Going back to NIN: need advice

[Thegod]

my rng is gimped (lvl 40 nin level 17) and i dont wanna use a war sub, so im gonna level nin a bit (i took a long break from rng took BLM to 55)

...anyway i still have my leaping boots, and power gi and mokoto+1, and dual reflex rings, but nothing else (sold it all or dropped it or lent it out its been a while)

I have a few specific questions, and a just a general question of what would you do to level nin if you had 2 million gil to split between nin and rng.

(now taking a break from BLM untill i can get moldavite earring and the rest of my AF pieces including the ones for levels 56-60)


QUESTIONS:

I am gonna buy shiurikens at level 18, so i think i'm gonna go with those, but do you think using a gun is a viable option for a nin?

at level 19 small sword gives +2 dex, is that even worth it in the least?

should i have the nin gear, or is the beetle+1 line better?

The new shade gear? how long could i wear it for and is it even worth getting should i get something else? (yeah its been that long since i even concidered lvling nin or rng)

My ninjitsu skill is capped (i tanked one time in the citidel with my rng when he was 34 because there were literally no tanks on, party make up (rng, blm, blm, wht, smn/wht, drk/war) It actually wasnt that bad, i mean the blms would spam if i got continual interuptions, and the wht and smn were tarus with huge mp pools, it wasnt very fast exp, and i wasted more gil in that party then in any other, but it was fun to try tanking with rng...lol (fyi i would never concider or even think about doing that unless it was a wierd situation like that, but thats 1 in a million IMO)


witch elemental de-buff should i bring with me to exp (i dont wanna bring stacks of all the nin tools unless i have too)


please help, thnx alot in advance

[Navia]

-ranged attacks-
A gun is more viable than ninja stars at low level (level 22+) if you want to do some ranged attacks. Unless you are tossing the level 48+ stars around, you are just wasting gil in my opinion. Remember you wont be able to use any ranged weaponskill because you are subbing /war, combined with the long delay of shooting a gun, blink tanking is much more difficult if you try use gun shots excessively.
Its much easier to just stick to melee/ninjitsu unless you are going to find some people that will let you sub ranger so you can slant your equipments towards being a more accurate ranged attacker.

-Armor-
Until 25 I used the +1 beetle/bone armors - shade gear isnt necessary.

-Weapons-
As for weapons, the +accuracy daggers/swords available in the mid 20s are good to have, you have dual wield so katana/sword or katana/dagger is a good way to keep skill up on more than 1 weapon type and still be effective.

-Ninjitsu-
Everyone has such an addiction to distortion renkei's at those levels you could bring elemental tool to cast Huton if you really want to enfeeble, but its more important to land your slow/blind/paralyze first. Ichi elementals are slow to cast, so unless you are trading hate with another tank, trying to land alot of ninjitsu in a single fight is difficult. It can cause hate loss if you ignore keeping shadows up, trying to channel a cast through while getting hit.
If you want to go with the bare minimum enfeebles at the lower levels, just use kurayami (blind) if you cant find time to cast the others while keeping your utsusemi going, and try to fit another in as you get used to tanking more.

[Thegod]

I still have my beetle+1 rings for BCNM 30s with my rng.

should i set up an equip macro for throwing weapons? I mean the shuriken at level 18 does 29 dmg, thats more then double the dmg of any throwing weapon with 5-6 levels +/- and since i already have the gear it would costnothing to do this.

I am a mithra, and i know soon i will be able to equip the spiked necklace, but for now isnt a bird whistle my best bet? the +3 character would help my provoke would it not?

lvl 18 should i dual wield fireswords, or stick to the weaker kantanas, even though the katana WSs are horrid.

I have a garrison tunic, i was gonna use that at level 18 (im like 500 tnl from lvl 17) and i can afford shade+1 gear so if thats best ill get it, but is it best? and should i use something besiders garrison tunic?

for head my rng has a hairpin but in the meantime is the cotton +3 evasion my best bet?

I mean a great nin tank will take lil dmg, and wont loose hate allowing the other members to not take dmg either, thanx for all the help, sorry about these n00b question before when i lvled nin i hated it and it was only to sub to my rng so i didnt care how i got the exp. (i hated because it wasnt rng and rng was so much fun)

[Navia]

You can try shurikens and swap rings out for more accuracy, but the constant swapping of gear may prove too tedious(or throw off your tanking rhythm) and depending how far past 'incredibly tough' the monsters are, you may find the misses not worth it.
I've had some days where I just missed too much and went melee, other times I have rarely missed and did nice damage.
You sound like you really want to throw stars, so you should give it a try at least - some people think its worthless, others only do it if a bard gives them prelude, and there are the gear swapping types that mix it in occasionally - do whatever you feel comfortable with that lets you still do your job (tanking) without getting anyone else hurt :sweat:

Armor: Until you get spiked necklace, it doesnt really matter what goes in the neck slot. Same goes for earrings until you hit 29.

