Seeking some advice.

[Dyft]

Re: Seeking some advice.

How in the hell did you get to 33 without Utsusemi: Ichi?

Sorry, I was half asleep when I made the quick post. I have Utsusemi: Ichi, I meant to say that I didn't have Ni yet. (Seeing as how its a lvl 37 spell)

[Durahansolo]

Re: Seeking some advice.

Sorry, I was half asleep when I made the quick post. I have Utsusemi: Ichi, I meant to say that I didn't have Ni yet. (Seeing as how its a lvl 37 spell)

LOL oh ok I thought maybe you duo'd with a friend or something. I made it to 38 in a party without Utsu: Ni but it was because the crazy BRD kept pulling when I tried to leave at 37.

[Dyft]

Re: Seeking some advice.

LOL oh ok I thought maybe you duo'd with a friend or something.

I do however have a 2nd account Taru WHM/BLM (41). I have been debating turning him into a RDM/WHM though. Would NIN/? + RDM/? or WHM/? be a good duo? if so which subs? I would assume that the NIN would have to sub War for voke at least until 40 (Maybe Dnc? for ghetto voke and backup cures allowing the WHM or RDM a chance to do a little more dmg to help kill speed?)

Anyone have any thoughts on that?

Thanks
-Dyft

[Durahansolo]

Re: Seeking some advice.

I do however have a 2nd account Taru WHM/BLM (41). I have been debating turning him into a RDM/WHM though. Would NIN/? + RDM/? or WHM/? be a good duo? if so which subs? I would assume that the NIN would have to sub War for voke at least until 40 (Maybe Dnc? for ghetto voke and backup cures allowing the WHM or RDM a chance to do a little more dmg to help kill speed?)

Anyone have any thoughts on that?

Thanks
-Dyft

I've seen NINs use /DNC in campaign but IDK how good it would work for a party setting, it might work pretty good for Duo setting as well. Just because /DNC has a watered down provoke which does work well but NIN needs all the hate it can get. NIN is stapled to Warrior because it is a tank, unless you are doing DD ELE wheel with /BLM or /RNG Throwing Shruikens. If you were gonna 2-Box with the second as a RDM, you could RDM/NIN for DD capabilities using the En-spells with Fast Cast it makes Utsusemi cast pretty fast and Dual Wield swords. Unless you were fighting mobs that cause status effects and you need to sub WHM to cure them.

[Tipsy]

Re: Seeking some advice.

If you get aggro in the daytime what do you do then?

3. Relies on the fact that you need to have enough hate to get the mobs attention and also it has to be nightime for you to outrun the mob. Suppose you have a crazy DD in the party that just doesn't take a hint and steals all your hate while you attempt to grab/ provoke the mob(No offense to anybody.) who may have a little leak in the DEF department. Then everybody goes ZOMG KEEL and goes into overdrive to kill the mob so that person doesn't die and the party wipes because you can't get the hate back.



Depends on what your gil pool is. Toolbags are expensive and cramp your space unless you have most of the gobbiebags done and are only playing maybe 1 job, or you have mules to shift your gear to.



If you're gonna be enfeebling, its probably best if you let the mage know before you do it. Many times I tried to blind a mob and before I could do it the mob was already blinded via mage. At lower levels some of the enfeebling NIN spells get resisted, I don't know about higher levels because usually in combat I'm only checking to see if the NIN has Utsu up and concentrating on what I'm doing. My nin is only 38 and that's high as it's going.



Make sure you don't macro Mijin Gakure and hit it by mistake, seen it too many times.



How in the hell did you get to 33 without Utsusemi: Ichi?

Most of your answers are pre-endgame based and the route from 1-75 is just a test.
The game really starts once you hit 75, imo.
However, I guess some of my answers maybe as well.
BUT, it still has more to offer than any other form of melee does (i.e., PLD, imo and no I'm not bashing PLD, my PLD is 74, I know how they work). FFXI is TEAM based. I feel Ninjas have an arsenal of useful tools at their disposal, as I listed.

And yes, you're right, at night.
That's 50% of the time.
And even so, the other 50% being day time you still have shadows, debuffs, and high evasion to help. And as I said, FFXI is TEAM based, if you're party has half an IQ they'd think to somehow help you out (sleep, bind, gravity, etc). Despite it's usefulness, it's freaking fun to run that fast.

And regarding debuffs, yeah, you tell the mage to spam poison or something if they want to level enfeeb so bad, 'cause you as a Ninja, debuffing is key in holding hate.

