I hope this clears up some of the Rogue>Ninja rage

[Quintalian]

Oh man. Oh man, oh man.

Listen. I love Thief. I am a fan of Final Fantasy and its thieves. I was a career THF in FFXI. Rikku was pretty cool in FFX. As FFIX's protagonist, Zidane's upbeat attitude was a breath of fresh air after Squall's feigned indifference in FFVIII. Yuffie? She was absolutely a thief and proud of it, that ninja get-up wasn't fooling anyone. And don't even get me started on Locke, the premier treasure hunter and adventurer we all know and love. (Also there was Vaan, I guess?)

I had been speculating and postulating and wishing, hoping and praying for Thief in FFXIV since 1.x's official announcement. When we got 'classes' instead of jobs, my question was, "if not Thief, then what?" and the answer for the longest time was, "nothing". More accurately, the answer was something like "all of these other classes" since the usual thief-like skills had become divided among Lancer, Archer and Pugilist. But Yoshi-P promised that a dual-wielding, stealthy scout class was forthcoming, so I was patient.

There was plenty of debate over this class and the Job that would follow. I made my opinions known in these forums. For me, the reveal of Rogue and Ninja was as exciting as it was disappointing. That's because it felt a lot like all that patience didn't pay off. Understand this: I don't give a damn about getting Ninja for Ninja's sake. I am going to use it because I have no choice, because it is as close to Thief as we may ever get. Perhaps Rogue will have the thief-like skills I want (including enmity mechanics and a steal), perhaps not. Regardless, many glamour prisms shall be expended in order to resemble the Thief I truly wanted to be.

But leaving all of that aside, this is what I want to know. Of all the jobs we could have gotten, of all the jobs we have yet to get, why is it that people are so adamant that we should NOT have Thief as a Job? No one is arguing against Red Mage, Blue Mage, Dark Knight, Samurai or Templar! Consider Geomancer, Time Mage, Berserker or Ranger, all have many champions but few detractors. I have seen pleas and treatments for Dancer, Beastmaster, Puppetmaster, Necromancer, Cannoneer and Chemist, but no one is arguing against any of those as fervently as they do against Thief.

One last thing. All of the job quests involve an NPC who passes on to you some sort of 'lost knowledge' as part of your training.
There is absolutely no reason that a Thief job could not be handled in the exact same way.

THIEF IN EXPANSION 2015