Ninja: Heaven-Sword (And Beyond)

[Arkenne]

What do you mean by that?

Hmm? Well, I didn't go into dept because my priorities my vary on my personal preference to what's presented on the guide, and hence conflicting in a sense that in the end might not even be important for the guide's goal: "go give a starting idea and understanding of the job"

So 'twould only add to confusion.

Buuuuut if you really wanna get into headaches:

In my personal opinion, NIN, unlike their MNK or DRG cousins, can start with whatever combo you prefer.
Tho, of course, so long its not AE...
If you start with the combo DE » SF » MU, its just as valid as if you go SF » MU » DE. Since so long you mantain it all, things will homogenize.

The only real great main difference which is actually pretty hard to notice are the oGCD timings. Specially Ninjutsu.
In the relevance of a pre-HW NIN, the opener had a very big dependance on how long has it been since you activated Huton.
Some liked to wait 15 seconds, other 10, other 5, other 8 and the most lazy ones... 0.

Depending on this wait time you would use different skills by different personal priority.

For example: if you go with 0 Huton wait time, go with MU » DE » SF » AE
Next skill you would want to go for would be DE, but by the moment you start its SE, Ninjutsu will be perfectly ready for you to use Suiton. And you will see that SF, MU and AE can perfectly fit into TA. Albeit this window pops 20 seconds after the battle started.

Want party members to hurt things hard ASAP? DE first.
Want to maximize your damage ASAP in a long fight? MU » SF first. (MU could catch 2 ticks by the time SF enters, while SF catches only 1 and takes longer to get in by the time MU enters).
Wanna go wild? Use whatever so long its not AE :v

In the end, your opener as a Ninja will have the biggest impact in the timing of both your GCDs and your oGCDs. Make sure to practice a lot with the dummies to see which one fits best for you!