Thief Guide by Falaras

Work in Progress, this guide is just starting!
= Why Thief? =
= Leveling Tips =
* Crossbow is your best friend, in most party situations you will want to just be spamming ranged attacks like you're a Ranger, they do so much more damage than smacking the enemy with a dagger/sword. 
** The first bolt that Thief gets is level 10, don't be fooled by Crossbow Bolts saying they can be equipped by Thf, they cannot.
** Bolt progression is Blind (10) > Acid (15) > Venom (25). Sadly Thf doesn't get the higher level bolts. 
* Use a Sword main hand 1-33, Fast Blade is a very strong weapon skill and when stacked with Sneak Attack can make Thf one of the best low level DPS jobs. Also swords just in general have really good stat lines, for example Centurions Sword at 30 has bonus accuracy/attack.
* Use a dagger main hand 33+, Viper Bite is crazy powerful for the level and is one of the reasons Thf is such a power house at the Zi'Tah camp. 
* Thief is a gear intensive job, most DD can get away with single gear sets while leveling that just stack accuracy and attack. Thief cannot do this because you will want separate sets for Sneak Attack (DEX), Trick Attack (AGI), TP (Accuracy), and Ranged Attack (Ranged Accuracy).
** Thief gets a real bad rap on Eden because it takes more effort to do well on Thief. Please do not be the guy that full times Drone Earrings or DEX rings, these items are only good for specific things and using these items in the wrong sets will just tank your damage.
** In a similar note don't get tied up by fancy rare items and ignore large upgrades. It is not uncommon at all to see new Thf's running around with Leaping Boots or Emperor Hairpin but no money to buy Life Belt or Sniper's Rings. Get the basics first before you start buying the high price items. 
* Getting party members to operate correctly around your Sneak Attack/Trick Attacks can just be too much of a chore sometimes. In many situations it is worth just getting the weapon skill out faster than chasing people around and trying to get the perfect setup. You may remember from era people using first provokes to setup for massive SATA's on the tank, this is not the meta on Eden and is a waste of time.
Perfect Dodge (1) - Dodges all incoming melee attacks for 30 seconds, 2:00:00 recast.
This 2 hour is a really powerful "oh shit" button, greatly increasing your survivability in a pinch. It allows you to dodge any and all melee attacks as well as physical melee weapon skills flat out for 30 seconds, making you essentially invincible to enemies that only perform those moves. What this ability does not do is protect you from ranged attacks and spells at all. It's important to know what tools your enemy has to get optimal use out of this, you don't want to pop this on a Ranger pop at 100 HP and then he just draws his bow and 1 taps you. 
Steal (5) - Steals an item from an enemy. 5:00 recast.
This ability grants you a chance to steal from enemies, with each enemy either having a set stealable item or no stealable item at all. The rate of steal success is based on your level against the mobs level, then for every +steal equipment piece you use you gain +2% chance for a successful steal. Common uses are stealing beastcoins from beastmen type mobs or dynamis currency from non-statue mobs in dynamis.
Sneak Attack (15) - Empowers your next melee attack when striking behind the mob (or in hide). Lasts 1 Minute or until the next swing, 1:00 recast.
This ability is probably the hallmark ability for Thief, most of your damage and play patterns will come from positioning for Sneak Attack. How Sneak Attack functions is that when you are behind the mob it:
# Forces your next hit to critical strike, regardless of if the hit can naturally critical strike (such as certain weapon skills).
# Forces your next hit to be 100% accurate, you cannot miss this attack nor the offhand hit of the attack if you are dual wielding
# Adds extra weapon damage to the hit, 1 base damage per DEX you have when performing the Sneak Attack, this is added after FTP in the damage calculation.
With all this in mind, Sneak Attack is a massive damage boost to your next hit performed. It is especially powerful when stacked on top of a weapon skill, and even more so when the weapon skill cannot naturally critical hit like Viper Bite, Fast Blade, or Dancing Edge. The extra DEX mod is huge since most of your weapon skills are DEX mod anyways, allowing you to double dip on every point of DEX you equip. This interacts with the ability Hide, which allows you to Sneak Attack from any direction when up.
Flee (25) - Increases your movement speed for 30 seconds, 5:00 recast.
