For The Shinies! A Guide For Thief

I agree with the post above mine but just adding: Given the option of having all these daggers available, Aeneas is basically "If you want to make Radiance/Umbra because you like the animation" or MAYBE "for Aeolian Edge if Gandring isn't practical". Aeneas is, in my experience, not very useful.

Twashtar is also a very bad offhand, especially when compared to Centovente. I wouldn't recommend any of the weapon pairings you suggested for anything except the most accuracy-starved situations, and even then I don't think I would make those choices.

Some context is needed for what content you're doing, but if you're just spamming Rudra's between 1k -> 1.5k TP, I would use Twashtar/Centovente unless accuracy is extremely bad, then probably Twashtar/Ternion+1. I'd say you can quite safely put Aeneas in your mog locker and forget about it, from a THF's perspective.

Grasping my pearls!! In my mind, Aeneas is for when your buffs don't allow for the use of a non ilvl weapon on a particular target. Its 500 TP bonus helps the loss of offhand TP bonus not hurt as much. The high base damage and STP+10 also help mitigate missing twashtar's 70DEX and rudra's storm +10%.

I also wonder why you mention ternion over gleti's knife. ternion hasn't been relevant since odyssey came out for the jobs that can use gleti's. This is another use case for Aeneas; subtle blow. Paired with gleti offhand R30 and sherida earring, you can get SB65. I assume gandring path b with tp bonus offhand would be close or better than this combo, not factoring in accuracy, but that requires an additional gandring obv.

This poster is correct regarding Ternions, storage it. Gletis gives an extra 2% TA, crit, way more accuracy and adds attack to a job that starves for it.

I do agree with parking that ternion in storage next to your Aeneas though. Aeneas is a damn easy dagger to get and perfectly fine option if you don't have a twashtar. I have everything, so it's either twashtar (full buffs), vajra (low/trust buffs), or gandring (eva tanking/pull.). Never ever Aeneas.

And yeah offhand cento, duh. Unless you're whiffing. Please stop asking this question forever and ever.

Cento is THF's best offhand when accuracy allows. Eat some sushi, use Feint liberally, you'll be fine.

I'm also in the 'leave Aeneas in storage' camp. If using Cento as offhand (see above), then you're already at +1500 TP bonus. That doesn't leave much room for 'error' when attempting to WS as soon as you have TP and not wasting extra swings. Unless you're slapping around some Macro Test dummies, there's going to be cases of overflow TP, eliminating the biggest benefit of Aeneas.

Not sure I understand why Aeneas for Subtle Blow, since it has no SB. I assume you mean that you're just trying to get some TP Bonus back that you're losing from not offhanding Cento... but is that really a good trade? Twash/Gleti may not have TP Bonus, but provided you can use Rudra that setup will get extra WS damage from Twashtar's associated WS buff, and does better white damage due to Empy aftermath. Does 500 TP Bonus from Aeneas really outweigh those Twashtar MH benefits (or Vajra MH using Mandalic, Mpu Gandring with Ruthless, etc.)?

Question about Gandring B too - does anyone have the math to show whether that even feeds less TP than a weapon without 50% FUA? Yes, you can hit 75SB cap with a B Divergence weapon, but you're also adding a LOT more swings that feed TP. I've always thought that the B path weapons added SBII in large part just to mitigate the FUA feeding MORE tp than your average weapon. It's not just more subtle blow in a vacuum.

Is GandringB/[pick your offhand] with SB+75 really feeding less TP over time than [Mainhand]/Gleti with SB+65? Though I don't have the data to prove it, I would assume the answer is no. You're feeding less TP per hit, but if you're riding timers for Mew, TP Drainkiss, BLU spells, etc... nobody really cares if you fed less TP per hit if you're hitting the mob enough extra times to let it use a move before the next Mew is ready.

Gandring is also giving you weaker WS, so the mob lives longer - and the longer it's out the greater the risk of a mistake leading to a devastating TP move.


Worth noting that the Null accessories also work well in accuracy sets, giving even more ways to manage Cento-related acc needs.

+1500 how? 1000 dagger, 250 earring = 1250?

Think he's saying if you use Aeneas/Centovente, you have 1500 TP bonus, which is 2500 effective TP (not including Moonshade 2750), which means you could potentially waste some of it by over TPing.

Right, but you should be using Moonshade so he should mean +1750!
Since I am poor and lazy and don't have Twashtar I have tried both Aenas/Cento and Aenas/Gleti's spamming Rudras on Locus Colibri. I don't think Cento helps at all in this case, maybe even slightly lower average (eyeballing and using parse but not for huge samples). If Aenas is your best main hand, don't bother using Cento offhand really.

On locus coli I could agree with gletis offhand; to keep the chain rolling I typically hold opening tp until 3k, ws @1k for self-sc, then another asap usually ends it. With their tp stealing move, and the higher likelihood of use below 50% health, this keeps chains going.

I don't think this is a practical standard though. Elsewhere, endlessly throwing 2750 (earring, cento, Aeneas) at 1k tp is pretty great and I'm sure the parse would be no contest. Unless you're not paying attention. Of course, this assumes Aeneas your only main hand option, which is an excellent dagger for those w.o the need or want for twashtar.

You could also use a tank trust in your line up
To avoid TP wipes / Food being stolen
Make use of Trick Attack and Sneak Attack as well

With am3 active that trust is holding hate about as long as it takes for my hit animation to load.

