Ninja Meriting

[Whenpiegoesbad]

Hello, I have recently attained 75 ninja and I really don't see what is useful to merit in the "ninja Merits" category, what is a good merit setup? So far Subtle blow comes to mind and thats all I can think of.

[ronin sparthos]

Ninja tool expertise jumps out.

[Sess]

Depends on what you will do with your NIN. Subtle Blow was obvious for me, solo wise. Another one (I haven't done yet) is NIN tool expert, saving on tools is sexah.

Once you finish all other tanking merits HP/MP (depending on race), and all the other categories that are more important. I am considering putting merits in the tools that help lower resistance to Thunder and Ice. Obviously that is very far away from now >.>, I'd rather do merits that help my SCH right now.

[Kicoe]

After Subtle Blow and Ninja Tools Expertise I capped Doton effect (and Doton: San), because lowering resistance to Gravity/Silence seemed more important to me (silencing Big Bomb comes to my mind for example) than lowering resistance to Thunder. In the end the effect was not really impressive though.

Overall the NIN merit category is not important for a "merit setup" (what you asked for?), but Subtle Blow is really nice to have for soloing/duoing/tanking Chariots in Salvage incase your LS uses NIN; and Ninja Tools Expertise for being cheap. The Xyz effect merits should come last, and which Element you choose is totally up to you in my oppinion. Sange is not worth it really.

:ashira:

[Weeks]

Take Subtle Blow to 5 and then go get job-specific merits for a job that has more than one useful one.

[Vedder]

Subtle Blow to 5 for sure. Ninja Tool Expertise to cap (3) when you have taken care of other more important categories.

[chapstick]

I capped Subtle Blow right away (after katana and evasion and stuff), currently working on finishing NIN tool expertise. If i did any of the ninjutsu effects or :san's i think they'd be suiton and raiton.

[sephir]

Sange is pretty good (or at least I remember it being pretty good). But yeah, there seems to be a lack of real quality nin specific merits, its one of those jobs that seems to benefit more from the other categories. Personally I rarely solo stuff that takes long enough for subtle blow to make a real effect so I just did nin tools and moved onto the next job.

[Kaludneisucks]

I am not exactly the best NIN on Bahamut, but, and this may not even be said, i saw little overall use for the NIN specific merits, i mean better than nothing right? So all i can advise, and you may have already done this, is to merit NON NIN specific things that will aid your NIN.

Enmity+4/4
Crit + 4/4
STR 5/5
Katana 8/8
lolEVA 4/4

THat should keep ya busy for awhile, assuming you havent already taken care of that for other jobs.


On the nin SPECIFIC area, yeah Ninja tool expertise, Sange, Subtle blow.

[Okuza]

Mostly the merits you choose for NIN will be very obvious. The only one I'd be careful of is enmity. It's a VERY nice thing to have more of when you're tanking. When you're not tanking, it's a VERY bad thing to increase. If you only play PLD, NIN, & THF, you can't have too much enmity (maybe war, too -- depending on how you use that job). If you also play other jobs -- particularly support or DD of the extra-squishy variety (like blm), more enmity will be bad for you.

I put my extra 4 "other" points into spell interruption rather than enmity to avoid issues when on other jobs. It's not the best place for a pure NIN to have points, but it's the most generically useful place for me to have them after +crits; the other non-enmity choice is -crits and that is really only nice for PLD. BTW, interrupt doesn't do much except for make me wonder if it helped when I don't get interrupted when I think I should have been. It was just a place to put merits after all the other obviously useful things were capped.

[Weeks]

If you also play other jobs -- particularly support or DD of the extra-squishy variety (like blm), more enmity will be bad for you.

If I'm doing an endgame event on a job other than NIN, it doesn't really matter if I get hate. If you think of yourself as a career tank (And you're good enough that your LS thinks the same), go for Enmity merits. They help you tank on the stuff where it actually matters. If you get hate a little easier while nuking Fafnir or something, so what?

[Khamsin]

For some reason, I thought of campaign when I read "ninja merits". They're all those unused merit points you never knew you had until you looked.

[BerenTebogo]

Subtle Blow 5/5
Doton Potency 5/5
Sange 3/3
Doton San 3/3

This is what I have, I should probably change to NTE but just hit WAR75 so I need to merit that.

Doton shit is olddd stuff left over from tanking Ouryu as NIN/DRK, toss on doton: san right before the huge volley of Aero IV / Tornado 2

[Secksi]

Ninja tool expertise makes the OCD ninja

[Okuza]

If you also play other jobs -- particularly support or DD of the extra-squishy variety (like blm), more enmity will be bad for you.

