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A good generic thief

Posted: 10th January 2017 07:52

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Onion Knight
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What are all of the things I need to keep in mind in order to increase the chance of success while stealing items? (I want to avoid deleveling trap exploits so hopefully that isn't a big part of making a successful thief.)

I tried google searching this sort of stuff with questionable success but this forum is a little stagnant anyways so I don't think anyone will mind the discussion. Hopefully I'm not stepping on any toes. I found some formulas for stealing and wanted to check with you guys and see if anyone knows for sure if it matches my current version. (FFT: WotL Android)


Gil Taking: 100
Steal Heart: 50 + MA
Steal Helmet: 40 + Speed
Steal Armor: 35 + Speed
Steal Shield: 35 + Speed
Steal Weapon: 30 + Speed
Steal Accessory: 40 + Speed
Steal EXP: 70 + Speed

Apparently multiplying the resulting number by your % chance of landing a physical attack on your unsuspecting target from that direction will give you your % chance of stealing the item. This seems like it's waaaaay too easy to do considering there's other debuffs you can give the enemy to raise it further + zodiac sign compatibility. Am I missing something? If not it seems like a good thief aint no big deal and I'm gonna be robbing certain fools blind near effortlessly in just a few turns.

Also like stated in the topic title, I don't really want to think about story characters right now. I'll be playing with a guide to make sure I don't miss anything so all that will come later. I just want to be able to make one of my generic soldiers fill that role in the meantime since I'm still very early on in the game. (Reaching slums of Dorter next. Just mastered all 4 of my remaining generics as Squires and I'm going to change their jobs and start branching out into classes now!)

EDIT: Figure anything else you guys want to share about poaching or thievery ought to go here too. I'm treating my thief as a guy hired to simply steal story items so he won't see many battles. I'm not sure if that's a waste or not. I'll grind his level up to match the rest of my party and probably send him on errands with a few others, but some mechanics are still plain old mysterious to me right now. I'm new to this game and really just trying to not waste effort doing something wrong. I tend to start saves over when I make mistakes that linger for the entire playthrough. Mild OCD I guess. I hear this game is forgiving once you get further into it so metagaming shouldn't be a priority for me and I'm probably ruining my experience just a little by worrying, but I'm having a ton of fun in spite of myself.

This post has been edited by Mister Beoulve on 10th January 2017 15:04

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Posted: 10th January 2017 15:13

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I wouldn't worry too much about anything for a generic thief character EXCEPT their zodiac sign. There is a very difficult boss with some extremely good equipment later on, and your best bet is to have a female Sagittarius thief for your best zodiac compatibility.

However, from what I remember, you can no longer steal from this boss in the WOTL version, so unless you're playing the regular version this is mostly moot.

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Posted: 10th January 2017 15:17

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Quote (Neal @ 10th January 2017 09:13)
However, from what I remember, you can no longer steal from this boss in the WOTL version, so unless you're playing the regular version this is mostly moot.

Yeah, that's correct, it's not possible to do once you move to WotL.

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Posted: 10th January 2017 16:33

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Thanks for the replies fellas; nice to meet you. You'll be seeing more of me and my dumb questions probably, though my topic it seems just saved me a major headache later on so thanks for the heads up!

I know certain support abilities, speed, status effects changing your speed and enemy physical attack evasion, and Zodiac signs will ultimately decide what your chances of stealing items are. About how successful ought I be on average, just so I know what to expect? From what I've heard from other posts, stealing is no joke and it never sounds like people are having an easy time doing it. I'd be happy with even a 30% chance. Should I expect it to generally be that high?

EDIT: I just remembered that ninjas are the fastest units in the game(?). Should I change my thief to a ninja with "Steal" as a secondary skill once I master the thief job? I don't know if there's a better combination utilizing thief as a primary and some other class as a secondary. (I was just going to go Thief with Fundamentals.) The extra speed and PA could come in handy if there's no real reason to keep him as a primary thief.

This post has been edited by Mister Beoulve on 11th January 2017 18:40

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Posted: 10th January 2017 20:40

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Quote (Mister Beoulve @ 10th January 2017 10:33)
Thanks for the replies fellas; nice to meet you. You'll be seeing more of me and my dumb questions probably, though my topic it seems just saved me a major headache later on so thanks for the heads up!

