[Celeal]

Originally Posted by Omni

sadly, nins of yesteryear have ditched the evasion/hate builds for haste/dd builds. they forget to tank in order to push dd output. i suppose its a fair trade off.

tbh, I had partied NIN tank DD build that worked, and I had also partied with NIN tank DD build that failed. With those low defense mob in ToAU (which makes a lot of hate on DD), plus those nasty attacks from mob (that can screw up NIN tank easily), as a NIN I am really confused. It seems that the mobs design in ToAU is focusing on the weakness of NIN main tanking parties.

[Omni]

people monitor everything, it doesnt mean it serves a purpose. the only reason why the xp/hr counter arose is because some ppl are always omgwtf about their xp/hr in a pt. where do you ever need to know that other than being able to spout off in forums about ur last pt? and remember, big companies dont care about you and your own conveniences :p

playtime maybe doesnt serve a purpose for you, but it serves a purpose for SE. I'm sure playtime is just somethign fun to add but its apart of a larger statistical application which helps them determine how to scale their network and when they expect heavy load times etc etc.

[Omni]

Originally Posted by Celeal

tbh, I had partied NIN tank DD build that worked, and I had also partied with NIN tank DD build that failed. With those low defense mob in ToAU (which makes a lot of hate on DD), plus those nasty attacks from mob (that can screw up NIN tank easily), as a NIN I am really confused. It seems that the mobs design in ToAU is focusing on the weakness of NIN main tanking parties.

yea i hear you. i think toau does make it tough sometimes for nins. like when i first encountered chigoe, i thought it was the most bs thing ever! ep mobs landing near 100% of attacks?!

what i meant was that no one goes evasion build any more to actually tank the mob full time. ppl just /nin for all melee and bounce it around. nin doesnt main tank these days.

[hongman]

/salute on playtime - maybe you have a point there.

But to me your comments are contradictory to each other. If people are monitoring it, then it must serve some purpose other people wouldn't monitor it. See what I'm getting at?

Ok, for the vast majority I'm guessing it is to spout off about zomglookatmyleetparty but a legitimate use I was thinking of (and one that SE apparently try to encourage) is to be able to see which party combinations pull in the best XP, in certain areas/mobs/players etc.

[Lmnop]

you don't actually need a windower to measure exp/hour... look at your exp total before you start killing stuff, and when your 2nd food wears off, look again and do some math. Just don't do that on Colibri x.x you'll actually have to type /clock on and take note of the time for them.

[Omni]

Originally Posted by hongman

If people are monitoring it, then it must serve some purpose other people wouldn't monitor it. See what I'm getting at?

people are lazy. you and i know xp/hour serves no purpose other than being a novelty.

[Vyuru]

In my recent parties, I had a rough time with NIN tanks in ToAU camps (either I partied with NIN tanks or I am the NIN tank myself). Those exp. mobs in ToAU love the eat shadows... ~(*.*)~

IMHO, NIN solo tank performs better in traditional exp. area.

Heh, ninja tank + puks = fun

I haven't partied with too many ninjas in the ToAU areas, most often than not either I am invited to a TP burn party with no tank, or a ninja who is focusing on DD and not tanking, or I make my own parties and have a pld tank.

I don't know what it is with ninjas lately, but it's like they aren't really tanking anymore. I wonder if it does have something to do with what Omni mentioned, but by lvl 60+ with all the DD gear available to them, and both Utsu Ichi and Ni, I would have thought they would have an easier time of holding hate through damage dealing.

[Celeal]

Originally Posted by Vyuru

Heh, ninja tank + puks = fun

I haven't partied with too many ninjas in the ToAU areas, most often than not either I am invited to a TP burn party with no tank, or a ninja who is focusing on DD and not tanking, or I make my own parties and have a pld tank.

I don't know what it is with ninjas lately, but it's like they aren't really tanking anymore. I wonder if it does have something to do with what Omni mentioned, but by lvl 60+ with all the DD gear available to them, and both Utsu Ichi and Ni, I would have thought they would have an easier time of holding hate through damage dealing.

Those Imps even more nasty... I was in a PT tanking Imps as NIN at lvl 66 (2k tnl, yea...overhunting is bad idea). I had a battle that the THF pulls the mob, very slow of setting up Trick Attack (could be TP not ready) and the level 68 BLM nuke too early: Imps cast Sleep-aga on the BLM, which slept the entire backline in the PT. Then Imps cast Poison-aga trip all shadows, me cast Utsusemi: Ni, and the Imps immediately followed up with AoE Nuke... me drop death within the first 15 seconds of the battle... ~(+.+)~

For NIN DD build for main tanking, I have seen it work well if the NIN is Hasted all time, and in every battle the mob is slowed (Brd's Elergy, Hojo: Ni, etc). However, nowadays it is hard to expect much party support in pickup parties. Just burn burn burn for exp.

[Omni]

ToUA has changed a lot of how XP pts work. mobs drop fast so extended tanking isnt really needed, which imo is where evasion nins shine the most.

Holding hate with DD is great but the thing that happens with DD nins in IT++ XP PTs is that, even with ichi and ni and haste, they lose shadows faster than their timers can keep up. nins get critical strikes against them pretty easily so all that hate you just built is rapidly depreciating when you start taking hits and is further exacerbated by mages healing you.

I like evasion builds because, 1) you extend the life of your utsusemi which makes it easier on your timers, 2) less hate loss 3) you can still put out a decent amount of dmg to help with hate. though, a lot of the problem is simply due to the fact that everyone wants to see big numbers. everyone wants to do dmg or they take their merit pt mentality into XP pts which sometimes, just doesnt work all that well.

everything from 55-75 now can be done in ToUA, which for the most part leaves out a lot of those long chain 5's. weapons in moon come into mind when i think of long and challanging chain 5's. I tried DD setup there once in moon, its very very difficult and not worth all the mp you'll be soaking up in the form of healing.

sorry, OT. 7k/hr. woot! tbh, im usually glad with any pt that can keep the mobs coming. xping for 5k or 10k an hour doesnt matter to me really, as long as we're chaining, im happy.