And really, tools aren't that expensive. I mean, you can spam the wheel from 50-60 for under 150k, hell take out 300k and you'll have abunch of wheels to spam up until you reach 75 (Not doing it every party, just whenever you need some extra hate.)

He wants to be a badass, I'm telling him how.

There's no if's, and's, or but's in this

It's a commitment, you'll need gil, and you'll need time. As for anything in this game that's worth having.

For Ninja, like he stated, make sure you have Gobbiebags done, that's definatly necessary.
Have atleast 60 invetory space, or more.

And yeah, make sure you level WAR to 37 before you start, you'll have a clear shot to 75. After you hit 75, try to work on DNC/BRD/DRK subs for the HNM scene.

However, they're not needed. It's just an outside the box way of being useful in certain HNM situations.



I know Ninjas who can hold massive hate, and it's not just /WAR.
/DRK /BRD /DNC are all very viable subs as well. Maybe not so much for party situations.

In the end, Ninja takes a decent amount of gil to take to 75.
However, I honestly feel (by what you've stated you wanted in a job), that it's perfect for your needs / wants.
There's no reward without sacrifice and the greater the sacrifice, the better it feels once you get the reward, remember that.

I'll finish off by saying, you havn't played the game unless you've played it end game.
Nothing really compares.

And in my opinion, Ninja has one of the coolest weaponskills in the game, despite it effectiveness.
Blade: Ku
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBOUisxvOlU]YouTube - Blade: Ku[/ame]

[Durahansolo]

Re: Seeking some advice.

Most of your answers are pre-endgame based and the route from 1-75 is just a test.
The game really starts once you hit 75, imo.

Since you don't start 75 you have to talk about the road to 75 and then talk about 75.

And yes, you're right, at night.
That's 50% of the time.
And even so, the other 50% being day time you still have shadows, debuffs, and high evasion to help. And as I said, FFXI is TEAM based, if you're party has half an IQ they'd think to somehow help you out (sleep, bind, gravity, etc).

Because its team based you have to always think ahead for the other person just like IRL. Suppose somebody is afk or what not. There's so many variables to consider because there are other people involved.

And really, tools aren't that expensive. I mean, you can spam the wheel from 50-60 for under 150k, hell take out 300k and you'll have abunch of wheels to spam up until you reach 75 (Not doing it every party, just whenever you need some extra hate.)

I can't speak for Dyft but back when my NIN was pre 20 I didn't even really have the gil to buy a stack of shihei toolbags. If I didn't have the ability to craft I would've been SOL and never got it to 37. I had to put Warrior on a shelf for a few months at around 45 since the only sub i had leveled was MNK so I could farm enough gil and force myself to go level NIN.

He wants to be a badass, I'm telling him how.
There's no if's, and's, or but's in this

I see that, I'm making sure he doesn't get his head chopped off in the process. We already have enough Leeroy Jenkins in the world.

I know Ninjas who can hold massive hate, and it's not just /WAR.
/DRK /BRD /DNC are all very viable subs as well. Maybe not so much for party situations.

I was mainly talking about /WAR for party situations not HNMs and such. Alot of the NIN I partied with pre 75 held hate pretty well but most people are a little scared to let loose on a mob with a NIN tank unlike with a PLD tank. If theres a THF in the party it makes it easier but that comes with any tank job after SATA levels.

And in my opinion, Ninja has one of the coolest weaponskills in the game, despite it effectiveness.
Blade: Ku
YouTube - Blade: Ku

You'd think he'd have make his macro to match the WS he's doing (since its a video). Damage was turned off all you see is /p Blade: Jin.

BTW Tipsy I'm not trying to analyze everything you say but I'm making sure everything is clarified. That way he doesn't take you the wrong way since you're mainly talking about endgame. After a few levels he may realize that he hates it pre-endgame which can happen with any job.

Anyways Dyft it's up to you. Whatever job you play, make us proud .

[Tipsy]

Re: Seeking some advice.

You're right, but like any job, the road to 75 is tough.

There's alot of prerequisites, so to speak.
If you want to do it right, that is.
Anything worth having, is worth working for.

(Unless you have endgame buddies who static PL from 1-75 in a week, I've seen that many times)


I'm just telling him how to get what he wants, which is being viable, useful, good, etc, and I notice all that is possible with Ninja.
He can build as he goes along.
Just remember, the Job is the base level of the building proccess.
It's up to him to get the rest.

The skill, the money, the time, the everything.

