The Sealed Dagger: A Ninja Guide

Wasn't sure...was just looking at the dates. I have no idea what's considered good or not now. Just wanted to make sure that's what I should aim for.

C. Palug Stone > Jukukik Feather

That needs updated. There hasnt really been any new gear for ninja besides malignance set. If any pieces of that is now in any WS is beyond me. Just glancing I'd say no.

Besides cait Sith stone and aurgelmir orb for ten, I don't think much has changed. Enmity set you can use date shuriken without blinking anymore (yay?) Shoulda been WSD and FC as well so we never have that issue with any other sets but whatever.

And I have R15 Kikoku as well and it is NOT a "monster" exactly. It can put out respectable damage (24-33k is what I was seeing with capped buffs), but that's really not all that impressive compared to other jobs. Ten with Heishi can hit around 28-34k or so, so it's just an easily accessible option for consistentl DPS. Metsu also chains with itself and with a max tp set and appropriate buffs you get 1000% every 2 rounds, so it's a cool spam weapon for sure. Still think R15 Heishi is going to put our better numbers but it's really not that big of a difference overall.

Also Gere Ring from high tier Odin, BiS gear for TP and several WS.

Otherwise, yeah, not much else new aside from Cait ammo and Malignance (great option for DT/hybrid sets, but won't beat ideal DPS TP/WS gear) since reforged relic armor (of which legs are the standout and really the only must-get piece of the set, assuming you don't feel nuking head is a must). Prior to that was Omen and reforged AF gear.

Well ninja does get Odr Earring, which I'm not huge on Blade: Hi optimization but it could be BIS for that? You also have that new belt from domain invasion but it probably is just niche and doesn't change any of the main page sets

Oh yeah, I do have Odr in my Hi set. It's also interesting for Empy AM3 crit TP builds. Good call.

Thought of a few other ones too:
Epaminondas's Ring from AMAN Trove (and AH-able). Great for single hit WS, but IDK that it's like some huge necessity, since there are other good options that are all pretty close. Karieyh +1, Regal Ring, Gere, Ilabrat...

Domain Invasion has a couple other more niche pieces: Hnoss Earring (ninjutsu skill+10) from Domain Invasion is a slight improvement over Gwati Earring (macc+8) for enfeebles/max macc. Audumbla Sash (SIRD-10%/PDT-4%) is a nice tanking piece.

The items crafted from Domain Invasion Wyrm Ash aren't bad for NIN either, though IMHO far overpriced for the minimal additional value they add for NIN: Skrymir Cord+1 for ninjutsu nukes, Gerdr Belt+1 for a DW/crit/STP waist option (niche sets), Balder Earring +1 maybe a contender for TP?, Aurgelmir Orb/+1 I assume is best Blade: Ten ammo.

A few of the Ambuscade weapons are good for NIN. Tauret is often BiS offhand, and Naegling/Savage Blade often outdoes any katana. Gokotai is a good non-RMEA katana mainhand, or solid offhand (though generally still losing out to Kanaria, Tauret, Fudo Masamune - winner depending on situation) - though for someone with RMEA mainhands, not a big priority.

So, that probably brings the list of noteworthy NIN items (post-Dyna Divergence) to:
Gere Ring (Odin) - TP, WS
C. Palug Stone (Cait Sith) - WS
Malignance set (Lilith) - DT/hybrid TP sets
Epam. Ring (AMAN Trove) - single hit WS
Orpheus's Sash (AMAN Trove) - hybrid WS, nukes
Tauret (Ambuscade) - offhand
Naegling (Ambuscade) - mainhand alternative to katanas
Gokotai (Ambuscade) - non-RMEA mainhand option, acc focused offhand
Odr Earring (Domain Invasion) - Blade: Hi, crit/acc TP builds
Hnoss Earring (Domain Invasion) - Ninjutsu
Audumbla Sash (Domain Invasion) - tanking/PDT
Wyrm Item crafted stuff (niche at best, Wyrm Ash crafted/AH and very pricey for now) - see above notes on specifics

Anything else I'm missing here?

(note, edits made to the above list as people noted some additional suggestions below)

As someone coming back to ffxi this is VERY helpful. How is the soloability of these events (mainly htbf)?

Until nin it is better with it's own aeonic than with a ambu weapon, I'm not taking nin seriously. I mean, I'll load up with it to do some ***if needed. But otherwise, *** man.

Domain Invasion is made to be solo daily content, takes 30-40 minutes to max out your 80 daily point cap. The "good" items like Odr Earring and the SIRD/PDT belt are 1000 points, so can get one in under two weeks of doing dailies. The skill+20 earrings are 600 points.

