Leveling NIN solo?

[Neomage]

I hate blink tanking. I'm not really sure why, since I am just fine with blood tanking, but I just despise getting up there in front of the mob and spamming shadows and voke. Because of this, I have put off leveling NIN for a long, long time. Recently though, it has come to my attention that I will need NIN as a sub job for certain situations.

Now with WoTG a lot of solo options have opened up, allowing me to level NIN without adhering to the cookie-cutter tank mold. I was thinking I might level on worms as much as possible, though other easy monsters might be aplicable
as well.

What I was wondering, is how should I face these mobs? It wouldn't be to hard to get a decent amount of Resist Earth gear then stand in the back spamming shurikens or elemental ninjutsu. For the really big single-target spells I could throw up a couple of shadows for extra protection. But is this the best way, or should I run up and melee the worms like I would a normal monster?

[Gyotsha]

The best way to kill worms is ranged attacks, so you can move out of range when they start to use -ga spells. If you fight them up close, you'll have no chance to get away from the spell and end up taking quite a bit of damage. The only problem with ranged attacks on ninja is that shurikens are kind of expensive.

I say just party. It'll go by A LOT faster. But if you're absolutely bent on soloing and rich, then go for ranged attacking worms. If you're not as rich, load up on earth defense and kill them up close. Killing them up close would be just like blink tanking in a party though :P With a lot more downtime though.

In the end, I think it'd be faster and less painful to party.

[Icemage]

Try out Dancer as a subjob. I think it offers NIN a very viable support job and greatly complements the areas where NIN is weak (offering healing, status removal, Drain attacks, and filling in for Sneak with Spectral Jig).


Icemage

[IfritnoItazura]

Level BST and NIN in tandem; keep switching back and forth to keep the levels close, with BST at same level as NIN or slightly higher.

That way, you can solo as NIN/BST and BST/whatever, with your pets as tanks. Don't even really need shihei if you play conservatively enough, though I don't actually recommend going that cheap.

[LadyKiKi]

Working on NIN subbing BST at the moment myself, I would say I've used about 8 stacks of shihei from 37 to 66. So it kinda works.