The Sealed Dagger: A Ninja Guide

I’d like to be you for 5 minutes. That’s insane luck. Did they tweak drop rates or something? For years I never saw a capped malevolence. Everything else I did.

Well since I wrote this... in last 60 min, in like 8 runs, I got:

Max Malevolence on main
Max Ochu on main
Max Ta'lab Trousers on alt
Max Dampaning Tam on other alt

(I have 3 chars total)

That's total of 13 max augments between 3 chars in around 40 runs. So around 13/150, ~8.66% to get max augments (2.88% if we count that there are 3 items in pool)

I haven't made any statistic and before yesterday, last time I did SR was in 2018, so I don't remember anything from drops. Feels like I might be lucky here, but I'm not sure.

Save some RNG for the rest of us man.... :P

Yes that is really lucky in that time frame.

with the multibox multiplier it's not that lucky. you see max augs somewhat frequently, most of the time it's just not on the piece you're after.

Is this using the single (terrible) boss method or the x3 fights? I assume the latter, but wanted to be sure.

13 max augments in 40 minutes across 3 characters is not that lucky?

I must be really unlucky then. I don't see nearly that frequency.

40 runs not minutes.


x3

oh, well that changes it a little. :P

Apparently I can't read.

~50 runs now and I got 2nd max aug Malevolence on main and also Jumalik Helm. That makes 15 max aug in 50 runs across 3 chars. With 3 items in pool that would be exactly 3.33% to get item with max augment. Low sample size tho.

EDIT: Did 10 more. Got 2x perfect Samnuha tights on main and 2nd pair was in pool with perfect great katana.

By no means is this meant to be a definitive guide on the subject but after my last video on End Game Weapons one of the main questions was where Hybrids fit into all of this so I tried to do a bunch of parses in different buff situations to show the progression of how these go from bad, to good, to great to amazing. Thanks to Reain for doing the testing for Nyame R25 as it proved very useful for comparison and seeing how much of a difference it makes when going from R0 to R25. Also thanks to Serveroz for buffing me so I could do the parse and use of his Kraken club for the test!

SimonSes' Ninja hybrid spreadsheet has been available for a while now to check the average damage gap between R0 and R25 Nyame (or even to quickly create a plot of average damage vs R-level). If you know a bit of Python, then you can even confirm the detailed differences between any two sets.

I've plotted distributions for Blade: Chi damage using R25 (left, blue) and R0 (right, red) Nyame. This allows us to easily quantify the differences between the sets. It's interesting to note that an R0 Blade: Chi with a triple attack proc (or two double attack procs) does about as much damage as an R25 Blade: Chi without any multi-attack procs:


Low-buff:
Mid-buff:
High-buff:

For anyone using my Ninja gearswap file I've added a few more features to it. Brief video explaining the changes.

Any hopes and dreams out there for the empy+2/3 sets? Looking at initial stats, keeping expectations pretty low.

-head: could be cool IF didn't have to worry about positioning and the DW on the piece ._.

-body: ehh unless removes need to wear for migawari proc and/or adds a something new..

-Gloves could get more fun if they wild out a little more on current nuking route. (still bummed on relic head/boots flub)

-legs: counter on yonin..again would need something additional added to make worth the slot~ make yonin aoe enfeeb ninjutsu would be way more fun and no where near OP given current in-game debuffs and lack of scaling for ninja

-boots: guessing stay a macro piece unless wanna hand over some inquarta. hook us up w/some darkblade aoe action prease

I wouldn't count on them changing the effect of any of the effects of any of the empyrean pieces of any job lol.
I mean I would welcome any changes with open arms but I wouldn't expect them if I were you.

Head => could become nice for DW builds, and that's it I'm afraid.
Body => this could become a nice non-DT/hybrid TP piece. Imagine the Crit getting to between 7 and 10 and imagine getting >7% TA, or some QA. Then +20 acc/att and +10 to each stat, which will be pretty common on every piece. Could become interesting, right? And if it's nice to wear all the time, you can benefit from the migawari thing too.
Hands => more stats will make nuking better. Hopefully they will add some macc or mab as well.
Legs => they could become our best piece for pure accuracy but... meh.
Feet => Maybe Utsusemi+2 instead of +1, but I won't hold my breath for it.


