Spell details for Hyoton: Ichi  

I have just started using this spell as a lvl 15 nin. I found the range on the spell to be very short, so its difficult to use as a pull, and when I blinktank, as I always do, I can only get the spell off after my utsusemi 1 is gone, someone has voked the mob off me, and I am waiting to recast utsusemi 1. Otherwise, casting the spell hampers my ability to tank properly. Also, the fire debuff seems pointless when there are no blm in the pt (cant always choose who you have in a pt... heh)

To confirm, this ninjutsu is *not* quested. It is available in Norg, as my esteemed colleague pointed out. It is in the first "room" as you enter from the grotto, and I believe that the vendor who sells this is near the bottom of the staircase (hard to miss). It's a guild shop, from what I remember. This means two things:

1) Funky, funky hours of business and the occasional "day off" to dampen your shopping.

2) A little message that says you've bought "x" from the guild.

Obviously the former is of greater importance to most.

I went to Norg to quest Tonko and Utsusemi, and I was able to purchase this ninjutsu as well as all the other level 15 elemental ninjutsu for approximately 1800 gil each. Any ninja worth his salt should save himself some gil and a good deal of inconvenience by purchasing this and the other ninjutsu in advance (if the inventory space is not an issue).


In terms of practical application, it is a godsend when you first get it. Nearly every Black Mage in this level range knows Fire, and a majority of them are "trigger happy" with this hard-hitting spell to the point where they'll blast crabs and fish and all sorts of other water-based creatures, in spite of damage totals of 6, 7, 6, and 68 (many, many resists). SPAM HYOTON (which you made loads of Tsurara for in advance). This will not only inflict a small amount of damage, but it will make the Fire-happy mages less wasteful by lowering the enemy's resist, and more importantly, it rockets up your ninjutsu skill. This ninjutsu gives much better skillups than Utsusemi or Tonko, and as previously posted, it is much cheaper.


A closing, somewhat off-topic thought: Not positive, but I'm strongly suspicious that any ability which allows for resists from the enemy will boost your skill much faster than one which is self or party targeted and does not have to jump a resistance hurdle. As a bard, I hardly get instrument skillups singing buffs on my party (which I do all the time) and yet when I do debuff enemies I get the majority of my skillups there, even though it is the decided minority of my bardic activity. The same seems to be true of ninjutsu. I can use Utsusemi four or five times in a fight with no skillups, but one Hyoton is quite likely to give me a raise.

Edited, Wed Jun 23 21:58:26 2004

Since the ingredients are made with level 0 (though I would recommend level 1) Alchemy, this is good Ninjutsu to start off with. Tsurara is made with Ice Crystal+Rock Salt+2xDistilled Water for 10 tools. Price-wise, this is about (110+20+20)/10 = 15g per cast. If you haven't yet realized it, 15/cast is a very good price for training Ninjutsu.

The fact that this spell is known to be a good introductory Ninjutsu also makes it a relatively fast sell at Auction Houses in especially Bastok and Jeuno. The scroll is purchased in Norg (for me) for about 1750. I sell about 1/day at auction for 3500-4000, a pretty good profit for the small work. The Norg AH is attached to the Bastok AH, which makes it a good plan to buy up a handful of scrolls (a variety is good, lean towards Hyoton and Raiton), list them all at Bastok, and bring another load on your trip back to Jeuno to sell.

Like all item trading, this is not the fast, constant money you can make crafting. It is, however, effortless and requires no upfront training investment. Item trading is recommended for semi-casual players who play weekends or a few times a week.