The Sealed Dagger: A Ninja Guide

I'm willing to do it either way: implement a command that views 1 ammunition as none, and just forces you to either equip more or stop trying. Whether that be an official in-game measure or an addon that disables your job ability sange if it detects you have 1 item in your ammo. I would much rather deal with the possibility of an addon clicking sange off seconds after I use it and preserve my happo, than risk tossing it. I'm just throwing out ideas.

Gonna like it asap Buukki!
If they really want to play it lazy they could simply give us easily obtainable high level shuriken with GOOD STATS ON THEM.
That way *** Happo+1, which is a very old piece and it's not even 119 anyway, and welcome new ammo.

They seem to have been incredibly undelivering when it comes to shuriken and related mechanics for NIN.
The thought that in their mind Daken was compensation for their inability to make STP work differently with excess of DW still makes me baffle.

Likewise.
Reason why I don't completely automate all of the components of my Luas, like buff reading and several other things.
I like to have manual buttons to press and stuff like that.
To each his own I guess!

short story, and i'll probably share this later when it's time to brag on another thread:

Last night, about 30min before maintenance, I managed to get a party set up for Kyou. RUN PLD GEO (me) DRK WHM BRD. My windower has been crashing lately, and any time I click ctrl+enter, the game resizes, goes into limbo, and i have to task manager reset my game. So I opted to use ctrl/alt + keyboard number for the macro clicks.

We got to 11:51 est and we had 47% left in the Kyou fight. Imagine my finger speed when I annonced to the party "we have 9 minutes til maintenance, we have to hurry". I quickly activated bolster, and then my GEO duties started flying. Dia 2, hastes, cures, entrust/new bubbles, DT sets, regen/idle etc. I was all over the place on my macro lines. We ended up winning with one minute to spare with drops to people seacom. That was a very fun and engaging fight, that I don't think I would have enjoyed as much if I had automated my sets to cycle through 3-4.

Not hating on GS, im taking this moment to brag about how fast my Lil Mac NES finger speed was.

Being proud of your gaming prowess is one thing. Removing what is otherwise awfully tasking minutiae is another. Gearswap is there to make you enjoy your gaming more, not less.

You don't have to use a gearswap that 'does everything for you.' In fact most gearswaps behave nearly identically to gearsets. In that fashion, it doesn't really matter if you use it or not. Good on ya for whichever you choose.

When I want to adjust the amount of dual wield I use based on the incoming haste I'm receiving. I'm not going to bother scouring my buff icons, looking through 20+ icons, to find what may be a march or a minuet or a geo-haste or a fast cast from the RUN. I don't end up on top of the parse because I'm wondering what combination of buffs I have and which gearset to equip. I'm focusing on standing where I should be, checking my ja timers, watching my TP, swapping to DT and back when the mob readies a dangerous move. I'm focusing on playing. The game has become so much more enjoyable to me thanks to these luas.

When I press f10 to enter a PDT set, it's no different than you using alt+1 or whichever macro you've setup. It's definitely taken minute human error out of my playstyle. It doesn't make me superior to anyone else. It gives me comfort.

tl;dr play how you want. GS doesn't 'play for you'. NIN is win.

Probably get some more work on my NIN sim this week if anyone wants to get some info with race/sub combos for me since my account isn't active atm

I think it really really depends on how good your coding skill is. As someone with zero coding background, using Lua is PITA and not enjoyable in anyway. I've tried premade lua templates on the internet, since the rule is written by another guy, it doesn't always fit in well with my personal playstyle without huge overhaul.

Having to ask for help for every rule/conditional swaps that premade file authors don't use or why things don't work every single time is more pain in the *** than dealing with my own mistakes manually. At least I know very well when and how I'd make mistakes with equipset since I understand most of the pros and cons, in and outs of the vanilla equipset system, thus able to fix things by myself if things do go wrong. With Lua I'd either have to learn coding(A skill don't sync quite well with my profession irl to worth the time investment), or ask for help.

Ashitacast is actually easier to learn for avg users, IMO. Would prefer Ashitacast over GS because of that anyways.

Should of gave us REMA Shurikens that pop out of weapons

I think I just fell in love.