Lilith HTBF on VE is indeed 'very easy' to solo. Drop rate is bad, but not so bad to be not worth pursuing. E is soloable too, but adds some nasty stuff like dread spikes. Given the choice between the longer and riskier E fights and the dead simple VE, it might be more effective for most to just do VE and tag with whatever TH you can use from gear, THF sub, or THF main. If you can manage a party for D/VD, awesome... but there will also be a lot of competition for drops along with the better drop rate.

Odin and Cait are trickier to solo (but do-able, depending on job), and drop rate of all items is horrendous. Probably better off getting in a party and doing on D/VD, to be honest.

AMAN Trove is pure luck with the monthly keys, but is essentially designed as solo content (yes, the mimic CAN be fought and killed, but very hard). At least the event-exclusive items are AH-able, which is probably where most people get them due to the wildly random nature of rewards from the event.

Ambuscade is Ambuscade. You CAN make progress solo/lowman, but ideally you'd be best off getting at least a few players and doing Intense (Volume 1) on N or higher, using Abdhaljs Seals to get 3x points. If you get a decent group going just a few times over the course of a month, you'll be able to cap out items to upgrade a weapon or two a month no sweat. Final stage weapons also require one pulse/shiny weapon (very low drop rate from past events like Meeble Burrows, Voidwatch, tier III Escha-Zitah) does not have to be same weapon type - for instance, could use Coruscanti (VW pulse dagger) to make an Ambuscade katana. One is also available for free after obtaining a cumulative 170 points from Deeds of Heroism (monthly ROE)

When you have zero of the possible drops, it's totally worth to do VE, with some form of TH of course.
Once you start having a lot of gear and you need the last 2-3 pieces I'm not sure I'd call VE still worth it.
You could be lucky of course, but you could require over 300 runs, so... it's pretty grindy.

Kinda depends on the Queues on your server too, those can create frustrating slowdowns in your rush to get all the items.


Caith Sith up to D can be easily soloed by PUP with average gear.

Odin up to D can be easily soloed by RDM but it requires decent gear and it takes a bit to get used to it. (well you can solo VD too on RDM but that requires VERY good gear and it takes a lot of time and a bit of luck, wouldn't call it efficient to farm)

Alexander can be soloed up to N by pretty much any DD I think, unless your gear is bad (which means fight will last a bit too much).
It's a type of fight where your trusts will end up of MP quickly so you need to be fast, or you'll find yourself without them being able to heal you.
If you find out N is taking too long just do E until your gear is better.

I started out my Lilith farming on VE and it was miserable. If you can figure out a way to do E it’s much better, IMO. Just use the gyve trick if you are having trouble (engage Lilith, fight her until she spawns a gyve, change targets to the gyve and TP on it and just WS her until she’s dead.) 1/75~ on VE armor drops, got the other 4 on E in about the same amount of runs maybe a little more.

Didn't try THF method since I spammed it on SCH/THF solo E.
How long does the fight last with [THF-Fetter] Method? Also, how hectic it is? my THF friend doesn't check forums.
Thanks in advance!

Gyve method solo for me was about 8 minutes including zoning in summoning trusts etc. My THF has tauret and gear I have from DNC, no reforges or anything like that.

Panaceas, while expensive when you consider how many runs you end up doing, are really important. Especially if she does moonlight veil...moonlight veil followed by a subjugating slash will kill you if you don’t panacea the magic def down off. And depending on how you position yourself between her and the gyve, charm is still a threat. I had many runs when she got me with charm and it was a wipe. She just loves to ready allure as soon as you ready evisceration and are animation locked...

All that said...Can be pretty hectic and takes a few runs to get the feel down.

For the sake of comparison, I got all weapons and 3/5 malignance in around 250 runs with varying levels of TH (most were TH8+), 99% of those runs were "E", a bunch were "VE" and a couple of N (spitewarden kill) and one D.

Got the majority of the items in the first, I dunno, 30 runs? 50 to exxagerate. The last 2 pieces didn't want to drop.
Got them both in ~6 VD runs (SAM solo SC method, TH4)

Make of these numbers what you want, it's just what I experienced.


@Katriina
The Gyve method on E with THF is really easy. I did die a couple of times, but it's mostly very safe (well more than a couple of times, but I'm not including the first runs where I had to "learn" how to do that).
My killtimes were huge at first (my THF had very very bad gear), around 10+ mins
Towards the end I was around 5+ mins kill, with some occasional runs being faster.
I was using Shark Bite and Mandalic Stab as WSs to avoid healing Lilith. (and some occasional SA Rudra when I was sure it wouldn't have created a SC)
The damage from Mandalic and Shark is nice. Lilith takes reduced damage from Light SC but it's still additional free damage so why not.
I guess if you have Tauret MH you could just spam Evisceration though.

Orpheus's Sash is also BIS for Hybrid WS and is a conditional swap for NIN Nukes, depending on if distance bonus applies.

Editing my above post to add that to the list - thanks!


