New Job Thief Concept

[Duelle]

I mainly added throwing to this concept because thief needs come kind of ranged or AoE attack and it wouldn't make sense at least for me unless it was bombs or traps.

Assuming you were to go with a crossbow, you have a ranged option. You could give Throwing Dagger the Miasma II treatment by tying it to ROG and NIN. When the Soul of the Thief is equipped, you instead get a skill called Hip Shot. Likewise, Mug could be made exclusive to THF.

Could you elaborate on how you would buff Mug?

There's a couple of ways to do this. One way would be to make it a spender of Stealth Gauge. Like, having above X amount of Stealth Gauge makes mug have no cooldown and/or gives it an additional effect like a temporary buff for you or a debuff that can then interact with other skills.

Another way would be to make Mug an optional part/step in Gambits, though that would require some adjustments to how Gambits work because THF-version-of-mudras doesn't really jive with me.

As for what I'd do with Gambits, I'd start with the literal meaning of a gambit, that being a plan or strategy. Perhaps activating a gambit alters certain skills, which allows them to be used in a certain order to execute the gambit. Or perhaps there's an action button that changes over time, allowing you to carry out parts of the "plan" in set time intervals.

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To help illustrate this, let's do a small build:

Abilities
12 Hip Shot - Delivers a ranged attack with a potency of 120.
15 Mug - Delivers an attack with a potency of 140.
18 Sneak Attack - Delivers an attack with a potency of 200. Will always deal critical damage if used from the target's rear.
30 Jugulate - Delivers an attack with a potency of 80. Additional effect: Silence.
34 Toxic Vial - Deals damage over time with a potency of 40 for 24s.

Job Abilities
30 Bamboozle - 3-step Gambit. Upon completion, reduces target's damage dealt by 10% for 10s. Cooldown: 180s.
40 Snuff Out - 4-step Gambit. Upon completion, increases target's chance of tanking critical damage from your attacks by 25% for 15s. Cooldown: 240s.

Let's say you activate Bamboozle. Doing so modifies Mug, Sneak Attack and Jugulate, allowing you to execute the Gambit by using them in a specific order. In this case, it'd be opening with Sneak Attack (which applies the debuff "Startle" on the enemy, quadrupling the damage Jugulate deals to the target), followed by Jugulate (which allows Mug to temporarily increase one of your secondary stats for 20s), followed by Mug (which completes the Gambit, thus inflicting the enemy with a damage dealt debuff for 10s).

Now assume you want to use Snuff Out. In this case, Toxic Vial, Hip Shot, Sneak Attack and Jugulate would be the modified skills. You'd open with Sneak Attack (which applies the debuff "Gaping Wound", allowing Toxic Vial to inflict front-loaded damage), then Toxic Vial (which morphs Jugulate into Throat Stab, dealing considerably higher damage), then Jugulate (which increases Hip Shot's critical chance to 100%), and then Hip Shot (which completes the Gambit, causing the target to have a 25% higher chance of taking critical damage from your attacks).

These examples are purposely imbalanced for the sake of showcase.