What's your experience with Ninja Nuking?

[Zhronne]

I'd like to hear opinions and impressions from people who messed around a bit with Ninja Nuking, given the new possibilities offered to us by Abyssea.
I did for a while, and these are my impressions:


Atmas

• Atma of the Minikin Monstrosity
• Atma of the Ultimate
• Atma of Beyond

This is the combinations I used. Atma of the Hell's Guardian would probably work better in place of MM.

Gear
Not the best around, but decent enough.
Main Hand: Int/MAB Sekka+2
Off Hand: Yagentoshiro
Ammo: Snow Sachet
Head: Koga Hatsuburi
Neck: Ninjutsu Torque
Ear1: Hecate's Earring
Ear2: Moldavite's Earring
Body: Kirin's Osode
Hands: Iga Tekko +2
Ring1: Spiral Ring
Ring2: Omega Ring
Back: augmented random mantle with int+5
Belt: Koga Sarashi

One comment on Yagentoshiro offhand instead that a second Sekka+2. My opinion is that there's a sort of "threshold". When you're below this threshold adding more int/mab provides more damage. When you're above this threshold, the 10% damage increse should provide more damage than Sekka+2.


Merits
Hyoton Effect - 5/5
Hyoton: San - 5/5
Ninjutsu - 8/8


Final Comments
Overall Ninja Nuking in abyssea is much more effective than most people think it is. I don't think the majority of people realize how efficient can be with such powerful nukes going off every 1,5 seconds.
It is especially effective on small NMs or normal mobs. For example all of those XP pts struggling to find one or two BLMs or SCHs to get Azure lights, could just deploy a NIN do the job, supposing he has the right gear/atmas.
When talking about high tier NMs and various stuff there are several NMs that tend to resist ninjutsu damage, and some other mob types (avatars for example) where Ninjutsu damage just does shit no matter the elements you use.
Still, it's very hard to pull out the full potential of this build for two main reasons imho:

• Innin would provide a big boost to ninjutsu damage, but in Abyssea it's almost impossible to make use of it. Hate gets capped too easily and the mobs either get kited or just constantly move around cycling through targets. Also, there's the decay over time thing, altough this probably isn't much of an issue anymore since when they reduced the Innin timer recently.
• Some mobs just seem to be particularly resistant against Ninjutsu... it's not just a matter of how "high tier" they are, even some low tier mobs seem to be resistant to Ninjutsu damage. I don't really know why and I lack the necessary magic mechanics knowledge to understand it. Doubt it's a matter of magic accuracy. Overall these mobs remain a large minority of the overall possible abyssea targets

tl;dr
When someone says something about "Ninja" and "elemental nuking" in the same line it's hard not to laugh in reply.
But the truth is that, while not gamebreaking, Ninja Nuking is definitely way more effective than most people think it is. (and it would be even more if only we could use Innin 100% of the times!)

[esoR]

this is the set i use.
http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/185408

pretty close to yours. i've seen some 1200 hyoton ni's and 2k on san w/ futae. i personally really want a new nuking body for nin thats better than osode.. there arent many nin nukers out there, but those that are, are very powerful. (got lucky once, and :san beat a bliz 4 from my ls blm)

[Zhronne]

I got close to 3k with Hyoton: San on Ulhuadshi (or was it Sobek?) once, but it was probably luck or maybe I had some mab buffs that I don't remember right now. My averages are around what you said, by eyeballing.

So you've experienced those odd "resists" on mobs like I said? They represent a minority of possible foes, but still more than I'd like to, and like I said I doubt it's something related to accuracy, it must be something else, just like a natural resistance to ninjutsu or something.



Edit:
No I think it was definitely Ulhuadshi. Sobek is the one where I got those surprising 6,5k Blizzard V with PUP.

[Shiyo]

I azure just fine in full DD atmas and full dd gear, just get the mob low then finish it.

Ninja nukes aren't that powerful and are pretty lacking, but shouldn't be one of our main concerns imo.

[Zhronne]

but shouldn't be one of our main concerns imo.

Never said they should
Just wanted to read opinions from other people who messed around a bit with nuking. I found out for myself that with the right setup nukes are way more powerful than I'd expect, probably better than an average BLM/SCH (altough the very definition itself of "average" can vary a lot from player to player, I suppose :P ).
Spikes are obviously lower, but you nuke much faster and without having to worry for MP (well... not like MP is a huge concern for mages as well inside of Abyssea, tbh)

[ThaiChi]

I had to do this for Culeubre, made the fight a lot easier.

Try Yasha Jinpachi over relic head. A lot of times I've seen that put out better damage. It's pretty tough finding high value INT gear for NIN, but I didn't have as much so depending on how much you have, relic head might actually be better. Before they released Empyrean hands I was using Galka RSE for INT, lol.

Oftentimes carrying around a nuking set becomes an issue of inventory, especially when I essentially have a full sets for Evasion, WS, TP, Enmity, Spell Interrupt, Fast Cast, and Blade: Hi. Admittedly, I am guilty of not always carrying my pdt/mdt gear around because of that.

[wish12oz]

Just wanted to read opinions from other people who messed around a bit with nuking.

If you want to nuke, level BLM, SCH or RDM. They all do it better.

[Zhronne]

If you want to nuke, level BLM, SCH or RDM. They all do it better.

I'm a level 90 SCH as well ^^''

[esoR]

my damage on Ni wheels fall about the same range as t3 nukes cast very fast and back to back. i'm not quite sure what resists you are refering too, some mobs may just be naturally resistant to magic (or take extra damage)

as for yasha vs koga, its 7(?) int vs 5* Mab, depending on the mob, 7 int might win. (i have both) i mainly only nuke in situations where my accuracy and physical damage are below my damage output with magic. (or the enemy is untargetable/immune to phys)

i didnt want to bring it up, but i feel for the alternate option, ninja's should be more concerned with magic as their secondary/alternate form of damage, and not the throwing argument (pointless)

just for a clarification on my nin sets: TP , HI (in/out) , jin, eva, pdt, mdt, ninjutsu nuke, ninj m.acc, utsu (recast/cast time)
i think the main nin's would agree. carrying pdt/mdt .. mdt especially.. is most beneficial ( over say M.atk)

nin should be a specialist, willing to adapt to any situation. if M.atk is that situation, its better to be prepared for it.

edit:5 Mab instead of 10. thx nightfyre~

[SpankWustler]

I think elemental Ninjutsu has the same pitfall as elemental Blue Magic: you have to put the gear for it somewhere if you want it to not suck, and other sets are more appealing to carry around.

Unlike throwing, at least, elemental Ninjutsu can still be useful in niche situations. Popping Futae and using Hyoton: San on a Paladin-flavored Orc or Demon is more interesting than standing there and thinking about one's life choices for thirty seconds.