Flee is a 100% movement speed increase on a 5 minute cool down. This ability is great for just about anything, it allows you to get to mobs faster to claim, move around town faster, be more efficient with pulling, run away from mobs you might die to, really the world is your oyster. AF Feet add +15 seconds to how long the buff lasts which is quite nice. 
Trick Attack (30) - Empowers your next melee attack when striking an enemy from behind a party member. Lasts 1 minute or until next swing, 1:00 cool down.
Trick Attack, much like Sneak Attack, is a DPS enhancing cool down but it comes with a twist of allowing you to grant enmity to party members. How it functions is when you are behind a party member:
# All enmity generated from the Trick Attack is transferred to the player in front of you.
# Forces your next hit to be 100% accurate, you cannot miss this attack nor the offhand hit of the attack if you are dual wielding.
# Adds extra weapon damage to the hit, 1 base damage per AGI you have when performing the Trick Attack, this is added after FTP in the damage calculation.
# If you have the trait Assassin at level 60, Trick Attack also forces the hit to critical hit like Sneak Attack does.
Trick Attack's hallmark ability to transfer enmity is the first of Thief's abilities that function as enmity controllers, you have the ability to decide who has hate and when in a party by granting additional enmity to players via Trick Attack. It also functions like Sneak Attack to just be a giant damage boosting ability, it is a little weaker because AGI is just not as good a stat as DEX, but the damage enhancement is still pretty strong. This does stack with Sneak Attack if you want to do massive single weapon skills. 
Mug (35) - Steals gil from an enemy. 15:00 cooldown.
It does what it says, if the enemy has gil to steal you can yoink the change out of their pockets. Worth noting most enemies don't have gil to steal, but this is pretty nice on Notorious Monsters where you can mug a couple thousand gil out of them usually. 
Hide (45) - Evade enemies by hiding. 5:00 cooldown. 
This ability is pretty neat, it grants basically invisibility status to the Thief allowing you to drop aggro on things that are sight tracking. In party play hide is a good way dump your enmity if the mob is susceptible to it. Where this ability really shines is it allows for Sneak Attacking from any position, allowing you to use sneak attack in situations that may not be otherwise possible. For example you can use Hide+Sneak Attack while solo to land big weapon skills on mobs without having to have anyone to position around. 
Accomplice (65) - Steals 50% of a party members enmity. 5:00 cooldown. Shares recast with Collaborator. 
A cool ability to manage enmity in your party, you can use this to redirect the mob on to you or at the very least redirect the mob away from someone. I like to use this on things like Black Mages after a large SCMB in order to shield them from getting wrecked by high level NMs. Just in general being able to pull enmity off someone can be a big deal in a lot of situations, so don't forget you have this. 
Collaborator (65) - Steals 25% of a party members enmity. 1:00 cooldown. Shares recast with Accomplice. 
Same deal as accomplice except it steals less enmity at a time but can be used more often. I personally think accomplice is more useful as it's higher impact and these aren't abilities you usually spam on cooldown. 
Treasure Hunter (15/45) - Increases drop rates on most items. Passive Trait. 
Treasure Hunter is by far the most important thing Thief gets access to, and is why Thief is generally brought to end game content at all. This job trait has much superstition around it, with huge forum threads and discord chats about all sorts of conspiracies and nonsense regarding TH. Much of what we know about Treasure Hunter is derived from Out of Era sources, as it is much easier to test Treasure Hunter in modern day retail. We also were gifted an official chart in 2020 that outlined how Treasure Hunter works as far as increasing drop rates and gave us a table to work off of. I will work off what we know of Treasure Hunter in retail, I will say Eden COULD be programmed differently but that is not an easy thing to confirm. 
* The Thief must debuff the mob with TH, the debuff of TH is applied when the Thief does an aggressive action at the mob. Any action where the Thief is directly acting upon the mob is aggressive, examples include attacking, casting abilities on, and casting spells on. The thief being on the hate list is not enough to proc the TH debuff, so you cannot do something like cure an ally who has hate to proc TH. AOE spells do give TH.
