Ninja Gear Help~Tips~Suggestions

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As it reads; unfortunately the gear tip sections on Alla and KI are old and outdated, or few and far between.

I've been extremely lucky to have been able to borrow alot of gear or farm up a bunch of my gear from Evo's (THANK YOU ALL!), everyone's taken a huge financial load off me for leveling my Ninja.

BUT; beyond gear everyone's been so kind to lend, I ask for suggestions too. Krazi has been a wealth of information to me, as has Nauren and Lerelia on the occassion I see her online; but we have other NIN's and other people that know about Ninjas that can surely offer me some advice ^^;;

I dinged 51 last night; so lets keep the gear 60 and below for now; I know Haidate is badass... It doesn't help me now >.>

My Current Gear:

Main Yoto +1
Sub Sai +1
Ranged Rogetsu / Manji Shuriken
Head Emporer's Hairpin
Neck Spirit Torque / Spike Necklace / Peacock Charm
Earring Velocity Earring / Dodge Earring / Moldavite Earring
Body Nokizaru Gi
Hands Horomusha Kote
Ring Rajas Ring / Venerer Ring
Back Jaeger Mantle
Waist Vangaurd Belt
Legs Nokizaru Hakama
Feet Fuma Kyahan


My current wishlist for 52-55 is:

Shinogi Katana x 2
Melody Earrings x2
Royal Knights Belt +2

Any other suggestions?

[Sosa]

Now you're just pressing your luck!

Unfortunately, two of the best pieces of acessory gear available to you are mission rewards that are non-repeatable.

Suppo earring if you haven't already taken static as your reward from Divine Might. Sword skill is more useful than first apparent, as you may be using sword in off or main hand from time to time; especially when soloing, enhancing dual wield further is like getting a free haste trait. This earring is probably one of your best solo/DD build choices available.

Raja's ring from CoP. Pretty self explainatory, this is THE ring to own for melee DD. You may find snipers useful in situations where you're putting out damage, but honestly, I never really used them. So for everything else, go with your Raja's - top tier STR for each level cap on the ring with extra effects thrown in as a bonus.

Melody earrings are incredible to use; but bards constitute less than 1% of the server population as of the last time i saw a census report on it. That figure may be higher now, since they're so easy to play for merit activities, but on the grind to 75, they're rare stock. If you can get into a static with a bard, you're set. These will be some of the best earrings you can use for a long time.

Pass on RK Belt. The stats are not nearly as useful as the +10 accuracy from a Life belt, or the evasion from a survival belt. The same rule that applies to Paladins applies here; the additional TP and damage you will generate from the massive increase to you accuracy will outweigh most other choices for this slot, and will help you keep hate. Not to mention, of course, that if you are actually using snipers or other accuracy gear, you are then free to use meat instead of sushi, which will impact your damage noticeably.

On the same note, I notice you have or are borrowing a peacock charm. The same statement above applies here; with a life belt, you will have pretty much all the accuracy you'll need until SH comes around... so build up either your evasion or your attack skill through equipment. You won't really be able to get all three until later, but food choice can have a big impact on it at this point.

That's all I can offer for now, since my NIN setup is only planned through to 60. I'll be looking forward to the input from our residential ninjas, as well, as I too am interested in seeing what they have to say.

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sosa said:

Suppo earring if you haven't already taken static as your reward from Divine Might. Sword skill is more useful than first apparent, as you may be using sword in off or main hand from time to time; especially when soloing, enhancing dual wield further is like getting a free haste trait. This earring is probably one of your best solo/DD build choices available.

codeine said:

I dinged 51 last night; so lets keep the gear 60 and below for now; I know Haidate is badass... It doesn't help me now

[/size][/b][/u][/i]
Flags: Rare / Exclusive / Not NPC Sellable
Slot: Ear
Type: Accessory: Metallic
Jobs: All
Races: All
Defense: 0
Equipment Category:

Effects for Suppanomimi:

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and for the record I have Suppanomimi and Rajas, can't wait to wear Suppanomimi. BUT; stay on level please. Up to 60 is what you have mapped out? thats what I want! lol {Help Me Out!}

[Sosa]

My advice on the life belt still stands. ToAU introduced a number of pretty useful pieces for you that you may want to take a closer look at.




