we just had an enthusiastic spreadsheet person jump in and handle it. I have learned some new tricks and had to make changes to a few things, like how set bonuses are checked so that it'll register all versions of Lustratio +1 and Adhemar +1.

If you wouldn't mind sharing any information about set bonuses, I'd sure appreciate it. Working on a new BLU sheet and I have quite a lot to learn.

As far as the discussion about RMEAs go, we really need to see how things play out with the update. It could be very possible that Vajra/Aeneas becomes the new best combination. We really just need to wait and see.

I agree that Vajra should come out the be the best overall damage, for what a THF does, and it has nothing to do with AM3. THF is one of those jobs that close's powerful SC's with one of it's two powerful closing WS's. Rudra's for Darkness off a Gravitation or Darkness WS, and Mandalic for light off a Fragmentation WS. The 30% damage increase on SA/TA play into this pretty well along with the fact that it also boosts Mandalic by 30% which then puts Mandalic on par or slightly stronger then Rudras when being the closer.

This really isn't about spamming your WS macro as often as it comes up, outside of a few situations we just don't play that way anymore. Even doing Vex + Attunment melee strategies, we still build around using SC's to maximize and THF is one of the strongest SC closers in the game.

What was
became
To clarify the variables,
- J107 is referencing the TP set (TPSet1Gear)
- A122 is referencing the armor set name (Lustratio +1), and has a wild card for whatever follows that (so blank, A, B, C, D will all register together).
- B122 is there as a slot for set bonuses using two differently named pieces (like Bladeborn/Steelflash), but generally unused. I left it in the formula so it'd be easier to add more set bonus items if they make any new ones.

Looking through the BLU spreadsheet, it should be easy enough to incorporate it, just make sure the variables are set right. The $ ensures that it won't change the value if you copy it to other cells (ie: $A will force A122 to not become B122 if you copy it to the next cell).

Do you mean how much the set bonuses give or how to set them in the spread sheets, because the devs flat out said what the set bonuses are. They are all on BG wiki if anyone is interested. Lustratio +1 and Adhemar +1 are both 2% per piece as long as there are at least 2.

I agree, the WS updates shifted the main source of our damage to the WSs and subsequently, the SCs. This is the reason why Mandau has fallen drastically, while Vajra has come out well ahead of other daggers.

Rudras isn't your only WS and focusing only on it is doing THF a great disservice. THF is extremely lucky in that it has a fairly powerful scalable WS in every major T2 SC category. This enables THF to SC with anyone and because of how SA / TA work the THF doesn't need to worry about the WS "missing" and suffering from Fudo Syndrome.

Fragmentation: Shark Bite (after update it's pretty damn powerful)
Fusion: Mandalic Stab (technically stronger then Rudras if possessing a Mythic)
Distortion: Rudra's
Gravitation: Evisceration

Also mean's a THF could do any solo SC they want, assuming they had proper Haste and some Store TP (seriously invest in this ***, it's awesome). They could even do a 3 ~ 6 step single light or double dark. This is something that a Mythic with AM3 really helps with. As a Tizona user this is where I feel it the most, not in making big CDC numbers or in hitting hard but in getting TP so fast I can chain lights or darkness's with myself. My Emp and Mythic WS's share the same T2 category, Distortion, which really limits my SC options because while my Fragmentation WS, Savage Blade, is pretty powerful my Gravitation WS, Requiescat sucks horribly most of the time. My Emp WS's T3 property, Light, is on a separate path from it's T2 proprety which, with my lack of a Fusion linker, makes it impossible for me to do 3+ step solo SC's. I'm forced to wait on my PLD to get enough TP to use their Atonement as a linker for Expacion (BLU AM3 activate) -> Atonement (PLD) -> Savage Blade (BLU) -> CDC (BLU) for a four step double light. THF's don't have to do this, providing they build their TP sets around getting TP as fast as possible.

Example of some very powerful non-Rudra's SC's

Savage Blade -> Mandalic (PLD/COR/WAR/BLU/RUN -> THF)
Mandalic -> TrueFlight (THF -> RNG with Maliase + Accumen, reverse if not using these)
Mandalic -> Cloudsplitter (THF -> WAR with Maliase + Accumen, reverse if not using these)
Resolution -> Mandalic (WAR/DRK/RUN -> THF)
Sharkbite -> Mandalic (THF -> THF)
Kings Justice / Ukko's Fury -> Mandalic (WAR -> THF)
Shoha -> Mandalic (SAM -> THF)

Scyth and Polearm seem mostly based around darkness along with Leaden Salute, Wildfire and CDC.

