EXP Party Guide - Thief

CAUTION!

This article is only a guide. Information expressed in a guide is usually more opinion than fact and should be taken as such. Guides are written by players, based upon their experiences, successes and mistakes, and are meant to aid other players. However, there may be differing opinions than those expressed in a guide. Strategies and information in guides may not work for everyone.

This guide is focused on the play style and tactics of THF in leveling parties. For equipment/BiS, farming, or soloing guides, consider looking elsewhere.

Know your Role

In a nutshell, THF is a hybrid DD/utility class. As they advance in levels, they gain abilities that help control their party members' enmity levels and debuff mobs with job abilities and crossbow bolts. They are also often called upon to be the "puller" in leveling parties. During the early levels THF has the potential to be one of the top damage dealers in leveling parties. THF DPS tends to drop in the middle to higher levels in favor of utility.

Playing as THF in a leveling party is quite active and fun but can become much more technical as the job advances in levels and gains more abilities. Playing as THF will test your communication skills with your party members, your ability to manage your macros/abilities/gear sets, your knowledge in creating skillchains, and your positional awareness in combat.

Party Preparation

THFs typically solo up to level 15 before starting to join parties. They don't bring too much to the table for their parties (DPS wise) until they get Sneak Attack at level 15. It certainly is possible to party before 15 but most likely it is for them to be the puller (more on that later).

THF can be VERY gear intensive. Consider taking some time to make some gil for equipment before starting to party. Common ways to may gil as a new player are selling stacks of crystals and mob drops on the auction house.

The primary weapon for THF is dagger, it's what they have the highest skill (accuracy and damage) in. However, you can consider using swords and knuckles during the lower levels. THF also has some skill with Shields, which you could pair with a dagger or sword for extra defense and chance to block incoming attacks.

The secondary weapon for THF is crossbow (marksmanship) + bolts. The main focus of crossbow is not so much for DPS but for pulling and at later levels debuffing mobs. Some early level crossbows to lookout for are the Light Crossbow (1), Legionnaire's Crossbow (10), and Crossbow(12).

Bronze bolts are level 1, pretty cheap, and stack up to 99. Consider picking up a few stacks along with a cheap crossbow during your soloing of early levels to level up your marksmanship skill. You'll need high/capped marksmanship skill to have decent accuracy. You'll be using bronze bolts at least until level 15, when acid bolts come more into play, then you can start debuffing mobs with defense down.

You could also use a boomerang as your ranged weapon, however you will be missing out on debuffing mobs for your party mates at later levels.

Gear-wise, look for equipment that boosts accuracy, attack, and DEX for meleeing at the beginning of your THF journey. You'll also want evenrually to create a gear based on AGI and ranged accuracy for when you use your crossbow. Consider creating a ranged attack macro that will swap your gear to ranged accuracy, then after you shoot, will equip your melee gear.

Ex macro:
/ra <t>
/equipset 2
/wait 3
/equipset 1

You will eventually want to create several gear sets as you level up:

• Melee/TP gain set: focused on accuracy and haste
• Sneak attack set: focused on DEX and attack/STR
• Trick attack set: focused on AGI and attack/STR
• Ranged attack set: focused on AGI and ranged accuracy
• Evasion set: focused on AGI and evasion

The above examples you can consider starting/standard set ideas. Your specific equipment sets may vary depending on the gear you have.

Food-wise, look for food that increases accuracy, attack, and DEX. Rice dumplings are probably the best thing you can eat at lower levels as they give both attack and accuracy, but they can be pretty expensive. You could consider eating meat or Jack-O-Lanterns during the lower levels even as well. At later levels (30+) you want to aim for sushi. Squid gives DEX and AGI bonuses. Sole gives STR and DEX. There are other sushi options out there as well.

The Puller

THFs are often called upon to be the puller in their exp parties. Be prepared to fulfill this role by having a crossbow or boomerang with you when you get to camp.

