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**hocuspocus** · 02-17-2004, 02:41 PM

very well put.

however before level 37 a ninja could be quite a burden in a party anyways.

they dont do much damage, can tank for around 6 hits before the harse damage comes into play etc.

the facts are this.

i'll use a ranger as a comparison because maybe some of the newbies here just dont get it.

go look @ a ranger. their damage is based on their equipment.
a ranger who buys cheap arrows is going to be useless to a party. now spend the money and watch the difference.

a ninja is the same way except we spend $ on defense as well as some offense. we cost money to be efficient.

most NA players just dont understand the inner workings of a ninja. let them think they can debuf and sneak by with spending the least amount of gil to level. they will only get so far. so theyre only hurting themselves. IE: check the NINJA PULLERS? post..

oh well the best part about this is there will be less competition for us come PT time

/cheer Bamce

**Kirk** · 02-17-2004, 08:34 PM

Well put guys. I'd urge all those who really want to be !NIN/WAR to heed his advice. The game changes very dramtically after level 40.

Parties wont be easy to come by as they are in lower levels. The pool of people you get to party with will shrink. You will develop reputations amongst your leveling peers, be it good or bad. And good exp becomes even more of a priority when the level gaps start quickly breaking 10 and 20k exp. People will simply not waste their game time with a weak 6th party member.

Also I've found that in the 50's there are very few tanks, at leaqst on my server. Everyone wanted to play something cool and massive damage dealing like drg and drk. Now they are a dine a dozen. But a tank is now very rare. Few people wanted to play the boring pld job and even less the expensive and highly inefficient <at least until before 37> nin/war tank. But now, just like Bamce said, there is literally no competitian and a good nin/war is worth its weight in gil <literally i suppose> And its so rewarding to feel needed and valued in your party for doing a great job.

I would encourage all you non blink tanks to give it a try once you hit 37. You'll find its not half as expensive as you thought it would be and the praise and appreciation you get would be worth every gil, not to mention the xp. Not to mention its fun, and you can still debuff, deal damage and pull as much as you want all at the same time.

**Maxim** · 02-17-2004, 10:03 PM

Long post, because I am in that kind of mood. I think Bamce Sylph's long post kinda made me want to post my own views on NIN/THF vs NIN/WAR. I believe that...

The number one reason why NIN/WARs tell NIN/THFs that their job combination is gimped and that WAR sub is the way to go is due to the fact that NIN/WARs put much more effort into their job, both in PTs and out of PTs. There's absolutely no denying this.

I have recently taken up ninja as my second job, and of course I sub WAR because I know for a fact that all experienced PT leaders expect ninjas to tank. However, I quickly noticed in Valkurm that utusemi can only let you dodge six times, and this can only take you so far. You can do a pretty good job dodging all attacks 100% if you chain T and VT snippers and then end chain by killing Pugils as quickly as possible with renkei, but anyway...

I was quick to notice that before level 37 I would have to boost evasion and AGI like mad so that Utsusemi's recast timer will refresh before all three blink shadows get eaten up. At level 21 I bought HQ beetle armor (which gave evasion up bonus), and everything money could buy that would maximize my evasion. Thanks to my armor I was able to dodge several attacks from IT monsters and was able to tank semi-competently without relying on Utusemi every 30 seconds.

Then I hit level 25 and it was time to buy that HQ+2 gi (I don't know what it's called on the EN version but it's Youhei Koromo on the JP). This HQ+2 set included the body, gloves, boots, and I also bought the HQ+2 Kingdom Trouser to maximize my attack, accuracy, and especially evasion. Moreover I needed to get the nomad mantle, which I bought, as well as an HQ katana and HQ daggar that boosted my evasion even further. I still need the VE pin to complete my evasion set, and once I get that I will have +27 evasion.

