Epic Shit.

And sometimes there are moments that just turn things around.

Last night we had our normal Limbus runs then our normal Assault runs for Salvage points, but the last run we tried to do a Nyzul Isle run with 4 people, WAR, MNK, RDM, WHM and it went very well. Almost cleared it, but we had to spend a lot of time on a clear everything floor, and didn't have time to finish off the last floor. With the limited group that we tried to beat it with we did very well I think. All of us have limited exposure to Nyzul Isle but we all have a very good understanding of the concept. We were able to quickly break down the group to scout, while still keeping a track of each other to find out where we wanted to go. It bodes well for the future of Nyzul Isle, but that is still on the back burner for Salvage.

Nyzul is fun and quick, sometimes frustrating but in the end, you will get to the bosses and you can farm them for drops and you will get them in a relatively decent amount of time. I am not saying that it is easy, but that the reward to repetition ratio is decent compared to some things.

Salvage, now that is where epic shit happens. It is no surprise to anyone that reads this blog that I believe that Salvage is more challenging and ultimately more rewarding than Nyzul Isle. Yes, the drop rates suck, but I really get the feeling that the randomness of Salvage has more effect on increasing the challenge for good players than the randomness of Nyzul Isle. If something goes badly in Nyzul Isle, that is ok, just get another tag and go again. If something goes badly for Salvage, thats the day, and there goes 1500 AP.

Last night we had an epic Salvage run, at least I felt like it was epic. I know that people have done more than we have done while doing the same thing and more, but this was the first time that we have tried it and the run was pretty much a pick up run too. Our goal was to get the Usukane 15 feet for Blaize to complete his Sune-ate. This run is usually a throw away run because you have to get to the fourth floor in 30 minutes for the Poroggo Madame to spawn, and this usually precludes getting the requisite cells to do much of anything else. When we got ready to go, I was asked if we wanted to try to get some other Madames for gear and I said that I would really like to try to get Ares's Feet for Izman, and Blaize said that we were going to try to do it, but didn't know we would have time for it. It was already getting late and we needed to get ready to go soon, but it had just turned over to Lightningsday which meant that we weren't going to be able to stun Frog Chorus at all, so we were going to have to take even more time to suck up any charms that were used. But we were going to try it anyway, with the goal being to get the Usukane 15's and anything after was gravy. So Izman, Omoi, Celestria, Blaize, Tarai and I got ready for a run where we were completely unsure of what was going to happen before going in.

The first real challenge was having to spawn the Poroggo Madame on the second floor which was going to be necessary to get the sixth floor Madame to spawn. We got lucky though, because besides a Breakga it didn't use anything too bad and no charms, so we rushed through the second floor getting what we needed but we were still left with just 3:30 left before we had to make it to the fourth floor when we zoned up to the third floor. Omoi immidiately made a break for the North teleporter so that we could get to the fourth floor in time for the Poroggo Madame to appear, but we also needed to make sure that we got two more MP cells for full unlocks and to be able to cause the fifth floor frog to spawn. Luckily they came rather quickly, and but we still only had 10 seconds left on the clock when we finally ported up to the fourth floor, and that is where the real fun began.

The fourth floor frog was obnoxious, but no more than normal, but the lack of stuns made it so that we had to eat 3 different Frog Choruses, and Cel died while kiting and this one regened up to 50% before we were able to engage it again, but we killed it and got the 100% drops that we needed and Blaize had completed his Usukane Sune-ate. But before we could move on, we still had to obtain the stat cells to get the full unlocks to spawn the 5th floor frog. The FFXIwiki was a bit wrong on this, and I adjusted the BGwiki to properly reflect the reality of the situation, but basically we had to farm the floor twice to get the left over drops that we needed to get the full unlocks, but it was quick and since we only used 30 minutes already we had plenty of time. We zoned up and killed some gears for some Alexandrite and to clear more space for kiting, then we moved onto the stun-proof Madame, and abuse us she did. One time she even managed to regen to 100%. But with some work we managed to make it work, but alas no drops. We tried to clear a little further to help Blaize out with getting the warp but it didn't go as planned and we ended up wiping and zoning up with 5 people dead. But even with a full wipe we still had 5:30 to kill the last frog and a chance at some 35's, but it was going to be close. Everyone two-houred, and Iz with SV songs and Mighty Strikes was able to take 40% out of it in record time, then it was my turn to two-hour and immediately get turned into a frog. LOL But time was still ticking away, and we had to wait it out, luckily Soul Voice was still up when we changed back and we got a fresh set of songs, only to be frogged again. With only a little over 1 minute left, and desperately needing songs again, we changed back. A little Chi Blast to keep the TP down and a little luck with a Magic Hammer and a Providence Graviga we were kill the frog and get... nothing. LOL Still it was one of the most exciting, enjoyable and challenging Salvage runs that I had ever done. We did well, and worked very well together. Ah well, another run tonight.

