Thief Merit Question

[Nasya]

Evasion is one of the lowest priorities for thf to merit... when do you ever use it except for maybe pulling? and in higher levels... how often does a thf pull? Almost never in merits/exp (thank you brds! <3<3) HNM? on the rare occasion you are not being instantly aggroed by one, you would have a tank pull... Dynamis? Ok, yeah... but even then, evasion isn't going you help you that much, since if done right you won't be in range to be hit before the mobs are slept/stones are taken by BLMs.

General THF use Merits

Dagger <> Tripp > Crits > STR (lack of equipment to boost this, and usefullness to other jobs warrents it over dex imo) > Feint > Aura Steal x2 > Assasin's Charge x3 (so it has same timeer as Fient) > other stuff

If you do a lot of stuff in endgame

Dagger > Tripp > Fient Unlock > Aura Steal Unlock > TA Timer > Crits > STR > Aura Steal +1 > Assasin's Charge +3 (so it is same as Feints timer, can help with WS+TA for added damage/hate) > HP (yay for more life) > Evasion

thats how i'd go anyway.

 

[Sneakypants]

Exactly.
If evasion is prioritized before all that, and you're not doing it for your up and coming NIN that you're leveling, you are definitely doing something wrong.

You don't need that crutch as much as you need all the other things.

 

[Khajit]

I'd merit parry over eva since reaching the eva% cap without a ridiculous amount of +eva gear is easy enough already. I'd raise something I'm not capped out at first. I'd use parry for ninja as well since high parry skill has a greater impact.

 

[mdkuser]

Crits > Triple Attack > Daggers > Feint > Aura Steal

And throw in Dex whenever you want. Stealing Zerk from something and break 800 attack is pretty intense.

not when the buff lasts 15 s only IF you ever steal it lmao. aura steal sucks, and it recuces the chance of stealing coins.

Every thief is different. i did evasion > dagger > tripple > crit> enimity > flee> ambush 3 > unlock useless AC and feint, unlock aurasteal then cancel it lmao.

 

[Khajit]

not when the buff lasts 15 s only IF you ever steal it lmao. aura steal sucks, and it recuces the cahnce of seatling coins.

No it doesn't. Stealing items is prioritized over stealing a buff.

 

[Sneakypants]

No it doesn't. Stealing items is prioritized over stealing a buff.

QFT. Which, by the way, sucks if it is the buff and not the coin you aim to steal.

 

[mdkuser]

if you steal a buff you wont steal a coin and in my experience i have 20% chance (only!) to steal buffs and like1/30 to steal coin ( in dynamis that is). before aura steal i stole 1 or 2 coins per dynamis and i have steal+12 or 13 i think ( all +steal gears but rabbit charm and the dagger).

I thought aura steal was very good and i tried it for 2 months. It was decieving. Same with AC since it doesnt stack with sata. feint and ambush seem the best ones.

 

[Skaw]

Quit failing to steal coins then. Thats when it triggers, AFTER the check to see if you took an item. I'm no thief, but you're the only one I've heard complaining about reduced steal successes from it. So you must be really unlucky.

 

[Khajit]

Every thief is different. i did evasion > dagger > tripple > crit> enimity > flee> ambush 3 > unlock useless AC and feint, unlock aurasteal then cancel it lmao.

if you steal a buff you wont steal a coin and in my experience i have 20% chance (only!) to steal buffs and like1/30 to steal coin ( in dynamis that is). before aura steal i stole 1 or 2 coins per dynamis and i have steal+12 or 13 i think ( all +steal gears but rabbit charm and the dagger).

I thought aura steal was very good and i tried it for 2 months. It was decieving. Same with AC since it doesnt stack with sata. feint and ambush seem the best ones.

I am trying very hard to not say something over the top here. i only just noticed this since i was pionting out where you were wrong with aura steal before.

AMBUSH?!
.........................

AMBUSH?
.....................
WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU THINKING?
Ambush is one of the most useless JT ever.
Words cannot describe what i really wish to say.

Also AC is an auto triple attack proc. People have confirmed this. Were you really expecting SE to add in an ability THAT overpowered? When a sharkbite from an average thf can compete with or exceed a Mandau THF in terms of WS damage something is wrong.

Your problem with aura steal..... You didnt read the description written right there for you? 20% then merit it more for better absorb rate. Almost every single one of the meritable new abilities require themselves to be merited a few times to be decently useful consistently.
Also in your argument saying that you do infact steal less coins you forgot something very important....You forgot to mention your steal rate AFTER you merited AS and compare it to the steal rate before. Where is your argument? if youre gonna dispute something aggrreed upon by many others than you then give some info to back it up.

 

[Sneakypants]

if you steal a buff you wont steal a coin

And you won't steal a buff if you succeed at stealing an item.

Dynamis is also not a very good indicator of how your steal is working.

And steal was nerfed before the advent of Aura Steal.



