For The Shinies! A Guide For Thief

Mandau isn't worth it, no. And honestly, if you don't have the time to focus on a DD, you probably aren't going to get very far. There's always a lot of competition for the DD spots and someone who is behind and with limited time isn't going to have a good shot at keeping up.

Thanks for the response. Appreciate the honesty.

did you guys notice how going from Pillager's legs +1 to +2 you lose 1 crit hit dmg?

Guide has been updated to reflect the gear in the January update.

Thanks! I went back to op and opened all the links to the Set but it seems to take me to the old stuff. Where abouts do you mean ?

Can anyone with the AF+2 legs check to see if it's a typo they didn't list any attack+?

Af+1 attack10
Af+2 none
Af+3 attack30

I'm assuming it's a typo and they have +20

updatemy friend checked and said JP version says attack +20

Still trying to see where the guide was update ><

I was about to begin a mandau today until I read this, thank you.

I assume that's the joke, since THF got 0 usable pieces from January's update.

Another note:
for people trying to decide on body/ear/back/waist combo to fit in new af +2/3 body

If you are not a -dual- REMA user with twashtar offhand, Shijo path D with DW5 is a very strong option.

Confirming this. Just got my +2 and jumped in attack. Now to see if I get 4 cards tonight and can +3 them!

Just about to get moonshade earring. TP +250 is what i am aiming for, and accuracy +4. Are these the primary options if It is mainly for thief?

Also how does the Erudit neck fair against combatant torque? I am tight on space and would rather only get one

Hello, looking for a High Accuracy set that wouldnt use HQ abj ideally.

Would appreciate your input, looking to melee Teles. I've been told I would need to reach about 1350 before food, is that about right?

The meghanda set from ambuscade offers really high acc and att, so that'll probably be your easiest obtainable set, if you can't kill reisen NM's.

Also, is thf af hands +1 and empyrean hands +1 still viable under SA/TA situations? Or has herc/meghanda trumped them? I know +2/+3 af hands might be usable again but just wondering.

Oh crap nvm, just reread your part about meleeing teles lol....derp, yeah its a mix between max acc augs herc and meghanda XD along with telos earring, zenaroi, ramuh x2 and seething bomblet. I stck to either kirin belt or kentarch for an acc option

Ohh another question, what augs do people go for on capes, for TP(DW, DA?, STP???), Stacked (Crit?), unstacked (WSD?), etc.

For reference, if that makes any difference, im mainhanding Aenas.

Generally DA for TP. Store TP is very nice but not as "game changing" as it is on a 2h-er. [EDIT: And if you were using a Mythic, the DA would negatively affect your AM3. So Store TP or crit rate would be better.] And DW only if you need the DW for delay cap. (But can generally hit that elsewhere, and 10%DA in a single slot is kinda massive. Just be carful about too much DW, as that will start to gimp your TP if you're using too much.)

Critical hit rate will do absolutely nothing for you when you are using a stacked WS. As that will force a crit.
In fact, the only WS that that is good for is Evisceration. But since its ƒTP transfers, DA will get you higher numbers.
Basically, since almost every dagger WS has ƒTP transferring now, if it's a "single" hit: WSdmg; if it's a multihit: DA.

Ehhhhhhhhhh, looking at my gear I'm at 12% DA, 26% TA, with another 19% from traits/gifts/merits, so 12% DA, 45% TA overall. I'm already at 57% of my attack rounds being a multi-hit. By my calculations I get just over 2 attacks per round, and getting 10% more TP out of them nets me roughly twice as much TP than another 10% DA. While granted I'm at a near max geared scenario, we're still talking a decent gap there.

Likewise, I have a 29% TA rate in my evisceration set and DA won't proc in that, with 5% DA as well, so 1/3 of the time DA on an evisceration cape cannot even proc, whereas hits being critical is always doing something as you're not hitting 100% crit rate.

Well, that is why I am glad asking.

I am nowhere near BIS thf, nor would I be, but those are the kind of constructive informations I am looking for, thanks!

I have both capes and in almost every instance STP cape wins. Honestly, the only time I ever use DA cape is when using Evisceration, which used to be only ever when breaking ponies horns. Now we just leave the horns up and burn them down through the DT - I can't remember the last time I used Evisceration (unless I'm soloing double dark). I'm not saying don't make a DA cape, as I have one, and that would be hypocritical. I am saying stack your STP because in most situations, especially when haste capped with lot's of triple attack you will see the benefit of the STP more, In my opinion (In my opinion counts legally as a disclaimer therefore if you don't agree you do not need to berate or belittle me in any kind of way).

Edit: Cape augment priority in order imo >>>>>

TP cape = Dex 30, acc/att 20, Stp +10
Main WS Cape = Dex 30, acc/att 20, WSD +10
Exenterator = Agi 30, acc/att 20, WSD +10
Unstacked Evis = Dex 30, acc/att 20, CHR or DA +10 (wouldn't make both and I went with DA)

WS cape should be first. Although you can make the best TP cape there is great alternatives till then. Nothing compares to the damage increase of a dex wsd cape.