Akinji Salvars (no image) - DEF: 30 HP -12 Ranged Accuracy +3
Ranged Attack +4 Evasion +4
Lv. 55 WAR / RDM / THF / PLD / DRK / BST
BRD / RNG / SAM / NIN / DRG / BLU / COR

All of these pieces can be very useful, it depends on how you're trying to build your Ninja. Regardless, almost all the pieces offer a pretty decent ammount of both evasion AND accuracy, where you normally only have a choice in one or the other. The -HP shouldn't be a big problem since you're elvaan and not blood tanking, so you may find many of these pieces more useful than 'conventional' Ninja gear.

Those are the ones that jumped out at me, but if I remember anything else I'll post it.

[Edit: Fixed my tags and appended information for Akinji Salvars since there was no image.]

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Dig the body piece, I was alittle worried about trying to take my Nokizaru all the way to Scorpion Harness.

Hands, I think so long as you've not had a need for Horomusha back, they're doing very well, I dont think the +3 Eva will make a conciderable difference. I need to pick up a Life belt tho; just didn't want to spend that on a belt right yet ._.

All good suggestions ^^ thank you

[Sosa]

Also, don't discount your AF entirely. The body piece is useful situationally, and both the legs and feet are pretty powerful... when you can get the extra effect out of them.

I'd put the Sai in your main hand since it has a higher flat damage than your Yoto +1, then swap it into offhand when you next upgrade your katanas and the new katana's damage exceeds that of the Sai. Sais have massive delay, but are some of the hardest hitting katanas you get for awhile... and of course, the parrying bonus goes without saying. You'd have to have your parrying skill pretty close to cap to really notice a big difference, but any potential cancelled attacks can be a big boost to you if you're not stacking up on evasion gear.

Emperor's hairpin is going to last a really long time. I'd honestly keep it until you get to very high levels, and even then, it will be invaluable for soloing.

[Edit:] Seperated the rest of this information into a seperate post, since it is it's own seperate post that was appended to the bottom of this one.

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not expecting to lose my Emp Hairpin until OHat, honestly

[Sosa]

One other thing about stacking bonus effects that you want to be conscious of: it's easy to say, "Well, I don't think 2 or 3 of this skill will make a difference," but you have to think of it in terms of sets. On its own, that piece of gear may not have any impact, but used in conjunction with other gear that produces similar results, the impact is more significant.

A good examploe of this is Bazubands + Nails. You're losing 15 attack from H-kotes, and +3% haste from fumas, but gaining +6 accuracy, +6 ranged accuracy (which is REALLY good for keeping hate if you have throwing skill leveled and have some extra gil, shuruken are crazy powerful,) and a net total of +5 evasion.

That +5 evasion will pay for the loss of haste when you're riding the line between breaking the mob's accuracy or not, and an extra +6 Acc./R.Acc may make up the 15 attack difference in misses.

Or it may not.

It's situational, either setup is great in their own regards... so don't worry about it too much. It boils down to a matter of preference.

[LockeJV]

First off, the place you want to look for gear is ffxi.somepage.com, period. Here you can search and sort for anything, however you want. They use a data collector and have any new items in the game posted almost immediately after each update.

Check their item DB: ffxi.somepage.com/itemdb/advanced.php

As far as "what gear should I use" it totally depends on your playstyle and what your party allows you to do. As a NIN, you really are only as good as your mages and the level of the mobs you are fighting. If you're overhunting IT+++ with shit mages and melee/war jobs 2 levels higher than you, you're going to suck horribly. If you're a level higher than the other melee chaining VT-IT+ with good mages, then you're going to be rolling in the XP having an easy time of things, blinking and provoking only once per fight, maybe only losing hate to Rampage.

I made a post about my view on gearing NIN in EO's forum - grabbing it now:

NIN can be played alot of different ways.

