Drain jewel.

[Zarginnia]

so wich weapons does it work on? is it worth it?

[cruste]

wasn't this more a base game thing?
can't remember if enraged monster can get exausted, but you want that agitator dmg asap.

[Tregrenos]

This is like KO in that only certain weapons/attacks can make use of it, but as cruste said the Agitator skill is too much of a DPS boost and it's too easy to force a monster into an enraged state for the Stamina Thief skill to be of any use.

[Zarginnia]

ok. thanks.

[Toxi]

I think stamina thief is good if you're building for it, if you have a monster you don't want to dodge constantly, but like Treg was saying, it's for the best if you avoid using the CC to enrage. Also, if you use Agitator I think you can keep it. It's not as though if you use Stamina thief you're never going to enrage the monster, ever.

If my understanding of the skill is right, stamina thief should help you after the enrage is over, that's when you get a good number of relatively free hits in from an exhausted monster.
I only had about 2 jewels for it when I was using it and its effects were pretty noticeable.

edit: one thing I found out, apparently this doesn't work for Elder Dragons. RIP strats.

[Aelin Galathynius]

If I remember correctly enrage over rides exhaust because an enraged monster cannot be exhausted.
So with agitator and the claw causing enrage whenever you want exhaust kinda becomes useless and there are better options anyway.

As for how it works, blunt damage dealt to the head is ko damage, dealt to the body it becomes exhaust damage. Exhaust drains monster stamina, when the stamina is depleted it causes the monster to stand there doing the drooling animation for a few seconds.

[Oxeye]

Hunting Horns deal decent exhaust when hitting the body of a monster, and Hammers deal a small amount. As you may know, some Bowguns have access to exhaust ammo and some Swaxes have exhaust phials.
In my experience, exhaust cannot slow down a monster while it is enraged, but I believe it DOES cause the enraged state to end earlier. I don't have hard evidence for that, though, just a large amount of play time if that means much.

[Tregrenos]

When they added wallbangs they pretty much made the Stamina Thief skill pointless as you can only flinch a monster once or twice, which automatically puts them in a rage state afterwords. If we couldn't flinch the monsters the value of slowing them down would be higher, but since we can and doing so results in them being enraged it's better to prep with skills that account for the monster being in an enraged state.

Originally posted by toxicitzi:

edit: one thing I found out, apparently this doesn't work for Elder Dragons. RIP strats.

I'd forgotten about this, which makes the skill even more pointless as Elders aren't immune to flinching and thus can be Enraged easily for Agitator to kick in.