The Sealed Dagger: A Ninja Guide

Welcome to my club, but three of them.

drop rate of Seki Shuriken on AA GK is so depressingly low I'm not sure I'd want to spam that without a THF.

Date Shurikens are harder hitting and only cost 80 Domain Points, so it's a more efficient way to get good shurikens for Sange, if you wanted some to throw away. Can keep 1 seki for your normal TP set, and Date for Sange (or just full time Date since it's probably better DPS at attack cap anyways).

I dropped a 98 stack of seki because I pulled with a shuriken once and my stack was no longer max.

never even once thought about meritting sange

That's the second anti dps zealotry statement you've made in like a month.

It's just weird. *** twilight zone. First being against the Balder earring and now sange. What happened.

Balder earring is terrible cost:reward ratio, and isn't better in real world application anyways.

The Sange thing is related to OCPD.

Reality has never been an issue before. Better is better zero exceptions allowed, that's the zealotry part.

Often times items will perform better in reality as they do on a spreadsheet, balder is not one of those items.

Oh my god! Avert your eyes children, another anti dps statement. Not swapping your shuriken for better dps because of cosmetics. What universe did I wake up in today.

Dressup works pretty well now, it "locks" your current visual display and wont' let me change no matter what. This has a horrendously fun side effect if you change jobs / weapon types and then do savage blade with a staff.

I just reload Dressup to fix the locked display thing. Normally isn't that big of a deal, but I can't enjoy NIN while blinking every 2 seconds anymore. Though, blinking does have certain tactical advantages (removes the animation lock from actions, also temporarily allows movement during bind).

Someone can correct me on this but I was curious what the Dmg would be using Shuriken in WS sets but our Spreadsheet doesn’t even allow you to see the results.

Daken should indeed proc in every WS just like DA / TA do I would imagine, right? Yet such is NOT in the SS. I do use Windower Dressup so it’s not about blinking for me. It’s just not in the SS and why idk.

Daken does not function during a ws, only autoattacks

Daken is an auto attack though. We can even hit 100% Daken now making the Merited JA irrelevant. https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Daken

I don't see (any) ninjas recommending using a relic/af+3 body/hands to achieve that. So, not really.

Plus, sange gives ratt/racc bonus per merit, so it's always(*) going to be better dps.

Mostly a joke though, *** sange, just busting balls for someone going against a dps gain.

I used to use Sange nonstop, I think everyone else did as well, fully Merited but removed all Merits out of such.

That's never the right answer here.

You MUST have sange.
You must use the best and hardest to get shurikens.
You must use it every single time the cooldown is up.
or yo *** is gimp.

To even consider not doing that is blasphemous.

Wait, can you?
~56% from traits/JPs.
25% from Neck+2

Still missing 19%.
Well you could get 10% on the Relic+3 body (which is a bad option in general, unless you can build around a DW setup but that's sort of a niche and there's better options anyway) and 10% o the AF+3 hands, but those aren't exactely very good either compared to the plentiful other options we have.

54% from traits
25 from neck (79% is the standard in most melee setups)
10 from AF+3 hands
10 from Relic+3 body

is 99%

Guess you can throw in some level of (aug)Tsuru if you wanted to hit that 100%, but it's irrelevant. Procs most of the time, Sange is virtually useless. You throw away items to get +21% throw rate and some racc/ratk. Meh, just keep your shurikens in your pocket and don't bother activating it unless you are severely underbuffed and need the tp speed (you can use the two extra Daken+ pieces in your DW set with something like Gokotai, but such a rare instance). Or if you DI every day and don't mind buying Date Shurikens regularly.

It's not about Sange being bad, it's about alternatives being better.

I have huge problem even deciding between Innin, Yonin, Mab and Macc. Sange would be 5th on the list.

Just depends on what you do on NIN. The alternatives are only better if it serves the role you would be doing on Ninja. You play Ninja the "right" way, so of course deciding which merits would be more challenging. I think in general, though, many Ninjas don't strive to be the most well-rounded in all areas of tanking, Ninjutsu, and melee damage; They may never tank or nuke, but are just melee/hybrid change-of-pace DDs, so the merit options are a fairly easy selection.

If all you want is highest dps melee, Sange Innin 5/5 and it's not really a debate on much else. If you are Nuking or Tanking, then you would have to switch things around (kind of like how COR has to shuffle RD merits for Gaol fights but Winning Streak for Seg Farm). But if you like to do versatile things on NIN, then Sange is really an inferior ability because it takes up a spot from something more important. Personally, I have 1 merit in it for activation in the rare event I get encumbered or something in a bad set and need extra dps or whatever.

I personally decided upon Yonin 5/5 cuz I like being beefier w/ 250 HP every time I pop such. That and I think I went w/ Macc 5/5 but to each their own. MAB makes perfect sense as well.

I was Yonin 5/5 for the longest while, and then had to realize the amount of times I actually used Yonin were so few and far in between. Honestly, none of the Group 2 Merits (probable Group 1 as well) are particularly must-have selections. Not until you start factoring in the Relic augments. Then I personally think that innin 5/5 and MAB 5/5 becomes the best merit options period, assuming you use the Relic+3 Feet and Head for their respective uses (Hybrid WS from behind, max Nuke damage).

All I'm hearing is: build two ninjas, a yonin and an innin. Yagyu Darkblade please ;- ;

I mean both Innin and Yonin merits might be useful for the same fight. You might start as DD from behind and end up as tank after hate reset or even with V20 mechanic when add pops and it's on you.

Btw anyone know if skillchain and magic burst bonuses from Innin Merits are under their respective caps of 50% and 40% or are they separate multipliers?