Equipment choices after Arhat's.

[Tifa]

I'm nearing level 70, and after browsing the AH I'm having difficulty deciding what the best buyable equipment is for a 75 NIN. Keep in mind I build my gear completely based on Evasion. The things I have considered at this point are:

Katanas: Fudos.
I'm quite confident these are the best buyable katanas available.

Hands: Still wearing a combination of Praefectus Gloves and Arhat's Tekko. I'm really wondering if there's something better to get here. Isn't there a lv72 piece with +10 evasion?

Legs: Still using AF pants at night and Arhat's Hakama during the day. What are good options for later on?

Feet: Using Arhat's now. Rasetsu any good? Or how about the new JSE?

Rings: Breeze Rings look good. Other than this I have no idea.

Earrings: Melody+1 and Elusive.

Back: Bat Cape.

Waist: New rope thing from ENM has 10 evasion I think.

[Grizzlebeard]

My plan for the future is:

Head: Optical Hat (currently pin)
Neck: Evasion Torque (no plans to replace this)
Earring1: Divine Might earring (currently Dodge/Erris)
Earring2: Elusive (currently Dodge/Erris)
Hands: Rasetsu +10 evasion is nice even if the other stats are poor. (currently Arhat's +1)
Ring1: Mermaid (will probably keep this and swap in Breeze if needed)
Ring2: Jelly Ring (Breeze when needed)
Waist: Warwolf or Speed if I ever get lucky because I don't see myself affording the latter anytime soon (currently Lifebelt)
Back: Anemit +1 (currently Anemit)
Body: Scorpion Harness (barring Kirin's nothing else I'd want)
Legs: Arhat's +1 (don't plan on replacing these)
Feet: Fuma Sune-ate (currently Arhat's but would like haste and agi bonus more)
Weapons: Stun +1 (too lazy to look up name, Mamushito I think. Will craft my own, alchemy 89 currently)
Range: Unguar (sp) Boomerang (currently bomb core and wondering if evasion plus is worth loss of 12 Atk)

My initial feeling was upgrade to Rasestsu but after looking at it closely I realised most the bonuses on it would not be worthwhile for me as ninja unless I plan to tank without shadows. All the spike and counter effects won't fire until my shadows are down, just like Blaze Spikes on Nin AF1 body. The gloves, however, are the diamond in the rough with a nice +10 evasion. I wouldn't buy the +1 version though unless I had a glut of gil I wanted to throw away.

The new Yasha gear has plenty of Int and spell interupt bonuses but little in the way of enmity and no evasion if I remember correctly. These reasons and the fact it is so highly priced due to its newness on my server pretty much rules out this being bought. Too be honest, I'd struggle to find a particularly nice piece among it.

My only real head scratching point is earrings. Elusive on my server are 1 mil a piece and I can think of better ways to spend that other than adding +2 evasion over my Dodge. As I've said I'll try and get the Suppanomimi earring but that still leaves 1 slot. Maybe bite the bullet and get an Elusive or invest in an Erris +1 or even an Agi earring. Not really many other choices except Triton+1 and Fenrir's earring and I currently only have 1 whisper.

[LionhartPLD]

Originally posted by Grizzlebeard

Legs: Arhat's +1 (don't plan on replacing these)

uh, Byakko's Haidate

[Russta]

It won't be long until you realise that an evasion build Ninja is unnecessary and counterproductive in the majority of EXP parties.

[Grizzlebeard]

Originally posted by LionhartPLD
uh, Byakko's Haidate

Yeah, I'd have put these down, however, due to being a Euro player and being restricted by timezones my chances currently of getting these from Sky or doing Dynamis runs for AF2 is severely limited. Good thing is there are plans to create a Euro HNM LS on Fenrir so this may hopefully change in the future. Until them, my gear choices are limited to items I can farm or purchase which coming from Everquest always leaves me feeling slightly gimped after spending years raiding for the equivalent of Rare/Ex gear in every slot. :sweat:

And Russta, the reason for the Arhat's over other choices is the healthy chunk of enmity I gain for xp parties. I appreciate it's situational depending on my role and the type of mob tanked. Also, were I not tanking the gear choices would be totally different.

[Tifa]

My EXP equipment is a lot more damage focused than the evasion gear I am thinking about for sky tanking. I'd like to keep this thread talking about good blink tanking gear however.

[Ivadell]

the key to good Blink tanking is this. . .fight monsters that are not IT++ or else you will get destroyed trying to evade. Meaning trying chaining VT's and low IT's. You'd be surprised at how many attacks I evade fighting a VT or low IT, but I'm close to unlocking the secret of Parry. Capped parry > then evasion or shadows.

[kisada]

Originally posted by Tifa
I'm nearing level 70, and after browsing the AH I'm having difficulty deciding what the best buyable equipment is for a 75 NIN. Keep in mind I build my gear completely based on Evasion. The things I have considered at this point are:

Katanas: Fudos.
I'm quite confident these are the best buyable katanas available.

Hands: Still wearing a combination of Praefectus Gloves and Arhat's Tekko. I'm really wondering if there's something better to get here. Isn't there a lv72 piece with +10 evasion?

Legs: Still using AF pants at night and Arhat's Hakama during the day. What are good options for later on?

Feet: Using Arhat's now. Rasetsu any good? Or how about the new JSE?

Rings: Breeze Rings look good. Other than this I have no idea.

Earrings: Melody+1 and Elusive.

Back: Bat Cape.

Waist: New rope thing from ENM has 10 evasion I think.

Best buyable evasion gear? Hmmm

You're right about the fudos, though they are weapons and not armor.