If I'm doing an endgame event on a job other than NIN, it doesn't really matter if I get hate. If you think of yourself as a career tank (And you're good enough that your LS thinks the same), go for Enmity merits. They help you tank on the stuff where it actually matters. If you get hate a little easier while nuking Fafnir or something, so what?

I like your comment about focusing on the actions you find important. I was thinking more along the lines of what +enmity does to you while you're XP'ing on a squishy job than about end-game impacts for other jobs. My experience with merits is that their relative effect goes waaaay up as your level goes down. They're amazing in BC's and capped fights.

BTW, I recently got rid of my sattva ring for a rajas. When co-tanking for the shell, I typically take off enmity to balance hate with other tanks. It just depends on your own circumstances whether you should spend merits on enmity or not. It's definitely a very nice merit for a NIN to have. I'd just not want it on other jobs, myself.

IMHO, enmity is really the only merit that everyone should think over carefully before obtaining, since it effects some jobs positively and others negatively. All the other merits are never negative for any job.

Ninja tool expertise makes the OCD ninja

I love this merit. 3/3 + koga is nearly 50% reduction in tools used. If you're using NIN as your meriting job, this should be the very first thing you cap followed by 4/4 evasion. Why? It's like free gil. Very nice cost reduction merits.

[BerenTebogo]

If you also play other jobs -- particularly support or DD of the extra-squishy variety (like blm), more enmity will be bad for you.

If I'm doing an endgame event on a job other than NIN, it doesn't really matter if I get hate. If you think of yourself as a career tank (And you're good enough that your LS thinks the same), go for Enmity merits. They help you tank on the stuff where it actually matters. If you get hate a little easier while nuking Fafnir or something, so what?

I like your comment about focusing on the actions you find important. I was thinking more along the lines of what +enmity does to you while you're XP'ing on a squishy job than about end-game impacts for other jobs. My experience with merits is that their relative effect goes waaaay up as your level goes down. They're amazing in BC's and capped fights.

BTW, I recently got rid of my sattva ring for a rajas. When co-tanking for the shell, I typically take off enmity to balance hate with other tanks. It just depends on your own circumstances whether you should spend merits on enmity or not. It's definitely a very nice merit for a NIN to have. I'd just not want it on other jobs, myself.

IMHO, enmity is really the only merit that everyone should think over carefully before obtaining, since it effects some jobs positively and others negatively. All the other merits are never negative for any job.

Ninja tool expertise makes the OCD ninja

I love this merit. 3/3 + koga is nearly 50% reduction in tools used. If you're using NIN as your meriting job, this should be the very first thing you cap followed by 4/4 evasion. Why? It's like free gil. Very nice cost reduction merits.

Are you sure it isn't 20% reduction? You know exactly like it says?

[fantasticdan]

How many times would you have to cast utsusemi after meriting ninja tool expertise, to save enough tools to counter the amount of gil you spent on tools and food while getting those 12 merits in the first place?

[Seditedi]

@Sath it says 15% for the lvl 3 merit.
Koga Tekko are supposed to be 33%, but I don't know how accurate that data is.
I guess thats where you would get near 50%, but something is telling me they don't stack like that.

[Okuza]

@Sath it says 15% for the lvl 3 merit.
Koga Tekko are supposed to be 33%, but I don't know how accurate that data is.
I guess thats where you would get near 50%, but something is telling me they don't stack like that.

That's exactly what I'm referring to and yes they do indeed stack like that; ie. 3/3 + koga is nearly 50%. It's clumpy as any random thing is in FFXI. Takes a while to balance out the savings. One time I went nearly an entire limbus without using any shihei because of the tool mastery (or maybe a bug derived from it). Ran out and opened a new bag right the start. When I exited, I still had 99 shihei. Was damn hard to believe it kicked in every time without being a bug, but it is remotely possible it was just a streak.

Just 3/3 tool mastery is nice, but not huge. I was still meriting regularly when I got the koga. It is definitely far more than the merits. I basically don't take them off even in daytime just for the savings unless it's a "hard" fight that needs the extra recast reduction. It takes about 2.5m XP or so to cap out on merits depending on which you pick and how many jobs you have to cap. That's about the same as leveling 3 jobs from 1-75. Think about doing that without the savings and then with the savings when you consider which order you're going to spend merits.

'Course if you're not meriting on NIN, it doesn't matter. The more time you spend on NIN, the more tool mastery will save you.

[deivi]

Kinda surprised at how many ppl are saying lv3 tool expertise, I mean I'm not arguing the usefulness of saving $ over time but I always thought NINs didn't merit that for the same reason RNGs don't usually merit recycle; that using less items doesn't doesn't make you perform any better.

Then again I don't think Ive ever seen sange used and rarely see a :san go off