Regarding the high tier fights, some comments in the context of someone (a) wanting stuff for NIN, and (b) not presuming what non-NIN jobs they have:

Cait:
This is a fight where NIN is actually a REALLY good job to act as DPS for N~VD parties. I think I'd want to use it in my ideal party setup, TBH. Migawari is a huge benefit to save you from one hit kills; I've often had runs where non-NIN DPS died, but we won without issue just due to the NIN continuing to do damage. My usual group does D with core jobs below:
- PLD main tank (RUN would absolutely be great too)
- WHM
- NIN (me!)
- buff (usually GEO)
- buff/DD (usually COR)
- and a flexible 6th slot for another DD or BRD or something

If you don't have an ideal group, can just bump difficulty down (say, do N with a trust healer if you have no player healers around, or if your DDs aren't as strong).

Odin:
Personally, I don't really do this one melee style. I've normally done D+ with PUP tank, SMN x2 for DPS, RDM for enfeebles/dispels, COR. 6th slot has some flexibility, and we usually just bring a backup tank to hold/take turns tanking, for times when the puppet is one-shotted by Zantetsuken (yes, can just re-activate, kite, whatever - but it's more foolproof to use that extra slot for a backup tank). NIN could fulfil that backup tank role fine. Even if you die pretty quickly, the main responsibility is just holding onto Odin for a short time while the main tank (in my case, a PUP) gets back up and ready.

RDM solo is another option, but obviously not all NINs will also have a well geared solo RDM.

If you're looking to do a melee party: as I understand it, people often like a more low TP-feed setup, which NIN could contribute to (even if it's not as ideal as something like a MNK, or even SAM or something else with more Subtle Blow II access). I'm no expert on that setup though, never done it that way myself.

Alexander:
Yes, NIN can do solo on N if you have good enough gear, or E if that takes too long for your gear (and of course, can also be just fine as a damage dealer for a group on D+). For lowman setups, it does makes things easier if you have an actual player healer and maybe a refresher, as opposed to relying solely on trusts (2-3box, lowman group, etc.).

That being said, there's way less reason for a NIN to care about this fight, since none of Alexander's drops are meaningful to NIN. You'd be doing that fight solely to gear other jobs.

Lilith:

And for what it's worth, I got all weapons and 2/5 malignance in under 100 runs on VE, some of those runs with THF TH8+, and some with other jobs and TH4 from gear.

It's at least worth considering trying to get a couple pieces on the easiest level, since those will be helpful to use during the fight when you decide to step things up to E. And if you don't have THF, it's perfectly viable to try E on NIN too. TH4 from gear (e.g. Herculean, Chaac Belt, rarab cap) or /THF helps, and NIN is potentially even a little safer with good Meva from Kendatsuba (and Malignance gear itself), Migawari, etc.

Not sure where NIN's subtle blow ranks in comparison, but we usually do Odin melee style with either MNK or SAM as the main DD/tank, 3 main supports, RDM for silence and a WHM. Assuming NIN can kill it reasonably fast with max buffs and enough subtle blow to avoid the annoying TP moves, no reason it couldn't fill the DD/tank role that we use. Might just be slower than going the MNK or SAM route.

Why not do VD Cait with that set up? Or is there just not enough DPS?

Just depends on who's on, really. Sometimes we have a newer/less geared player joining as a DD, sometimes we lack a WHM and rely instead on a trust (and PLD Majesty cures), risk of supports dying to lv99 AoE one-shot (and then damage plummeting), etc. So D just tends to be a bit more foolproof and we usually go for that. But yeah, same idea works fine for VD.

Honestly, for VD my ideal setup would have multiple NINs since they're so much safer than other DDs thanks to Migawari and high Meva in our good TP gear. Something like RUN NIN NIN WHM BRD COR would be killer.


NIN is surprisingly kinda lame for Subtle Blow, since we get zero Subtle Blow II gear aside from Divergence B path katana. It's dead simple to cap at SB+50 thanks to trait/merits and commonly used TP gear, and Yurin: Ichi does help add SOMETHING for inhibiting mob TP gain (though it's a lot worse than MNK's Penance/Chi Blast, due to variable duration and potential for resists, and lower effect).

But yeah, it frustrates me that a job that's supposedly a Subtle Blow master based on the traits/merits is actually worse than most jobs. They really need to make Myoshu give Subtle Blow II, or give NIN some SB II gear.

To your point though, yeah, no reason NIN can't still fit into that kind of setup and play the same role as your MNKs and SAMs even if they get a bit less SB and a bit lower DPS. Same concept, and capping at SB+50 should still be fine (or, on the off chance you have a NIN with B path Su4/Su5 katana, even more SB).

Not trying to knock NIN, but I have done a bit of Cait VD and never seen any DD just random get one shotted. What does Migawari save you from? Really just wondering cause I have not run into the problem.