And sometimes there are moments that just turn things around.<br /><br />Last night we had our normal Limbus runs then our normal Assault runs for Salvage points, but the last run we tried to do a Nyzul Isle run with 4 people, WAR, MNK, RDM, WHM and it went very well. Almost cleared it, but we had to spend a lot of time on a clear everything floor, and didn't have time to finish off the last floor. With the limited group that we tried to beat it with we did very well I think. All of us have limited exposure to Nyzul Isle but we all have a very good understanding of the concept. We were able to quickly break down the group to scout, while still keeping a track of each other to find out where we wanted to go. It bodes well for the future of Nyzul Isle, but that is still on the back burner for Salvage.<br /><br />Nyzul is fun and quick, sometimes frustrating but in the end, you will get to the bosses and you can farm them for drops and you will get them in a relatively decent amount of time. I am not saying that it is easy, but that the reward to repetition ratio is decent compared to some things.<br /><br />Salvage, now that is where epic shit happens. It is no surprise to anyone that reads this blog that I believe that Salvage is more challenging and ultimately more rewarding than Nyzul Isle. Yes, the drop rates suck, but I really get the feeling that the randomness of Salvage has more effect on increasing the challenge for good players than the randomness of Nyzul Isle. If something goes badly in Nyzul Isle, that is ok, just get another tag and go again. If something goes badly for Salvage, thats the day, and there goes 1500 AP.<br /><br />Last night we had an epic Salvage run, at least I felt like it was epic. I know that people have done more than we have done while doing the same thing and more, but this was the first time that we have tried it and the run was pretty much a pick up run too. Our goal was to get the Usukane 15 feet for Blaize to complete his Sune-ate. This run is usually a throw away run because you have to get to the fourth floor in 30 minutes for the Poroggo Madame to spawn, and this usually precludes getting the requisite cells to do much of anything else. When we got ready to go, I was asked if we wanted to try to get some other Madames for gear and I said that I would really like to try to get Ares's Feet for Izman, and Blaize said that we were going to try to do it, but didn't know we would have time for it. It was already getting late and we needed to get ready to go soon, but it had just turned over to Lightningsday which meant that we weren't going to be able to stun Frog Chorus at all, so we were going to have to take even more time to suck up any charms that were used. But we were going to try it anyway, with the goal being to get the Usukane 15's and anything after was gravy. So Izman, Omoi, Celestria, Blaize, Tarai and I got ready for a run where we were completely unsure of what was going to happen before going in.<br /><br />The first real challenge was having to spawn the Poroggo Madame on the second floor which was going to be necessary to get the sixth floor Madame to spawn. We got lucky though, because besides a Breakga it didn't use anything too bad and no charms, so we rushed through the second floor getting what we needed but we were still left with just 3:30 left before we had to make it to the fourth floor when we zoned up to the third floor. Omoi immidiately made a break for the North teleporter so that we could get to the fourth floor in time for the Poroggo Madame to appear, but we also needed to make sure that we got two more MP cells for full unlocks and to be able to cause the fifth floor frog to spawn. Luckily they came rather quickly, and but we still only had 10 seconds left on the clock when we finally ported up to the fourth floor, and that is where the real fun began.<br /><br />The fourth floor frog was obnoxious, but no more than normal, but the lack of stuns made it so that we had to eat 3 different Frog Choruses, and Cel died while kiting and this one regened up to 50% before we were able to engage it again, but we killed it and got the 100% drops that we needed and Blaize had completed his Usukane Sune-ate. But before we could move on, we still had to obtain the stat cells to get the full unlocks to spawn the 5th floor frog. The FFXIwiki was a bit wrong on this, and I adjusted the BGwiki to properly reflect the reality of the situation, but basically we had to farm the floor twice to get the left over drops that we needed to get the full unlocks, but it was quick and since we only used 30 minutes already we had plenty of time. We zoned up and killed some gears for some Alexandrite and to clear more space for kiting, then we moved onto the stun-proof Madame, and abuse us she did. One time she even managed to regen to 100%. But with some work we managed to make it work, but alas no drops. We tried to clear a little further to help Blaize out with getting the warp but it didn't go as planned and we ended up wiping and zoning up with 5 people dead. But even with a full wipe we still had 5:30 to kill the last frog and a chance at some 35's, but it was going to be close. Everyone two-houred, and Iz with SV songs and Mighty Strikes was able to take 40% out of it in record time, then it was my turn to two-hour and immediately get turned into a frog. LOL But time was still ticking away, and we had to wait it out, luckily Soul Voice was still up when we changed back and we got a fresh set of songs, only to be frogged again. With only a little over 1 minute left, and desperately needing songs again, we changed back. A little Chi Blast to keep the TP down and a little luck with a Magic Hammer and a Providence Graviga we were kill the frog and get... nothing. LOL Still it was one of the most exciting, enjoyable and challenging Salvage runs that I had ever done. We did well, and worked very well together. Ah well, another run tonight.

