The Sealed Dagger: A Ninja Guide

Appreciate it! My main problem is the way my mind works I guess. I've been saying it in my head for sooo long the wrong way (18 years now lol). So even when I learn the proper pronunciation of things like Blade: Hi I end up quite often forgetting how to actually say it properly when it comes to that moment in my video's. I have several speech issues so recording the vids takes a lot of work for me to get around my stuttering, fast talking and mumbling... please continue to try to educate me though! Hopefully with enough reminding of how the words actually are supposed to be pronounced something may actually stick! :) Thanks for the patience everyone!

It's pronounced how it's spelt. The U at the end is very soft, but it's there.

Meh-Tsu

I've always pronounced it "Best-Weaponskill"

Not gonna lie, half the reason I watch your vids is for the linguistic gymnastics. At the beginning the way you pronounced things was like nails on a chalk board, but it's grown on me to the point where I find it oddly endearing. :)

Would you rate it up there with VereglowMNK and TerpglowDNC? Lol

If it's anything like other mythics, then no it doesnt work in offhand. This applies to Benison/Veil from yagrush and song duration from Carn, which both do not work in offhand.

I pronounce that Ku.

Nowhere near as triggering.

While we're talking about WS's anyway, my daytime earrings for Metsu/shun were Mache +1(replaced 1 mache w/ Odr).
Do you think the 2 DEX increase is worth losing 2DA on shun? I assume not and may be the same for the best ws in the game

I made the adjustments to my NIN nuke sets, with the appropriate merits. I had been neglecting nuking x2 on each SC because I thought it was worthless, but it actually accounts for a good bit of NIN's dps. The weapons made a huge difference, and I do swap to Gokotai/Tauret for nukes. Hitting 36-50k MB x2 is a lovely addition.

I started recently using NIN in Odyssey, and the job can wreck certain bosses (like the slime) with its nukes. Fun times dropping 24k Futae Nukes on floor1 mobs for half their life. Good stuff on the reminders Logical, NIN is fun again xD

Change of topic but opinion on Ryuo Tekko +1 vs Mummu Wrists +2?
Not sure on Ryuo path, D? But I assume A.

At first glance you'd be leaning towards Ryuo because of the nice base stats and the 5% Crit DMG.
But then you notice the lower AGI (without even taking into account the Set Bonus) and in the end I think Mummu+2 is gonna win.

Am I right?

Best nin WS is Tachi: Ageha in full malignance with ambu gkt. You apply def down to increase dps of real dd jobs in your party..

Caveat that I'm wary about the spreadsheet's accuracy for Blade Kamu, but...

I still find WSD-focused pieces performing well on Kamu, fairly close even for the slots where they may not beat a good STR/multiattack piece (like Adhemar +1). And my anecdotal experience about Nagi/Kamu being roughly on par with Nagi/Shun or Kikoku/Metsu is also based on a WSD-focused set - before I adjusted things to make a Kamu-specific set, I was just using my Ten set and it still worked well.

I did change my set from Hachiya Hatsuburi+3 to Adhemar Bonnet +1 (B) though, from this examination. They're very close for capped atk situations, so Adhemar pulls away if uncapped. May as well default to it.

I've been using this (certainly open to further tweaks/suggestions, but I think this is pretty solid):
ItemSet 374161
- Herc feet have WSD+7% and a little acc/atk (and like, MND+7 or something), strong non-DM STR/WSD work too
- STR/WSD cape
- Ishvara and Brutal are neck-and neck, NQ Lugra in daytime if you're OK with that hassle
- I don't have Epam ring, which is prob the ideal pairing with Gere - but Epam/Kari+1/Regal/Epona are all extremely close for 2nd ring
- Very good STR/WSD Herculean Gloves should be BiS (my personal Herc collection doesn't seem to outdo Adhemar+1 though)

Worth noting that Mochizuki +3 body, hands, and feet all perform pretty well too. If you're lacking atk, they can even be #1. When you aren't attack capped they don't win, but they are still solid. I kinda feel like I should make an uncapped atk set to play around with it (and with the recent discussion of Blade: Ku, Mochi+3 should work very well for that WS as well).


Generally for Blade: Hi it's Ryuo+1 D > Ryuo+1 A > Mummu +2. Ryuo D and A are very very close though, they're basically sidegrades.


Yes, it was tested (thanks again, Alexcennah!) and doesn't work from offhand. Read back on page 188 for recent discussion.

Interestingly, I had never actually tested the Mijin Gakure effect in offhand - just assumed there's no way that would work (none of the other "Augments _____" mythic effects do). So in the interest of SCIENCE, I just blew myself up with Nagi in offhand. No reraise effect.

