FFXIV - The Ninja (ARR)

Ninja is the new job recently added to Final Fantasy XIV.

To become a ninja, you have to climb level 30 surineur (Limsa Lominsa, guild of Surineurs which is close to that of fishermen) and pugilist level 15 (Ul'dah).

As you level up, be careful. Your poisons will go from + 5% bonus damage to 10% and then to 20%. So remember to change them according to your level (this is due to the traits / liabilities of your class).

In this guide, we are going to take a look at the high level ninja. You don't have all of your spells at a lower level but this will give you an idea. I opted for a personalized description of the spells in order to guide you and explain to you how the ninja works in great detail.

 

The Surinamese Sports (base of gameplay)

Main combo

  Spinning blade: this is your first combo spell, the base. It will allow you to have a bonus on your next spell that can be combined with it. I will explain the cycle later in the guide but in a few words, after this spell, you can either put your damage over time spell (shadow fang) or continue your combo with the next spell on the list, power 150.

  Slashing whirlpool: your second combo spell. This one makes 100 power on its own (never to be done) and 200 if used after Spinning Blade. You will therefore have to use it right after the first combo spell.

  Wind blade: your third (and last) combo spell. This one is 100 on its own and 320 if it is used in combo. This first combination of attacks is the main combination of the ninja. This is to fill the gap you have left between your other spell combinations or other cooldowns. It is also your biggest source of damage as you can use it often as there is no cooldown on these spells (apart from the base 2.5 second cooldown related to the game system).

 

You also have two DoT (damage over time)

  Mutilating attack: power 60 at launch then 30 for damage over time. Lasts 30 seconds at max level (with a trait).

  Shadow Fang: DoT in combo. This one does 100 damage on its own and does not deal damage over time, so it should be used after Spinning Blade, in combination with your first Shadowfang spell that deals damage with 200 potency on impact and an 18 second DoT with 40 power.

These spells are viable if your opponent will stay alive long enough for at least 80% of the duration of your DoTs because they are expensive in energy. So for long fights, if you see that you're having a hard time with your energy, take one or two out of your cycle (but most of the time the damage input from those two spells and the way the fights go you allow you to use them).

 

Debuffs

  Dancing blade: alone, its power is 100 and therefore nothing else to avoid. In combo with Slashing Whirlwind (so a 3 combo), the spell increases to 260 power and debuffs the target for 20 seconds, reduces the effect of healing spells by 20% and decreases resistance to slashing attacks by 10% (you make sharp attacks). You should know that the Warrior has a spell called Eye of the Storm which has the same effect so see with your tank (or another possible ninja) who puts the weakening for maximum efficiency. If you are alone, try to maintain it.

 

AOE Spell (AoE Attack)

  Fatal Roseraie: power 100 (at high level, otherwise 60) can do area damage, but quite low so only to be used against a group of 3 or more enemies. In addition, it is very expensive in energy so if the group lasts too long it may be possible to kill them one by one. Don't worry this isn't your only source of AOE, the rest is coming (later in the guide).

 

Remote spell

  Throwing daggers: power 120, 15 yalms range. This attack allows you to pull (attract attention) an enemy, or to continue to do damage if you cannot be melee (because of a zone of the boss or the like). This attack is not mandatory in your cycle but it allows you to be competitive and not to lose too much damage when moving (weak point of melee classes).

 

Poisons

The ninja has two presences (poisons on weapons) which both increase his damage by 20% and grant him bonus effects. You can only activate one at a time but you can change it depending on the fight or even in combat depending on the boss phase or the needs of your group.

  Wasp kiss: + 20% damage and your Jugulation spell no longer silences but stuns your target for 2 seconds instead. Very practical in solo or in normal instance or in PvP. On the other hand, in a fight like Brutal Ifrit, if you play with this poison and do Judgment, you will stun Ifrit and he will become unresponsive when your paladin has to do so. So for example in this fight, prefer the second poison which will not make the boss insensitive.

  Viper's Kiss: + 20% damage and your Rapine spell heals you for 50% of your damage as health. The advantage of this poison is that it does not modify the Judgment, the heal given is low but it is still a small heal.

Switching poison before combat or between phases, for example, lets you choose whether Jugulation will silence or stun which makes you a team member capable of stun or silencing an enemy and that 'is appreciable (a few examples: on T2 Bahamut, silence will be required, on Ifrit silence so as not to stun the boss, and so on ... You are versatile).

So far, apart from poisons, the spells described are so-called GCD spells. They are done to the rhythm of your GCD (Global CoolDown: cooldown of 2.5 seconds or less, depending on your liveliness, integrated with the game system). This requires you to have a certain cycle to maintain your debuffs and damage over time.

 

Spells outside GCD

The following spells are all so-called "non-GCD" spells. You can cast them between two of your GCD spells (for example: Spinning Blade <your non-GCD spell <Shadow Fang). However, try to use only one between each GCD otherwise you will waste time on your next spell, except for Ninjutsu which is a bit special (everything is explained below).

