How to make the most of your Ninja Tank (a primer)Follow

Great guide! There is a lot of information there, and there are a lot of things about ninja tanks that I did not know. Thanks for putting that guide together, it was very well done.

Rate up! Thanks for posting a guide about NINs on the main forum, I know a lot of people on the main forum don't have a ton of experience with them.

Very well written... a few notes...

WHM and RDM CAN start casting some spells before SATA goes off...Haste seems to create quite a bit of enmity compared to other spells and you can easily draw hate especially if the SATA is being performed off a RNG/NIN's pull. The solution to this is for the mages to run up directly behind the RNG/NIN and start casting. That way if you manage to draw hate you won't ***** up positioning for SATA. It also positions WHMs for spells like Barfira or Barpoisonra.

Oh and WHMs be careful about using Flash to help a NIN recast Utsusemi. Yeah it's essentially guaranteed misses for 3 monster attack turns, but it overwrites Kurayami: Ni and Blind, leaving your NIN even more vulnerable to attack after it wears off.

The only other two things I'd add to the support section:

Bard: Mambo is important, but March is too. It stacks with Haste allowing even faster spellcasting. A good bard can hit just the ninja with Mambo and March and buff the rest of the melee with Minuet and Madrigal.

Summoner: SMN party buffs are godly for NIN tanks. Hastega, Fenrir's Accuracy/Evasion up (Ecliptic Howl? I forget), and *especially* Earthen Ward (stoneskin) make recasting Utsusemi worlds easier. Aerial Armor is perhaps wasted unless you have someone sharing the hate with the NIN.

I hear that Ninja blind & BLM blind stack or is cummulative or something? Anyone know anything about that?
Thanks.

One comment on the RDM section: You seem to be a little bit confused on the difference between Gravity and Slow. Slow reduces the attack speed of the mob. This is the effect duplicated by Hojo. Gravity, on the other hand, has a twofold effect: it reduces the movement speed of the mob, and it reduces the evasion of the mob. To the best of my knowledge, no ninjutsu duplicates this ability. Furthermore, since you tout Blindna for the WHM, stating that it assists with your +Enmity gear to be able to land damage, you might want to bring Gravity out into its own section and discuss its usefulness from that point of view.

And that brings to mind a comment on the Bard section, too. Most bards (that I know of) don't generally use Mambo for their melee selection of songs. The standard pair is Madrigal (+acc) and Minuet (+att), though sometimes March (+att speed) is used in place of Minuet. Given this, it might be worth recommending which song Mambo should be used in place of, in order to give maximum effectiveness to not only the tank but the melee section of the party as a whole. (Another thought might be, BTW, to give the melee section of the party Madrigal and Minuet, and then overwrite one of those with Quick/Swift Etude, which increases AGI.)

I would add to the Stun section that, while it's quite a useful spell to get you those couple seconds you need, it also gives the mob a surprising amount of hate; I'd estimate that it's just about on par with Flash for hate generation. I've seen a lot of DRK or BLM toss out a couple of Stuns and suddenly end up tanking...

I did not know this, could have sworn it did work since TA will work from any position ... sneak attack being the only mob facing direction ja (even if the mob turns Trick attack lands if it doesn't miss, unlike stacked with sneak attack it's not 100% accurate)

Edited, Thu Oct 21 00:41:38 2004 by Levish

I wasn't suggesting it get spammed, rather used if Utsusemi: Ichi is being cast or if the ninja is taking hits.

In a normal fight the ninja won't get hit and wont use ichi more than once or twice (stun or not). It's a common sense call really.

Edited, Thu May 4 09:48:34 2006 by Levish

SA/TA => Hide DOES work, and it DOES work with Trick Attack placing hate on the mob. If it did not, I would have died a lot of times doing it to Ladon and Cocatrices in Kuftal Tunnel. TA works from everywhere.

Outside of not mentioning SMN casting Earthen Ward which really helps keeping Shadows up, and Lunar Cry (Not to familiar with Fenrir's abilities) that lowers mobs' Accuracy and Evasion. . .good faq.

bump for changes

RE: Blood Pacts (from mysterytour)

Fenrir
Lunar Cry - Mob Accuracy and Evasion down.
Ecliptic Growl - STR/DEX/VIT +1, AGI/INT/MND/CHR +7 (party)
Ecliptic Howl - Party Accuracy and Evasion up

All seem pretty godly for NIN, especially when combined with Hastega (Garuda), Earthen Ward (Titan), etc.

EDIT: 3.65 karma sooo close...

Edited, Thu Dec 2 11:55:38 2004 by AtreidesF