Thief (Final Fantasy XI)

Thief is one of six jobs available to all players when they create a character in Final Fantasy XI. Thieves excel at "spike damage" since they get abilities like Sneak Attack and Trick Attack which can be combined with a weapon skill for massive damage while their normal attacks are noticeably quicker but weaker than other damage dealers.
They have a high rating in the use of daggers and can use swords with moderate effectiveness. They also have an A+ rating in evasion and A- rating in parrying on top of a passive evasion bonus to make them difficult targets to hit and make up for their light armor.
Thieves, of course, gain abilities like Gilfinder, Treasure Hunter, Steal, and Mug and special abilities like Hide for stealth. Thieves are also the only job that have the job ability Flee.
==Becoming a Thief==
Thief is one of the six basic jobs, as such, players can choose to become a thief at any time. If they choose to start the game as a thief, they will be given an onion knife in addition to the adventurer certificate and national ring (if applicable).
==Abilities==
For a more in-depth description, see the Thief abilities page
===Job abilities===
Job Ability	Level	Recast 	Duration	Description
 	1 	1:00:00	0:00:30 	Allows you to dodge all melee attacks.
 	5 	0:05:00	— 	Steals items from an enemy.
 	15 	0:01:00	0:01:00 	Allows your next melee attack to deal extra damage when striking an enemy from behind.
 	25 	0:05:00	0:00:30 	Increases movement speed for the duration of the effect.
 	30 	0:01:00	0:01:00 	Allows your next melee attack to deal extra damage when striking an enemy from behind a party member.
 	35 	0:05:00	— 	Steals gil from an enemy.
 	45 	0:05:00	Varies 	Allows you to evade enemies by hiding.
 	65 	0:05:00	— 	Steals 50% of the target party member's enmity and redirects it to the thief.
 	65 	0:05:00	— 	Steals 25% of the target party member's enmity and redirects it to the thief.
 	 	0:05:00	0:01:00 	Will triple your next attack.
 	 	0:02:00	0:01:00 	Your next attack will greatly reduce an enemy's evasion.
 	77 	0:05:00	— 	Steals items from an enemy while inflicting a status ailment upon it.
 	87 	0:05:00	0:01:00 	Enhances accuracy and "Subtle Blow" effect for party members within area of effect. Does not affect the party member being targeted by the enemy.
 	93 	0:03:00	0:00:30 	Intimidates target.
 	96 	1:00:00	— 	Steals one beneficial effect from the target enemy.
===Job traits===
Job Trait	Levels 	Tier 	Description
 	5 	I 	Multiplies amount of gil enemies drop.
 	10 / 30 / 50 / 70 / 86 / 99	IV 	Improves evasion against physical attacks.
 	15 / 45 / 90 	III 	Increases chance of getting treasure.
 	20 / 40 / 60 / 75 / 81 	V 	Gives you a slight resistance against weight.
 	55 / 96 	II 	May triple your attacks
 	60 	I 	Improves the Trick Attack Ability
 	 	Varies	Grants an accuracy bonus to melee and ranged attacks from behind an enemy.
 	 	Varies	Add a Dispel effect to Steal. Occasionally absorbs dispelled effect
 	78 / 84 / 91 / 98 	IV 	Improves power of critical hits.
 	83 / 90 / 98 	III 	Allows you to equip two weapons.
===Skill ratings===
Combat Skill	Rank	Caps by Level	Caps by Level
Combat Skill	Rank	49 	99
Hand-to-Hand	E 	124 	300
Dagger 	A+ 	150 	424
Sword 	D 	124 	334
Club 	E 	124 	300
Archery 	C- 	139 	368
Marksmanship	C+ 	139 	378
Throwing 	D 	133 	334
Evasion 	A+ 	150 	424
Parrying 	A- 	150 	417
Shield 	F 	114 	265
==Gameplay==
Thieves are uniquely useful, their abilities range from out of combat uses to utilizing their massive speed and agility to gain the upper hand in battle. Their utility with treasure hunter is used to increase the likelihood of getting a rare drop.
===Strengths===
*Thieves create good spike damage with the use of Sneak Attack.
*Thieves help control enmity among party members with Trick Attack.
*Thieves have the best attack rating with daggers.
*Thieves are sought after for a lot of special events where rare items may be found.
*Thieves have the highest potential of Evasion in the whole game.
===Weaknesses===
*Compared with other damage dealing jobs, Thieves, on average, deal less damage and are correspondingly not sought after for direct damage jobs.
*Thieves have mediocre Defense and Vitality characteristics and moderate hit point totals, which sometimes hurts their survival.
*Thieves have the lowest Charisma of all jobs. Ironically, they have the weapon skill Dancing Edge, which gets more powerful with the more charisma the character has.
==Support Jobs==
===Ninja===
Thieves, almost without exception, subjob Ninja from level 33 to the end of the game. Many even pick up the subjob at level 20 when they first get access to Dual Wield. Since thieves have a myriad of ranged attack options, they are often chosen as pullers for the party. Utsusemi will help negate attacks while bringing the enemy back to the party and the Dual Wield characteristic will allow them to build TP quicker.
===Warrior===
Prior to level 20, Warrior is often used as a subjob for Thief. This is due mostly to their physical attributes aiding to dealing physical damage. Other than statistical bonuses, the advantages offered by Warrior are relatively few because by the time it starts becoming more advantageous, most Thieves will have moved on to Ninja and for generally good reason.
===Monk===
Thieves have an acceptable hand to hand combat rating. Since Combo, a low level weapon skill can be combined with Sneak Attack, this is one of the highest damage subjobs to use up to level 33. The Monk's high HP as a subjob will also help some of the moderate Thief defense.
===Ranger===
Ranger is an uncommon subjob choice, but viable for a couple of different circumstances. The first of which would be for camping creatures with a wide spawn range, where the use of Wide Scan would be useful for tracking down the prey. Perhaps less commonly, some Thieves who take up a ranged capacity will want to use Ranger in order to take advantage of Rapid Shot, Barrage, and Accuracy Bonuses as well as capitalizing on the Ranger's ability to do ranged weapon skills.
===Dancer===
For melee-jobs, Dancers are a very reliable subjob, due to the fact they can heal themselves only with the use of TP, which build up after every hit. Thieves, with their fast attacking daggers, and high evasion can store TP in a very fast time. The battles against the monsters will take some more time, because of using the TP to heal, instead of using it for a weapon skill, but it's a very safe way to fight.
==Other appearances==
===Final Fantasy Trading Card Game===
The Thief appears with wind-elemental cards.
Thief XI TCG.png|Trading card.
Thief2 XI TCG.png|Trading card.
===Final Fantasy Portal App===
Thief appears as a Triple Triad card.
==Gallery==
Thief Concept.jpg|Thief concept art.
Thief FFXI Ikeda Icon.png|Promotional artwork of the Thief by Yuzuki Ikeda.
Mithra THF (FFXI).png|A Mithra Thief in Artifact Armor.
Category:Jobs in Final Fantasy XI