Isn't it strange how Ninjas are tanks?

[DebbieGibson]

I hated plds leveling from 40-55 in the old way, mp sinks and practically 0 damage. I always preferred ninjas up til 55, at which point I would just take a bunch of war/nins with no designated tank, worked great.

When people refer to sam tanking pre-abyssea, they aren't talking about exp or merit parties, who the hell needs tanks in those? They are talking about Khimaira, cerberus, znm bosses etc.

[scaevola]

At the time if you even dared to ask a sam or war to tank they'd quit the party lol.

I quit one or two parties as WAR in the 30s-40s, after they asked me to tank and then got all hissy because I wouldn't use a shield or sub /NIN. Call me cheap but I still can't get around using a shihei to negate damage that, in total across three hits, amounts to less than the gil I spent on said shihei.

Fun WAR/MNK-tanking fact that is totally irrelevant in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Eleven: Boost's threat component is really noticeable at low levels!

When people refer to sam tanking pre-abyssea, they aren't talking about exp or merit parties, who the hell needs tanks in those? They are talking about Khimaira, cerberus, znm bosses etc.

Yeah; Seigan's quite powerful if somewhat unpredictable, and PDT/MDT sets really shined with it. I'd be really interested to see what somebody could do now with SAM/MNK at 90+, particularly if Counterstance counters are resolved differently than Seigan counters and thus wouldn't have a chance to bring down Third Eye.

[Caesaris]

You guys are all forgetting to mention the obvious. This game was created with an Eastern style of mind. So Agility, Stealth, Speed, etc, are all heavily defining factors. Eastern oriented jobs tend to be better than the western oriented counterparts to those jobs. Ninja vs Paladin... of course ninja's got better and paladin's didn't. Warriors vs Monks for best DD... you're surprised that MNK is now THE best DD/TNK? I knew it from the first day i selected my character that this game was going to have a heavy influence of eastern culture entwined in it. Big, Tough and Bulky aren't strengths in eastern society... but small, agile, evasive and stealthy are. So that is the tank of choice. A Big, Tanklike paladin may appeal to those of us in the west, but obviously the game creators from the east prefer evasive, stealthy tanks.

Warrior was supposed to be THE tank job in this game when it was first created. But SE didn't give Warrior the tools to tank Zilart and Promathia mobs... they just hit too hard and too often. Monk, Samurai, and Ninja are what they are because of the society that this game comes from.

It's not wrong, it's not right... it just is.

[Frost]

You guys are all forgetting to mention the obvious. This game was created with an Eastern style of mind. So Agility, Stealth, Speed, etc, are all heavily defining factors. Eastern oriented jobs tend to be better than the western oriented counterparts to those jobs. Ninja vs Paladin... of course ninja's got better and paladin's didn't. Warriors vs Monks for best DD... you're surprised that MNK is now THE best DD/TNK? I knew it from the first day i selected my character that this game was going to have a heavy influence of eastern culture entwined in it. Big, Tough and Bulky aren't strengths in eastern society... but small, agile, evasive and stealthy are. So that is the tank of choice. A Big, Tanklike paladin may appeal to those of us in the west, but obviously the game creators from the east prefer evasive, stealthy tanks.

Warrior was supposed to be THE tank job in this game when it was first created. But SE didn't give Warrior the tools to tank Zilart and Promathia mobs... they just hit too hard and too often. Monk, Samurai, and Ninja are what they are because of the society that this game comes from.

It's not wrong, it's not right... it just is.

So your reply is "SE is racist, therefore ninja tank."

That's quite a stretch there chief lol.

[scaevola]

Warrior was supposed to be THE tank job in this game when it was first created. But SE didn't give Warrior the tools to tank Zilart and Promathia mobs... they just hit too hard and too often. Monk, Samurai, and Ninja are what they are because of the society that this game comes from.

It's not wrong, it's not right... it just is.

Warriors were perfectly capable of tanking pretty much everything in the game at that point. Given what we now know about enmity, they would have probably been better at it than PLDs or NINs.

Healers were just crybabies.

[hiko]

At the time if you even dared to ask a sam or war to tank they'd quit the party lol.

because people where doing it wrong fighting IT monsters and asking A sam or war to be THE tank em.
lvl75 colibri burns didnt need a tank, and if people stopped sync so Eronf/wajoam colibris check IT they wouldnt need one either

[Lordscyon]

Whm tank ftw with a lot of mp it's possible

[noodles355]

because people where doing it wrong fighting IT monsters and asking A sam or war to be THE tank em.
lvl75 colibri burns didnt need a tank, and if people stopped sync so Eronf/wajoam colibris check IT they wouldnt need one either

Seriously this so much. Lesser Colibri at like 57ish was great exp, you could chain upwards of 10 easy and the only limiting factor was mob respawns. You didn't need a tank because they died so quick that healing wasn't a huge problem (Similar to merit PTs). But because the mobs would only give 110 or so on the first kill, idiots thoguht it was shitty and slow exp and you needed to fight IT+ mobs with their awesome 300+ exp to level quickly.
It wasn't just in Aht urgan either. I've been in a PT in Garliege Shitadel basement where we were fighting VT mobs (I think bats? maybe beetles too) and chaining way past 5 as well just because we were there at a better level to kill them quickly and get exp quickly.

[SpankWustler]

You guys are all forgetting to mention the obvious. This game was created with an Eastern style of mind. So Agility, Stealth, Speed, etc, are all heavily defining factors. Eastern oriented jobs tend to be better than the western oriented counterparts to those jobs. Ninja vs Paladin... of course ninja's got better and paladin's didn't. Warriors vs Monks for best DD... you're surprised that MNK is now THE best DD/TNK? I knew it from the first day i selected my character that this game was going to have a heavy influence of eastern culture entwined in it. Big, Tough and Bulky aren't strengths in eastern society... but small, agile, evasive and stealthy are. So that is the tank of choice. A Big, Tanklike paladin may appeal to those of us in the west, but obviously the game creators from the east prefer evasive, stealthy tanks.

Warrior was supposed to be THE tank job in this game when it was first created. But SE didn't give Warrior the tools to tank Zilart and Promathia mobs... they just hit too hard and too often. Monk, Samurai, and Ninja are what they are because of the society that this game comes from.

It's not wrong, it's not right... it just is.

"Racism is a Broken Defense Equation" would be a pretty amazing title for a post-punk album if I could travel back to 1983 somehow. Thanks for that, I guess.

[Theytak]

ITT: People turn a silly thread about RPish job backgrounds into a BG community vs FFXIAH community debate about which jobs were or were not able to tank pre-abyssea.

I love you people

as to the OP, I think of it like this: Yes, ninjas specialize in stealth and misdirection, but you know what? If you've got a guy dancing around you, weaving in and out of the shadows while poking you and throwing stuff in your face, he's probably going to be a lot more annoying than the guy who's just swinging a giant metal stick at you.

Similarly, plds tank by bitchslapping the opponent, "yea, you've got other guys fighting you, but LOOK HERE! *slap*. You can't touch them til you finish me off! *gutpunch*"

Think of it like this: plds keep hate by acting like Howard Stern, while ninjas force the mob to play whack-a-mole. I mean honestly, who doesn't get pissed off playing whack-a-mole?

Alternatively: Not all ninjas are stealthy. Some are loud, obnoxious, and wear neon-orange jump suits. Believe it.