The Sealed Dagger: A Ninja Guide

So it hasn't increased from Ni nukes, at least I think those were -30 back in the 75 days too? Shame.


Basically why I asked, increasing the -resist and putting it on say a minute duration wouldn't be too bad, same could be applied to enspell II's -resist bump both up to at least 80~100 which is less than half of a brds threnody II when accounting for song+, not even sure if these -resists stack either.

I think a lot of forum posters overestimate how many people have Rank 25 Nyame augments (hint: not many). So yeah, more WSD+10% pieces will still be valuable for a whole lot of players.

And although most of the hardcore community insists B path Nyame is the only option (for good reason), I'm not sure the devs don't still see it as one possible option. People who wanted to go with A/C/D path on one of their Nyame pieces may be interested in WS gear for that slot for some jobs.

Personally, I'd be absolutely shocked if DD jobs' Empy sets don't get WSD+10 pieces just like reforged AF/Relic did.

Do you all think that the useful subjobs for NIN have changed since this guide came out?

Considering job adjustments (DRG comes to mind) and master levels, what subjobs do you see having the most potential? (even if it's niche)

WAR in general
DRG for most damage output*
DRK for niche over capped attack situations
RUN eventually for tanking/Foil (though, Idrt NIN needs the enmity support with MH Su5).
BLM for nuking (28 MAB)

I don't think there's many useful options after the first two. I have tried a couple, and I always seem to stick with WAR since it's the most all-around sub for Ninja.

Agreed with Buukki. I've moved to /DRG on many jobs, and it does have its uses on NIN for max damage (and enmity shedding with High Jump/Super Jump). But I generally continue to use NIN/WAR most of the time.

/WAR does give some boost to offense with Double Attack (DA+12% at /WAR50+) and Berserk (which is considerably less risky on NIN than other jobs, due to protection from shadows/Migawari). /WAR is also great for switching to tanking on the fly, which NIN is pretty much made to do. You can Provoke mobs as needed, or pop Defender for more of a turtle or supertanking situation.

Once ML allows for it, /RUN58 and Foil will be a gamechanger for tanking though, along with /RUN's other defensive perks like elemental resistance from runes, Pflug, Valiance/Vallation, and Inquartata.

Nothing new or interesting for /RDM and /BLU?

/RDM doesn't really get anything interesting from MLs. 5% more Fast Cast from trait at /RDM55, and between lv50 and 58 RDM gets 5 of the 6 Enspell IIs (worse than Enspell I due to II only working on first hit and not on any multiattack hits, and kinda gimpy anyway on jobs without native Enhancing Magic skill or weapons like Crocea Mors to make Enspells shine).

/BLU gets no additional spells or settable traits of note between BLU50 and 59. The only marginally useful ones would be Magic Fruit at 58, and a few more spells that could be set for Auto Refresh (meh).

/BLU gets Frightful Roar (and yes, you can land it on a lot of stuff).

Buddy messed around and NIN/RUN is really good for tanking, lots of abilities from sub for both damage mitigation and enmity generation.

Been playing with /DRG in segs the past week or so, and I think it's my preference for DDing segs now.

Nearly hit 9m damage last night, granted that was with me and COR making up for lower damage from other members.

Ok so before I ask to much, im looking into nin tp sets, I do not full have malignance (missing body and head.. lilith you suck), I have full mpacca, and only nq kenda, adhemare +1. I am trying really hard to determine what is considered "proper" or viable for tp sets for nin. is the 2021 gearsets post still accurate? Have no idea about that python thread, that one goes above my head some. Just kinda looking for advice and a general direction, this job has intimidated me for long enough I kinda want to dive in headfirst. Thank you in advance.

EDIT: I do have tatenshi+1 r15 but really feel squishy and not a huge fan anymore

Depends on how much aoe there is since shadows let you ignore everything else except evasion until shadows are down.

Full Mpaca is okay-ish, so long as you don't need ranged accuracy (you generally do). I don't normally wear that set on Ninja for melee dps much, mostly for tanking. I use R15 Tatenashi +1 for messing around and easy Sheol A stuff, but that's also lacking Racc so it may not work for other stuff. Being squishy only matters if stuff strips your shadows, in which case you should be using tankier gear anyways so you can take hits. My suggestion is a combination of adhemar hands, kendatsuba garb, and Mpaca, geared to where you're hitting Daken procs accurately and have enough defense to handle whatever attacks get through your shadows. This is assuming you don't feel like investing money into +1 Kenda, which is pricy but still worth it for at least NIN. None of the other sets have the combined Racc and TA that Kenda+1 has.