* Once the debuff is proced it will not wear off unless the mob goes idle. This means the Thief may remove Treasure Hunter gear, can leave the zone, or even die and the mob will continue to have Treasure Hunter. (There is some confusion to whether being removed off the hate table of a mob removes your Treasure Hunter)
* Treasure Hunter increases drop rates of items based on their category of drop rate. Consult the table below to see how TH1/2/3/4 increase the drop chance of items. 
* Very specific items that have 100% drop rates but share loot pools are not affected by TH, famous examples of this are King Behemoth who either drops a Defending Ring or Pixie Earring 100% of the time, TH does not make Defending Ring drop more. Other notable examples are the Ochimusha Kote and Sarutobi Kyahan NM.
= Merits =
= Sub Jobs =
Ninja is your premier sub job, mainly because it gives you access to Dual Wield allowing you to use an offhand weapon. With Dual Wield II trait and access to suppanomimi this will reduce your swing delay by 20% and let you benefit from whatever bonuses your offhand gives. The other reason Ninja sub is so strong is the spells Utsusemi: Ichi and Utsusemi: Ni give you unparalleled defensive coverage. 
Warrior sub job has good offensive strengths, Berserk and Double Attack definitely add a lot of damage to your kit. Losing dual wield in many situations is however a massive hit in damage, especially when you can gain a lot from an offhand like Ridill or Thief's Knife. The main reason you will see a Thief subbing Warrior is for claiming, provoke is great tool for ranged instant claiming of NMs. This sub isn't bad for things like HNMs where you don't have to worry about pulling hate and also don't want to TP feed with offhand weapons. 
 
Black Mage is a very specific sub used for applying Treasure Hunter to multiple mobs fast and efficiently with -ga spells. This is primarily used in dynamis if your linkshell is using Black Mages to AoE the event down, allowing a Thf to quick and painlessly tag every clumped up mob. 
= Weapons =
Mandau
The relic weapon, a golden dagger with no rival in the game. Mandau has exceptional stats, with the highest damage in the game, a pretty low delay, 20 Attack which is never bad, and a chance to hit for 3x normal damage. The real kicker for this relic though is the weapon skill it grants: Mercy Stroke. Mercy is exceptionally powerful, it has a very high FTP modifier of 3.0 and a 60% STR mod, it also is a single hit weapon skill even though it doesn't look it so it stacks well with Sneak Attack. This is the only dagger WS with a STR mod, and STR is by far the best stat to stack for physical DPS because it triple dips adding base damage and attack on top of the modifier. After using Mercy Stroke the Thf is also granted a 5% critical hit chance buff just to make it even better. The only downside to this dagger is the Additional Effect: Poison doesn't really do much, and can actually actively harm you if you are trying to sleep a mob. 
Blau Dolch
Blau is the dagger of 75 cap era, it's the full package dagger having high damage, relatively low delay, and a hidden +5 accuracy and +16 attack. Because this weapon has high base damage, it can serve as an amazing main hand dagger pairing up with Sirocco Kukri, Ridill, or Thief Knife. It also has low delay which makes it a great offhand dagger for Mandau or Perseus' Harpe users. This dagger should be the goal weapon for every Thief in the game, and the only reason not to own it is you don't have the money yet to buy one. The latent effect is active if you have less than 1000 TP and on weapon skills, so don't hold your TP! 
Ridill
This is the king of farming weapons for Thief, the damage output of this sword is massive. The cool thing about Ridill is most "Occasionally Attacks X-times" weapons like Mercurial Kris or Kraken Club are given very low damage ratings to balance them, Ridill's D:40 is pretty in line with what a normal sword should have at 75. This thing pumps out raw damage and greatly increases TP gain, making it really stand above anything else for farming. The issue with Ridill is that Thief has an D in sword skill and is a job that already has accuracy problems, this sword just isn't viable when fighting things IT or above because you just won't connect your hits. 
Thief's Knife 
You could probably call this the signature weapon for Thief, at the end of the day the reason Thief is brought to events generally is their Treasure Hunter and adding +1 to that is just broken. The stats on the dagger aren't good but they aren't even that punishing, D:28 is only a few damage lower than other daggers you can use. It's worth noting that since Treasure Hunter will stay on a mob even after you remove your Treasure Hunter gear, on longer fights you should tag the mob with Thief Knife and then swap to a stronger dagger for actual damage output. 
