Looking for Ninja Tips

Hello fellow Ninjas!

So about 3 weeks ago I decided to make the change from MNK to NIN. Ive read guides and slapped the dummy for hours until I got a feel for skills. Still something feels entirely off when I do live fights. My eyes are constantly all over the screen more than any other class Ive played. From DoTs to Huton and CDs on top of doing mechanics it feels alot harder to maintain everything. Also I have to constantly watch my mudra inputs due to it not always being instant activation.

Do any of you have any tips on how to improve on this?

Uhm...can't say I have much and I've been maining ninja for a while now >.>

You shouldn't have to worry too much about Huton however - You have a lot of leeway to use Armor Crush, so you don't need to look at the timer all the time. There's no harm in using it twice when you let your Huton timer run low, happens all the time to me during my opener because I want to squeeze that last B4B Aeolian Edge in.
In case of doubt, you can use Jugulate as rough timer, since the CD is 30 seconds, so you more or less want to do an Armor Crush for every Jugulate. It's not perfect, but you can make it a habit to look at the Huton timer every time you do hit it. When I started out, I used to just alternate Armor Crush with either Dancing Edge or Aeolian Edge depending on WAR presence - It's not optimal, but it's easy on the brain.

For CDs, all I can say is to try to always use Blood For Blood (B4B), Mug, Dream Within A Dream(DWD) and Duality together. Except B4B, they all got a 90 second cooldown, so they align well and if you notice one is ready soon, so will the others, which means you don't need to watch them independently.

For the DoTs, there's not much you can do I think. You have around 2 seconds GCD, so you could try to roughly go:"Shadow Fang after every third combo" or stuff like that, but...I just stare at the bar. Bosses constantly jump around, get invulnerable or other stuff, so every rule fails.

That's about all I can add.

OP, first I want to say, "Welcome to the shinobi life!"

Since you are beginning to main ninja, here are four very simple rules to follow:

1) Always keep Huton up - This increases your skillspeed and therefore an increase in DPS, and if Huton is running out pop Armour Crush Combo.

2) Always keep all 3 DoTs up (Mutilate, Shadow Fang, Dancing Edge) - Mutilate and Shadow Fang are your normal DoTs. However, Dancing Edge is a debuff that reduces target's slashing resistance, which in turn increases your DPS. (If you have a WAR in your party, they will put up Storm's Edge and you don't have to worry about Dancing Edge since it's essentially the same debuff.)

3) Every 20 seconds, be casting a Jutsu (Fuma, Raiton, or Suiton + Trick Attack) - Because you're a NINJA!

4) Use Kiss of the Wasp on trash mobs and Kiss of the Viper on bosses. - The reason for this is because Kiss of the Wasp stuns enemies when you use Jugulate and Kiss of the Viper makes you regain HP when you use Mug. (Most bosses are immune to stun.)

Follow these rules and you will soon be on your way to being Hokage! :D

I was a NIN main for a long, long time. I recognize these tips and tricks from my own personal experience, they really do help! Practice will definitely be your best friend; a "real" combat scenario is obviously different from hitting a dummy all day. You have mechanics and party members to attend to now - and this is where practice comes in. At first it may feel overwhelming, but just pace yourself and keep at it. It all gets easier with time and practice.

My personal advice to give since it wasn't mentioned yet would be to remember you have some support utilty. To me, this is what defines and separates a NIN from a MNK or even a DRG. Use Goad when and where it applies, and you can also help manage aggro. This is great for openers and also tank swaps.

i recently saw someone use fuma shuriken in lv60 content. i always thought it was just a low level jutsu that you use til you get raiton, bu then a FC mate told me that it does more damage with dancing edge debuff on. however shuriken the only way it did more damage than raiton was with both dancing edge AND kassatsu. just something i thought was interesting and kinda blew my mind a bit.

how should i be melding? at the moment i'm just throwing in a bunch of crit. normally i'd put skill speed on, but i figured we didn't need it because of huton being on all day.