However, I had to spend three continuous days of non-stop farming to raise 267k to get all of these pieces of equipment, and I will have to spend another 3 days to do some more farming to get the VE pin so I won't be gimped. Basically my ninja's progress has been impeded due to a lack of funding, but I'm putting tons of effort into this outside of PTing because the results show during PTs. On time I dodged and parried 9 times in a row while fighting a mandragora in Yutunga, so that's 3 Shiheis I didn't have to use, and the majority of the time the monsters miss two or three times without taking away my shadows which makes tanking much easier. I bring five stacks of shihei with me per PT, and one stack of every other ninjutsu (especially blind and slow, because they raise a generous amount of hate to let me hold aggro and also lets me save shiheis). In fact, I completed gob bag quests 1~4 just so that I would have room for all my equipment, bags, and even throwing knives which I do use for efficient pulling and damage dealing.

These are all the things that a NIN/WAR has to worry about prior to Utusemi:Ni.

However, let's take a look at what NIN/THF has to worry about. They don't get Sneak Attack until level 30/15 (assuming you've even leveled your sub, because I see tons of people gimping on leveling their already gimped sub). What does this leave them to do in PT? Basically, NIN/THF draws their weapon, then auto-attacks the entire fight, and maybe even renkei. But guess what? If you're below level 30 you don't even have Sneak Attack to stack with your weapon skills, and you don't have as much STR as NIN/WAR so you're still not doing as much damage, granted, STR bonus from your job doesn't really matter that much during low levels like that. NIN/WAR gets Berserk at level 30/15 anyway, and the gradual, overall damage that Berserk adds will do more damage than Sneak Attack, which can only be used once per minute in very small bursts due to subbed THF being nerfed.

- NIN/THF claims that they are awesome pullers with shihei. Well, NIN/WAR can do the exact same thing but NIN/WAR will be more careful to not get hit while running back to conserve their shadow images. If you are using a ranged weapon to pull them this is absolutely no problem, and if it is, you should ask the other melees to pull instead. Maybe the DRK can do it with Provoke.

- NIN/THF says they use offensive ninjutsu. The truth is, before you get the Ni series those Ichi elemental debuff ninjutsu is really sucky so you aren't doing anybody a favor. The only time I use it is right before magic bursts to help maximize the BLM's MB, and concentrate more on using status effects and recast it after it wears off to help me evade more and accumulate hate. NIN/THF doesn't necessarily have to worry about concentrating on recasting ninjutsu because it doesn't really affect them because they aren't tanking.

- NIN/THF defends their job combo by saying they participate in renkei so they're not technically auto-attacking the entire time. NIN/WAR can do the same thing, and a good NIN/WAR would take off his -attack, +evasion earrings and switch to +attack, -evasion earrings right before renkei to do as much damage as possible (which can simply be done with macros). Just another thing a NIN/WAR has to worry about that a NIN/THF doesn't need to worry about, which is taking different sets of equipment to switch during battle.

- NIN/WAR tanks with Utsusemi, and a good one will be able to dodge the majority of the enemies' attacks. I've been in PTs where the WHM had to leave but we could still continue with no BLM, WHM, or RDM and just one BRD/WHM thanks to all the dodging I was doing. The WHM even said he wasn't really needed because of all my evading right before leaving. NIN/THF can't do this, and will never be able to since THF sub doesn't give the magical ability with a big concentration of hate that can be used every 30 seconds called Provoke.

- NIN/WARs have to also spend more money to buy HQ gear in order to get as much evasion as possible before they get Utsusemi:Ni. NIN/THF doesn't really have to worry about defensive gear because they don't tank and will probably just blow up whenever the main tank and mages die, so they can just spend 2k buying average gear. NIN/WARs cannot rely on Mijin Gakure too often, because if you die and there is no other competent tank then you are basically wussing out on your PT by saving yourself while leaving the other five people to die. Because NIN/THF has very low hate, the order of death in the PT will be the main tank, secondary tank, mages, then NIN/THF last, so it gives him time to blow up. NIN/WAR will be the main tank so even if they're down to 13 HP you have to make the decision whether to blow up and let your PT die or have faith in the mages to heal you a split second before the monster kills you. I often don't Mijin Gakure during these situations and just fight until I die naturally because every bit of damage you do and take counts.

