[RaW rOcK kIlLs]

Hello fellow THFs! I recently turned 75. Last night myself and a 75 blu/nin went to take on Shiva Prime. We got her down to under 50% of her hp, then my BLU buddy wipes. It comes down to myself and the ice queen. My agility was able to keep me alive untill she used blizzard and rush. I noticed that I have great agility, but I hit like a school girl lol.

My question is this....what should I invest merrit points into in order to melee for more damage? Should I start wielding a sword along with a dagger? What else should I be doing with merit points? Any advice will be great. Also, below is my gear set up

Please dont flame me >.>'

Main Hand- THFs knife
Sub- Garudas Dagger

Head- walra turban
Neck- Spike Necklace
Chest- Scorpian Harness, dragon harness, and/or assasains vest
hands- Dragon mittens or war gloves
waist- Warwolf Belt or Life Belt
Feet-Draggon Leggings
Legs-Dragon pants (forget the name lol, part of the 73 dragon set)
Ears- Drone earring
Rings-the level 53 +dex rings
Back- Amamet mantle

[Aleera]

Merit critical hite to 4/4 and dagger skill to 8/8, that should improve your overall DPS. The rest may depend entirely on your gear set up and dagger choices as well. I see some THFs also merit evasion as well to help with soloing, you may want to look into that, too.

[RaW rOcK kIlLs]

Thanks for the advice ^^

[nefarious.lover]

RaW rOcK kIlLs, on 09 November 2009 - 01:33 PM, said:

Hello fellow THFs! I recently turned 75. Last night myself and a 75 blu/nin went to take on Shiva Prime. We got her down to under 50% of her hp, then my BLU buddy wipes. It comes down to myself and the ice queen. My agility was able to keep me alive untill she used blizzard and rush. I noticed that I have great agility, but I hit like a school girl lol.

My question is this....what should I invest merrit points into in order to melee for more damage? Should I start wielding a sword along with a dagger? What else should I be doing with merit points? Any advice will be great. Also, below is my gear set up

Please dont flame me >.>'

Main Hand- THFs knife
Sub- Garudas Dagger

Head- walra turban
Neck- Spike Necklace
Chest- Scorpian Harness, dragon harness, and/or assasains vest
hands- Dragon gloves or war gloves
waist- Warwolf Belt or Life Belt
Feet-Draggon Leggings
Legs-Dragon pants (forget the name lol, part of the 73 dragon set)
Ears- Drone earring
Rings-the level 53 +dex rings

On the first page;

http://killingifrit....rom-an-old-thf/





Gear really isn't that hard when you're at the level you're at.




Haste >> Dual Wield == Double Attack >> ACC >> DEX == ATK >> STR

[nefarious.lover]

For the non-gear questions;

RaW rOcK kIlLs, on 09 November 2009 - 01:33 PM, said:

My agility was able to keep me aliveI noticed that I have great agility

Your evasion kept you alive Not agility.. And probably not really. A full and more comprehensive set is highly suggested. Along with an Xbow if you don't use one already. And status bolts. Acid Bloody Blind Sleep.

RaW rOcK kIlLs, on 09 November 2009 - 01:33 PM, said:

but I hit like a school girl lol.

Because your gear and merits are lacking.

RaW rOcK kIlLs, on 09 November 2009 - 01:33 PM, said:

My question is this....what should I invest merrit points into in order to melee for more damage?

8/8 dagger. 4/4 crit rate.
5/5 triple attack.
5/5 sneak attack, OR 5/5 trick attack OR some combination of SA and TA.
For Tier2, 5/5 feint (this is one of the most important merits THF gets, regardless of what anyone else says)
and 5/5 assassin's charge is something a lot of people like, but for solo 5/5 aura steal is godly.

RaW rOcK kIlLs, on 09 November 2009 - 01:33 PM, said:

Should I start wielding a sword along with a dagger?

God no.

[Sotose]

Didn't see above post suggesting Xbow, but ya; use one.

