Ninja Tips/Tricks/Life Hacks

After getting Summoner to Heavensward (it was fun for a while, but some of the novelty started to wear off after some of the Post-ARR story, which I won't spoil for other newer players), I decided to give Ninja a try.

I'm currently Level 36, and enjoying the job quite a bit. Any NIN mains have some general tips, tricks or just overall quality of life things they do when out questing, dungeoning or what have you you'd like to recommend for other people starting out with the class?

I'm not a NIN main but I have advice anyway.

The game does a gotcha and gives you your middle mudra last. Leave a space between your first two mudras (Heaven and Earth) so you can put the third mudra (Man) between them. If you have room on your bar, put Ninjutsu at both ends. It'll make jutsu activation smoother. Ninjutsu-Chi-Jin-Ten-Ninjutsu. This way, the flow of energy upward or downward will make sense and the ninjutsu effects will be easier to associate with the motions. For example, going up in order yields earth-man-heaven-activate (wind/haste jutsu) and the other way is heaven-man-earth-activate (earth/quicksand jutsu). If you're on a crossbar, it'll be even easier because of the circular nature of the game pad buttons. Just put Ten at the top and Chi at the bottom, then Jin and Ninjutsu to the left and right.

At 40 you get a teleport. Macro it. It's a ground target action, so macroing it will increase the activation speed rather than slowing you down. The first line attempts to teleport to mouseover target. If no mouseover is available, the second line gives the ground target cursor. You can go with just a plain <t> target if you want, or a party member number <2> through <8> to teleport to a specific party member.

Code:

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/ac Shukuchi <mo>
/ac Shukuchi
/micon Shukuchi

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I suppose I should note that I play on PC with Mouse/Keyboard. I appreciate the advice though! I'll give that a shot.

Aoe on packs bigger than 3. Use Katon until you get deathblossom. You can still throw a Katon in there. Always keep an eye on your pinwheel when it's getting low you'll want to reapply the buff that goes with it. When you 1st get it you have to manually redo it, but higher you'll be able to reapply it from weapon skills. Once you have access to doton your aoe changes again to where you'll want to put that down once the pull stops moving. If you use the water ninjitsu and trick attack is up it will allow you to use trick attack during combat. Very useful on bosses. Ninja also gets a move that can put hate on others. Put this on the tank as ninja's hate/agro can spike like crazy. I don't know any of the rotations so I can't help you there.

When taking on multiple mobs do katon, kassetsu, followed by doten, and then spam death blossom if its a mob that will melt really slow. If you are on a mob that you know will die relatively quick use katon rather then doten since you don't wanna waste your tics. Later you can add the hell frog to your aoe arsenal when you get him. Also, understand, you are a ninja! you can run really fast lol. If you are running you can just keep running then sukuchi to get further along, and if an enemy is near by do a raiton and you can immediately sukuchi again to go even further! Also, make sure you smoke screen your fellow DPS if needed, or your healer if they are over healing. You can also always shade walk your tank before large pulls or before bosses. Also if you are on mobs and your dps partner doesn't know how to aoe or doesn't want to bring along invigorate. OH and don't forget to goad your dps/tank as needed! Use your judgement, but if I have a bard or machinest that are doing some good aoes I'll goad them, if they are not doing aoes or are a mage I'll use on tank if they are aoeing and their tp is falling low. There is really a bunch, but don't wanna overwhelm you, but it is fun :)

I've gotten to 40 so far, and am definitely enjoying it (The quest to get Shukuchi was a pain with all the insta-reveal bats).

Though I am definitely torn between it and Machinist. Which will generally get me into more groups (played optimally, assuming)?

If by groups you mean raid-statics then youre in good shape. A lot of them use machinist, even more use ninja. Trick attack alone might have been enough to get ninja into groups, but you add their good aggro management tools and a slashing debuff that some groups dont have by other means and its an easy sell.

Ninjas since they were put into the game have basically had a spot in end game stuff. The raid utility they provide is almost off the charts. Mch is a hard one and yes they do get invited but not as often as bard. Mch has to be on the ball to abuse their heat gauge while also following the dance of the fight. A good or even great mch is hard to come by.

Now the million gil question: Is Shuriken good or bad?

If it's the only one you can use it's good. If it pops up and you forgot to put in another command within the time frame allowed and you don't want to bunny then use it. Otherwise once you can raiton use that instead unless you're going to be doing a trick attack. Everything else > bunny.

I noticed a guide online, where it says Ninja has 3-4 different openers. When should I start worrying about that?

There are different openers for ninja, but you won't have to worry about that until you hit 70 and get your full toolkit. Until then you can use the lvl 60 opener, minus dream within a dream since you won't get that till 60.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tsubaki75

There are different openers for ninja, but you won't have to worry about that until you hit 70 and get your full toolkit. Until then you can use the lvl 60 opener, minus dream within a dream since you won't get that till 60.

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Seems like it's very involved. I like it.

Update: Made it to 62. Loving the Fire Frog. I think I'm finally managing to get the concept of weaving my oGCDs in between my combos. How do you guys typically do it?

Only one OCD in between each gcd for ninjas. The gcd is far too short for double weaving. You might need to get the lvl70 skill before getting the full rotation down. Also always only trick after spinning edge so you can get 2 of the 3rd combo skills within the 10s trick window :>

Quote:

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Originally Posted by XykeVayaris

Only one OCD in between each gcd for ninjas. The gcd is far too short for double weaving. You might need to get the lvl70 skill before getting the full rotation down. Also always only trick after spinning edge so you can get 2 of the 3rd combo skills within the 10s trick window :>

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I'll definitely keep that in mind. Do you use them in any particular priority order, or simply as they come off cooldown?

I know I do generally try to line up Kassatsu and DwD with Trick.

For ninki skills TCJ > Bhav > Frog usage priority in that order. Mostly use ogcds as they come off cooldown, though there are certain skills like duality, if the trick cd is <15s hold duality so you can use it on aerolian during the trick window.