~Edit~
Would it be going too far if the shuriken could be cracked for a ninja tool that can cast anything? One can dream~~

So if you guys had to rank the top three offhand katanas what would you choose? Assume Sam roll and capped attack
Id say Kujaku +1 is #1 just to justify my gil I wasted on it but
Kanaria-->DEX15,acc/atk20 TA3
Ochu-->15,10,10,10
Achuivagarykatana.
I feel max Ochu on a spiritual level but sometimes I just have a hard time telling myself kujaku +1 is bad and I should feel bad

Is Ochu really that good? I have two capped ones and never use it outside of nuking for the bonus. Maybe I'm missing out.

I do use Izuna on offhand for my multihit set. Go ahead, commence that it's garbage. Augs are qa+2 da+3 acc/att+13. I dumped a good bit of gil into it but I doubt it's that great. I use my Kanaria (ta2 dmg17 agi6 acc21) for mostly everything in offhand, unless im casting/tanking solo or need the acc, then I use Shigi. I can't see how Achiuchikapu is above even my Izuna, though. Can't be.

in fact, I think Achiuchikapu is below even Taka. That's not even to be considered in the top 3 non rmea offhands.

edit 2x: blah i just checked. Ochu is 22dex and 135 damage, and is 242 skill. That's better than I originally thought it was. Might add it into the rotation, if for nothing else, solo apex. Means I don't have to gearswap katanas for nukes.

I like Achiu because the low delay and the stats, STP/DA is nice if I ever need more acc than that typically offers me id be in Shigi anyway, and those are nice izuna augments!
Those were my kanaria augments but I just never use it for some reason ;;

The problem with Achiu and Shigi is that they are 228 skill katanas. Probably not a huge issue, but that, coupled with the low base damage means you'd be getting lower white damage over time. Might not matter if your ACC is good either way though.

Your Kanaria already has 5S TP base, and 3 TA, so I'd definitely use the one you have over any of the low delay ones. Kujaku+1 probably TPs faster than any of them, but I think Kanaria/Ochu probably wins in every scenario I can think of.

NIN isn't really going to wow anybody away with their damage to begin with, and if I had Achiu, I'd occasionally use it as well. I just recently finished aeonic, so I'm experimenting with what works best. Heishi+Kanaria/Izuna is my current goto.

228 skill vs 242 skill is nothing.

total of 14att/13acc on only the offhand, almost all 228 weapons have a large chunk of acc on them that works on both hands. So In effect usually 228 weapons are just -14att on offhand.

Ah, NIN offhands. Here's my take:

Kanaria: This is an excellent offhand weapon for any mainhand, assuming decent augments. In general, shoot for TA+3 (or at least TA+2), attribute (DEX is ideal, but STR isn't bad), Acc/Atk, whatever DMG you can get (DMG is way more vital for non-RMEA nin mainhanding a Kanaria, but it's not totally irrelevant for offhands either). I tend to find a good Kanaria works as the best typical offhand for Kikoku, non-RMEA, sometimes Heishi (really depends on buffs/target), Nagi (if anyone ever used one). Usually the 2nd best offhand for Kannagi.

Ochu Ochu is indeed a solid option, especially for Heishi mainhand users. Blade: Ten getting STR/DEX+22 (with perfect Ochu augs) is pretty notable. Ten tends to shine with strong buffs and Heishi TP bonus, so Ochu's advantages are less pronounced for non-Aeonic mainhands. I don't tend to find Ochu beating a good Kanaria very often for stuff that isn't Heishi (though it's still at least GOOD for a Kikoku or Kanaria mainhand, and can be close and wouldn't be totally shocking to see scenarios where it could win). Still, even for Heishi, a well augmented Kanaria can beat Ochu a good bit of the time.

Ochu also has the niche of being by far the best offhand for MB nukes, so if you ever find yourself in that situation (not completely unreasonable, with CP parties being the best example), I'd prob go with even an imperfectly augmented Ochu as offhand.

Taka: Although it's not a bad offhand for any mainhand katana, I really view it as only the best choice for Kannagi mainhands. That's down to two specific aspects of Kannagi: (1) the large amount of AGI helps Blade: Hi damage (and you'd prob only be spamming Hi with Kannagi, or else generally better off with Shun/Ten/Metsu if not using Kannagi), and (2) low delay for more frequent mainhand Empy AM3 (Occ. deal triple dmg) hits with Kannagi. I would't really recommend it for any other mainhand though, since a moderately well augmented Kanaria or Ochu should win for those.

