The Sealed Dagger: A Ninja Guide

Thaumas body is still #1 with Haste/Marches. If you don't have capped ACC, then Qaaxo will pull ahead.

If you have capped ACC on offhand without Raimitsukane stats, then Shigi will most likely pull ahead because of lower delay.


But yeah, never use Kannagi/Kikoku together. Kannagi with any aftermath is more powerful than Kikoku.

I do use Kikoku sometimes for salvage when I really don't want to play THF. Sometimes having slightly more DPS isn't important. The paralyze effect is nice, and having triple damage proc without having to keep up aftermath while running around is nice. And then switch back to Kannagi for boss since you can easily maintain aftermath.

If you are capping delay then thaumas coat, if you aren't relic reforge body, if needing acc qaaxo...

Shigi is 228 skill with 27 accuracy as a bonus.
Raimitsukane is 242 skill with 12 DEX (a 9 acc bonus)

Shigi is more accurate anyway.

And the spreadsheet I have is lacking Raimitsukane's 15 acc. My mistake.


And this about sums it up. :)

Thanks for the work on this guys!

Can someone post good gearsets? Im trying to upgrade my nin but not sure what af/relic 119 is useful and trying to get an idea on tp/blade: hi sets.

Just from a quick glance, OP is up-to-date as far as I know. There's just a few pieces here and there that I'd personally change.

so af/relic 119 isnt worth it?

If you look at the OP, you'll see that he recommends using AF+1 or Relic+1 legs depending on how much haste you're getting, as well as Relic +1 in the body slot at lower outside haste values.

And Blade: Hi shows AF+1 in body/hands slot and Relic+1 in legs/feet slot.

Obviously the point of a guide is to just give you an idea of good sets to use and you can switch things depending on availability/personal preference, but he is very clearly recommending a handful of 119 AF/Relic pieces.

Did you even look at the guide?

Yeah I did but that was from 3 months ago I was not sure if something changed with new additions, use some common sense.

Yes, i119 relic/AF (+1) is worth it. Every single piece has a function for a career NIN and with the advent of mog wardrobe, you can afford the inventory easily.

A PLD friend of mine, on the topic of RAF+1 PLD gear, had the somewhat appropriate/relevent comment:

"Yeah it's worth it, without it, you're just a WAR with a shield."

Using this as a reminder as well as a notification.

The NIN DPS Spreadsheet is having issues in a few areas, as well as with interacting with a 119 Kikoku.

-Reference Issues in the Data Tab for Set 2 (partially corrected today by Motenten in regards to Corsair buffs) Fixed.
-Not applying the Triple damage to Kikoku's avg. dmg. (Instead it's applying double damage?) Was Correct.
-Not applying RelicDMG Bonus to metsu when 119 Kikoku present. (99 and all other levels work okay) (Fixed)

I'll PM Mote and let him know what I've found and let him decide how buggered it is. I'll adjust this post as necessary.

Edit: The latest downloadable spreadsheet looks like it's all good.

Didn't see it reported here, but the two new spells are sold (around 140k gil each) in Norg from the fishing Taru on the left of the HP Crystal (if you keep entrance behind your back).

If they're like Crusade, they last 5 mins.
Unknown if they stack with Animus Minuo and Augeo (SCH spells) and what effects they have exactely.
Just a simple +/- enmity? How much?
Pretty lame if it's just that altough I feel of the 3 jobs who received them NIN is likely the one who's gonna gain the most.

Actually with rhe enmity + spell and yonin, it's going to be hard to pull the mobs off the ninja, at least until hate gets capped from other DDs.

NIN is imho the job which gains the most out of these new spells, and RUN the one which gains the least.

Anyway, appearently Crusade is +30 Enmity, so it's safe to assume the correspondant NIN spell is +30 as well.
Nin also has one for -enmity, but I doubt that's -30, my hunch is -10 (like Animus: Minuo).
Either way, that + Innin kinda opens whole new scenarios with NIN DDing.

Does it? Doesn't do anything from my experience.

Doesn't do anything beyond the first 60 seconds or however long it takes you to start capping out CE and VE.

The new TP/WS updates make you reach cap that much faster due to a large boost in output, so enmity means less to melee than it did a few days ago.

Shouldn't -Enmity also affect the speed at which you lose the enmity gained, through the appropriate means?
They posted official numbers about the 2 spells btw. +30 and -15 enmity respectively.