We can see THF has such powerful SC options to do high damage, accurate skillchains either as the high fTP closer for physical ones or has a highly accurate opener for magic boosted ones. Lets not get lost in "Rudras spam" spreadsheets that completely ignore the importance of skillchains.

I find when I'm skillchaining with people who work well together my skillchain damage will overtake my own damage in scoreboard. Was doing a cp party on apex whatever the other name for crawler is. Party was thf, nin, and dnc we did shun > evis > PK > rudra's and then the nin would MB and shun again if there was some hp left. It was lots of fun.

Was with a group last night on bats, PLD + Mythic THF SC team with GEO + BLM (me) + RDM (healer) + SCH (friend). They were doing Savage Blade -> Mandalic Stab on Crabs and Bats, was ridiculous how much damage MS would do, even on the crabs, with no melee buffs at all. Mandalic's attack bonus really shines in situations where the THF isn't getting Fury + Frailty. Those targets are also pretty weak to light/fire/thunder damage so the SC was doing a lot more then the closing WS.

Just tacking on to your post about useful skillchains. If your tank is a run Dimidation is also frag and works great to open for MS.

Just to add to Saevel's list, my usual go to combo with my Vajra partner is: Expiacion(AM)/CDC -> Mandalic stab -> Savage blade -> CDC a pretty decent double light. Not sure if possible to end with Mandalic Stab though. :/

With PLD included we do Swift blade -> Expiacion -> Rudra storm.

You would have to forgo activating your AM3 to do it.

Requiescat -> Savage Blade -> Mandalic Stab -> CDC

Another one would be

Expacion (AM3 on) -> Mandalic Stab (AM3 on) -> Requiescat -> Savage Blade -> Mandalic Stab -> CDC

Basically your walking the T2's from Distortion -> Fusion -> Gravitation -> Fragmentation -> Light -> Light #2

Take care though, the timing on the 5th and 6th WS is very tight. Your going to want to be on some sort of voice chat to coordinate this. You can include the PLD by having them do the Requiescat. It will give both the BLU and the THF time to build up to 2000+ TP for really big WS's where it counts and should kill or nearly kill almost anything.

Expacion/CDC (AM3 on) -> Mandalic Stab (AM3 on) -> Requiescat (PLD) -> Savage Blade (2000+ TP) -> Mandalic Stab (2000+ TP) -> CDC (just cause)

And yes guys, Fusion is ~that~ amazing for many jobs as a linker. This games full of powerful Fragmentation, Distortion and Gravitation weaponskills but woefully short on Fusion.

Does anyone have an updated spreadsheet up that's willing to share?

I think the harder part of skillchaining is convincing people it's a better option then just trying to ws as fast as possible. And all you need is one person to not be on board to *** up everyone else.

As always, Jeanpaul, you were incredibly helpful. Those changes to the sheet work like a charm.

So noob question here: what is better for Assasin's Charge SAws?
39STR + 40DEX versus 12STR + 27DEX + Triple attack damage +7?

In short Lustratio Leggings versus Plunderer's poulaines +1.

I have no idea how to factor in Triple attack damage. If it matters I do have 20/20 in job point: 'Triple attack effect'.

And the I have the same question for Assasin's Charge TAws.

12STR + 24DEX + AGI44
Skulker's Poulaines +1.

versus

12STR + 27DEX + AGI37 + Triple attack damage +7?
Plunderer's poulaines +1.

So I understand that this guide is no longer being updated, but I was wondering if anyone else might have some sets that they can share with me. I quit a couple years ago and am just now returning to this game to try out the new content. That being said a LOT has changed.

I have a lvl 99 Mandau as my main hand, which I've been told I will need to upgrade in order to have it up to par, which is fine. My current off hand is a daka so...Will need a new offhand entirely. I'm also looking for a TP set, Evis set, and a mercy stroke set. I need to tweak my evasion set as well, but that one will probably be easier to figure out. =D

Okay so I've flipped through the last few pages and I've got a few things to go after down. I'm still searching for a good Evis set and Mercy Stroke set tho - Anyone got one?

I haven't seen any reference to either MS or Evisc lately, so consider this a wild guess at gear you might want to go after (and even more, an excuse to bump the thread for good health!)

For stacked MS:

ItemSet 340357

B Path Adhemar, A Path Lustratio, +STR +Acc/Atk +WSdmg Herculean, +3 Crit dmg Canny.

Unstacked, I'd consider seething bomblet +1 in place of Yetshila, Lustratio Cap in place of Adhemar and Bukuwik Cape in place of Canny Cape.

For stacked Evisc:

ItemSet 340358

Awesome =D Thanks man =)