Shigi: Shigi still retains a niche for when you might need MEGA accuracy. Otherwise, it will definitely fall behind for DPS. Also has a very specific niche for the ninjutsu recast reduction, for situations where you might willingly gimp your DPS a bit in exchange for Migawari recast, in situations where a mob frequently uses a move that wipes Migawari. For example, Glazemane UNM fight, maybe Volatile Cluster if not stunning it.

Kujaku+1: As discussed a bit previously, it's never really that competitive for DPS. However, it does have a niche if you care primarily about TP generation and self-SCs, at the expense of your overall damage (i.e., you're there to open SCs for magic bursting mages... edit: or even just to burst on SCs but still get TP back quickly enough to WS when your SC partner is ready, after having a lag in TP from your own casting). It's a really fun toy, but as a former owner, I never found many great places for it outside of CP parties with mage backlines and messing around.

Achiuchipaku: I see this more as a stepping stone. It's not awful, but I never see it beating the above options for BiS choice. To toss out one comparison, Kanaria even before considering augments has similar effective acc (when considering the combined skill & base acc+15), same STP, better Racc for Daken, FAR better damage. And that's before augments, which are not that hard to get something hugely beneficial on Kanaria. The lower delay and DA+4% on Achiu doesn't outweigh Kanaria's benefits (or the benefits of another offhand for the reasons described for them).

Shuhansadamune: Super niche use case, but the Enmity+10 (and to a far lesser extent the Eva+22/FC+5%/PDT-3%) can be a viable choice for very specific tanking situations. This is only for cases where you care more about enmity than damage, as you'll definitely suffer a DPS loss. Note that this would really just be for ilevel content with no level correction (i.e. "new" enmity mechanics). For zones/content using the old enmity mechanics, doing more damage will be a better way to hold hate anyway, so gearing for better DPS is the way to go. This assumes you don't have the option of offhanding a Nagi, which would be even better for hate - but that's sort of an insane proposition for almost everyone playing NIN.

So do I have to make a cape for Blade Ten or should I just cheese it with a shun cape?

Really gotta make a WSD cape there, you're losing out on a lot for a single-hit WS without that sweet, sweet WSD+10%...

Ideally, STR+30 on the Ten cape. But DEX is also very good and not far behind as 2nd best choice (lower max damage potential with DEX, but more accuracy for whatever that's worth on a 1-hit WS, and STR/DEX are both 30% WS mod). And the DEX/WSD cape doubles as ideal Metsu piece for any Kikoku users.

Personally, I don't wanna make THREE WSD capes (I needed the AGI one for Kannagi/Hi...), so I use my DEX+30/WSD+10%/Acc&Atk+20 cape for both Metsu and Ten. If I were to get around to my 7th completed NIN cape, I'd prob do a STR/WSD one though XD

Let's put this into some perspective since I was always curious as to where it (ochu) in fact actually won. Here forward I am assuming Heishi mainhand, and blade: ten free for all spam.

Let's put the mythical perfect Kanaria into context: DMG+20 TA3 DEX15 Acc/Attk20. And let's also set aside the fact that I've never seen one.

A perfect kanaria has 1 major advantage over a capped Ochu and two minor advantages. Extra attack, potentially higher base dmg, and a little store tp. I know I sound crazy to focus on attack, it's never really a stat we salivate over. We're often looking for DEX, TA, QA and the like on our gearsets. Ninjas, amongst others, have always had a hard time with capping cRatio.

With that said, even assuming we have capped cRatio you will find the perfect kanaria winning by very slight margins (was under 10 DPS when I looked). Thanks to slightly higher avghits/rnd and potentially better white dmg out of it.

When you throw a corsair's SAM roll into the mix, and start upping your ws frequency, the Ochu is going to end up winning in a raw damage race to the perfect Kanaria. Hell, Achiuchikapu is going to beat the perfect Kanaria under these circumstances.