To add to Skaw's point, which I agree with, I'd only say that you need to know your MOBs a bit better now. Which are the ones that are best to steal from if you are looking for items or coins? I almost never steal from a mage type any more when going for profit, unless it has just freshly spawned and hasn't had the chance to put up buffs.

 

[Javir]

Anyone have an solid evidence of the effectiveness of Assassin's Charge?

Thus far in my experience, while Warrior's Charge seams to rock, Assassin's Charge seams to be rather lacking in any significant advantages. Especially compared to Feint, Aura Steal and Ambush.

 

[Sneakypants]

Being able to double attack on cammand is cool, yeah?

Same shit, but with triple attack.

 

[Blancho]

The problem is some people are talking about building a EXP THF some about building a SOLOING THF and so on...

Most useful all are around I think anyone can agree is on is Dagger--Triple Attack from there it's pretty much personal prefrence depending on which type of THF you are trying to make. Me personally I'm building a strictly soloing THF.

 

[mdkuser]

Also in your argument saying that you do infact steal less coins you forgot something very important....You forgot to mention your steal rate AFTER you merited AS and compare it to the steal rate before. Where is your argument? if youre gonna dispute something aggrreed upon by many others than you then give some info to back it up.

i read it, it enhance chance of absorb, not chance of steal as far as i know.

also i aggree tha assasin charge is a auto tripple attack. Its easy to check. The only thing that suxs is recast. 15 mn, and 7:30 if fully merited. I do 2 triple atck per minutes or more, this is a very weak improvement.

 

[mdkuser]

AMBUSH?
.....................
WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU THINKING?
Ambush is one of the most useless JT ever.
Words cannot describe what i really wish to say.

Also AC is an a.

full ambush merit gives 9 accuracy from behind. Its a job trait which means its always active. I prefer that to a tripple atck every 8 minutes..

 

[mdkuser]

Quit failing to steal coins then. Thats when it triggers, AFTER the check to see if you took an item. I'm no thief, but you're the only one I've heard complaining about reduced steal successes from it. So you must be really unlucky.

say whatever you want, but from my experience steal rate droped. I used aura steal during 2 month i know what it does. You try to steal a mob every ... 5 minutes. If you succeed to steal, IF you succeed to steal, then you can steal either a coin or a buff. My opinion is that buffs have priority, from my experience ( the converse would make the ability more useless). IF you have stolen the buffs then you dispelled automatically ( 20% chance of dispel buffs in dynamis). Now if you have fully merited and IF you succeed your steal you will absorb the buff ( i think with 80% chance?). Merits increase absorb rate, not steal rate as far as i know. Tell we why you prefer an ability that works avery 30 mn , over a JT that is alway active.

feint and ambush are very nice for DE users since it will reduce the missed hits. AC good but recast make it bad. Ill keep it though, i can always use it when sata is not ready.

 

[Mishaela]

So Aura Steal sucks...
...And you're probably not even macroing +steal equipment, right?

 

[Khajit]

Its a job trait which means its always active.

:nono: You are incorrect. Its a JA thats active whenever youre directly BEHIND the mob. Shall we go through a list of things that shall make you not have that 9 accuracy?

1. you grab hate from dot
2. anyone else besideds tank grabs hate narutally or cause you tricked them earlier
3. anyone else uses a ws
4. you use a ws
5. you lineup for trick attack onto the tank
6. you trick attack onto somone other than the tank
7. you use sneak attack and there's no need for that 9 acc during that time
8. the time spend moving to the back of the mob after hate shifted
9. at least 50% of the time you pull cause cause you had better not be waiting for a monster to lineup for more than 0.5 seconds at this level.
10. /autotarget on. monster brought for you and slept by brd puller unless done my a person with so much time on thier hands they can perfectly position any monster in the exact spot you need and not one inch of center while casting songs and assuming the person who should be voking stuff OFF the brd is lazy and decides not to.
11. you solo
12. tiamat
13 jormy
14 vtra
15. fafninr. see a pattern?
16 youre kiting something
17 somone else is kiting something
18 youre tanking something for somone.Ie chardybris
19. youre fighting pots. Admit it you dont know where the fuck those things are looking. the only way to figure that out is to see who its attacking and lineup.

 

[Sneakypants]

So Aura Steal sucks...

Apparently that depends on who you trust as a source.


I would disagree.

 

[Sneakypants]

i read it, it enhance chance of absorb, not chance of steal as far as i know.

also i aggree tha assasin charge is a auto tripple attack. Its easy to check. The only thing that suxs is recast. 15 mn, and 7:30 if fully merited. I do 2 triple atck per minutes or more, this is a very weak improvement.

10:00 if fully merited.

1st - 15
2nd - 12:30
3rd - 10:00




Recast is something to consider, but ultimately you either have this in your bag of tricks or you do not. Having it is useful for times where you want to, and have the ability to put a little more stank on your WS...And lay extra hate on a tank...Or a BRD. xD