The Sealed Dagger: A Ninja Guide

My pet peve with evisceration is that you sacrifice a lot of defensive gear/DT/Meva during the weapon skill to optimize damage.

Whereas you can Savage Blade/Blade Ten in full Nyame and never get caught with your pants down mid swap.

Basically the reason I made a R15 Mandau for RDM.

On the plus side you have Migwari to fall back on NIN.

While not quite as strong defensively as Nyame, the main choices for Evisceration aren't THAT bad. Mpaca has a ton of PDT-, good DEF, and great MDB (though mediocre Meva), and Kendatsuba has good Meva. Plus you have shadows and Migawari.

So, not Nyame... but it's also not as if we're talking about stuff with absolute garbage defensive stats like an Adhemar or worse.

Wow, great commentary.

I'd just like to underline how Snapshot capes are so awesome paired with snapshot/rapidshot gear. This affects shurikens? Any OG players know that if you are lining up a pull and it takes 2 sec to fire, that's time for the other mob to enter agro range. With the gear, you hit your macro/keybind and the mob turns red.

Also! Jobs have options to deal ranged damage and it can be a significant other dimension to a job. I have snapshot/rapidshots for my thief and sam and it's been a huge quality of life improvement over the past like 5 years. I have Arebati ready ranged sets (tp bonus/Ullr etc) for my thief and I even trained up to make Beryllium Arrows through crafting across 3 chars (all one account). The synergy part is a *** though.

If you mean using RA with shurikens, yes it works

Another returning player! I'm mostly a solo player with minimal group help as I'm on a very small server and only know a few people. I'm wondering if Kikoku is still decent enough to warrant making? Also, if anyone could point me in the direction to find the most up to date on gear sets that would be awesome! Or, share your current sets would be great too. I have access to sortie and have Ninja unlocked to +3, but getting muffins is rare for me.

I still use my Kikoku because it's the simplest way to make a 2-step darkness. It's not ultra powerful, but on things that take decent SC damage and I'm just messing around with trust buffs, it's decent.

is it worth it to make? That's a really hard question to answer. I already have one, and I still use it in some instances, but if I had to make one from scratch right now, would I bother? Honestly, I'd probably just get a Heishi Shorinken and call it a day, since that'd be faster and cheaper than upgrading the relic with trials, then 119 III with plutons, then R15 with Swarts. Only you can decide if the money/time/effort is worth it to you since only you will know what you will use it for and how much. I made mine because I loved Ninja, not for the damage, so it didn't matter to me. But you might think it's a waste of time, so you should personally decide that on your own. Nonetheless, it's a good (but not great or fantastic) weapon. Also, it's inferior to a much easier to get weapon in Naegling, and Gokotai might be somewhat close to Kikoku. So there's options next to Kikoku that produce similar results. That might all weigh into your decisions


As far as gear sets, I'm sure one of Logicals pages keeps them up to date. But the wiki has many of the sets still looking somewhat current (I haven't peer reviewed it but it looks close to mine).

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/All_Jobs_Gear_Sets/Ninja

Thanks for the reply! I'd much rather get Heishi, but unfortunately getting an Aeonic done is near impossible for me. The few people I know are "holding until fall or later" to do Aeonics for their group. I'd be happy to buy the clear, but I haven't heard of any mercs on Sylph to take up. That's mainly why I'm considering making Kikoku because it's something I can do on my own.

I'll definitely check out Logical's page to see what info I can pull from there. I just upgraded all Empy gear to 109 yesterday so still gotta get it to 119 and then figure what I can afford with the little muffins I have for an upgrade as I have 51k and a few stones to use.

It sounds like you're in a unique situation where Kikoku may benefit you, but there are other things to consider. Kikoku is relatively inexpensive to make the weapon, but to make it strong, you need upgrades, which require certain event progress. If you're not able to get an aeonic clear done, it is unlikely you will get the Dynamis-D clear done to be able to R15 the Kikoku. I think that would be out of reach for you. In that case, my example of Kikoku's power and usefulness won't get anywhere near its full potential, so going down that path right now without clears/resources might be a waste of time. I would suggest grabbing a Gokotai (Pulse ambu weapon) and work your way from there.