 

Stealth attacks

These attacks can be used outside GCD.

  Concealment: you have to be out of combat and that makes you invisible but you walk less quickly. You should know that entering a fight with a boss takes you out of this mode and therefore unusable in raid or on a dungeon boss, but it serves as a good opening on a solo enemy or on groups of enemies in a dungeon.

  Sneak attack: 60 seconds cooldown, 300 power or 500 if used from the front, less useful in PvE than the other attack but some bosses will not allow you to go behind them and this is the one you will have to use. Be careful, going in front of a boss can be deadly. It's up to you to choose your moment.

  Sneak attack: 60 seconds cooldown, 240 power and 400 if used from behind. In addition, it applies a rather effective debuff that increases the damage received by the target by 10% for 10 seconds and it works for your entire raid.

These two attacks have the same cooldown, so you can only do one every 60 seconds. Use the sneak attack if you have access to the back of the boss or the enemy and use it on target number 1 in your party / raid.

You have to be concealed to use them so at first glance not very profitable. However, your Ninjutsus allow you to use Suiton and be able to do a stealth attack for a certain period of time. In the end, you will use one of these attacks every 60 seconds.

 

The basic non-GCD

  Sprint: common to all classes, can be useful but consumes all your energy. To be avoided with a melee class / job, except in the case of a boss's strategy or other.

  Motivation: 120 seconds of cooldown and restores 400 energy points. Use when you are short of 400 or more energy. Very useful during zone attack phases for example. It is a dragon knight cross-skill, the cross-skills are detailed and explained below.

  Mantra: 120 seconds of cooldown. Increases healing received by party members around you by 5% for 15 seconds at 7 yalms range around you.

  Second breath : 120 seconds of cooldown. Instantly heals you and depends on your attack power. Good personal care.

  Assassination: 40 seconds of cooldown and 200 power. Only possible under 20% enemy health. An execution as we like them and outside GCD therefore spam. However, this immobilizes you for a brief moment so watch your timing if you don't want to get stuck in an area of ​​the boss.

  Absolute Dodge: 120 seconds of cooldown and lasts 5 seconds. Dodge the next physical attack directed at you 100%. Allows you to avoid a boss attack. Be careful though: some attacks seem physical and are magical etc ... I will test to see if it works like the black mage's mana wall, on T9 dives for example.

  Jugulation : 30 seconds of cooldown and 80 seconds of power. Allows you to stun for 2 seconds or silence for 1 second, depending on your poison. If you don't need to silence or stun, and if there is no conflict with making unresponsive, the boss using this off-GCD attack gains you bonus damage (80 power off GCD).

  Robberies : 90 seconds of cooldown and 140 seconds of power. Increases the chance to drop drops if the attack is successful and heals you for 50% damage depending on the poison you use. Again, excluding GCD, this is a source of additional damage.

  Stimulation: 180 seconds of cooldown. This restores energy points (PT) to your target for 30 seconds. Basically he will recover his energy points as if he were out of combat. It seems unprofitable but believe me, once your teammates get used to it, they will never let you go.

  Shukuchi: 60 seconds of cooldown. Teleports you to a targeted location. Very practical for moving faster but be careful if you leave a damage zone with it, the server considers that you are out once the spell's animation is over. So not always faster than moving yourself. It does, however, make a very good way to engage in combat to be melee very quickly or a way to get back to it faster.

  Blood for blood: 80 seconds of cooldown, lasts 20 seconds and increases your damage by 10% but also increases damage taken by 25%. Increase your damage but be careful not to use in the moments when you take damage from the boss otherwise your healers will not be happy.

  Internal relaxation: 60 seconds of cooldown, lasts 15 seconds and increases your critical chance by 10%.

Do not forget the transcendence too because it is often up to you (melee) to use it.

 

The Mudras and Ninjutsus

You have three signs that allow you to make different Ninjutsus according to the order of your signs.

  Ten      About    Jin

They have 0,50 seconds of cooldown so be careful not to click too fast otherwise you will do the same twice.

  Ninjustsu: 20 seconds of cooldown and different effect depending on the signs so a Ninjutsu spell every 20 seconds.

Be careful, this is a non-GCD but you cannot do another action before having completely launched it.

Wholesale: Spinning blade

But Spinning Blade

Don't cut your Ninjutsu combo, EVER!

At level 50 you unlock Kassatsu: 120 seconds of cooldown, lasts 15 seconds, ends the cooldown of your Mudras and Ninjutsu and your next Ninjutsu is critical. You have to use a Damage Ninjutsu here and the strongest, so Raiton or Katon depending on whether you have to hit one or more enemies.

 

Ninjutsus

You have two choices.

Use macros which greatly facilitate the thing but which have an internal cooldown of 1 second and given that the mudras have 1/2 second, you lose in efficiency (for 3 signs with macro you put roughly 3 seconds to do a complete Ninjutsu whereas without macro it is of the order of 1,5 seconds).

