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Final Fantasy XI: A Look at the Thief
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com Final Fantasy XI Correspondent Wesley Bond writes this overview of the Theif career in Final Fantasy XI.
To steal or not to steal, that is the question. Thief is a class you are able to play from the start and do not have to unlock to play. The Thief is a very utilitarian job in the game of Final Fantasy XI and is handy both as a main and as a subjob. It can be used effectively in full parties, small parties and solo play. The role of a Thief in parties may be a lot different than you might think. For those that haven’t played you may think about stealing, for those with little experience with Thief you may think damage dealing but Thief is more than the sum of its parts, it’s about control. Thief gives you some nice options when facing down monsters that can really keep things humming in a group or give you the option to leave the situation in solo. Evasion and Agility are your friend and when others rely on heavy armor, you will really on speed and dodging incoming attacks.
So what does this job do?
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Read A Look at the Thief
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
"You will also have a lower Throwing skill which makes it nice for pulling"
Not sure if I'm taking that out of context but, what? Did you mean that its lower then marksmanship skill, but can still be used for pulling?
"Ranger is a great subjob especially for camping notorious monsters by using Widescan and increases your ranged damage output significantly. It’s not a bad subjob choice for parties depending on the setup and needs of the party."
While I would argue widescan isn't nearly as valuable as provoke for camping 95% of NM's, but /rng in an exp party is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of. The only real use for /RNG is farming weird low number of mobs before you know their pop places(See: Rams in LaTheine/Kon) and for skilling up ranged skills. I can't believe that this site would actually encourage /rng in a party, just wow.
"Samurai is best for endgame so you can get the TP needed to keep your damage output high."
Maybe Kirin 4 years ago.../SAM's only purpose is the chigoe assault. I'm losing faith in whomever wrote this....
"Warrior has more to offer in terms of abilities and probably your strongest choice until 30 when you can unlock Ninja. Warrior is a good choice even later as Ninja can get expensive."
You can't honestly be serious about this? I'm guessing its some twisted inside joke? While I could see complaining about Utsu:Ni being expensive(Even though its not and it can be BCNM'd), Utsu:Ichi is easily quested, and you can easily pay for Ninja Tools by NPC'ing the items you get from exp parties. I would die a little inside if a 30+ level thief was invited to my party without having /NIN. Ninja sub far outweighs warrior sub for the majority of your exp life. While there are some exceptions, if the author honestly believes that /war > /nin 30+; then, I think the author needs to back to a more casual game where you don't have to rely on people knowing what they are doing(See: World of Warcraft).
"The other reason why players sub Thief is for the Treasure Hunter job trait. Treasure Hunter increases drop rates and thus aids in farming."
I'm guessing the writer of this article doesn't know how insignificant the increase to drops actually is with Treasure Hunter I. More often then not it would be better to just sub a better damage dealing subjob and slaughter more mobs.
Honestly, with some of the terrible information in here I'm suprised the writer didn't point out subbing it for evasion bonus on ninja and dancer...
Dude, get a grip. He pointed out the basics to those who don't have all the info that you have. Whether or not Treasure Hunter isn't that great as a sub, it doesn't matter, because it still does exactly what he said it does. He didn't question how useful it was, just what the skill does.
And as he said about the /nin job: it's the exact reason I'll never play one. The items needed are expensive, and aren't always readily available. So I opt for a job that doesn't take extra items to use, and just require the usual armor and weapons.
Elitist assholes like you who believe everyone should play the same way, and if not, are either bitched out, kicked, or refused from parties because of it are a major reason I won' t play FFXI again.
I won't talk about the /rng since I won't play them also because the ammo is expensive to me, and I do think that's probably what he meant about the Thrown weapons and stuff, but he definitely should edit that.
Honestly, if you can't afford ninja tools, I wouldn't want them in anything I'm doing anyways. Since if you can't afford tools, I can't begin to imagine the rest of the gear, much less the skill, or lack there of of the player themselves. /NIN is hands down the best sub for Thief 95% of the time. The most expensive thing for /nin will more then likely(other then an offhand weapon) be :Ni. Which as I said before is easily BCNM'd and isn't anywhere near as expensive as it used to be.
Ninja tools, can be expensive. If your NIN/XXX, not when your /nin. /NIN you carry 3 tools, Utsu/Tonko/ and the new sneak one. Invisi/Sneak will cost you about 10k every 6 months(5 mins farming, if that?) and Utsus will range greatly depending on how much you play, what you are doing, etc etc. Honestly though, if you sell a stack of crystals from your exp party that will more then likely make up for any tools you used. Seeing as how a normal exp(not merit) party you'll come out with 2+ stacks of crystals and various things. There is abosultely no reason to say you can't afford it.