- NIN/THF gets Steal, which can be used to steal 12 pieces of silver beast coins from medium-level gobs which sell for about 4~5k in a stack, which *gasp* can be used to fund the NIN/THF with one stack of shihei that they will never use. NIN/WAR will spend time out of PTs to make their own money because they actually care about the role they are expected to play in PTs by all the experienced players.

Bottomline: Nobody read any of that and I'm sure most of the NIN/THFs are disgusted at me and quit reading a long time ago. However, this is just my perspective on NIN/WAR vs NIN/THF from a NIN/WAR's side of view. I get a bit irritated when I see a NIN/THF because for one it's obvious that they don't nearly put as much effort as a NIN/WAR, and second, they're freeloading off the other five members of the PT. It may be fun for you, but I'm sure somewhere along the line you have PTed with a rank 6~10 person who is trying to raise his/her support job and is putting a lot of effort into it in hopes of trying to gain EXP quickly so they can continue raising their main job, but the fact that you arn't using ninja to its full potential is slowing down their progress and probably making them a bit frustrated.

You may be able to get away with NIN/THF at lower levels. Yet, Kirk made a very good point that your reputation is very important at higher levels because you might be PTing with the same people over and over. I know I've PTed with the same PLD, WHM, and DRG several times in the upper 55's and the reason why they kept inviting my RDM is due to the fact that I played my job competently and I was very versatile because I had three support jobs leveled, which gave me the advantage in getting PTs over the rank 10 RDM who probably had Serket's Ring and HNM equipment and whatnot. If you're planning on playing NIN/THF in the upper 50's then your LS is going to be hearing tons of complaints from you like, "/l Oh my god, this is my 10th week without a PT. What's going on?" Once you get a PT the other five people will go, "/l Oh my god, this ninja in my PT doesn't have WAR sub and refuses to tank... never invite him..." and your reputation will be sullied very quickly.

Okay, I'm done. Well, not really. Before I finish, let me just say that I'm totally cool with you guys playing NIN/THF. I know for a fact that this NIN/THF vs NIN/WAR thing is going to continue on forever because the NIN/THFs will never understand why people play NIN/WAR and tell all NIN/WARs to shut up and the NIN/WARs will never understand why people play NIN/THF so they continue to persuade them to switch support jobs. However, this happens with all the other jobs as well, and overtime I've realized that it's just not worth fighting anymore. All I can do is sit here and mumble.

Mumble mumble. Mumble. Boo. Hello.

**Kiyosuki** · 02-17-2004, 10:10 PM

I love Ninja's in games, and ususally try to be a Ninja type if I can be. Becoming a tank though was really the furthest thing I expected to be when beggining to use the Ninja job.

But well...if thats what they're good at I still want to play the class and master my trade.

Before 37 though its not impossible to exclusively blink tank. If you get the best evasion/agility equipment you can for your various levels (Even low cost, low level equipment like that +5 evasion circlet helps) The Ninja job has the second highest agility rating of all the classes (First being Thief, a fact which all Ninja's scorn. :D) So boosting up evasion even by 10 + points can make you so much harder to hit. When you get Hojo and Kurayami try to use those here and there and see if they work, if they land a hit you'll be even harder to hit. The Ninja job realy wasn't meant originally to be a tank but its abilities if used right can make it a very powerful dodge tank. The trick to being the best at blink tanking is to not rely so heavilly on Utsusemi, but rather use it as a last resort. Try to see if you can just outright dodge hits as many times as you can. With just Ichi this can be a blessing because it buys you time to be able to recast. When you get Ni+Ichi, you'll be that much harder to hit. High evasion equipment+Ichi and Ni = Miss, miss, miss, Shadow takes damage, miss, shadow takes damage, miss, shadow takes damage, recast as Ni or Ichi (You tend to want to cycle).