First, I cannot hold hate off a WAR using Rampage. 2 axes = too much DoT and the mob will turn. I'll always get hate back using the next provoke, though. It's generally not an issue because the WAR keeps shadows up.

I wear almost full attack gear. Amemet, Swordbelt, Byrnie. I do wear Evasion Torque over Chiv Chain. I like to do as much DMG as possible. Dorado Sushi is my food of choice.

Ni -> Ni -> Ichi is the way to go IMO. I like to avoid using Ichi because it costs me 4 katana swings while casting, and that can equal several hundred DMG. To keep a chain going I will sometimes choose to take 2-3 rounds of DMG instead of casting Ichi.

I party with a BRD (Jon) who casts slow on the mob, and a RDM (Ygrane) who paralyzes. That leaves me with Blind, which I usually cast at the beginning of the fight after provoke / engage. I don't like casting paralyze because again, Ichi = 4 attacks lost. Yeah it's nice enmity, but I have plenty as it is.

I did swap enmity equipment (ring/earrings/neck/waist) in using my provoke macro for a long time. I found it to be very tedius and distracting, and not necessary. I do think it helps, but it's just too much to worry about in a 4 hour xp session.

Full evasion gear does mean less shadows, but I'd rather deal as much DMG as possible.

You're going to get fucked on occasion. When the mobs double attack kicks in as you cancel Ni for Ichi, and you take a hit, then a WS, then another double attack, you're dead and there's nothing you can do. Reraise 2 is good to have if you're not partying with a WHM.

When your shadows get cancelled because you screwed up, lag, or mob double attack, Defender really helps. Be sure to cancel it after you get shadows back up though. Also, if your shadows are down for a bit be sure to cancel Berserk.

I like to Magic Burst whenever possible. I don't like participating in a skill chain. I'd rather spam - it's better DoT during the chain.

I gave up the wheel at level 60. It's less than the DoT I put out with my Katanas. Can weaken the mob to element but I don't bother because I don't know when RDM and BRD who's pulling will be casting stuff.

For NIN, IT++ and up mobs (except Dhalmels and Crabs that are slow or have poor acc) generally really suck to tank. Birds especially. And Sprinklers are bad at level 64 w/o Stun. Even with full evasion IT++ and up will strip your shadows and you're gonna get hit. VT and Low IT are SO much more fun to tank. You can focus on DD instead of staying alive, which sucks.

here's the link:

edeasorphans.proboards107.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=ontopic&thread=1154730321&page=1

[Sosa]

I daresay that if anyone uses windower macros, they would be using enmity swapping... but I use only standard game macros, so I can't comment on the effectiveness of this.

I do know that if you wanted to macroswap enmity, the most efficient way would be to have have it automatically swap the gear in during the actual voke, then have a master gear reset macro (you should have room for one) on the end of your panel, which sets you back to either shadow or damage gear.

Locke, your views really line up well with what I've read from other higher level ninjas as well; their basic view seems to be, "whore evasion until 40, then start focusing on attack. Keeping the chain is more important than dodging every single attack, so as long as you are minimizing downtime try to put out as much damage as possible."

I'd imagine this is even more important around and after 60, when the Melee DDs really begin to grow some balls from their insanely overpowered gear selection and the advent of the nicer WS available, and the level 3 skillchains that go with them.

Locke, can you comment on the effectiveness of SH? Many Ninjas I know own both a Hauberk/ergeon and a SH, do you just swap depending on the situation, or generally wear your DD setup gear at all times?

[LockeJV]

WAT GEAR 2 USE:

I ate Dorado Sushi for the enmity and accuracy, and focused on Attack gear. For Weapon Skill, I always swapped in +STR/DEX items to mod my WS as much as possible.

I won't tank in -evasion gear and only use it for Weapon Skill. Some people disagree with this and say -evasion doesn't matter if you're not wearing any other evasion gear, but I think does (completely unsubstantiated).

As far as specific slots:

Head: I always used Emperor Hairpin for the +10 evasion, and the +DEX for WS. Until OHat. IIRC.