The puller is the person responsible for pulling mobs to camp. FFXI is an oldschool mmo, where it's an open world with mobs wandering around, with no instances for parties to level up in. The puller is an important roll! If there is no puller then the whole party is going to need to roam around searching for mobs to hunt, and MP users are going to have trouble keeping up because they have to rest/stay stationary at times. With a puller, the party can stay at camp, and your mages will have an easier time resting MP.

It will take some practice to become an effective puller. Here are some tips:

• Learn when to disengage the mob that the party is fighting and go bring another mob. Typically its around 10-20% remaining HP. You don't want your party waiting too long for your to bring back the next mob as that will slow down exp gains. You wait to aim for consecutive exp chain #5s (exp chains are time dependent, your group needs to defeat the next mob that checks Even Match or higher within a certain amount of time to get the next chain). Some strong parties can obtain chain #6+.
• Some types of mobs link with each other by sight or sound. Meaning if you pull a mob and another one of the same type sees or is within hearing distance of it, they will also aggro you. Communicate with your support/black mage if you get a link so they are prepared to sleep/ga or bind links. WHM/BLM can start reliably binding mobs level 30+ and sleeping mobs at level 40+ with Elemental Seal.
• Be aware of your main healer's MP. If they are low on mp, then consider pausing pulls for a few seconds to give them time to recover some MP.
• At level 25+ Flee is great to use for pulling a mob quickly to camp. Consider using it on higher chains when time start running out sooner to make the next chain.

Sneak Attack (Lv 15)

THF gains some power at level 15 with Sneak Attack. 1 minute cooldown. Use Sneak Attack, get behind the mob, and your next attack will be a critical hit guaranteed.

Consider creating a gear set that is based on DEX + attack for Sneak Attack. Sneak attack damage is boosted by DEX. It increases the base damage of your weapon for every point of DEX you have.

Sneak Attack is positional dependent! If you aren't behind the mob when you hit the mob with SA up, it will fail. Be aware of your party mates' enmity levels towards the mob...if someone pulls hate before you try to land a hit with SA up and the mob turns...SA will fail.

SA works with Weapon skills! If you use Sneak Attack, then use a weaponskill like Wasp Sting or Gust Slash behind the mob, it will significantly boost the damage of the WS. THF has the potential to be the highest DPS in their exp party if they are properly using SA with their weapon skills.

Consider creating a macro:
/ja "Sneak Attack <me>
/wait 1
/ws "Gust Slash" <t>

This macro will help you pull off SAing your WSs easier. Some players like to separate their SA with WS macros as well.

Expect to pull some hate after SA and especially after SA+WS. It shouldn't be too much of an issue though.

The Closer

THFs excel at creating/closing Skillchains. And as the job advances, THF DPS and utility is highly dependent on closing them.

What is a skillchain? When 2 compatible weapon skills occur in succession, a skillchain is formed. Skillchains will deal extra damage to the monster your party is fighting and also opens up the opportunity for magic bursting by other party members.

Consider teaming up with a melee in your group to create a skillchain. Wait for them to use a weapon skill, then follow with using a SA with your own WS and create a SC. The damage caused by the SA + WS + SC created can be epic. At lower levels you want to aim to close Distortion with Wasp Sting/Viper Bite and Detonation with Gust Slash using daggers. Many weapons open for Daggers to close skillchains: polearms, katanas, great katanas, bows, guns, great axes, great swords, axes, hand-to-hand, and also summoner avatars can open for THFs as well. You'll need to learn when to use either Wasp Sting or Gust Slash depending on what weapon is being used to open for you. You can also use the chains addon to help you figure out what weapon to use.

Gust Slash has been modified on Horizon server be a hybrid weapon skill, meaning SA will work with it to do good damage closing Detonation if you don't have anybody that can open Distortion for your to close with Wasp Sting or Viper Bite.