Honestly, I cannot stress to up and coming Ninja's reading this enough about just how important evasion and agility are to your class if you want to blink tank. Get maybe a little dex, and a little attack in there if you can but evasion and agility are top priority above all else. It makes certain that you're blink tanking will be that much more efficient and to boot, your Shuriken throwing weapons will do more damage. Although I'm not saying to go crazy and throw Shurikens all the time (Being cost efficient a little's a good trait, no one can rely on you if you're broke after every party, especially if your in a set.

) Once in a while is really essential to keep hate. Shurikens are your real damage tool, Katana's are concentrated on status and flowing damage rather than heavy(Another thing to remember to)

I'm getting a bit off topic I think.

As far as Ninja tank complaints go, I don't mind it but I can sympathize with some because the description for Ninja's officially is very, very misleading. It makes it sound like you'll be this deadly killing machine but what you really are is a shadowy, lightning quick body guard. ^^ I hear Ninja's become considerably damage and status potent, or even deadly later on. I'll experiment with many combinations myself afer that magical level of 60. But even with lightning fast duel wield and Ni elemental (Which is awsome, Ichi elemental is so weak...but Ichi and Ni elemental can stack I believe) You're role as a tank will just be that much better. Since you can afford to use Berserk, and your agility with more advanced equip options and your higher agility can mean that you'll be very close to the perfect tank. You flow with steady, quickly piling damage, can throw in a bunch of status effects, and you'll be crafty with abilities that not only help your party, but make you much harder to hit in almsot any situation. And you'll ofcourse, absorb damage like a sponge. Its a very tough job to take on, but if you're patient to make some gil, and plan your strategy accordingly before hand (This job rewards pre planning highly, just like it says it does in the Quest cut scene) with the right equipment and strategy, and a cunning mind you'll be so high in demand its not even funny.

And the previous poster's are right, after 40 individual purposes become a lot more distinct.

Blm: Damage spells, Whm:Curing ability no other can match, and Raise II. Rdm:Everything plus assurance the whole party will be that much more deadly with status. War: The most versatile melee in the game (You really appreciate good War's later) Drk:Solid damage, Drain. Sam: Damage and multiple Renkei's. Drg:High Damage in controlled incriments. Thf:Deadly damage and hate control. Rng: Most concentrated damage. Pld: Best hate keeper in the game, high defense. Nin: The craftiest of the tanks, can hold attention and give a party godlike agility and craftiness. Brd: Your key to chaining exp, and generally the master of everything regain like and status like. Mnk: constant flow of damage. Smn: a Mishmash of mage qualities, they're most noteworthy being Aerial Armor with Garuda, but good Summoner's can be the craftiest of the mages. Bst: One man party competition against you. :D

So yeah, the central levels are much more individualized with classes than before. All war and one Whm pt's just can't exist anymore, and random pting is usually very, very time wasting. Maybe the Ninja class will be changed in the future, if so I'll go with it and change with it. But for now Ninja's are crafty bodyguards.

And hey, defensive Ninja's have happened before. Shu from Arc the lad was a really defensive character, the Ninja's in Samurai Spirits were heavilly defensive/evasion centered, doing high damage as counter strategies mostly, and it worked pretty damn good. Think of it this way, Ninja's are either the deadliest of assassins, or untouchable bodyguards who protect they're allies with cunning. Ninja's at the moment just happen to be that right now. :D

I like to think that at the moment, Ninja's really are a deadly, deadly class when used right. But not because you do high damage or one hit kills, but because you sabotage the enemy and cripple it. You can negate its damage dealing ability for the party, and cripple its offense with the right status ailments and weapons. Ninja's in XI are sabatours, which can make the body of the pt just that much deadlier. Blink tanking isn't totally a bad thing, you actually learn to like it a bit.