Before I left back in 2022 I was able to get with a Dynamis group and get all zones cleared. I also do have one Aeonic, but the journey to get to the finish line was anything but fun. If I was going to R15 I'd have to choose between Twashtar, Trishula, Apoc, Guttler (I love Bst!), and a fresh Masamune (Sam has less than 200 JP).

I took a look at the Ambu katana, and I didn't realize its base damage was higher than Kikoku. I suppose I could do that one and offhand Kunimitsu. I'd need to farm a pulse as I've already used what koupons I could.

In the end I'm weighing the option of the relic more so because I'm not really sure how much time I'd save getting the ambu katana. However, I need the pulse one way or the other because I do not have Shining One done.

Oh, well if you have the Relic zone clear, that would be a huge plus, since you'd be able to R15 it. Personally, I am not a fan of Gokotai and I never use it outside of just nuking situations or a rare event where I need to abuse the DW>>TP effect, so I would default to Kikoku anyways. I only backtracked and mentioned it when it sounded like you might have had trouble getting those clears for R15, figuring Gokotai was an easy option you can get in an hour or so farming a T3 ZiTah NM.

gokotai is worth getting for lockstyle

After getting several other stage 4 weapons I still have this irrational desire to make Dokoku. Anyone messing with it outside of sortie on various things? Any change in the “wow this is underwhelming” initial reactions? Chances are I would never ever bring ninja into sortie because I’m on dnc for life in there.

Does anyone have any data on that parrying rate+ value for Issekigan? I know its considered relatively substantial... but was wondering if there were actual numbers out there.

No hard numbers beyond the 1200 VE/300 CE per parry afaik, best ive seen is jp saying it "seems" like a 50% increase on enemies of a similar level, always just assumed it was similar to run/plds parry/shield boost and just raised your rate 30~50%~ regardless of what your current base was, which matters more for pld where their rate can go below the floor though that's only with aegis these days

I have been trying to do harder and harder challenges. I have seen on youtube a few solo dharkot fights. I tried it on NIN a couple of times with less success than I hoped.

My trusts were good but i just simply couldn't get enough acc to consistently hit to be able to spam ws and eventually we just ran out of dmg and died. Anyone have a "this is crazy" level of ACC build that would be useful in this fight? I'm currently using the sets from the python build but that aims for ~1350 on the "high acc" set from what I read I need closer to 1550-1600 for this fool.

Isn't empy+3 all the accuracy you'll need? That should be the highest you can get in those slots. Kuyin trust and Cornelia add some too, then there's sushi. Even with Malignance you shouldn't have a problem hitting.

I think dhartok is closer to 1600 ACC, maybe even 1650, not sure. When I tried him melee on BLU TP gain wasn't exactly fantastic either, but you have to mind you're sacrificing STP and multi attack for those levels of ACC.
Did you remember to pull him out of his miasma? They cause drown (-STR) and I think he gains a regen while standing in those which can hamper DDing quite a bit.

The true beauty of Kikoku is not it's dmg, because Heishi, Kannagi, and even Gokotai stomp it, the beauty of Kikoku, is it's low delay, aftermath of Atk+10% (The SB+10 is.. eh) again Atk+10% and that it is the closest we will ever get to having Jubaku: Ni and San. I have R15 Heishi, and there are still some fights I default to Kikoku

Ehr...

I'm not even convinced Gokotai "stomps" Kikoku. I get it's not great but it's consistent and self SCs an easy darkness that can be burst with tier 3. I just used my Kikoku a few minutes ago. Still a decent weapon.

Yeah that's an insane statement unless someone is only talking about R0/unaugmented REMAs.

