I need some help: THF, SoA, Delve Equipment and New Weapons.

[Nebo]

The THF forums...pretty much everywhere except for maybe FFXIAH are dead. But I suspect that, like me, many of you hopelessly nostalgic THF addicts still lurk them while playing your other jobs that you've been forced into playing because no one will take your THF to anything.

Lets rewind a second. Pre-SoA. I had all relevant gear sets (and maybe even some crazy neurotic OCD situational ones....like a full body enmity on provoke...collaboator sets etc). Not the best of the best all around...but good, well thought out gear swaps, with some great equipment for every situation, that put out respectable damage in any event where hitting a thing with a thing was a good way to injure it.

THF has always faced that issue of lolDD perception. Most of us suck... Even with 99 R/M/E. I get that. And to the extent of super buffed situtations, and zerg potential, a lot of that perception is true, because of the job's fundamental positional/timer restrictions and general shitiness of dagger WS.

But, this is also something I've always taken as a challenge. And maybe something I've always secretly, quietly, loved about THF: "I will take my shitty lolTHF job and out damage you." I mean, Everyone expects your bandwagon RME DRK WAR SAM MNK whatever to put out good numbers. When most people see a THF do it, they always seem so surprised and happy. Like a gift they weren't expecting .

And for the most part, with nine out of ten DD's out there, I did on a consistent basis.

~SHAKABOOM! Delve weapons happened.

I have all the new delve dear for THF with the lowest being least rank 2 feet (All plasm farmed on my BRD). I have one good delve weapon, and a choice of weak daggers to dual wield with it: 90 TWASH or 99 STR magian dagger seem to be the best performing of what I have.

Do I mainhand Twash to use Rudras, while gimping every non-stacked WS, and possibly my white damage from not pairing STR thokcha with Delve weapon? Do I mainhand Delve plasm dagger and lose access to the only competitive weapon skill I have?

I feel like it is a futile concern anyway. I mean...Dagger RME ws right now still doesn't compare to delve weapon and geared....any dd job that doesn't have to use shitty dagger WS. Let alone Exenterator or Evisceration.

I have a pup friend that I do everything with. Has vere, some decent gear, etc. Never once has this pup out damaged me pre SoA. AS SOON as he got delve H2H, alternator and a couple of gear pieces (less pieces and less ranked than mine), he started blowing me away.

Honestly, I don't even feel like logging in any more. I go to delve events on BRD to farm gear for my THF. But even after I got all the gear...I still can't play it at the same level that I'm used to. I feel like I'm wasting my time.

People have been saying THF is a dead job for a while now...But I feel that we really are worse off now in comparison to literally every other DD than we have been in years past. We are forced to dual wield crappy daggers with weak WS's while everyone else is swinging god-like weapons and making things explode with uninhibited and unrestricted Weapon Skill Skill spam. I really don't see how THF can be relevant in SoA.

And this...coming from me? I mean, I might be one of the last ones that was still trying to stick it out and make it work to be a THF main. But I am more frustrated now than I have ever been. I can't even work up the energy to be angry at the development team's blatant lack of attention to these issues that plague THF...I'm just sad.

[Vold]

It has never helped us that SE absolutely refuses to give us a great WS to unleash on things. It took Abyssea to turn evis into a great WS without the need for stacking with SATA. Beyond that we have jackcrap for solo WSing. Until they allow us to open up with our WS DD we'll remain where we're at. Don't get me wrong our SATA WSs are a wonderful thing but it's wrong to make the job rely on SATA to deal damage. I've suggested a compromise of a 30 second SATA timer but that has either never been brought up to them as a suggestion or they simply answered NO with silence.

It's really irritating that they're too busy messing things up in game to care about a job that it's entire existence has been made possible thanks to SATA and TH. If not for those two factors the job would be the worst off by a mile. I've lost count of the wonderful game changing additions that the rest of the jobs have gotten for improvement, and while THF hasn't had a shortage of additions, it certainly has had a shortage of useful additions that make you go, oh yeaaaaaah this is wonderful.

