Ninja is a bit more then I thought . . .

[Xarndelius]

I'm a level 72 Black Mage, and I have always admired Ninjas, and I have always wanted to be one. The things that where holding me back was buying my last bit of Black Mage gear, and Finishing my staff collection. Alas, thats all done now, and I am currently leveling Ninja. I am in a static with the following:

BLM/Whm
Sami/War
Thf/war
SMN/whm
BRD/WHM

Now, I made this set up before I knew how NInja worked 100%. Now I wish I could get a haster, but its too late now, and I still believe this set up can be bad ass.

Anyways I have ben doing some deep research in Ninja all over the place, asking Ninjas I have partied with as my Black Mage, to checking many forums such as these. My concllusion is Ninja is just way more then I suspected. Their is so much more to worry about then I orginally thought. I mean as a BLM pt'ing with a Ninja, all that ment was less nukes, 0 Downtime, and always be ready with Stun and na spells in the blink of an eye. Now actually Playing Ninja, I really see that this class is crazy. I still love it though ^^.

So I'll stop my yapping and ask the questions that I wish to.

Equipment:

I see so many different set ups, so many different suggestions or theories on what a Ninja should focus on. and though I see great reason behind each set up, I am not too sure which would suit me the best. I have heard of all Attk type gear, all hate gear, all agi gear, and all eva gear. I have also heard of eva gear as well. The other thing I have heard was using Elemental Staffs. So you see this has me very confused. I'm worried that I'm trying to come up with my path to early, considering I am not level 37 yet, and from what I can telll from the spell list, a Ninja really isn't done growing until level 40.

But regardless, does anyone have any suggestions? What would be the best gear set up for a Taru Ninja, with my current static? I'm not asking for spooned fed information, but maybe pointing out disadvantages/advantages to EQ set ups that I might not see...Something to clear my confusion I guess.


How reliable are my Ninjustu Enfeebles? I have no red mage in my static, and the current mages I have are not great at slow/para/ blind at later levels, which means enfeebling the mob will mainly fall on my shoulders. How reliable is Ninjustu, if I keep it capped?

Why does this happen?

Right before the pull I cast Utsemi Ichi, as I engage and the shadows wear off, I am able to recast it, so what I have tried to do in the pass, is cast on my third shadow still exist. Now I'll either get hit, shadow taken away, however I'm able to recast. OR it misses me, so I decide to cancel the pre-existing shadows, so the new ones can take affect. This does not always happen though. I will cancel the effect, and the new shadows will show up on my status bar. Yet I still have only one shadow left, because once i get hit, thats it, like I hve never casted Ichi the second time.


THanks in advance for reading, and I apologize for any misspells or such.

[Gryff]

Equipment:

First nin/blm, get this out of your head lol, extremely expensive choice to pursue, more something to do as fun when you have some gil to burn.

As for your overall setup, you should have some focus to it, not just a collection of pieces on a single slot that is "the best" for that slot.

Personally I think maintaining one style and setup from 37->75 is a mistake as the game changes and the way you feel you can control hate and tank efficiently change.

Early on I went for a max eva setup, and gradually changed to an attack build+acc, around level 69 ( kuftal tunnel/dragons aery etc ), I moved over to an evasion+acc build, whatever you feel comfortable tanking with and can maintain hate with is fine.



Enfeebles:

Variable with the mob type, most mobs are fine, you have a bard, so come lvl 59 you'll be in elegy heaven and wont care all that much, although you'll always want to blind+slow, paralyze is something I add depending on pt setup/monster risk.

As for your last question, really not sure on this, I try and cancel before ~40% on the cast bar or it can be very flaky on recognising it.

