The Sealed Dagger: A Ninja Guide

For those of us who can't casually drop half of a relic on Tenryu +1, is this the best TP setup for NIN for Dynamis/Meebles (non-boss)?



Also, there's pretty much no setup in which Usukane +1 beats Iga +2 for head slot, right? I messed around in Motenten's spreadsheet, and Usukane +1 never came close.

Haste + Marches.

^^^

Dual Wield Gear almost always wins on Ninja in any case where you're not running against delay reduction cap. Iga Zukin is especially potent because it gives a lot of haste and dual wield on the same piece so it's pretty much irreplaceable for low-buffs TPing.

Also yeah, that's pretty much the best set you can get. The best stuff for NIN TPing is relatively cheap aside from the Tenryu Tekko +1.


The double march TP I posted does overshoot the haste, but I can't think of anything atm that would suitably let you drop the correct amount of haste in compensation for some better stats.

If you swap out Usk. Sune-Ate +1 and the Tenryu Tekko +1, you'll end up with 20% haste in gear (Lose 4% from Tekko, 3% from Boots). Even if the haste wasn't an issue though, the STP+9 does help a lot, yeah (Drops two hits to 100%), and extra acc/atk is always nice for high level stuff.

Tangentially related, as far as Usukane+1 VS Tenryu+1 for the extra 1% DA, it's basically the same deal as with MNK, where the Usukane +1 will win if you cap attack, but that is almost never going to happen. Worth noting if you ever get a ton of attack buffs though, I suppose.

Yea. . .
redid the math and that would indeed be 20% haste.

Great read, wish I bumped into this sooner. Question about metsu if you're using the gorget why wouldn't the appropriate belt be better than cuchu's?

I had a jin set question. Why is Wanion listed as best, but pipilaka not mentioned as a substitute? It's 2 dex 2 str less which isn't that bad, considering how rare I see shouts for Radiance only runs (see: never :( ).

I hope uguisu will be somewhere a meeble reward and not only from the bonanza :/

nvm just saw it drops from new 1st boss inmeeble and was just not added to the item page ^^;

so relic+2 legs aren't better than usu+1? :( but emp+2 head is still better than usu+1? (no marches)

IIRC the Koga Hakama can inch out the Usukane +1 on weak enemies (since the attack+20 won't be doing much and probably not the DEX either), but you're probably not too concerned about maximizing your damage on those kinds of things. If you have lots of jobs there's definitely a lot of stuff to get from Salvage 2 though, many of which will probably be bigger upgrades than Usukane +1 pants would be.

Emp+2 head will pretty much forever be better than any option as long as you're getting something out of that dual wield (unless they decide to add another haste+DW headpiece). This is without factoring in the DA+ on Innin it gives. There hasn't been any significant testing on the Zukin's Innin DA so I'm actually not sure if that puts it over Usukane+1 even with marches (It would need to be like 10% though). I should go test that, I suppose.

I was just thinking about that Kincard. And musing that no one has attempted to test the DA Bonus. I suppose there's only a few of us die-hard NIN's willing to even entertain the idea.

I'm working towards this set:


Currently using Relic+2 legs and Empyrean+2 feet.

But now I got Usukane Feet +1, I was wondering if I should switch the empy feet for it or stick to it til I get 2 pieces of salvage+1? Opinions, anyone?

Kind of a late response, but Usukane +1 Feet alone generally do a slight bit better than Iga Kyahan +2. Depends on buffs/target and whatnot. Generally I'd go with Usukane +1.

On montenten's spreadsheet, I'm unable to get the .25 tp bonus from moonshade. Is there a way to build that into the results?

there should be a moonshade TPbonus+attack already, if not:
on the gear-list tab or w/e its called you can enter gear that isnt in the list yet.. and there is also a row for TPbonus just scroll to earrings and replace a earring you dont need with moonshade TPbonus nad att

edit: btw enter 25 for the TP bonus, not 0.25

For sure. Thanks. I didn't see it on the list in the back, nor on the input list. I couldn't manually enter the 25 either :(

EDIT: I was using a mac and forgot to unlock the gear tab.

