Ninja: Walk in shadow.

[Viridiana]

I think the only 3 possibilities it will use for cross-classing are PGL, ARC and MRD; some combination of them.

They're gonna need some way to manage TP. Either Invigorate or some other source of damage to weave in with reduced or no TP cost. Right now the only TP-based classes that don't have Invigorate are the tanks, who both have alternate ways to manage TP.

[MartaDemireux]

They're gonna need some way to manage TP. Either Invigorate or some other source of damage to weave in with reduced or no TP cost. Right now the only TP-based classes that don't have Invigorate are the tanks, who both have alternate ways to manage TP.

Well if the datamined traits are anything to go by they have an inherently higher TP regeneration.

Roughly translated for people (they are traits):

ＤＥＸアップ (Lv8) - DEX up.
-> ＤＥＸを2上昇する - Increases DEX by 2.

落下ダメージ軽減 (Lv14) - Fall damage reduction.
-> 落下による被ダメージを軽減する - Reduces the damage caused by falling.

ＤＥＸアップII (Lv16) - DEX up II.
-> ＤＥＸを4上昇する - Increases DEX by 4.

ステルス効果アップ (LV20) - Stealth effect up.
-> ステルス中の移動速度低下を軽減する - Reduces the movement speed reduction when in stealth.

ＤＥＸアップIII (Lv24) - DEX up III.
-> ＤＥＸを6上昇する - Increases DEX by 6.

移動速度アップ (Lv28) - Movement speed up.
-> 自身の移動速度を上昇させる - Increases personal movement speed.

単体特化毒Buff効果アップ (Lv32)- Single specialized poison buff effect up.
-> 単体特化毒Buff（猛毒）の与ダメージ上昇効果を20％に上昇する - Single specialized poison buff (Highly Toxic) increases physical damage by 20%.

TPリジェネ付与効果アップ (Lv36)- TP Regen effect up.
-> TPリジェネ付与によるＴＰ回復効果の効果量を上昇する。 - Grants increased effective recovery amount of TP regen.

複数特化毒Buff効果アップ (Lv40) - Multiple specialized poison Buff effect up.
-> 複数特化毒Buffの与物理ダメージ上昇効果を10％に上昇する - Multiple specialized poison buff increases physical damage by 10%.

コンボB-1効果アップ (Lv44) - Combo B-1 effect up
-> コンボB-1の継続ダメージの威力を45に上昇する - Combo B-1 DoT increased to 45.

ナイフ投げPBAE効果アップ (Lv48) - Knife throwing PBAE (Player-based Area of Effect?) effect up.
-> ナイフ投げPBAEの威力を80に上昇する - Knife Throw PBAE power rises to 80.

They obviously could change any of the traits as they're in development but as of now it's all we have to go on.

[Viridiana]

Well if the datamined traits are anything to go by they have an inherently higher TP regeneration.

They obviously could change any of the traits as they're in development but as of now it's all we have to go on.

I'll tentatively take that.

[YanderePrincess]

Classes/Jobs have varying INT stats, Ninja could have a higher INT stat. Cross-class skills are rarely as potent when not used by there originating disciple. Normally skills are modified by traits, but just overall less damage could function similarly. Furthermore, we don't rightly know if Ninja wouldn't be a step toward hybrid jobs which draw their damage output from not only attack power but also magic attack power. Going only from how the game works currently is thinking in a rather limited scope, and assumes no evolution down the line.

Ninja would have to have an extremely high base INT for it to be worth it. And, cross-class skills only lack potency compared to the original class when the original class is high enough level for a modifying trait, but that's also primarily for buffs, not spells/skills. Aero is just as strong on Scholar as it is on White Mage. Blizzard is the same strength dps-wise on all mage classes. It just lacks the Umbral Ice buff on anything other than thm/blm.


Fracture is weaker on cross-class than on Warrior, but is also a dps loss for pretty much any melee DPS class that can use it (definitely is for dragoons, likely is for monks).

[Dynza]

I'm not going to comment on the primary stat issue again, suffice to say, my opening post contains a source link to an official retraction from SE that says that they weren't ready to discuss the Rogue/Ninja primary stats, but Yoshida did mention strength originally.

