A thief specializes in all things underhanded, and serves as impeccable aggro diverters with the use of their esteemed Sneak Attack and Trick Attack abilities – in addition to Collaborator and Accomplice. In Final Fantasy XI they function as lightweight utility DDs, so their role on the battlefield usually has them weaving in and out of battle. And they subjobs you choose can help you to change how you play tricks, whether it’s safely or dangerously. So it leads to question: which ones are the most effective?
5. Ninja
This job has fallen to niche status since the introduction of many late game fights, as ninja revolves heavily around AoE magic attacks, and attacks that would often negate the main reason to use this job in the first place: Utsusemi. However, there are still many times where Utsusemi becomes incredibly valuable, especially in content where physical damage frequently occurs. Aside from this, ninja doesn’t offer much else to a thief. While using this subjob does grant Subtle Blow to further minimize your presence on the battlefield, the Dual Wield trait offered by a ninja truly matches a thief’s build – if you haven’t attained 550 job points yet. But when they do, thief attains Dual Wield IV.
4. Rune Fencer
Rune fencer’s defensive capabilities can’t be ignored in the hands of a thief! While they’re able to keep a majority of the heat off themselves, a thief may still fall prey to deadly AoE attacks, especially magical ones. Picking rune fencer allows you to reduce the magical damage you take considerably, while additionally offering some survivability tricks of their own. It begins with a strong start via the Tenacity and Magic Defense Bonus traits, both passively protecting them at all times. Additionally, Pflug and Vallation allow a thief to mitigate the effects of status ailments and magic damage respectively, with the combination of the right Runes. This job combo also provides some respectable damage in the form of en-spells, which a thief can take advantage of with their naturally quick attack speeds and Triple Attack trait. Rune fencer also gives thief some handy buffing spells: Blink, Aquaveil, and Bar-spells allow them to further deal with otherwise heavy damage.
3. Dancer
Now this is the best subjob that thief can use in low-man content, or when solo, particularly if farming in Dynamis. In fact, this job combination is one of the most popular choices for players to use in Dynamis in particular! Subbing dancer allows your thief to perform their job as a melee, providing utility much easier. To start, you get the Waltz family, which allows you to either heal with Curing Waltz, or wake a sleeping party up with Divine Waltz. Additionally, you’d be able to remove annoying status effects with Healing Waltz. Plus you’ll gain access to Steps. These work very well together with various debuffs that a thief can naturally apply, like Feint or Bully. This is especially true for Box Step which lowers enemy’s defenses by quite a lot, thereby increasing the party’s DPS. And with this combo you also gain access to Flourishes, of which Violent Flourish and Reverse Flourish are of the most importance. Violent FLourish allows you to physically Stun an enemy, while Reverse Flourish allows you to use step buffs you’ve accumulated for a quick and large burst of TP. Subbing dancer will also add Sambas to a thief’s toolkit. The most common Samba used by players is Haste Samba, which provides a 5% AoE job haste effect. And lastly, Jigs also become available to you in this job combo. These are used to instantly apply Sneak and Invisible, which are both much more useful than a thief’s Hide ability.
2. Warrior
Warrior is the subjob of choice when thieves want to go on the offensive. Double Attack works nicely in conjunction with their own Triple Attack trait, granting access to further multi-attack proc rates. And it also increases your white damage considerably. The Attack Bonus trait gives you a much-needed helping hand with your attack, and massively increases your weapon skill power as it can often be lacklustre without the support of a party. Berserk and Warcry work very well together too. While Berserk drops the user’s defense considerably, it’s of little consequence for thieves, as their aim is to stay as unnoticed as reasonably possible due to the playstyle and tools they’d use in battle. Just watch out for AoE attacks, though! Aggressor, which is also one of warrior’s job abilities, is a handy add-on that bumps up accuracy by 25 in exchange for 25 evasion. In situations where a thief may be tanking, this might not be the best ability keep on. But there shouldn’t be many opportunities where they’ll really be tanking… so this ability is highly encouraged, considering many of the weapon skills you can use that feature multiple hits.
1. Dragoon
With the modern adjustments made to the dragoon job in FFXI, this subjob has become immensely popular amongst all DDs across the board. And thief is no exception! Dragoon provides a fantastic boost to a thief’s DPS via the incredibly Weapon Skill Damage Bonus trait. This 7% increase in damage applies to all hits of a weapon skill, which is highly valuable on a job that frequently uses multi-hit weapon skills, such as Exenterator and Evisceration. High Jump is also useful and acts as an enmity shedding tool, which aids in a thief’s natural ability to efficiently control aggro. With strategic use, this combo can allow thieves to steal enmity from high damage dealing party members, and then rid up to 30% of it via High Jump – that way strong damage dealers won’t need to hold back! And one last thing to mention here: subbing dragoon also provides the Attack Bonus and Accuracy Bonus traits, both of which are super valuable to a thief.
