Equipment: What's best for what levelFollow

I wanted to start a thread like this because I often times find myself wondering what piece of equipment I need next in my job. Obviously we have a wide selection of things to choose and race and playstyle can make a big difference in what you choose.

What I want to start here is a compendium of everyone's opinions on what is a "must have" at certain levels for each job, what is "optional" meaning you should save for this, but it's not necessary right away, and what is "fru-fru" meaning this is a high gil item that shows your Ub3r 1337ness.

I'll start with a job that I've just recently fell in love with, and let people fill in the blanks as we get replies. I'll update the main thread and if the response is good I'll add it to the sticky.

I would like to do this for all jobs if we could. Please give me your thoughts, I've started it below, I'll finish up to what my experiance in this job has lead me to so far, and am open to corrections/additions. Let me know if you like the idea or if you think it plain sucks. It's not inteded to be "the rule", more like a guideline that you can deviate from at any point if you wish.

Items in this color are "Must Have"
Items in this color are "Optional"
Items in this color are "Fru-Fru"

Thief
Lets assume that up until level 10, you can get by with Leather Armor, no rings, and just your basic weaponry. A Brass Axe +1 isn't going to be a huge difference over a plain Brass Axe, the exception here is Bows and Crossbows. Some of the +1 stuff is leaps and bounds better than the NQ.
Weapon:

 
Level 07  Beestinger            Dmg: 4 Dly: 150 DEX: 1 AGI: 1 
     Notes: Fun weapon, helps skill up dagger, damage is kind of poor. 
Level 10  Royal Archer's Sword  Dmg: 10 Dly: 228   
     Notes: Good damage for the delay, sword is easiest to solo with as a thief. 
Level 12  Dagger                Dmg: 7 Dly: 183 
Level 12  Dagger +1             Dmg: 8 Dly: 178 
     Notes: I put this as fru-fru because you can certainly get away with a NQ dagger but  
     the extra damage and lower delay make this a great investment, and they aren't very expensive. 
Level 13  Brass Xiphos          Dmg: 12 Dly: 228 
Level 13  Brass Xiphos +1       Dmg: 12 Dly: 228 
     Notes: This is optional because you won't notice the difference unless you change to the HQ sword.   
     Still, for soloing THF's, every bit helps. 
Level 19  Small Sword           	Dmg: 13 Dly: 226 DEX: 2 
     Notes: This is a nice little sword, I chose it for the Dex and the fact it was only 2000gil was nice as well. 
Level 20  Mercenary's Knife     Dmg: 11 Dly: 190 Accuracy: 2   
     Notes: You can still do more damage with a sword but this is a good solid knife to have.  I like to keep both capped. 
 

Sub:

Ranged:

 
Level 07  Self Bow              Dmg: 14 Dly: 45 
     Notes: Nice bow, something to pull with until you get a boomerang. 
Level 07  Self Bow +1           Dmg: 15 Dly: 441 Ranged Accuracy: 3 
     Notes: The extra Ranged Accuracy really helps, this bow would last you a long time and would be useful with other jobs as well. 

Ammo:

Head:

Neck:

Earrings:

Body:

Hands:

Rings:

Back:

Waist:

Legs:

Feet:

Edited, Thu May 5 15:10:07 2005 by Wintaru

Good tip. If you would like to post your equip lists that would be a great start.

/sigh...guess I gotta go level MNK now >.<

for thf level 30+ (this case nin is the sub):

mercenary body, merc capt belt, i myself couldnt afford emp hairpin i used merc captain headgear instead. for feet im wearing noct gaiters since i couldnt afford leaping boots XD.
for gloves use battle gloves for +acc. For legs use noct brais.

For weapon i used poison knife and merc captain knife or you can use windurstian knife +acc plus cheap.
For range weapon use long boomerang, +agi always nice to have.
Oh yeah get federation kukri its really nice to have, you can always sell it back and replace it with bone knife +1(att +5 acc +5) when you hit level 46. Fed kukri price range 100k-120k you can sell it back and get bone knife +1 only for 15k

for jewelery use spike necklace, for earrings once you hit 35 use drone earrings, use balance ring then you can go for ametrine rings.
hope this help

Edited, Thu May 5 15:52:37 2005 by Apis

have to agree that subbing MNK will get you the most damage pre-level 33 (introduction of Viper Bite, and some serious SATA damage). Stacking Combo with SA or SATA will net you the most damage. A lot of those pre-level parties i was in at the time really wanted to do skill chains with Red Lotus Blade, so i kept sword skill capped as well. Subbing /WAR is another option if you already have it, and don't want to lvl MNK, but i would still heavily recommend hand-to-hand til 33 and Viper Bite.
If you are serious about playing thief for the long-haul, it would probably be a good idea to lvl up hand-to-hand while you're farming or at a convenient time, b/c it will make a BIG difference when you get jumped by a 'bones' and can actually do some serious damage (I've even done it bare-handed and a lot of times is better than dagger).
I'm not even sure what lvl it's available for thief, but i would suggest not wasting your time with archery. Marksmanship skill with X-Bow is a thief STAPLE. People STILL do not understand just how powerful the status bolts can make you. With a stack of each type of status bolts, i can take Even and Tough enemies 'No problem', imagine being able to sleep a mob, then casually walk around and SA/SATA + WS at will. Not only can you still make nice gil farming while using them, but you can become valuable and highly sought after in parties when you are doing the majority of the debuffing, and raising your TP quickly in the process. Acid bolts make a very noticeable change in the mobs defense and you'll often be doing your RDM a big favor by helping out with debuffs. Being able to do a SATA + ViperBite every minute with added TP gain is another added bonus.
Throwing is a viable, cheap option for pulling, although debuffing on the way back to camp is still better, in my opinion.
For a comprehensive thief guide, and not just b/c of my 'job' bias, b/c i read almost all the forums pretty regularly, i would suggest going to the Job Forum and looking at the links located in the stickies there. A lot of them are vivid detail, breaking down the damage for each of your later WeaponSkills (Dancing Edge, Shark Bite, etc) into the formula and ALL contributing attributes, helpful food to 'cap' these stats, and more.