Switching topic, anybody tested the new WS? Read only generic post, nothing detailed.
Curious to see if any other WS became viable together and/or in place of Blade: Hi, which pre-patch was NIN's best WS, followed by Blade: Shun (which in some rare circumstance was better than Hi).

Despite Hi being a good WS overall, I think it doesn't come close to what other weapon categories can offer imho.
Also I kinda hate how random it is... one time you get a huge spike, the other time you get 500 damage (probably whiffed main hit and hit with a DA proc).
The answer to people looking for a more consistant WS pre-patch was Blade: Shun, inferior to Hi but still viable, with results having a smaller range of variability.

So... did this WS patch change anything in this scenario? Or nothing comes close to Hi/Shun regardless?

To further explain what I meant, with the premise that I'm very ignorant concerning to enmity theorycrafting.
There's Enmity that decays over time, and enmity that decays only when you take damage.
With Innin, the new spell and Shigi you should stay pretty close to the cap of -50 enmity from gear. (Innin counts as gear, right?)
With -enm the first type of enmity should decay faster (altough this is clearly a minum % of the enmity generated by a NIN DD) and for the second we can say that a single hit, even with less damage should produce a noticeable reduction of enmity when you receive damage, making tanking more viable.
Likewise, each shadow that absorbs damage, produces a (very negligible...) reduction in the enmity you gain.
With a constant -50 enmity this minimal reduction should start to become somewhat noticeable?

We're totally not at the point where enmity management should be for Tanks + DDs of course, but maybe this situation should make the scenario with Tank + NIN DDs a bit more viable with minimal amounts of holding back from the DDs?

Metsu received a boost but that's meh at most... The boost to mods helps Hi, but I haven't noticed a HUGE difference. Most of the damage comes from tp phase and even more so with some sort of AM/triple damage. Don't forget /drg jumps for even more -enmity shedding!!!

Quick question on what katana I should be using when I want to offhand my Atoyac:

Currently for 119 content I DW
Raimitsukane/Isuka(B:R15)

Which of these would be best to mainhand with Atoyac: occ att 2x, ws dmg +2%?

Short anwser: Raimitsukane mainhand

Not including RME, what are some good katana pairs? I have Raimitsukane and a Pamun (NQ) right now. Is that a good enough launching pad to start on for gearing NIN?

For reference, I'll primarily be using NIN to gather gear for itself, Reives, and soloing the path to Carnwenhan.

Your goal off-hand is Shigi. If that's out of reach at the moment for whatever reason, then the sparks katana is your second best bet.

Ok. So Raim/Shigi then. Thanks for the advice and quick response.

For non-RME NIN, Isuka is very often the best offhand (particularly Isuka A if you don't need acc).

Shigi is certainly not a bad katana, but it becomes more useful when you pair it with something like a Kikoku thanks to the lower overall delay = more mainhand swings, more triple damage procs, etc. Shigi also has its unique utility features of enmity-10 (maybe not the best choice if you're attempting to tank in a group), and ninjutsu delay -3 (pretty nice for solo play if it's something difficult enough where keeping shadows up is important).

Personally, I don't have RME yet (will finish Kikoku soon though!), so for the time being I use Raim mainhand and three different offhands depending on situation: Shigi, Isuka A, and Senkutanto in reives. And I suppose OAT Atoyac may have a place now too. Honestly though, any of the 119 katana options (adding Kannakiri +2 to the list as well) are perfectly reasonable choices.

Might be interesting to note SE confirmed that a new Katana is coming and that such katana will be a WKR weapon.
Added when? Who knows. Maybe july patch, maybe later.
Since it will be a WKR one it's logical to assume it will be a 115 item, but with the right augments it will be a better offhand option than Atoyac.

Also wonder if, since they're adding a 115 version, this means that they will add a correspondant 119 version to some of the delve boss' drops.
I'm curious on the stats.
When they introduced Shigi they described it as a "weapon for DD nin", saying that in the future they would add a "tank focused katana".
Will this about-to-be-added katana be the tanking one? Or another thing completely?

I've started taking interest in ninja and have yet to make or obtain any 119 katanas. I'm too lazy to make kikokou but I know that the easiest top tier to obtain. Hopefully should have a Raimitsukune soon and have plenty of items for shigi. Was wondering if r15 or skirmish +2 are worth making.

R15 STR and DEX are both amazing. Skirmish not so much