Just remember your priorities.

1. Huton/Armor Crush
2. Dancing Edge (unless you have a WAR tank, then skip to #3)
3. Shadow Fang
4. Mutilate

Keep these active in that order. If Mutilate and Huton are both going to fall off, then Armor Crush is more important because it refreshes Huton. If Shadow Fang is going to fall off, but so is your slash debuff, get Dancing Edge refreshed first.

As long as your buffs/debuffs are running, DPS with Aeolian Edge for max damage output. Try to have it coincide with Duality to get the most out of it. And on thay note, don't waste Duality on a crappy attack.

Use Ninjutsu whenever it is available. Prioritize Trick Attack if it is off of cool down.

Make sure either Kiss of the Viper or Wasp are active at all times. They can drop off if you get level synced in a trial of dungeon.

Use your utility. Goad, Smokescreen, Shadewalker and Shukuchi can seem underwhelming at first, but I suggest using them regularly even if you don't need to, just that you get comfortable keep with them. In the right situations they can all be lifesavers for you or your party members.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mikaeus_The_Lunarch

i recently saw someone use fuma shuriken in lv60 content. i always thought it was just a low level jutsu that you use til you get raiton, bu then a FC mate told me that it does more damage with dancing edge debuff on. however shuriken the only way it did more damage than raiton was with both dancing edge AND kassatsu. just something i thought was interesting and kinda blew my mind a bit.

how should i be melding? at the moment i'm just throwing in a bunch of crit. normally i'd put skill speed on, but i figured we didn't need it because of huton being on all day.

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Fuma Shuriken will deal more DPS than Raiton if you suffer from high latency. The Mudra input and cast can push you into your next GCD if you have bad input lag, resulting in a DPS loss. Where Fuma is buffed by Dancing Edge, Raiton is buffed by Foe's Requiem. Raiton is more potential damage, but it can vary by player due to connection.

Meld for Crit, then Determination. Skill Speed is last priority

Thanks guys for the tips. Trying to be optimal seems like it could take abit of time but Im determined to make it happen.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mikaeus_The_Lunarch

i recently saw someone use fuma shuriken in lv60 content. i always thought it was just a low level jutsu that you use til you get raiton, bu then a FC mate told me that it does more damage with dancing edge debuff on. however shuriken the only way it did more damage than raiton was with both dancing edge AND kassatsu. just something i thought was interesting and kinda blew my mind a bit.

how should i be melding? at the moment i'm just throwing in a bunch of crit. normally i'd put skill speed on, but i figured we didn't need it because of huton being on all day.

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To my understanding doing Raiton over Fuma every time is a DPS loss overtime. Raiton requiring 2 mudra inputs clips into GCD where as Fuma doesnt. With poison and Dancing Edge applied theres about a 40 potency difference between Fuma and a normal Raiton. The only time youll want to do Raiton is if Foe's Requiem is up.

One more thing to note about Fuma that its buffed by the MCH's Hypercharge. Also, if your (single) enemy is far away or just spawning, you want to Raiton since clipping GCD only applies if youre actually in melee range. Also, you can "prep" Ninjitsu by pre-casting them just before your enemy is targetable. There's five seconds leeway inbetween mudra presses before your ninjitsu... goes sour :)

About utilities. Shadewalker has only a 2 min CD. I use this pretty religiously even during dungeon thrash pulls. If I know theres three enemies coming (Baelsar's Wall) and Ive got my 90 sec CD's available, I'll Shade the tank and straight up destroy one with my full opener. Ninja might not have the greatest DPS capability but it does have a good burst if you use it properly. Also, Smoke Screen lasts 20 seconds, you can use it pretty early on during a pull especially if you suspect your healer is going to pull aggro.

Goad like the others mentioned, use it. Pay attention to your TP using comrades, Dragoons will love you, so will Bards/Machinists and Overpowering Warriors as well. Ideally they should self sustain with Equilibrium. Goad's got a 3 min CD so I use it with every other pull. Also useful if a TP using job happens to die.