As for the cross-class, secondary class to unlock Ninja, my assumption is either lancer or archer. And then both of them for as the cross-class skills. The reason? Ninjutsu magic looks somewhat lengthy to cast and prep and I think there may be a bit of overlap on puglist skills. Raging Strikes and Blood for Blood both have lengthier up times over Internal Release, so I feel that these abilities will end up being more valued for the ninja.


Now I want to go into some combat analysis and looking back at previous ninjas, in particular, I want to look at Hawkeye's ninja class from Seiken Densetsu 3. For some of you, you may know this game and for others, this particular game belongs to the Mana series as the third sequel game that has never been remade nor reached US or European shores. In Seiken Densetsu 3, there's a playable character named Hawkeye who starts off as a thief or member of the Navarre's Desert Bandits/Rogues. Eventually, Hawkeye can change his class to Ninja, Ranger and others. Focusing specifically on the ninja class, Hawkeye picked up key ninja spells like Fire, Water, Earth, and Lightning ninjutsu along with a shuriken spell. All of these spells, including the shuriken acted as debuffs as well as dealing damage. The debuffs themselves, are pretty interesting, as each one lowered a specific stat or passive stats like Evade and Hit rate, defense, attack, magic power and more. I speculate that FFXIV's Ninja's ninjutsu could follow the same sort of idea in that the spells cast - in addition to dealing damage - lower the enemy's ability in same way that Hawkeye's ninjutsu did. To be more specific, I'm guessing that the ninjutsu spells will lower secondary stats like Accuracy, Critical Hit Rate, Determination, etc. rather than primary stats like Virus does. This prevents overlap and allows the ninja to carve its own niche into the battle party, but I think that there may be limiting factors to this (either debuff timers are too short to cast multiple ninjutsu, or you're only allowed to have one ninjutsu debuff).

With that said, there are other factors to consider, such as the poisons in the rogue skills and what sort of role will they have? It's a pretty good guess to assume at least two damage over time abilities (Pug, Arc, Lnc all have at least two DOTs), but poisons may not be limited to damage over time and could provide other debuffs such as slow, or heavy. Something to think about.

Finally, in the most recent video showcasing ninja skills, we saw the ninja stealth up to a Ziz and land a backstab on the monster. The effect, post-backstab, is pretty interesting. Although it looks like a stun there's some small orange arcs of lightning that appear on the Ziz during the ninja's attack, I don't think this is a stun, but a temporary paralysis. As I recall, stun attacks have no graphical effects on the monsters, but paralysis does, and I think that's what we're seeing here. What do you guys think?

[Kakure]

ナイフ投げPBAE効果アップ (Lv48) - Knife throwing PBAE (Player-based Area of Effect?) effect up.
-> ナイフ投げPBAEの威力を80に上昇する - Knife Throw PBAE power rises to 80.

Point-blank AoE

[Synestr]

I see in that list a lot of DEX bonuses. I see Hawk's eye and a must have for CC skill here, maybe even Raging Strikes. If we were led to believe STR was the asset to focus on, looks like the above translation has proven that wrong.

[Viridiana]

I see in that list a lot of DEX bonuses. I see Hawk's eye and a must have for CC skill here, maybe even Raging Strikes. If we were led to believe STR was the asset to focus on, looks like the above translation has proven that wrong.

It hasn't "proven" anything other than that there are *developer traits* that boost DEX. Everything is subject to change until whatever deadline the developers set for getting data into patch 2.4.

[MartaDemireux]

Yeah to date all we know on STR/DEX is the following (I believe in this order):

Yoshi tells us to hold onto our melee (STR) DPS gear.
Patch includes a full suite of Rogue traits which have DEX on them (but are still in development).
Yoshi tells us he cannot say if they will use STR/DEX.
Yoshi tells us they may still change their mind last minute if it uses STR or DEX.

So it's entirely a 50/50 chance. Gear for both if you have the means and you want to prepare ahead of time.

[YanderePrincess]

I see in that list a lot of DEX bonuses. I see Hawk's eye and a must have for CC skill here, maybe even Raging Strikes. If we were led to believe STR was the asset to focus on, looks like the above translation has proven that wrong.

It's not even known for certain that all of those traits are actually for rogue, and because it's all still in development, it could end up being that none of those traits make it through (with the exception of the falling damage reduction, since that's the only one that's already been confirmed by Yoshi).