:/ xbow is important till higher levels, in my opinion..
at lower-mid levels you can use acid bolts to "dispel" crabs and crawlers.. if they use shell or w/e the crabs use.. pop an acid bolt on it.. BAM no more defense boost.
personally, i used a boomerang for nearly my entire THF life.. at 43 (i think its 43?) you can get Combat Caster's Boomerang +1 (or +2 if you wanna get fancy).. gives you +4 MELEE accuracy (if area is out of your nation's control) which i think is just super ^^ ive used that since i could..served me well all the way to 74 (im lazy and refuse to get 75! so there! [side note: NO KIREEK I WILL NOT PT WITH YOU BECAUSE I DONT WANT 75]).. ok.. moving on..
at later levels when you want to solo things.. you definantly need an xbow and marksmanship leveled.. mine is like, 216 now.. which i believe is pretty far from thf cap (it'd be nice if someone could tell me a 74 thf's marksmanship cap).. but im skilling it up.. i land about 80% of my shots because i get alot of Racc with my gear.. it helps alot when soloing EM-DC's.. acid bolt >> sleep bolt >> disengage >> SA >> engage >> dancing edge 4tw!
also, sleep bolts help you be able to cool down your Utsusemi:Ichi & Ni timers if your getting your butt kicked.. and stops casters from casting the nasty nasty -ga spells to pow you dead..
i do NOT agree with spamming of bolts durring xp pt's.. :/ i hate it when thf's do this, to be honest.. ESPECIALLY after lv55 (tripple attack).. slow your TP gain down ALOT (well depends on your gear, i personally have moer +melee acc than +racc so if i use Ranged, chances are lower for me to hit than melee :/).. bugs me to no end when thf's spam bolts at higher levels for TP.. its like. a chance to trigger tripple attack and gain 20% TP in 1 round.. compared to a smaller chance to land a bolt? :/ doesnt seem right..
OK this posti s getting too long..
lets see here: if you want to skill up something efficiently, play a job that uses what skill you want to skill up.. i started playing RANGER just for archery/marksmanship skill ups.. i started playing PLD and NIN for parrying skill ups.. im working on MNK for hand-to-hand skill ups (THFS DO NEED TO BE VERSATILE!!!).. and i use thf for club skill ups (i dont wanna be a damn melee whm, sorry).. skill everything you can.. >< skill skill skill..
~nib
p.s. :/ in the end.. in my opinion, use a boomerang after you can use Combat Caster's Boomerang +1 (or +2) for xp parties.. and use xbow for solo.. or if your PT has no RDM (in the nest especially)..