Sirocco Kukri
This weapon is the definition of offhand dagger, it's very weak on the damage front but the delay is exceptionally low allowing for quick TP gain. The unique part about this dagger is the Additional Effect: Wind Damage has a 100% chance to proc 1-9 wind damage at a time. This additional effect adds up quick and Thief already doesn't hit that hard, so the extra damage is noticeable. This is a common offhand with Blau Dolch, Perseus Harpe, or any high damage dagger. 
Perseus' Harpe
This is a good dagger, but also an overrated dagger that doesn't fit into play patterns very well. It's very hard to get, being an exceptionally rare drop off a 24 hour respawn NM that takes multiple people to kill. The main issue is that Blau Dolch is a better dagger and farming up the gil for Blau is going to usually be easier than camping P. Harpe. If you get gifted this dagger with minimal effort and don't have the gil for Blau yet, this thing is great, I just wouldn't chase it down. 
Magnet Knife/Jambiya/Behemoth Knife +1/Harpe
These are the starter daggers. They vary wildly in price, but are all pretty similar in output. Magnet Knife is the cheapest, basically free, but is the worst of the bunch. Jambiya is a step up, but if you are spending the money for it, you might as well save a bit more and get a Behemoth Knife +1. Harpe is way more expensive than any of these daggers, but can be a solid stand in until you can afford a Blau Dolch. Martial Knife 
This dagger exists for one purpose: Cyclone. Cyclone is Thief's premier AoE weapon skill and is one of the few weapon skills in era that more than doubles its damage output going from 1000 TP to 2000 TP. A strong dagger to have if you plan to do niche AoE farming on Thief. 
= Gear Sets =
Farming Ridill - https://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/386130
	Stat Priorities: Haste > Dual Wield > Accuracy.
399 Accuracy MH/341 Accuracy OH with Hume DEX and sushi. 
The general idea behind it is to cap your haste and accuracy, if you cap accuracy you can remove accuracy slots for other stats. The Ridill offhand has such low base skill that you can't even cap accuracy on some EM level mobs, so pay attention to your accuracy needs.
Alternatives
 	Alternative 1 	Alt 2 	Alt 3
MH Wep 	Blau Dolch 	Perseus Harpe 	Harpe
OH Wep 	Thief Knife 	Sirocco Kukri 	Behemoth Knife +1
Ranged 	Velocity Bow +1 	Velocity Bow 	Ungur Boomerang
Head 	Optical Hat 	 	
Neck 	Chivalrous Chain 	Fortitude/Love Torque	Orochi Nodowa
Ear1&2 	Hollow Earring 	Diabolos's Earring 	Merman's Earring
Ear1&2 	Coral Earring 	Novia Earring? 	
Body 	Homam Corazza 	Scorpion Harness +1 	Scorpion Harness
Hands 	Homam Manopolas 	Dusk Gloves 	
Ring1&2	Toreador's Ring 	Ulthalam's Ring 	Sniper's Ring
Ring1&2	Woodsman Ring 	Thunder Ring 	
Back 	Forager's Mantle 	Amemet Mantle +1 	Amemet Mantle
Waist 	Swift Belt 	Life Belt 	Potent Belt
Legs 	Bravo's Subligar 	Dusk Trousers 	Pahluwan Seraweels
Feet 	Dusk Ledelsens +1	Dusk Ledelsens 	Denali Gamashes
Raw Sneak Attack - https://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/386502
	Stat Priorities: Read description.
This set isn't cut and dry at all and has required spreadsheet simulations to figure out. In general DEX/Attack are the important stats for Sneak Attack, but because you are still just auto attacking Haste is right behind them. This makes items like Hecatomb with high DEX/Attack but also a ton of Slow actually largely a bad choice for Sneak Attack. Don't sweat too much over this set, the difference between items is fractions of a DPS at best.
