Thief Job Ability Synergy: This is not 2005

[Ziero]

If you don't need TH, don't take a thf to DD, take a war or sam... you wouldn't take a BLM to DD a mob weak to magic would you? Maybe you would.

It is generally agreed that a yellow stagger without TH, or TH without a yellow stagger, will produce similar results. Stacking both gets the best results. I'm not too sure about how equal Blue and TH are.

...that's the exact issue though. SE's big boost for thf for the past few updates has been all about overhauling and adding TH...while at the same time severely reducing the amount of things it's actually useful on. That means there is less and less reason to bring a Thf over pure DDs or Nins and Dncs, or hell even Mnks, for Eva tanking stuff. From my experiences a single Yellow proc has FAR more of an affect on Seal drops then even TH8+ does. With high levels of TH on an Aby mob, it can still drop just 0-1 seal, but with the yellow proc it'll drop at *least* 3-4 each time, even without TH. So why boost, and make a big deal about boosting, TH if they're just going to add a new type of drop system that is barely affected by it in the first place. Thf needs a boost to be *more* then "just" a TH whore.

Personally, I don't think Thf should be made into a "Pure" DD, but it would be nice if it was given added functionality and utility, especially if it gained these through unique tricks and techniques. Stuff like Aura Steal, Feint and even Accomplice/Collaborator were things that made Thf useful, unique and above all, fun to play. Thf needs more abilities like those, ones with short recasts and various effects, that allow themselves and pt members to do more damage through direct and indirect means.

Thf doesn't even really need *new* abilities, just tweaks, fixes, changes and additions to the ones we have now would work to accomplish this.

I'm not sure about your arguments, why screw around with SATA? Since we are nearing lvl 99, maybe it's time for a new thief "attack". My best (3) guesses of a likely contented would be "critical strike", "Painful strike", are least likely "Deathstrike".

It's simple, why completely outdate older abilities when you can just make them useful instead? Those circle JAs many classes have were useless for years, then SE came and changed them all. Now they have a use and are actually worth the 2 seconds it takes to pop them. Last Resort was a Job Ability that's been unchanged for years until SE decided to give it a boost, now it's a powerful and useful tool for Drks and one that changed the way many build their Gear and Merits.

Changing some (most) of Thfs older abilities would go along way in fixing Thf without breaking Thf. Increasing the viable range of SA would help first and foremost. Lowering the recast on Steal would make Aura Steal *far* more useful, giving Despoil it's own (short recast) timer would also make that ability something worth using. And for the love of hell, why is Mug's recast so damn long? It was barely useful back when it was NEW, nowadays, where most NMs don't even bother dropping cash and many of the best gear are R/E anyway, why is this ability still so useless?

Changing and updating older abilities, especially useless broken ones (Seriously, 15 minutes for a useless JA? Really SE, really?) is a good, easy way to boost a job without needing to add new abilities to it.

Here's an interesting theory: If TH isn't required, I wonder just how much haste and DW and Triple attack is required before you actually lose out by using SA or TA unless with a ws.

This would be something that would be so rare a set up it wouldn't really be worth it. Plus, SA and TA's damage boosts should be substantial enough (if set up properly) to warrant missing the one or two attack rounds you'd lose procing the ability.