[little ninja]

on IT+ alot of times enfeebs wont stick, an it usually takes a second or third cast to get it to stick. no matter how capped your ninjitsu skill is. but seeing as you went blm to the end, you know a thing or 2 about mobs an there resistence to spells/ powders..

casting ichi works well like this. it may not save you money or powders but its the easiest way to blink tank, after mob dies, no matter if you have blink up or not, cancel what ever shadows you have left an then recast ichi. now as your second shadow falls i will wait about 2-3 seconds before i hit my ichi macro again. now 2 things can happen. A. shadow falls an you still get 3 blink shadows back up, B. the mob miss's you, an you refresh 2 out of the 3 blinks. but still have 3 blinks.

as to the ichi question i know what you mean, but why you want to clear ichi for ichi is beyond me, since they stack, an all you are doing is filling in the missing shadows. ichi refreshs ichi, ni refreshs ni, ni refreshs ichi, but ichi WILL NOT REFRESH NI. as to your question after a certain casting time your blinks are added to the top of the screen, if you have a blink symbol up, then you are replacing shadows, well after the certain part of the cast, you dbl clicking the blink symbol is just cancellng out your cast, sorry if its a little unclear. hard for me to explain.

really the route you take your ninja depends on if you have the money, or the ways to make money insanely fast. the more money you have the more carefree you are with your powders, there is more gear options to you if you have the money. as for what gear is best. there is no real answer. it mainly is how well you manage an control hate. what class you are.

[Omni]

Re: Ninja is a bit more then I thought . . .

Originally posted by Xarndelius

How reliable are my Ninjustu Enfeebles? I have no red mage in my static, and the current mages I have are not great at slow/para/ blind at later levels, which means enfeebling the mob will mainly fall on my shoulders. How reliable is Ninjustu, if I keep it capped?

Why does this happen?

Right before the pull I cast Utsemi Ichi, as I engage and the shadows wear off, I am able to recast it, so what I have tried to do in the pass, is cast on my third shadow still exist. Now I'll either get hit, shadow taken away, however I'm able to recast. OR it misses me, so I decide to cancel the pre-existing shadows, so the new ones can take affect. This does not always happen though. I will cancel the effect, and the new shadows will show up on my status bar. Yet I still have only one shadow left, because once i get hit, thats it, like I hve never casted Ichi the second time.


THanks in advance for reading, and I apologize for any misspells or such.

from experience, ninjutsu enfeebles are pretty nice. only time i have trouble making them stick is when im fighting a new mob that is a challanging xp mob. (maybe a lvl early?)

for you question about your utsu not resetting with a fresh set, gryff and little ninja answers are correct. you need to cancel your existing utsusemi before ~50-60% if you are casting ichi onto ni. if you dont, ichi will have no effect and you will still your old ni shadows.

and regarding ur set, try and get someone to haste, it makes a world of a difference especially when you fight mobs that double atk frequently.

[Melkor]

Your Smn should have the AOE Haste, it can help out a bit.
Always have a Rdm for me though so only used it once or twice in the early 50's.

AOE Haste could work if the Smn keeps it up, and I also like Stoneskin for mobs with powerful AOE's or if I get double attacked on my last Ni shadow.

[little ninja]

its funny i have my message log so that it doesnt tell me it sticks. but only if it doesnt. an its odd how many mobs i manage to blind, slow an paralyze, an they still knock me an my shadows around..

melk has a great point about smn's. they can do party haste. witch will only work in favor of a ninja. for me i notice kills were faster, an the number of shihei i used went down a little bit because the whole pt was getting hasted. an stoneskin is another great aoe, it lowers the damage when a mob uses its aoe attack. also if blink goes down you can still recast it even if the mob hits you cause of stoneskin. add in group blinks, an other stat ups, they are very valuable. only set back is no raise II.

my gear is juggled between acc, an evasion. at lower lvls i would switch survival belt for life belt during a fight, or sniper rings for phalanax rings or agi rings. really gear selection is based on pt dynamics, an choice of mobs. so being able to expose either or, will only make you better..

[Tamago]

Im a bit confused. If you're recasting Ichi why must you cancel the previous one? All this time all I did was recast Ichi and it would refresh itself with 3 blinks. Now if you're casting Ni to Ichi then I understand, but not Ichi to Ichi. Forgive me if this is not what you meant.

[Omni]

ichi over ichi: no cancel
ni over ichi: no cancel
ni over ni: no cancel
ichi over ni: must cancel before ~50% or it will not refresh.

if i made a mistake explaining earlier forgive me.

[crowly]

[QUOTE]Now, I made this set up before I knew how NInja worked 100%. Now I wish I could get a haster, but its too late now, and I still believe this set up can be bad ass.[QUOTE]


You can have your Summoner or your Bard give your pt haste.


bah I can't get this board down...