That's really the only point at which you need to know that a capped Ochu is going to outdo a perfect kanaria; capped cRatio and quickening WSFrequency. You can equate this to an idris GEO + a COR on just about every piece of content we have. Obviously if this isn't your normal play environment, then get to farming those taupe stones. And railroad your friends into building an Idris. :D Remember, perfect zerg scenarios call for an Ochu otherwise use a perfect kanaria.

If you're more of a Heishi + shun guy, because your debuffs suck, or whatever, the perfect kanaria will win again.

You will have to decide if chasing Oseem augments for a perfect kanaria is worth it... or maybe you're more of a Malobra guy. lol

Oh man, definitely make a Blade: Ten cape! Our fSTR sucks on NIN. Only hurting ourselves. Push that STR for blade: Ten! It counts the same as dex, mod-wise, but we punish ourselves less for having flabby arms. :D

Totally agree on this.

Not to rain on my fellow NINs' parades, but let's be honest... perfect zerg scenarios call for jobs that aren't NIN. :P

To some extent, this is why I'm not as fixated on heavily buffed Heishi Blade: Ten spam as the one ideal that everything revolves around. In practice, that's just not where I tend to get the most out of my NIN, and I do get to use it in a lot of situations where strong white damage, less buffs, defensive advantages, and even stuff like Kikoku's massive attack (base + AM) come more into play. For most DD jobs, pushing that WS/TP damage split with more and more WS focus is the only real consideration. I end up getting more "utility" out of my NIN on a very regular basis.

Also yeah Malobra is a ***. Still haven't seen a perfect Ochu. I mean, Oseem is also a hateful SOB, but he has given me several good TA+3, solid attribute, acc/acc Kanaria, DM katanas with QA+2 and WSD+7% (this is actually my personal best WS oriented COR roll & mega buffed offhand), etc. But nope, not SR, where my best Ochu is a couple steps below perfect augs. (here's hoping the FFXI rule of public whining comes into play and I end up with a perfect Ochu this week!)

Use your TP cape for Shun (Dex/DA) and make a STR/WSD cape for Ten.
Can use the STR/WSD cape for Blade: Hi as well. Not ideal but gives good results nonetheless.

Thought REMA's didn't work like that. Yes, Kannagi gives you the AGI in the offhand, but Kikoku doesn't give the attack. Pretty sure you don't get the mag acc and emnity from Nagi in the offhand.

I totally get what you are saying, but there are times this can be used to great effect!
For example, low-manning Escha HELMs for pulse gear and Vulcanite ores is quite easy with a PUP, NIN/RUN, GEO, COR and treasure hunter THF. With a trust healer, only the NIN needs to pay any real attention, and thanks to its spells and job abilities, the NIN can safely smack away at the target's rear without ever taking hate from the automaton.
Is it the fastest method? No, but if a NIN wants to play and mindlessly farm with mules (or less than focused friends), it works.

This will make 5 Ninja capes for a non-ideal-non-main niche job. Welp, here goes.

Just would also like to add to this assessment the usefulness extends to something that (for example) uses Hundred Fists. Being able to constantly apply Sans is a great tradeoff for lower dps. 3 seconds is huge. I was just soloing some Keeper of Heiligtums and he has a nasty HF he spams. It comes in handy. But it's niche overall.

Come to think of it, nearly every weapon, cape, combination of gear, and the very job itself is just overall niche. Nothing flashy, nothing absolute BIS flat out across the board. "It Depends" on a lot of things. Which can be a good or bad thing.

Yeah that's a pretty good compromise. DEX/WSD is the other option, and is the one I'd recommend to consolidate capes in the event you have and regularly use a Kikoku.

STR gives you one cape that's best for Ten (but 30% STR/DEX mod means DEX isn't that far behind, and the STR loses some of its advantage when you're already capped cRatio), 2nd best for Metsu, 3rd best for Hi.

DEX gives you one cape that's best for Metsu, 2nd best for Ten and Hi (I'd go with DEX/WSD for Hi over STR/WSD due to the added crit rate, but fSTR is a thing too so either is helpful).

AGI gives you the one cape that's clearly best for Hi, but kinda lackluster for any other common WS. Kind of a must for Kannagi, but less important for other mainhands.

