A Thief's Guide to Maat

Please do not edit this guide 
without my permission and post it instead on the talk page. Thank you! 
--Nelka 14:03, January 5, 2014 (UTC)
I am Nelka on Cerberus. I am currently a level 99 Mithran Red Mage, 99 Mithran Dancer, and 99 Corsair. I have been playing as a Mithran Red Mage since
 I started the game back in Summer 2009 and it is currently my main job.
 I have done Red Mage Maat and was 1/10 on him before I won 
successfully. I also want to make a note that this fight was done after the addition of the Seekers of Adoulin expansion and hence why I will add a few extras pertaining to those whom have come into things after the expansion. 
I have recently taken up Thief as a help with the new expansion and I have compiled this guide based on my experiences. 
I do realize that there is a compiled guide for this particular fight. As I have said before, I
 am writing this one in honor of other thieves and giving suggestions 
that might help anyone who is stuck or needs encouragement to keep 
trying this fight. 
I will say to those who are thinking about giving up because of 
losing, please know that it can sometimes take time and persistence to 
get through the fight. I am 1/10 on Red Mage Maat myself and Red Mage 
Maat resists magic spells even more than Maat resists melee hits. At least, you have a lot of chances to land hits on Maat provided that this is not your first Maat fight. If it is your first Maat fight, you may be able to stack on Steal gear and win by stealing a scroll of instant warp. :) All I am trying to say is DON'T Give Up! 
== Notes about Thief: ==
Thief is an interesting job to solo and survive on due to its very nature of being a hate control tactic yet unable to heal itself for the most part. If you need help with Thief, please look to the the main Thief job page. 
If you are in need of other guides for this same fight, please look on the bottom of the main Thief page.
== Assumptions to be made about this Guide ==
This guide is being written as a guide strictly for the thief Maat fight. I am also including the new expansion changes that would be a benefit to this fight. 
I specifically 
chose not to wait until level 75 to attempt this fight and am attempting it at level 70, since this is my honor code when it comes to taking up jobs towards level 99. 
I am also writing this guide based on what strategy I used for the fight and am 1/1 on level 70 Thief on January 5, 2014 with a time of 4 minutes 59 seconds. I also have evasion fully capped for my level 70 Thief plus fully capped
Evasion Merits. 
== Assumptions about Maat ==
* Maat likes to cheat and use Asuran Fists when he really should be reflecting whatever job you are facing him on. 
* Maat can use Asuran Fists at level 66 even though in theory it should be impossible for him to do so. I have seen this happen to me on my Red Mage. 
== Observations on the fight after the fight ==
* Maat can use Perfect Dodge at any point in the battle. In my fight, he used it around the 50% health mark. The best strategy is to use Perfect Dodge right after he does or delay yours by 10 to 30 seconds if you can help it. This way your Perfect Dodge will wear after his does.
* The successful timing of the skillchain is not crucial to this battle if you come prepared. While it is recommended to time that skillchain out, you can still win without pulling off that skillchain. 
* You want to bring that Icarus Wing with you so you can get in an extra weaponskill.
* You can get the win while you build up for that last weaponskill. if your regular hits get Maat into the area where he gives up. I won 
the fight at the end while I was doing regular hits on him before I 
could weaponskill again. 
* Dagger skill needs to be high enough for you to use Dancing Edge, which is dagger skill level 200.
* Making macros and macro'ing in your gear swaps (both in and back out again) really helps make this fight much faster.
* Keep your health up above 600 to avoid getting killed by his various weaponskills. 
* You want to be capped in Evasion skill and Dagger skill before the fight if you can help it. Parrying skill being capped is not 
necessary to the fight, even though if you can cap it-it would be an extra plus. 
== DD Thief ==
For this fight, you have to consider yourself a damage dealer for the entire fight. This means that you need to pull off as much damage as quickly as possible. You also want to consider taking in a Regen item to help
 you keep up health as well as Hi-Potions, so that you can keep your TP 
strictly for weaponskills. The goal with this fight is to
 get in as many weaponskills as possible before Maat kills you while 
keeping yourself alive.
== Gear ==
Note: You do not 
need to go with the HQ's in order to have a successful fight. You want 
to be reasonably well geared, but getting yourself broke just for this 
fight is not good. Here is the gear I used for mine and none of the 
items individually cost over 50k, except for the Scorpion Harness +1 
(which on my server is 100k and the NQ is well below 50k) which can get pricey depending on your server's prices. I also had the Scorpion Harness +1 already from my Red Mage Melee, so I carry it 
over to my Thief as well. The only gear you really do need is the 
Behemoth Knife because it is the highest damage dagger you can get for 
the fight for level 70; however, the NQ will work just as good as the 
HQ.