But, once he gets it, he'll have what he asked for. That's why I recommended it :p

[Dyft]

Re: Seeking some advice.

Tipsy, Dura,

Thank you so much for the advice you all have given me. Its been very helpful. I have highly been considering working on NIN, however last night made me wonder if that's really where I want to go.

Last night I only had about an hour and a half to play so since i was set up for Blu, I figure well I might as well toss up LFP while I put stuff on the AH and Loiter around. Well about 15 minutes later I got a party invite, so I took it. We get out to Quicksand Caves and its a standard party 4 dd a tank and a rdm. The RDM was a galka and I started to worry since they wanted the RDM to cover haste, refresh, and main healing. Anyhow So I make sure i have Sheep Song, Wild Carrot, Refueling, Cocoon, Head Butt, Mandibular Bite for the nice solid hits it provides (allbeit at a hefty mana cost) and Jet Stream for my self SC.

Anyhow I told the RDM not to worry about me for haste id take care of myself with refueling (I figure the RDM already has more then enough on his plate) and that I would also do my best to backup heal. So we start, first pull is an ant of some sort (never hunted ants before and we only pulled one) It worked us over hard (we were Level Synced to 50) but we managed to survive it. So we decide to go after beetles seeing as how they were VT -IT anyhow. we ended up in the hour I was there having 4 pulls that had 2+ mobs (links) which i took care of with sheep song, I was tossing out heals left and right while still being able to drop at least 1 SC per mob and a mandibular bite here and there (I was healing so much it was hard to justify the 41 mana it takes (if i remember right) after all I'm an Elvaan with about 300 MP Level Synced at 50.

Anyhow, Long story short, I honestly felt like I was actually keeping everyone alive (If i wouldent have been there to heal they would have died but you could say the same thing for the RDM, the only reason I felt good about my healing is because I was invited as a DD) On the Links I would sheep song + tank with cocoon when sleep would break and sheep song would still have 3~10 seconds left for reuse. I dont parse because I dont get that crazy about knowing exactly how my dmg rates yet. But I felt like i was doing a lot of dmg (When I would SC I would drop the mob 15~20% life) I was able to interrupt a good amount of "specials" (read: weapon skills) from the enemies with head butt, and I just felt great afterwords. I also offered to do the dispell on the beetles with blank gaze but they rdm said he had it covered. Also, I highly doubt that the RDM will see this but I just want to say that he was by far the best RDM I have had the oppertunity to group with so far to date, AND I was completely amazed that he was a galka (Not saying galka's cant be good RDMs as obviously from this party I know they can, Its just a lot more common to see a tarutaru RDM that can make those kinds of things happen.

Can ninja compare to those kinds of nights? My biggest fear about going back to ninja is that I'll still hate blink tanking. I was reading through the NIN forums yesterday and I've seen that people are starting to go twards +atk / +acc and slapping in +eva with whats left. That gives me more motivation to play Nin again, as I never was a fan of "Look at me monster ha ha cant hit me dodge dodge dodge utsu /bang head against wall shadows back up , repeat"

This post feels kinda like a wall of text so I apolijise, I would check for spelling and grammer however I need to get down to do a test (im at work).

Can Ninja compare to those kinds of nights?

[Durahansolo]

Re: Seeking some advice.

That sounds like it was a great party lol. On a sidenote, not only does a parser show the different damage delt to the mobs and damage from mobs to players, but they are also able to show buffs/debuffs used and how many times they were used. If you had parsed that fight, you could see how many times you used Magic Carrot or Magic Fruit to heal each person and probably how much you healed for on average. You could see how many times you used Sheep Song (I usually have Soporific equipped instead, since it gives Clear Mind when it and Poison Breath are connected.) on the mobs and what your XP per hour rate was. You can also see buffs/debuffs each party member used and how many times they used them so you could see some of the things you might've missed by eyeballing the RDM's awesomesauce while you were helping heal the party.

I can honestly say I don't believe I have ever seen a Galka RDM in the almost 3 years I've played, so if he was as good as you say he was then he was pretty kickarse. I think I see more Elvaan, Mithra, or Tarutaru than I see Galka or Hume RDMs.

[Dyft]

Re: Seeking some advice.

I can honestly say I don't believe I have ever seen a Galka RDM in the almost 3 years I've played, so if he was as good as you say he was then he was pretty kickarse. I think I see more Elvaan, Mithra, or Tarutaru than I see Galka or Hume RDMs.