Hi i am just wondering if Tessera Saio would be good in any of these item sets (not necessarily the BEST item but as an alternative).

Would it beat a kirin osode for ninjutsu nukes or Aeolian Edge? or for any WS or tp set? IF you didnt want to use a ninja chainmail for tp, i would figure Tessera would be possibly better than a iga+2 due to its haste+3% maybe?

Outside Abyssea, Tessera Saio actually works pretty well for Blade: Hi (probably not too bad for Jin, best for Exenterator if you ever need to use that). How it does VS Loki's and Athos' depends on what your crit rate is. Naturally, the more crit rate you have, the better Loki's and Athos' get.

As for how it stacks versus Osode for Ninjutsu Nukes and Aeolian...feeling a bit too lazy to calculate that atm. =P Probably depends on how much INT/MAB you already have in your set, but I doubt they're that much different.

For a ninja without access to Thaumas, basically you're either using Ninja Chainmail or Iga Ningi +2, the former on softer enemies and the latter on hardy enemies/you're hitting the -delay cap. The only place where Tessera Saio would conceivably beat Ningi is if you are benefiting from 3% haste but 5% dual wield would put you over, which is a narrow enough window to not really care. Sometimes Porthos Byrnie wins out because it has 5% haste and triple attack on it, but not often enough for you to bother carrying it around just for that one purpose.

Bit of a noobish question, but could kudzu aketon be considered as a blade hi option? (obviously not optimal but is it still feasible?)

not at all

Barring Loki's/Athos'/Tessera/Khepri, sure.

Thought as much lol

Since alot of SoA mobs have good evasion would it be wise for a non-Kannagi nin to use STR/DEX magian katanas?

I have been replacing my Koga Tekko +2 with Thurandaut Gloves and Atheling Mantle with Letalis Mantle, the former of which is pretty easy to get. If you were using STR/STR before, swapping to STR/DEX is certainly an option if you're still having accuracy problems, yeah.

any info you could add to the main page about ninja in Neo events?

Mainly asking about neo salvage.

I'm getting Tessera>Athos>Iga+2 outside Abyssea (although Athos is probably better on Athos gloves days), whereas the guide indicates that Athos is superior. Am I screwing something up, or was Tessera just considered to be between the NNI and Hexed -1 sets, and thus got left out?

EDIT: Nevermind, I think I see what's going on. My set just had less STR and attack (still using Kamome for now) so it made Tessera's worth a little more.

Basically Tessera wins if you have really bad dDEX or crit rate, though in the cases where that'd apply you'd probably get better numbers out of Iga Ningi +2.


I'll do this the next time I get some extra time, but for now I can't think of much NIN is specifically useful for in Neo Salvage, though it's nice that you can blink most of the Dvergr's spells.

so i'm docs stupid and cannot for the life of me figure out how to use that dps calculator. i have no spreadsheet program of my own to open it with. any help?

It's shared on docs, but you can't edit it yourself. If you have no spreadsheet of your own, here's one way to edit it in docs:

1. Click on the link. On the upper left there's a little down arrow to download the file. Download it!

2. Click on "drive" in your gmail, or go to docs.google.com / drive.google.com.

3. On the left beside "Create" is an upload button. Upload the file you downloaded.

4. Click the check box next to that file in your google drive, and then click the "more" button.

5. Choose "Open With" > "Google Sheets".

6. Google sheets will convert the file to the native google docs format and you can edit it.

7. Celebrate.

Edit: Alas, google drive doesn't appear to support the myriad of delightful dropdown boxes Mo has used. It will still work but you have to punch in a lot of things manually.

was that supposed to d/l one page or all like 35 of them? i followed that process to open it but it only resulted in one page and i'm pretty clueless as what to actually punch in myself. i may be sol w/o a program that will actually make the calculations