Buukki thank you for such a nice answer, appreciate it!

Ultimately I will be spending more gil on this job, I can already tell just by how much fun I have and the options it provides for dps and tanking when needed. Atm Trying to fill in where malignance is missing mostly, but also just trying hard to really learn and understand the gearing. Once I feel more comfortable I can branch it out even more. At least thats the plan. If Kenda+1 is still used regularly on nin ill have to invest it in the near future.

Heya noob ninja question, are the hattori zukin/hakama/ningi effects on JA activation or have to be kept equipped? was checking the wikis and neither is very clear for someone that doesn't know the job much so was thinking of updating the pages.

From my experience, Ningi and Kyahan only need to be on for the casting of the spell. Tekko the hands need to be on as casting happens with the buff active. Zukin and hakama are a bonus's only while worn.

I see, I'll get the wiki updated at some point these days then to clarify that so people don't have to ask again, thanks! Also I suppose I got 2 more questions actually, is it worth to full time these pieces for yonin/innin/futae buffed spell? And also, anyone has aan elemental ninjutsu set to reference that doesn't use herc augs especially dm augs? <.<

Neither Hattori Zukin nor the Hakama augment the job ability activation of Innin or Yonin in any way. The pieces simply add those stats to the gear when worn. So you have to wear the mask and legs full time with Innin and Yonin respectively to maintain those additional effects.

The Ninji must be worn at the time the damage is received to gain the boosted Migawari effects, so it can't be removed after casting. It's the same as the +2 version.

The feet for shadow+1 are cast only
Hands need to be worn during the casting of the nuke

I've recently done a lot of Ninjutsu testing. I used my results to update my Python code to calculate "best in slot" nuking sets. See below for the sets that my code finds as "best in slot" for an ML20 NIN against an enemy with 293 INT. Please let me know if you see any obvious mistakes in these sets. I've only just added nuking to my code earlier today and there have already been many cases where I forgot to add something such as Kunimitsu's MB+10 or nukes ignoring Orpheus's Sash.


Note that I'm assuming you have 5/5 Magic Attack Bonus merits in Group2 for the +25% Ninjutsu Damage augment on the Relic+3 feet. If you do not, then Nyame Sollerets will be best, with the exception of Free-nuking Ichi spells. Ichi spells have a very low dINT cap, so Mpaca Boots R25 will beat Nyame when free-nuking due to their higher Magic Attack Bonus. This is also why we see Shiva Ring +1 or Dingir Ring instead of Metamorph Ring +1 R15 in the Ichi sets. This also applies when you happen to be capped dINT on Ni and San spells, but their dINT caps are far too high to worry about that.

Keep in mind you may want to adjust these sets for more magic accuracy. Gyve shows up in each of the free nuke sets, but it has 0 magic accuracy. I recommend using Nyame instead; a resisted nuke isn't worth a whole lot. Looking through the Ninja threads, it seems SimonSes had predicted these sets for the most part a few months ago: https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/56465/nin-magic-burst-sets/#3608881.


I'll present the results of my Ninjutsu testing sometime this week, hopefully later today.


Edit: I want to emphasize that my code only tested Nyame Path B. Path C would be significantly better, but this shows that the BIS nuking sets for Ninja use Nyame that technically does not need any augments.

Recommended stats on cape, for nuke/mb?

Sorry, I forgot to mention that.

I only tested one nuking-based cape:


I didn't test choosing "Magic Damage +10" for the Abdhaljs Dye augment, but it's well worth considering.

The various dINT ranges for ninjutsu nukes behave like black magic: the contribution from INT to your base damage is scaled by a constant that is mostly 1.0 or less. Magic Damage, on the other hand, is additive to base damage (always scaled by 1.0, never less). This means that the only time INT+10 beats Magic Damage+10 is when your INT scaling factor is >1.0, which only applies for San spells with 2 <= dINT <= 353. For all other situations, Magic Damage+10 will be as good or better than INT+10.