I know certain support abilities, speed, status effects changing your speed and enemy physical attack evasion, and Zodiac signs will ultimately decide what your chances of stealing items are. About how successful ought I be on average, just so I know what to expect? From what I've heard from other posts, stealing is no joke and it never sounds like people aren't having an easy time doing it. I'd be happy with even a 30% chance. Should I expect it to generally be that high?

EDIT: I just remembered that ninjas are the fastest units in the game(?). Should I change my thief to a ninja with "Steal" as a secondary skill once I master the thief job? I don't know if there's a better combination utilizing thief as a primary and some other class as a secondary. (I was just going to go Thief with Fundamentals.) The extra speed and PA could come in handy if there's no real reason to keep him as a primary thief.

I honestly haven't used thief enough to give that much input on maxing the class out. Stealing truly useful things is indeed no joke, though, and as you say, most of the time you simply don't need to steal the things that you can steal. Many characters that have legitimately awesome things also have the Maintenance ability so you can't get them anyway, as Neal mentions in his first post.

Ninjas are the fastest generic classes in the game, as far as I'm aware. I don't believe any of the WotL classes are faster.

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Posted: 10th January 2017 21:03

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Onion Knight
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I'm thinking Ninja/Thief or Monk/Thief is my best bet. Each point of speed ends up being less than 1% added steal bonus inevitably, so if the monk class isn't terribly slower than ninjas I might use that since they're strong and have really good abilities. (I don't see Throw saving my butt as much as Chakra or Revive, etc.)

This post has been edited by Mister Beoulve on 10th January 2017 21:04

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Posted: 11th January 2017 08:49

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Monks will have higher success % than Ninjas with equipment theft for nearly the entire game thanks to their innate Martial Arts/Barehanded. 40-50% chances to steal equipment is about the high end of what one will see without favorable zodiac and/or excessive use of speed boosting in battle.
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Posted: 11th January 2017 15:54

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Onion Knight
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Okay cool. Been real busy at work lately so I still haven't made it to Dorter yet, but I'm probably going to switch some guys around and roll with monk like you suggested. Everyone in my army is still a master squire. There's a couple soldiers missing some squire support skills I won't use but I want to change all of thier jobs before those who've mastered fundamentals start accumulating JP they won't be able to use. Is there any practical benefit to mastering a job other than having aquired all the skills and getting a gold star?

If 40-50% is high end, I won't mind a little lower. I'm probably a bad gambler but even just 33% would be good enough for me.

This post has been edited by Mister Beoulve on 11th January 2017 15:59

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Posted: 14th January 2017 01:40

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The gold star for job mastery has no benefit by itself. Job mastery does have some interactions with the WotL exclssive classes. I won't spoil them since it is your first time through; they're simple enough to look up anyways.
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Posted: 14th January 2017 14:50

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Onion Knight
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Oh okay no worries... I really like seeing that star though lol.

I plan on making Ramza and Ladd Dark knights.

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Posted: 20th April 2017 01:08
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By now you're onto Chapter 4 so this Q&A is somewhat obsolete, but I'll answer anyways. Some of it will invariably be helpful somewhere down the line.

Zodiac compatibility is by far the most important factor, but that's been pretty well covered already.

Speed is the next most important. More speed = higher chance of success. Both Ninja/Thief and Monk/Thief work well.

There's also a few other things you can do to increase your percentages:

1) Equip the Support ability "Concentrate" on your Thief.
2) Hit the enemy you're targetting with Stop to drop their defenses.
3) Steal equipment that adds to evasion (typically shields and accessories) first.

In the PS1 version stealing from Elmdor is the only way to obtain the genji gear, but that's no longer the case. Now you can often obtain the next "generation" of gear a bit earlier than you can buy it in stores, but it's only very occasionally you'll be able to get something rare (or truly unique) through thievery.
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Posted: 20th April 2017 12:35

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Quote (Paladyne @ 20th April 2017 01:08)
Now you can often obtain the next "generation" of gear a bit earlier than you can buy it in stores, but it's only very occasionally you'll be able to get something rare (or truly unique) through thievery.

Nailed it. That's basically all thievery is good for. The best loot I've nabbed is a glacial gun. Once in a blue moon you get some decent stuff but it's usually just the stuff the stores haven't gotten in stock yet because your guys are way too overleveled for the current story's unlocked gear to compete with. You find better things in random overworld fights simply because they match your level. Honestly I don't know if there's any other way to play. When Ramza is finally a Dark Knight, he's probably going to be level 70 or something. I think the strongest main story enemies only level until 45?

The game is a little unbalanced in your favor, but at least there's tons of ways to spice it up.

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