For The Shinies! A Guide For Thief

He said it's a /blm nuke farming set, not an Aeolian Edge set.

I got confused because Melphina mentioned aeolian edge and posted a set, which prompted me to go back and check his original set for comparison. My mistake.

I'm also confused why Path C Gandring is even included if using the TP isn't a thing, as Malevolence should be better than it from a nuke perspective. If it's for evasion, idk if that 100 EVA makes up for the lack of high evasion in other slots (I see a couple herc pieces and mab accessories)

He specified both gandring and orpheus's sash in his set though, which implies aeolian edge with many mobs hitting him (IE omen style). Who nukes with thf/blm anyway? If that was what he was aiming for then the upgrade he would be looking for would be to swap his sash for either eschan stone or skymir cord. But thief/blm won't have anywhere near enough magic accuracy to go around casting elemental magic on stuff so there's no point really. And free nuking isn't even that great on black mage main so.. why? I'm pretty sure he meant aeolian edge and there's just a confusion based on his wording.

Also for the record if you're aeolian edge nuking then thief/dragoon is better than thief/blm, especially once you unlock the level 55 sub job and get the 10% WSD from /drg sub. Even the 7% WSD from /dragoon sub is better than the MaB bonus you get from /blm. I've tested that out as well and I can say that with certainty.

The sash affects nukes too, assuming you round them up and are nearby, so it doesn't necessarily mean he meant it for AE. I do agree the idea behind the set was initially confusing.

If he did mean to actually be nuking though, I stand by the Gandring comment. Looks weird in that set. Usually you would use Ganding Path C when you are evasion TPing like Omen swart mobs, and dump the TP on AE to cleave (oh I see you've edited your comments to reflect that also). That, or a full evasion set (no in between). Also included Herc MAB pieces instead of Nyame, which seems to correspond to a nuke set and not AE (Nyame would be better for AE unless he has no augments at all).

Thief has no native elemental magic skill, and there's a really big difference between the elemental magic skill you get from your sub job (at level 49 blm has 150 elemental skill, versus 424 elemental skill at level 99). I've played black mage more than enough to know how much that matters. Even with the magic accuracy from your nyame and cape you'd still be hurting to not get resisted... and elemental magic really sucks when you're nuking 10+ mobs. The multi target damage reduction is 70%, so at most you're hitting targets for 30% of your max possible damage. Why even bother at that point? It's better to just stick to aeolian edge and cleave than spend time casting nukes. You'd also run into mana issues without refresh, so now you're looking at throwing energy drain into the mix, which could just be an aeolian edge instead. The whole concept seems inefficient and silly to me. Sorry if I misunderstood, I just question why you would even want to spend time nuking on thief.

I guess this would be a niche scenario where I could see a set like this finding some use. The monsters are low enough level that the evasion on Gandring helps (might not even be needed, tbh), and your nuke damage is probably sufficient for how weak they are. You could run into MP issues as Melphina mentioned. I could simply question the need for such a set by countering why notjust go BLU/THF and accomplish the same/more, but I don't want to get into debates about which job a person may or may not have available, so I get your point.

That's a valid use case that I hadn't though of, although very niche. There isn't much point trying to optimize your set beyond what was already posted for mobs of that level though. Nyzle mobs have about 2-3k HP at most, and anything thief/blm can nuke effectively is going to be on the weak side so that set is pretty much perfect. Any mobs that are much higher level than abyssea or low to mid level adoulin tier are probably going to start giving you resist issues though, so I wouldn't recommend trying to nuke much beyond that point.

I would agree with Bhuukki though on the dagger choices. If you are intent on nuking with thief/blm then malevolence is the best choice. It's going to give you the highest nuke numbers, and if you aren't meleeing that's what you're looking for. I would dual wield malevolence's over gandring/tauret for that use. That's the only change I'd consider making.

I use thf/blm and nuke to farm mobs that are too weak to even bother with engaging. Sometimes you need to farm items that only drop from low level mobs. Spectral crimson/goldenrod are a couple recent examples. So that was what I thought this set was for. The gandring I assume is for applying TH, the path doesn't really matter.

The set I use for this is way less optimized than Homsar's but I guess a Crematio earring might be an improvement.

Keep in mind that Malevolence has lower MDMG, and given that THF/BLM only has low tier nukes, that could matter more than the higher MAB/INT on Malevolence.

Crematio earring is slightly better than hecate's yes. And on the note of what Geriond just posted, since thief/blm is nuking with low tier nukes skymir cord (or the +1 version) may be a better belt choice than orhpheus's sash because of the +30 magic damage. But at that point you're spending 4 million gil for an item meant for simple AoE farming, and the tradeoff may not be worth it when the goal is to earn gil quicker.