Abdhaljs Dye TLDR: Use Magic Damage+10 for Ichi/Ni spells and and use INT+10 for San spells. If you don't want to make yet another Ninja cape, then pick the augment that goes with the nuke tier you use most frequently.

Thank you for that update.

That being said I was adjusting my merits last night for 5/5 ninjitsu mab boots. How are people spending their group 1 and 2 merits?

Is there a few San spells that deserve points over others?
I put 1 in everything, as I am still in the growing stage of the job.

In general you want one light-based (Katon/Raiton/Huton) and one dark-based (Suiton/Doton/Hyoton) nuke merited to 5/5. They will be your go-to magic bursting nukes for light/dark skillchains. But if you plan to nuke a specific fight, you can always rearrange your merits to pick the element the enemy is weakest to.

I chose Raiton since Donar Gun exists, which leads to super nukes if you're willing to lose TP by switching to it. I haven't actually used Donar Gun in a long time, though. I chose Doton as my second 5/5 only because it was adjacent to Raiton on the elemental wheel. It wouldn't hurt to have 5/5 Doton for Ongo I suppose, but I haven't tried it.


People have argued over group2 merits for a long time now. I personally use 1/5 Sange, 4/5 Yonin, 5/5 Magic Attack. 5/5 Yonin provides a permanent +250 HP while Yonin is active, while Innin provides excellent damage boosts only when behind the enemy.

depends really, for t1 you can put 5 into sb to save you a potential slot but 5 sb isnt really going to change too much given nin is on plenty of sb gear like kende that will likely cap you out, so past that its just picking 1 or more of the nin nukes you're likely to use, typically thunder and ice are safe options.

T2 you can skip sange, or put at least 1 into it, with gifts and the jse+1/2 neck augmented your daken rate already hovers around 75% and adding an additional 25% at the cost of burning through around a stack of shurikens isn't usually ideal.

NTE is also kind of pointless, best use of those merits is turning the relic gloves into your best macc piece but again, kind of pointless.

Yonin's a free 50~250 HP increase, and innins a free 1~5% sc/mb, the latter being what will last since mpaca head and nyame add a lot of scd along with nins traits.

EDIT: forgot the last 2, ninjutsu macc is same deal as NTE, whatever you're nuking/enfeebling your macc is either fine or you need buffs, as for mab, I can't remember if it was regular mab or like the relic provides but the relic boost alone sells it afaik since its a straight +5-25% ninjustu dmg(obligatory swap the relic head/feet augments)

To be honest, pretty much all of Ninja's merits are trash tier. None make any meaningful difference, and I think you have the flexibility to just do whatever you want with it because they're not very significant. Nariont's commentary is spot on

Personally, I just chose Yonin 5/5 for the free +250 HP and 5/5 Innin and called it a day. I nuke so infrequently on ninja nowadays (since hybrid WS are so broken when they are usable), I hardly felt the macc/mab merits towards ninjutsu were worth it. I used to nuke so much, but times have changed inn the past couple of years, now it's basically chi/savage blade/ten. Sange is also terrible. Kind of wish they redid all of Ninja's merits because they're definitely among the bottom worst of all jobs in the game and add practically no versatility.

(1) Great comment, and that's precisely why I tend to use Nyame body for free nukes.

(2) Worth noting that Izanami's great summary of these sets is focused purely on magic damage. Gokotai/Tauret as your weapon selection is obviously less than ideal if you're also meleeing and have access to an RMEA weapon. In that case, I think the best advice is RMEA mainhand and Kunimitsu offhand. Even when Gokotai offhand is a bit higher damage for free nukes (i.e., San spells where the INT matters more), Kunimitsu brings more to the table in the STP+5, WSD+5%, SC Bonus +5, and MB damage +10.

I really only use Gokotai/Tauret for situations where I'm 100% nuking. For example, standing back to add MB damage while others make a SC on Dyna Divergence wave 1 statue boss.

Oh, and Naegling is equal to Gokotai and Tauret for nuke purposes. Can mix and match any 2 of those 3 Ambuscade weapon options for same results from a nuke damage perspective.

(3) Lugra Earring +1 r15 (INT+16) is a little better than Crematio for :San spells during dusk-dawn (17:00-7:00), and often overlooked. That being said, Crematio wins during the other 10 hours, and for :Ni spells at any time, so it's not unreasonable to just go with Friomisi/Crematio fulltime if you don't want to manage different sets based on time of day.