If we trust Jp tests, Kamu has 125% attack bonus and 25% ignored def. With such inner buffs, it would be supper hard to not be attack capped with it, even with Trusts buffs. I mean even something with like 2k def like ilvl150 Warder of Courage

-20% from Dia III
1600
-25% from Kamu
1200

So you need 4422 effective attack to cap cRatio with NIN+2 neck.
So you need 1965 attack before inner 125% attack bonus. Idk maybe 1965 is not actually achievable with Trusts buffs, unless maybe with Qultada and Sylvie, but this is extreme example and there is still Tachi: Ageha that would easily solve this issue.

So unless JP tests are wrong, I dont see the point to make uncapped attack Kamu set.

How sure are you about this? Front page lists Mummu as Bis? cant compare just by itself bc you will use them with mummu ring, and w/o the both we would need to look at ryou+epam?

The 3 hands are all quite close. You're right to pay attention to set bonus, but that's likely going to be from Mummu +2 hands/feet in any case. Mummu Ring seems no longer worth it in almost any scenario, over Gere/Regal. But to be fair, front page set looks to have been made before Gere was around. There are several newer accessories that have replaced things in the front page Hi set:

Odr Earring
Lugra Earring +1 (r15)
Gere Ring
Sailfi Belt +1 (r15)

I'd also take issue with front page set's suggestion of Mummu Kecks +2 as BiS. Mochizuki Hakama +3 should beat those pretty comfortably.

Playing around some more, if you don't have really good Herculean Boots, I do get Mummu +2 hands & feet sets winning out by a very small margin over Ryuo +1 hands and some other foot option (Ken+1, Mummu+2, or a not as good Herc Boots). But if you've got strong augmented feet, Mummu never seems to be better than second place. Mummu +2 hands/feet certainly aren't a BAD option though, they are still pretty damn close, so if you don't have Ryuo+1 hands or a great Herc AGI/WSD feet it's totally reasonable to use the much more easily obtained Ambu gear for marginally lower WS damage.

I think the below set is a better updated Blade: Hi set for today as compared to the one on the front page:
ItemSet 374167


Just got around to checking this one out, and FWIW my set is almost completely the same as Logical's suggestions. Just one (minor) difference: for head slot, I use Genmei Kabuto. HP+55 advantage over Logical's suggestion of Naga Somen, plus significantly more def/VIT, slightly more Meva, and PDT-5% in case you happen to get smacked by some AoE (though Naga has MDT-3%).

Very important? Nope, not at all. But that's what we have, since we lack any ilevel Enm+ headgear (still mildly annoying to me that NIN isn't on Halitus Helm).

Also, sticking Enmity in your Utsu midcast set for tanking purposes is major for holding hate when tanking with Yonin and a Fudo Masamune C (best) or Nagi (not bad) mainhand. Be sure to use Andartia's Mantle and Empy feet for more shadows, but you can fill the rest with Enm+ gear. You just might want two different sets depending on whether or not you're tanking, since you may not want to get a mob's attention if your goal is to play as a DD (so perhaps Yonin up set = enm+).

I ended up doing some tests myself to check a couple of things for Blade: Hi with Heishi Shorinken MH.

Capped attack:
Ryuo+1 D (18867) > Ryuo+1 A (18824) > Mummu+2 (18750)

Uncapped attack:
Ryuo+1 A (12322) > Ryuo+1 D (12180) = Mummu+2 (12178)

Mummu+2 is considered with Set bonus active (i.e. best scenario for Mummu)
In the second test I wasn't completely devoid of att buffs, I was ~1300 att away from the cap.
I guess Ryuo+1 A gets a small edge because of the higher STR?
Not entirely sure why path D ends up on par with Mummu+2 instead of being slightly ahead though /shrugs.

I also confirmed a couple of other things in case someone is interested.


Kendatsuba+1 Body > Mummu+2 (set bonus active).
Why the *** do I have Mummu+2 in my lua?! I swear I tested it eons ago and Mummu was winning, to my big surprise back then.

Sailfi+1 R15 > Windbuffet+1 and pretty much any other option I tried.

I then proceeded to create a fake scenario to test Ilabrat vs Gere rings.
1) I artificially lowered the DEX so that I'm 25-30 DEX under the "cap" for dDEX (converting into crit)
2) I made sure Acc was still capped, unaffected by the lower DEX
3) I left att ~1300 under cap, so that Ilabrat's att would be meaningful

Despite all that I still get Gere Ring (11627) > Ilabrat Ring (11509)



It's also noteworthy how in the previous ~1300 away from att cap scenario, I get Adhemar Bonnet +1 (B) beating Hachiya+3 by a considerable margin °-°'
That's quite surprising... But I think I'm gonna keep Hachiya+3 in my set personally.

pfft my 6 enm herc head says Hello! Yeah ... I know dm aug haha.

