For The Shinies! A Guide For Thief

Gashing bolt is acid bolt's upgrade and yes it can be very useful. The best crossbow thief can use is tsoabichi crossbow.

Bloody bolts don't proc like they used to on ilvl mobs but are still something I always carry with me and have saved my skin more than a few times.

There's not ilvl blind bolts either, for some reason SE doesn't want to add these.

Thief can also use last stand and it's situationally useful as well and I have a set for it. You can also use donar gun for this but its Marksmanship skill +228 makes me not use it.

Meghanada +1 gear has made easy access to a good accuracy ranged set very easy for thief so no reason not to have it at this point I'd say.

yes, tho you might get more mileage out of other setups. If you don't have twash, taming is a good offhand for accuracy, but in my spreadsheeting and in game tests offhanding a near perfect skinflayer or shijo path A will get me more overall dps (though the difference in either case is not a ton, it's nice to know you can edge out a bit more dps in low acc situations as well as you the flee proc passive), shijo's lower delay over skinflayer and taming with some of the relevant stat boosts is underrated by most thf. If you really need acc you can also offhand sandung with augments.

A little out of date on this guide =/ no one cares to catch it up at all?

Mug+ on relic doesn't increase hp stolen right?

How about despoil+ increase tp stolen?

No "real" reason to have any of the af relic or emp 119'd? Even sa+ and ta+ on respective hands get outdone by Meghanada?

Ambuscade capes; dex acc/att... stp tp, wsd stacked, crit+ evis, 3 capes?

Lustrio Feet D? Lustrio Legs B?

Odium be worth it for tehlulz soloing salvage/limbus?

Artifact feet for flee macro (really convenient)

Relic hat If you have aura steal, but no
Relic hands for perfect dodge duration
Relic legs needed for feint macro for eva-

Empy hat holds up well but isnt a needed piece
Empy body for conspirator macro (gives person with hate the acc+)
Empy feet have crazy high evasion+

(Personally i carry af feet, relic hands&legs, empy body&feet)

For mug hp drain you just wanna stack highest combo possible of dex+agi

Ambuscade capes:
(Clearly this is over-anal, just adressing everything)
Rudra dex30 aa20 wsd10
Evis dex30 aa20 crit10
Tp dex20 acc30att20 sttp10
A.edge int30 macc20 wsd10 (rudra cape almost as good)
Extenterator agi30 aa20 da10
Mercy stroke str30 aa20 Wsd10
/dnc waltz chr30 evameva20 waltz10
/nin utsusemi & /run spells agi20 eva30meva20 fastcast10

Could bring it up on the official forum again. It might actually get the devs attention this time now that Sicycre is one of the community reps. I would bring it up myself if I weren't permabanned.

Has anybody done any testing on Despoil gear? I'm wondering if it affects the amount of TP you get (with JP).

It does not. You can easily test it by fighting something that does not use tp moves like a reive. 20/20 job points on a reive with 3000 tp gives 1200 tp from despoil. Empy legs and feet didn't do a thing.

So best for rudra's ws is wsd instead of crit rate and storetp instead of da for tp?

While rules of thumb are good and all, amounts will still matter. I'd take 100% DA over 1 STP, I'm sure you would too. You really need to spreadsheet to know where the lines fall to be honest as it changes depending on the rest of your gear. Ambu cape for THF it's safe to bet on both of those being true yes, though crit dmg isn't an aug.

lol Mercy Stroke cape

I do hp/eva/30 mageva/fast cast for my Utsu/run cape, it also doubles for my mag eva set and evasion is nigh useless in the current game.

Got enough to make a third thf ambuscade cape but not sure what to make. Any suggestions? Aside from one with crit rate for Evis. Currently I have:

1) DEX+20 ACC+20 ATK+20 STP+10
2) DEX+20 ACC+20 ATK+20 WSDMG+10

Alright guys I haven't played THF in forever but my LS will be doing Erinys this weekend and I normally play DD COR or BLU for HELMs but we already have a rolls only COR that comes so it didn't make sense for me to come COR/thf and SA Savage Blade when I figured I could at-least gear THF up to do more for us...

With that said my Stacked RS set is from yesteryear but I have a lot of gear and Abjs laying around so I was trying to come up with a new set.

This what I came up with.
ItemSet 347002

I have 0 plans to start augmenting Herc gear for one NM on a job I don't really touch anymore but would like some opinions if you can think of anything not super expensive (Jinxed/Voodoo).

Taming Sari: Max
Head: Path B
Back: 20 DEX/ATT 10% WSD%
Rings are correct only have 1 HQ.
Legs Path B or D? Is there another option I am over looking?
Feet: Herculean Boots", augments={'Attack+29','Weapon skill damage +4%','STR+9','Accuracy+11',}}
These are my SB/Expiacion feet :/)

• Should I make Lustratio Leggings instead? or or am I not thinking of something else?
  I do own a Abnoba Kaftan if that is better for body. Nvm just looked at the stats its defiantly not better!
  Should I use a NQ Mache earring instead of the WSD 2% one? Waist/Neck?
  Are the Emp hands +1 still relevant for SA? IIRC the bonus is kinda weak cause the way the bonus is applied.
  Will have a Ghorn BRD no Aeonic and Idris GEO for Fraility/Fury but I doubt will be capping pDif the while fight esp once Bolster Wears.

Thanks! Normally I would spreadsheet this myself but mine is from forever ago if there is even a new one these days and also I am probably forgetting about some pieces of gear that would be good for a stacked set.

