<3 Ninja O,O

[Taskmage]

My static party is cursed, so I decided to solo my nin to 25 tonight and I have to say, I am utterly impressed by the soloing ability of nin at this level. I was chaining T Clippers in Batallia and only needing to rest every 5-6 fights. Freakin incredible! What other job could do that? That's way better than what I was able to pull off with my red mage at this level. Heck, that's better than what my red mage is doing at 57.

After I dinged 25 and got my Federation and Kingdom gear on I went a little power mad and started charging Ts with wild abandon and got myself knocked cold by a ranger gigas. Level down. >< So ... having lost my ability to outpost warp to Qufim, I regained my level on some DCs in Buburimu and decided to head down into Shak<tab> to see if I could find some EMs or Ts. I recognized Ancient Bat from Delkfutt's and decided to give it a shot. Fight was SO HARD, but I managed to pull it off with 3 hp and was rewarded with a whopping 200 exp. Sweet!

I'm going to be so over cocky the next time I get into a party. "Ok, I don't really need you five, you're just here to make the fights go faster and reduce my downtime. It's cool, I don't hate you for not being an uber ninja too."

[Mog]

Re: &lt;3 Ninja O,O

haha taskmage, settle down! Make sure you know what to fight, instead of boldly attacking a ton of mobs LOL. but yeah, ninja has the ability to solo (dd plus the enemy can hardly hit you). Even though soloing may be fun, you should eventually start finding pties, whether with random people or not.

[Taskmage]

Re: &lt;3 Ninja O,O

Oh, aye. Even though I was doing pretty decent numbers for soloing, the exp was much slower than a decent pt would have offered. It's not that I have a problem with a pickup pt. I try to static or solo because the way my life works out right now, if I don't reserve in advance a few hours to party, I'm just never going to join one. My poor rdm has been 57 forever.

I'm leveling nin for 3 reasons:
1) Hocho
2) Solo sub for rdm
3) Silent vengeance against all the nin tanks I've gotten that didn't know what a debuff was and/or couldn't hold hate off an afk bard in full Crow.

For the last reason, I'd prefer parties of random people. ^^

[Jei]

Re: &lt;3 Ninja O,O

that's cool. you actually dodge enough that utsusemi 1 alone could keep you alive the whole fight?

[Taskmage]

Re: &lt;3 Ninja O,O

With Blind and Slow in place, yes. As a rdm, I should have understood how important enfeebles are, but I was surprised how big a difference they made. I used Hojo, Kurayami, Blade: Retsu, and shuriken to boost my damage on Ts and was sometimes able to walk away without a scratch. When I fought a DC without enfeebles, it ate shadows faster than the T. It's really a matter of how much you're willing to invest in a fight.

I did a little math. When I was chaining EM and T crabs I averaged 120 exp per kill. I recast utsusemi twice a fight, and including the time it took to find a new target I think I made a kill about every two minutes. That's 3600 exp/hr not counting my downtime. When I started, I was @3000ish, and I leveled not long after eating my second one hour food, so I think ~2800 exp/hr is a good estimate. Not bad. ^^

[Mog]

Re: &lt;3 Ninja O,O

3k per hour, not bad at all ^^. The most xp I can pick up w/ my blm without dying is 50 LOL

btw is that with the band?

[Taskmage]

Re: &lt;3 Ninja O,O

No band

[Omni]

Re: &lt;3 Ninja O,O

With Blind and Slow in place, yes. As a rdm, I should have understood how important enfeebles are, but I was surprised how big a difference they made. I used Hojo, Kurayami, Blade: Retsu, and shuriken to boost my damage on Ts and was sometimes able to walk away without a scratch. When I fought a DC without enfeebles, it ate shadows faster than the T. It's really a matter of how much you're willing to invest in a fight.

^^

thx for pointing that out. blind and slow are the 2 enfeebles I must have when fighting xp mobs. along with haste. paralyze, to me isnt as necessary, but sure is a bonus if a rdm or whm can land it. casting jubaku just takes too long for nin so i dont bother with it. now only if other rdm and others would realize this and make sure that everythign sticks.

[Taskmage]

Re: &lt;3 Ninja O,O

Is there no Jubaku: Ni? That's too bad.

What I've been doing since I only have 4 second enfeebles is casting my first one as soon as the mob gets in range, then do my first voke, then do the second debuff after my melee. Sometimes this results in the puller getting hit one time more than they would have, but I think the shadows I save are worth the one more cure or regen on the puller. That, and my pullers haven't had utsusemi yet.

When I get my Ni debuffs I'll probably just lead with Jubaku in the same way, but until then I don't know about casting three 4 second ninjutsu a fight on top of voking, throwing, and keeping my shadows up. Paralyze seems like a good choice to leave to a mage since it's so cheap for them to cast.

[Omni]

Re: &lt;3 Ninja O,O

yea there is no jubaku ni. the only ninjutsu that doesnt have a ni version.
your tactic is what i usually do. 1 enfeeble as the mob is coming in, provoke, 2nd enfeeble. if the puller gets hit, its ok keeps them alert!

[Intensity]

Re: &lt;3 Ninja O,O

yea there is no jubaku ni. the only ninjutsu that doesnt have a ni version.
your tactic is what i usually do. 1 enfeeble as the mob is coming in, provoke, 2nd enfeeble. if the puller gets hit, its ok keeps them alert!

Not that it really matters but Dokumori doesn't have a Ni version of itself either.

And task, you have to take NIN to 45 @ least. NIN's cool before 40, but when you get the elemental wheel and if you use it, it's a WHOLE new experience. Seriously.

[Omni]

Re: &lt;3 Ninja O,O

oh yea dokumori. i almost forgot about that very useful ninjutsu. damn how could it have slipped my memory.

[Intensity]

Re: &lt;3 Ninja O,O

Very understandable Omni, I only mentioned it for accuracy.

Dokumori is the only tools I've never carried. It's only use is as a semi-hate building tool but even then the Hate garnered is so negligible that 99% of Ninja's disregard it.

[Taskmage]

Re: &lt;3 Ninja O,O

Not to mention that the tools and the items needed to make the tools are hard to come by. Hmm.. I wouldn't discount it off hand since the previously maligned Poison II turned out to be quite decent. Really though .. there's only so many 4 second spells I'm willing to work in.

I have to take nin to 57 at least for Hocho. I'll probably end up taking it all the way since I enjoy it so much. ^^ I have to try nin/blm at least once. I don't care what the tools cost, holding hate through sheer damage just sounds too sweet. Think that's possible at 40 with just Magic Attack Bonus I? Or would I need to wait for 51 or 60 for elemental staves and Magic Attack Bonus II?

[Intensity]

Re: &lt;3 Ninja O,O

Oh man, you're gonna fall in love post-40. It amazed me the damage I started doing. No job, regardless of how many JA's they drop followed by whatever insane weaponskill will take hate from you. It's an experience. I think everyone should lvl NIN to 57 so they can experience it 40-57. Unfortunately, post-57 the Wheel becomes nearly useless and you have to struggle for a bit til it's compensated by DW4(5?) @65.

As for /BLM @40 and beyond, very feasible. /BLM 40-55 maybe all the way to 57, you can hold hate with the Wheel alone. Easily. I don't think I used Provoke maybe 2-3 times 40-57 as /WAR. =P I wanted to lvl BLM for sub but I just don't work well with mp jobs.