Also I now amd going to code some .enm midcast sets for use when yonnin is up, that is a very easy rule to add and overall a huge functional gain. Means I can -enm in my other sets for when I dont want to be pulling hate.

I recently noticed the same thing with the Ryuo HQ's. Historically for some reason Mummu +2 were coming to the top but in recent test in the spreadsheet Ryuo HQ D is always there, Path A occasionally winning. The set I show as BiS on my spreadsheets is exactly as you show but I have Mummu +2 as my feet as I don't include dream augments in my sheets... however... what stats do you have on those Herc boots? Want to play with that and add them to my notes section on the Blade: Hi sheet.

Good call on the Kabuto... didn't realize there was another head with more HP! Looks like I have some Genbu's to kill. Will update the guide as this definitely is a better option.

Blade: Hi is a weird set. It seems every time I start from scratch on playing with it I end up with some different config. Used to always find most the Mummu gear + Ring near the top. Somehow with literally no gear available to us changing I'm now using only Mummu boots in my uncapped setup and 0 Mummu in my capped setup as BiS... as you change certain things in the gearset it really appears to affect the others quite substantially. One of the many reasons I love this darn spreadsheet lol

Ryuo+1 A doesn't occasionally win. I think it systematically wins when att is not capped. I guess this is because of the STR?
The margin of A winning over D is pretty small.
The margin of D winning over A is almost non existant.

I forgot to add that in the tests I ran above I was ~2% away from being capped in crit rate (that's because innin was active, I assume)

Oddly enough it's a little more confusing on my sheets then simply capping attack.

Dual Wield 0 with attack not capped - Path A wins (by 3 DPS)
Dual Wield 20 with attack not capped - Path D wins (by 4 DPS)
Dual Wield 40 with attack not capped - Path D wins (by 4 DPS)
Dual Wield 0 with attack capped - Path D wins (by 17 DPS)
Dual Wield 20 with attack capped - Path D wins (by 25 DPS)
Dual Wield 40 with attack capped - Path D wins (by 23 DPS)

Overall I've chosen just to go with Path D for the set in my Blade: Hi.

Link to my spreadsheets if anyone is curious. Keep them up to date with what looks to be current BiS to me: GitHub Spreadsheets

Re: Enmity Gear Set:

Is there a reason you didn't include or even mention Date Shuriken for enmity ammo? I see that it isn't listed in the spreadsheet, but it's a clear winner for an enmity TP set, enmity swap, and Sange RA for the ammo slot. At the cost of only 80 Domain Invasion points for a pouch, it is also incredibly easy to get.



It's fine to just follow the spreadsheets to introduce players to Ninja, but if you're making elite gearset videos, it would be best to do some research into pieces potentially not mentioned in the spreadsheet and to search the literature for information on mechanics for things you can't test yourself to avoid mistakes like misrepresenting Nagi's offhand potential.

Just got around to watching this video. Few things missed or at least worth considering when comparing minimal differences. I like multi purpose pieces sometimes if the difference in the main stat (Enmity) is very small but the other bonuses are useful enough.

Yes, Date Shuriken. Will keep you from blinking so much in between sets, those other pieces you will constantly disappear which could hurt your healer a bit

Vexer Ring +1 is probably a better option for ring 2 next to eihwaz overall. At least it's a close option after Supershear. It is 1 Enmity lower but Higher HP than both of the primary options you listed, and magic def bonus is nice.

Kasiri belt is a better multi use piece for ninja, as the evasion boost is huge, the HP is more than doubled that of Trance, the defense is higher, and you get some likely unnecessary haste at the cost of 1 Enmity.

The last piece that could be a question mark for enmity is Ahosi Leggings. It has less HP and enmity than Relic +3, but it has some other useful stats that make it worth considering. PDT-4%, higher magic evasion, resist elements +15.

Just sharing a few pieces I have in my set which is a bit more well rounded. I think high Enmity is great, but dipping HP can be an issue at times so getting more out of that is sometimes worth it.

Looks like this was an oversight/misunderstanding on my part. For some reason I had it in my mind that switching Shuriken would wipe TP but changing to non-throwing ammo wouldn't. Just did a test and sure enough changing Shuriken doesn't eliminate TP. Thanks, will update my video.