I usually see mostly Tarutaru, Elvaan, and Mithras myself (in order of how often I see them). I was VERY busy from when we started until I had to leave, so I may be giving him too much credit, but with that being said, I honestly dont think most of the RDMs I have grouped with would have been able to keep the party going like he did. One thing I can say for sure though is I think he made some really good decisions on refresh. I *THINK* his prioritys were something along the lines of heal orange hp members then refresh then heal yellow members then debuffs then if he had mana left over he would do short duration buffs such as haste ect. I say I think he made some good decisions with refresh because I remember thinking a couple times "crap i just used all the mana i had for heals, refresh is down, and the rdm is at <70mp ... this is going to be interesting" Then out of nowhere his next spell was refresh on me. This allowed me to regen mana for sheep song (one time this happoned and we had a link and i had no mana because of using all my mana on heals / sheep song / cocoon (like i said for tanking the slept mobs while waiting for sheep song to refresh) and for heals to help keep the members alive.

My RDM is only 36 so I dont have refresh yet so I dont know how hard it is to keep up on a 2 caster party (I would think that would be the easiest to do) But our dds were spiking a bit much and pulling hate some times off the tank so our RDM had his hands quite full just being main heal.

With that being said, I have never been in a party with a RDM and had refresh at all times while fighting. So I dont expect perma refresh (allthough I can always dream right? :D )

I suppose this is all just a long way to say I felt that the RDM and *I* clicked well.. He anticipated my actions and I somewhat anticipated his. We only double slept a mob once (he cast sleep while i was casting sheep song) and it resulted in sheep song actually waking up the mob (his sleep landed first so i take the blame here) at which time i threw out a mandibular bite / cocoon and did some GHETTO shadow tanking while sleep timers refreshed. After that I was always first sleep (I perfered this because id rather have the mob wake up and hit me as apposed to going after the only "healer" (As like I said, I was invited as a DD and would have happily subbed RDM or WHM and been a backup healer. Or even dancer for that matter (has been requested of me before and was kinda interesting).

Again im pressed for time as im at work and apolijise for any spelling or grammer mistakes.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Seeking some advice.

My biggest fear about going back to ninja is that I'll still hate blink tanking.

Well I don't know what level your ninja is at but let me guess.......not 37 yet? I'm a fellow ninja HATER. I'm talking SERIOUS hate. I got ninja to 20 about 5 years ago and quit it. Recently I gave in and knew I would have to level my ninja sub if I were going to start working on melee jobs. I wasn't a happy camper. I begged my son (who's nin is 75) to level it for me but he wouldn't. So I put it off as long as humanly possible but I eventually had to.......feet dragging all the way. I was right........I HATED ninja. Each level was like nails on a chalkboard......it irritated the hell out of me. And then I got Ni.....it was like the heavens opened up, the birds started chirping, and all was well with the world. Ni makes being a ninja a pleasure. You actually enjoy it. I usually play rdm because I like how its busy and you have to balance things so once I got Ni, it started to feel like rdm did. I felt like I was accomplishing something and contributing more to the fight. Add in there better equips as time wore on with the addition of more useful debuffs and it was a pleasure to play. So I can say I HATE PRE-37 NINJA and I can say I LOVE POST 37 NINJA too.

[Cotners]

Re: Seeking some advice.

And yes, you're right, at night.
That's 50% of the time.
And even so, the other 50% being day time you still have shadows, debuffs, and high evasion to help.

Just a small correction but nighttime is only from 20:00 to 04:00 which is only 1/3 of the day. The +1 version I believe adds 1 game hour on to both ends making them work (dusk to dawn) from 19:00 to 05:00.

[Dyft]

Re: Seeking some advice.

And then I got Ni.....it was like the heavens opened up, the birds started chirping, and all was well with the world.

You are very correct my Nin atm is 33, so I only have 4 levels until Ni. Getting Ni wont be hard, I have sold 2 Ni scrolls that I have personally earned in BCNMs going after the PCC. I did this because of how the market fluxes so much. I took a gamble and said "Well I have 2 Ni scrolls, (at the time they were selling for 450k) I could sell them now and buy them when I can use them at hopefully a cheaper price." I figured that if the price went up that since i had earned 2 on my own accord getting another would be doable.

Since that time the price on Ni has gone down, so i feel i made the right choice in that regard. I was smart and put the money from the Ni sales on a mule that I decided not to touch until it came time to buy Ni.