Kikoku is a solid weapon, and Blade: Metsu (which you'd generally want to be using with it) is a pretty good 1000tp WS with great SC properties (Darkness/Fragmentation). Notably one of only two katana Fragmentation WS, along with Kamu. Big caveat that if you don't R15 it (or at least R10+), don't bother using it - the Metsu dmg augment is required to keep up in DPS.

Hi, this might be a bit of a weird question, but I'm a mostly solo player that's very very interested in NIN for the aesthetics.

Coming from MNK (low/medium investment with Karambit) and RDM (medium melee w/ Crocea/Naegling melee builds), I can see using a few simulators NIN does about half the damage of those jobs with decent gear, though those simulators don't note skillchains which I hear NIN is very good with. I'm not too fussed about having lower DPS than other jobs but also not wanted fights to go excruciatingly long.

Anyway, getting to the point: how hard would it be to invest in NIN gear for it to perform decently well for things like Ambu V1E where it won't feel like it's too far apart from other jobs? Whether it tanks or just acts as a normal Innin DD? At the moment I have malignance for TP, kenda +1, no ambu katana yet (which I hear isn't good but if it's not exceptional Kikoku may be the next easiest to go for), have no cape but this is a good month to work on some. Big fan of shun but doesn't seem like it's very strong unless it's for SCing mostly.

I have Naegling and kaja knife, (which I hear is sadly probably my best option at the moment, but I'm a big fan of katanas).

Just looking for some tips and guidance on shun focused builds and gear progression, etc.

Gear wise nin and mnk share a fair bit of overlap, kende/mpaca/malig and such so what non-jse you have for mnk will likely carry over to nin well enough. Weapon wise ambu katana is fine enough, if you can get aeonic you're basically set for dps katanas though relic also works.

katana ws dmg goes largely hybrids(chi/teki/to) > Ten > the rest. Dmg scaling WS isnt something they do a lot and more consistent middling dmg with sc flexibility to burst, if you got nyame r15+ then you can get hybrids working pretty well as that set has about everything the WS' need to shine once the WSD augment builds up and moreso when DA gets added in.

imo it just comes down to how much you either benefit dmg mitigation through shadows/migawari or from magic dmg via bursting, if neither of those are very helpful to your encounter then just being mnk would probably be better, nins best strength when it can apply is that it can take little to no damage with its only investment being it has to keep shadows and/or miga up

Hard pressed to believe a rdm is dealing more dps then a nin.

just by virtue of savage blade and more TP generation through T2 it probably does if the nin can't pump out good hybrid numbers imo

This is very low-mid buff from sounds of it and nins just as atk starved as rdm is

Though i forgot nin gets /drg and /war for free while rdm is stuck on /dnc or nin so nvm probably right there in that rdm will fall behind

I'd be curious to see what parameters were put in to have NIN dealing half damage than RDM. What are we talking about, Trust buffs? Are you comparing a Naegling/Crocea RDM to an entry level non-rema katana or non-Naegling build? Because there's no way that RDM deals that much more damage than NIN. Its weaker DPS-wise than NIN in virtually every scenario I can think of, unless it's super controlled or niche.

Triple Attack Rate/STP between the two is practically similar if the NIN is using the standard DPS pieces (Su3, Malignance, Adhemar +1, Samnuha Tights, Gere/Epona's etc), plus Kakka: Ichi. At the very least, RDM TPs at the same speed as NIN, likely slower.

NIN get the same/better WS gear and has access to more PDL pieces than RDM does (which won't matter in a low buff scenario, but still a case RDM won't win).

It also benefits from a free Follow-Up Attack with Daken, and can use the same TP Bonus Offhand setup for Savage that RDM does. NIN can use Naegling too, so where is the damage superiority coming from? If we're talking about a scenario where we are using magical damage from the RDM, you'd assume that Hybrids also work, and Hybrids absolutely obliterate any magical WS RDM can use, so that's a loss in the magical department. Unless we're talking about some specifically niche scenario like RDM buffs vs buffless NIN (which in practically exists nowhere), I do not see how RDM is outperforming NIN.

