NIN Advice Please

[Zempten]

Hello

I've currently started to work on my NIN ( Elvaan and at level 17 ). Here is my equipment setup...

Weapons: Shinobi-Gatana
Range: Darts
Earrings: Sivler Earrings +1 ( two of them)
Rings: Reflex Rings ( two of them)
back: Traveler's Mantle ( +3 evasion )
Head: Cotton Headband ( +3 evasion )
Body: Bone Harness +1 ( +1 evasion )
Hands: Bone Gauntlets +1 ( +1 evasion )
Legs: Bone Sublinger +1 ( +1 evasion )
Feet: Bone Boots +1 ( +1 evasion )
Waist: Warriors Belt
Neck: Wing Pendant

Note: I geared my equipment from that sticky about Blink tanking 1 ~> 30

My Evasion and Parrying skill should be great for a while. As I have used my RDM to solo a lot of even to tough mobs that have basicially capped my parrying and completely caped my Evasion. Also I have capped Sword and Dagger already as well from my RDM.

Now the question is, I don't think I'm evading that much against the mobs I am fighting atm. Maybe at most I am evading 1 or 2 hits in the entire fight. Basically what I do is I have Utsusemi up before the fight and when I get down to 1 shadow left, I recast and usually I am able to tank for about 6 hits before I need someone to provoke so I can recast. So what is wrong with my gear? why am I evading so litle? I still have those pumpkin heads from Hallowen, I heard they give +10 to evasion. Should I eat those to help me out?

Also, I deal about 10 damage per katana atm, I think that includes eatting Meath Mithakakbobs. The thing I'm wondering is should I swap one of the katana with a sword/dagger that gives more damage ? or one with more accuracy?

Also, I've heard of NINs duoing in Ordel Caverns. I'm currently 17 and I have another NIN friend. Do you think we can still duo Ordel Caverns for good exp? or perhaps Korrolack Tunnel? There was a thread that said Trio NINs could take on Qufim Island until 27, but exp dropped at 25. What level can NINs trio/duo in Qufim?

Another thing is when can a NIN head to Qufim? Some told me that 18 is good enough if you bring your own PT. Some told me 19 is good enough to just sit there and wait, but others tell me to wait until 20. But I do not think Valk. Dunes is a good place to level after 19..............at least from what I remebered from my DRK.

Thanks for all the advice. I really appreciate it. Have a great day

[Omni]

evasion: you only have about +10 evasion right now which isnt all that much to be honest. you wont get any nice evasion items till u hit 24 for emperors hairpin, 29 for dodge earrings and 38 for survival belt. the pumpkin heads dont give evasion, its eating jack-o-lanterns that give you 10 evasion as well as 10 acc. dont expect to evade too many hits at the lvl you are at. tanking with just utsusemi ichi is a tough task. to make things easier for you, make sure the rdm is casting blind, slow and paralyze till they stick. those enfeebles will help u greatly.

i dont have any experience duo-trio`ing for xp. so i cant help you on that.

as far as lvl areas, you can goto qufim at 19 and work on worms to about 22? make sure u keep pt lvls close. the crabs, gobbies, giants and pugils till u reach 25.

[Thegod]

i waited till lvl 20 to goto qufim only because when nins take hits, they hurt, so i didnt wanna die going early.

the last level or two in all xp areas goes by slowly, ya just gotta stick it out, plus your accuracy is crap at that level anyway, if you go too early you wont be able to hit the mobs at all (literally)

I used a sword for a while, but katan is your best bet, once you hit 20 you'll see that you miss way to much with a sword.


dunno about duoing with nin, but i'd just LFG and tank out those levels.

I had the same gear set as you (throwing shurikens at level 18) and i evaded alot of hits, i was soo impressed with my evasion and parrying, that i didnt really need a constant voke when recast was an issue as the xp mobs in valk at your level will miss you alot once your 18-19

[Zempten]

I only have +10 to evasion right now? I'm lost, please guide me. I was under the impression that my armor gave me a bit over 10 evasion.

Silver Earring +1 = +2 evasion ( 2 of them would be +4 to evasion)
Cotton Headband = +3 Evasion
Traveler's Mantle = +3 Evasion
the 4 pieces of Bone +1 gear = +4 to evasion

4 ( 2 Silver Earring +1 ) + 3 (Cotton Headband) +3 (Traveler's Mantle) + 4 (Bone +1 gear) = 14 Evasion, no?

Am I wrong? Please explain for me, thank you and sorry this is such a trouble.

Okay, Well I'm 18 now so I guess I'll stick to katana's and I'll see how my evasion holds up in Valk. Dunes until 19 or something ^^

[Thegod]

no you are correct, that is +14 evasion.

like i said your evasion will hold up, once you hit level 25, make sure you dont make the common mistake 90% of ninjas make and get the blue chain gear, GET FEDERATION GEAR!!!!!

nins wear federation gear to lvl 40 sometimes, if they have the hairpin and nomad's mantle, all that evasion is way better then 10+/- defense points, bottom line its gonna hurt when you get hit no matter if you have the best possible def gear available, so always always always go evasion >>> def

[Omni]

oh forgot to count the earrings ^^

never used those myself.

but still, not as much evasion to make you evade as many atk s as you would like is what im tryin to say. but, it only gets better. just bear thru it

[Zempten]

I see, thanks for the heads up ^^

When you mean Federation Gear you mean replace all my Bone +1 gear into Federtaion Gear?

