1-99 NEW THIEF GUIDE - not edited

FFXI Thief walkthrough lv 1-99 ..2013
by
jason zero

this guide is for a completely new player, who wishes a direct path to 99, actually learning the job and keeping skills up. Thief is a very popular and wanted job in todays fantasy. also with this guide, you will be able to solo most end game content and have a subjob that can be used on just about all senerios.
for the old returning players. this isnt your old final fantasy, things are different. lets not dewl in the past, lets move on. right now forget everything. right now we get you to 99 and then you start exploring the game. and of course whenever you are feeling nastalic, you can then take that lv 99 and solo most of the old lv 75 content to your hearts content.
here we go!

Part 1 - you call that a knife???

race dont matter to much, grab whatever floats ur boat. just make sure ur starting city is san dorio. dont worry about the stupid ring. but starting in sandy is a must.
next choice thief.
now go to the equipment menu and check out ur dinky little onion knife... ya its crap. and guess what.. we arnt even gonna use it...make sure your onion knife is unequiped. no jokes.
head outside, but talk to the gaurds at the gate before you exit and get signet. this is a must. once out side, again a MUST. find the field manual. it should be right outside near you. there are only 2 things to worry about for the field manual. training regiment and field support. forget about field support for now. select training and set it to page 1. also have it on repeat.
now we fight. dont go to far from the city walls. focus on what the regiment is and keep completing pages.
once you complete your first page. go back to the manual and select field support. reraise, protect, shell, regen and meat are all your friends. with meat and regen taking prioroty. but you will have so much tabs(what you spend for buffs) you will be able to get them all everytime.
keep smashing things with your fists. once you learn combo, complete the page you are on and go back to book. change your regime to page 2 and set to repeat. when your TP (tactical points are at 100, use combo. its an ability and its a weapon skill. make a macro like this
/ws "Combo" <t>
when you hit level 5, you learn steal. try and use this abilty every 5 min to get more things to sell for gil(money) make a macro like this
/ja "Steal" <t>
keep fighting and completing page 2 until you are level 10.
and while you are at it. you can make a 1 hour (not 2 hour anymore) macro which goes like this
/ja "Perfect Dodge" <me>


Part 2 - A thiefs journy

head back into sandy, go to K7 in southern sandy, find thadiene and sell everything you have aquired. If sandy happends to be in first, buy a boomerang right there. i know its level 14.. but u will get there soon enough. If they are not in first, check the auction house real quick. you go bid, weapons, ranged and find it in there. if there are none in, head to north san and find the carpenters guild. If it is friday you will have to wait a little bit. oh well. buy one from one of the merchants in there. there may be a coarse boomerany at the auction house. if you have the loot.. grab it. any will work even a level 20 or so one will be fine. if you have to spend extra time to get funds up. its worth it.
got your boomerang??? good. start heading for the exit. time to roll. save princes zelda etc.
lastly before you head out, talk to that gaurd that gave you signet. you got signet right?? use 1k points to buy royal archers knuckles. equip those bad larrys. grab a warp scroll from him too. dont worry about the stupid exp ring.. exp comes soo easy in the new FF, its not worth the inventory space.
get ur maps out, study up a little bit. head south to la thiene platua. anything that looks humaniod will aggro. and kill you. so be extra careful and dont get too close. if it looks like a friendy more animal like mob.. its usually ok. you can look up every mob as you go and see if they aggro or not
try to stay on the path, and more open areas where you have plenty of room to stealthfully get around any threats. continue all the way south to valkrum dunes. you may of been able to survive a few unwanted attacked in lathiene, but the mobs are stronger in the dunes and they will knock you the hell down if you get attacked. just use your perfect dodge macro and run for the zone if that happens. and for gods sake make sure you have reraise up.
however, there is a port town called selbina in the dunes that is safe. head there, stat. this is going to be your new home for a while.
when you get in, find the blue home point marker and set your home point here.
now if you die, or use that warp scroll you will return here instead of san doria.
after that, leave selby and go east twords konstant highlands. avoid all the monsters that can hurt you and find the cave/tunnel with all the lizards in it. ok slow it down. there are sand bats in this tunnel that aggro to sound. you have 2 stratgies to get by. use perfect dodge and run for the highlands zone or run through as far as you can... die.. but stop at the end of the tunnel. use reraise and continue from there.
once you make it to the highlands keep heading east twords the big wierd craig tele gate thingy mabob... you can grab the tele crystal if you like as u pass by, but it will not be used in this guide. its the one to the right of the chocabo guy. just run up those stairs and click the thing. now white mages can teleport you to that location if you are in thier party.
anyhow keep moving. you are heading for L7, there is an entrance to gusgen mines. go inside.