Study up on skillchains with these charts:

Trick Attack (Lvl 30)

The next power spike for THF. Trick attack "tricks" mobs into hating party members. Now you can start playing around with managing your party member's enmity levels and your "dance" in parties becomes a little more involved. A party member will need to be working with you to properly pull off Trick Attack

Trick attack also further boosts the weapon base damage for every point of AGI you have, much like how Sneak Attack boosts weapon base damage with DEX. So you'll want to create a set of gear that has a nice balance of DEX+AGI+attack for comboing SA+TA.

When successful, the hate caused by the damage a THF does with Trick Attack will be transferred to a party member, instead of the THF getting the hate. Its very helpful for your tank. Can also be used on another melee that has shadows or Third Eye up.

In order for TA to be successful from levels 30-50 you're going to need to combo it with Sneak Attack. Have a party member (usually a melee) get behind a mob. Then you get behind the party member that is behind the mob. Use Trick Attack followed by Sneak Attack. The melee you are tricking off of needs to be decently close behind the mob or else you won't be able to reach across them to backstab. Communicate with your party member to move up a bit if that becomes an issue.

Kind of looks like this:
(THF>) (Melee>) (Mob >) (< Other party member that the mob is facing)

When successful Trick Attack + Sneak Attack will deal a significant amount of damage to the mob. The hate of the damage is transferred to the party member that the THF was behind. Most likely the mob will turn and start beating on the party member you tricked on.

A common tactic for SATA in parties is for there to be a "first (pro)voke" followed by the tank and THF getting behind the mob. The THF will SATA on the tank, the mob turns and hates the tank with all that damage just done, and the tank provokes to get even more hate on them. Although any melee with /WAR can voke, good first vokers to consider are WAR/NINs, WAR/SAMs, and SAM/WARs. They have shadows or Third Eye that can mitigate some hits before the tank picks up the mob.

SA+TA stacks with weapon skills! You can do some crazy damage and start taking down mobs quickly with proper coordination using SATA+WSing. A common tactic is for a melee to provoke the mob/gain hate/have it turn to them, and do a WS...then the THF will SATA+WS behind another party member to create a huge skillchain. It may take some practice to line up properly with your party mates for SATA+WSing.

Ex: (THF>)(PLD>)(<Mob)(<WAR/NIN).... THF and WAR at 1000+TP. Mob is currently facing PLD, with THF behind PLD. WAR then provokes, uses war cry, followed by using Sturmwind (GAxe). Mob turns to WAR. THF then uses SA+TA+Gust Slash to create Detonation for a ton of damage. Mob turns around back to PLD.

Mug (Lvl 35)

Mug now debuffs mobs with the Bewildered Daze effect! It increases critical hit rates by 5% against the mob for 30 seconds. Super helpful to you and your party mates before a weapon skill or skillchain combo to increase everyone's damage. 10 minute cooldown.

Bully (Lvl 40)

Hopefully you've been keeping up with your marksmanship skill and have a decent AGI/ranged accuracy set put together. Now you are starting to lean more towards a utility DPS. Before, status bolts only have a chance to proc on mobs. Bully now makes the next status bolt proc 100%. 1 minute cooldown. Acid bolts now rein supreme as your ammo for duffing mobs in your exp parties. Defense down from acid bolts is 12.5%. Acid bolts are extremely helpful to you and your party members for taking down mobs quickly.

For the most accuracy using a crossbow, you need to be between 6-10 yalms away from the mob. Make sure to use a distance addon to make sure you are in the right position. https://horizonffxi.wiki/Distance

Bully is a ranged ability. A common tactic is to pull mobs using Bully. Then use acid bolts when the mob gets to camp to debuff.

Accomplice and Collaborator (Lvl 45)

Now you can really manage your party member's enmity levels. More tools for utility!

