The Sealed Dagger: A Ninja Guide

If your goal for that set is a hybrid meva/DT set (no idea why you would want this in dynamis, you can eat mostly everything with shadows), this would be a survival set. Not a great TP set with the weapons you have listed. Frankly, I don't think that set makes a whole lot of sense. I also wouldn't assume that you would be attack capped on NIN on everything Wave2-3, especially the champion monsters. This is often thrown around since you would be getting ideal buffs, but it's not a guarantee (songs get missed, dispelled, rolls come off, geomancy resistance on bosses, etc). So Berserk, though risky, is still useful.

If you want STP as a priority, there are still some pieces of gear that are better options than Malignance: Samnuha Tights + Adhemar Wristbands +1 both having MA + STP vs just STP/Acc/Racc on Malignance. The only times I consider using a full malignance set (or STP priority) on NIN is for Nagi AM build or a hybrid set where shadow wiping is a constant.

IMHO, offhanding that dagger on NIN is kind of mediocre if you're just using the right melee set (Kendatsuba +1 mainly). NIN attacks fast enough and multiple times enough in a round where you really don't get the same output other jobs need to maintain high TP gain rate. You are sacrificing a boatload of TA to make that dagger have a use, where NIN really doesn't need it with its other options. In a standard dynamis/endgame buff scenario with capped haste and the right gear, you're already attacking fast enough to multistep on its own (which is 2.5~ attack rounds after WS with the buffs you listed). Adding more STP at the cost of MA seems like just a white damage loss, as you aren't reaching 1k tp faster than any normal setup.

I'm not a huge fan of Berserk because:
1) I suck and forget to use it and/or fall into the mentality of "nah these are weak, let's save it for later" and then always forget to
2) You can't fulltime it

But NIN is one of the jobs who gets the least countereffects from using Berserk. You can keep shadows up against the majority of stuff, the monster will rarely ever face you if you have a tank regardless of how much damage you're doing because of Yain and Innin.
Also, not sure Kikoku is the best weapon to use in group content, but if you don't have anything better (I was pretty sure you had Heishi Shorinken?).
Now we could argue if R1 Heishi beats R15 Kikoku, I dunno, but unless you're super attack starved (with the right food and your buffs, you shouldn't?) maybe?

The set you're using is... odd, but who knows, maybe it can give good results with the OAT offhand? I'm usually not a big fan of OAT offhands so I'm biased.
Have you tried Langly's spreadsheet to see if your Malignance-heavy set can compete against a Kendatsuba-heavy set with a "regular" offhand?
I don't know the outcome but think you should do a couple of tests.


Maybe I suck and maybe it's a matter of me usually running with Regain roll and SAM roll, but I usually get TP so fast I waste WSs most of the time because I can't WS as fast as I'd like to.
Also depends on monsters dying too fast or you not being able to target the right monster fast enough or blah blah, same usual shitty laggy divergence stuff.

Even with Nagi you wouldn't be using full malig. Would be something like this:
ItemSet 372709

And full Ken +1 isn't that far behind this.
EDIT: Can also swap to Adhemar +1 hands with minimal dps loss too.

I would agree with Buukki about ditching that blurred +1. Would lean towards Tauret if going dagger route.

Would also look into doing Chi builds on W3. I hate the thought of NIN using SB in any fashion lol.

Armor:
Worth noting that he does have very strong atk buffs, Fury/Chaos/HM/Minuet. So the PDL+ of Malignance & neck probably does come into play on W1/W2 (particularly if Dia or GEO bubble gets on the mobs), which isn't something Malignance can take advantage of in many situations without those conditions. Buukki has a point that buffs get missed, Geomancy bubbles don't get placed, Dia isn't used... etc. But this is maybe more of a question of how well your support team performs.

But overall, aside from the wave 2 champion mobs and boss, I can see the 5/5 Malignance set working out fairly well - at the very least, shouldn't be that far behind some mix of of Ken+1/Adhemar+1 that's probably the better choice if not fully buffed. And the extra Meva/DT doesn't hurt to better ensure you don't get slowed down by some AoE enfeeble, or to laugh off Mijin Gakure by NIN mobs.

Now the weapons...
Yeah, I don't see Kikoku being ideal here. With all those buffs, Ten spam with Heishi should easily be better as long as you don't really need some other WS for SC purposes. Is the atk from Kikoku (base or AM) really helping much? Kinda doubt it.

Blurred OH is also a little odd. You're gonna be gaining TP like a fiend anyway with Samurai roll and all that STP, I'd lean toward either something with stats to help WS (Kanaria, Ochu, Tauret). Or, if you have any doubts about atk capped (perhaps the rationale behind selecting Kikoku mainhand?), toss a Fudo Masamune in there to deal with that from the offhand, and change mainhand to Aeonic.