Level ?? Holy. Sometimes it's a non-issue or people resist, but I've often seen party members eating dirt because of it. Maybe they just need to use a higher Meva set or something.

I've just found it to be a much lower risk for NIN, without a huge hit to DPS potential, so I bring NIN due to my comfort with the job and a pretty good opportunity to use a job that I like. Many times I'm still swinging away with my PLD tank surviving, but a dead BLU or COR or THF or MNK on the ground next to me ;)

Edit: Also, we tend not to have a setup using both Earthen Armor + Scherzo, which I gather is something others do? As well as not needing stuff like RUN One for All/Valiance, WHM Sacrosanctity, sometimes we have GEO COR and no BRD for Light Carol, etc. We tend to just zerg the crap out of it on D with what we have on, and drop rate isn't that disappointing really - got my ammo, SMN friend got his stuff, etc.

Hmm I guess RUN tank over PLD really helps keep its damage down. I could see with a PLD tank having it be more a problem.

Once Cait Sith does benediction on VD, he gains a massive spike to magic accuracy. So, it is very possible (and likely if the fight drags on) that someone will get one shot. There are ways around it: stacking light carols w/ bard, run roll w/ cor, earthen armor w/ smn. Do all of these, and you can go quite a while without dying in phase 2. Accuracy can also be an issue if your entire party isn't geared like crazy, VD cait sith has a huge jump in evasion from D.

*edit: Didn't even mention RUN's JAs, because those are near required.

Normally just use Two light carol and RUN, never really run into a problem, but can definitely see the value in having different set ups.

A monk in full malignance using Manta at start will walk through Level ?? Holy most of the time unless Cait rolls high number dice. It's an easy two minute solo on Normal also. The stone is a pretty common drop, but I've managed to get the crown and Hammer solo in less than 15 runs. Ninja is a fine job to use for Cait but he also rips through shadows due to his attack speed, so it's not always the best option for DPS on him. Especially if you're not capping subtle blow.

Re: shadows getting stripped fast, that's true. But if you have an actual tank, NIN has worked great for me in party setups and shadows aren't very important to this fight when Cait isn't directly targeting you.

I was talking about strats as NIN, without assuming NINs seeking gear from these fights have specific other jobs like MNK with full Malignance set (and you also have MNK RMEA, Buukki). But sure, if someone has that stuff, knock yourself out on those N solos and MNK works well.

That being said... if you have 5/5 Malignance and can do it on MNK, don't really see why it should be that much different in approach for a 5/5 Malignance NIN. Same Meva/DT; MNK does get some help from higher DPS and some counters but that shouldn't be a strategy-killing difference. While MNK is relying a bit more on Subtle Blow/Penance to reduce Level ?? Holy use as much as possible and also take some advantage of high HP/Mantra, NIN has the advantage of being able to simply survive Level ?? Holy with Migawari. The real limiting factor is whether your trusts/supports die on a strong post-Benediction Lv99Holy (which is also a concern for MNK... but yeah you might have to deal with a couple more JAs on NIN than you would on MNK, even with SB+50 and Yurin).

If you're seeking other alternative jobs that can solo Cait, PUP is great on that fight. Steam Jacket is amazing to reduce damage from repeated same element, so what difficulty level you can handle is really just based on how good your pet DD/hybrid gear is (with Overdrive and pretty good gear, D should be fine).

I think Migawari can be quite nice for Caith Sith's Holy in theory.
In reality I'm not sure, you need to defend against it for the whole party, so unless you go with a pt of 6 NINs I'm not sure it's gonna make a difference.

When I did it on VD the fights were zergs and were only a couple of minutes including Benediction. Despite fully healing once Caith Sith has low HP.
We were handling Holy with Earthen Armor + Scherzo, maybe we were avoiding Shell5 on purpose to proc EA+Scherzo?

I don't remember how we were dealing with Cait Sith's powerful enlight. Can it be dispelled? Because I remember BRD and SMN were spamming Dispel (I was /RDM on BRD for that).
Our only DDs were Hybrid RUN and THF, RUN never lost hate and they were doing SCs constantly.

I'm just throwing out something that has worked well for me as NIN. Our PLD tank tends to survive just fine, and backline/support can always RR if they happen to get blasted. It's the other frontline DPS jobs that I've gone with who tend to get killed when Migawari saves my *** and lets me keep on swinging.

Gives some more flexibility for not needing RUN JAs + Earthen Armor + Scherzo. Maybe it isn't the optimal VD strategy with non-NIN jobs, but again... this is the NIN forum, it's nice to be able to suggest ways you can contribute to a fight on NIN.

Has anyone gotten the opportunity to tank anything interesting on ninja lately? Like Halphas or whatever. I wanted to try my hand at a few AAEVs but didn't know how well it would handle arrogance incarnate