Looking for Tips when Dealing with Ninja Aggro

I just ran Toto-Rak last night, with a L27 sync'd NIN and an L24 ROG as our DPS. I was a sync'd-down i90 PLD with Zenith relic. The NIN could take a mob away from me *if* I let them (got lazy and slowed down in rotations) but plain old Flash and rotating RoH between mobs, I had zero issues taking it right back - and never lost the bosses or boss adds.

The sync'd SCH with us wondered aloud if she was even necessary for the run :) We said yes and made sure she felt appreciated :)

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Originally Posted by Wadoka

I just ran Toto-Rak last night, with a L27 sync'd NIN and an L24 ROG as our DPS. I was a sync'd-down i90 PLD with Zenith relic. The NIN could take a mob away from me *if* I let them (got lazy and slowed down in rotations) but plain old Flash and rotating RoH between mobs, I had zero issues taking it right back - and never lost the bosses or boss adds.

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This has been my experience, as well. If I lose aggro, it's generally either due to the DPS not being on the same page (attacking two different targets) or because I'm not Flashing/rotating my combo on multiple targets consistently enough.

At low levels, Flash is your biggest and best threat generating skill until you have Rage of Halone (especially since it was buffed).

If there's a pack of three or more mobs, I barely even bother with my combo until a couple are dead and stick to Flash and Riot Blade spam. Never have any problems with this, even now when holding threat from Ninjas and overzealous Black Mages/Bards.

Well DPS can also cycle trought mobs like tanks usually do, when i leveled my NIN i started by applying Mutilate on all mobs as that gave plenty of time to tanks build up aggro.

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Originally Posted by saber_alter

let them tank until they die. then take aggro.

if they want to be overzealous, they can hit the floor.

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If the tank wants to do that, I will gladly come back after dying and let the tank solo dps all the rest of the mobs down.

2 can play that game. I'll throttle my dps all the way down to zero since I was dead anyway. If you don't want to even attempt to tank, you can dps them down.

Don't worry, I'll wait.



In response to the OP, past a certain hp, it's okay to let the dps have it (for most, not all mobs) as they'll generally kill it before it causes any real issues. If you are having issues, mark your priority list of targets so that they can focus. However a lot of experienced DPS should know the 1st and 2nd targets in a pull without having to be marked. Quite a number of them could mark the targets themselves in a similar order that you would mark them. Especially if they have a tanking background.

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Originally Posted by Leonus

2 can play that game.

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Exactly. Tanks that let people die are bad. A dps that doesn't watch their agro bar is bad. Or at least their both not that good/considerate.

The ONLY instance wherein a DPS should need to watch their enmity for the tank's sake in a 4-man is if the DPS outclasses the tank's gear by A LOT. So really only at level 50.

If you are about as geared or even slightly under the DPS and they are taking enmity from you, you either have two outstanding DPS in your group that are purposefully attacking different targets to mess with you, or you are bad.

I will say that OP might be having issues if the NINs have Aeolian Edge and they don't have RoH yet. And the only dungeon that is applicable in would be toto-rak. Potentially something like a PLD in Brayflox or Cutters if you don't have shield oath yet as well.

If the healer is even halfway decent this should be a non-issue in low level dungeons because everyone can take a couple of hits without any problems. If you are using flash 2 times and then rotating your hits on all the trash, you are fine. Like you said, marking helps a bit if people follow them, and in that case you probably don't need to rotate you hits. Up until 40 PLD is tough to always keep agro especially if people are targeting different mobs and/or doing AOE.

I'm presently leveling a ROG/NIN and I'm having a blast with it. I've put vitality, strength and determination materia on all my gear since about level 25 and I've been yanking aggro from tanks without meaning to. I honestly didn't pay attention to whether or not the tanks were forgetting Shield Oath (I know that happened once, cause the tank mentioned it) or what, but I had this happen in all but maybe one dungeon/hest that I've run. At first, I thought it was because I was attacking a target not the tanks. No, I was on the tank's target. In instances where the tank marked targets, I stayed on that target in numerical sequence. Still pulled aggro. I even pulled aggro when there was only one target in the room.

You might ask why I put this materia on my stuff. Well, I give the gear what it will take. I tried to meld Dexterity, but it gives zero stat boost. I made sure that I put as much vitality as I could meld so that I wasn't so "squishy". I have received several commendations as a Ninja. I have yet to have a tank say, "Hey, stop stealing my aggro!" I get "Nice job". I'm not trying to tank, I don't pull mobs by running ahead, I drop DOTs on multiple targets, I hit what the tank says to and I maximize damage in my rotations. As was said, what's the problem if I beat down trash and hold the aggro. It's not grabbing the healer and I'm not dying.

Of course, I see a lot of ninjas, and I do see all the things people complain about, especially those who don't get out of the way of an AOE then get dead. I see them cast an AOE mudra when there's only one enemy or worse, when they don't want to attract the surrounding mobs. I've seen other folks raising ninjas and done the same, but I don't think it's any larger a percentage of other melee DPS. I also see BLM's and BRD's stripping aggro from the tank just about as quickly.

Flash spam. Overpower spam and then ask for Goad.