I consider THF NIN WAR PLD jobs my main jobs. But at the end of the day THF gets the ultimate nod because it brings home the bacon when I need to bring home the bacon. I would like to see justice for it but it won't happen so long as people in charge fail to understand just how insignificant SA/TA + WS damage really is, or that it's okay to give a job nice things even though it's already guaranteed to be popular. They did it with ninja and dancer, additions that while may or may not have done the jobs much good for getting in on groups, still are really great additions to the jobs. DNC is practically the 1h version of SAM when it comes to getting stuff on a silver platter. I'm not sure why THF has gotten a pass. There's not much you can do for THF, really. So, you do what you can which is increase their damage potential with a decent solo WS. If you're so worried that the universe might explode if THF starts doing respectable damage in end game then make it not stack with SATA. Whatever.

[Babekeke]

The ONLY fix for this, is to remove the Rare tag from the Delve weapons, and dual-wield them. This stacked with the possible opportunity to unlock Rudra's through WoE (and maybe empy?) weapon, would allow THF to actually participate.

Otherwise, in theory, Single-wielding the Delve weapon is your best choice for over-all DoT, though you lose a little on WS form lack of 2nd weapon hitting and possibly DA/TA/QAing.

Alternatively, perhaps this is the return of Rapidus Sax, particularly for Delve as it has the lowest delay of our daggers, and 12 acc.

Twilight Knife - Chance to drain 10 TP for faster WSing, also the 3% QA can proc on main-hand and WS.

Triplus Dagger - 3% increase to TA rate, and of course, extra damage from those Triple Attacks.

Fire Thokcha - For when you don't need acc, this adds the most to your white damage.

Thunder Thokcha - Again for in Delve when you just can't hit the mob. If Rapidus isn't cutting it, this offers DEX and more acc.

Obviously the higher your level of DW, the less you are affected by Dual-Wielding a sub-damage weapon whilst main-handing the Delve weapon, but overall, until we can dual-wield Delve Weapons, or they introduce a 2nd Delve dagger to use in off-hand, we're stuck with being sub-par.

Look on the bright side though, at least we have TH... you could be a NIN!

[Kaeoni]

I'm sure this isn't any consolation, but the Izhiikoh drops from Dakuwaqa, a glorious main hand weapon kicking Aphotic Kukri to Offhand.

Macoquetza drops off the Wildskeepers reive fight from Tchakka. A decent offhand dagger to Aphotic kukri as well and is a very realistic dagger to get.

If you don't have this option, you can mainhand the Aphotic kukri and offhand Halachuinic Sword.
Before you say anything I'm well aware Thief only has D sword skill. That being said you'd only want to use this mainly for pre SoA due to a huge accuracy hit you would need to account for against Delve Fodder ect. (which means It's not worth it)

Pugiunculus from Legion is something to consider due to it's 150 delay and 5% TA

Currently, I personally Aphotic Kukri / Coruscanti. Just because I have it, I have other things to spend Plasm on, don't do Legion, and don't care enough to go out and kill Tchakka.

Whatever it is you decide to pick for a main/offhand, the point is, never under any circumstances should you ever be not dual wielding. You'll do more damage offhanding a thief knife than using a shield.

[Babekeke]

Whatever it is you decide to pick for a main/offhand, the point is, never under any circumstances should you ever be not dual wielding. You'll do more damage offhanding a thief knife than using a shield.

Almost. Dual-wielding a thief's knife increases your damage by nearly 31%, and your delay by 32%. Maybe with the extra hit on WS and the extra 4-5% TP return it will still work out better than single-wielding, but certainly anything better than a Thief's knife will increase your damage output. Especially anything with useful stats on it (which thief's knife doesn't have).

[Babekeke]

Further to my last, that was assuming using Raider's Boomerang and Suppa only for + DW. Not sure if delve earrings beat Suppa and Brutal, or if there are any decent combinations to cap haste whilst using DW head and/or Belt.

[Rustic]

Makes me wonder if single-handing it with the new dagger > dual wielding at this point. Dancers had this issue, didn't they?

[Nebo]

Makes me wonder if single-handing it with the new dagger > dual wielding at this point.

Dual Wielding will still out-damage single-wielding the new delve dagger.

[Babekeke]

Dual Wielding will still out-damage single-wielding the new delve dagger.

Yes, very much so. Especially if you make use of the stats of the off-hand dagger.

Pre-SoA it was always the most att/STR, whereas in SoA sometimes an acc dagger is better if you can't cap acc with the rest of your gear/sushi. The new changes to how the stats affect us will help our acc a lot though, as we tend to get a lot of dex. If you TP in 200 DEX for example, you will get a bonus of 50 acc.