A sad ninja's tale...

[Iago]

After levelling WAR to 18 fairly painlessly, and then going to THF/WAR to 30/15, I proceeded to work on unlocking the Ninja job. I waffled a bit here and there, as I'd thought about DRK for a while, but I eventually settled on Ninja because they seemed pretty cool and I didn't see many of them around.

I assumed I didn't see many of them around because of the relatively rough quest with the leeches.. compared to the ones a single level 30 can solo... I suppose I was wrong, though.

With the leeches dead and a mad dash into Norg out of the way, I proceeded to become a NIN/WAR, soloing around Windurst. I was feeling pretty cool after level 10 with my two katanas, but I knew that I was around the vicinity of being able to use some ninjutsu, so I decided to take a trip to the auction house and have a look around. I knew about the consumption of powders for Ninjutsu, but I hadn't realized there was a scroll involved as well. Nor did I realize that scroll would either cost me 120,000 gil or a boatload of time/cash raising Tenshodo fame just so I could make another dash into Norg for the quest for the scroll (which in itself would require a lot of dashing).

My biggest problem is not doing research before going NIN of course.. or not doing enough, anyway. But from what I've read, it seems like that this job, despite its wide range of abilities, is solely useful and accepted into parties for blink-tanking. The cost associated with that practice is one thing, but just the idea of that being the primary role of the Ninja is almost antithetical. The natural assumption would be that they'd be a sort of supporting damage class like THF, with a few fun abilities. Standing in one place while chain-ninjutsuing Blink and provoking sounds a little un-ninjalike!

I like to think I'm a pretty patient guy.. I waited a few days to get an appropriate party together for the ninja quest without giving up, and while the prospect of getting all the scrolls is a little daunting, it's the whole playstyle of the ninja job that has me a little down in the dumps. Is the job completely hopeless without blink-tanking? Is that what a party expects of a ninja without exception? Is anyone remotely successful without going this route, or do you just get laughed at? And to the blink-tankers out there, is it really worth it? To spend 10,000 gil per party session to do the same job a paladin can for free? Yes, I know there is less downtime associated with Blink, but what's your reward and gratification for burning all that gil? Everyone levels, but they go levelling while you go gil farming afterwards? Seems like it'd be slower in the long run...

Thanks in advance for any responses!

-i

[fyrewyre]

heres my 2gil:

Think outside the box.

theres more ways to use a ninja, they are a subjob and in knowing that theres not too many people that know things or how to sucessfully use one without resorting to asking someone else how to use one. in my opinion, they can be used as a tank, ranger (throwing weps- they can attack from far away), traveling support (some areas you will NEED that invij and sneak lol), and other things (i am still uncertain as of yet). if theres no time to get an attacking monster off of the main tank or WHM (in severe cases) then the taunt/cure and blink device comes in handy. if you need to get somewhere and your party is made up of purely mediocre classes (RNG/BLM, BST/WHM, DRK/SMN, WAR/BRD, and you) then you can sneak them to their destined target (get the others to haul ass and explode on a monster, use invij once they bounce, or pull the monster away with ninjutsu)to get the job done (with a prayer of course) so in my opinion, they are a makeshift/underestimated class. in conclusion, there are many ways and much potential with a ninja so youwill have to explore them all. :D