Part 3 - Rocky montage

when you get in here go to party on the menu and hit seek party.. this is known as flagging up. go down a little further in the mine and you will find a grounds tomb. this is just like the field manual from before but for dungeons. you want to set your regiment to page 1 and to repeat as usual. dont get any buffs... yet
next head down a little further but dont go down all way into the first room where the skeletons are. they aggro and are very tough for you... right now. soon.. oh soon.. even as a thief with no sub, mark my words you will be one of the top damage dealers down here once you get your rocky on.
now, you wait. u may of got lucky and already asked to join a mines party on the way over, but anyhow what you are waiting for is someone to invite you to their party. when that happens you select party and yes.
if the mines are popping you will be thrown into a big alliance made up of 3 partys with 6 members max. thats what u are hoping for. it might be a little dead and thats ok too. if its complety dead. you can buff up and fight worms outside the mines while you wait for people to come.
once in a party, guess what? its time to wait.. again. but for the most part you should be able to roll into gusgen, flag up and bam u will get an invite. cause see you are lv 10 and you can be snced to, so you are a high asset because of your low level.
so just hang out on the stairs and watch. once you are leveled snced go back to the book and get some buffs. remember everytime you snc or desnc you lose ur buffs. Make sure you always have reraise.
when you hit lv 15 (it wont take long) its time to get out there and help with the slaughter. so heres the deal
there is a south room and a north room. and they are refered to just as that. in those rooms the skeletons pop. thats the main slaughter kill area. when you first get in there. you wanna just stay in those rooms.
because you are now lv 15 you learn sneak attack. make a macro like this
/ja "Sneak Attack" <me>
and then make another macro that is this
/ja "Sneak Attack" <me>
wait 1
/ws "Combo" <t>

when you use SA and combo together you will do a ton of damage.
a big reason for this is undead are weak to blunt weapons. even as thf no sub you will be a major hitter. daggers are pittiful at this low level.
if you continue north there is a hallway and its filled with 4-5 ghouls. these are harder but they count as kills for the page, so they are fought as well. do not fight any ghouls until lv 20. there are no ghouls in the 2 main rooms, but other players will pull or bring them in. when this happens try and stay away from them for the most part until you are strong enough.
once level 20, you should be getting the hang of it and its time to see what pulling is all about. make sure your group is strong enough.. if they have been fighting ghouls then obv you are good, but for the most part you need some people in the lower 20s to take them down.
thiefs are excelent pullers and its gonna be one of your roles. this is what you do. make sure your boomerang is equiped. make a macro that looks like this
/ra <t>
now after the easy skeles are killed in the first 2 rooms, you will head north and from a distance get the ghouls attention. do not engage. just throw the boomerang, turn around and head back to the north room.
as you are bringing it back, hit another macro. it will look like this
/p pulling <t> now - north room
this just lets everyone know what you are doing.
make another macro like this
/p pulling <t> now - south room

once you get the hang of that and get a little stronger incase you screw up, go back to the south room, the first room and go west. there are ghouls down that hallway. but the pulls are harder. when you get good... pull ghouls from the west, but avoid getting aggroed by the undead resident evil dogs, its ok if you do.. just pull that back to camp and let people know you are comming with it. but its not part of the book pages and basicly is costing people kills.. exp etc.. its a mistake and its yours. but a good puller can pull 3 or 4 ghouls from the west with no problems.
use the south room macro when you get a ghoul from east or west
the east hallway is long and there are only a couple ghouls to get... when you hit lv 25 you will learn flee. make a macro that looks like this
/ja "Flee" <me>
when you get flee you can do pulls from the east effectivly.
if you party is killing so fast, dont even engage.. just pull.. let someone take the mob from you and you head back out to grab another.
so quick recap on gusgen mines
lv 10-14 - do nothing dont enter rooms
lv 15-19- hang out in first 2 rooms, smash skeletons
lv 20-24 - pull ghouls from the north hallway
lv 25-28 - pull ghouls from east and west