Alternatives
 	Alternative 1 	Alt 2 	Alt 3
Head 	Assassin +1 	Walahra Turban 	Denali
Neck 	Spike Necklace 	 	
Ear1&2 	Hollow Earring 	Adroit Earring 	Brutal Earring
Ear1&2 	Merman's Earring 	Triumph Earring 	Coral Earring
Body 	Dragon Harness 	Blue Cotehardie +1	Assault Jerkin
Hands 	Dusk Gloves 	Denali Wristbands 	Tarasque Mitts +1
Ring1&2	Thunder Ring 	DEX+4 ring 	DEX+3 ring
Ring1&2	DEX+2 Ring 	Flame Ring 	Ulthalam's Ring
Back 	Forager's Mantle 	Amemet Mantle +1 	Charger Mantle
Waist 	Speed Belt 	Swift Belt 	Swordbelt +1
Legs 	Dusk Trousers 	Dragon Subligar +1	Dragon Subligar
Feet 	Dragon Leggings +1	Dusk Ledelsens 	Pahluwan Crackows
Raw Trick Attack - https://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/386521
	Stat Priorities: Read description.
Much like Sneak Attack, this is also not a cut and dry set. The nice thing is that the AF+1 gloves give a 15% boost to AGI under trick attack which makes AGI much more valuable. This is another case that items with haste do really well, in many situations the Haste vs AGI item will be nearly zero difference, just make sure you don't use slow gear.
Alternatives
 	Alternative 1 	Alt 2 	Alt 3
Head 	Denali Bonnet 	Walahra Turban 	Dragon Cap +1
Neck 	Love Torque 	Orochi Nodowa 	Black Tiger Stole
Ear1&2 	Drone Earring 	Merman's Earring	Brutal Earring
Ear1&2 	Wing Earring 	Coral Earring 	
Body 	Dragon Harness+1 	Dragon Harness 	Blue Cotehardie +1
Hands 	Dusk Gloves +1 	Dusk Gloves 	Dragon Mittens +1
Ring1&2	AGI+4 Ring 	Garrulous Ring 	Rajas Ring
Ring1&2	AGI+3 Ring 	Flame Ring 	Tiger Ring
Back 	Charger Mantle 	Forager's Mantle	Amemet Mantle +1
Waist 	Swift Belt 	Swordbelt +1 	Scouter's Rope
Legs 	Dusk Trousers 	War brais +1 	Homam Cosciales
Feet 	Dusk Ledelsens +1	Dusk Ledelsens 	Homam Gambieras
Evasion - https://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/386379
	Stat Priorities: Evasion/AGI/Evasion Skill whichever gives more Evasion.
This is your common survival set, Thief gets the highest base evasion in the game and with a proper set can get some very high dodge rates helping it be a strong solo job. 
That said, Evasion is a dump stat.
= Food =
 	Rice Dumpling - A great low level food that provides a mixture of Accuracy, Attack, and Ranged Attack for your crossbow at low levels. This is by far the best food you can use until the late 30s early 40s.
border|289x289px	Crab Sushi - This is an exceptionally cheap version of Sushi that gives less stats but costs almost nothing. Great item for fighting Colibri with as well as using in disposable events you don't want to commit expensive food to. Just remember this has significantly less accuracy than real sushi and no secondary stats, so don't use it when you need output.
 	Bream Sushi - A cheap Sushi generally, bream offers all the accuracy benefits that a more expensive sushi like Sole or Squid would but lacks the Strength or Agility. This is significantly more expensive than Crab Sushi, but offers more accuracy and DEX.
 	Squid Sushi - The next step up, Squid Sushi offers both AGI and DEX which is great for Thief as it affects both your SA and TA mods. This is an alternative to Bream, costing a little bit more but giving you a little bit more stats. It's worth noting this is great bang for your buck when buying the HQ version as Squid+1 is generally the cheapest HQ sushi.
 	Sole Sushi - The final form of Sushi. This is the most expensive of them but also the best, the only real difference is you trade the AGI or VIT on bream/squid sushi for STR. STR will affect everything you do from melee attacks, to sneak attacks, to weapon skills, so it in general is better than AGI which only matters for Trick Attack.
 	Coeurl Sub - By the time you retire Rice Dumplings you are likely going to need to start using Sushi just for accuracy concerns, but if you don't need sushi this is the meat of choice for Thief. It gives ranged attack unlike Meat Mithkabobs for your crossbow and the high Attack+% is good for the low attack values Thief tends to have.
= Looking Forward =