Faith?

*Keep the Faith?

So I got my Faith Torque yesterday, finally. I think that it provides a bit of redemption in general and it is also nice to have. I have started using it instead of PCC for now, to see how I like it, but I am unsure as of now if I should use it for WS's or if I should use PCC or if I should use a WS Gorget. There are many different tests that show many different conclusions, but none of them are definitive enough for me to say "Yes, this is definitely what I should be using!" In fact, none of them are conclusive enough for Asuran Fists to say "I have a fucking clue which one to use!" Sea can be a total nuisance sometimes, especially when doing Faith where you have to run to all the possible spawn locations and check for the spawn point. This combined with the 15 minute wait on all the ???'s and something that should take an hour ends up taking many hours. I hope that sometime in the near future SE switches all ??? to be the three minute respawn like on the ZNM's.

*Gotta have Faith?

There are three types of people that play FFXI. There are those that will praise anything that SE does with the game, and they are always happy with changes that are made and will always defend anything new that is developed. There are those that will say that anything that SE does is crap, and that they have no idea how to run an MMO or even have any idea of what they are doing at all. Then there are people in the middle, that think that SE tries to do a good job but sometimes they make mistake, but they are now nowhere close to how bad they used to be. I think that the second group of people is the worst though. They really are living in the past and think that SE never changes anything or improves anything, and they are just too happily jaded to look at anything that SE does correctly. The first group of people are just as ignorant as the second group of people, but they are far less annoying. Negative Nancy's are always going to be more annoying than Positive Pete's, but that doesn't mean that either of them are know what the fuck they are talking about. I prefer to look at things with excitement but a discerning eye, and try to determine the quality of the something before I make a determination about it. But that kind of attitude never gets blog page hits or attention on web forums, unless it is against the grain or "common knowledge" but that is the point of another post in another time.

So why should people have faith? Well, because SE has released some information on the new Nyzul relic weapons, and they look pretty cool.






Ok, let me explain, because these definitely need some explanation. First, though the damage and delay are good for those weapons, they are not the best, and I don't think that was SE's goal at all. They have said that they aimed to make the weapons good for the job in other ways than just damage. It is pretty obvious that like all weapons and items, that some are going to be better than others. And the bonuses that have been listed are vague in description, but some of the bonuses have been stated and some are presumed. After the enhancements, the Aftermath effect is added after the special weaponskill for that weapon is used. These in general look to be increased accuracy/attack, magic accuracy/attack or ranged accuracy/attack. Finally, all of the weapons have "Occasionally attacks twice" on them except for the ranged weapon which has "Occasionally deals double damage." This could be an effect that occurs only with the Aftermath effect, but that much is still unclear. There are also new weaponskills that will be available through the new weapons but will not require the completed weapon to gain the new weaponskills. The catch is that when the new weaponskill is used it will cause the Aftermath effects which are supposed to be exceptionally strong. In the end these weapons are quite good for melee and should be decent to situational for mages, like always.

And for the people that complain about them having lower base damage and higher base delay than some other weapons, learn how to do some math. Occasionally attacks twice is just about insane even if its just a limited effect after using the weapon. Think about it.

Anyway, got some Limbus tonight, then some Assault, then I think we might toss in a Nyzul Isle run or two also. We will see.