If you go for the no-macro method and it's the right one, here's what to do. I used the pictures of my favorite combination for each Ninjutsu but I wrote you the two possible ways for each as well.

Level 1 (1 sign):

  This    Shuriken de l'ombre: 240 power long range, almost never used except on a boss blocking you far from him but very far because otherwise Raiton is more profitable at high level. For memorization reasons, try to limit yourself to one combination like Ten

2 level:

   This    Raiton (also works with Jin

   Chi    Katon power 180 same as for Raiton but for groups of 3 or more enemies.

   This    Hyonton 140 power hinders your target and you stop attacking. This spell immobilizes the target. Very rarely used in PvE. However, it's always good to know how to do it and when to use it. If you have to take care of Renauds at T7 for example or if your group asks you to do Renauds ninja they are ... How to say ... Wicked!

3 level:

    Jin    Fûton increases your attack speed for 70 seconds. This reduces your GCD by roughly 0,40 seconds and you have to keep it active as often as possible. For more efficiency, you can put it on before starting the fight to wait for your Ninjutsu to recharge.

    This    Suiton power 180 and gives you the Suiton effect for 10 seconds. This effect is not explained in the game, but be aware that it allows you to use your stealth attacks during this time. Try using Backstab Backstab for example and spinning Suiton every 60 seconds.

    This    Doton Power 30 lasts 24 seconds and inflicts gravity on enemies in the area. It is an area that you place centered on you and which does not move afterwards. Place well and use on a group of 3 or more enemies if the fight against them lasts at least 20 seconds.

It seems complicated on the card but if you memorize only one of the combinations for each spell and you find a way to remember it, it is easy (for example Ten in 1 Chi in 2 and Jin in 3 gives 1 2 3 for suiton 3 2 1 for fûton 1 3 2 for doton 1 2 for raiton and 2 1 for katon).

If you miss your Ninjutsu, wrong order, or a spell used between your suit, you will have a bunny over your head. Although very kawaii, it has no use except to show the world that you were wrong?

On the level of the features, a pleasant thing. You will run faster than the other classes which allows you to get out of damage areas faster or to run faster after an enemy and therefore to be able to hit him while running.

 

Les cross-skills

These are spells that you take from your other classes. Here, in ninja you can take the spells of pugilist and pole master. The most profitable are: Inner looseness, Blood for blood, Second wind, Mantra, Motivation.

These spells will therefore require you to raise these classes to the levels required to unlock them. Until you have them, it's up to you to find the right balance with the other cross-skills available.

 

Statistics

The ninja is based on the Dexterity like the Bard. Put all of your points in dexterity and your gear will be based on that stat as well.

Then, favor in order: To touch (up to cap: 512 for the T9 for example) > Critique> Determination> Vivacity. Vivacity is not yet profitable with this patch.

 

Cycle

It's a big word, here not really a cycle but rather an order of priorities.

Basically you have to keep Futon active, do Suiton every 60 seconds to use the sneak attack, maintain your debuffs and DoT and fill your "cycle" with the first combo and use your off GCD between your skills. Same with the Ninjutsus.

I am going to give you an example of a basic and "perfect" cycle, by which I mean that you need the perfect conditions to be able to do it and not that it is the sacred cycle. In combat, nothing ever goes perfectly like on a dummy, so you will have to adapt to combat, but it must be said that once the cycle has been mastered and understood, it is immediately easier to adapt.

 

Single Target Base Cycle with Eye of the Storm

With a gentle warrior posing Eye of the Storm!

Imagine a dummy x such that for all E belonging to ... (okay no math). Before the fight try to do: Jin

Make your first spell of the first combo (spinning blade) and during the GCD, use in the back of the boss Sneak attack. It will take 10% more damage. You normally have time to use Blood for Blood also during this GCD still + 10%.

Immediately after, do Shadowfang then Maiming Strike to place DoTs with + 20% damage. During the GCD, do Kassatsu, then Spinning Blade then your Ninjutsu Raiton (Ten

As soon as you have less than 5 seconds of Futon left, prepare to start the cycle over from the beginning (Futon ... suiton ... sneak attack and so on).

This cycle is relatively easy to do once you get used to the keys.

Single target cycle solo

If you don't have a Warrior or have a nice step, you will need to waste some ease on your cycle and time to put down the debuff (this one saves you damage, but you will do even more if a warrior does it for you). The cycle remains more or less the same as the previous one except that, instead of filling in with the combo of 3 attacks (explained at the very beginning of the guide), you will have to use the combo with Dancing Blade approximately every other time to maintain the weakening.

Multi target cycle with or without warrior

Here, the cycle is simpler. Replace the Raiton with Katons (chi

So use Kassatsu on a Katon, it's not as impressive as a black mage's blaze but it doesn't cost mana?

 

Here I hope that this guide on the ninja will have helped or reinforced your idea of ​​the class. 

Nin~~Nin!