Utsusemi Casting Gear

[Beckwin]

re-working my macros, especially now that I have plenty of palletes to work with. My question is, specifically: ninjutsu torque vs. evasion torque in an HNM situation for Ninja. High levels of ninjutsu skill for lowering interrupt rate is something I've heard of, but I've never seen much data or seen it talked about much. For my PLD I naturally go with Shield Torque, but now I'm looking for ways to improve ninja utsu casts (yes, pld is more able to keep shadows up under fire on several hnms :/ ).

For solo and fodderburn type situations, eva torque seems to be the natural choice.

So any opinions about the slot in particular and/or info on ninjutsu stacking would be welcomed.

[Kyupi/Kij]

Basically same conclusion you have. I used Ninjutsu Torque when I figured the mob was unlikely to miss even with an extra 7 evasion skill - usually when I didn't have a bunch of other evasion equip or was being lazy or something. (Or poor.)

I will add that I had 8 Ninjutsu merits and it seemed to really help with interruption rates, though. LolNinjutsu merits, etc, but getting clocked in the face and casting through seemed to happen a lot more with all those silly merits if I remember correctly, even against IT stuff for meriting, almost to a semi-dependable rate. Spell interruption seems to be at least somewhat level based, so if you have like a level 90's Ninjutsu skill (292 with merits + torque, was it?) you obviously won't get interrupted half as often even against *really* high-level crap. Also, I can't count to 4 too well so it was helpful for me when I was sucking at soloing. =p

Sorry, no parses, just a general feel.

Edit: grammar before the hammer

[Xrave]

Harmonia Torque for more hate after cast?

[Beckwin]

harmonia's results in 9 volatile enmity, and this is for situations where the cast has a chance of not going off (and you get hit for ### dmg).

[Seditedi]

hmmm, i'm no ninja, but I'd have to think the Ninjutsu torque would benefit more.
The odds of 7 evasion skill by itself is less likely to help than 7 ninjutsu skill.
Only way I could see evasion worthwhile is if you are swapping in a full evasion set for the cast.

[Okuza]

re-working my macros, especially now that I have plenty of palletes to work with. My question is, specifically: ninjutsu torque vs. evasion torque in an HNM situation for Ninja. High levels of ninjutsu skill for lowering interrupt rate is something I've heard of, but I've never seen much data or seen it talked about much.

It would depend a great deal on the HNM you're fighting. Very few actually have poor accuracy and evasion can really help there. The vast majority pretty much never miss no matter how much evasion you have; typically I'll have about 3~7% eva rate versus HNM. The "cocktail napkin" formula for 2 eva = +1% evasion rate does not apply at all to HNMs. Shifting eva by +35 has typically only upped actual rate by 1~2% for me; ie. it's far better to keep your enmity & 15% -physical gear on.

I do swap non-strobing gear in for :ni -- both ninjutsu, haste, & recast, but mostly just because I can. The ninjutsu skill bonus doesn't do much of anything at all for interrupts. Even +%interrupt gear doesn't do much at all for interrupts. Ninjutsu skill does help a little for sticking debuffs, but not nearly what you might think. Even with 320+ skill, most HNM will resist debuffs 90% of the time.

Ponder what +20 parry would do for your parry rate while shadows are down (ie. nothing at all). Expecting +ninjutsu to help on interrupts is about like expecting parry to save your butt when shadows are down; it can happen, but it's really dumb to count on it. It's more noticeable for the fact that it was suddenly and unusually useful than for it's benefit as a reliable tactic. You'll still get interrupted at pretty much the same rate you do now. The few times you don't, you'll just wonder "was that because of my gear swap?"

Past enmity and mitigation (haste & -%phys & resists), there's very little you can do with gear for NIN tanking. The rest is all up to your teamwork. No amount of gear will do nearly as much for your alliance's tanking ability as good teamwork: skilled co-tank and healers are worth FAR more than gear. You don't need nice gear if you have a skilled tank group.

-=-=-

I.E. Swap it in because you can or because there's nothing obviously better to swap in, but don't expect a noticeable effect.

[Delekii]

If the HNM's evasion is not capped, then evasion torque gives you an extra 3.5% chance of it missing you. The only time that it would give less than that is the HNM's acc is well and truely over your evasion, meaning that even with 7 extra evasion it still maintains 95% hit rate.

I don't have any experience as a Ninja casting against a HNM, but the limited research I've seen done into interruption rates seems to imply that fighting against such high lvl mobs your evasion is more likely to save you than relying on not getting interrupted, with the further benefit of not taking a hit worth of damage in the event of success.

That said, I have no idea about evasion rates on HNMs, so I don't know how many of them don't have capped hit rate in normal circumstances anyway..

[Seditedi]

Think you meant accuracy when referring to HNM's evasion?

[Amastacia]

I've tanked HNMs with and without Ninjutsu merits plenty of times.

That 16 skill hasn't helped me take hits from lv 85-90 mobs without getting Utsusemi interrupted, I doubt 7 will do anything either.

[Seditedi]

Yea I guess either option isn't going to help much if at all..
Might want to just stick to Harmonia for the enmity like someone mentioned earlier.