There's also the sad possibility of Naegling mainhand and Savage Blade spam outdoing whatever katana setup you might use...

Subjob
I agree with what Sechs said about Berserk... but again, so many buffs here I question whether it would be needed. So yeah, I see the value of /DRG for this case. I do sometimes like /WAR in Dyna because provoke can be handy, but that depends more on how on point your group's crowd control is.

Miscellaneous:
Parsing Dyna is also always weird due to timing of engaging mobs, overkilling wave 1-2 trash and not seeing your "full" WS numbers (which can somewhat devalue /DRG), etc. So keep that in mind.

TL;DR - Heishi/Ten spam really isn't doing better for you with those buffs? I'd expect it should, and the TP gear doesn't look like some massive issue. Is your Ten set lacking anything major? That could be a factor...

Just wondering, what is the Current Starting and BiS Ninja MB Gear? looking to work on my nin.. as i slowly build Nagi and Kannagi..

Will have a video out about this next week... it' involves a lot of magic burst damage+ augments on herc gear while maintaining good magic attk and int bonus. Currently still playing around with a few pieces to determine absolutely BiS in certain situations as some of the pieces only work well when your MB damage is high to begin with and doesn't work as well at lower damage levels.

i thought it did. i always see multi RA messages in my chat log, or is that just lag?

More like you dont see when one round ends and other round starts in log. Daken can only proc once per round.

A Guide To Ninja: Blade: Hi video is out. Hope this helps others setup their best Blade: Hi gearset options. Special thanks to Langly for taking the time this week to personally walk me through the Spreadsheet and help me understand the in's and out of it. Along with the parse results that I've been using this should allow for more closer refinements of the gearsets in this and future videos.

No offence, but optimizing dps around haste cap and no other buffs on Apex mobs is kinda weird. Blade hi is very favored in that scenario (Blade: Shun too).

Also not seeing Adhemar pieces there seems weird. Especially combo of head and feet in low attack setup should be very strong. Head has 6% crit damage 31agi 35att and 4%ta. Feet solo are probably competetive with Mummu, because it has only 1% crit rate less and 3less agi (well 11 if you count with mummu set bonus), but Adhemar has 34 attack which should be significant in that scenario. Also pairing head and feet is 4% crit rate set bonus.

Thanks for releasing another great video. It makes me want to finally finish Apademak and r15 Kannagi. I'm looking forward to the R15 videos. Since you mentioned Blade:Hi pronunciation, maybe there's hope for all of the other Ninja/Samurai spells and abilities which follow Japanese kana pronunciation.

Looking through the future videos, I do not see any plans to cover Naegling+Hitaki. It's unfortunate that Savage Blade performs so well compared to katana weaponskills, but given that they're considerably cheaper and easier to obtain than an r15 RMEA, and that they perform better in many cases, Naegling+Hitaki should at least get a mention during the r15 RMEA videos.


Based on your predictions and results in the video it seems that the DPS spreadsheet can accurately predict DPS for static weapon cases. How difficult would it be to estimate the DPS when your main-hand and off-hand weapons change during combat? I've noticed that I can output considerably more damage with Blade:Shun(Heishi) into SavageBlade(Naelging+Hitaki) for Light than if I were to simply use Shun-Shun. Especially if I also swap to dual-Ochu for magic bursting. With the standard 5-step Radiance (Shun-Ten-Kamu-Shun-Shun), you can replace Kamu with SavageBlade for a more powerful Fragmentation and still swap back to Heishi and complete Radiance. The main point that concerns me is that the potential DPS loss from the loss of TP on weapon swaps isn't as significant in shorter fights like Apex, UNM, and early-tier Geas Fete when compared to extended fights like Omen bosses, Ambuscade, and mid/high-tier Geas Fete. I'm not sure how difficult it would be to quantify the loss of multiple weaponskills worth of TP over longer fights in exchange for (significantly) more powerful weaponskills like SavageBlade (and their resulting skillchains) and increased magic burst damage from dual-Ochu.

Edit to hopefully spark some discussion:

My guess is that this is actually trivial and as long as the increase in damage from the weapon swap is larger than the percentage of damage associated with the TP lost from the swap (so TP_loss/WS_TP*WS_Damage), then it's always a DPS gain. But I may be oversimplifying things.

For example: if Blade:Shun does 10k damage and SavageBlade does 15k damage and you always WS at 1000TP (with Heishi AM affecting Light damage) and lose 150TP on each swap:

Performing 2-step light with Shun+Shun=Light would result in
Shun + Shun + AM-Light(+3% SC damage)
10000 + 10000 + 10300 = 30300 damage

but using Shun+Savage=Light with 150TP loss on swap would result in
Shun + Savage(-TP loss difference) + Light(-TP loss difference)
10000 + (15000-(150/1000*10000)) + (15000-(150/1000*10300)) = 37000

If you wanted you could subtract off another 150/1000*10000 damage from the SavageBlade combo since you have to swap back to Heishi to redo the chain.

