thief merit points

[Alaik]

STR vs DEX has been a very hot topic since merits came out. The general rule of thumb is if you will ONLY have THF as your melee, then DEX is (only slightly) better, if you plan on levelling any other, STR is the way to go. Outside of benefit we debatedly benefit more from fSTR then any other job since or dmg rating is so craptastic, but on the other hand, outside the DEX's crit rate and acc is needed. (Assuming we get outside abyssea/no atma content of higher levels), inside abyssea DEX is used for SA and WS mods and STR is +att, that's about it.

Group 1 SA and TA are.... marginal, so flee is an option IMO, even though I merited TA.

Aura Steal? You made me cry abit Arcon. It's a 5 minute timer. Of course you'll laugh all the way to the bank if SE makes Aura Steal a usable ability and it comes on a 30 second timer, steals no items and you're now ganking buffs while we feinters are just giving the WARs and WHMs a hand.

EDIT: My relevant THF merits.

HP 12/12
STR 8/8
Crit Rate 5/5
Spell Interrupt- 5/5
Dagger 8/8
Sword 8/8
Marksmanship 4/8
Parry 4/4
Evasion 4/4
Triple Attack 5/5
Trick Attack 5/5
Feint 5/5
Assassin's Charge 4/5
Aura Steal 1/5

[Arcon]

Outside of benefit we debatedly benefit more from fSTR then any other job since or dmg rating is so craptastic [..]

Actually, our craptastic damage makes fSTR not quite as important on many things (especially inside Abyssea), since low weapon rank makes it cap a lot lower than a two-handed weapon's fSTR.

Aura Steal?

As I said, no alternatives. I only merited Feint back in the day, when it was occasionally semi-useful for zerg tactics (to which I was mostly WAR anyway). Now I see no use in it anymore. Since merits are easy enough to get by these days, I might undo it again if the need arises.

[Nebo]

Actually, our craptastic damage makes fSTR not quite as important on many things (especially inside Abyssea), since low weapon rank makes it cap a lot lower than a two-handed weapon's fSTR.

Inside Abyssea its kind of moot (and why I switched to DEX for a while) . fSTR is going to be capped.

Outside, THF is going to have a harder time capping fSTR. The reason people say it's relatively more valuable to us (up to the cap) is because of the fact that our weapons have a lower base DMG rating, but swing faster. Which is just to say that improvements in fSTR are a larger percent increase for daggers than they are for 2 handed weapons with much higher base damage/delay values.

[Alaik]

Inside Abyssea its kind of moot (and why I switched to DEX for a while) . fSTR is going to be capped.

Outside, THF is going to have a harder time capping fSTR. The reason people say it's relatively more valuable to us (up to the cap) is because of the fact that our weapons have a lower base DMG rating, but swing faster. Which is just to say that improvements in fSTR are a larger percent increase for daggers than they are for 2 handed weapons with much higher base damage/delay values.

^

DEX is still better, even though we debatedly "get the most from fSTR", SA's mod being DEX and our WS being DEX mods make that important. But it's still true, we do get the most from fSTR, even if it's only because our base is so crappy to start with.