Wait....where are the Ninjas?

[AlgernonBlackwood]

Oh man, I have a lot of opinions on this job. I think there are a lot of reasons it's always been one of the least popular jobs, even prior to its 6.0 undertuning + Raiju issues.

• The skill floor/ceiling: Basically, the job is too intimidating to learn to appeal to a lot of newcomers/casuals and too braindead once you've learned it to appeal to a lot of challenge-seekers/optimizers. Even if you just want dat high APM, the 45s of almost nothing but 1-2-3 makes the job a hard sell.
  
  
• Gear: it's currently the only job that doesn't share armor with any other job. This makes it inherently less appealing if you intend to raid since you're effectively locked into a single job without putting in 2x the effort to gear up. Every other job has at least one other option that just requires a different weapon. Sharing accessories with p. ranged isn't necessarily a bad thing, but unless you can find a flexible static with another person willing to alternate between melee and p. ranged, you'll need to get a whole other set of accessories.
  
  
• Rogue requires you to go rather out of your way to unlock, starts at level 1, and is absolute dogsh*t to play. It has to be most miserable 30 level to get through in the game and it somehow keeps getting worse every expansion as more and more of NIN's assassin/rogue skills get removed to make room for Naruto stuff. The thematic gap between Rogue and Ninja is much larger then it is with any other ARR class/job, which makes it really difficult give you anything interesting to do earlier on, like they did with MNK in EW. This thematic gap also turns off a lot of people who were more interested in the rogue job fantasy, while SAM, a job that starts out at level 50 with a bunch of awesome skills, syphons away a fair number of weebs.
  
  
• Trick Attack just isn't very satisfying to use: I know the debuff is supposed to primarily benefit the party, but it just feels like such a miniscule personal gain. Also, NIN's burst doesn't really feel that unique anymore now that every DPS has at least 1 crazy burst window every 120s. Honestly, aside from the initial Hyosho Ranryu/DWAD, it mostly just feels like generic filler at this point. SAM or RPR's burst feel way more unique and impactful.
  
  
• Finally, its a minor thing, but I really dislike NIN's pre-pull setup. Every other DPS can pretty much hit the ground running now, but with NIN you still have to do the clunky Huton, Hide, Death Blossom, Death Blossom again because you used it too early song and dance. Seriously, what's even the point of Hidden decreasing your movement speed? Would it really be that OP if you could move normally while affected by that completely useless status?

[Ash_]

Oh man, I have a lot of opinions on this job. I think there are a lot of reasons it's always been one of the least popular jobs, even prior to its 6.0 undertuning + Raiju issues.

• The skill floor/ceiling: Basically, the job is too intimidating to learn to appeal to a lot of newcomers/casuals and too braindead once you've learned it to appeal to a lot of challenge-seekers/optimizers. Even if you just want dat high APM, the 45s of almost nothing but 1-2-3 makes the job a hard sell.
  
  
• Gear: it's currently the only job that doesn't share armor with any other job. This makes it inherently less appealing if you intend to raid since you're effectively locked into a single job without putting in 2x the effort to gear up. Every other job has at least one other option that just requires a different weapon. Sharing accessories with p. ranged isn't necessarily a bad thing, but unless you can find a flexible static with another person willing to alternate between melee and p. ranged, you'll need to get a whole other set of accessories.
  
  
• Rogue requires you to go rather out of your way to unlock, starts at level 1, and is absolute dogsh*t to play. It has to be most miserable 30 level to get through in the game and it somehow keeps getting worse every expansion as more and more of NIN's assassin/rogue skills get removed to make room for Naruto stuff. The thematic gap between Rogue and Ninja is much larger then it is with any other ARR class/job, which makes it really difficult give you anything interesting to do earlier on, like they did with MNK in EW. This thematic gap also turns off a lot of people who were more interested in the rogue job fantasy, while SAM, a job that starts out at level 50 with a bunch of awesome skills, syphons away a fair number of weebs.
  
  
• Trick Attack just isn't very satisfying to use: I know the debuff is supposed to primarily benefit the party, but it just feels like such a miniscule personal gain. Also, NIN's burst doesn't really feel that unique anymore now that every DPS has at least 1 crazy burst window every 120s. Honestly, aside from the initial Hyosho Ranryu/DWAD, it mostly just feels like generic filler at this point. SAM or RPR's burst feel way more unique and impactful.
  