Shun + Savage(-TP loss difference) + Light(-TP loss difference) - (TP loss difference)
10000 + (15000-(150/1000*10000) + (15000-(150/1000*10300)) - (150/1000*10000) = 35500

Notice that it's still a 17% increase over not swapping weapons. This is also without throwing in magic bursts which would gain the full benefit from dual Ochu with MBII traits.

Sounds like some big brain ***. Prepare to be heavily praised and or mocked for such a suggestion. Let's see how this gooooooos.

Im drunk, but I will try to beat that amazing plan of swaping weapons to savage!

Kannagi r15 :Hi > Kikoku r15 Metsu > Heishi r15 shun x2

That should be Fragmentation to Light to Radiance.

Imo that 2x more swapping, 10x more pog, 100x more Ninja and 1000x less lame Savage, but im drunk, so im not sure..

It's not that odd. Dia and Chaos Roll are the only consistent pDif modifying de/buffs a NIN with trusts is going to have for apex mobs.

The majority of my video's are directed at solo players who use trust to defeat content so this is normally the only reliable buffs we can count on. This is also the measuring stick I've been using for the entire series so for comparison sake I definitely can't change it now. I also feel there is a good amount of content out there showing you what the capped pdif sets are... my vids are more for the solo player to see how gearsets may differ in the situations when you don't have your own personal GEO, COR, BRD, etc.

I appreciate your suggestion on the Adhemar pieces. I had played with them during this but obviously not in the right setup as I was able to get an additional 8 DPS when using it on Path B over Hachi +3 when playing with it this time. If nothing else it absolutely should have been mentioned and it was overlooked. It does look like in these low Attk situations it does indeed overpower that Hachi +3. I've made a note on the top pinned comment of the video and altered the Spreadsheet accordingly. Adding Adhemar feet or hands on Path B for the set bonus sadly didn't have the same effect... losing 75 DPS on Feet and 100 on Hands in this particular setup.

And often not even chaos roll.... stupid qultada wrecking skillchains. >: (

Indi-haste on PLD/RUN/NIN from Sylvie is the worst thing.

Why path B? 20 attack is for aure ok, but for :hi I wouls imagine path A with 12AGI would beat that.

Good question. In this particular setup I'm already using Path B for my TP set... I can swap it to Path A in tp setup but then I lose 13 DPS overall... however if I just keep it on Path B and use that for Blade: Hi it's only .4 DPS lower then going with Path A for Blade: Hi. So seems like one of those circumstances where Path A will give you higher WS dmg but the attack bonus for Path B is somehow making up for it in this low attk situation. I was also surprised by this as I assumed Path A would be hands down the best overall... and I'm sure in most other circumstances it is.

You can have both path B and path A tho :)

haha Well very true. I guess I didn't picture anyone doing both Paths in HQ but your absolutely right... nothing is stopping you. :)

Re: Logical's Blade: Hi video, I don't typically think about Hi as the recommended NIN WS for non-RMEA mainhands, since Blade: Shun should generally give higher WS damage. However, I suppose it does make sense for the scenarios he's focusing on (solo with trusts) since it's a simple darkness SC, and can tack on even more damage via ninjutsu magic bursts. SC/MB (or even SC alone without bothering to nuke) should easily push Hi over the top for overall DPS if you're consistently self-SCing. Shun should do more raw WS damage, but won't make a light SC unless you are using Aeonic.

I'd stress an important qualifier for that though: if playing as part of a group, you probably don't want Blade: Hi to be your go-to WS unless you need it to SC with someone. Go for Shun, it's more damage (and plays nice with some other people's WS for light SCs: most notably Savage Blade or Victory Smite). Honestly, Blade: Ten is also likely the better option than Blade: Hi for darkness SC purposes (non-solo SC), and it works well with many popular non-NIN weapon skills (Rudra, Torcleaver, Fudo, Expiacion, etc.). I see a lot of NINs in stuff like pickup Ambuscade relying on Hi in situations where they'd be better served using a different WS.

That being said... you'll want to keep updated sets for both Hi and Shun. Hi does have good use for solo SC and some group SCs, and Shun will generally be your best option for light SCs and strong non-SC WS damage. And Blade: Ten (even without Heishi) will often beat Shun out for raw WS damage if (a) you're getting the buffs to make Ten really shine (it pulls away), and/or (b) you're holding to 1750+ TP (w/ Moonshade) for that sweet, sweet, 11.5 fTP at 2k TP.

The above is for non-RMEA though (and Nagi, because Blade: Kamu is trash). For the other RMEAs:

• For Kikoku, Metsu is indeed bestu for most solo SC purposes (either Metsu-Metsu darkness, or Metsu-Shun light).

