I wanted to do another THF post, I lost another one asking about HNM setup. This is less about gear and more about technique. You can tell I'm dying here at work if I'm just making posts here through proxify, lol.



Subjobs

I'd recommend having /WAR, /DRK, and /MNK as HNM subs.

Subbing /WAR will allow you to assist at camps that require window claims. You can also use this during fights when stunning duty isn't needed. Berserk is going to help you a lot, THF usually has an attack deficiency due to the fact that it doesn't wield 2HD weapons or get a native ATT boosting /ja or job traits. This should be the basic THF HNM subjob. If you are attempting to convert your THF from XP party play to HNM play, this is the first subjob I'd recommend levelling.

Subbing /DRK helps in some instances when you lowman an HNM and require another source of stun. Some fights allow you to take a lower person count when you can perform an additional role to stunning (like Hakutaku). Remember that Arcane Circle has bonuses available now and can find it's way into a few uses when Sky farming.

Subbing /MNK allows you to multiboost a few times in order to plant a stronger WS on a tank or for a stronger weaponskill in general. Your ACC is covered with TA (making it 100%), especially if you use a 1x WS (like Mandalic Stab or MS) you can raise your attack power directly by multiboosting. When ATT is taken care of, you don't need BRD help to overcome THF's natural ATT deficiency. A BRD can help by giving Etudes affecting the base stats of the WS if needed instead of using Minuet or Madrigal.

Tiamat - THF/MNK Boosted


Dark Ixion - THF/MNK Boosted Averages



Feint

If you are one of many melee (or your LS does many zerg style fights), you may want to go very strongly into Feint. It's extremely powerful and if you take it to the 5x level, you can reapply another 30 seconds of evasion down every 2:00. If your LS wants to utilize you for an HNM burn, this does great in justifying your position along with Treasure Hunter.



Boosting/Buffing

Since you don't have the raw power that a 2HD job usually has, try to find situations that will allow you to either steal buffs via Aura Steal, utilize multiboosting via /MNK, or use temp items/drink (like Solider's Drink). You can make a normal weaponskill very concentrated if you are allowed to.

Aura Steal Examples












Nyzul Khimaira - Soldier's Drink


Om'Yvora - Fluorescence Aura Steal


Campaign - Soldier's Drink Frenzy



Hide

If you are familiar with Hide mechanics and snitch killing (leave nothing alive that can "tell" on you), you can stay completely out of an enemy's hate queue if you build TP externally and TA your WS onto a tank. You can open up fights with full powered WS onto an active tank. Hide is amazing and many still don't know how to utilize it fully. Any TP return over 7% from WS on something like Tiamat, for instance, will mean that I've introduced myself into the hate queue and I either need to clear it or Hide cannot be used to cover frontal SAs from that point forward.

Certain zones and instances will introduce your player into the hate queue as soon as ANYONE performs an action on the enemy. Zones like Apollyon or Avatar fights follow this trend and will only allow you to Hide prior to anyone aggroing or pulling an enemy. It can't be avoided, but you can preHide prior to a pull to still utilize the active effect.

Mad Bomber - HideSATA


Vrtra - HideSATA



Mandalic Stab

Do not underestimate Mandalic Stab. This weaponskill seems to boost your attack at weaponskill by around 66%. It is something any THF can obtain and it does work fairly well against HNMs. I've only tried this several times, but it works well when you set this up with the ATT boost in mind.

Fafnir - Mandalic Stab


Sandworm - Mandalic Stab

This is so impressive, youre crazy haha :cool:

Assassin's Charge
Remember that you can Triple Attack on all Weaponskills on THF. If you use H2H, Club, or Sword for anything then Assassin's Charge will work the same way that it does when using a dagger. You can even triple the offhand hit if you sub /NIN.

THF/NIN - True Strike HideSATA w/ AC




Offhand Triple Attacks (Dual Triple Procs)

We'll use the formulas here to show how this is calculated via TP return on the screenshots below.

Tactical Points - FFXIclopedia

A Level 75 Thief/Ninja with Dual Wield II (a bonus of -15% Delay, no Suppanomimi used in WS build) using a Mandau with 176 Delay and a Blau Dolch with 178 Delay would get:

Combined Delay : 176 + 178 = 354
Reduced Delay : 354 * (1 - 0.15) = 354 * 0.85 = 300
Reduced Delay per hand : 300/2 = 150 delay

TP gain per hand : 5.0 + [(150 - 180) * 1.5 / 180] = 4.75… → 4.7 TP/hit
TP gain per round (assuming both main and offhand weapon don't miss) : 4.7TP *2 = 9.4 TP/round

Store TP from Raja's Ring and Brutal Earring
4.7 TP * 1.06 = 4.982 truncated to 4.9 TP




Since Weaponskills are normally calculated as full attack rounds, I'll use 9TP as the return for a regular WS. I'll split the 9%TP into 4%TP Main and 5%TP offhand even though the entire round is counted instead of separate hands. On overkills, the TP Return is normally 4%TP if subbed /NIN. I tried to include screenshots below with the TParty TP return in the lower left. If an attack round is included with the WS, +10%TP is added to my TP Return.