And to be clear, I'm not just following the spreadsheets... these are actually my sets that I've come up with since I've returned to the game. I've actually found and mentioned several differences between what I recommend and the spreadsheets/front page in almost every Episode. I spend 10-20 hours per week preparing for and researching facts for each episode. However, I'm also only one person doing this as a hobby... so things will get missed, need corrections, updates and clarifications as time goes on. The video's aren't meant to be the end all be all, just my view at that point at that time.

Yep Date Shuriken was an obvious one I missed due to a misunderstanding. Have corrected it.

In regards to the HP gear for replacing enmity. Yes I can understand how the HP is normally lower on the enmity set but the set I am usually trying to match in HP is my TP set and I'm able to do that with the set I mention so I don't make these sacracrifices. However, I am starting to tinker with some higher HP sets now which not only require higher HP in the TP set but in all of the sets so swaps like this are going to be critical in those sets.

Also wondering... are you using Gearswap + Windower? I only ask as both things would help with what your mentioning in your post.

1. Gearswap would help dramatically with how long your in this set. Your normally only in it for a split second as you midcast. This makes it less likely you would get hit in it and the need for the extra HP (above the tp gearset) and magic eva, -dt etc is much less useful in this set then. However if using ffxi native macros you will be in it for a full second opening the window for those actions to affect you dramatically.

2. Dressup - It's a windower addon that makes it so you and no one else on your screen blinks. Truthfully I don't know how people play without it, especially with people who constantly change ammo pieces like I do.

Doubt that you don't know about those two things but figured I'd throw them out just in case.

I have a nice low overhead ninja lua I made for gearswap if anyone is interested. Doesn't do anything fancy, just swaps your gear. Don't like all the other automated stuff.

I'd appreciate it if you could upload your lua so I could take a look and maybe pull out some useful stuff to incorporate into mine. I am quite happy with where my NIN gearswap lua is in terms of functionality for F-key toggles for mid-combat weapon swaps, DT/MEva panic buttons, TP mode cycling, and movement gear equip buttons, but I'm also very interested in improving my lua as much as possible without getting into the automated territory.


The issue is healers not properly using it to turn off blinking for other players, not NINs using it for themselves. I personally use it on myself for NIN so I can see my pretty skillchains go off, which is especially useful when swapping to Naegling on step2~3 to make sure Fragmentation went off before closing Light.

I've also recently updated my DressUp lua to allow main/sub/ranged weapon swapping for lockstyle purposes. The most noteable of which is finally being able to lockstyle Grudge , the new(ish) throwing weapon that SE introduced with a recent Mog Bonanza. Before updating the lua I was throwing Snoll Arms, which are modeled as grenades, instead of shuriken. Alternatively, you can use DressUp to lockstyle a bow/gun/instrument instead of a shuriken and throw those at enemies for fun (throwing a Gandiva because it doesn't get much use these days anyway).

Haha I love that the Grudge... really wish I had one as that would look so cool when Daken activates. I may have to play with this and see what results I get. Hadn't though to do this before. You are 100% right though, it's not just you using it... it's your whm's and everyone. It took me a few dynamis runs before I realized some of mine weren't using it and I felt sooo bad, had no idea how they had been keeping me alive. Recommend dressup for all! :)

A Guide To Ninja: Episode 5 covered my Macro and Gearswap setup that I recommend. It will show how to use this gearswap if you do choose to utilize it.

Gearswaps:
https://github.com/NextGames2000/GearSwap

Video on how to use:
https://youtu.be/HlasLzVvsTw

Thanks a ton. I've already found at least one useful thing I've wanted in my lua but never got around to adding (canceling high-tier Utsusemi if casting low-tier with shadows still up). This is probably near the top of my list of things I hate about NIN. All Utsusemi should overwrite all other Utsusemi if you're getting more shadows!

Also quick question: Your Waltz set is a midcast without a precast. I always understood spellcast/gearswap as: spells have precast and midcast. Precast goes on before spell starts, midcast goes on before spell finishes. Job abilities don't have a duration, so they are precast without a chance for midcast. Which to me means that Waltz is precast (same for Provoke, but I'm not sure so I didn't comment about it in my enmity video response earlier). I've asked a DNC the other week about this when I was putting together my Waltz set, and they confirmed to use precast for Waltz since its a JA. Real life is happening for another month or so for me so I'm currently unsubbed and can't test this right now, but are we 100% sure that it's precast or midcast? It should be easy to test considering it's a potency set. At the very least, setting it as precast will equip precast set before use and leave precast set on through midcast if there is no midcast set for it specifically. I put this question in open forum rather than a PM in case somebody else can use the information.