DD nin in lower levels

[Orfeo]

I know at 75 ninjas can tank exp parties wearing haub, mermans earrings, flame rings, etc...but what about lower levels?

I really want to level my ninja, but at the same time I hate tanking without doing damage, just not my style... I did 40-75 war mostly solo tanking.

Anyways, is it feasible to take ninja to 75 using gear like o-kote, victory rings, haubergeon, etc with fumah's and swift belt as the only haste gear? Or would that just be a major MP sink? Preferably insight from somebody who has done it/partyed with a DD nin tank in lower levels prz

[Sidd]

i leveled nin recnetly from 40~ to 47 with a mostly DD setup - STR rings, fuma's, kotes, etc.

Wasn't bad in most decent parties and where my debuff's would stick ok. Didn't evade very much at that time thou, so keeping shadows up was more of a chore than i expected, but still did fine.

i think the NI wheel would be a bit more efective then thou. idk.

[Demetrick]

your MP sink will come in if your dumb or bad luck and caught w/o shadows.

STR rings given, and load some +acc and more str.

i hardly us Ni wheel, did 1-2 and liked to use blind/slow Ni most of the time.

Not having to tank in xp since the 'Utsusemi - losing hate' update, i would expect you would need either more enimty, or str/att/acc over evasion nowadays.

though with less evasion, you'll probably be casting utsusemi more often.

ninjas aren't that 1337 of dmg dealers, though i did 840dmg jin to hellion (some what impressive?) unless your spamming nukes, throwing the best shirukens and still finding time to swing katanas.

[Raineer]

NIN/RDM with staves is quite overpowered in the 50's. If you want to DD I would go that route. Nothing like doing 43% of youre pt's damage AND tanking lol, that may go up if there is a primary tank to hold hate until you take it from him.

[BRP]

/RDM? Isn't it /BLM?

[nivlakian]

/RDM? Isn't it /BLM?

BLM wont give you MABII until lv60NIN/BLM so RDM does the job with fast cast as a bonus.

[Toadicus]

I've been parsing a few of my parties while leveling ninja in the mid 40's. Setup is Ochiudo's, Snipers, Vanguard Belt, RSE Feet (Taru), etc...

In a WAR/NIN MNK/WAR NIN/WAR(me), WAR did 26%, NIN did 25%, MNK did 24%, change done by BLM and RDM. (Lv44 Party)

In a DRK/WAR THF/NIN NIN/WAR, all 3 of us did 25%, change done by BLM and RDM. (Lv46 Party)

Had one party after this that was RNG/WAR THF/NIN NIN/WAR, RNG did 18%, NIN did 25%, THF did 30%. (Lv46 Party)

In all fairness, I do have haste on me 100% of the time ( <3 statics ) even still it's nice to see that you can contribute a good portion of damage to the party. On a side note, each of these parses are with about 8000 - 9000 dmg just in Ninjitsu, so it's expensive to deal damage at this level. We'll see how double attack helps, hopefully I can stop spending 100k per level just in elemental powders.

[Genosync]

/RDM? Isn't it /BLM?

BLM wont give you MABII until lv60NIN/BLM so RDM does the job with fast cast as a bonus.

MABII increased the damage of my Nis by so insignificant of an amount, it didn't increase them at all.

You have been warned.

[cubone]

Moldavite Earring FTW!!
my friend use to do this all the time as 75 NIN/BLM
i was kinda surpised how good it worked though expensive D:
then he started messing with NIN/DRG and i was WTF?? @_@'

NIN/RNG's Slugshot was pretty pwn'ful until the SE "adjustment"

[thompkinsthebrian]

Not having to tank in xp since the 'Utsusemi - losing hate' update, i would expect you would need either more enimty, or str/att/acc over evasion nowadays.

dont need either really. But i always guilt my stats on STR ACC ATK EVA order. i never noticed a difference with this utsusemi update. when they put it in i was like awww damn it. then i played as a NIN tank and saw nothing

i dont think NIN/BLM isnt too bad, about 130-160 per cast isnt too bad especially since its nearly instant.

also double attack at 50 is ok. but it isnt until level 65 dual weild that you notice a good amount of DD coming strictly from melee. basically once i hit 65 (as a tarutaru) i stopped using elemental ninjutsu.

if you want your NIN to so decent dmg equip them like a MNK at lower levels and use ninjustu. from 40-50 i dont think there was anyjob that beat me in overall damage with the proper use of elemental ninjustsu

[kasber]

Talk one of your friends into lvling pld and have him tank for you if you really dont want to tank...

[thompkinsthebrian]

forget that, nothing better then being a taru NIN, whose gear is DD based, and still tanks and has less HP then half the BLMs out there

i love tanking as NIN i wouldnt do anything else with it

[Shigemo]

Remember the list of Great Katanas NINs can use ^^

[Parshath]

I personally prefer an Evasion build for my NIN. I like to be able to keep my shadows up and be able to evade attacks whilst recasting Utsusemi in hairy situations. Saves my PT a whole lot of MP. Yesterday, on Knight Crawlers (went from 51-55) I was evading pretty much every swing at me, and these are still IT, which impressed me. Aslong as I provoke every 30 seconds, keep debuffs on the mob and ocassionally do a portion of the Elemental Wheel, I keep hate off everybody just fine.

[½pint]

If you have a bard in your PT who lands elegy at the start of every fight, even if every single attack from the mob takes a shadow, it will be attacking so slow that you will have no trouble with utsusemi recast timers. If I levelled NIN to 75 I'd only wear evasion equip in slots that would not give much attack based stats (eg. I'd wear Emp. Pin because there isn't a piece of equipment that gives, say, attack+10 on head). I'm of the belief that you only need evasion equipment if your party is truly dire (eg. BLM won't stun/WHM flash if 0 shadows on ichi cast, WHM/RDM won't haste, etc.) and if that's the case then you might as well just leave the party.
And of course, being a DD NIN serves two purposes; you keep hate better and you kill the mob faster. Don't see where the downside is.

[thompkinsthebrian]

its about balance. being a NIN tank. being evasion build NIN is pretty useless. while you will get hit less and use less MP you also damn near never hit and cause little damage. now with DD NIN while you may get hit more it isnt that much. i can wear only emp pin and Scorpion harness for evasion and by the end of the fight the healer is still looking at having nearly all their MP.

a NIN, who gets hasted, knows how to and when to cast utsusemi and uses enfeeb ninjutsu, that doesnt have more then -5 eva from something like o-kote wont get hit more then a few times if at all per fight.

if you are using SH, emp pin, and haste you have no excuse for hurting MP in regular exp, unless you:
1. Suck
2. Fighting things a NIN shouldnt be expin off of

[Parshath]

No but I really don't get hit... At all. I hold hate just fine and my damage is mediocre. Nothing special but it's not too bad. I usually go for about 5+ fights without being physically hit once (taking damage)... So far my Evasion build has done perfectly and I'm not changing it

[thompkinsthebrian]

i understand what you mean. but why not use every job to their full potential. utilizing evasion build NIN, while it makes it easy for you not to get hit. the enemy could be dieing faster. and yes it will cause you mage to do something. it will only benefit the exp/hr rate

[Xavier]

I leveled Ninja in a mix of atk gear and evasion gear, and it was pretty fun, and my dmg was high enough I didn't feel like a waste of a spot.

Even with an evasion nin tank though, the xp really shouldn't be that hurt as long as the other "real" damage melee don't suck.

[thompkinsthebrian]

I've learned to never rely on other people to do their jobs.

and i am not saying an evasion build NIN the exp will suck, just saying a balanced NIN will make it better