Endgame: What Can I Expect?

Hey guys,

I am finally getting close to having my first level 75 job. A Ninja of course! I've been mostly DD in parties as my linkshell has a nice static with a Paladin. I wouldn't mind tanking at all for merits, etc. however.

I intend to dip into endgame if possible and I am pretty interested in places like Dynamis, Sky, Sea, etc. What will be my typical role in these places? Will I help off tank or simply DD?

Drama, ***, and noobs. Expect them.

As for your role, mostly tanking and kiting.

Sorry but from what I seen Ninja is not desirable just cause most of those zones you mentioned normally have aoes that ignore shadow's and such, not to be an *** but if your lv'in Nin just to do those events, stop.

I've always liked NIN/DRK tanking. A lot of people are 'PLD onry!' but I thought I held my own.

Sure nin/drk can work pretty nice but you need the set up and just by going "1st job" I assume not.. but nothing trying huh?

I suck at NIN, one time my LS invited me to a PT, only 2 ppl were non-LS, one was a *** I hate, playing PLD. Mages kept going low on MP, till finally she went AFK, me being NIN in PT with PLD, I was puller, so I pulled and tanked. We did alot better with my sucky NIN tanking than some ***'s PLD tanking. NIN has it's uses where it is better than PLD for tanking. I just dunno if she sucked at PLD worse than I sucked at NIN or what.

@ Val - I believe he's looking for constructive advice.

People underestimate NIN a lot so you might have to pull some teeth to do stuff. That being said, it's a capable enough tank on the majority of content, typically with /nin or /drk. You will want to work on a set which reduces physical damage taken (Arhat's Gi, Jelly Ring etc) because unlike in exp you can't really rely on evasion when your shadows go down (by all means cast shadows in it if you have them up already, but if you are going to take a hit you need gear to absorb it - and it's going to HURT compared to exp).

You will DD in some areas like Limbus but don't expect to DD much on the top end mobs like sky gods and such. Your style of tanking will progress from melee-style tanking to mage-style tanking on the vast majority of stuff (in Earth Staff etc).

Don't listen to people though: Ninja CAN tank just about anything in the game. Is it optimal? A lot of the time, no: but neither is Paladin and people are still happy to use them over the majority of the content. Just find an LS which'll let you tank and you'll have a lot of fun. Tanking is a lot more about the skill/temperament of the player than the job.

In Dynamis, most NINs I've seen are DD/emergency tanks. In Sky, you can help farm pops, but on actual gods/demigods (as I call Despot, Zipacna, etc.) you're uses will be limited. On Kirin, you'll be one of 2-4 kiters, if they stuill do it how I did it. The gods can use -ga spells of their element, as well as their mob type's abilities, some of which either strip or ignore shadows. Sea, IDK. I hate CoP so I never got it.

nin/nin? 7 Shadows! ;)

That'd be a badass soloing job.. lol

You can expect to die, get lost, and wait in line for drops. On a light note NIN/DRK is pretty decent at tanking some things in Sky. Dynamis not much for NIN there. I can't say much on Sea as I have only unlocked the zone and been there maybe 3 times. Do you have another job that is close to 75 that you could level instead? If not, Dynamis you will be in the DD party(more than likely the crappy one that is not included in the BRD rotation), Sky you will be usefull at tanking some NM and farming pop items, and Sea... again I am clueless. If you want to NIN gear onry I would advise leveling BRD or something that gets plenty or meripo invites and will be needed end game so you can get all of you NIN gear/merits that you want. Also consider SAM, as they can use most of the same gear NIN can, and could possibly give you an end game job that will not cost alot and gets quick invites for almost anything. Most LS will accept you unless they are elitist so just go and have fun!!

When I used my NIN more often I did a lot of tanking. In my sky LS I would tank for farming runs, I tanked all the smaller NMS and I tanked all the Gods. My LS also had good setups for doing it, I also went NIN/DRK a few times for Byakko. Most of the time I was just NIN/WAR.

In Limbus I did a lot of tanking on chip/coin farming runs and I had the chance to tank Omega a few tims on NIN/DRK. I never bothered tanking Ultima, we used our PLDS for that.

In Dynamis I was mostly a DD and back-up tank if ***hit the fan. NIN can be versatile but the perception has changed a lot over the years. With PLD gaining new abilities over the last 3 years or so, the trend seems to be LOLNIN, however I disagree. NIN still has uses for a tank and can be a solid DD. You just need to gear appropriately and know wtf you are doing.

Wups, /rdm***

The only time my limbus shell actually used tanks (ultima/omega only I think) they were nin/drks. I've seen both nin and plds used for namis. Sky a bit of both too.

Mostly depends on your nins and your plds. Like we had one nin/drk in my sky ls that kept losing hate to my thf even when I planted every ws onto him with TA. He also tended to die alot lol. So we tended to use plds after that since we only had one other nin and he hadn't finished gearing it yet.

Thanks for the comments and advice guys. I appreciate it!

>>>Tanking merit parties

Anyway, you'll be tanking mobs that justify a tank (and probably quite a few that don't) and DDing when it's fodder mobs. Depending on who you run with you might be called upon to act as main or secondary assist in Dynamis once you learn the mobs.

I can tell you for Dynamis you will probably help pull or kite statues and DD. Sky you'll probably be like... a back-back-back up tank. Sea I unno cause I jus started that myself!

Everyone else has covered how/what you will be expected to do, but just looking at your profile your are quite a long way from Sky and Sea access, so I would put them both (Sky more so for NIN) on the list of things to get done.

You may want to consider taking SAM or BRD (although you will probably never get off this job if you level it) to 75 as they will a better fit with most endgame events.