This post has been edited by Sotose: 09 November 2009 - 02:35 PM

[Arkanethered]

1. Level Thf and get TH4

If you cannot... then....

2. Level something useful
3. Regret lvling thf
4. Poke Arivale with a stick.
5. Profit.

.... More for poking Arivale than an actual opinion... you other thfs carry on.

[nefarious.lover]

>_>

[RaW rOcK kIlLs]

Thank you so much everyone

[treelo]

Notice how he didn't notice my name, I'm still going to outparse your DRK Ark. When you're this good, you don't need TH4, mobs just drop stuff out of fear and humiliation.

Immediate problems:

DAGGERS: These will make or break you. I can't emphasise this enough. Magnet Knife still owns, a Harpe of some description is acceptable. High DMG mainhand, low delay/stat bonus in your offhand.

- Neck piece: Get a Chivalrous Chain and use your Spike Necklace to WS in.
- Body piece: SH is fine for now, look into getting a Rapparee Harness. Dragon Harness will see you through for a very long time as a WS piece. AF2 body is junk, just drop it.
- Hands: NQ Dusk Gloves are cheap as chips these days, War Gloves will do you fine, but Dusk will win in the end.
- Belt: again Life Belt is nice, Swift Belt will rock your world once you're in a position to get it. Warwolf will last you years, only one thing beats it, and they're hard as shit to come by.
- Legs: You aren't using AF1, which is a good sign (and the only reason I'm typing this.) Bravo's Subligar are great, Enkidu's are acceptable, no idea what the Campaign gear looks like for that slot.
- Feet: AF2 are a nice piece, you can also resort to Dusk pieces again.
- Earrings: Change these to anything that aren't Drone Earrings. Your choices are incredibly slim without completing RotZ (and Divine Might) and without access to Sea and Limbus. Anything with accuracy or attack will be fine, failing that go for STR or DEX.
- Rings: DEX rings are fine for WS. Get some accuracy rings though, like, top priority. Anything will do to begin with, but Sniper's Rings are a must have for any DD.
- Back: You didn't mention it, but Amemet+1 is a great buy. Foragers is better, but you're paying significantly more for one STR, the extra money is better spent on more important slots.

You'll quickly realise you'll need a fuckton of equipment to be any good with THF. I'd recommend not attempting to merit and focusing on increasing your performance through your equipment first. If you showed up to a half decent merit party looking like that, people like me would laugh at you then kick you. Even just changing your rings/earrings would be sufficient for now, meleeing in DEX/AGI is a sure sign that the person has no idea what the hell they're doing, and people will remember.

As far as merits go, cap your dagger skill first. You'll gain accuracy and attack from that, and see a noticable improvement immediately. After that, Triple Attack, then Crit Rate. What you focus on after that is up to you, but as mentioned above, Feint is a must. STR or DEX merits will help, but they're expensive and one of the last things you should look at. If THF is your only DD job, and you don't plan on levelling another, go for DEX, otherwise it's entirely up to you, most people pick STR.

Looking ahead:
- Get a blau, you'll never need anything else if you're only using THF for TH. See the bold section above, if you intend to take THF further than just being a TH whore, look at Sirocco Kukri and X's Knife for other alternatives to offhand/mainhand weapons.
- By the time you're half decent at your job (assuming you ever are), you should be well on your way to getting Homam from Limbus, and Hecatomb gear from Sky. They're your top priorities once you find a capable LS. I'm deliberately ignoring AF2 hands, but I suppose you could get those too.
- Find a RDM. Make some money. With a half decent evasion set you can make a lot of money. Can't find a RDM? There is a thread in here somewhere about what NMs people can/can't solo, most of those are still profitable.

And people say it's hard writing a guide for THF...

[Konda]

RaW rOcK kIlLs, on 09 November 2009 - 01:33 PM, said:

but I hit like a school girl lol.

Main Hand- THFs knife
Sub- Garudas Dagger

what the fuck is this? This dagger combo sucks at lv68, nevermind 75. At least have the decency to get some jambias or something. THF knife sucks. the damage sucks, the delay sucks. please note, anything over level 68, got a significant damage boost in an update a few years ago, and as such anything before then is largely useless.

