The Sealed Dagger: A Ninja Guide

Could you consistently do 500+ damage nukes on lizards or anything in adoulin with a nin nuking setup? Just a random question

Yes, but you can melee crit in abyssea for 500+ and aeolian edge for 500+ on multiple targets.

Thanks, I just wanted to know if you could in adoulin while farming sacreds and sparks.

do not want more DW, all it does is kill my tp gain (1st world problems, I know)... do want more acc pieces that arn't ***though.

NIN needs a good overhaul. It's quickly regaining its role of the RDM of the melee division.

I just returned to game and have broken caps and what not, working on hitting 99. Can anyone tell me what gear I should be aiming for/working towards once I reach cap as well as end goals? Or a progression of gear that I should be working on getting? Thanks in advance.

Not sure how much you already learned about since coming back, but here goes.

The "NIN TP High" set on the front page is up to date on what you should be aiming for.

Until then, you'll want to first grab some item level katanas. I recommend starting Records of Eminence quests right away to obtain a Kaitsuburi and offhand Eminent Dagger until you can get something better (Raimitsukane, Pamun). For gear upgrades, AF109 body and Relic109 legs are pretty simple to obtain and are big DPS increases to what you're currently using assuming your page is current. Among other materials, you need Rem's Tale Chapters which are obtainable either through Records of Eminence sparks (basically the currency used in RoE equipment) or doing new battlefields that require 20 Sacred Kindred's Crest. However, if you plan on doing those, you should get the Home Point warp to each battlefield's entrance first. Lastly, you'll want to do some Yorcia Weald Skirmish to get Otronif equipment. They are augmentable using Verdigris Stones to obtain a guaranteed augment of PDT and a possibility of 1 additional stat which is limited to acc, att, critical hit rate, double attack or magic defense bonus.

May also be worth noting you can now unlock Blade: Hi for any weapon by doing a simple quest that involves talking to a moogle in Walk of Echoes from the Xarcabard (S) entrance. You need either a 90+ Empyrean or 99 WoE weapon to do so. There's a second WoE path that involves some -1 version of a magian katana, but I honestly never bothered looking in to it to explain it very well, however I know it allows you to skip all the NM camping in exchange for requiring an extra amount of Coins/Dice/Residue.

And it's a pain in the ***. I haven't taken ninja seriously since Abyssea, but I had an 85 Kannagi and wish I had just taken it to 90 instead of throwing it away when 119 weapons came out. 75 Apademak Horns are much faster to farm than 100 residue/die

Yeah I already have been working towards getting sparks. I also am pretty close to kannagi from before i quit (like 20 skins off maybe?) so I'm going to finish that up as well probably. Thanks for the help!

Updated the gear sets. It's a bit rough, but I also tried splitting TP sets into something a bit easier to read.

Just a couple of things i noticed looking over the AA node.

AA galka: looks good, any half witted dd/nin can do this fight on VD, we've even done this nin/pup/thf/geo/brd/whm. note: (this also requires a bard with a very good macc debuff set to sleep the pet) AA mithra: 2 nin's shine on this fight, being able to bounce her back and forth. Rampage can suck, but as long as you keep up 3 shadows, and know how to use pdt correctly when low on shadows/utsu timer down, this shouldn't be much of a problem. issekigan shines for when someone gets charmed and the bard needs to sleep them. when under 25% cloudsplitter shouldn't be a problem while bouncing hate (a whm with a good barspell set for barthunra is awesome for this, nothing like not losing migawari after cloudsplitter), if she is still looking at you after using it once, just use mdt set, and you shouldnt die. note: (this also requires a bard with a very good macc debuff set to sleep the pet, i have no trouble dual boxing this nin/brd and keeping the pet slept, sleeping charmed, and keeping songs up) ninx2 thf brd whm geo(or cor) is our ideal setup, and we have won this fight on VD in under 8 minutes.
AA tt: looks good, same thing as galka.
AA hume: this is the only AA on VD we can't take down in under 10min with our ninx2 thf/geo/whm/brd setup. have taken it to ~20% with this setup, but brazen > cdc spam becomes too much. nin/drgx2 pld geo(cor) whm brd is our ideal setup. just high jump when brazen, and shouldn't be much of a problem. AA elvaan: this has a slight tweak in setup as well, our ideal setup is ninx2 thf smn whm brd, full acc set, and 2 mads shouldnt have any acc issues. ea/scherzo reduces arrogance dmg greatly (can still occasionally hit for 1k~ but a good whm shouldnt have problem keeping you alive), the only thing that can really get you is a nasty combo of vorpal > dominion (silence) to auto attack, or another vorpal etc. under 25% same thing, just be smart with shadows cdc is a 3hit ws, so you always to keep over 3 shadows no matter what, and it shouldnt be much of a problem.

hope that helps a little bit for aspiring ninjas out there, all AA but hume we have done in under 10min on VD, hume being the only one that will take 15 to 20 mins~ (i'm not saying this will be the most ideal setup for everyone, we use 119 kikoku nins, 119 mandau thf, REM 99 brd, and we will use outside songs (another RE 99 brd), but is not needed, just speeds things up.)

care to explain why use hope torque over elemental gorget? Don't think i've seen it touched on over the time ive skimmed through here

This is one of those cases where it largely depends on what kind of buffs, target, and other gear you are using.