Your video shows the first mob looking at you all the low HP % when they use TP moves? Doesn't matter anyway - currently doing 40-50k an hour and nearly at ML40 I'm aiming for (beyond that is ridiculous for a 4th/5th job).

How charming. Which finishing school did you say you attended?

Tank trusts can't hold hate when your ws's do half the mobs hp. It's a waste of a trust slot. Add another buffer.

You and nariont need to get your eyes checked
To much jeez in them

Trust tank held hate no problem with AM3
Trust tank held hate after WS

I wasn't really trying just proving your a goof
If i was trying I'd drop the mobs with timing

Trick Attack and Sneak Attack
So the SC drops them in one go

Do you need me to make a video of that to *** nuts?
Btw I graduated from your moms pussy

If you actually wait for sa and ta timer to kill one mob, then you are for sure not keeping the chain going.

You should be doing rudra > ta rudra on one mob and rudra > sa rudra on another (or even add one killed without any of those abilities, because it might still be too slow to wait). You don't need tank trust to use TA though. You can do it using any support trust.

I will play the game however the *** i want
Go suck ***

You need help. Not just with ffxi, but much more importantly with your anger. You should talk to someone about it. It's really abnormal and not healthy.

Unless you're 13 years old and trying to be edgy to impress your friends, in which case carry on, you'll figure it out when you grow up and mature a bit.

My comment wasn't about how you play, I was talking about game mechanics. If you wait for SA and TA cooldowns for each colibri, then you won't keep the chain going, because the window to kill the mob will eventually be shorter than those cooldowns.

I mean, he's in Bhaflau Aery, he's not gonna keep chain going regardless, I dont think ANY of those groups are.

What a *** shithole server, Asura not even once.

Tell that to the dozen jobs I've got to ML40 there (usually pay the measly 10M to RMT for 0-20 then start there).

Oooo ML40
A whooping 7 mil EP
It then takes another 20 mil to get to 50 with a healthy buffer.

Congrats on gloating about being 1/4th of the way though.


lol you pay RMT 10 mil for 800k EP

Takes a night for 0-20 so it's worth it. There's no good EP camps for significantly weaker DDs below ML20 really.

Wait...are you implying that SMN somehow becomes a good DD at ML20, even though it sucks at ML0? What, exactly, do you think ML0-20 do for, say, a GEO?

Hmm, what do you mean by "good"? Kinda depends. I did PUG zergs in the basement of CN{S} with a variety of jobs with pulling BRD/sleeping and we started at ML0. I also did Cruel Joke parties as BLU, and cleaving parties too. I've run out to Bibiki Bay and chained Camels with Trusts, despite that place being flooded with bots on Asura. Ra'Kaznar Inner Court used to be a fantastic spot (and still is if you don't mind running); I recall chaining bats with SC/MB as NIN using nothing but trusts (sucks now because Cornelia is gone). From time to time I'll run out to a few of the Apex/Locus spots and grind for a bit solo if nothing else to do. I used to do Promys, but that place requires some good accuracy support. Most of the time my EPing has been solo, so it's whatever, but with a reasonable party, most camps are fine.

So what do you mean by good, you mean "not flooded with bots 24/7"? Every spot is taken, that's never gonna happen

Lay off with the telling people to suck wing wangs, Buttplug.

I mean good as in for an ML0 THF to do with only trusts. WAR SAM DRK can start at ML0 in Bibiki Bay from ML0. DRG can do birds from ML0. THF is very weak and slow at ML0. Could probably do Apex bats tbh but still way faster to make 10m than that would take.

I still don't understand what you mean by "very weak and slow at ML0"

What changes at ML20, in your opinion? Do you think 20 DEX increases WSD by 20% or something? Is it impossible to hit Apex Colibri at ML5 THF? Do you need super jump?

My THF is ML10 and I have 1327 MH acc and 1100 OH acc with Twash/Cento with no food or buffs. That's 95% accuracy for MH on Colibri and probably very close to capped OH acc with food. Or, as some have suggested (though I disagree) you can use Gleti or a different offhand and be WAY OVER the cap.

The job is either terrible at ML or it isn't. Being ML20 doesn't suddenly double your damage. I guarantee you I could easily go smash probably 20+ different Apex/Locus mobs on ML10 THF with just trusts.

I guess if Eft, Eruca, Jagil (Sih), Leech, Chapuli, Bats (Dho), Jagils (Dho), Jagil (Woh), Toads, Bats (Ra'kaznar), everything in CN [S], Colibri,Worms, Dire bats, Camels, & Imps are taken, you have no options though.

You should move to Carbuncle, there are 32 people in KRT, 3 in Bibiki Bay, and 2 in Dho Gates.

The bots are everywhere on Asura, yes, but it's not difficult to chain properly. That myth or assumption is straight up incorrect and overblown. I've hit master chain 40+ on SAM in Bibiki Bay just killing camels and rabbits with nothing but trusts (no Cornelia). The bots are there but any competent, well-geared player can outclaim them and kill reasonably fast even when they bots are super buffed, especially since most bots simply spam WS and don't multi step. You gain a massive speed advantage SCing vs a bot using 2-3 savage Blade users. The ones spamming jinpu are the real efficient ones, but not everyone's running bots as samurai. Not saying Asura doesn't have a huge bot problem, but you can solo ML efficiently if you want to. It's just that nobody wants to and buying them is easier.