NIN/WAR: I think I'm doing something wrong...

[Kabbalah]

Usually, I'm pretty confident with my character, but lately, I've been having some problems with my NIN75/WAR37: she's just not holding hate as well as she used to. She has capped katana, enmity, and critical hit merits; I'd like to work on STR, but that comes last. IMO, no other merits are worth mentioning.

Here's what she's using while building up TP (sushi only for now):

main "Senjuinrikio"
sub "Perdu Blade"
ammo "Bomb Core"

head "Walahra Turban"
body "Haubergeon"
hands "Dusk Gloves"
legs "Byakko's Haidate"
feet "Fuma Sune-Ate"

back "Cerberus Mantle"
ear1 "Brutal Earring"
ear2 "Suppanomimi"
neck "Harmonia's Torque"
ring1 "Ulthalam's Ring"
ring2 "Jaeger Ring"
waist "Swift Belt"

My speed setup is slightly different, employing an Unji, PB, and AF body. At night, either setup switches out dusk for koga tekko. This is her Blade: Jin setup:

head "Optical Hat"
body "Haubergeon"
hands "Ochiudo's Kote"
legs "Byakko's Haidate"
feet "Marine F Boots"

back "Cerberus Mantle"
ear1 "Brutal Earring"
ear2 "Suppanomimi"
neck "Thunder Gorget"
ring1 "Ulthalam's Ring"
ring2 "Ruby Ring"
waist "Warwolf Belt"

I'm saving up for a Haub +1 (though I'm not sure I'd wear that over AF for a speed setup), salvaging for the Usukane boots, and hoping to get a Hope Torque in the far, far future. Those are the major changes, I believe.

Other than that, what suggestions/tweaks would you guys make, at least with stuff that's either attainable via the AH or not incredibly difficult to get?

Cripes, let's not even get into my NIN/DRK...

[Thorny]

NIN/WAR isn't really a tank at 75, if you're fighting limbus dynamis or merit mobs whoever does the most damage will be tanking anyway.. all I can really mention is bomblet over core, peacock over harmonia's, and a better 2nd acc ring. If you mean NIN/WAR on hnm, there are so many things wrong with your setup I can't even begin to list them.

[Kabbalah]

NIN/WAR on HNM? Surely you jest: /DRK 4tw.

Fire Bomblet, nice idea. I'm surprised I hadn't thought about that, but would it allow me to stop eating sushi?

I was thinking of using a sniper's instead of a jaeger, but my rationale against it is that I'm gaining one extra point of accuracy and I'm still using sushi, so I'd have to say no to that. Sniper +1, I'll try to afford, but Haub +1 comes first.

PCC over Harmonia's sounds like a good idea. I'm not really able to afford one just yet without breaking my comfort zone, but I figure a Chiv Chain or Specs would make a decent stand-in. Also, and I'm not quite certain about this, but Hope Torque > PCC, correct?

[Amastacia]

Why your NIN/WAR isn't holding as much hate when you can DD with katanas for hate:

The 2h buff.

NIN got dicked, hard, in the hate-holding department by it. Can't keep close enough damage to a moderately competent 2h DD to hold hate reliably.

It was already annoying enough to tank for really good BB MNKs or Ridill WARs just because they did enough more damage to be problematic. Now even your average 2h DD is in a similar enough position to be obnoxious.

You're not doing anything wrong, really, SE just completely cut the legs out from under NIN.

[Kabbalah]

Usually, I'm not one to blame others for my shortcomings, but in this case, you may have a point.

Fine, then: before I lay the blame squarely at SE's feet, how do I know that my accuracy and attack aren't beyond the point of logical returns?

[Pirian]

Pretty much the only way to figure out what's better beyond "eye-balling it" is to get yourself a good parser, or have a friend parse for you, and see where your shortcomings are.

[Thorny]

NIN/WAR on HNM? Surely you jest: /DRK 4tw.

Fire Bomblet, nice idea. I'm surprised I hadn't thought about that, but would it allow me to stop eating sushi?

I was thinking of using a sniper's instead of a jaeger, but my rationale against it is that I'm gaining one extra point of accuracy and I'm still using sushi, so I'd have to say no to that. Sniper +1, I'll try to afford, but Haub +1 comes first.

PCC over Harmonia's sounds like a good idea. I'm not really able to afford one just yet without breaking my comfort zone, but I figure a Chiv Chain or Specs would make a decent stand-in. Also, and I'm not quite certain about this, but Hope Torque > PCC, correct?

Bomblet on it's own won't let you out of sushi, you still haven't said the situation.. typically with katana merits, your setup + PCC and bomblet should be capped acc at most exp camps/limbus zones/dynamis with 1 madrigal or hunter's roll. Hope Torque vs pcc is situational and dependant on if you believe that skill over 200 = .9 acc/atk.. I've never seen the tests that supposedly concluded this, but if true.. 10 acc > 6.3 acc 6.3 attack whenever hitrate isn't capped unless your pdif is retardedly low. 10 acc vs 7/7 is closer.