Good point - I actually agree with that.

No.

Evis: crit hit rate.

Extenterator: double attack.

From a previous post.

Now with the AF+3 body tho depedending on your daggers dw+6 (only +6 do not cap to +10) might win out. Or a canny cape even for low acc; but canny needs dw5 AND critD

I chose dex instead of acc on the tp cape because 10 dex = 7.5acc and didn't feel the extra 2.5acc was needed when dex affects crit rate for white dmg - am i wrong here? I melee Maju and Kirin no prob on thf so my acc isn't hurting.

Both Crit rate and DA will affect evis dmg - but i thought DA was more beneficial for unstacked and obviously crit rate isn't need for stacked anyway but DA can still benefit a stacked evis? As I stated I seldom use Evis so I wasn't making 2 evis capes one for stacked one for unstacked.

Ugh I did WSD for exenterator should I buy a needle and change to DA 10? I hate being forced to use Exenterator for AM and Radiance ;;

Love the rest of the capes, a lot more detail than I would have put in there. FYI not arguing - just trying to understand the logic.

I guess it can depend on your more common situations in where you melee THF. It's also worth considering just how much DEX you already TP in in Escha as well (using Escha as an example since Maju/Kirin were brought up). On my BLU, I'm already TPing 471 DEX (478 with Sublime Sushi; 503 with Boost-DEX). I'd be surprised if there was a mob in Escha with more than ~453 AGI to where 10 DEX would start adding critical hit rate. On the other hand, you may find yourself commonly over-buffed in Escha zergs to where you could cap hit rate with the 10 DEX rather than 10 Acc, basically making both perform equally.

I don't believe there is a blatantly wrong choice on whether to use your Dye on DEX or Acc on your TP cape, but personally, I prefer to use accuracy since in situations where both DEX would add 1% critical hit rate and accuracy would add 1-2% hit rate, the accuracy would be a much larger impact on DPS (obviously there are situations where 10 DEX can be anywhere from 1% to 10% critical hit rate, but until values for relevant NMs are discovered, I wouldn't count on more than a 1% critical hit rate bonus).

Evisceration when Dual Wielding is a 6 hit WS, so having 1 TA proc would completely negate any DA you have in your Evisceration set. THF natively has 19% TA. I'm not familiar with THF gear, but I'd assume you Evisceration in enough TA to reach ~30% TA total, which means approximately half the time, your DA wouldn't even have a chance to proc in the first place, assuming the game will only check for a TA proc twice. Even ignoring all of that, though, 10% Critical Hit Rate would outperform 10% DA for Evisceration.

Also, even for stacked Evisceration, Critical Hit Rate matters since SA/TA will only force your first hit to critical, not all of them.

For stacked Exenterator I could see 10% WSD beating 10% DA (not that I know why you'd use SA/TA on Exenterator, but yeah). I don't know for sure for unstacked.

I doubt Canny would really win with new AF+2/3 Body. I talked to Verda about his spreadsheet and 1 of the things it lacked was the Triple Attack Damage+ on Toutatis's Cape.

Canny just doesn't have the stats to keep up with the ambuscade cape. If you're going to use the AF+3 body you'll want to get the Kirin belt to cap DW with losing as few stats as possible.

I'll change the DA cape to Crit Rate

Stacked Exenterator when closing radiance as it's thf's only option to close (unless I am missing something here)

Thanks for the feedback guys^^

As a consistent Mandau user for years (due to personal preference, I have aeonic in progress, but too low playtime to farm for another dagger), here is my humble opinion:
~ Mandau MAY BE worth it! ~
- If you <3 THF and have a few hundred millions to spare (cheapest relic after shield/horn iirc, way cheaper than Twashtar).
- If you want to fully complete your Thief WS arsenal, since you won't get Mercy Stroke (MS) anywhere else (except crappy aby dagger for funzies), unlike Rudra & Mandalic & Exenterator.
- If you enjoy farming dynamis (some ppl do!).
- If you know you won't ever complete aeonic (for lack of a decent group or any other reason).
- If you are old school and love the shinies!!

If people tell you Mandau sucks then they must be spending too much time on spreadsheets rather than actually molesting mobs with it.
Mandau is alot of fun!
Mandau hits fast & hard!

If you love your THF and work for it, Mandau builds are awesome and you will have very good DPS either way.
Also nowadays, with all the triple attack we get, crit+ is very good for DPS, hence Mercy Stroke AM3 in full haste/buffs situations.

As a sidenote you will often need to close SkillChains, and depending on pt setup you may be stuck with Evisceration, MS will come in handy (and so much sexier) especially if you stack WS.

In conclusion:
- You've got a good enough static/LS? get Aeonic, will take a month (or a week with a hardcore group) and it's free!
- You're rich? get Twashtar, it will take a week, and you will hit epic WS spikes.
- You have decent income and you like fooling around in Aht Urhgan for days? get Mythic! It's still rare & pretty pimp.
- If like most people you don't have that much money or time and you don't have a hardcore group, get Mandau, it's very good, and made of Gold!