Overall I'm not exactely overly excited for NIN empy+3. Will be very glad to be proven wrong of course.

Random ideas, not in the least bit expecting this, but they were creative with Darkblade so why the hell not:

Idc which piece (probably the feet), but would like an Augments "Utsusemi" effect. Applies a Phalanx/Damage Reduction effect to moves that ignore Utsusemi, based on remaining shadows at the time of the move.

Fast Cast or Ninjutsu recast Time-% on feet would be nice for Utsusemi

I would be fine with Body keeping it's Migawari properties, so long as it comes with other very good tanking stats. Too bad we already have Ashera, but a clone with some additional stats would be nice. High HP, DT-%, etc. Would be happy to see something like Migawari +1 or +2, where the effect wears off after several severe-damage attacks rather than just one (like Third Eye).

Add Elemental ninjutsu Day of the Week Affinity to hands to really beef up corresponding nukes. Keep the Futae and Elemental Damage+%. Add MAB, high MACC. Augments "Futae" effect increases amount of tools used by 2 instead of 1. Also allows Futae to be used with Enfeebling Ninjutsu, for a more potent debuff effect.

Put Augments "Innin" effect on Head. Starting value of Innin bonuses are doubled, max decay is the current value. Innin: Daken: Occasionally attacks twice.

The Legs are unusual. Normally, you can't counter with Shadows up, unless you parry an attack and get the Job Point Issekigan bonus proc. I would scrap Yonin Counter because it's somewhat useless, and replace it with Augments "Yonin" effect, and just make it a flat Retaliation when the Yonin is used. Would also put Issekigan Duration +30, for a longer "Battuta" JA. Would move the Tactical Parry from the feet to the legs, and increase the value.

I don't expect any of this, but you said hopes and dreams

Seconding the daken on head, if we gotta keep the innin/yonin position thing make those pieces really amp it up and either a daken boost or a large stp/ma is about the best way to do it, tgat or a large crit dng boost to compliment the crit rate boost.

Legs id just scrap counter for inquarta, the counter was fun when we had counter atmas but otherwise pretty useless, specially with it relying on accuracy on a JA that lowers it.

Honestly, the only pieces I care to see improved are the feet and head. The hands would be a neat bonus with MAB/Macc, but other than that, nothing else stands out as a piece I think would WOW me.

Hands just need proper nuke stats, im expecting the relic head treatment(minus the dumb aug issues) and maybe a dmg increase on futae.

Feet are a bit of a wild card, could do something with it but half expect the main draw to be more shadows, maybe theyll bring something shadow related over from the dyna weapon but doubt it

A few assumptions:
- I'd expect that there will be one piece in all of the DD job sets with WSD, same as AF/Relic +3. And probably (hopefully) not the same slots where the AF/Relic sets got their WSD+10% piece (so, not head/legs for NIN).
- For most of the reforged pieces, they often have tried to make them good for the same purposes the original AF/Relic gear was useful for. So, that might be a consideration.
- I'm expecting Empy +2/+3 to have pretty solid defensive stats across the board. Maybe not to the level of Mpaca/Nyame and Malignance, but pretty close at least for stuff like Meva/DEF/MDB.

With that in mind...

Head: Was a very good TP piece back in the day, so hoping for the same here by getting rid of the Dual Wield and give it strong DD stats (STP+10 and Quadruple Attack +3!). For augments Innin effect, either give more DA, or change that to Triple Attack + x%?

Body: This would be a good candidate for the WSD+10% piece. IIRC, the original Iga+2 body was pretty solid for WS, so maybe that's the path they take here.

Hands: The easy one, these are just begging for an upgrade to Macc/MAB/Magic Burst damage, to be NIN's ultimate nuking hands.

