Treasure Hunter Testing DataFollow

I'm surprised nobody has posted this yet or referenced to it but I ran some basic Treasure Hunter potency testing after logging in for the first time tonight and I LIKE what i see. I posted the info in the TH >>> Melee thread but I think it's big enough news it deserves its own thread. The test data is located here.

Summarizing my test results: Treasure Hunter is applied the moment we make our first action upon a mob and includes all TH+ item bonuses then and there. This effect will not diminish if we unequip those items, and so long as the mob does not go yellow the highest level of TH stays upon the mob straight to the kill. In other words the thief's knife can be treated like a regular piece of TH + armor and only needs to be equipped at the very start of the fight. Once we perform our first action upon a mob equipped with Thief's Knife + whatever armor we have we can unequip that armor and swap to a useful offhand with no consequence to the TH rate. Oh by the way, the thief's knife does work in the offhand for the opening strike.

Now I would still fulltime the thief's knife when farming dynamis or salvage but that's only because it involves fast kills on scrub mobs with highly desirable drops (salvage cells count as highly desirable). There are very few examples of scrub mobs that die in seconds outside of those two events with drops that are worth using TK for (I can only think of water farming for Olla Grande offhand). Currently there is the example of Magian Trial upgrade items which can also be bazaared, but that will change as supply outweighs demand over time. I think this is good news because the place where Treasure Hunter matters most is NM's, and I can live with holding my TK for my opening attack if it means I won't need it for the rest of that NM battle.

EDIT: I just did some extra testing referenced HERE. The summary of that testing is that treasure hunter equipment can be applied at any point in the battle. You can start the battle off in DD equipment and swap to the TK + TH + armor at the very end or begin the fight with it and it makes no difference. So long as you have all of your TH + items equipped at any point during the battle you only need them on for ONE action and they can be removed with no consequence thereafter.

Edited, Dec 16th 2010 12:52am by Melphina

I goofed up one of my tests somehow, dunno how. Treasure hunter + items can be applied at any point in the fight with no consequence. So if you want to wear DD attire until the very last few percent then swap into maximum TH equipment and make one final attack that will be just as effective as having all the attire on for the first strike. It only takes one action, and it does not matter when.

Edited, Dec 8th 2010 12:34am by Melphina

Actually I'm running my second test again. not sure if I was right or not about the being unable to apply later on. Wanna see for sure.

I was wrong about TH only applying on the first attack. See above. I got too excited about the one round only thing that I misread the chatlog and scrolled to an entirely different section of the logs.

Edited, Dec 8th 2010 12:36am by Melphina

No need, I agree. I went and edited all that erroneous commentary out so screenshots are unnecessary. TH items can be enacted at any point in the battle and only need to be equipped for one action for the full benefit, including right before the mob dies with no consequence whatsoever. I REALLY like this update. It has dispelled so many old myths about how treasure hunter works. That's priceless in its own regard.

Edited, Dec 8th 2010 12:37am by Melphina

Very nice to be proved wrong lol.

I myself started getting similar results when i helped a friend with his trials. I ranged attack mobs with th gear (base th5 without TK), and with full dps gear the th boost would start at 6. The probable reason my test didn't fair well was due solo, and sa/ta really helps triggering the addictional effect. I also did my test at fortifications, which i don't know if they behave in a different way than usual monsters (although i could get th to 8 by meleeing with th without issues).

I still think though, that boosting th with dps gear before having done any action with th gear it's going waste that boost, making it necessary/possible to reapply it. For example:
1- Melee in dps -> raise to 4.
2- Swap in full th gear and do any action with them on-> base set to 6 (overwriting that previous 4).
3- Melee in dps and sa/ta -> raise to 7 and then 8.

Heh, that too is an interesting test Melphina. After TH info was released years ago at fanfest, some dynamis shells started having thieves sub blm or brd, etc, and do AOE's to ensure TH on everything. But some people raised the point that years ago, there was a patch which stopped AOE TH from working (at least if you one shotted the mobs hit by the AOE?), something about Blm/Thf becoming way too rich in the earliest stages of the game through AOE farming. Then again, I never saw any such patch notes and this was just an old story. Good to see you have some information regarding this ^^

That patch just dramatically lowered the drop rate when killing with AOE, and as far as I know it is still in effect. Definitely good to know that TH can be applied via aoe, though.

Pretty sure it was an 'adjustment' to how drops were handles when a mob died to an -aga spell, nothing to do with TH. One of SE's less well known BLM tweaks.

I'm curious now as to whether or not this is what happened in my original test that I screwed up. If a lvl 90 thf doesn't have any TH equipment on and gets an initial proc to + 4, then equips TK + AA will the next proc be level 7 or level 6? If the TH gear impacts the level at any time then it would be level 7, but the highest level of treasure hunter overwrites lower levels, so if you proc a boost with no gear on then swap to gear you've already overwritten your previous level and must go from there. I bet this is what happened to me. Realistically you will want to simply start NM fights with your TH gear on and then take it off the rest of the fight. It's the simplest way to ensure maximum effectiveness, and it gets it out of the way immediately so we can focus on other stuff the rest of the fight.

No one here is mentioning Bounty Shot.

The rangers are saying that it only works if there's no thf. If theres a thf or /thf then it gives a "no effect" message.
So it seems bounty shot is another version of TH, probably equivilent to TH1/TH2 as it gives "no effect" as /thf with th2. What I'm wondering is what if you had a Rng Bounty Shot with either you outside the alliance or inside but before you do any action, and then you tag it with TH afterwards? I wonder if that might give you one more level of TH for you to start your climb up to TH9 or whatever.

Probably wont, but worth a shot just incase bounty is bugged and wont proc even if it's higher than the equivilent TH level tagged by a thf or /thf.

If it doesn't work though, then Bounty Shot is 90% useless (outside of soloing things if you dont have a betetr job leveled for solo0 and 100% useless i you have Thf and Rng leveled.

Let me see if I understand what you are saying Melphina.

Start fight with THF 90 + TK + AA + AF3+2 = TH 7?
Start fight with THF 90, add TK + AA + AF3+2 = TH4, then 6?

Do you really lose a level if you front load TH gear on the mob, or do you need +3 trait to raise it 2 levels? Not talking about the eventual proc up later.

Ok, I understand. My confusion came from this quote in the same post I replied from.



Didn't notice the hits + procs. So initial proc of TH3 is TH level 3 on the mob. Got it.

Correct. Both scenario's would result in Th 7.