Malevolence versus tauret is an easy enough thing to test out yourself. Just cast a couple spells with each and see which does better. The base spell damage does matter in this case so it's possible tauret would win. I can't test it myself right now but it's an easy enough thing to see for yourself.

Metamorph ring +1 is another improvement. At rank 15 it has 16 INT, which performs better for me on blm than shiva's +1 no matter which tier of spells I'm nuking with. I have no doubt it would do the same for thf nuking too.

Wow, some responses! Yes, I use it to nuke farm certain things where engaging is a hindrance. Gandring and Herc Mitts are for TH, I just specified Path C since it is Path C(for Omen farming). Orpheus outperforms Skrymir by a pretty significant margin.

I'm thinking the MDMG on Tauret would outperform Malevolence, but I guess I might have to try to get a Malevolence to find out.

Anybody have a relatively up-to-date THF spreadsheet you're willing to share? Fine with me if it isn't perfect (though accounting for PDL would be nice), but I don't have anything remotely current for THF and would like to tinker with it...

Would the Sibyl Scarf now beat the Baetyl Pendant for Aeolian Edge?

Yes. It's our newest BiS aeolian neck.

Saw on last page a bit of discussion of empyreal arrow/ullr, was wondering what's good precast/midcast sets for ranged TP?

I was using similar to cor 5/5 malignance and whatever accessories that are usable for racc/ratk which is not as much as cor for midcast, not sure about precast at all tho if anyone has a good reference set it would help a lot! thanks :)

Mastery Levels certainly help too. Both Archery and Marksmanship can be used with Exalted bow/crossbows for a crit based fusion WS if that is more attractive for atonement 3 mechanics(mostly joking). Gashing Bolts are also defense down and much better than any arrows you are going to use without needing refresh for Raetic arrows.

Defense down is wind based. You aren't going to get that to land on Arrebati. Shijin spiral's plague effect is fire based and it doesn't land on ngai either. Same deal here.

Can add Haverton Ring +1 if you choose it over other rewards.

Edit: read it wrong, my bad.

Can land it from WS

It's still wind based.

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Armor_Break

Just because effects are from Weapon Skills does not make them ignore enemy resistances.

Very aware, just the stance of its wind based so it won't land has not been my experience.

Anyone have a decent hybrid set to use full-time on Lilith, I am going for the last few pieces of malignance I am avoiding.

I am looking to make a TH hybrid and a "safety net kill hybrid".

Options available are some malignance (head,body, feet), turms +1, gleti, nyame to name a few options I have work with.

Cap DT, haste. stack MEVA/TH as you like.

Throw on gelti call it a day?

Gleti's has lower MEva and no MDT. You definitely want that for Lilith.

Edit: If you can hit MDT -21% with accessories (Staunch Tathlum +1, Defending Ring, Moonlight Ring, augmented Odnowa Earring +1, etc.) in addition to Shell V's MDT -29%, you could take advantage of the higher MDB on Gleti's. That would be sacrificing the MEva you'd get from Malignance or Nyame in those slots though.

	Malignance	Gleti's	Nyame
Set	HP+249   MEva+674   MDB+29   Haste+26%   DT-31%	HP+363   MEva+487   MDB+67   Haste+20%	HP+500   MEva+674   MDB+29   Haste+20%   DT-38%
Head	HP+45  MEva+123    MDB+5   Haste+6%   DT-6%	HP+68   MEva+86   MDB+13   Haste+6%	HP+91   MEva+123 MDB+5   Haste+6%   DT-7%
Body	HP+68   MEva+139   MDB+8   Haste+4%   DT-9%	HP+91   MEva+102   MDB+15   Haste+3%	HP+136   MEva+139   MDB+8   Haste+3%   DT-9%
Hands	HP+57   MEva+112   MDB+4   Haste+4%   DT-5%	HP+68   MEva+75   MDB+12   Haste+3%	HP+91   MEva+112   MDB+4   Haste+3%   DT-7%
Legs	HP+45   MEva+150   MDB+7   Haste+9%   DT-7%	HP+79   MEva+112   MDB+14   Haste+5%	HP+114   MEva+150   MDB+7   Haste+5%   DT-8%
Feet	HP+34   MEva+150   MDB+5   Haste+3%   DT-4%	HP+57   MEva+112   MDB+13   Haste+3%	HP+68   MEva+150   MDB+5   Haste+3%   DT-7%

I think the bolded was specifically in reference to the Gaol T3s NMs. It might land on other stuff even when opposing elemental resistances apply, but Gaol NMs have such jacked up stats, it's very unusual to land an opposing element's debuff on the T3s unless you have something to jack your Magic Accuracy up, like Troubadour, Stymie, Elemental Seal, etc. I;m not saying it can't land ever, but it's very unlikely you will land Armor Break's defense down on Arebati. I still haven't seen Defense Down from Armor break land on Ngai yet, despite several people swearing by it, and he's water element.