*Keep the Faith?<br /><br />So I got my Faith Torque yesterday, finally. I think that it provides a bit of redemption in general and it is also nice to have. I have started using it instead of PCC for now, to see how I like it, but I am unsure as of now if I should use it for WS's or if I should use PCC or if I should use a WS Gorget. There are many different tests that show many different conclusions, but none of them are definitive enough for me to say "Yes, this is definitely what I should be using!" In fact, none of them are conclusive enough for Asuran Fists to say "I have a fucking clue which one to use!" Sea can be a total nuisance sometimes, especially when doing Faith where you have to run to all the possible spawn locations and check for the spawn point. This combined with the 15 minute wait on all the ???'s and something that should take an hour ends up taking many hours. I hope that sometime in the near future SE switches all ??? to be the three minute respawn like on the ZNM's.<br /><br />*Gotta have Faith?<br /><br />There are three types of people that play FFXI. There are those that will praise anything that SE does with the game, and they are always happy with changes that are made and will always defend anything new that is developed. There are those that will say that anything that SE does is crap, and that they have no idea how to run an MMO or even have any idea of what they are doing at all. Then there are people in the middle, that think that SE tries to do a good job but sometimes they make mistake, but they are now nowhere close to how bad they used to be. I think that the second group of people is the worst though. They really are living in the past and think that SE never changes anything or improves anything, and they are just too happily jaded to look at anything that SE does correctly. The first group of people are just as ignorant as the second group of people, but they are far less annoying. Negative Nancy's are always going to be more annoying than Positive Pete's, but that doesn't mean that either of them are know what the fuck they are talking about. I prefer to look at things with excitement but a discerning eye, and try to determine the quality of the something before I make a determination about it. But that kind of attitude never gets blog page hits or attention on web forums, unless it is against the grain or "common knowledge" but that is the point of another post in another time. <br /><br />So why should people have faith? Well, because SE has released some information on the new Nyzul relic weapons, and they look pretty cool. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Rdm_Nyzul.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Rdm_Nyzul.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Drg_Nyzul.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Drg_Nyzul.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Pup_Nyzul.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Pup_Nyzul.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Dnc_Nyzul.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Dnc_Nyzul.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Cor_Nyzul.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Cor_Nyzul.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Whm_Nyzul.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Whm_Nyzul.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Thf_Nyzul.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Thf_Nyzul.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" /></a><br />Ok, let me explain, because these definitely need some explanation. First, though the damage and delay are good for those weapons, they are not the best, and I don't think that was SE's goal at all. They have said that they aimed to make the weapons good for the job in other ways than just damage. It is pretty obvious that like all weapons and items, that some are going to be better than others. And the bonuses that have been listed are vague in description, but some of the bonuses have been stated and some are presumed. After the enhancements, the Aftermath effect is added after the special weaponskill for that weapon is used. These in general look to be increased accuracy/attack, magic accuracy/attack or ranged accuracy/attack. Finally, all of the weapons have "Occasionally attacks twice" on them except for the ranged weapon which has "Occasionally deals double damage." This could be an effect that occurs only with the Aftermath effect, but that much is still unclear. There are also new weaponskills that will be available through the new weapons but will not require the completed weapon to gain the new weaponskills. The catch is that when the new weaponskill is used it will cause the Aftermath effects which are supposed to be exceptionally strong. In the end these weapons are quite good for melee and should be decent to situational for mages, like always. <br /><br />And for the people that complain about them having lower base damage and higher base delay than some other weapons, learn how to do some math. Occasionally attacks twice is just about insane even if its just a limited effect after using the weapon. Think about it.<br /><br />Anyway, got some Limbus tonight, then some Assault, then I think we might toss in a Nyzul Isle run or two also. We will see.

mnk can die mouth open in a lake of vomit and blood

And this is just one of the few reasons that I love my little French buddy. Normally, Elf's command of the English language is firm but limited, but when he is angry he becomes a virtuoso. I pride myself on the ability to cuss with eloquence, but Elf makes me look like an amateur. I couldn't come up with a condemnation with this level of quality and descriptiveness. I should also mention that Elf cheats like a little bastard at PvP! XD Nowhere near as bad as Omoi cheats, though. Omoi is the master... Also Elf loves to say "craps" instead of crap and that is just awesome. The French can cuss almost as well as they can make wine.

