<name> fails to steal from the ...oh why bother

While replaying final fantasy IX, i was talking to my girlfriend who was working on her thief testimony. In the time I successfully stole several pieces of excellent rare armor from 3 bosses, she failed repeatedly to steal her testimony. We discussed at length the times steal was useful before ffxi and during ffxi. The difference was disheartening, only 3 instances appeared in which steal was even useful for ffxi; the af quadav stew, the testimony, and brigandish blade.

In previous games, stealing from monsters was used to gather materials that couldn't be obtained otherwise, or armors that were relevant at the time. I'm not crying about past nms, but I hope that steal will have legitimate uses and be worth using for more than aura steal in the future.

You forgot the warp scroll in the THF Maat fight.

But what's interesting is that I just popped into the THF forums to ask WTF are ppl stealing right now? I was browsing FFXIAH.com and spotted this. Yep Thief's Kote are on the page of most viewed items, and are still happily selling away at 100k each.

These people can't all just be doing Maat as THF on their first job, right?

I found it easier just to fight maat on thf anyways...

I wish they gave stealing more purpose, I always felt it should be more useful for THF.

I get my merits worth out of aura steal. Some NM buffs are pretty handy to have. For example Sharp Strike from Transcendent Scorpion gives me around 300 attack, and while it can't absorb Tojil's blaze spikes it can still take them off. My only gripe is it takes too long to cool down.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ulth

My only gripe is it takes too long to cool down.

---

With Job Points, you can eventually get recast down to 4 mins... for all it's worth.

Be nice if steal stole 3-5 of the stolen items instead of just one.

be nice if you got at least temp items from steal.

Maybe even special temp items that you can only get from stealing.

Or regular stolen item (with it's crappy success rate) and a 100% chance at a temp item (so you can get up to 2 items per steal)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mckenzie

but I hope that steal will have legitimate uses

---

Whereas you can also get them by killing mobs, Silver/Gold/Platinum Beastcoins come to mind. Of course, they're not the greatest return rate (an additional 60k an hour or so isn't particularly amazing, and Despoil doesn't typically make that much higher), but for newer players it isn't too bad. Newer items or faster ways of farming old items would be a good way to reinvigorate Steal for older players outside of Aura Steal - such as higher level mobs with multiple already existing beastcoins you'd steal at the same time (or Beastcoin Pouches that release a random quality of a stack of currently existing beastcoins?), or even a new item, such as a theoretical Bismuth Beastcoin or even Ormolu Beastcoin.

On the other hand, Thief already has Treasure Hunter and Gilfinder so tipping the scales of farming for them even more just makes farming less fun for anyone who might not want to play Thief (or even /THF) all the time. For example, if monster's loot drops started being poor to counteract the amount of gil that can be obtained from stealing from them, this could be a problem, or if the amount of Gil that a Thief can get is so much more than any other job doing anything else.

And while I'm sure they could also add some Records Of Eminence for each class to earn some capacity points (weekly challenges?) that for Thief might involve stealing, this might not fit your vision of legitimate.

I agree with the consensus that stealing should be more incorporated into Thief. I've always found it odd that it doesn't have a general use and would welcome more utility to Thief. I always thought Thief should actually be stealing regularly, sneaky and cunning in FFXI.

Larceny adjustment: If Blue Mage can have a full dispel spell they have access to every 5 minutes. I don't see why Larceny, a 1 hour ability shouldn't just steal all buffs a mob has. It's not that overpowered. It already steals 1 hour abilities and even with monster buff duration lasting longer, most current endgame is timed battlefields/dungeons and Bards/Corsairs can buff and drop party so I don't see the problem with a full Aura Steal/Dispel as a 1 hour.

Steal adjustment: More likely to steal temp items in battlefields.

Aura Steal adjustment: They did a good job removing the shared timer with Steal and Despoil, they need to go one further and just separate Aura Steal into it's own JA on a 1-3 minute timer. Dark Knight can fire it off in less an 1 minute in just Haste gear. I don't see it being overpowered here. Merits beyond the first could still be the rate of stealing the buff versus dispelling it.

Hide adjustment: Change the animation to Job Emote: Thief which looks cooler in my opinion. Give it the same treatment as Camouflage, where you can melee with a chance of remaining invisible for reduced enmity.

Borrowed Time (Concept Job Ability): Increases target's delay and gives the THF JA Haste.

Update Thief's Tools: Using Thief's Tools on more modern content chests like Ra'Kaznar Skirmish, reducing the chance it is a mimic.