(4) Orpheus's Sash is obviously an expensive piece, so totally understandable if a NIN might not want to invest that kind of gil if you don't have other jobs that make strong use of it. That being the case, I think providing a next best alternative is in order. If no Orpheus, I think next best options are Skrymir Cord +1 (also quite pricey, but less than Orpheus) > NQ Skrymir > Eschan Stone.

(5) In some situations, it's worth fulltiming Donar Gun. Obviously the case if you're sitting on the backline and only nuking Thunder.

But for other situations like self SC and MB on Apex mobs (say, soloing with trusts), it's arguably ideal to swap and just accept the small TP loss from doing WS > WS > swap to Donar (losing whatever TP you got from WS and maybe 1 extra attack round) > MB x2 > swap back to shuriken. Remember that you lose TP switching from shuriken TO the gun, but you retain all TP when switching back from gun to shuriken - so you should only be out the TP return from your final WS in the SC. It's also not crazy to just keep Donar equipped fulltime for that kind of situation if you don't want the hassle of swapping. Results in a loss in TP gain from Shuriken/Daken, but stronger MBs.

This is ultimately going to depend on (a) how strong your nukes are (combination of gear + buffs), and (b) whether you are able to consistently do 2x Raiton MBs (San+Ni) in a skillchain window. If you have a strong nuke set and consistent MBs, I'd lean toward Donar.


(6) There are a lot of reasonable approaches to group 2. 5/5 Magic Attack is probably the closest thing we have to a consensus, as long as you actually utilize nukes when you play NIN. But even that is highly dependent on play style - if you're using your NIN mainly in a party setting where you aren't really nuking often, it doesn't do you much good and I could see some allocation between Innin, Yonin, and Sange.

Personally, I'm currently running 5/5 Magic Attack and 5/5 Magic Accuracy (Macc+40 total, with the 25 from merits and 15 from augment on relic feet you're using anyway for their nuke damage), because lately when I use NIN I do tend to nuke pretty regularly and the macc does help a bit. But I can see the value in Yonin for tanking (more for the additional enmity generation from higher HP than the raw HP itself), or Innin if DDing in a party with a tank that allows me to stay behind the mob.

Does anyone have a tp set for the ambuscade great katana?
Was thinking tatenashi might be decent option.
Not looking to break records with it, this is just for fun

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Hachimonji
Given with the way it works I am thinking of trying out the highest possible store tp and a more practical approach to tp.

I used it a few times in Ondyssey for funs. I've since deleted the set to make room for others (this was pre-additional wardrobes). Set was:

gkt/bloodrain/seki
ryuo somen +1/Ninja Nodowa+2/Telos/Dedition (can use Crepuscular for racc)
Tatenashi+1/Adhemr+1/any-combination-of: Chirich+1, Petrov, Gere
Andartia STP/Kentarch's+1/Tatenashi +1/Ryuo Sune-Ate+1 or Tatenashi +1

Subbed SAM for Hasso. Only used it for Hybrid WS when monsters had a water/earth/ice resistance. It's obviously a lot slower, but it's fun on occasion. Didn't run anything through SS, wasn't optimized, just used stuff I had lying around and tried it out a handful of times

Keep in mind just from accessories, traits and spells you are at 86 store tp while /sam. This mean you will easily break +100 sTP where every +1 sTP is +1%TA with that GKT. That means straight up store TP pieces with value higher than sTP+TA% on Tatenashi are straight up better and most of those storeTP only pieces are also usually better defensively and/or has racc, so logically there is no reason to ever use Tatenashi, beside maybe body and feet.

Now this set puts you at 134 sTP
ItemSet 385188

If you also have Samurai roll available, then you can break +200 sTP, which means every +TA% from Tatenashi is wasted (because GKT will give you +100%TA anyway) and in practice you want even more straight up store TP to reach that +200 even with lower Samurai roll and that most likely means Malignance body and feet, which puts you at 138 sTP. I dont even need to tell how good that switch is for your defensive too :)

So overall imo only Tatenashi body and feet are good option without Samurai roll (thats assuming you are in high rank Unity) and no Tatenashi is good with Samurai roll.

That set is not capped haste FYI