• For Heishi, Shun-Shun does light and the WS itself gets the associated weapon bonus (and is already stronger than Hi), so that's your go-to for self-SCs unless fighting something taking reduced light damage. Ten gains a LOT of damage from TP Bonus so is generally a preferable party darkness SC option than Hi, or for raw damage in a non-SC scenario

• For Kannagi, yeah... Hi tends to be king unless you need light SCs. And obviously you'll need to use it at least to maintain Empy aftermath.

I lived the dream today boys... Awaken status in Dominion Invasion, Blade: Hi hits for 70k+... Warped and drank the rest of my 40

NIN really needs a buff can’t even hit capped damage in DI

All Blade: ten needs to be competitive WS is slightly better modifiers. Its the best scaling WS in game otherwise. Also hybrid WSs are hardcore strong, but people just dont like to build party around it, but in theory whenever hybrid WSs would work, NIN would be amazing for it.

@Langly - I see you have Malignance hands now listed as BIS on capped haste. I am still scratching my head about that, I am not seeing how this beats adhemar+1 could you explain?

Also I dont have access to it or id try myself, but relic+3 or af+3 feet when bursting now? I assume +3 relic but I could be wrong and wanted to see if its even worth upgrading +3 af at this point.... really still furious SE screwed with nin nuking.

If you're atk capped and can make use of the PDL+4% on Malignance, I do see them as a virtual tie with Adhemar +1 B hands from a spreadsheet DPS perspective (with Adhemar ever so slightly ahead). And if they're essentially a sidegrade DPS-wise, you'd want to go with the much better defensive stats on Malignance (and hey, a couple resisted enfeebles might mean higher DPS in real world situations anyway). Malignance fall a bit further behind when not at capped attack, but they're still up there - alongside Ken+1 or very well augmented Herc - as one of the handful of top tier options.

Malignance Gloves seem to be the only piece in the set that is that close to the top DPS option though - in all 4 other slots they fall a little further behind. And even then, they aren't so bad as to make it crazy to select them for DT-/Meva/Eva/MDB/Def if that's a consideration. Of course, I'm 4/5 on Malignance set and lacking only... the hands. :P

FWIW, I actually used my Malignance TP set just tonight. Dyna farming and our main tank D/Ced and didn't come back. So I swapped to Fudo C mainhand, 4/5 Malignance set, Yonin/Gekka, and went to town as a melee tank for the rest of the run. Held up pretty well on the parse too, even with a DPS hit from much more frequent Utsusemi casting for hate and some extra time to tag mobs with ninjutsu or Provoke then spam Utsu for enmity retention.

On top of what Cap mentioned, they do have a higher total STR than adhemar as well. (Unless you're running path B, then path B will tend to be better than the malig. gloves)

Which... our fSTR is abysmal, and our weapons base dmg gets hit by that pretty hard. :(

The contribution isn't as large as say... the total from WS damage, but it's still fairly present.

It's one of those slots that can be hot swapped pretty easily where Path A Adhemar, Path B Adhemar, Malignance can find themselves winning.

Thank you for the question Azagarth, it's hard to convey that in a guide when I'm attempting to show just the ceiling of damage output but depending on target and outside of pDif/Acc there's still the issue of weapon base dmg.

I can understand the argument, but it doesnt make any sense.

assuming capped att/acc for ease, your losing out on so much for the hand slotts, I just cant invision where its an actual dps increase.

with Maligance you gain 5 stp and 4 pdl and nothing else
with AdhemarB+1 you gain 2 str, 4 TA, 4 crit rate
with AdhemarA+1 you lose 11str/12dex, and gain 4 TA, 4 crit rate

If the issue is that 5 stp is doing so much over 4TA/crit, then wouldnt a better swap be brutal->dedition earring for 7 stp, or Adhemar Head -> maligance for +8 stp and 3 pdl, or even eponas -> chirich+1 for 6 stp. All these offer a bettr amount of stp at trade for multi hit and seem like a strait upgrade over changing the hand slott which seems to gain the least?

Like I said I cant see how this is the optimal change, and once attack is even a factor its going to greatly put AdhemarB ahead (as stated). I personally stopped using AdhemarA on all my jobs since acc is basically capped on all content now other than a few events, and in those events you would full time Malignance set anyhow for the defensive/acc issues anyhow like Dyna w3.

Now maybe its that 4 pdl thats really pushing it ahead, or maybe I am missing something still....

Also is it wrong that I would assume at this stage in ffxi that AdhemarB should be considered default? I mean the gears so cheap now you can have both A and B if you really needed, and so BiS sets should just assume the true BiS non-Dm gear?

You will almost never hit positive fSTR in TP set on anything that is even close to be relevant to even talk about. Positive fSTR is sometimes even hard to get on WS set, especially when STR is not a modifier.