just got lvl 24 THF tonight! w00t! Going on tomorrow to try and get 25, then i'll have a friend helping me get Kazaam Keys so i can hit 30. whee!

oh dubird just as advice, get a map for kazham (elshimo lowlands) and when your partying go to the outpost, near where the entrance to sea serpant grotto is(just ask a party member im sure one will know what im talking about) and fight goblin furriers, your usualy the only one in the area, and theyre great exp all the way to 30 - also dont send party invite shouts in yuhtunga or yhoater jungle, because by then all the good party leaders know how to use the /sea all commands, and it annoys all the veteran players when you shout for a party, and will most likely let them not want you even more

also whats your sub?

I don't shout for parties. It's rude and annoying. However, I have the WORST time getting parties. (trying to get a party in Quafim is near impossible for some reason) Right now, i'm 24 THF and i've got 14 MNK subbed. Better hit points and Boost really helps. I've been looking up different forums and help sheets for Theif, and a lot of people say you can solo Theif farily decently if you use the crossbow. I've been leveling boomerang because when I started, I couldn't use crossbow. *rolls eyes* So, I went ahead and bought me a good crossbow and I'm going to go out and start getting that leveled up and see how accurate those guides are.

I'm really looking forward to getting 30 so I can SATA. *evil grin* I'm already averaging about 100 dmg with SA alone. Gawd, I love my dagger!

if your aiming for damage you ought to sub war, i dont know otherwise personaly i believe the thf job is useless lol

THF is sooooo not useless! It's awesome for farming, and SATA is one of the coolest things. You can sneak attack a mob, and if you trick attack at the same time, you get behind someone, deal massive damage, and the person in front of you gets all the hate. It's very handy for hate control, a big must once you start getting serious parties. I've been in parties where no one is the real tank or we have two people trying to tank and it doesn't work. Controling hate and keeping the mob on one person helps the mages, helps the other melee fighters, and allows you to gain more and faster EXP.

first off, my samurai would consistantly deal more than SATA on a ws, and i would get a ws more often all the while doing more damage in between hits

secondly if you need a thf to help with hate control then your party isnt too serious in the first place - also one of the better parties i had, didnt have a tank, but it was me, sam/war a drk/war and another sam/war all we would do would be to rotate the voke all the while dealing massive damage - though obviously i dont recommend this, its possible - also later on you will start forming your parties around what your tank is, for instance a paladin can gain more hate easier, but gets damage more, so you want more damage dealers, whereas the ninja wont get hit at all, but will have a hard time keeping hate even when voking, especialy when the high level cures start being cast - and again, usualy in a good party you dont cure much during battle, but have hp regens and hopefully a bard to do even more inbetween and up defence during

but see, that's all higher level....and while it's not necessary to have a theif to control hate, it does help....every little bit helps when you have to make do with what you can get.....if you have a theif that is not hitting very much with SATA, you may have a theif that's not doing their job or doesn't have their equipment up to date.....you do have to have whatever weapon you're using maxed out to get the most benefit from it....and every serious party is about hate control....everyone does it differently, but SATA can mean the difference between the main tank keeping hate and the mob deciding to go after the mages.....

i'm also not saying monk is best to sub with theif, but i like it better than war for a sub and until i get to 30 and can get the other jobs, that's what i'll use.....i really do want ninja....mmmmmm....dual wield.....

besides, having a theif along means better drops and more loot....*G*.....

well generaly if your aiming for better loot, you have a party that is like twice the lvl of the mobs whom are dropping the loot anyway :p

Actually, fighting lower level mobs doesn't necessarly mean better loot. If I'm playing as theif and fighting EP and EM, I get more loot than when I play as Monk and fight the same ones. THF always gets more loot, espically when they get leveled up and get Treasure Hunter 2. There's also Steal, which is pretty good if you use it on the right mob.

When you're fighting NCMs, you have to have a THF in party or subbed or be a THF to get the best loot the quickest. Eventually, it'll drop the good loot, but you're more likely to get it quicker as THF. Same goes for keys. THF has better chance of getting keys from mobs than any other class.

yes but you only use thf on NMs and in that case you make sure your level is much higher so that you wont have a problem dealing with it - and after they changed the rates on all the drops, its pointless to even try for the NM items anymore since many are 1/100+ chance

Not necessicarly. Some NMs still have good drop rates for THF. Leaping Lizzy for one. And getting chest and coffer keys are eaiser for THF, as well as lock-picking. If you're just going out for XP and you don't care about loot, I can see where you might not want a THF. But at lvl 24, with my dagger capped, I can use TA and hit for as much if not more than the main melee fighter, even if it is only once or twice per battle, and we get tons of loot EACH TIME, including the rare drops. I can go out and farm as THF and get drops every time. I go out and farm as something else, I get very little in the way of drops. Any experienced player can tell you that THF is an important job class. If it was useless, no one would play it.

thats merely because coffer keys determine your progress in the game, and id played the game for over a year so dont even start with experiance

What's your highest level? And have you ever played as a theif?