The most important stat on any of them is the WSD though. And attribute is far more important for Hi/Metsu with their single attribute 80% mods, as opposed to Ten with 30% STR & 30% DEX (which is why I'm fine settling for DEX instead of doing NIN cape #7). But if you're only using Heishi/Ten, STR does the trick nicely.

FWIW, my capes, in the order of how useful I find them

MUST HAVE:
1) DEX/DA - for TP and Shun (a must for all NINs)

REALLY IMPORTANT (at least one WSD cape in some form, mine below):
2) DEX/WSD - for Metsu and Ten
3) AGI/WSD - for Hi

VERY USEFUL UTILITY PIECES:
4) FC+10% only
5) INT/Macc&MDMG/MAB
Note: you can totally get away with combining these and making a Macc/FC cape for self-cast ninjutsu and enfeebles, if nukes aren't a priority for you

NICHE PIECES
6) DEX/Acc&Atk/DW+10% - DW TP cape for severely underbuffed situations. I still use it sometimes, but it's the one I'd most readily give up if I had to limit myself.


Hmmm... actually, I don't know this one. Does anyone know for sure how Nagi/Mythics work here for listed "normal" stats like Macc (which is on all of the mage 1h mythics) and enmity? I was aware that "special" effects on Mythics don't apply from offhand, but I always read that as the truly unique things like Burtgang's enmity retention, Carn's increased song duration, Tizona's occ. convert damage to MP, Yagrush's AoE effect, etc. Not "regular old stats" like Macc/Enmity that show up on lots of weapons, and aren't specific to Mythics.

Offhand Mythics definitely do NOT give their 30% bonus to associated WS and "special" effects (as noted above, what exactly that means is unclear to me). And no RMEA give Aftermath or Afterglow effects when equipped in the offhand, Relics don't give hidden occasional bonus damage, Aeonics don't give TP Bonus, etc.

But it's further complicated by some "normal" stats on other RMEA applying in offhand. For instance, Aeonic Store TP, Empy attribute+50 (but on the other hand, some seemingly "normal" stats like Kikoku Atk+60 don't apply).

Anyway, this is likely a more theoretical discussion anyway. The odds of someone reading this actually having an upgraded Nagi and wanting to offhand it for that niche of a use are pretty low. Even if you do have a Nagi, if you want balls out enmity, can just mainhand that (and maybe offhand Shuhansadamune). And the point remains, that my more sane offhand recommendation of the High Tier Diabolos drop fills the very uncommon niche role as an enmity+ offhand for most NINs, so at least has a place in the bag of katanas.

TL;DR version: if you were thinking of building a Nagi just to offhand for tanking... maybe don't do that ;)


This is totally fair, and my comment was a little tongue in cheek anyway. But yeah, there are certainly NIN situations where you can make the most out of all out maximization of DPS. It's just that when I hear "zerg", I hear "Capuchin go change to [something that isn't NINJA]" ;)

Too true, it's usually COR to buff the SMN's. :D

But in 'zerg-type' scenarios where cRatio is capped and I have supporting rolls and haste. My NIN doesn't have a problem keeping up with the 'real' dd's. I'm not going to go posting scoreboard results or anything. On content where you'll regularly have those buffs and you're taking advantage of our, frankly, quite usable dd JA's (sange,innin) you're going to do pretty well. This is like... some Eschan fodder and Dynamis and 1 master trial. :D

What numbers are you guys seeing with heishi with shun, ten, hi? I'm a new owner and not seeing impressive numbers. The saving Grace is self stepping radiance, but I'm certainly underwhelmed with the damage and wondering if my sets are just garbage.

My sets closely resemble those on the front page for Ten. Though I decided to spring for HQ Kenda body and nothing else yet.

In the aforementioned scenarios Ten will vary from a few thousand damage (when I miss my main hand but offhand hits). Up into the 30k+ when I get some multi-attacks. Usually sits in the mid to upper 20k's.

Shun will peak near the 20k mark but averages something a bit more around 16k. I always like to remember the really good ones and forget the ***ones and tell myself it was all for the skillchain. :D

If I'm doing something where buffs suck and I don't get what I want, then I'm usually somewhere between 10 to 15k for both Ten/Shun.

Edit: lol-I-dont-bother-with-hi-hardly-ever. :D