What does Utsusemi: Ni do that makes the difference light and day? I mean from my understanding its a faster casting Ichi that gives 1 additional shadow if NIN is main job. I'm not sure about the extra shadow thing, that's just what I heard. I know that regardless if its 3 or 4 shadows it allows you to string Ichi and Ni together. Whats the recast timer on Ni?

The reason I hated blink tanking is because it never felt effective to me. (Keep in mind this is WITHOUT Ni). Even with what I thought was good timing and -25% spell interrupt (level 30 katana Nikkosomething or something like that? (I think its 25%) ) It would sometimes take a miracle to get shadows back up just to watch them drop in 5 seconds again. When I played Nin last time I was Eva < Agi < Enmity < other stats. Also as Nin is not close to my first job and is also still barely over half the level of some of my other jobs. I have always had the evasion skill capped. I felt like all Ichi only blink tanking was good for was for taking some of the strain off of a blood tank.

Also, as I'm at work I cant pull up this info, so what level do you get the ele Nis? I hear once you get them they can be good for keeping hate.

I have always loved the idea of being a ninja, but ive never felt like a ninja playing Nin :/..... Infact I was specifically told that if I wanted to "FEEL" like a ninja that id be better off playing Blu/Nin. I am currently a 58 Blu and love it to death, but as I stated in the beginning of this thread, with the hours I am working at the moment I dont have much play time, and its been very discouraging to spend the little time I do get to play hunting spells.

Now please understand, I am in no way giving up on or quitting Blu, I just dont feel I have the time to put the level of effort I feel necessary into Blu at the moment and would like to use this time to bring up a 2nd job (possibly to post subjob level) that might not require as much prep work.

I had originally thought Pld would fit this bill quite well (I already have all the spells up to level 40+ a Pld would need due to my Whm) which is why this thread is in the Pld section. Tipsy made a huge post hyping up Nin as the perfect job for me (from what he and everyone else can tell I would like from the things I have stated I enjoy). I have been considering trying out Nin again now.

As always, I would like to take the time to thank all of you for your sound advice and willingness to help. I really do appreciate it. I would love for any continued advice any of you feel like giving. I am very glad I decided to start posting on this forum as apposed to the others I've been reading.

[Armando]

Re: Seeking some advice.

What does Utsusemi: Ni do that makes the difference light and day? I mean from my understanding its a faster casting Ichi that gives 1 additional shadow if NIN is main job. I'm not sure about the extra shadow thing, that's just what I heard. I know that regardless if its 3 or 4 shadows it allows you to string Ichi and Ni together. Whats the recast timer on Ni?

Cast is 2 secs which means it can be cast between mob swings. Recast is 45 secs. It gives 4 shadows to NINs and 3 when subbed.

To answer your question regarding what's the big deal with it, consider this: while the mob is swinging at your Ni shadows, your Ichi recast is still ticking down. While the mob is swinging at your Ichi shadows, your Ni recast is still ticking as well. Also, if you still have at least one Ni shadow up when your Ichi is ready, you won't have problems recasting it. Also, at the start of the fight, you won't just have 1 timer at 0:00, you'll have 2 timers at 0:00, which guarantees you'll have 3 sets of shadows instead of only 2 with Ichi only.

Factor in Slow, Paralyze, random evades and parries, and Haste's 15% recast reduction, and having shadows up becomes the norm rather than the exception.

[Tipsy]

Re: Seeking some advice.

Cast is 2 secs which means it can be cast between mob swings. Recast is 45 secs. It gives 4 shadows to NINs and 3 when subbed.

To answer your question regarding what's the big deal with it, consider this: while the mob is swinging at your Ni shadows, your Ichi recast is still ticking down. While the mob is swinging at your Ichi shadows, your Ni recast is still ticking as well. Also, if you still have at least one Ni shadow up when your Ichi is ready, you won't have problems recasting it. Also, at the start of the fight, you won't just have 1 timer at 0:00, you'll have 2 timers at 0:00, which guarantees you'll have 3 sets of shadows instead of only 2 with Ichi only.

Factor in Slow, Paralyze, random evades and parries, and Haste's 15% recast reduction, and having shadows up becomes the norm rather than the exception.

Pretty much what he means is, you'll never get hit.

To your question, "Can Ninja compare to those kinds of nights?"

The answer is yes, in a different way.

No you cannot heal (/war), but if you're good at what you do, your team members wouldn't have taken that much damage to allow for such heal spam.

As well, you'd be a godsend upon your mages.
And EXP would flow easier since there would be no down time.

