New Nin Help! Plz

[Galaxia]

Hi everyone.

Sorry to bother you all but I thought this might be best place to get some advice,
Now I know I need to get War to 17 first but I need some info on Ninja.

Never done a Melee job before and as much as I dislike Ninja I need it for DNC and BLU.

Anyway from 1 to 37 I got No idea what to do.... I always been a WHM BLM SMN so never had any time with a Melee job so any advice for equipment and pts would be GREAT!

Thanks!!!

P.S I have NOTHING against Ninja when I said I dislike it, I mean it's not a job I'd be full time.

[Mog]

Re: New Nin Help! Plz

The two most important spells you will need are utsusemi ni and ichi. You will also want to buy the enfeebles( hojo, jubaku, kurayami ). As for gear, stick with evasion and enmity gear.

For fights, just do whatever you can to hold hate. Provoke off start and cast enfeebles when possible. The tricky part is knowing when to recast shadows. When you see you have one shadow left, wait until a second before the mob attacks you and cast utsusemi: ichi. This will give you ample time to see if your shadow gets knocked out. If it doesn't, make sure to cancel your last shadow before you finish casting ichi.

And oh yeah, mandragoras suck. You won't enjoy fighting those as ninja.

Hope that helped.

[Raydeus]

Re: New Nin Help! Plz

And remember until get Ni no one can expect you to tank without backup if they really want to save mp.

A lot of bad players expect you to tank like you have Ni and lvl 75 Haste gear, so don't let it bother you when it happens.

(I solo'd instead but I'm a crazy hume anyway )

[Celeal]

Re: New Nin Help! Plz

The issue you most likely by facing in tanking for pre-lvl 37 parties, is trying to get recast Utsusemi: Ichi. If you break it down to take a look what yourself can do, and what your party can do to help you:

--- For stuff you can do: Evasion gear, paralyze, blind, slow the mob. Blade: Retsu WS (w/ paralyze effect) is great at low level. As long as you can make your shadows last until the next Utsusemi: Ichi /recast is ready, the rest will fall into your game.

--- Your party support: When the NIN's shadows are all stripped and low HP, that is a bad time for NIN to *tank*. Things often fall apart when the NIN take a big hit, and either the NIN drop dead or the healer big cure on the NIN. The key is to make the NIN to tank *when* shadows are on (best condition), and turn the mob around *when* the shadows are off (worst condition). The more help to keep NIN shadows up as long as possible, the better exp. you should get.

[Ameroth]

Re: New Nin Help! Plz

Like the others suggested, playing a NIN means understanding aspects of enmity control. When shadows are up and/or ready to be used, NINs work good tanking because they have good chances of preventing damage for a few swings. It's after the shadows a NIN tank pre-37 has to rely on party support. Too many party leaders don't understand this and expect NIN to tank alone in a party without anyone elses' help.

Not much other advice for NIN, I've only taken it to 20 so far.

[Nuriko]

Re: New Nin Help! Plz

Well, some people think "tank" means "keep the mob's attention all the time". They're idiots. A NIN taking hits will have a very rough time getting Ichi shadows up ... by the way, that cancelling of shadows is only for going from Ni to Ichi, but it's probably not a bad idea to get into the habit of thinking of that.

[Armando]

Re: New Nin Help! Plz

The most important thing in your gear is Attack. Evasion is secondary. You gear for Attack and you squeeze in Evasion wherever there's room left or in slots where you can get much more Evasion than Attack (i.e. Empress Hairpin in the head slot.)

1-37, don't waste time casting enfeebles for hate. Just cast Hyoton or Kurayami (the cheapest Ninjutsus) when the mob is being pulled to keep your Ninjutsu skill levelled.

[Celeal]

Re: New Nin Help! Plz

IMHO, if you want to get both better damage output and better evasion, the popular approach is gear swap/macro ---- literally, *blink* tanking.

For example, it is popular to swap in DD gear for WS, then swap back to "tanking" gear. Personally I use evasion gear when the mob is facing me, swap in full DD gear when the hate is bouncing.

For gear swapping at high level parties, the NIN would wear DD gear for longer time as compare to *tanking* gear, or even DD gear full time, like in ideal TP-burn parties. However, at low levels, especially pickup parties, in general you would find yourself wearing *tanking* gear for longer time, or maybe wearing *tanking* gear in full time.

Note: When I mention *tanking* gear, it is not restrict to pure evasion set. For example, in Kazham level a NIN can wear chainmail like your fellow WAR,PLD,SAM do. Because NIN evasion-build option at low levels is fairly good as compare to other setup, evasion-build is popular at those level range.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: New Nin Help! Plz

Well, some people think "tank" means "keep the mob's attention all the time". They're idiots.

I beg your pardon? I don't think its what you must keep hate at all times but the very term "tank" means to draw and hold the enemy's attention, deal damage and absorb damage in the stead of the rest of the group. If you're not doing this, you're just a poor damage dealer and nothing more.

FFXI tanking also includes damage mitigation and haste, which is the only real distinctive difference in our breed of tanking. Some people think tanking in FFXI means not getting hit, those people are the idiots. They're the players that refuse to accept a PLD or WAR tank because they take damage and they're also the players than have no concept of how to support any tank including NIN.

[Galaxia]

Re: New Nin Help! Plz

I always thought of PLD and WAR as tanks aswell as potential in other areas too.