of course play at your own speed, you can jump in at 13 or 14 if ur feeling it .. lol or stay in the main rooms longer if the ghouls seem to tough... attempt the expert pull areas a few levels later if they are giving u trouble. remember you are gonna get to be all those levels a few times so first time around no need to do it all. you will hit lv 27 or 28 and bam resnc to 22 or boom resnc to 14... 17 etc.. it will keep jumping.

note: do not go into the east or west rooms off of the north room... u will see a bunch of mushroom guys. just leave them alone. dont be a doosh, be a fun guy. and dont explore too far down the east/west ghoul hallways
stay in gusgen mines until you are lv 40.
now
use the grounds tomb, field support homming instint to get back to selby

Part 4 - saturday night fever


back in selby, first sell all the treasures you got from gusgen to any vendor, then head straight out into the dunes and start fighting flys and crabs. you are looking for a carb apron and a damesilfy worm. you should already have a magicked skull from gusgen. once you have all 3, go back into selby, find a vendor and sell ur extra stuff for money.
over down by the water is a guy named isacio. trade him the skull, apron and worm to be able to have a subjob.
now we must venture to jueno. start walking north, when you get back in lathiene head for junger forest. there is a huge tel holla craig thing there if you wanna grab the crystal on your way. after junger go through batlia downs
once in upper jueno set your home point here. but sorry its not time to get your chicken licsnse. you can do that after you get 99. but hey its ur game.. do what u want
go Speak with Laila (G-7) in Upper Jeuno. Pick "I surely do" and then choose "never." Speak with Rhea Myuliah standing right next to her for a cutscene. exit jueno, find a field manual and use field support repahation, and get transported to your home nation which is sandy of course then Head to Lion Springs Tavern in Southern San d'Oria and talk to Valderotaux for a cutscene.During the cutscene you can choose any options; the results are the same.
now that jueno is ur home point, use that warp scroll and go back to upper Jeuno and talk to Rhea Myuliah again. She mentions a pebble lying at the bottom of Lake Mechieume in Jugner Forest (S).
Next you must travel back to Jugner Forest (S) and click on the Glowing Pebbles (I-5) for a cutscene and a KeyItemStardust Pebble. just make sure you talk to the jueno gaurd right at the zone for another warp scroll!!
use that scroll, go back to laila, talk to her and now we are dancing!!
grab another scroll... head outside, use the field manual to get back to sandy. go to your mog house. there is one in every part of sandy. once inside you can change jobs. make your main job dancer and your support job thief.
you can sell those knuckles, you no longer need them. bronze knife can bought in northern san from tavorin at e4. get 2 of them.
head outside and lv dnc to 10 just like you did with thief. next make your way all the way back to gusgen... but this time dont stop in selby to set your home point.... and dont forget you have to get by the sand bats again!!! keep your home point in jueno pretty much for the rest of the game.
stay in gusgen til lv 49, you know the drill here. the big differnce is u are not going to have a ranged weapon at this point, and will not be a ghoul puller. instead you will be hanging out in main rooms mostly and dancing. dance party. go!
check out all the dancer abilities as you get them and just test the water on everything. and make macros!!! however the important thing here is raising your dagger skills. at lv 20 you get dual wield so use 2 daggers!!! also, you can use your dancer heals to heal other people. and sambas effect everyone in your party as well as you.
once lv 49, warp to jueno, you are done with dancer.