Not having enough gil is a reasonable excuse for new players to not have HQ gear, or play jobs like ranger and ninja, and to not have a craft leveled. It is not a resonable excuse to for not having ninja tools(Utsu, tonko, sneak). Honestly, you could probably shout in any area you need some and someone will give you a stack or two, since they are so cheap.
As for me being eltitst, I don't think so. I believe in utilizing my time correctly. While I have no issues with someone who wants to solo as THF/XXX, I do have an issue with them having a lousy sub, or an underleveld sub. I would not invite a THF/WHM to anything(See: Garuda -Anna-) or any other sub for that matter. Subs are situational, and war can be utilized at some levels(Primarily 25 or below) and some higher level instances, but as a full time sub, I think not.
On a side note, I don't have any problems with someone writing things for "newer players". That is awesome, what I have problems with is misinforming them, and actually giving them the idea that some things are good, when they just are not. Honestly, I doubt think the author of this article has a 75THF/XXX or even if he/she does it hasn't been for very long seeing as some of the information in this article is a little dishearting. If it wasn't actually in my RSS feed I would have thought it was written in 05.
Personally, I see /rng being useful for the ranged weapon skills it would allow you to use. Of course, if you're into using throwing weapons, that wouldn't help. marksmanship and bows on the other hand have some great damage dealing ws.
using /nin is very traditional and I would end up recommending this even without being able to afford the ninja tools. using two archer's knives can really help your ranged attacks.
Of course /war isn't a bad choice. Early on because you have no other choice and later for the def, double attack, berserk. I'm sure plenty think those aren't useful, but it is a way of playing.
Thief is a great job to start with. Not because it is easy, but because it can help new players quickly get a decent amount of starting gil. Treasure Hunter and Steal are extremely useful. I love stealing the beastcoins, then using a fire crystal to make bronze ingots. I'm looking forward to doing this with silver beastcoins as well.
If this sounds like I'm a lowbie, it's cause recently I created a second character to test out all the changes from a fresh perspective. My main still exist on Shiva and I use it from time to time, however I've enjoyed starting out fresh.
There are only two jobs in the game that benefit from ranged weaponskills, Corsair and Ranger. 33+ Viper Bite is going to destroy any ranged weapon skill you are going to have, not to mention the fact you will have Dancing Edge and Shark Bite before you have access to Slug Shot, which once again totally decimates any ranged weapon skill you try to use.
With that being said, if you can't afford /nin there is no way you could actually afford /rng and shoot away all of your money. On another note, archer knives are only good for skillig up with, there are much better NQ cheap alternatives for damage. On yet another note, when pulling you don't actually need to hit the mob, and as long as you have your marksmanship close to cap and using sushi you are going to be able to land an acid bolt most of the time you are pulling for exp.
No offense to the person who wrote this article, but I have to agree 100% with what this person has written. The article sounds like something that was taken out of the FFXI manual.
Currently Playing: - lolol
Waiting For: Final Fantasy XIV
My comment wasn't meant to imply if you can't afford ninja, use ranger. actually the other way around. Thanks to thf's high evasion, the shadows are nice, but I rarely use them while pulling.
I also think the damage done by ranged ws while using thf is worth having, plus you can always do skillchains.
In the end, if you're having fun, then you're doing something right no matter what you're doing.
yea no offence but thats a bad article.
if you read the manual they tell you redmage use sword and elvaan are the best with sword, so what the fuck i did? yea I rolled a elvan red mage... not the best choice.
thats what this post remind me about.
Nah, still seem pretty elitist. Seemed like a fine article to me. It said what the real purpose of the job is and what subs you have access to. I don't see anything wrong with using /war for THF, even at high level. Too many people do that /nin or bust garbage. I don't remember them saying to full time /rng for parties or any of these other things you're implying. /war works as a sub as well as /nin. Don't get your undies in a bunch of it. This comes nowhere near the Brady guide.
Elvaans do too make good RDM's, so don't even start.
To be the best, you must help each other become the best.
FFXI Character: Satimasu
FFXI Server: Valefor
FFXIV Character: Tamorae Fonteil
if elvan make good rdm then taru are fucking awesome
They're alright. Just have a lot of MP, too bad that's not what RDM is all about.
To be the best, you must help each other become the best.
FFXI Character: Satimasu
FFXI Server: Valefor
FFXIV Character: Tamorae Fonteil