[Thegod]

yeah I went/going bone+1 to beetle+1 to federation gear all the way around.

I was able to keep hate better then some plds, everyone misses alot at those levels, and with +1 mokoto (whatever the silence kata are called for level 16, that are good untill level 24 btw if you get the +1s) you hit harder then a pld, and they need to rest for mp, so when your party sees you can tank a mob, they wont wait for the pld to regain mp when you could just as easily tank.


I didnt realize how crap pld damage was, it makes me feel a little better about not hitting as hard as say my rng or blm...lol


I'm looking, and im looking, and i honestly dont see a piece of equipment that would make me change my federation gear untill the jujitsu gi...maybe if my parrying wasnt capped, and maybe if i didnt parry so many attacks i'd go with def gear through kazam (mandys eat shadows like no tomorrow) but naw stickin with the evasion its too great.

[Zempten]

Parrying....hm..isn't there like a sword or dagger or something that raises Parrying at the 20s? Would that be better then a katana? I actually took the lvl 19 katanas because the delay on them is so small and besides the damage difference is only be 1.

[Thegod]

there is parrying knife at level 25 +10 parrying skill for each knive, i am seriously concidering getting two of these....

whats stopping me:

1. mithras have low character, i have proven it with a hume taru and galkan that character does affect provoke strength, so my provoke is weaker then everyones (not gonna make too much difference, but nins dont keep hate easily lets just say that)

2. I dont have any attack gear, all evasion gear, so i really dont want to gimp my dmg by equiping daggers i will miss a ton with and even when i hit wont do much dmg.


*BUT* the parrying knife has a really really low delay, so TP would build fast letting me unload more WSs, but i dunno how strong they'd be.


I am definately gonna duel wield them at aleast through kazam, as mandy's eat up shadows like no tomorrow, so i'll have to level nin through kazam as a tank parrying as much as i can, or as a nin/rng with a gun.<---- I really dont wanna do that as i have just started to use the wheel (elemental nin debuff spell run through to keep hate) and im just now getting my nin tankling to an artform.

[Zempten]

Hm........Well I'm Elvaan and seriously last night I was leveling my WAR and I was hold hate seriously really well even with WHM spamming Cure 2 for full heals and BLM nuking like crazzy along with RNG shooting like no tomorrow. All I did was Provoke and Boost as much as I could. So.....maybe as a Elvaan I can get away with 2 of these daggers? Or maybe just one so I can still have access to Katana WS.

I'll try it out I'll guess and post how it works ^^ However in a fight, I've noticed that my NIN doesn't parry as much as my WAR. I would like parry 1 or 2 hits in a fight and this is with maxed out Parrying and Evasion...........I'll post here again when I hit 25 and stuff.

[Tokitoki]

CHR = Charisma btw

My NIN is only 33 but even so I have parry capped. Even with my THF AF on EP and below i dont parry much and its a lot higher than the cap at 17. The parry knife wont effect it much, even with 20 more parry especially if it isnt capped. not only that but the parry knife is weak, using it over katanas will reduce your damage A LOT and cause less hate from melee damage. As a tank you want all the hate you can get and as a NIN you have to be willing to use a couple more Shihei a battle.

[Thegod]

my parrying is capped, but im not gonna even use one of these, i mean the idea of 20 more anything good just seems too good to be true, and i guess in this case it is.

I still think nins get shafted in the weapon department, i mean katanas and throwing weapons are our best bet, and if you check out the katas stat boost from levels 1-50, you'll notice that every last weapon besides maybe gkatas have better stats boost.

I hope these new items they are talking about are katanas...lol i'm like scared to buy anything over 10k, as a new item might replace it as the best and there goes a bunch of my gil, it sucks that they announced this so early (yeah not to early but still)

I am starting to think nin is a lil more flexible then other jobs, if i was an elvaan i'd definately do the high def high attack route as that style suits my strengths and evasion is a guessing game anyway. BUT!! ima mithra and we have natural high evasion and accuracy so im gonna go the high evasion route and hope that my evades come at opertune times.

...just on a side note i was noticing that one parry, and one evade is all i need when recast is an issue, like 15 secs left till utsu is refreshed, parry, evade, bam im good to go.

[Tokitoki]

Yea and evade or parry during casting is nice but if thats what you need to be able to recast you need a little more blink finesse ^^
Throw a Hojo on at the beginning and get the timing down.

[Thegod]

Originally posted by Tokitoki
Yea and evade or parry during casting is nice but if thats what you need to be able to recast you need a little more blink finesse ^^
Throw a Hojo on at the beginning and get the timing down.

what is that supposed to mean??

if you think hojo is gonna make a mob miss 100% of the time your crazy, all the finese in the world wont get you 100% blinks against a slowed, paraed, blinded mob....

..flat out a nin isnt a full tank till 37....finese has nothing to do with it, a blind monkey could blink the first six hits, but all the finese in the world wont make that 30 sec recast timer go down any faster, and you could let someone else voke, but then you wouldn't be a very good main tank....thats where the evasion/parrying comes in.

keep all the hate, and theres no way im not evading some of those attacks or parrying, and if they come at the right time, bam i keep hate the mob dies w/o damaging anyone.

nin is a tad more complicated then other jobs, but its only a few more macros then other meelees have, its not rocket sciene its just people stubborness get them in bad habbits they refuse the change.