Yesterday was a rather vanilla but good day. Sky resulted in 2 Byakko's Haidate for Hellz and Illius, N. Hands for Highlife, a free lotted D. Legs, 2 dropped D. Feet and a couple of bank items. Limbus was just head and feet from Omega, which were both free lotted. Salvage was an awesome run but of course, we got blanked.

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Elf_awesome.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Elf_awesome.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a><br />And this is just one of the few reasons that I love my little French buddy. Normally, Elf's command of the English language is firm but limited, but when he is angry he becomes a virtuoso. I pride myself on the ability to cuss with eloquence, but Elf makes me look like an amateur. I couldn't come up with a condemnation with this level of quality and descriptiveness. I should also mention that Elf cheats like a little bastard at PvP! XD Nowhere near as bad as Omoi cheats, though. Omoi is the master... Also Elf loves to say "craps" instead of crap and that is just awesome. The French can cuss almost as well as they can make wine. <br /><br />Yesterday was a rather vanilla but good day. Sky resulted in 2 Byakko's Haidate for Hellz and Illius, N. Hands for Highlife, a free lotted D. Legs, 2 dropped D. Feet and a couple of bank items. Limbus was just head and feet from Omega, which were both free lotted. Salvage was an awesome run but of course, we got blanked.

Is the world coming to an end?

It is like the slow creep of some kind of Lovecraftian horror. First, is the inexplicable fear, coming on more like a temperature change, unnoticed at first, but slowly building until you are sweating from every pore. Then comes the dread, the intimate knowledge of the approach of the end, even though the source is still unseen, unheard, unknown. Wishing for the end only slows it's approach, almost as if it can sense that now you only want the fear to end. Does it feed on your fear? Is it fattening you up for the slaughter? Thoughts of torture and torment would be comfort, because those would be real and substantial, but the slow creep has no reality and yet it consumes all reality. Sanity is something that existed in a past that is barely a memory as every thought, every moment, even every fiber of your existence begins to fray. And then the moment happens, sight overwhelmed, senses flash to life to consume everything that you wish they would deny. The moment of the horrors unveiling was supposed to be a moment of acceptance, but your mind reals in disbelief as the fear and dread were nothing more than a pinprick compared to the pain of the thought of something that should not exist. Your mind breaks, unable to cope, and yet, the pain does not end, it does not ebb, it has no zenith, you are embraced passionately by sheer absolute and infinite horror...

:)

My WHM hit 72 last night. Hehehe. Lovecraft ain't got nothing on the horror of me finally getting my WHM to 75. And I am loving it. I was finally in a Greater Colibri party last night, and I got 2 levels. But my gear was starting to fall behind, so afterward I went and got pretty much everything left that I wanted to get for end-game events. Well, at least my casting gear, because I still need to look into my hMP gear, and my Divine/Sleeping set up. For my casting gear, the only things left that I really am interested in purchasing are a Beak Necklace +1 and something for the ranged slot. When I hit 75 I will be able to use my Walahra Turban and Loquacious Earring and at that point I will be pretty well set, for curing. I could get a Healing Staff for sure, but with my finances there really isn't much justification for getting one over my simple Light Staff.

Well, since I haven't had a real update in a while, lets go over some nice things that have happened recently and I think this is in chronological order but I might be mixing things up. First, I got a Justice Torque finally! I think we are about 2 for 10 on this torque, but at least to decrease the pain of the extremely low drop rate we usually just spawn them three at a time. It's more efficient too, but you notice it more when you do three of them at once and get 1 torque then if you spread it out and do them over time. I guess it just feels a little less depressing. LOL That rounds out my Great Katana skill gear, and I feel really good about my SAM now. A Novio for Elfie is next, as we finally got a full drop set from Love, and I think that puts us at two Novia, one Novio, and three Love Torques. Elfie's BLM is looking even more bad ass now, and man was he pleased to finally get that! I might have mentioned that Elf already got the earring but I don't think I put the picture in. Then last Tuesday we had a great day! Einherjar was a win, and we got an N. Head from the chest! Congrats to Akanea on N. Head. Then on a SSR run, Omoi got Ares 35 Legs! It was just a normal run, and when I looked down neither she nor I thought anything about it at first, because nothing ever drops from Gyroscopic Gears. That amazingly enough puts Omoi at 14/15 Ares pieces, and she just needs the head from the Big Bhoot in Arrapago. She might have to wait a little bit for it though because we are going to be in SSR for a while to help clear out some more of the items there. We really need to get some more Ares's drops.