Nagi 113D (just using this since it has relatively higher D), Max fSTR 20. Assume 200 AGI. Assume 5 fTP (offhand hits, no DA/TA/QA proc).

With Gorget: Base Damage 333x5.1=1698
With Hope Torque: Base Damage 338x5=1690

7 katana skill is essentially 7acc/7atk, gorget adds (reportedly) 10 acc

So ask:
Am I hitting max fSTR? (+76 STR over enemy VIT, Not terribly likely on NIN)
Am I really hurting on Acc? If so, gorget might be better.

gorget will get better as the weapon damage value inflates more, but atm it's probably only a difference of like 10 damage points on average (with the favor likely leaning on Hope Torque because fSTR is like impossible to cap) so I wouldn't be too concerned about going out of my way to kill Jailer of Hope a bunch of times

Okay, thanks for clearing that up, I have both anyway but whenever it came down to using either the elemental torques or the Sea ones. I typically used the elemental ones since it says it adds acc to the first hit, which Hi is 1 hit.

That comment is underselling NIN by quite a bit too.

Think I am done augmenting this for now, not sure what else can be better except acc to keep it as an offhand.

Just DMG+4 STR+9 ATK+5 on mine ; ;

I had to pass up DMG+11 MDB+3 WS DMG+5% since it doesn't work in offhand. /sadface

i could have rephrased the whole statement to nins do it best, but seeing as that lack of good nins that are out there, i settle for this, but thanks

So a couple quick questions.

1) Kaitsuburi I assume is still the ideal offhand for non-REM ninjas doing highly evasive content??

2) Concerning Kaitsuburi, do the latent effect bonuses of accuracy and attack apply to both weapons when it's in the offhand?

Yes and yes.

I also had weapon question. Would it be smart to buy pamun now with these newer weapons that are out? I had a guy offer to sell one 2 me at 8 mil and last few were between 10-12 on AH. I don't want to buy one if it is a waste of money or people think it will drop in price.

Free options are always nice.

My advice: don't buy a Pamun. You'll replace it fast and lose at least a few mil trying to sell it.

I wouldn't buy any of the crafted weapons anymore. Maybe Sharur if you're a club person? I don't keep up-to-date with clubs, but I think that's the last one worth using.

Pamun price will continue to drop a lot. If you buy for 8 mil you will be getting ripped off pretty bad I think. Kannakiri +2 is so easy to get. Spend your 8 mil on Wailing Stones +2 for a good augment.

I do not play Nin much any more but I do enjoy looking though the forums. I have to say of all the guides I have seen this one is not only exceptionally insightful but very well maintained.

Thank You Kincard of Leviathan.

It fills me with misguided NIN pride every time I come back and peek. lol

Haven't played in 8 months or so.

Kincard you are doing a great service to those still in Vanadiel.

Kese I was wondering if you could share your gear sets for doing these fights. I am hoping to get my ninja up to par for Divine Might this weekend (our LS is kinda anti-bandwagon so we don't have 8 rangers). I was just curious how much accuracy you were equipping and in which slots, and was also curious if you had different accuracy sets based on aggressor up/down or Madrigals up/down?

*Edit* Also curious what weaponskill(s) you were using. Is Blade: Hi better than 5/5 Blade: Shun? I don't have Kikoku so no access to Blade: Metzu. Is it safe to assume Blade: Kamu is worthless for AA/DM?

I've done nin on every fight and acc generally is the only issue you run into when scaling to VD.

For this reason, blade: hi is almost always going to be best, you don't wanna be using multihit ws if you're unsure on acc. Also the ability to take advantage of innin is useful and it spikes quite high.

Generally you want around 850 acc on gear before food/buffs to be able to nin effectively. For MR you wanna stack on a bit more aim for maybe 900. You probably won't be capped on any fight but you attack so much and Blade: Hi usually doesn't miss so shouldn't be an issue.

Just eyeballing, but looks like Mes'yohi haubergeon > Hachiya chainmail +1 for Shun and Metsu. And probably better than Manibozho jerkin for Accuracy options.