I must warn all though, stories of its expense are 100% true. I highly recommend doing some guilding for money, and having your original job (War especially, if you can) Be at least lvl 40 to support it. If you start as thief take it to 45 and save yourself a ton of trouble. :D

**Maxim** · 02-17-2004, 10:23 PM

Sadly, Kiyo, ninjas can't wear that level 9 +5 evasion Circlet. They have to settle for that level 14 HQ headband that only boosts it to +3 until level 24 for VE Pin. D:

By the way, off topic but how did that BCNM go after I DCed for the fiftybajillionth time? I'm so sorry... my connection is terribly unstable right now and everything loads awfully slow. T~T

**Kiyosuki** · 02-17-2004, 10:35 PM

Oh yeah I forgot about that circlet. ; ;

We all died Val, every one of us.

Not really, we almost lost in the sudden shock but we managed to pull together and win it. Unfortunatly...we only got one Phanlanx and a bunch of jump afterwards. So each of us is getting 32k only. ; ;

I wanna try again sometime later this week or next with my own BC's, 2 Hour it once and just never stop the whole time until we finsih it. If you didn't dc, and Tygo didn't die suddenlly earlier I seriously think we could of pulled off 15 minutes.

I think while we did alright for Angel, Tygo, and myself's first time (you guys really helped!) I think we were too slow, we have to just not rest after the Black one is killed, and just keep going as fast as we can. I want to try to do this again in about a week with 40 of my own BC's, and two hour Blackie Mandy to kill it off fast, then just never stop with all the others. We gotta be relentless for that nice drop.

Till then...I'll be killing sheep I guess.

**tonka** · 02-17-2004, 10:42 PM

Pre 30 everybody just tanks normally, ie Provokes and get healed. What exactly makes a Paladin a better tank than Ninja at early levels? Nothing.

PAL has A shield, but bad Evasion and Parry (C & C). Ninja arguably has a better combo with A parry & A Evasion, since Evasion is checked every blow vs the minority of times shield or parry activate.

Pre 30 both PAL & NIN are wearing the same armor, Chainmail. Pre 24, tanks don't get any better armor than mages. Chainmail is the first set that separates tanks defense wise, and Ninjas do wear it.

Quite honestly, both NIN and PAL are weaker tanks to a WAR at those early levels. Defender is +25% defense, and that's a HUGE defensive bonus that PALs don't get til 50. WARs are stronger on defense, and can hold aggro better with a combination of Provoke and Sturmwind (200+ damage pre 30) and some amazing great axes (granted they're all 40k).

**Vivid** · 02-18-2004, 12:17 AM

omgomgomgogomgomgmgomgogmgmgmogmgmgmogogomgmooogmgmgogmgmgogmgmgoomggmomgomgommmogmgogmogmg!

val, i hate you.

(jk)

val is right. nin/thf is more gimp than nin/war. i am nin/thf. i still get good enough pt invites... but... my reputation with JP people is pretty decent.. they probably invite me cause they like to gaze into the sexy glimmer of my magnificant spikes.

good post btw, val. it's the post to end all battles about nin/thf. im not going to say anything to defend nin/thf because you have basically given light to what it's all about. /applauds

/sigh it's times like these that i begin to miss you guys. anywho... have fun in game^^ hope to see you folks soon :/

(/wonders if val gets mad whenever he /sea all vivid;;;;

ps. IM HAPPY TO SEE YOU'RE PLAYING NINJA NOW, VAL! WEWT!! GO GOG OGOGOGOGOG!!!

pps?

Originally posted by tonka
Pre 30 everybody just tanks normally, ie Provokes and get healed. What exactly makes a Paladin a better tank than Ninja at early levels? Nothing.

vitality

**hocuspocus** · 02-18-2004, 12:19 AM

you guys wrote a book.

basically what it comes down to, is not even wasting time trying to explain the crap to these people.

once they cannot get groups and realized they wasted X number of hours on the game hopefully they will either mend their newbie ways or quit.

either way, its less competition for us in the end. so look at it as a good thing.

offering opinions to these folks can be helpful to the open minded player, however open minded players are not very common in FFXI. they will do what they want.. and we will be laughing the whole time while we see the /shout LEVEL 38 NINJA/THIEF LOOKING FOR PARTY PLEASE INVITE ME in lower jeuno.

cheers.