But good luck and have fun.

That's actually why I stopped at 59. If I ever play BRD again it will only be to 66 for Maat. I love bards, but just like other people, can't really stand playing it.

Several years ago nin used to be the tank for everything until plds got extra boosts and became main tank again. Its probably all been mentioned. My ls personally doesnt use nins very much but all linkshells do things differently. You could probably get the chance to tank some stuff, might want to invest in a /drk subjob (off the top of my head we use a nin/drk tank in the wyrm ks99). Somebody mentioned helping with statues in dynamis, we use plds to hold those but nin could do it too. Could probably hold unslept mobs in einherjar also. And if you get in a ls that kites kirin, I know people still do that! nin is usually a kirin kiter.

Otherwise you might just be used as a DD in most situations, which isnt bad, save you some exp loss.

Nonsense aside, you're going to be doing whatever some idiot sky leader wants you to. A competent linkshell will NOT accept a NIN75 only unless you've done a lot of social networking.

Dynamis: DD. If you get hate, recast ni to not die. Ideally you want to be wearing full damage gear with no respect to evasion or damage taken.

Limbus: Same as dynamis in normal zones, can tank /drk using a stun/bind/sleep rotation to keep hate on omega or ultima. When tanking /DRK, use a terra's staff or earth staff instead of katanas. As mentioned, use damage taken- gear over evasion gear if shadows are down.

Sky NMs: Tank /DRK.

Sea NMs: Tank /DRK or /RDM.

Einherjar: Same as dynamis.

The problem is that in the DD situations, a real DD will fit the role better as hate changes enough your extra shadow and ability to evade are worthless. They maintain the same defensive capability over time while doing more damage. In tanking situations, a PLD will put out damage through atonement and a RDM will stay alive better. Depending on the threat to tank, most will opt for one of those 2.

Ideally, you'll get in a half decent sky shell and get to experience some of endgame and snag your byakko's and other key items while you level a real job to join a real linkshell. Pay attention to what's most fun for you about NIN, the great part of the job is that it can do everything. I'd recommend leveling MNK or WAR if you enjoy DD tanking / RDM or DRK if you enjoy soloing or /DRK tanking. Experience from NIN will make them easier to get used to, and you'll be widening your usefulness to potential linkshells dramatically.

Generally if you aren't feeding tp (ie low manning) nin is a better tank as keeping shadows up is pretty easy generally and without people melee mobs most wont use tp moves often. While nin/drk offeres better hate and the possibility of evading the mobs. And stuns and ***too always nice. /rdm occasionally.

Plds generally will be better when you are feeding tp as moves will be used shadows will go down and at that point a nin has the survivability of most mages. While pld can block and even use the blocking to get utsesmi back up. Not to mention atonement if you are meleeing

If you're concerned about dying, use a RDM tank.

If you're not:

If melee DD is viable use a SAM tank.

If it's a mob like Omega or Tiamat where melee DD is not viable the entire fight(resistant forms/flight), use DRK and combine melee damage for hate when viable with hate spells when not.

RDM absolutely shits all over PLD in survivability, while being able to maintain capped CE/VE. PLD's appeal is that any idiot can play it and it's a halfway point between SAM tank and RDM tank: Many people are scared to use SAM tanks on endgame mobs.

Well yeah. But I'm used to tanks that don't necessarily pay much attention lol.

this comic strip will illustrate what its like to level NIN, from 1 to 75, then you get to End-game...

I've always been a proponent of peoples freedom to level whatever job they enjoy - then find where it fits in the activity you are doing. Ninja is one of those limbo jobs that unless played extremely well, will just kinda get left out. I would suggest the following:

Haste Build
-Dmg taken build
+emn build
Lots of merits into elemental ninjutsu

1. Haste Build - you won't be able to rely on damage for hate anymore on the events you asked about (you'll be fine in dynamis, any DD job works fine there, just isn't optimal). You will need to be able to have the lowest recast possible because you can't afford to get hit. You will easily be able to kite things like Kirin, and you can tank things like Byakko with support (we used to have full time nin tanks before they fixed PLD) but shadows are your key.
2. -Dmg taken build - this was touched on earlier - Arhats gear, Jelly ring, Defending ring (ok, was kidding there) but there is quite a bit of gear that lowers the % of dmg taken, and those would be nice to stack up on for WHEN you will be hit, because it will happen.
3. +emn build - depending on your sub, you want your actions to give you the best Emnity return possible, because when they updated utsusemi shadows years ago and had them take away emnity from the ninja, it will become increasingly difficult to keep hate from your true Damage Dealers - that is why PLD is such a good tank now. Get as much of this gear as possible (Eris earrings, Hades Sainti, etc)
4. Elemental Ninjutsu is quite overlooked for effectiveness for a couple reasons. 1. Nobody really uses it - you'd be surprised how many ninjas leveling from 40-75 never use elemental ninjutsu for hate (hojo and utsusemi onry) and 2. People don't understand its benefits.

my advice is to get all the San spells, cap your merits in those, and make sure you are carrying the tools full time. work with your mages to lower elemental resistance for them and build yourself a Ninjutsu build not only for hate, but "decent" damage.

5. Even if you love Ninja, level another (how can I say it in a nice way)"useful" job for endgame events. Any of the Mage jobs will work, a support job, or one of the targeted DD jobs (SAM, RNG, THF etc). This will enhance your game experience by feeling you're really making a difference, rather than working super hard to just make a dent.

I leveled ninja YEARS ago because it was fun for me. With BLM, BRD, RNG among others, I don't even think about taking ninja to anything but Campaign and farming and solo'ing stuff for missions, etc. I hope you have fun though, with whatever you choose to do!