Hail.

[Kuroku]

I'm a returning player, tried the game about five years ago ((May as well be fresh, since I only got level 26 the first time around. (RL friend rarely wanted to play so the game got boring.)) After careful deliberation (JK, if ninja class available = definitely picking it lol.) I chose to level NIN/WAR after reading about it.

I'm aware that this role is that of a tank. (From what I read) I'm also aware that ninja's can be pricy, and I assume it will be tedious to level as my main job.

Anyone have some tips as to what I should be working on while leveling? (I plan on just taking it slow after/if I am able to do my NIN quest at 30, exploring and learning about the land.) I read somewhere that I need high fame with a certain village/clan or something to buy gear for my ninja? Is there a guide on how to obtain this fame?

[Mirage]

It's not really that pricy. You expend tools with each cast, but the money needed to get these tools isn't hard to earn. Additionally, ninja mains get ninja tools expertise, which occasionally lets you cast spells without expending tools.

Ninja is a tank, but it is also a pretty versatile job. Its survivability is great, so you can succeed in soloing a lot of things with the right subjob and gear. You have access to a decent selection of debuffs to weaken your targets, and you'll be able to easily azure things in abyssea without having to bring a real mage with you.
Azuring is something you do in abyssea to raise a certain temporary value that lets you obtain chests with certain beneficial effects. You'll see when you get there.

The damage output isn't all that bad either, at least not for a non-twohander. Your attack speed will be very high, and your damage over time will be very good on mid and low defence targets, but lag behind compared to two handed weapons on things that are high level with a sizable chunk of defence.

[Kuroku]

Well that sounds like fun. If I'm able to tank, while dealing a moderate amount of damage, that's awesome.

What are some ways to make a little bit of gil while leveling? Do quests yield anything of value? I understand that rushing to max level is obviously the way to make money, but I like to take my time leveling, learning the ins and outs of the combat system.

Another question, when I use a spell/ability, will that reset the timer on my auto attack? I've gone under the assumption that yes, it is resetting my attack delay, so I try to use special abilities as soon as my auto attack lands.

[Mirage]

While leveling, you'll generally target mobs that are a bit below your own level. Because of that, level correction formulas will keep your evasion rate up, so you won't need a lot of tools to help you. Skilling up your ninjutsu skill will take a while though, but this is definitely best to do when you're level 99, because then you have access to nin tool expertise, to save tools, and money won't be as much of an issue anymore. While you level, I'd say you should only bother with Utsusemi, and then only if you bump into decent challenges, or several of them at the same time. Or if you're low on health and don't have a way to heal yourself.

As for the fame requirements, you need a certain level of fame to quest certain ninja scrolls, which are used to teach you the spells which you later need to spend tools to cast. These scrolls can also be bought from other players, but because the game only lets you quest them once per character, they cost a lot. It will take a while, but you only need to do it once, and it is used for a lot of other quests too later in the game.

For an overview, try http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Reputation for the reputation levels in various areas, and http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Quick_Reputation for tips on methods to grind up reputation. Keep in mind that repeatable quests often just gives a little bit reputation per repetition, while non-repeatable quests often give a bit more, but you can't do them as mindlessly as repeatable ones. You might actually risk having to explore the world!

[Arcon]

Another question, when I use a spell/ability, will that reset the timer on my auto attack? I've gone under the assumption that yes, it is resetting my attack delay, so I try to use special abilities as soon as my auto attack lands.

It won't reset it, but it will add a two-second delay to it. That's why it's best to use more abilities at once if you can, to save time, because you can use another ability after one second. You won't be able to attack for another, but you can already use new abilities and spells in that time.

[Mirage]

Maybe it's just the lag fooling me, but in my experience, you can start casting a spell as soon as half a second after a JA.

In either case, I usually make use of this by performing my prestos and steps right before WSing, but that's for dancer, not ninja :p. Although /dnc is a useful sub for nin when you need to do things alone.

[Kuroku]

I will definitely be leveling DNC after WAR.

[Babekeke]

The fame that you'll need mainly, is for the town of Norg. It can be a bit of a pain to get there initially as you need to get 3 keys together to obtain an airship pass to travel to that continent. The 3 keys are in the beastmen areas near each of the 3 starting towns. See Kazham Airship Pass (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Kazham_Airship_Pass). You actually need this to unlock the ninja job anyway, so at least you'll know where you're going.

If you're interested, you may find it useful to level woodworking a little so that you can make your own tools for ninja. Shihei is lvl 29 woodworking and is slightly cheaper to craft than buy from the Auction House. Once you reach lvl 60 woodworking you will start to see 'HQ' synths more often (you craft 66 instead of 33) making them even cheaper again.

Oh, you'll obtain items called 'Beastmen's Seals' as you level up. Save them as you'll probably want to do the fight for the scroll of Utsusemi: Ni once you reach level 40. You need 40 for each fight, and the drop rate isn't brilliant I'm afraid.

[Kuroku]

The fame that you'll need mainly, is for the town of Norg. It can be a bit of a pain to get there initially as you need to get 3 keys together to obtain an airship pass to travel to that continent. The 3 keys are in the beastmen areas near each of the 3 starting towns. See Kazham Airship Pass (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Kazham_Airship_Pass). You actually need this to unlock the ninja job anyway, so at least you'll know where you're going.

If you're interested, you may find it useful to level woodworking a little so that you can make your own tools for ninja. Shihei is lvl 29 woodworking and is slightly cheaper to craft than buy from the Auction House. Once you reach lvl 60 woodworking you will start to see 'HQ' synths more often (you craft 66 instead of 33) making them even cheaper again.