-syph

**stray** · 02-18-2004, 12:53 AM

>>>quote>>>
It may be fun for you, but I'm sure somewhere along the line you have PTed with a rank 6~10 person who is trying to raise his/her support job and is putting a lot of effort into it in hopes of trying to gain EXP quickly so they can continue raising their main job, but the fact that you arn't using ninja to its full potential is slowing down their progress and probably making them a bit frustrated.
>>>

i'm still pretty new here but i've seen a few names around ragnarok.

and regardless of the nin/war debate... which my only take on is that there's alot more depth to ninja that it seems alot of people don't even try to focus on... i still don't have a reply to my elemental ninjitsu topic tho i like being able to blinktank.

but my problem with that statement is that for alot of people at low levels that *is* their main job... and they don't have the experience to know better and in alot of cases need a helping hand. be it an ineffieient or completely screwed up sub or not.

that's the value of the subjob system and at the same time it's curse.

**tonka** · 02-18-2004, 01:19 AM

@ 30 the difference in VIT between PAL/WAR and NIN/WAR is 4 VIT = 2 DEF. 2 DEF is not a whole lot.

**ZQM** · 02-18-2004, 12:52 PM

This took awhile to read, but it was worth it

helped me with my decision to stay with /WAR. IMO, this should be a stick so that all players can read how much /WAR gives to a party then a /THF.

Some other subjob questions since you guys are giving more indept posts then just "LIEK OMGWTF, /WAR!!!! HAHA NOOB!!!!", I've been thinking about trying /MNK when I hit 50. Not as a serious end-of-game subjob, but just to try it out (still tanking, not a damage dealer). With a constant trick attack every minute, Focus to hit more and gain more hate (or does it not add much)?, stacked boost at the begining of the fight (though it won't add much), Dodge to increase Utsusemi's length, and Chakra would make it so that you wouldn't even need a support character in the party, allowing your PT to kill things quickly and chain efficently. Or would the absense of provoke, berserk, and warcry make it almost impossible to keep hate? Afterall, trick doesn't help that much unless it's with a WS (there's been times that even after a trick and provoke, I couldn't get it off of our pulling DRK). The HP and VIT boost is almost completely pointless, but how much +DEX, +AGI, +STR diff is /MNK-/WAR?

/SAM is another one I thought about doing at 60 just for fun. Third eye would help when tanking, but apperntly Ninja WS's are not very strong at all (veryify?), so unless there's something I'm missing, /SAM would just be something to do when messing around. :sweat:

/DRK is the last one I've been thinking about 60+. Stacked Soul eater and last resort along with the passive skills could help maintaining constant hate (and you're also doing more then just tanking; you're helping make the fights quicker). Soul eater has a built in provoke, right? 6 minute interval is deffinatly a :/ though. Ninjitsu (when do we get 3rd level Ninjitsu?) and BLM could also help a lot with keeping hate also, and drain/aspir would help again with no downtime. However, much like /SAM, I'm sure this wouldn't be very good and just for fun job combo.

Last question

equipment. There is some very nice +emnity gear that MNK/SAM/NIN can wear. Would it be better to go with +Evasion gear with /WAR? And if I did choose one of the different subjobs, would it help at all (I think the whole set adds +5 emnity, there's also those earings that add +2 emnity)?

And is the NIN AF body armor the best body armor for NIN since it unlocks Dual Wield IV?

Thank you for any and all help you can give me.

**Tsubame** · 02-18-2004, 03:27 PM

I agree and understand all the NIN/WARs here (With one exception)

At no point did I ever bash a Nin/War. I appreciate them, and do acknowledge they make the best tanks in the game...I just don't think they SHOULD be the best tanks in the game.

At the moment, that is def. their role. If Square changes it (They may, they may not, I hope they do, but that is besides the point) then their role changes too. It'll suck for those Ninja who only bought Utsusemi powders and are now level 60 without a levelled Thief sub, but it'll also suck for the NIN/THF if Square DOESN'T change it and leaves them as tanks.