I didn't mean for this to be as much of a ramble as it is...

And i know my levels displayed may make some discount any remarks quickly, but i stay well-informed and research a lot. I get higher-ups asking me questions in-game on a pretty regular basis. And I'm sure many of them would back that up.

Anyways, long live THIEF!!!



Edited, Fri May 6 06:56:48 2005 by AnubisFTN

- Keep in mind that this list is for the ones who want to spend decent money on their gear, for example not going with Noct Boots+1 but with Winged Boots, but not going with Winged Boots+1 (I.e. In some case, some items are better than the list below. But I prefer to pay 100k and get a +1 AGI than 2M and a +2 AGI at the Lv24 ... It's up to you.)

- Also, I've made this months ago, so there may be new items that aren't in the list while being better, though I added some after the updates.

- It begins at about Lv12, because my THF was Lv11 when I made this, so Pre-party gears aren't in this guide -

- There's a discussion about which stat you should boost past Lv50, I.e. DEX or ACC -> DEX = More damages in SATA, ACC = Faster TP building, so SATA+WS more often. When I made this, I was not aware of this so this guide focus on the +DEX gear. I haven't read much about this discussion, but I believe a Peacock charm should make the deal for most of the cases if you keep the "best" +DEX gear, but I don't know since my THF is only 30. If a high-Lvl THF could post about it, it would be cool ;) ...


- The RSE aren't included because I'm a Mithra, but there are a few races whose RSE is better in some cases, so please check your RSE if you're not a Mithra.

- The AF isn't included because I was not, and I'm still not very informed about the high lvl gear, best stat boost, etc ... so I believe some (if not all) the AF pieces are better, I'm also waiting for a high-Lvl THF to post ;), but I've put a little "†" next to the AFs I originally put in my guide ...

- It's a subjective guide, so you may think in a different way, but I don't say it's the best equip, It's just a little guide for those who don't really know what to buy, and since I did it long time ago, there are some errors.

Thief

Back :
Traveler's Mantle Lv12
Nomad's Mantle Lv24
Republican Army Mantle Lv55

Body :
Garrison Tunica Lv18
Mercenary's Captain Doublet Lv30
Federation Doublet Lv34
Brigandine Armor+1 Lv45
[AF?]
Flora Cotehardie Lv59
Blue Cotehardie+1 Lv69
Dragon Harness+1 Lv73
[AF2?]

Ear :
Beetle Earring+1 x2 Lv21
Genin Earring x1 Lv30 [If your sub is /NIN]
Drone Earring x1 Lv35
Adroit Earring(+1) x2 Lv67
Pixie Earring x1 Lv70

Feet :
(Leaping Boots Lv7) [But maybe you'll want to wait Lv24 for Winged Boots, it's up to you. In my own experience, +3 DEX helps at low levels, but I don't think it's really worth the gil before Lv24, but you can sell the Leapings back and buy your Winged boots.]
Winged Boots Lv24
[AF?]
[AF2?]

Finger :
Balance Ring x2 Lv14
Deft Ring x2 Lv36
Grace Ring x2 Lv54
Adroit Ring x2 Lv72
Jupiter's ring x2 Lv74

Hands :
Legionnaire's mittens Lv10 [Or the other Lv10 +3ATK gloves]
Kingdom Gloves Lv15 [Or the other Lv15 +3ATK gloves]
Federation Gloves Lv34
Mage's Cuffs Lv38
[AF?] (Rogue's Armlet Lv52) †
Merman's mittens Lv66
[AF2?] (Hecatomb's Mitten+1 Lv73) †

Head :
Royal Footman's Bandana Lv10
San D'orian Bandana Lv15
Emperor's Hairpin Lv24
[AF?]
[AF2?] (Hecatomb's Cap+1 Lv73) †

Legs :
Garrison Hose Lv21
Noct Brais+1 Lv30
[AF?]
[AF2?] (Hecatomb's Subligar+1 Lv73) †

Neck :
(Rabbit Charm) Lv7 [IMO not worth the gil for 14 LVs. A must for the Genkais, though, since I've heard you had to steal an item from Maat, so +Steal items are good]
Spike Necklace Lv21
(Peacock Charm Lv33) [See comments]

Waist :
(Friar's rope Lv14) [I used this before the MCB, but it was because I didn't have any other rope to equip, so any belt would fit the job, there's isn't any must before the MCB (Use the Warrior Belt's +1 (Lv15) if you really want to have the best thing at this lvl)
Mercenary Captain's Belt Lv30
?'s belt Lv50 [Check your race's belt at this Lvl]

Weapon :
Strike Baghnaks Lv14
Mercenary Captain's Kukri Lv30 x2
Federation Knife x2 Lv34
Marauder's Knife x1 Lv40
Calveley's Dagger x1 Lv42
(Corsair's Knife x2 Lv50) [IMO +20 ATK is better than +5 DEX +2 AGI, but it's up to you]
Beetle Knife+1 x2 Lv56
Garuda's Dagger x1 Lv65
(Behemoth's Dagger/Knife+1 x1 Lv70) [Well, since it would be a huge gil throw for only one level, it's up to you ...]
Misericorde+1 x2 Lv71 OR
Gully+1 x2 Lv72


(I'll post BLM later, I must go to do my Promyvion run <_<)