And to conclude in cuteness, here are Pot and Elfie at the last Ultima we did, looking super awesome and bad ass as usual! :)

It is like the slow creep of some kind of Lovecraftian horror. First, is the inexplicable fear, coming on more like a temperature change, unnoticed at first, but slowly building until you are sweating from every pore. Then comes the dread, the intimate knowledge of the approach of the end, even though the source is still unseen, unheard, unknown. Wishing for the end only slows it's approach, almost as if it can sense that now you only want the fear to end. Does it feed on your fear? Is it fattening you up for the slaughter? Thoughts of torture and torment would be comfort, because those would be real and substantial, but the slow creep has no reality and yet it consumes all reality. Sanity is something that existed in a past that is barely a memory as every thought, every moment, even every fiber of your existence begins to fray. And then the moment happens, sight overwhelmed, senses flash to life to consume everything that you wish they would deny. The moment of the horrors unveiling was supposed to be a moment of acceptance, but your mind reals in disbelief as the fear and dread were nothing more than a pinprick compared to the pain of the thought of something that should not exist. Your mind breaks, unable to cope, and yet, the pain does not end, it does not ebb, it has no zenith, you are embraced passionately by sheer absolute and infinite horror... <br /><br />:) <br /><br />My WHM hit 72 last night. Hehehe. Lovecraft ain't got nothing on the horror of me finally getting my WHM to 75. And I am loving it. I was finally in a Greater Colibri party last night, and I got 2 levels. But my gear was starting to fall behind, so afterward I went and got pretty much everything left that I wanted to get for end-game events. Well, at least my casting gear, because I still need to look into my hMP gear, and my Divine/Sleeping set up. For my casting gear, the only things left that I really am interested in purchasing are a Beak Necklace +1 and something for the ranged slot. When I hit 75 I will be able to use my Walahra Turban and Loquacious Earring and at that point I will be pretty well set, for curing. I could get a Healing Staff for sure, but with my finances there really isn't much justification for getting one over my simple Light Staff.<br /><br />Well, since I haven't had a real update in a while, lets go over some nice things that have happened recently and I think this is in chronological order but I might be mixing things up. First, I got a Justice Torque finally! I think we are about 2 for 10 on this torque, but at least to decrease the pain of the extremely low drop rate we usually just spawn them three at a time. It's more efficient too, but you notice it more when you do three of them at once and get 1 torque then if you spread it out and do them over time. I guess it just feels a little less depressing. LOL <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Just_Torque.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Just_Torque.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a> That rounds out my Great Katana skill gear, and I feel really good about my SAM now. A Novio for Elfie is next, as we finally got a full drop set from Love, and I think that puts us at two Novia, one Novio, and three Love Torques. Elfie's BLM is looking even more bad ass now, and man was he pleased to finally get that! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Elf_Novio.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Elf_Novio.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a> I might have mentioned that Elf already got the earring but I don't think I put the picture in. Then last Tuesday we had a great day! Einherjar was a win, and we got an N. Head from the chest! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Ein_7-22-08.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Ein_7-22-08.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 294px;" /></a> Congrats to Akanea on N. Head. Then on a SSR run, Omoi got Ares 35 Legs! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Ares_Legs35.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Ares_Legs35.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 144px;" /></a> It was just a normal run, and when I looked down neither she nor I thought anything about it at first, because nothing ever drops from Gyroscopic Gears. That amazingly enough puts Omoi at 14/15 Ares pieces, and she just needs the head from the Big Bhoot in Arrapago. She might have to wait a little bit for it though because we are going to be in SSR for a while to help clear out some more of the items there. We really need to get some more Ares's drops. <br /><br />And to conclude in cuteness, here are Pot and Elfie at the last Ultima we did, looking super awesome and bad ass as usual! :) <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Pot_pot.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Pot_pot.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a>

On the Cheap #3: Ninja.