This. Playing the class in level 50 or below content used to be more satisfying. But they have stripped away so many of the Rogue skills that we now have the least number of skills below 50 than any other class. This is probably a major turn off for new players.

But the comment that hits the nail on the head for me is the thematic direction of NIN. I miss every single rogue skill they have deleted to replace with some forced Naruto cliché. And Endwalker was the last straw with this raiju nonsense.

Monk is better, but lacks the rogue feels. But at least I can be pure and fast melee again.

I'll play NIN again when they restore Shadow Fang (as a combo action), separate Assassinate from DWD, delete 1 or both of the Raijus. I would be even happier though if they went further and just gave us Heavensward NIN. I would gladly give up every new skill they have introduced since then for that.

[Hysorn]

Rogue requires you to go rather out of your way to unlock, starts at level 1, and is absolute dogsh*t to play. It has to be most miserable 30 level to get through in the game and it somehow keeps getting worse every expansion as more and more of NIN's assassin/rogue skills get removed to make room for Naruto stuff. The thematic gap between Rogue and Ninja is much larger then it is with any other ARR class/job, which makes it really difficult give you anything interesting to do earlier on, like they did with MNK in EW. This thematic gap also turns off a lot of people who were more interested in the rogue job fantasy, while SAM, a job that starts out at level 50 with a bunch of awesome skills, syphons away a fair number of weebs.

Oh man, that's one of my biggest gripes with the job, simply put, Ninja class fantasy is not nearly as appealing as an Assassin/Thief. I know this is an JRPG and being a FF game, ninja was bound to be a job in the game, but... The whole ninjutsu and frog summoning stuff just doesn't cut it for me, I am not sure if it is because I am used to DND type of classes and Final Fantasy wasn't ever part of my game's list up until 14 and 15 or the fact that the last time I was into anime was when I was around 10 watching Naruto, DBZ and later Death Note, but yeah, everything from artifact gear to gameplay is unappealing to me, shame too because I enjoy playing rogue in games from time to time.

[Tlamila]

Oh man, that's one of my biggest gripes with the job, simply put, Ninja class fantasy is not nearly as appealing as an Assassin/Thief. I know this is an JRPG and being a FF game, ninja was bound to be a job in the game, but... The whole ninjutsu and frog summoning stuff just doesn't cut it for me

Hellfrog Medium is straight out the best ability animation in the whole game. Still waiting for Hellfrog Large.

[Navnav]

As soon as they remove the naruto run, you will see an abundance of NINs. Trust me...

[Aword3213]

As soon as they remove the naruto run, you will see an abundance of NINs. Trust me...

as a Hrothgar, my upper body could almost kiss the floor while sprinting.

I prefer Rogue running animation

[Calypsx]

Waiting for them to add the much more appealing Thief instead.

[Grifften]

As someone who used to main Ninja, I'm kinda disappointed with where the job is and how it feels. I've always been a Rogue/Assassin/Thief class in MMOs, and while I do slightly prefer the Rogue/fantasy archetype, Ninja is still cool. Throughout HW up to ShB, I preferred it to most melee, it felt fast, unique, and needed. Now I'm kinda at a loss to play Ninja. Monk feels fast, brings big DPS, and is wanted. Samurai is more methodical, but feels impactful. Even Reaper, while not as fast, really feels like you're making a difference. Whenever I'm on Ninja I just don't get that same, cool, unique, and helpful feeling that I used to. Being a Trick Attack robot is not worth it. I feel like it takes sooo much more work for the same or worse benefits than pretty much all the other melee jobs. I love playing melee, and always have a tough time deciding on my main, and I'm still undecided on who to main(MNK, RPR, or SAM), but the sad thing is, for the first time since HW, I ruled out Ninja almost immediately.

[ZiraZ]

I will never understand why there still exist these archaic mechanics like Ten Chi Jin canceling if you move or Raiju getting removed if you use a weaponskill, or why Mug exists the way it is or why Bunshin is a random 90sec cooldown or why Phantom kamaitachi exists if you're going to hold it for a long time just to use it during trick anyways so it just feels like just another no name GCD.
I mean I get the idea behind it, they wanted to give it a physical thief/assassin phase and a magical ninja naruto phase with Raiju but it's just awkward.
I guess none of the devs plays the older jobs.

[AC9Breaker]

Nah, keep my naruto run.