part 5 - need more power
just thief from here on out. change jobs back to thief and sub dancer. you are now a lv 40 thf lv 20 dancer ... so that means you get dual wield from the dancer sub and curing waltz and drain samba... thats pretty good.
this is the bad part. you are broke. ur dagger skills are a bit behind. u have no gear. but its ok. u can get by.
sell ur crap as usual from the mines.
hit the auction house, go to daggers, find something, anything... cheap just a vanillia weapon.. and get 2 of them. u can get mythril knives at the weapon store in upper jueno for 10k or so... if u have some loot but nothing is at AH. only after you have gotten some decent weapons then look at armor. but neither is required, u will be ok with what u got.
if you cant find anything better, or just cant afford anything, dont fret. you will be fine. there is free gear waiting for you later. really good free gear too.
exit jueno via lower jeuno and head to the crawlers nest its at g-13 in rolanberry field. this is your next leveling spot.
head in. find the grounds tomb. set it to page 1. flag up. here when u get in an alliance, you all stay in a big group and do the 'loop' which means you move as one large union ganging up on 1 or 2 mobs at once.
if there is no one there. its ok, go out side and fight some eaiser things until peeps show up.

when you get viper bite. make a macro like the sneak attack combo but use viper bite instead of combo. you will also have trick attack, but it is worthless in todays FF until you hit level 60 for the assassians trait. at 45 however you get hide. make this macro
/ja "Sneak Attack" <me>
/wait 1
/ja "Hide" <me>

what this does .. is it lets sneak attack go off from any angle. but the trick is use the macro before you engage. hide has many uses.
once you hit lv 50 you will not be able to get to 51. so max out ur exp and head back to where it all started ... sandy via field support... its time for a limit break!!!
from lv 50 all the way to 99 .. every 5 levels you will have to do a limit break to increase your max level. some are very hard, others very easy. the first one is a dousy and you are gonna need help with the end of it. but first you have some errands to run.
mini recap of what has happened

sandy - thief 1-10
selby - home point
gusgen - thief 11-40
dunes - subjob quest
jueno - dancer quest/home point
sandy - dancer 1-10
gusgen - dancer 11-49
crawlers nest - thief 40-50

BREAKING THE LIMITS

part 6 - burr
you must travel through rangamount pass and get some form of teleportation back there weather it be an abby warp or tele crystal. then you warp back to jueno. and talk to maat and the moggle in ru gardens.
I cant hold your hand for all of these. so look up the limit breaks on the wiki. you are going to need to shout for help in jueno for a few of them. and this first one is one of them. once you get a friend. you should be good to go.
do all the limits up to lv 70 and stay in crawlers nest for skill ups if its available. if not you can jump into abby lathiene and key boxes for quick exp. once again at this point you just need to jump right in or do a lot of reading on the wiki for abby. but its not that hard and you will get it.
the main point is if you are under 75, you really wont be doing much. but great news is as thf/dnc you will be a very usefull keyer. your main role will be opening up boxes. and using flee as much as possible. and in abby you will open boxes that reset flee. so there will be times when you are fleeing non stop.
also you can use your dances to buff up your mates. but until you hit 75-85 there is no reason to fight, you will never hit anything. razed ruins is your best atma for when you are ready to hit things. when in keyer mode. you will want strong hold just for the regen.
part 7 - maat
the limit break for 70 is fighting maat. dont fret. you are a thief. you dont actually have to fight. you can steal from maat and win. you are underskilled and have no good gear.. so fighting wasnt really an option any how.
there are lots of steal guides on the thf maat fight. look them up. you are goona need a thiefs testimony. again lots of places you can get it. you get it by stealing.

part 8 - i got worms - no thats what im gonna call it.

after maat, the limits breaks are relatively easy til 95. the trick is you can trade for all the bst seal stuff with 2 npcs in port jueno, that are right to the left of the stairs to the lower levels.
all your leveling from here on out will be done in abby latheine fighting worms in a big alliance. remember that good free gear i was talking about. you can get it for cour(abby money) ... its pink and riducoulus looking but you get full haste. once you get that gear, focus on good daggers. you can get a lot of items in abby that sell for decent money at the AH. you also have steal!!! dont forget. and mug...
one big differnce about the worm partys... you dont pull worms.. ever.. just run right up and hit it. when you pull it.. it will cast a spell at you. and they dont move.. so put the boomerang away.

