The Sealed Dagger: A Ninja Guide

After playing Nin for a while, Savage Blade, Chi & To > TEN HI SHUN.

Don't really think you can get Hi to spike that high, unless we're talking about random MA procs + close to 100% crit rate, DM augs and mobs weak against slashing.
Then again I'm not sure if I'd call that an "average" number :-P

My "average" numbers with all WSs are sadly much lower than that, even on TEN it takes a *** of buffs for it to break that threshold.
I guess Hybrids are a different story but you need even more buffs for those.

Realistically at mid/low buffs Naegling with Savage Blade is probably the best option, unsurprisingly, thanks to the godly properties of Savage Blade and to the buffs>att conversion granted by Naegling, which I guess helps when your att is low.

It's not quite as simple as this WS > that WS though, since choice is going to vary wildly based on what mainhand weapon you're using. Arguably a different top priority for each of the 8 weapons listed below.

Kikoku = Metsu is Bestu, spam it all day at 1000tp

Kannagi = Hi almost exclusively (more respectable on Kannagi than other weapons, but still annoyingly inconsistent)

Nagi = Kamu isn't crap with weapon augments (related WS bonus plus Mythic AM3 on a WS that likes multi-hit), but you'll use some other WS too (Shun in particular, since Kamu-Shun Light is a staple 2-step self-SC). I sometimes do TP Bonus offhand and Blade: Ten with Nagi too.

Heishi = really depends on buffs:
Ten with sufficient buffs (but poor self SC options aside from 3-step light Ten->Kamu->Shun),
Shun with low buffs or for SC purposes, including simple self-light/radiance,
Chi/Teki/To with sufficient physical + magical buffs

Fudo Masamune = if spamming WS without SCs, probably Shun. If self SC-ing, Hi-Hi should get you best total WS+SC DPS even if the raw WS damage is lower.

Naegling = Savage Blade duh (but not gonna really shine without decent number of buffs on due to the special weapon-specific mechanic)

Gokotai = For non-RMEA NINs - makes Ku decent for raw WS damage, but meh. Prob still better off with Hi for better SCs in most situations though. Sadly, it's prob better still to just use Naegling instead.

Tauret = Evisceration spam go, very solid option for piercing weaknesses. Aeolian Edge if you want to AoE stuff.

I'll let someone else talk about HOT SHOT lol ;)

Guess I will write it again XD

Hybrid WSs dont require magical buffs to completely destroy every other Katana WS. They only need physical buffs and mob that is nautral to magic and element of the hybrid WS. Magical buffs are required if you want to reach 99k damage :) If Blade :Chi is not resisted, NIN is one of the highest DPS in game (especially that Nyame path B exists now and you no longer need crazy DM augments, tho you need some crazy grind instead XD).

I'd say this is less relevant for NIN than it is for other jobs.
NIN can count on a lot of self-buffs.
Innin, Gekka, Kakka, Myoshu, Migawari, Utsusemi.

Then you have shorter duration stuff like Futae, Issekigan, Sange, Berserk, Aggressor.


With just the ones I mentioned it's ~7% attack during WS with Naegling Main, and that's without accounting for stuff like Protect, Shell, Food, Reraise, other possible buffs from trusts etc.

Now... we don't know if there are exceptions, if there are buffs that don't count for Naegling's buff>att conversion, there might as well be plenty, or none, we don't know. But supposing there are none I guess NIN has it better than many other jobs when it comes to use that specific aspect of Naegling.

Top Lane Legend. Owner of CLG. Nuff Said.

I really enjoy Nagi AM3 Chi spam as it’s pretty dope. However, I do find on W3 higher tier mods you do need a bit more in the buff department.

So what the expected ws Damage in a full buff scenario, will Metsu hit above 40k like Savage Blade and Hybrid ws(situational) or like hieshi 15/25k Shun spam? I don't own Kikoku.