All of you (With an exception of person who is far too asinine) I have perfect respect for, and agree that you all do your job quite well. I don't think any NIN/THF or NIN/BLAH thinks they can outtank a NIN/WAR. Also, NIN/WAR do spend a lot on Utsusemi, I have respect for that...but just because it's a hard way, doesn't mean it should be the right way. Basically, I think Ninja should be changed to focus more on agility, speed, elemental debuffing and whatnot.

In the meantime though, yes a NIN/WAR is superior in most means to a NIN/THF. Doesn't mean you have to play NIN/WAR. You'll get more invites sure, but if a pt invites you as a NIN/THF, they should know they aren't getting a tank. So if you want to play as a NIN/THF, you won't be hurting anyone except yourself (Since anyone that expects you to tank won't invite you), so I say go for it. If Ninja ever gets changed, that's likely the path I will go too. Note that since I moved to Midgardsormr, I've been a WHM (Probably will go Bard). When I was on Alexander, I WAS a Thief, but after realizing my intended path was a tank, I switched. I would like to play a Nin/Thf, but since it is currently so inefficient...I won't. At high levels I hear Nin/BLAH is more viable, but to get there I'd have to level Nin...

**Kiyosuki** · 02-18-2004, 05:41 PM

If Ninja's had Throwing WS's that were damage centered rather than effect or multi hit centered (Why do the best Ninja multi hits have to be so high level?

) Nin/Sam would actually be a pretty viable combo with the speedy regular attack, and highly damaging Throwing WS attack.

Ninja/Warrior really is a lot more of a flexible combo than I first thought actually. Those who say that Ninja/Warriors can only tank and thats it are thinking pretty plainly. Berserk really helps your attack power, and since your dodging most of the time you can use it to your hearts delight (You really should no matter what. ) I'm not at this point yet, but I can see from playing around wtih War/Nin, that Double Attack and duel wield can be really nice to watch. And War has only the first duel wield at this level, if it were Nin main at 50 you'd have Duel Wield III and Double attack. I've seen Duel Wield at 50 and its getting frighteningly close to 1H weapon speed, maybe even club speed. With berserk to increase your offense at your leisure, and how many times you hit your chance of double attacking is somewhat high. I imagine if you take time to get Katana's that have really nice status afflicting (I have my heart set on a combo of Phys Defense lowering Katana, and one with Silence or Poison. Poison=slowly increasing hate at you.) You can land those very quickly with how much you hit and do some nasty things to the enemy. And this is without haste, if the Whm or Rdm casts haste on you (Which is smart to do on your tank I think all mages agree. :D) You can really slice and dice the enemy with small but endless pain and suffering. All that while still tanking with Utsusemi and nullifying the enemy's damage potential.

Ninja/Warrior may sound boring, but there's a lot more to the combo than just recasting Utsusemi over and over and provoking. That can get you by, but if you want to be a great Ninja, you know that Nin/War's actually a pretty crafty class.

My advice on all Ninja is to have Nin/War as your central choice, but later past 60 and on by all means, try out reasonably viable combo's like Nin/Thf or Nin/Rdm. A Ninja is crafty, you don't have to trap yourself into one single job combination. Although Nin/War is all purpose and sought after the others have uses too in certain situations. It'll make your comment box look that much more inviting if you're a flexible character with more than one sub choice. I think this satisfies your desire to explore more parts of the ninja job while being a solid and reliable character with Nin/War at ready anytime. But you'll also have alternatives for certain situations. I think thats how the Nin was designed to be myself. You really must remember how much of a blessing it really is to be able to change your sub job at any time. Pld/War may be the optimal party tank machine that you *must* have, but Pld/Whm can decimate the undead for certain situations. High level Thieves often use /Nin as they're main sub, but many have /War, /Mnk, and /Sam for certain situations that call for it. It'll just make you that much more of a funner person to invite if you have alternatives like that as well as your backbone combo.
I think so anyways. Thats what I want to do later on.

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