Katon vs Doton. I know Doton a dps gain if its there long enough. But oh man dem mob AOE's force the tank to move even if he intends to keep the pack there, and at times it feels that they move the pack out of there out of spite? :) Thats why I almost always prefer Katon. Combine that with your buffs and Death Blossom against four+ targets (three might be enough but if I can kill one fast enough I usually do it) and you have a half decent AOE there as well.

Also, Dancing Edge/Storm's Eye do not affect your Mutilate/Shadow Fang TICKS. Only the initial hit. Hence it might be a DPS gain to use Mutilate ASAP since you only lose 6 potency when not using it with the Slashing Debuff on. Just make sure your target survives long enough to make full use of the DoT.

I had a similar problem when I first got armour crush, my eyes were everywhere and I was constantly letting buffs/dots drop - or even forgetting about them entirely.

What really helped me was reorganising my UI so all the important things I need to monitor on nin were in the same place. I have my character bar at the bottom with the buff bar. Then immediately above that I have the target bar with the buffs This means my dots/debuffs are right above my buffs, meaning I can see everything I need to monitor without having to move my eyes. I then have an extra skill bar right above that with just two skills on; a mundra and trick attack. This allows me to see whether TA is off CD when I can next ninjutsu. With this change I suddenly had all my main combo stuff visible in one small portion of the screen.

Obviously this doesn't cover all the other buffs and OCD stuff but it gave me the basics to be able to keep DE + huton + dots up.

Back again with another question. For all you Ninja (or just Melee DPS) how do you manage uptime in A11s? I started learning it about a week ago and my DPS just starts to crash right before the 1-8 number phase.

There seems to be an incredible amount of downtime with Optical Sight and 1-8 number mechanics yet I know people can easily maintain high DPS over the entire fight. Should I be risking it more during Optical Sight or try to sit on cooldowns abit longer until I can start attacking again?

Tl;dr: I hold my CD's during Opticals, do 4-5 full openers with them and think about TA timings for when they most benefit the group

First of all, if you can, pick your "Big Orb" position as close to the boss as possible. I'm the only melee in my group atm so my position is 1 o clock.

During the first Optical you have three choices: take one hit and finish your full opener (now with Echo its even more feasible), play it safe and just look for the safe spot and lose a lot of uptime (like I do, I'm a coward most of the time) or be a badass ninja warrior and run circles around the boss keeping 100% uptime during Shiva pattern. If you do it wrong you'll likely get hit by two blasts and die.

At least before Echo you could get three Trick Attacks off before Lapis phase. One with your opener, the second just after the Bait Optical (need to hold your mudra for this) and the third after Limit Cut. After my opener, I save my CDs to the mini burn phase before Lapis. Too much running around to make good use of them before that imo.

For the Numbers Limit Cut you want to go with the two-point system if you want to maximise dps to the absolute max since you can prep your Slashing and Suiton even by hitting the boss when it appears. I'm personally not that good so I just make sure Ive got 70 seconds of Huton and that I can start with a full opener since there's about 30 seconds in between the boss coming back and it turning into a ship.

I hold onto my CDs during Lapis, well maybe not Internal Release since it comes back if used right away, so I can do another full opener right after the orbs are down. You dont gain much by killing the orbs super fast, but burning the boss does skip the Plasma Shield during Pyretic phase so it wont get a damage buff.

Just before the Pyretic phase ends you want to hold onto your CD's again since its going to jump at... 44% or something. After landing you can finish a full opener again before GA-100 hits, and after that its again running away from Opticals and here I personally would focus more on not wiping the raid, especially if youre new to the fight. Second Trick Attack will be after the Bait Optical, and third will be up just before the final Number mechanic finishes. Then you need to decide if you want to Trick the boss or the EDD add.

Of course the timings will change with differences in group DPS, that wall of text was me a slightly-better-than-average ninja doing it with a slightly-better-than-average-group pre-Echo. If you skip Lapis for example everything changes.