[Kabbalah]

Sorry, situation was merit parties. I figure if I can't hold hate, I can at least give the other DDs a run for their money.

[Dalmbraast]

I agree with others. Harmonia's torque is a wasted slot in a merit situation. Only time I ever used it when tanking on nin was to swap out for enmity gear on things like ninjutsu (on slots I didn't use for +nin skill) and for provoke. Back when people actually tanked as nin/war and tried to hold hate. Who knows if it made a diff, but acc + whatever else you can get is better than that enmity. I usually use my hope torque. And after 75, especially in an endgame shell, don't expect to hold hate off your friends; nin was just a first voke for the brd puller then, I can't imagine they have much more use as a tank now after 2h buff. But speaking from the bard's perspective in a pt, I love having that first voke .

[Furionstormrage]

As mentioned, I wouldn't worry about holding hate in a merit PT, just contribute as much damage as you can (which from your gear it looks like you're pretty much doing) and voke pulls off the BRD.

All the melee should have a means of absorbing damage anyway, be it Utsusemi, Third Eye, etc, so that shouldn't be a problem.

I'd probably get a Chiv Chain at least, PCC or Hope when you can, for the neck slot.

[nekura]

Don't forget about Spectacles!

[evilpaul]

OP, I'd switch to Spectacles + Fire Bomblet and as long as you're first Provoking off the puller consider your job done basically from what you've said.

[Kabbalah]

Funny, I was just thinking about Spectacles. Hm.

[Kimkytaru]

I'm using spectacle + ws gorget on a chara I got from a friends, it's nice on nin, it's quite cheap and it does the work nicely. That's when I dont want to transfer PCC from my main <.<

Also if you're eating sushi why you dont tp in AF body ? And Suppa wont do any good to Jin I think. Not sure what you could use instead.

[Isiolia]

And Suppa wont do any good to Jin I think. Not sure what you could use instead.

Anything melee boosting >.>

Minuet Earring is a good, cheap choice. Can also go with an ATT earring. Since the OP is already shifting for day/night gear, Fenrir's can make a nice free WS earring during the day, and Vampire at night (though that's pricey).

My speed setup is slightly different, employing an Unji, PB, and AF body.

I'd go with AF body and Senj/Perdu if you're using Sushi. AF+1 potentially.

Fire Bomblet and not-Harmonia's as well. I macro the torque in for Provoke, but that's it.

[Tyr]

Similar to what others are saying, you need to put on some more accuracy. Ulthalam's isn't that great for NIN outside of assault/salvage, as I've seen.

In merit PTs, unless you've gone over & beyond to equip your NIN, you'll lose hate often (not including post-WS). If you want to go over and beyond, grab an acc+7 ring, switch to rajas, grab a fire bomblet, get an acc neck piece (biggest switch you need to make, IMO, because you can get +7 for much less than the +3 upgrade on your ring).

If you went with a more "optimal" setup, you could add +21 accuracy on some upgrades, which is yooj. Hauber+1, Toreador's/Sniper+1, Fire Bomblet, PCC.

Why do you WS in Thunder Gorget? Am I missing something? Breeze or PCC (or Sea Torque) for Jin.

If you get Usukane, I'd use Ninja AF+1 body over Hauber+1, except on mobs like Lurkers or maybe Skoffin.

[Amastacia]

Even "over and beyond" doesn't fix that.

Did that, still have trouble.

On the upside, "over and beyond" means the other players actually have to be good to make you feel worthless, instead of only having to be above average.

[Tyr]

Even "over and beyond" doesn't fix that.

Did that, still have trouble.

On the upside, "over and beyond" means the other players actually have to be good to make you feel worthless, instead of only having to be above average.

I donno, I rarely have hate issues pre-WS (when I don't WS) on mobs even with some pimped players. But then again, I haven't meritted on Ninja in about 3 weeks, so my memory might be playing tricks on me. Going to have to try it out tonight I guess.

Here's a piggyback question: I'm going to focus on DEX more for WS, but that made me think about it -- should I try to balance STR & DEX, or max out DEX wherever?

[Amastacia]

I tend to merit with folks like Aurik, Wafik, and other people who are similarly competent and well-geared, so my opinions are a bit skewed by that. Even when I do pickups, they're often 2 BRD and include 1 or more BB MNKs, Ridill WARs, good SAMs, etc.

As for the DEX thing, if you're not Mithra, I'd say don't bother. Need a lot of DEX to hit crit tier on birds, even harder (potentially improbable/impossible) elsewhere. It's doable, but the tradeoffs are generally not worth it. My general-use WS set leaves me sitting at around 115 DEX without food, which is enough for birds, but I don't use dedicated DEX gear. You end up giving up significant amounts of STR or Att to really pump DEX, and the return on that is pretty marginal.

[Tyr]

crit tier

Explain please? I've heard in passing about "tiers" for WS (like on SAM, I can hit about 155 w/o Etudes, but with Hasso/Food -- would 155 be for instance on same tier as if I had 150?), but I always thought that was a theory too hard to prove? I'd love to be able to hit a tier on SAM WS and swap in Bandomusha Kote for WS...