Think I maxed out at like 32k metsu when I tried pushing it, Ten was just better. You'll never hit Savage blade hybrid numbers no matter how many buffs you have. Actually think kikoku is better the LESS buffs you have.

From Logical's github sheets + my Hybrid WS calc.
AVG with Chaos/Samurai, bis gear, capped attack on 281VIT target with neutral weak/resist to magic. Trying to WS asap (usually around 1200-1300TP because of TP overflow):

Kamu(R15Nagi): 12887
Shun(R15Heishi): 18718
Hi(R15Kannagi): 22573
Ku(Gokotai): 24800
Savage Blade: 26389 (39328 with Hitaki offhand)
Metsu(R15Kikoku: 27666
Ten(R15 Heishi): 28571 (35060 with Hitaki offhand)
Teki(R15 Heishi): 34676 (41894 with Hitaki offhand)
To(R15 Heishi): 45532 (55508 with Hitaki offhand)
Chi(R15 Heishi): 53555 (65361 with Hitaki offhand)

Any consensus on where the Ody katana Kunimitsu stands? Or is Ternion+1 OH still the go to. I've searched and read a couple of posts on the gleti knife vs kunimitsu, or is it still in the same boat.

Its best offhand katana for Hybrid WSs and best offhand katana if you plan to magic burst.

What about Savage Blade SimonSes?

I need to modify sheet for that. Gonna check later.

Savage Blade: 26389 (39328 with Hitaki offhand)

How did you come to that conclusion. Metsu Spam would be better if you are in a situation where you can't offhand Hitaki but other than that it looks like Hybrids > Savage > Ten > Metsu.

Or if you could SC, but seems he already had his mind made up that he was going to just use Metsu and call it a day.

Yeah I guess Metsu could win out over savage blade if you are able to finish of the darkness, but it would be pretty close.

I'm curious how the hybrids do against something like Odyssey mobs and how their resistance interacts.

AFAIK from observing just SC damage on A3s, everything might be heavily resisted. The only time I see large elemental damage is when it heals them during aura. So hybrids might be crap also (at least the magical portion, if we are assuming vs non-resisted weapon)

Man, that sucks. Hopefully the next set of content is nicer to ninja. It seems most of their current power is in their hybrid WS's.

If you count self sc then metsu is better, but hybrids are still best then too, unless mob resists some elements.

Don't forget you can swap weapons with a simple macro and perform Savage+Shun+Shun for double Light, or Shun+Savage for Light.

Metsu+Metsu+Darkness would not beat Savage+Shun+Light+Shun+Light or even Shun+Savage+Light.

Shun>Savage would only win with Hitaki offhand.
Savage>Shun>Shun cant really be compered to Metsu>Metsu. You would need to compare 2x Savage>Shun>Shun to 3x Metsu>Metsu and Metsu would win then.

Also if no element is resisted, then hybrids would completely destroy any other option for self skillchain anyway.

EDIT: There is also 4 step Radiance involving hybrids. To>Teki>Shun>Shun

A good DD takes max 2 WS to kill a mob though, and each DD should be soloing. 3 and 4 step sc seems an irrelevant point?

Talking Sheol C farming - you won't self sc on popped NMs.

Between using Naegling and spending 100s millions to R15 Kikou for an extra average 1k dmg per ws (not using Hitaki offhand in either case), if I was obsessed to use NIN for whatever reason I would just use the Naegling.

In regards to Sheol C, some mobs just flat resist skillchain damage so Metsu spam is probably objectively worse than Savage spam.

With realistic TP overflow I reckon Naegling would pull ahead significantly too, but I know it is taboo to not assume the exact same TP quantity every time in maths.

Often mobs are <10% HP after a ws or sometimes 2 (missed hits say) and I always save TP then to WS next mob.

Depends what you are doing. You might be farming Kei solo for some reason for example XD


I mean if you dont use Hitaki and dont plan to self SC, then Heishi and :Ten is as "free" as Naegling, but better.