Ok, Ninja is much, much more varied than SAM or MNK, and there are also a bunch of different options that you can choose from for how you want to play Ninja. I am not going to go over tanking gear right now, because there are even more potential options for tanking that vary on sub job, the fight and your support. I am also not going to let this melt down into a million different versions of what you can and can not do to be a good Ninja. There are speed set-ups, there are accuracy set-ups, there are split set-ups, but here is the universal thing. Ninja's don't have that great accuracy. I wish they did, but they don't, so if you are going to for speed you will probably need to eat sushi, and if you are going to go accuracy then, well I guess you can use meat but I don't know if it is the best direction to go, just in my opinion. In fact, let me just say that I think that if you are just getting to end-game on Ninja, you should use Sushi no matter what, even with full Katana merits.

Anyway, the point with Ninja is haste, and as much of it as possible, and you can get a lot. Ninja has access to a good selection of haste gear and already has very low swing delay to begin with, so gearing it isn't that difficult even if it does making a guide somewhat difficult because there are so many alternatives. The interesting dichotomy about Ninja is based around that concept, it is indeed relatively easy to create a good DD set up for Ninja, and yet I think it is the job that most people screw up, and they screw it up bad. The problem is that people try to go the middle of the road route, a little from column A and a little from column B. And like with most other melee jobs this just doesn't work, you are just going to undercut your ability to be effective at anything.

I will say this about Ninja, it is easier than many other jobs to get to the point where you are effective in your role in end-game (at least as a DD) and even the pinnacle for Ninja is much lower than it is for other jobs. I would say though that it is more equipment dependent for being effective than some of the other jobs that I will create guides for in the future. So, focus on getting good equipment and you should be very well off.

Now, the rules for the On the Cheap series:

1. You can't be dumb. Sorry, if you are dumb, I can't help you. If you are the kind of person that hears something and then sticks to it no matter what, just quit now. If you can't adapt to changes in the game, quit. If you refuse to do something because you don't think that should be the play style of the game, then just fucking die in a fire. Flexibility is key, the more we learn about things in the game, the more we improve the play style and the more things change.

2. You have to really be an end-game player. I am not expecting you to have every title in the game, and have done ever mission everywhere, but I do expect you to have done main story-line content. This should be a goal of an end-game player at the very least. Zilart should be finished up to at very least Sky, CoP should be finished up until the end, and Aht Urhgan up until the end. If you don't have these, or at least most of it and trying to get to the end, then you aren't an end-game player, you are just lazy or your are just making pretend.

3. You have to be able to do some end-game events. I am not demanding that you be in a full-time HNM LS or anything, but you should have access to a LS that does at least some of those end-game areas/events. If you don't then you really aren't an end-game player, you are just a player with a job at 75.

4. You have to be willing to spend at least a little bit of gil. Sure, this series is called "On the Cheap" but it is not called "On the Gimp" so you will need to spend some gil getting some of the gear that you need. I am not going to tell you to get all HQ gear unless it is cheap, and I will also indicate expensive items that you will need anyway, or cheap items that are good replacements. This is like the Frugal Gourmet for FFXI. Yes, I know, none of you got that reference. :(

So, basically, don't be stupid and try your hardest.

Now, for Ninja gear.

Weapons. In general, and by default, your main hand Katana should be a Senjuinrikio. It is easily obtained from several of the more common KS30 runs and a lot of time if you can find a group of people going to do a couple of them you can leach off of them because the Senj is so common and most people that already want one has one. It has a nice and high base damage for the main hand where most of your damage is going to come from on Blade: Jin (which is the only real WS for NIN) and the additional 6% crit rate is very nice for both TP build and Jin because it is a crit hit WS. The best pairing for the Senj is a Perdu Blade for the exact opposite reason that the Senj is good for the main hand. It has a low delay and a decent base damage, but also has the hidden effect of extra accuracy and attack. This is the standard DD set up for most Ninjas, but there are still a good number of alternatives. The Fudo is a good alternative for the main hand if you don't have a Senj yet, and also a good alternative for the off-hand if you don't have a Perdu Blade. Also, there is the option of either the Unji or the Unsho, either of which can replace the Senj if you have a Perdu Blade, or can be used for off-hand to be paired with a Senj. Also they can be paired together rather effectively, and in fact prior to the Perdu Blade they were probably one of the best Katana pairings in the game. Also, a Hayabusa can be used as an alternative to a Perdu Blade until you get the ISP and Assault Rank to get one. For the speed option the Perdu Blade in the main hand and Hayabusa in the off hand can make in incredibly low delay combination that still has a decently high damage in the main hand considering the latent effect. Also, Unsho or Unji can be used for a speed set up but I don't think that it will be as good obviously. I should note that the Hayabusa is at the upper limit of cost of this guide because it's usefulness is limited because a speed set-up is not necessarily better or worse than the Senj/Perdu pairing, so unless you really want it badly, I would just suggest sticking to Senj/Perdu.