part 9 - lets see what you got kid.
the final limit break is easy.. but you need a full party.. good part is you can just do a quick shout in jueno and will have a group fast. because you can warp to the fight from there. bad part is before you can do it.. you have to farm a few items.
again look up the wiki for it.
the best strategy i found is go to danguf wardi and fight the mobs in there that drop it. i believe the crab type is ur best bet. you can solo these but its going to be tough. what you want is at least one of the main drops. i believe the ra ra tail. thing is multiple ones make the fight easier.. dont worry bout it. you only need one. the fight isnt that hard. if you get 2.. thats great. u use one to do the quest and the other one on the guy. but trust me.. its not a hard fight you justa need a party of a few 99 bad asses.. for about 3 min..
.. after that.. back to lathiene and get to 99. really focus on tanking the mob yourself so you can gain evasion and parry skill ups. you will find skill ups are the real grind in this game. when you max out on exp points.. you will get limit points which gain you merit points.. which let you make your guy way better. dont worry. u will figure it all out by that time.

now do what you want... first thing i would do is get rid of that awful pink outfit you have been rocking for the last few days... but hey if u like it... it really is great gear. and free too. not only is it free but you can buy it more than once and sell it at the AH and make money from it!!

part 10 - sub jobs
thf/dnc is going to cover over 90 percent of what you do, and totally get by the other 10. so you can totally just stop here if you want. however it is extremly easy to level up a few other jobs to 49 for more options. here are some of the options. and by all means experiment. who knows you might come up with the next best thing. I personally love thf/drg and think more would too if they tried it with all the cool things you can stack together.
heck maybe thf/mnk with full evasion/counter is the next best tank. what about thf/brd to help proc and use AoE songs to get lots of things with TH?? be creative. its your game.

Extra Damage Subs
thf/war - with our native dual wield and all the beastly things war brings to the table, this combo is top tier as far as max damage is concerned.
thf/drk - with last resort being on par with beserk these days, drk actually packs quite the punch, however much more paper thing with soul eater coming to the table. drain, aspir, bio and stun are the only worthwhile spells. with stun obv being the mvp here and the main reason to sub drk.
thf/drg - SA and TA stack with jump. and high jump. try this. bully, SA/TA Assasion charge, Jump. and its instant. Saju and Tahi are how i have my macros set when i use these. so much fun. and dont forget the 5 percent haste from the earring. also jump counts BOTH weapons for damage. this combo gains TP faster than most. and can fight effectily with bolts and jumps from midrange with out even engaging the mob.
thf/cor - gun thief. every min you abuse quick draw. this is a totally differnt play style in which you have to be away from the mob. but damage is comparable... although expensive.
Extra Defense/Solo Subs
thf/dnc - you already know all about this one. keep in mind. there is just about always a better option than dnc. and u are always sacrificing TP (damage ) for that extra cushion. this is easily the most popular sub for thf right now.
thf/nin - most of the time nin is better than dnc. but it takes way more skill, way more money to use. but you don sacrifice your tp to stay alive. also bloody bolts are generoly used to gain HP back. and again that cost money as well as a high marksmenship. not to mention just to unlock nin you have to do the kazham quest. and the key spells are very pricey. but still. nin is better...if you have all that
thf/blm - stun, ice spikes... drain ..no not really.. the main reason is for warp. when you see thief subbing blm .. 9 times out of 10 .. itssome guy running errands in jueno.. flee here.. buy that.. cast warp.. repeat.. blm is your go to .. get stuff done option. however no snk/invs like nin and dnc provide is a let down

hope you enjoyed reading this.

jason

well, i was going to edit this up all nice. but with all the new stuff from the update. a lot of it is moot. you can now get a very early jump on equipment and the home point warp make for a quicker path. its all about the sparks baby!!!

i would suggest going for early knuckles..and some decent lv 10-20 gear before heading out to selby/gusgen.. also instead of a boomerang it looks like you may be able to support a crossbow. which is way better anyhow.

sorry for the wall of txt. if anyone wants to edit it.. add to it.. take away... etc by all means, knock urself out

thanks