Again, if you're good at what you do.
---------------------------------
Not bashing BLU or anything, mine's Level 67, and honestly if the Ants was spamming AoEs, you could be blammed for that.

BLU spells feed MASSIVE TP to the monster.

Headbutt gives the mob 10 TP.
Let alone mutli-hits, it could feed the monster so much TP, it'll be WSing left and right, perhaps causing your party to need so much healing.

Just something to think about, and I think every BLU spell gives TP to the monster, it's not actually magic (that's why you can SATA them).

Even in Ballista, my BLU friend used Disserverment on me, and I got like 30 something TP from it. I think outside ballista it doubles that (ballista gimps things)
------------------------

Go to the Ninja forums on here and read my topic called "Loleva," read through the replies, it explains why EVA is really not needed.

Focus on Haste, ATTK, and ACC.
------------
Haste - Speeds up time in between attacks, lowers recast timer on spells
As well, you have a trait you get called Dual Wield, and it upgrades as you level (at certain levels), and that increases your attack speed. So right now, at your level, you probably attack slow.

At 75 with full haste gear, Af body on, and every "enhance Dual Wield" effect armors, you will never stop attacking, /WAR.
You literally will have like 3-4 secs between the first hands hit on the monster, and the first hand hit of round 2 of swining. So when you hit first, it starts counting, 1...2...3 (your other hand hits at around 2) then at 4 it starts over.

Not to mention Double Attack, then you'll do: hit hit hit hit hit, hit hit(could over lap)... etc

I think the best outcome is getting a Double Attack to proc on both weapons so it'll look like: hit hit hit hit hit hit, (.5 ish second pause) hit hit.. etc


**This all depends on your Haste gear, merits, level, and weapon type.

*Kunais have the lowest delay, usually.

*At 71ish, get the Unshu (or is it the Unji?), one of them and the off hand the level 71 weapon (forget the name) that gives +3 crit rate.

So ideally, you could look for: crit crit crit cirt crit .etc (again, depending on gear)

You don't even need that uberrare ToAU or god gear to do this either.

Just Suppa (RoZ earring), AF body, Relic pants, fumas, dusk gloves, it's mostly from the AH too.
-------------


If you have any Evasion gear, make sure it's Eva+skill, and not just +10 evasion.

For example, I'm fairly sure that +3 Eva skill = +10 evasion.

For everything else, load up on Haste and ACC/ATTK for Blade: Jin, as the other hits are very innacurate, and when it crits, oh boy does it crit.

You can also get a Double Attack to proc during that Weaponskill (I think twice?) which (end game) can hit EXP mobs for over 1.5k damage. The last 2-3 hits are really innacurate so load up n ACC if you want that. I think it goes something like 75% hit rate - 35%-12.5%-6% (I'm not even sure, it's around that)

And if you ever see a Ninja use Kirin's Osode, laugh at him.
Don't get intimidated by that thing, it sucks for Ninja, TPing in, and for Damage.

Haub is better for WSing in
AF body / Shura togi is better for TPing
-----------


And in regards to TGM, she's completely right.

Pre-Ni is the toughest part of playing the job.

Trust me, once you get all the Ni spells, you'll be so addicted it won't be funny.

(I mean look at me , I don't even play the game much anymore!)

-------------------------


And if you're wondering about the Shadow tricks, it's simple

Cast Ni while party is in downtime, wait for recast.

**You will have 4 shadows

Fight until all your shadows are used up, and the moment the last one ticks off, cast Utsusemi: Ni again.

**You will have 4 shadows again

Fight until you have 1 left, then start cast Utsusemi: Ichi, (Remember I told you to work on timing?), time it so that the monster will attack mid casting and will take out your shadow (cancel the remaining shadow if he misses, manually) then let Ichi go off.

**You'll have 3 shadows

This part is based on luck and skill, and situation. There's three ways:
1. You can either be a wuss and wait until you have one shadow left and cast Utsusemi: Ni over it (As Ni spells are a higher tier, they will override lower level spells such as Ichi) and it will likely be up again by the time your ichi wears off.
2. You can wait for your last shadow to proc off, and then cast Ni (Pretty common, more effective)
3. Or if Ni is still down, you're naked (remember when I said to have gear for every situation?), This is wear you macro in Defense gear (Earth Staff, Arhats +1s, Jelly ring, etc) until your Ni or Ichi spell is up.

#3 being a rare case, but it will happen. It's good to be prepared, so you don't die, and so your party doesn't.


And yeah, that's about it.