For The Shinies! A Guide For Thief

Yeah Mandau isn't much worse than Izh but it is unless for some odd reason you don't have Rudra's, basically for pure white damage Mandau is actually better but the boost Izh gives to Rudra's pulls it ahead. Also Jugo +1 > Jugo > Atoyac for off-hand.

Sandung is arguably only worth it as a stop gap until you get Izh, you have one already don't bother, if there's something like Behemoth where you're full-timing TH, probably better just to keep a Thief's Knife handy and off-hand it, or better, get a Chaac Belt and never have to worry about having a TH weapon again.

Also TH+ on the weapon is worse than the DoT Izh + Jugo +1 will give. You'll net more currency with the latter.

Since there haven't been any sets posted in a while I thought I'd work on some. Using spreadsheets, sans Vajra since I will never have one of those so I don't care about spreadsheeting for it. Someone asked last page if Zoar+1 compared to Iuitl+1, I found it to be worse than Iuitl+1 with only a DA+1 augment for just about everything, and Sombra+1 being better than both with uncapped magic haste.

TP Dynamis/Salvage
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Assumes no buffs except Samba. Due to this set assuming you are attack capped for cape:
Canny Augmented > Canny Un-auged = Bleating > Atheling

TP Fodder with capped magic haste
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Assumes you have capped magic haste and nothing more. I imagine that this set could change if you have an un-augmented Canny Cape. Maybe someone could chime on in what non Incursion lucky people should use.

Gonna look into sets for Tojil level (Probably won't change) and Serac Rabbit level stuff later.

Are you able to swap boomerang to ammo w/o losing tp?

Yes, but the other way result in tp zero.

Amazing

For the capped magic haste set, without an augmented Canny Cape, Bleating Mantle should be on top, you only need 11% dual wield to cap delay so with Patentia and Suppa you're already at 10% so might as well stop there in regards to DW.

Are Feint merits broken? Or maybe I'm not getting how it works?
I was assuming that each merit above 1 gave a 25% chance of next hit after you use feint to proc TH.
I.e. with 5/5 you would have a 100% chance of it to happen.

Yet I just tried going 5/5 (since the 4/5 rate seemed oddly low) and I'm noticing no change at all. It's just a low rate, I'd say around 20%.
Something broken or I just misunderstood the way it works?

You have 100% over your base chance. Lets say, you have 5% chance to proc a th, with feint you have now 10%.

Iirc, it doesn't make TH proc 100% of the times, but doubles the chances, so if your base TH proc rate is 10%, you get an extra 100% chance of it pricing, so 20%.

Aaaah now it makes sense.
But how can I calculate the base rate?

Is Artful Belt +1 an acceptable stand-in for Wanion on Rudra?
Right now my options are elemental belt, Artful +1, or Pipilaka.

Artful+1 should be the best option.

Str has very low contribution to ws. Str adds to fstr, and fstr is capped to 19, while mpdifier os uncapped. Aside the very low cap that str can contribute, according to bg, you need 4-6 str to increase 1 point fstr, so wanion can at best even with artful +1 if you arent capped in fstr.

Str can contribute with att though, but for that, you would need spreadsheet and mobs stats.

But overall, artful should be a very good choice, if not the best.

Ah I see, I just see a lot of people using Wanion in their sets, so it was a bit confusing. Thanks.

Still newish to thf. Plunder and Pillager Vests, when to use which? Seems like there's overlap of crit dmg on both sets so unsure(both legs and both bodies have crit dmg)

For sa or ta, as the next hit is a forced crit hit, crit hit dmg gear means direct increase in dmg. Thats, plunderer will increase your dmg in 3% while pillager will increase in 5%. Note thats a direct dmg in final dmg.

Plunderer was interesting while evisceration was the go to ws, as it is crit based, to increase the chance of criting in any of the hits. But now with rudras, that cant crit unless under sa or ta, plunderer vest lost a lot of his appeal, as there are better options for tp, acc, pdt, ws, etc. If you end using evisceration, use it with plunderer vest.

Pillager is the best piece for stacked rudra.

For unstacked rudra, its a matter of choosing highest dex/att (if necessary) in current body slots.

Returned to the game post VW, so no Wanion Belt. Currently using Chiner's +1 for Rudras. Stacked= Chiner's +1, Unstacked = Artful +1?

If chiner can beat artful, it isnt a matter of being stacked or no. Chiner relies in procing triple attack, and thats not the case of sa, ta and even assassin charge was discussed, and probably it isnt triple attack but simply attack thrice or 4 times.

And multi hits in rudra does not carries ftp over hits, so multiattacking in rudra will just add the dmg of a normal hit with the secondary stats.

But if the occasional multi hits net more dmg than steadly dex+3 from artful+1, you would need a spreadsheet. Last spreadsheet valli showed gave artful +1 as best rudras waist.

Only reforged AF legs have Crit Damage. Relic do not.

Is Kehper/Khepri Body with 4-5% WSD best in slot for unstacked Rudra still?

Khepri is 22 dex lower than dread jupon, the highest dex body thf can use that i found in ffxiah, as well 12 str lower (also 6 att).

If the diference of 22 dex will be higher/lower than 5%, it will depend of your total dex in ws (higher the total dex, lower the % contribution of an aditional point of dex). A few maths i did resulted extra 22 dex slight lower than 5% but higher than 4%, around 300 dex total, with fstr and att capped.

As you fight stronger mobs where you arent att or fstr capped, the aditional str and att from dread jupon should beat khepri for unstacked rudra.

Don't have Dread cuz nobody ever does SL fight and doesn't seacom it, so competing with 6 people for a 15% drop rate body :/

Any xbow preshot/midshot sets? Thibking xbow with gashing bolts may help alliance dps more in incursion, maybe use gramsk harnes for the m.acc for helping acid bolt proc.

Thinking thf has decent snapshot gear
Aurore beret+1
Iuitl vest
Iuitl gloves
Iuitl pants
W.boots from legion

Nahtirah Trousers. Also augmented Skopos Jerkin maybe. Don't even know anymore with people saying some Snapshot gear gives double what it lists and stuff, but even if aug'd Iuitl is better, you don't have to spend millions trying to get the augment you want by going with Skopos.

You don't need 6 people, Shadow Lord D is beyond easy. The safe setup is DD+Whm+Brd, after the last update really upped DPS standards you can even duo it now with DD+Whm. Just don't suck at counting shadows or use PDT if you do. It's nearly impossible to die in that fight with PDT gear on.

He goes into 0 damage from melee mode quite a bit, duo might be rough on D.

Before the Rudras update you likely needed a 3rd just because you'd time out duo (Our runs usually took around 25 minutes trio). Now a days not so much, the guy in my LS that I know dual boxes it uses Blu+Whm but I'm sure Thf+Whm would be fine.

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Cheap just depends on what gear you have laying around from other jobs. Only seems to land on fodder got it to land on lower NM a few but I'd guess even 128+ that wouldn't happen either. Just with sushi I don't have a hard time hitting mobs set is 915 racc with ionis and merits before food.