If you can find one for cheap, an NQ Yetshila will probably be a bit better. Ishvara will likely beat out an NQ Mache. If you can pick up another HQ Ramuh, that'd be the only accessory boost, outside of perhaps Karieyh ring, which is fairly niche.

For the legs, path D will usually beat B when not capping pDif, but B pulls ahead when you are. Outside of DEX/crit damage Herc hands (even an excellent pair barely trump Meghanada) or feet, you're pretty set. IF you do change your mind and try to make some DEX/crit damage pieces, just know that they're also fantastic for your BLU, as well.

Overall, barely any changes I'd make. Solid set.

Oh I know they are great for BLU and I do regularly try to make some. So far all aug attempts have been trash compared to what I am already using in those slots sadly. I just didn't wanna bum rush a ***ton of aug trys in a few days. Still making dagger and back for it to this week. Dagger is almost done and amb is easy this month so won;t take to long.

As for the Ammo i was thinking my choice would be better since I didn't plan to melee at all and I get 3 att at-least both are 5% crit DMG.

That is what I was thinking also on the legs. I probably going with the one not capping pDif.

I could have sworn Qirmiz was only 3%, very sorry for the misinformation. Yeah, it's a better choice for you, then.

Yeah, Herc augmenting is a horrific process, I don't blame you at all. Your set will do just fine for an Erinys fight, so I don't think you need to worry.

Pretty much made the same capes as you Kylos except I pushed further with the Dyes:

TP Cape: DEX+30 ACC+20 ATK+20 STP+10
WS Cape: DEX+30 ACC+20 ATK+20 WSDMG+10

Worth the extra 10 DEX on each.

As for Mercy Stroke, great weapon skill when using it at 100% tp imo. If you have 150% or more TP, use rudra's or mandalic depending on the mob.

Mandalic only competes with Rudra's if you're lacking attack buffs or have Vajra.

And there's basically no such thing as WSing at 1000% TP. Moonshade makes it 1250 base and our multi-attacks usually have us closer to 1300-1400 anyway, so Rudra's > Mercy Stroke. Mandau is only useful in a fight where you'd be amnesia locked for long periods of time because it'll out white damage if you can get aftermath up. Aside from then, I'd take a Taming Sari over it.

Not to mention Evisceration with a proper set can average better than Mercy Stroke for gravitation usage.

AG Mandau performs substantially better than a Taming Sari. It's the cost and lack of real advantages over the other 3 big daggers give it a bad rep.

Mandau will out white damage Twashtar, since when?

Since, always? Mandau's ONLY upside was the amazing white damage. With the emp aftermath changes, idk if it's always true anymore, and the game's state white damage doesn't matter anymore. So it kinda doesn't matter.

Not sure I agree. STR/DEX+22 is very significant and will overshadow Mandau aftermath if you're sacrificing WS damage to keep it up. Then you have 3% more triple attack, accuracy for both daggers not just mainhand for Mandau, and over half of Mandau's attack as well. Then other attributes for a minor amount of defenses, some AGI for Exenterator/Trick Attack and I'm not seeing Mandau winning by much, if at all (And I don't think it wins)


Aftermath Mandau has 13% triple damage rate(first strike on mainhand only), 5% crit rate and 5% crit damage

Aftermath Twashtar has 50% triple damage(first strike on mainhand only) if you can get 3k TP up in this not-likely-ever-happening scenario.

So I'd imagine it would be close, but attack+60 also helps for Mandau.

Not sure if you meant it this way but relics occ damage is not related to aftermath. people will get confused and you'll have to post 5 times with pictures to get people to understand.

Yeah, I meant to type Afterglow, not aftermath, but whatever.

Not sure if this is deliberate or not but you can offhand Fusetto and still get the bonus.

Going to take a wild guess and say it's the way itemsets work. They often flip weapons around.

Empy AM applies to additional hits of that weapon as well; except Vere (first hit of second hand only).

They really need to change relic to have the triple dmg proc affect all hits of the main over just the initial hit. That would make relics a lot more attractive. I keep stressing that the triple dmg proc should also apply to WS but that probably would be a bit too far.

Yes and Boost relic 1handers to quad dmg as well and 2handers to 3x would be somewhat nicer. Mabey give mercy stroke +50%-60% dmg or would it still be meh.

Yeah Mercy needs a better ftp to make relic truly viable for THF. It's even better to use evisceration because Evisc > Rudra > Rudra is going to be more damage than Mercy > Rudra.

What is the best offhand for thf for end game? Currently, in my opinion, Mandau + Jugo Kukri +1 are the best dps for low/mid level mobs while end game I use Sandung fully augmented. Is Shijo fully augmented a better option? I try to mainly keep delay in mind but from what I hear that Thwashtar is the best off hand (350 million gil for just DEX and low delay just seems eh to me).

Any other 2nd opinions? Also, Adhemar head vs Lilitu Headpiece for stacked WS?

Lastly, Ambuscade Legs +1 vs Lustario Legs? Here is WS build for reference:

http://www.ffxiah.com/members/item-sets?id=259841

Call me crazy but I feel Mandau is a in a fine place for its cost/time investment vs the other 3 ultimate daggers, it's the cheapest and performs on the whole the worst, makes sense to me. And no, Aeonic isn't free it's either a lot of work or a 400m merc.

Twashtar hands down. Jugo was good when it was released but there's other non RMEA options that supercede it now in dps. This has been checked by multiple people on the THF spreadsheets. I made a post earlier on offhands on this very page.

Lilitu isn't that great definitely Adhemar.

Lustratio +1 > Very well Augmented Herc > NQ Lustratio >>> Ambu legs, the triple attack won't help much at all for stacked ws.