What exactly does a ninja do?

[n00bie-]

I was looking through the slew of post posted by everyone who had anything to say about ninja's and lemme say there a whole lotta stuff :p So after deciding there was too much for me and required days of sifting though tons (literaly) of post I thought (well a gm helped me conclude) that I should start a post to find the answers I was looking for, so here I am! Now for the question, what exactly does a ninja do..kinda monotonous but meh, well anyway thanks for atleast getting this far..unless your bored out of your mind :sweat: :sweat: ....then send me hate mail :spin:
-noobie

[Zyuu]

Highly advisable that you use your ninja with the intent on tanking. They do damage, but so do rangers. They debuff but so do red mage. They tank, so do paladins, but the difference is they are actually pretty good at it compared to paladins, unlike damage v ranger, debuff v rdm, etc. Like all things though it is situational which is better.

Tanking with one is a little different than pld, rather than taking hits well you cast utsusemi which makes "shadows" that take the hits for you. Its a little more complicated but thats basically it. Its recommended to sub war for the provoke also.

Thats the main focus of most ninjas.. there are a lot of different tweaks you can do to keep hate on you etc... they excel in throwing weapons but there are no weapon skills for throwing. Also elemental dmg/debuff ninjitsu is useful at different times, and you can use it to get magic bursts with off sc.

Lastly you spend rather enormous amounts of gil that other classes don't normally need to on ninjitsu tools (uses 1 of a type for every cast), and you look cool. =P

[hocuspocus]

Re: What exactly does a ninja do?

Originally posted by n00bie-
I was looking through the slew of post posted by everyone who had anything to say about ninja's and lemme say there a whole lotta stuff :p So after deciding there was too much for me and required days of sifting though tons (literaly) of post I thought (well a gm helped me conclude) that I should start a post to find the answers I was looking for, so here I am! Now for the question, what exactly does a ninja do..kinda monotonous but meh, well anyway thanks for atleast getting this far..unless your bored out of your mind :sweat: :sweat: ....then send me hate mail :spin:
-noobie

ask gomenasai what ninjas do, she seems to have the EXACT idea of how ninjas should play

[kisada]

Anybody know what rating ninjas have in guns?

I'm kinda wondering, cause if it is at all worthwhile, it'd be fun to do some nice gun damage every now and then.

[Silkiv]

They have a C in guns.

[Kiyosuki]

Lets not start bringing the mud slinging into multiple threads please.

The best way I can describe a Ninja is that you kind of "Sabotage" the enemy for your party, and whittle them down with duel wield. You can completely negate its ability to do damage to anyone, paralyze it, make it weaker to elemental attacks of a sort, use some very nice weapon effects available to you, cripple it so that it has much greater difficulty hitting you or anyone in the party. The most popular method of using this class is as the role of a tank, either main tank or backup tank depending on the situation, although after 40 you tend to be seen as main tank material. This is because in a tanking position you can take full advantage of all of the Ninja's abilities. You're in the perfect position to negate damage of any kind, and you're free to use all of the other Ninja's abilities to cripple your enemy while you and the party crush it. Thats the general use of the Ninja in FFXI in a nutshell. Even if you don't use it as a tank character with /War (Although its highly recommended) Thats as general as I can get.

The description on the official website is very misleading, it makes this class sound a lot like Thf/Nin, but it doesn't work in that way. Although Ninja's are very much cold, killing machines if you look at them in a certain point of view. If I were a monster I'd be damn scared of a character who could make everything I do useless if used right, and had very buff buddies with him.

If you decide to go the way of the Ninja, Agility/Evasion and Accuracy/Ranged accuracy are by far your most important stats. Its recommended you pump those up with equip if you can in any way. Dex is so so, because if you can find Accuracy instead its more potent than Dex in general, and Strength/Attack and Vitality/Defense are the least important stat since you're a speed based character, your main goal is to not get hit in the first place.
Its highly recommended that Throwing be capped in some way, Throwing weapons are really an essential part of using the Ninja, especially earlier on when Hate is so much harder for you to control. It still has its uses later on too, although when your Duel Wield reaches level 3 at 45 and you get that much faster its not quite as important as it used to be, but its still very nice to have. The Ninja's Throwing ability is its highest weapon rating (Katana's are A, Throwing is A+)

Its kind of a tough job, it has a very rough start. It starts to get very exciting after 37-40. Its probably the job in this game that you have to pump the most effort into to get the best results, which can be really worth it since this class can be one of the most sought after in the game if your reputation is built up well.