Ass. Vs Aura StealFollow

Dumb question im sure, but i looked through about 15 pages of posts and couldnt find a general concensus. A. Charge is pretty straight foward, but from what i can see maybe a bit more for taking pretty pics of ws numbers once every 5min if 5/5.
At the moment im 5/5 feint in categorie 2. So, thoughts on both? Also, if steal fails, does aura still work (i know its not 100%) What im asking is if steal fails does that automatically make aura steal not work. So its either once every 5min you have a 20-100% (100% with 5/5?) or a big ws number every 5min.

I steal them quite frequently from the Nyzul Version. Never fought the regular one so can't comment on that. Just sucks that aura steal is on a 5 minute recast...he loves to spam it sometimes.

The dispel rate is usually about 100%, only on some select mobs have I ever seen it fail.

Merit whatever goes with your play style. (Besides lolambush.) Archain uses 5/5 ass charge 5/5 aura steal, whereas I have a 5/5 feint 4/5 aura steal 1/5 ass charge. I have been thinking about getting rid of that 1 ass charge and putting it into aura steal though.

Edited, Aug 26th 2009 9:54am by Deadgye

Fails for Aura Steal generally only happen on high level mobs, unless you steal something it will usually remove a buff. Absorb rate is pitifully low sadly unless you push more merits into it. Though it can be useful if you manage to steal a good buff, usually just the dispel ability is worth at least 1 merit.

Utility wise a good target is Ice Spikes from Soul Flayers, especially in Nyzul. You can indeed steal Cerbs blaze spikes, but not the stoneskin i believe, though that could be because spikes may be first on the steal list (i have noticed the buffs you can steal generally follow an order, though i could be imagining things. As for Hydra, no you cannot steal its shield effects.

As for Feint... 5/5 Feint is perhaps a Thfs most powerful and useful tool, it is definitely worth having over the others.

Aura Steal is normally just a dispel. But there is a chance that you will actually gain the effect that you dispel.

With 5/5 merits it becomes like Voracious Trunk; whatever buff you steal, you will always gain it. Until then, it still functions as a dispel, but you won't always gain (absorb) the buff that you steal.

Edited, Aug 26th 2009 3:14pm by Fynlar

aura steal is highly situational.

One of the best situations is stealing a UFO's boost effect... mwhaha

At the Moment i'm 5/5 Feint and 1/5 Aura Steal.
I think i'm going to go 4/5 Ass. Charge for the rest.

Aura Steal is very useful in Nyzle Isle (my main use for THF) and I highly recoment at least unlocking it.

Depending on your gear or what you fight, ambush merits could likely do more net damage over time than ass charge merits, I'd wager. There's always the deal of being behind the mob, but if not for that, 9acc full time > tripled WS every 7.5 minutes instead of 15.

Essentially if your thief is general purpose, you should have
5Feint
1AuraSteal
1Ass.Charge at least

This is my opinion but generally this is the best base set of merits. 5Feint is self explanatory. 1AuraSteal to allow you to dispel things is incredibly good utility. Don't leave it unmerited. At least 1 in ass charge is good for fun and screenies if anything. But also it is an aid in zergish fights, as well as a tool to allow yourself to plant hate. This is actually important and shouldn't be understated. If you plan on tanking anything, opening up w/ a AC SA WS is effective. Same if you want to plant a lot of hate on a tank.

So from this set it's a debate of how to spend the last 3 merits.

If I'm in doing a lot of sea at the time and want to show off at JoL I'll boost my Aura Steal. Otherwise I consider 3ambush > 3 more AC for over-time DPS, though it is hard to say given its necessary condition. Again depends as well on what kind of stuff you do in game. Close enough anyhow.

I still have my Aura Steal merits in atm and I don't do sea -.- These last 3 points aren't anything too important.

Personally, I have 5/5 feint and 5/5 ambush. Unless hate is bouncing around its easy to stay behind the mob, and the +15 acc really helps.

Also though I tend to love to use status bolts, and the +15 racc really helps with that.

As of late though I am seriously considering taking one merit from ambush and placing it in aura steal...wish I would have done that from the beginning.