I want to be a Ninja but..

[Zyst]

Now, let us assume the best damage doable in my skill level is this amazing black mage, they nailed the entirety of their rotation, didn't drop enochian, and everything went their way. They theoretically did the highest achievable damage within my skill level.

Lets define this Black mage as "X".

At this point we start grading every other class based on "X". Lets now say a monk comes along and does more damage than this blackmage. This monk did (1.04 * X) damage.

This monk now has the best damage, but the Black mage still has superb damage, albeit not the best. Now lets assume we keep going down this way assigning a mental 'leader board' of sorts. Where would NIN when everything goes perfect sit? Somewhere along the lines of (.93 * X) damage.

...

[Zyst]

Thus, you, as a NIN, have very "Competent" damage. As in you can "Compete" with the other jobs. When you add your utility the damage increase seen by other players can be enough to bridge the gap, or in rare scenarios be enough to tip it over to be an advantage.

Now back to the question:

What's "incompetent damage"?

What would be incompetent would be different from person to person, it's an abstract concept that I don't hold any particular definition for, as opposed to competent damage which I explain above.

But if I had to say if a monk were to be doing (.40 * X) damage in the same gear as a theoretical identical monk doing (X) damage, I would be inclined to say the first monk is "Incompetent", and by comparison, your damage as a NIN of (.93 * X) is very competent.

[Zyst]

Now lets say you enter dungeon finder, and most people do not care to find their most optimum rotation or anything of the sort, and play casually, which is completely fine. You'll find that a lot of players will cap their damage below their theoretical potential. You, who are playing closer to your theoretical potential are doing significantly more damage. Thus, your damage is more than competent, it's: The best in this current curve.

NIN, theoretically, doesn't do the most damage. But if you are a good player and strive for improvement you will find yourself doing the most damage extremely often regardless.

END

[Sida]

I haven't played top level ninja but I've understood they can cause the whole other group make more damage. Now count this as damage you do (since it wouldn't be there if you weren't ninja) and look at the numbers again.

[ChalupaBatman]

I'm usually about 150 ish dps behind our MNK 1410 to my 1260 in our A4s clears both of us @ 210, does TA make up for that 150 disparity? Yes it does, might even be more but I'm not sure.

[Fellesarah]

Avoid Ninjas.... easy to play and hard to be efective in high end raids..

Weak dps, big energy problems, yes your energy go out in 170 secs wih invigorate, mudra lag, ineffective TA, great useless agro Skill (-_-) no one tank raid has problems with agro.

But if u want a little demon in pvp, Ninja is your job, can beat every class in 1x1 (exclude Healers) ... a good ninja can kill a warrior in 5 secs, only the best melee opening in pvp 2800 dps in 5 sec. Ops Yoshida will nerf ninjas in pvp now 0_O forget all

[CotaBota]

As a NIN I am usually tied or slightly higher than SMN in a parse, outside of a2s. I also Fuma religiously, being at 60 ms. This "falling behind" feeling is certainly not present, though a slow Suiton will make me rage.
In the end it's less about your arsenal and more about your execution.

[Sidra]

The variances in DPS across jobs is far, far less than the variances due to player skill. Play what you enjoy and be good at it, and you will be an asset to any team.

[Alahra]

If you want to be a NIN, I say go for it. Some adjustments are coming in 3.1. Mudra adjustments are likely to result in at least some DPS increase, and TP adjustments will make you less of a burden on the raid's DPS. (I also wonder if we'll see further adjustments, such as to AoE, but they haven't specifically said anything about other changes). As others have noted, though, NIN's strength is best realized through Trick Attack and their adaptability in fights with long phase shifts and the like.

[Maero]

What people do fail to understand is even if Ninja is slightly behind on dps and yes it is slightly not alot like some think but anyhow, Ninja brings more to the group. Ninja is not "weak", a class/job is only as weak as the person controlling it
Sure hope there is some nice tp fixes