Oh, you'll obtain items called 'Beastmen's Seals' as you level up. Save them as you'll probably want to do the fight for the scroll of Utsusemi: Ni once you reach level 40. You need 40 for each fight, and the drop rate isn't brilliant I'm afraid.

I've finished my ninja starter quest finally! What a fun adventure that was lol. I have some beastmen seals from leveling to 30 as WAR. What is a good way to go about gaining rep with Norg?

[Babekeke]

The info's all here (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Quick_Reputation#Norg_.2F_Tenshodo) in the thread that Mirage linked to earlier.

You may wish to do some Gobbie Bag (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/The_Gobbiebag_Part_I) quests before you set out to do them too. The more inv space you have the faster you can gain the fame.

And setup a Mog Satchel (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Mog_Satchel) and buy a Mog Sack (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Mog_Sack).

[Tsukino_Kaji]

(RL friend rarely wanted to play so the game got boring.)Have said individual burn your levels in abyssea. Utsusemi: Ni is going to cost you, but after you burned your lvls in aby, you have a bunch of cruor to NPC so you can just buy it. Get your self a lolnnagi, they're realy easy to obtain and greatly increases your dmg.


Edit:
Silly me for not reading the update first. They nerfed cruor NPCing because of RMTs finaly. lol

[Saefinn]

My advice would be if you see a beastmen seal keep it. The more the merrier. I'd say what's potentially the most expensive thing about playing a Ninja is the 2 Utsusemi spells, which are vital spells, your effectiveness as a tank is greatly reduced without them. On the AH they are ridiculously expensive. Utsusemi: Ichi is acquired via questing (which you need fame, but not a high level fame, but I can't remember off the top of my head) and Utsusemi: Ni is done through some BCNMs, but it is a rare drop. I tend to do the Royal Jelly BCNM, you just need 3 people and each orb you need to do the BCNM costs 40 beastmen seals and in BCNM groups the rule normally is, your orb your drops and you stick around for everybody else to use theirs.

If you get the spells that way, you've just saved yourself possibly 3million gil right there. When it comes to Ninja tools, you don't expend them that quickly and as somebody already said, it's better when you get Ninja Tool Expertise, I've got my mine merited for that reason. :) I wouldn't say it's the most expensive job out there, I've probably spent a lot more on my COR and my PUP.

[Mirage]

Utsu ni isn't that rare a drop, really. You have two chances per run, one at ~11% and another at ~18%, if we are to believe the wikis. However, the BCNM also drops Phalanx at around a 27% drop rate, which at my server sells for 1.5 millions. Selling that will net you some money for other ninjutsu scrolls, tools or whatever you want.

The BCNM is relatively easy, so don't worry. Basically, any two DD that doesn't use blunt weapons will do, and a rdm to debuff the mobs,specifically with gravity and bind. Last time I did it, the rdm didn't even have any gear on, as it was just leveled as a sub for the person helping me.

[Saefinn]

Aye, there's much rarer items out there, I got one on my second run (and stupidly, sold it, as I did later end up levelling NIN when my seals weren't in such abundance), but I have known some folks try multiple times and just get unlucky and eventually give in and buy it. I think it's good to collect as many beastmen seals as you can whilst levelling up just in case you're one of those unlucky folks. Also, never hurts to have lots of beastmen seals either, you can repeat these runs to loot stuff to sell on AH and make good money.

Usually when I do Royal Jelly my team is:
2 Dragoons and a Scholar (me). I manage to keep folks healed at a decent enough pace and sublimation is useful for that last burst and well timed stratagems help for making the most of your MP. Though RDM is the usual recommendation. I think from my LS 2 people duo'd it as DRG/DNC as well. As long as you can get the jellies killed quickly enough before they merge into a princess jelly, it's all good. As said, it is a relatively easy BCNM to do.

[Mirage]

Yeah. The reason for bind/gravity is to buy you time to kill them all before they reach the center. If you can kill them fast enough, that's not an issue anyway. I feel pretty confident that another DD with self heals instead of the rdm would work just as well. For example, a blu, dnc, or another drg. A whm could probably work as well, considering they have access to haste at that level.

The mobs are relatively low level too, so if the mages do not need to rest mp, they might as well just melee along with the rest for faster kill speed.

[Kuroku]

UPDATE: APPARENTLY NO GIVES A S ABOUT BIG FOOT SO F HIM

No but seriously, got to level 50NIN/25DNC or /25WAR, game is extremely fun and really addictive lol.

Did Royal Jelly tonight, 2x Utsusemi: Ni, 1x Phalanx, Marksman's Ring, 2x slime oil for loot. I'm no longer a squishy ninja!

Killed Ankabut with a THF from LS and he dropped Tsugumi. Barely had to wait 5 mins and he spawned, which was nice.

[Mirage]

Yeah. While there might be some problems in the game today, the part where you're easily able to catch up and get "good enough" to start working on the very best gear is definitely in order. That's a pretty good thing.

[Kuroku]

I honestly don't like to level fast haha, I've been taking my time and trying to learn what to do, since the game doesn't give much direction. I'm highly thankful for the players that have been helping me in the last week.

[Mirage]

Even if you aren't rushing, you definitely are catching up a lot faster than you could ever do before. The pace you are comfortable with seems to be a pace that is actually possible to progress at, while before, the game might have limited your progress to less than what you feel was a good pace, and that could have made you feel bored and want to stop :p.