4%TP - Overkill Mercy Stroke, offhand does not connect. Enemy is dead.
4 Main Hand

9%TP - Regular Mercy Stroke Attack Round
4 Main Hand + 5 Off Hand

• 9% TP Return - Mamool Ja Hopitaler

10%TP - Mercy Stroke Attack Round with 1 Double Attack
4 Main Hand + 1TP + 5 Off Hand
4 Main Hand + 5 Off Hand + 1TP

• 10% TP Return - Mamool Ja Sapper
• 10% TP Return - Draguar's Wyvern

11%TP - Mercy Stroke Attack Round with 1 Triple Attack (Or 2 Double Attacks) - This is a regular MS + Assassin's Charge
4 Main Hand + 1TP + 1TP + 5 Off Hand
4 Main Hand + 1TP + 5 Off Hand + 1TP
4 Main Hand + 5 Off Hand + 1TP + 1TP

• 11% TP Return - Greater Colibri
• 11% TP Return - Nyzul Fafnir

12%TP - Mercy Stroke Attack Round with 1 Triple Attack and 1 Double Attack
4 Main Hand + 1TP + 1TP + 5 Off Hand + 1TP
4 Main Hand + 1TP + 5 Off Hand + 1TP + 1TP

• 12% TP Return - Greater Colibri
• 12% TP Return - Qutrub
• 12% TP Return - Vanguard Necromancer

13%TP - Mercy Stroke Attack Round with 2 Triple Attacks
4 Main Hand + 1TP + 1TP + 5 Off Hand + 1TP + 1TP

• 13% TP Return - Lesser Colibri
• 13% TP Return - Mamool Ja Pikeman
• 13% TP Return - Proto Omega
• 13% TP Return - Sea Puk
• 13% TP Return - Wivre

A few updated ones that I didn't get to before. I wanted to post a few as a 75 reference prior to the cap increase.

Here's a Mercy Stroke utilizing Hide




A "Keleon recommended" Shark Bite




Capping out Parry thanks to Chibisakuraba




Skillcap Increases
If the current 10-level skill progression continues to 80 (Still don't know if 80 is the cap, pure speculation), we should see +5 increases in skill for both A+ and A- weapons post-75 (much like the +5 increases from 70-75). The difference in skill for the A+ and A- weapons took place during the 60-70 range where A+ received +5 a level while A- received +4 a level.

You'll notice that increases were scaled differently in 10 level bands after level 50.

• 01-50 - Fullgrade ratings
• 50-60 - AF Level increases
• 60-70 - Plus and Minus differentiations
• 70-75 - Level cap progression

Using the 70-75 level cap progression as our base, we'll come up with these new level 80 Skillcaps.
[INDENT]A+ Skill should cap at 301 Skill without merits. (+5.0)
A- Skill should cap at 294 Skill without merits. (+5.0)
B+ Skill should cap at 279 Skill without merits. (+4.6)
B Skill should cap at 272 Skill without merits. (+4.4)
B- Skill should cap at 257 Skill without merits. (+3.4)
C+ Skill should cap at 245 Skill without merits. (+3.0)
C Skill should cap at 238 Skill without merits. (+2.3)
C- Skill should cap at 230 Skill without merits. (+2.0)
D Skill should cap at 219 Skill without merits. (+1.8)
E Skill should cap at 210 Skill without merits. (+2.0)
F Skill should cap at 199 Skill wihtout merits. (+2.0)
[/INDENT]If new weaponskills are added with this update, I'm anxious to see how they are added and what they are based off of. Quested WS were usually unlocked in a floating 230-240 Skill range, the same may be true of the "near 300" weaponskills.

I'm wondering if the "near 300" weaponskills will have the same level 3 skillchain properties that current Relic and Campaign WS allow (i.e. Double Darkness and Double Light skillchains).


Merit Stepping
One also has to take into consideration that the current merit "stepping" cap has you taking in full combat skill merit benefits at 65 using the following stepping.

10 (1st), 20 (2nd), 30 (3rd), 40 (4th), 50 (5th), 55 (6th), 60 (7th), 65 (8th)

No idea if SE is planning on raising the stepping to 75 (+10 mods for +20 skill) or intends to go with +11 for a level 80 stepping.

There are new weaponskills to be added, but the requirements are still not mentioned. You'll notice that these are much like the original weaponskills in that there aren't multiple types for each weapon (BRD doesn't get a different weaponskill than THF or DNC for instance since it's weapon class based).

Here's a video of it on Youtube, at a minimum you can watch the animations.
FFXI 2010 Weaponskill Previews

Here are the names of the new ones

H2H: Tornado Kick
Katana: Blade: Yu
Dagger: Aeolian Edge
Marksmanship: Numbing Shot
Sword: Sanguine Blade
Axe: Bora Axe
Great Sword: Herculean Slash
Staff: Cataclysm
Scythe: Infernal Scythe
Great Katana: Tachi: Ageha
Polearm: Sonic Thrust
Club: Flash Nova
Archery: Refulgent Arrow
Great Axe: Fell Cleave

<3 you Arch for the homework and research you do while (cough) doing work at your job.
Infernal Scythe looks sick and looks like most of these New Weaponskills are Ranged Weaponskills. Atleast judging from the vids they are standing far away from the mob. I hope i can add this to Apoc.

Post 75 Progression took a slightly different path than 70-75, but the upper limits remained the same on the A- (296) and A+ (301) skills.

Essentially, it looks like this now.

A+
+5 per level (Sword from 292 –> 297 on PLD)
A-
+5 per level (Evasion from 277 –> 282 on NIN)
B+
+5 per level (Dagger from 279 –> 284 on DNC)
B
+5 per level (Parry from 250 –> 255 on DNC)
B-
+5 per level (Scythe from 240 –> 245 on BST)
C+
+5 per level (Marksmanship from 230 –> 235 on THF)
C
+5 per level (Sword from 246 –> 251 on NIN)
C-
+5 per level (Healing from 220 –> 225 on RDM)
D
+4 per level (Club from 210 –> 214 on RDM)
E
+3 per level (Archery from 200 –> 203 on NIN)
F
+2 per level (Shield from 189 –> 191 on THF)


Pretty much everything that you had at cap all the way down to your lower C- weapons/skills have +5 added which means you can add 25 to the old cap and get the new level 80 cap.

Here's a few set of WS on an Ixion after the increase to Level 80.



Using a different dagger.