Accomplice will steal 50% of a party/alliance member's enmity and give it to you. 5 minute recast. Very helpful for when a non-tank party member pulls hate. You can save lives with this ability. Notice that 5 minutes is also the recast time for DRK's souleater and RNG's Barrage, both very hateful abilities. You could actually shadow tank for a bit using accomplice after a party member pulls hate followed by collaborator and giving hate back to the tank.

Collaborator will give 50% of your enmity to a target party/alliance member. 5 minute cooldown, and separate timer than Accomplice. Use Collaborator after Accomplice to throw all of the hate you just stole back on the tank to keep the squishy party members alive.

Accomplice+collaborator can be game changers if used properly. They will allow some DPS to go all out without having to worry about taking too much hate and dying with you helping them out.

Assassin (Lvl 50)

This is the next power spike/game changer for THF. Assassin is a job trait, so no need to make a macro to use it. At 50 you can now split SA and TA with your Assassin trait.

Now consider making a set of equipment that is AGI+attack/STR based for Trick Attack, and then another set of equipment that is DEX+attack/STR based for Sneak Attack. Consider also creating separate macros for SA and TA as well.

With Assassin at level 50 you no longer need a first voke in your parties. A real game changer. Now you can use TA behind a party member, while the mob is facing the party member. Excellent for your party's tank! They can just provoke from the start of a fight and no time is wasted setting up SATA anymore.
Ex: (THF>)(Tank>)(<Mob)

Your TA will do critical damage and transfer the hate without needing SA behind the mob now. After you use TA in front of the mob/behind the tank, you then can go behind the mob and use SA for some extra damage. You can close SCs with either TA in front of the mob with the tank or SA from behind the mob as well. Consider having collaborator or an evasion set of equipment ready if you are going to close a SC with SA behind the mob because you will be taking the hate for the damage you cause.

So begins the intricate dance of THF: Bully and acid bolts at the start of a fight, TA (with maybe a WS to close a SC) on tank, SA (with maybe a WS to close a SC) from behind, melee for a bit to build TP, disengage from the mob to pull another....

All leveling parties are different however and you may need to change up your tactics depending on what your party lineup is like. Just be aware of all the tools you have to maximize your contribution in both DPS and utility.

Tank or No Tank?

Some parties will not have a dedicated tank like PLD or NIN. Instead it will be something like 3x DPS/NIN, you THF/NIN, 1 main healer, 1 support setup. For these types of parties the aim is for all of the DPS to play hot potato with mobs using shadows to mitigate damage. The healer and support keep everyone alive and hasted. If you don't have a bard as the support, then your job most likely will be to pull in this setup.

You will need to be more careful in how you split TA and SA in this setup. You most likely will be closing a SC with SA+WS and taking hate for a bit, tanking with shadows.

You could also close SCs with TA behind a party member and transfer hate to them, however be mindful that that party member has only so many shadows. You may cause that party member to run out of shadows and start taking a lot of damage if you close a SC too early in a fight behind them. At 45+ consider making use of Accomplice and Collaborator to control frontline hate/shadows!

Your party setup/skill may differ but as a general starting rule consider closing SCs with SA (taking the hate) and using TA behind a DPS/NIN with a regular melee attack.

Early Level Tips (1-30)

• You can level 1-10 in starter zones off of level 1 mobs
• In addition to dagger, consider picking up a sword, shield, crossbow with bronze bolts, and knuckles to level up those skills
• Be on the lookout for weapon upgrades on the Auction House.
• Although you could technically start partying from around level 12 in the dunes or other lower level partying zones, consider soloing from 10-15 until you get Sneak Attack, when you will get a big DPS boost.
• Make sure to have a crossbow with bolts or a boomerang or pebbles at least so you can pull for your parties
  • Soloing also gives you all of the mob drops/crystals for you to sell on the AH to make more money.
• Make use of HXUI or TParty addons so you can see your party members' TP. It will help you know when your party member's are going to use a WS so you can close a SC after them.
• In parties your best friends are DRGs, NINs, SAMs, and Great Sword wielding DRKs. They can open Distortion for you to close with Wasp Sting. You can also work with a SMN. Carbuncle and Fenrir can open Distortion for you.
• At level 23+ Your 2nd best friends are Great Axe Wielding WAR's and DRKs. They can open Detonation for you (Sturmwind) to close with Gust Slash. NINs can open Detonation for you via Blade:Retsu.
• During the lower levels you can consider main-handing swords or knuckles instead of daggers. Knuckles are strong against crabs, which are a common mob you will be fighting at the lower levels. Swords have more damage on them than daggers but your accuracy may be a bit lower due to the lower skill. The overall difference in weapons is marginal at the lower levels. Skill/accuracy comes more into play at level 30+ when the skill difference in weapons starts to become more apparent and you obtain stronger dagger weapon skills (Viper Bite). Just know how to close SCs with the other weapons to make the most DPS.