Head- walra turban

Neck- Spike Necklace - Get some specs, or chiv chain.

Chest- Scorpian Harness, dragon harness, and/or assasains vest - Vest: noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. SH:TP, DH:WS

hands- Dragon gloves or war gloves - Dragon gloves are trash. sell them or npc them. the stats on them offer pretty much no benefit to you.

waist- Warwolf Belt or Life Belt - You'll want life belt on for the majority of he time

Feet-Draggon Leggings - here isnt a huge choice pre-homam, but anything with accuracy is good

Legs-Dragon pants (forget the name lol, part of the 73 dragon set) - Bravo's subligar is an option, but if turban is your only other sourcce of haste, you'd be better with some Acc or ATK

Ears- Drone earring - no.

Rings-the level 53 +dex rings - get some Acc rings. woodsman/snipers/CureAmnesiaThing.



from the top: Your daggers suck and are the main reason you hit like a girl. Short term options: Harpe/Jambia/Alzoth...... Long term goals: Blau, Sicorro

Head: war baret, and Ohat(harder to get) are situationally better than turban, and offer a Weaponskill option

Neck: spike is good for solo sneak attack. get something with Acc on. Specs are cool because of the Racc on them too

Hands: Dusk gloves or war gloves for your TPing, dragon gloves never see the hands of any decent thief.

Ears: get some merman earrings or something. agi offers absolutely no benefit to you unless you have trick attack active. even when stacking trick attack with a weaponskill, the damage bonus from AGI only applies to the first hit of the weaponskill, so you're better off with attack anyway.

Rings: TP in acc rings, WS in dex.



TP Builds: accuracy is paramount. however, a lot of it can be covered by food, so most people tend to focus on haste. Turban/rap.harness/Swift/dusk gloves/Bravo sub/Dusk feet are your options before homam. small amounts of haste have realatively little effect, but when stacked to a high amount, it's much more effective (IE it has increasing returns). dont run out and replace your life belt with a 2% haste belt.

WS builds: This depends on which weaponskill you're using. using shark bite or mandalic stab, you dont need much accuracy, as they are only 1 or 2 hit weaponskills, and the first hit is garanteed due to SA or TA. Dancing edge or Evisceration are 5-8 hits, depending on triple attack, and as such, you need the accuracy to support WS with this many hits. Landing only 1 of these 5 hits with a little more dex/agi/str is going to do much less damage than landing all 5 hits with less dex/agi/str.

Evasion Gear: Emp. pin, SH, War Gloves, Scouter's rope, Course Cape, Evasion torque, Velocity earring/dodge earring.... you get the idea. You need to focus less on attack, and more on evading. this sett is only needed if you have hate, and are trying to survive. Swap in haste for Ni recasts.


This probably came across pretty cocky, but the facts are facts. you're going to do terrible damage if you TP in agi earrings and hands, and have terrible accuracy using extremely poor daggers.

2 more things:
You need to do CoP, hopefully your linkshell can help you with this.
You probably need to level something which is useful... Try BRD for a fast/cheap road to 75, and you'll be useful/needed in all endgame events, making you much more appealing to endgame linkshells.



Edit: after reading treelo's post, I had completely forgot about campaign equipment... the accuracy benefits for legs/feet/body are excellent, look into them. You can easilly achieve this no matter how gimp you are.

P.S. we all start somewhere, look through some of the pics thread, you'll see a lot of progression and you pick up a good idea of which areas to aim to improve.

[treelo]

Oh, I forgot to mention Ranged slots. You don't need a crossbow unless you're soloing, I've not used mine properly in years. Bomb Core works, Fire Bomblet is awesome. Fuck you Arivale.

[RaW rOcK kIlLs]

Thanks everyone who replied.

@ Konda: No, you did not come across as cocky. No one who replied to this did. I took it as constructive criticism.