And I haven't even gotten into SC damage or Magic Bursting, which puts NIN ever further ahead in the lead. What spreadsheet is this?

I kinda agree with Buukki.
The only situation where I could see RDM "winning" over NIN is maybe in Sheol C, and I wouldn't be so sure about that either to be honest because NIN Hybrids tend to work really really nice in there (but of course it depends on which groups of mobs get chosen to pop).

RDM could MAYBE be better than NIN in the sense of higher Party DPS, compared to overall Party DPS with NIN.
RDM, to my big surprise, can be quite nice in there thanks to Naegling + Maxentius + Mpu Gandring.


I can tell *MY* RDM generated a better Party performance than *MY* NIN in two consecutive Sheol C runs with the same people.
But the NIN run was super unlucky (with the Hybrids, I mean) and my RDM is ML50 whereas my NIN is ML30, so overall I wouldn't say it's a fair comparison.

I mean, of course. NIN can't compare with all party members getting 13min haste 2, freeing up space for an extra song (Etude/Aria/Minuet) if everyone is just mashing DPS anyways. one job buffs everyone more than the one job's overall dps benefits the group's clear speed. If 3 jobs now are 2% stronger each due to having RDM in versus a NIN, thats going to be better than the one NIN that deals 5% more damage than RDM. But that's not a RDM vs NIN dps comparison really, that's more like a party-contribution comparison, where NIN just loses because it's a specialty DD with no party support abilities. That's like comparing the party improvement of having a Warrior who has access to Tomahawk and Warcry over a DRK who just deals damage.

I think the biggest question is whether you have Nyame armor (B path) with augments of at least r15. If so, NIN performs well, because Nyame's combination of WSD and MAB is what really unlocks the potential of hybrid WS (Chi/To/Teki) as your best damage options on anything that isn't resistant to magic. Without Nyame, your results will be much more disappointing.

Nyame is also fairly important for physical WS on NIN, as strong WSD is needed to make the most of Naegling/Savage Blade, or most of the typical katana options: Ten, Metsu (for Kikoku users), or Hi (for SCs or Kannagi users). That's not quite as big of a loss if you don't have Nyame, as long as you can make it up with other WSD options - particularly Empy feet, Relic legs, and AF head (which unfortunately lacks a lot of Acc/Atk, so does get bypassed sooner).

Blade: Shun is not reliant on WSD (and Kendatsuba or Mpaca gear works nicely for it), but its damage potential is lower than the other options. And without the Aeonic's boost to that WS, it's even more middling on other mainhand weapons. Quite honestly, if your best katana option is Ambu/Gokotai or worse, you're likely better off focusing on Naegling on your NIN.

People here seem to be dismissing RDM to an unreasonable extent, IMO. Consider that this person has the best RDM DPS weapons in the game in Crocea Mors (truly a job-changing weapon, that enspell damage is insane and Sanguine/Seraph Blade are no joke) and Naegling, and is comparing to a NIN pre-ambu weapon. It's not at all surprising to me that if comparing those two, the RDM will destroy the NIN.

Saying NIN can magic burst also seems a little suspect, since, uh, so can RDM (and with better nuke gear). It's true that NIN has some more easily spammable solo SCs (say, Metsu->Metsu or Hi->Hi Darkness, or even Shun->Hi/Ku/Ten for Gravitation), but RDM has some solid options too (CdC->CdC Light, or Savage->CdC Distortion)

With top of the line gear on both? NIN should win comfortably on a pure DPS comparison, but that wasn't the OP's situation and doesn't look like it would be any time soon.

And really, for a mostly solo player, I think RDM's additional tools like sleeps, lots of enfeebles, and cures bring SO much more to the table than NIN for a lot of practical use cases.