Garrison tunic will be fine until 21, then you can use beetle harness +1 or stretch it out to level 25.
Level 24 is a nice milestone level because the hairpin becomes equipable and its effect is very noticable combined with a nomad mantle.
At level 25, you pickup the federation gi(3evasion +1sta if i remember) and leg armor(3evasion 1sta also) can last you until level 40 because nothing else gives you such good evasion.
Level 25 was the point where I really started to feel like a ninja, evading stuff much more often with the +evasion really adding up.
Federation Tekko with its +3acc/3ranged accuracy will last you a long time as well.

Weapons:
The HQ swords are nice, if you dont flinch at buying 2 of the HQ firesword they will serve you better than katana. Go for the +accuracy swords once you are alittle higher, it makes keeping hate easier.
Blade:Retsu isn't really that bad of a weaponskill, and you might get asked to blade:rin > viper bite or something using a katana later on so keep the skill capped.

Levels before 30 go by really fast with little difficulty if you go with the aforementioned equipment and paying attention to your utsusemi shadow count.

[Thegod]

fediration gi, hrrrmm, i've been wating to walk around in shade's gear, but +2 evasion seems like too much to pass up, so ill go with that.

my only question is i'm mithran, the shade harness has 3 more def and adds 1 evasion, would i be gimped if i wore this? Its just you cant avoid taking hits, it's impossible at level 25, when i will be forced more or less to fight mandys (or go somewhere else for those levels) so that +3 def the shade harness gives might outwiegh the +2 evasion when you concider i'll be wearing the hairpin.

I was thinking about the HQ swords, but i'll have to see how effective those shurikins are at level 18 before i decide to go with those. oh and for level 17, is power gi still worth it? or should i be in the bone+1 for more evasion (+1 evasion)

my parrying skill is capped as well dunno if i mentioned that. (having all these skills capped was crucial to my decision to come back to ninja sooner then i exspected.

[Navia]

You can go with shade harness but seriously there is never a good reason in my opinion to pick a few more points of DEF over evasion on a piece of gear.

When ninjas get hurt, its going to hurt like hell and taking criticals when you do get hit are not uncommon as you level higher - thats why its recommended to stack evasion as high as you can and do the best you can at blink tanking or split tank with another pt member up to 37.

As for parrying, that skill makes me cough a hairball trying to raise it :p I have swapped to arhats armor, put on minus evasion gear, used parry knives and soloed hours and hours against xp giving monsters to get pathetically slow skill gains.
My parry is at 130ish when the skillcap for my level on it is like 210 :confused:

The only people I know with this capped leveled paladin to 75 already because paladins can't evade worth a damn and love getting slapped around then curing themselves
Parry does raise faster when you get hit, but the whole point of ninja is to not get hit, which makes good blink tanking somewhat counterproductive to skilling parry.

[Thegod]

How i capped my parry skill....

soloing mandys in the first jungle from levels 33 rng-36 rng

4 blm parties at level 50 a few times, I am a Mithra, but with food i have +33 int (thats 2+ mil in gear FYI) so my freeze hit the hardest every time, and i took a beating alot.

farming giddeus for yag necklaces (diaga) when you have 30 yags attacking you, you parry alot.

my evasion skill (e- for BLM) was also raised doing these things.

I'm more then possitive these skills wont be capped by the time i hit 37 nin, but for now, meh it works.

Oh and evasion skill is grrrrreat, leveling my war a lil a couple nights ago, i was evading 1-2 hits per battle, i was like dam my nin evades only a lil more then that.

Leveling nin was a pain for me, becasue im dependant on having good DDs, not like leveling BLM or RNG, where i knew every party would at least have a BLM that didnt get resisted much, or a rng that hit consistently, so the battles were quick.

my nin ended up in parties with drgs, and other crap DDs and hate was kept, but dmg was slow and its like what r u gonna do seek for 2 hours for a level 17 party, no sir!!!

[Navia]

If I had to level ninja up again from scratch the first 25 levels would be me using a bow in a worm hunting party in places like korroloka^^ lowlevel tanking no matter how you spin it just stinks looking back when you finally get Utsusemi:Ni.
Ninja tank is more painful when battles drag on when the rest of the party has weak damage output - it also escalates your ninja tool costs per levelwhen you use an additional 1-2 powders per kill because you kill things slowly.

[Thegod]

Originally posted by Navia
If I had to level ninja up again from scratch the first 25 levels would be me using a bow in a worm hunting party in places like korroloka^^ lowlevel tanking no matter how you spin it just stinks looking back when you finally get Utsusemi:Ni.
Ninja tank is more painful when battles drag on when the rest of the party has weak damage output - it also escalates your ninja tool costs per levelwhen you use an additional 1-2 powders per kill because you kill things slowly.

BINGO!!!

this is why im asking so many questions, i sooo dont want to get burned out like i did last time because i went from 25-35 rng faster then i went from 10-20 ninja <---that is the most embarrassing thing to me, levels 25-25 faster then 10-17, thats insane and i refuse to let it happen like that again, im gonna blast through these levels or just go naked and have my ls gimp me to 30 or so..lol that was a joke btw