As far as your considerations...

Hands : HQ Rasetsu Tekko, yes its lvl 72. nq = 10 ev, hq = 11 and you get counter +1.

Legs : i believe that your combo is the best one, i personally stuck with hq arhats hakama cause i hated switching, and i liked enmity more.

Feet : HQ arhat's > HQ rasetsu here, IMO. the 2 enmity will be more important than 6 attack. if you like agi rather than evasion though, fuma sune-ate is better than both of those because of HP and haste.

Rings : breeze rings are awesome

Back/earrings : bat cape and HQ melody earrings are the best you can buy. However, I have heard a particular opinion of someone who thought that evasion bonus was greater than evasion skill. Though I can't remember it exactly, his argument was sound at the very least, moreso than any "evasion skill > evasion bonus" arguments I've heard before. Still, I can't say for sure, so if you're rich buy both sets, or if you wanna play it safe just use the level 60 evasion earrings.

Waist: Scouter's rope, what you said.

All that said though, I'd like to interject a little bit of personal opinion. If you try to add more agi rather than evasion, you'll be doing yourself a favor because your parry will skill up more easily. I think all of us know how difficult it is to raise parry, so if you can you should start early and work on it now. At end-game there are a ton of things that will seem to eat every shadow no matter how much evasion you have, and its in these situations where parry plays a great role in your success as a tank. With some decent agi, you parry A LOT vs the toughest monsters, even with lowish parry. Mine is only 206 right now, and many times it seems as if I parry more in a fight than evade (against gods and similar level monsters).

I really wish I could go back in time and change my approach to leveling. Had I chosen a more aggressive approach earlier on (away from evasion and more geared towards attack), I'd have
been able to gain a lot more opportunities for parry. I shoulda ditched my evasion torque for the parry one from the start haha


It's better for you in the end not to overlook it, as it really is incredibly useful at the end.

[Omni]

Originally posted by Russta
It won't be long until you realise that an evasion build Ninja is unnecessary and counterproductive in the majority of EXP parties.

for which type of parties and from what lvl?
fighting weapons in ro`meave and at 72 they dont miss much even with an evasion build.

are we talking about 74+ when the mobs start conning a bit low and you can chain for 5+?

[Arien20]

Katanas: Unsho + Unji, i have both of these, and that stat bonuses are AWESOME. Yea, i noticed my evasion started to cap out it felt like as well, so i changed my gear to more attack, amemit+1 etc. But i'm tanking hnm's and whatnot now.

And yes, russta is correct about how useless evasion becomes.

My setup:

Katanas: Unsho + Unji
Ranged: Ungur Boomerang
Head: Optical Hat/ Genbu Kabuto if im getting raped by the mob, 15 vit is nice.
Neck: Evasion torque
Earrings: 2x Elusive until i can get into a divine might for supponimi
Body: Scorp Harness / Arhats for voke, until i can get an osode
Hands: Rasetsu tekko
Legs: arhats for voke, nin af at night. until i can get byakkos
Feet: Nin relic for merits, or if im taking damage for some reason, fuma's to swap
Rings: 2x Agi+4's, till some breezes hit AH
Waist: Warwolf Belt, Scouters rope isnt worth it to me right now, 5 mil for that? bleh.. warwolf belt is almost better in some situations.

[Kesai]

Hmm.. I wouldn't say + evasion is useless at all.

For tanking gods I like +evasion and +haste equipment with 2x mambo and march the best. I feel that hate (from sata) decay is alot less even though there is less +enmity in the equipment.

Recently I tanked Byakko with damage reduction and +vit equip. due to only one bard being available, and even though this setup has more +enmity I found hate was harder to hold.

For xp/merit party's at 75 you can use just about anything you want. For ranger pt's I feel going all +atk, +acc and using +atk food would be best. For more convential pt's I like +evasion/enmity and use sole sushi for food.

Nin's can have 3-4 sets of equip to use depending on the situation. Evasion, Damage Reduction, Attack, Haste (personally I just use Byakko's Haidate and Fuma Sune-ate for all sets. Not sure if Dusk gloves are really worth it so holding off for now).

[ZQM]

Originally posted by Omni-Ragnarok
for which type of parties and from what lvl?
fighting weapons in ro`meave and at 72 they dont miss much even with an evasion build.

are we talking about 74+ when the mobs start conning a bit low and you can chain for 5+?

I'm doing it in the mid 50's and it's working awesome as long as Hojo sticks.

And now I have static with a BRD. Elegy is AMAZING.

Can't wait to hit 59 to wear my Haubergeon for a total of -30 evasion, but my static is taking a break so that might be awhile. o:

[nayaru]

break (No, Thanks)

[Tifa]

Thank you for all the mature, informative replies. After getting this info, I've decided on my ideal setup for endgame tanking:

Katanas: Shiranui and a Fudo.

Ranged: Ungur Boomerang.

Head: Optical Hat.

Neck: Evasion Torque.

Earrings: Melody+1's.

Body: Kirin's Osode will be better than Scorp Harness, because of the AGI, and it seems to be agreed that parry is more effective than evasion during HNM tanking.

Hands: Rasetsu+1 is good for evasion, Seiryu's Kote for uber parrying capability.

Rings: Breeze Rings, no doubt.

Back: Bat Cape.

Waist: Scouters Rope.

Legs: Byakko's Haidate.

Feet: Fuma Sune-Ate, can't wait to get these, stats are hot.

Tanking Food: Navarin, Squid Sushi, and Jack-o-lanterns are all good.

[Arien20]

Just make sure you have some sort of enmity gear swap, or your gonna lose hate.