Middle Level Tips (30-50)

• Welcome to Trick Attack! You can start making some big chains if your party members work with you. Don't be afraid to communicate with your party members to set up "First Voke," so you can trick behind the tank.
  • Alternatively, some parties may prefer forgoing the "First Voke" strategy and have a melee/NIN frontline that you can Trick off of instead of the tank. Usually the tank is PLD in this situation because they can often generate enough hate to keep the mob on them after a SATA. Either way, make sure to communicate with your party members to have someone standing close behind the mob for you to trick off.
• Your new friend is black mage starting at around level 30. Melee start to gain decent gear and stats for more consistent skillchaining at these levels. This opens up the option of big magic bursting with -GA spells, and if the BLM is good, they can double magic burst.
  • THF + BLM synergy becomes strong from level 30+. If you coordinate, your party can start to take out every other IT mob in seconds with a melee WS+ THF SA/TA/WS+SC+(double) MB combo at the beginning of a fight for fast exp gains.
  • It will take some practice to coordinate this but it is very fun/satisfying to pull off once your group gets the hang of it.
  • Common tactics for this strategy is creating a Distortion or Detonation chain, followed by BLM bursting Waterga or Aeroga depending on the chain. Bonus points if the BLM can double burst Water(II)/Blizzard or Aero(II) depending on the chain. At level 32 BLM gets Blizzaga, which can replace Waterga for high DPS with Distortion.
• Don't forget Mug when you hit 35. Mug increases critical hit rates against the affected mob. Great boost in DPS for you and your party members every 10 minutes to quickly defeat the mob.
• Bully is a boon at level 40! You start to lean towards a utility DPS at 45+ You can now pull with Bully, and then guarantee acid bolt defense down procs against mobs. Hopefully you have been keeping your marksmanship skill leveled up so you have decent accuracy. Don't forget to make an AGI/ranged accuracy gear set and macro it in for when you shoot your bolts.
  • Bully + Acid bolts are amazing. You should always aim to have acid bolts for all of your leveling parties at level 40+. They will substantially increase you and your melee's DPS. All of the extra damage everyone does is because of you!
  • Acid bolts can be considered a dispel against mobs that use defense up (crawlers). You can act as the dispeler if your group does not have a RDM or BRD.
• You start to lean even more towards a utility DPS at 45+. Make use of Accomplice and Collaborator at level 45+. You can save lives and save the healer lots of MP!
  • DRKs will love you for saving them after they use Souleater and Last Resort.
  • RNG will appreciate you for saving them after they use Barrage and later Sidewinder.
  • Healers will appreciate you for saving them if they pull hate from a big heal/curaga during a fight.
  • Tanks will love you for making it easier for them to keep hate with Collaborator.
  • Collaborator and Accomplice can be quite useful in parties without a main tank. You can help everyone manage shadows easier by directing the mob.
• With the current meta, party invites may begin to start falling off at 30+ for THFs. Your best bet is to become a party leader and start inviting folks to level up instead of waiting for a longer time for an invite.
  • If you're up for being a party leader, check out the EXP Party Leader Guide for guidance/tips.