Thief Build Guide – Zoria Age of Shattering

As you delve deeper into the turn-based fantasy RPG Zoria: Age of Shattering the amount of choice can become overwhelming. If you’re thinking about taking a thief out on your adventures, read on for my Zoria thief build guide.

Updated: March 8, 2024

This build is current to the V1.0.0 patch.

Best Thief Build Guide - Zoria Age of Shattering

I found choosing a Thief to be both challenging and rewarding in the Zoria: Age of Shattering early game. The fact you can wear medium armor keeps you upright longer than the squishier classes, sneaking can get you into great positions on the battlefield to do some big damage, while the ability to cure poison is a great campfire ability once you start to come up against insects such as wasps and spiders. Once you have a good tank in your team, you can start to shine.

Best Stats for Thief in Zoria Age of Shattering

When you get to spend stat points as you level up, this is the priority list for a Thief. I tend to keep the first three stats relatively on par, with a slight lean toward upping Agility. 

1. Agility: High Agility gives you more Energy, which you’ll need to use your abilities. It also increases your Crit Chance, alongside raising your Dodge, for every 40 points. 
2. Strength: Strength allows you to do more damage, while also raising your Initiative every 50 points. I like high initiative on my thief as it allows me to get hidden and into position as quickly as possible. 
3. Stamina: This increases your Health. While you don’t want to be engaged, the fact many of your skills require you to be up close and personal to the target means taking damage is pretty inevitable. 
4. Intellect: You don’t need this for Mana but every 30 points ups your ability Crit Chance by 1 percent, so if you’re close to that threshold it is worth popping in a point or two if you can’t find it from an item. 

In terms of gaining stats from gear, anything that can get your Hit Chance up to 100 percent is worth having. Initiative and both armor types are also important, so I tend to spread these out from gear. As all these are good, only look to replace them with others that raise the total number of bonuses overall (unless any one of these is much lower than the others). 

If you find several items that give big bumps to your Crit Chance, it is worth going heavy on this because backstabbing crits can be devastating. However, unless you can get up into the 20-plus percent bracket, it's hard to justify as a main concern. 

Related: Ranger build guide - Zoria Age of Shattering

Best Thief party in Zoria Age of Shattering

Once you arrive at the Keep around level 8 you’ll be able to start choosing who to team up with. A good tank is crucial, with their ability to taunt being as important as staying upright. Alongside that, I like to have a healer and a ranged damage dealer who can keep out of the way while providing important support.

• Lancer: The level 7 skill Roaring Command is an AOE taunt that lasts three rounds and never fails. You can self-shield with Defiance, and then attack all the pulled enemies with Arching Strike. Add the fact you can wear heavy armor and a shield, as well as fixing sundered armor at camp, the lancer is the complete package.
• Priest: While the Priest has a bunch of solid heals and shields, the level three spell Healing Well is one of the best in the game. Not only does it heal everyone in range, but it also acts as a beacon for enemies to attack. This is great for enemies unaffected by the lancer’s taunt. The priest also has some solid attack options too, with even the basic Holy Strike packing a nice punch.
• Ranger: While the ranger will be competing with you for medium armor, their damage output alone makes sharing worthwhile. Precision Arrow has a huge range, only a two–turn cooldown, and increases your focus. Pin Down can stun an enemy, again helping to feal with non-taunted problems, while you have many damage-type options that will suit any occasion. 

With the thief as your main companion in the middle of the party formation, I place my Lancer two spaces in front of them with the priest and ranger on either side of the thief, also at the edges of the formation window. This gives the lancer the best opportunity to get engaged quickly, while your ranger and priest have a better chance to get line-of-sight on your enemies. 

Thief Leveling Guide

As you level up, take the following skills in this order.

Best Thief Gear and Equipment

As you’ll be wielding two daggers I like to have two of each of Magical Damage and Normal Damage on hand. Wield one of each against new enemy types to see what works, or check your lore to see which is more effective against enemies you’ve faced before and double up accordingly. Also look out for daggers that have the Ignore Armor Bonus, as I find this more useful than the more common Ward. 

As far as armor is concerned, follow the stat guidance above, looking out for hitting multiples of 50, 40, and 30 respectively for Strength, Agility, and Intellect for the extra bonuses. 

How to play Thief in Zoria Age of Shattering

Against anything but the weakest enemy use Shadow Step to go invisible in the first turn. Move into position behind your enemies, or to the side at worst. If the lancer has drawn several enemies and you have some focus, lead with AOE Dancing Blades or for bosses and tougher opponents, Puncture and Shadow Strike. If you need to engage Cloak of the Infiltrator will help keep you alive, while Fire Bomb does a lot of damage if you want to keep out of the way.

Looking for more on Zoria? Check out How to sell and repair gear in Zoria Age of Shattering right here at Pro Game Guides!