For ring2, a STR or DEX ring isn't going to do anything for you during TP gain. Some NIN's use AGI rings (for NMs, ok...for XP...just no). I like the Assailant's Ring (LV 42, +5 attack) - actually just picked my first one up (100k). Great for TP gain, swap in your STR ring for WS. I guess +5 attack doesn't do much during TP gain, but it adds up..and it'll do more than +3 STR will.

Edit: Swapping a +4 STR ring for a +5 Attack ring nets you an increase of +3 attack (due to 2 str = 1 attack). If you consider the fSTR variable, 4 STR ~may~ equal +1 Weapon Damage depending where you are in the (Your STR - Mob VIT) curve...which I haven't seen graphed. If it does, then the +4 STR ring would increase your DoT over a +5 attack ring..marginally...maybe if you parsed 1000 fights you could see the difference either way I just have a hardon for my attack number.

Everything else is really up to you. I always carried full evasion, full attack, and full WS mod gear around. Again, my TP gain was all about attack, evasion for those rough times, WS mods (STR and DEX) for WS. You can use somepage to find the best of each world for each slot based on level just as easily as I can. And since you asked the question have at it!

[LockeJV]

sosa said:

Locke, can you comment on the effectiveness of SH? Many Ninjas I know own both a Hauberk/ergeon and a SH, do you just swap depending on the situation, or generally wear your DD setup gear at all times?

Post 60 I tanked in a Byrnie for attack whoring. I don't like the minus evasion on the Hauby. If I could have afforded it, I would have tanked in Byrnie and WS's in Hauby, but I didn't have the fundage for that.

When Koga Chainmail (+12 accuracy, +16 attack) dropped in Glacier, that replaced my Byrnie (+21.5 attack) for TP gain. I figured the +12 accuracy will make up for the loss of 6.5 attack. So I traded my Byrnie for a Hauby which I now swap in for WS.

I love my SH and generally don't leave home without it. +10 accuracy and +10 evasion comes in handy at times. But I didn't wear it much through XP...only when overhunting or when there were adds and I swapped to full evasion. Not necessary but at the same time it's part of my evasion build so I hang onto it.

[LockeJV]

sosa said:

Locke, your views really line up well with what I've read from other higher level ninjas as well; their basic view seems to be, "whore evasion until 40, then start focusing on attack. Keeping the chain is more important than dodging every single attack, so as long as you are minimizing downtime try to put out as much damage as possible."

There are super long threads with people arguing what to wear and what to sub 1-50. Frankly, in the time it takes these people to type out these posts they could have levelled from 49-50 and done just fine with 100k in gear.

Beyond 50 justifies more discussion, but it really only takes 3 decent parties to go from 50-60 so I wasn't overly concerned with my build, beyond attack / evasion / WS.

The big thing for NIN that hasn't been discussed here is the Elemental Wheel. I spammed it from 4x to about 55 because it was better DoT than my Katanas were getting. You RDM people would know more about this, but gear swapping could maximize wheel DMG by adding INT and + ninjutsu skill and I've even seen people swap the elemental staves to maximize wheel spammage. No way did I have the inventory or the gil. I'm just a melee guy, let me swing my daggers / katana - you guys worry about all that magic shit!

[Sosa]

From what I've read, INT does not affect the potency of elemental ninjutsu, but MAB and Ninjutsu skill does. It appears to affect it in the same way in which MAB and skill affect elemental black magic. For this reason, Elemental staves would increase potency since they have a hidden MAB/M.acc effect for corresponding elemental spells.

I currently spam the wheel against most mobs, but against mobs with high magic or elemental resistance, or against mobs that simply attack too hard and fast to allow me the risk of having shadows down in mid-nuke, I hold back and just melee. It really does help keep hate pretty well though... if you're having problems with that, I'd imagine that High Breath Mantle could really help. That's a HUGE flux of enmity and the item is dirt cheap for the effect and number of charges. Maybe I'll try that the next time I gear up NIN...

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Currently I do use the elemental wheel and it does very very well. I do not use staves only because I feel the loss of TP is not worth the gain of any magic accuracy. But thats me