Legs: The Yonin+ enhancement and Evasion seems like these are supposed to lean toward tanking, so perhaps give them an interesting defensive stat like Damage Taken II -10%?

Feet: I like Buukki's fast cast idea, and I actually do think we'll see one extra shadow from either the +2 or +3 version. I'd also like to see a Movement Speed 18% piece (unless they do an ilevel version of Danzo Sune-Ate for SAM and NIN), so that would fit well here (maybe 12% on the +2 and 18% on the +3, similar to other jobs like THF RNG GEO for their AF+2/+3 feet). Nice little utility piece.

I also wouldn't mind some Subtle Blow II gear on NIN. It's sort of ridiculous to me that one of the jobs with the most Subtle Blow traits (and NIN even gets it as a merit ability) gets only ONE piece of SBII gear (Mpaca Legs for SBII+5), outside of Su4/5 B path weapon. I'd also sorta hate to see SBII show up in legs since that's the one slot where we already have SBII gear, so perhaps stick something like SBII+10 on head or body?

What they really should do is change Myoshu: Ichi to give SBII instead of normal Subtle Blow, or introduce a Myoshu: Ni spell that is SBII. But, in the absence of that approach it would be nice to see some SBII on the empy set.

ya grand scheme/dream I'd love to see nin get more party utility but don't think that'll happen here.

gambit/raykke action w/ele debuffs
some sort of aoe buff/debuff
debuffs from shuriken/dakken
something...

Would love change up hyper buff meta and spread the love around a little with other jobs. Give other jobs you generally dont see as often, more lime light (let bst pets aoe buff pt etc).

Given most "support" jobs can crank out solid dps, don't think it's too big of an ask but probably not on the radar for them in the slightest.

on the subject of ele nukes, do we know how much -ele they give or even how long they last?

I personally say the head should keep the DW and get the ambuscade katana's effect or something else that augments dual wield on it. Eg , any DW over cap would be converted into triple attack. Nin hasn't had ws hands yet, so it's a candidate for insane hybrid hands.

I don't know about this. The hands are specific to elemental ninjutsu damage, so they expectation is they would carry this same purpose. Unless they just make it flat MAB.

Ninja already has Nyame along with other jobs, so I don't know if the need for a WSD+10% piece is even necessary anymore. Would have made sense pre-Nyame, but now, not so much.

I think one possibility that's liable to disappoint us more hardcore players is that pieces of Empyrean gear will continue to serve a similar functional purpose as AF & Relic with the 10% WSD, ensuring pre-Odyssey players have more non-DM stopgap options.

After all, they've already said that the +2 content in July will be entry-level.

That is true, they may still include WSD pieces for all relevant jobs due to Nyame being obtained in "harder" content, and JSE is always supposed to be accessible by all players.

There's also something that could be done with the combat skill stats on each set. Wonder how they go about implementing those, especially with Master Levels.

WSD in a set somewhere is one of their standard things for these sets atm and we're "supposed" to pick our nyame path even if in practice WSD beats other options for sheer utility.

I'm not saying it's my favorite slot for more wsd, but SE is liable to disappoint and most ws upgrades on af/relic I can think of are centered around head , body, and hands. Leg wsd does pop up from time to time, but we already have that, so I view it as a coin flip between a wsd body that's not as useful because of my own Nyame and hands that are incredibly useful because of them also having MAB to synergize with futae. Similar to cor feet basically. The relic gear has to compete with nyame, so I'm holding out a small hope that the stat bloat is made to at least compete vs Nyame.

-30, idr how long they last tho

That's another area I wish they would have paid more attention to. Not that it works out currently, but I wish Ninja could be used more as an elemental-support role that provides auxiliary nuke damage, tanks, or dps. Would have been fun to use on fights like Ongo. The lowered elemental resistance is too weak to matter or have any modern application. Instead, we just use BRD to crank up our INT and lower the monster's elemental resistances wherever GEO cannot be used.

Hey its alright I can see it now

Iga earring +3
Elemental ninjutsu resistance reduction +100

dw+2