Main Hand: Behemoth Knife
Neck: Peacock Charm (just in case needed)
Main Neck: Chivalrous Chain 
Head: Blink Band (for the evasion and defense); Empress Hairpin (just in case needed) 
Body: Scorpion Harness +1 
Hands: Jaridah Bazubands 
Legs: Jaridah Salvars
Feet: Emissary Boots
Ear1 and Ear2: Dodge Earring
Rings: 1 Fluorite Ring, 1 Tiger Ring 
Back: Boxer's Mantle
Waist:
== Consummable Items ==
Thief's Testimony 
8 Hi-Potions (If individual potions cost more than 1k a pop, then try to get a Hi-Potion Tank and completely deplete the tank before the fight. Just remember to npc the empty tank to get some gil back.) 
* Side Note: You could also quest a lot of Soothing Potions for this fight instead of the Hi-Potions, but they are a bit harder to get even though they restore 250HP instantly instead of 100. 
Sole Sushi - I used this for the accuracy this food gives.
* Side Note: You could use the Coalition Potions as well instead of Hi-Potions depending on your circumstances. The main point is for an instant heal that recovers a minimum of 100HP that you can spam to prevent from dying during the fight.
* Side Note: Sole Sushi and other sushi does have a Resist Sleep trait attached, eat after you get the TP not before.
Persikos au Lait - this is the Regen item and it will last you the whole fight so only one is necessary.
1 Icarus Wing - this is critical because it will instantly give you 1000TP. It also causes a medicated status effect that lasts at least 2 hours, so you will not be able to use any other medicated items in this fight.
Instant Reraise
Vile Elixir - this is the emergency last cure should you be dying and need a lot of health faster than spamming Hi-Potions can do
Scroll of Instant Stoneskin
Scroll of Instant Protect
Scroll of Instant Shell
2 Coalition Potion (just in case)
I chose not to use the optional items listed below to buff before the
 fight with, but these can be used if you so choose. You can win the 
fight without using any of the optional buffs. 
Optional buff items to use: Blink Band 
Note with Seekers of Adoulin items: The Seekers of Adoulin
 expansion added that you can now get buy certain consumable items with 
bayld at 1k a piece that can be useful for this fight. The consumable 
items that you can get that might help with this particular fight are: Scroll of Instant Stoneskin (which can be used instead of the stoneskin torque), Scroll of Protect, and Coalition Potions (which are 2.5k bayld a piece). 
== Strategy for the Fight ==
* Before you even go to the fight, make sure you have all of your gear figured out and all macro's planned out and working. 
* Maat will NOT teleport you to the BC area if you have successfully completed another G5/Limit Break fight. If this is your first G5/Limit break fight, he will teleport you over to the BC area. 
* In my case, I chose a fast fight and still slept for the TP. Here is what I did during the fight:
# Farmed the Thief's Testimony and traded it to Maat.
# Watched the CS after trading him the testimony.
# Chose the "I'm Ready" option and you will be teleported to the BC area.
# Entered the BCNM and watched the CS.
# Used Instant Reraise, Persikos au Lait, Instant Stoneskin, Blink Band, Instant Protect, Instant Shell. I then put on my Opo-opo Necklace and used a Mary's Milk. I partially got dressed in my gear while waiting for the TP to tic up. Once the Mary's Milk wore off, I popped a second Mary's Milk and slept until my TP was 1000. I ate the Sole Sushi afterwards. Made sure I had on all of my TPing gear on.
# I activated Sneak Attack and walked up to Maat from behind and attacked him first.
# I used Dancing Edge since I had the 1000 TP. 
# I kept hitting Maat with my dagger until he popped Perfect Dodge. Wait 15 seconds and use Perfect Dodge. 
# Once Perfect Dodge wore on Maat, I popped an Icarus Wing and used Dancing Edge again. I kept meleeing him until he gave up. 
# Keep healing yourself with the Hi-Potions and any other healing items as needed to keep yourself alive. Only use the Vile Elixir if you are in immediate danger of dying. 
# When you win the fight, you will obtain a Warp Scroll so you can easily get away from the BCNM area back to where you have your Home 
Point at. (Having a Warp Ring isn't a bad idea just in case Maat forgets to give you a warp scroll.) 
== Conclusion ==
I found this fight much easier, at level 70, than Red Mage Maat was. 
 I was never in a panic at any time during this fight. I had a much 
shorter time with this fight than Maat. 
Maat never landed a hit on me during this fight so the blink band almost became useless because he only took out one shadow. I never needed to use the potions I had on hand. 
Also, the major change that the Testimonies can be used up to 3 times before you must farm
 a new one. This should help for those who have not yet won a G5 fight 
as well. 
I wish you all the best as you attempt this fight!