Neck. If you have read the two other On the Cheap articles then you will know that I generally think that Spectacles are the best way to go for the neck slot. Cheap, effective and better than the Chivalrous Chain that most people use instead. Now, the Chivalrous Chain is decent, but again, I do not think the STR on it during TP build is going to make as much difference as additional accuracy especially on a relatively low accuracy job like Ninja and especially one that is using a low delay set-up.

Earrings. Ahh, I love easy slots, the required piece for a good end-game NIN is a Suppanomimi. An ear piece that decreases your delay by 5% is just insane, and remember Dual Wield effects are very similar to the way that Haste works, in that a higher percentage of delay reduction will improve the speed of your swings multiplicatively. The other obvious earring is the Brutal Earring; with it's 5% Double Attack, this is excellent for Ninja because of the increasing in TP gain. If you don't have either of these or both, the next option is Ethereal Earring. Now, I do not suggest worrying about evasion at all while creating a DD build for Ninja, and the reason is that is not the goal of a DD build for Ninja. Going the middle of the road, trying to get some evasion and some DD gear is only going to make it so that you don't have decent evasion and you only decrease your DD potential. Like Mr. Miyagi say "Walk on road, hm? Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later get squish just like grape." It isn't bad when you can get some extra benefit on some pieces, but never worry about picking up something like evasion when you could be getting even a marginal improvement in DD stats. After that are the normal fall backs of Coral Earring or Merman's Earring are also acceptable. There are also a myriad of other earrings that have some combination of stats and accuracy that could fill the gap, but they are all a step down.

Body. This is a slot that is highly dependent on other aspects of your TP build. There are two basic options, the first being a Haubergeon. Good accuracy, good attack, good stats, and bad evasion which you shouldn't be caring about. The other option is Ninja Chainmail or Ninja Chainmail +1, with the Ninja Chainmail +1 being slightly but still obviously better, because of the added DEX for a little bit of accuracy. Using the Ninja Chainmail (+1) is probably of increasing benefit as you get more haste but neither one will steer you wrong. If you need more accuracy but don't have a Haubergeon yet then both a Scorpion Harness or a Pahluwan Khazagand can work well until you have something better.

Hands. It used to be that Dusk Gloves were far too expensive even if very good for me to suggest for this guide, but the price is now in a good range for this guide. I would say that they are pretty much a requirement for Ninja at the very least, as there isn't much else that can provide the haste that you can get from the Dusk Gloves. I was going to suggest a few other options, but really their aren't any that are even close to being this good, and you should be able to farm up the gil for the Dusk Gloves without much problem. So do it.

Rings. Ok, I am bad here because I still use my Rajas Ring and I really shouldn't. I might have mentioned that my Ninja has fallen into disrepair every since I elevated my Samurai and Monk, since they required cutting back on my Katana merits. I have just accepted the fact that my Ninja won't be up to par with my Monk and Samurai so I will always just use Sushi for it, and using Sushi pretty much lets me use Rajas Ring because my accuracy is so high, but honestly, I shouldn't be for TP build. It doesn't really justify the trade off in Accuracy when I could be using my Blood Ring and Ulthalam's Ring. The exception to this is if you are capped on Accuracy, but for more merit situations you aren't going to be. On Trolls or Mamool Ja you are not going to be capped even with Sushi, and on Colibri you are not going to be able to use Sushi, so I would lean toward more Accuracy where ever you can find it. Of course the nay-sayers will say quip about the additional bonuses on the Rajas Ring, such as the Store TP and the Subtle Blow. Subtle Blow will have next to no noticeable effect in a DD situation, and Store TP might or might not help you hit 100 sometimes, but with the inherent randomness of TP return on multi-hit WS's, double attack and misses the amount of times you get to 100TP instead of 99 will be nothing close to the reliability of a two-handed weapon set up. Other alternatives, as always, include the Woodsman Ring or the Sniper's Ring. The Sniper's Ring being the slightly superior alternative.

Back. This is pretty obvious by now but you should be using an Amemet Mantle +1. I do want to mention that you should not be using a Boxer's Mantle because as I have explained several times, you don't want to mix and match, you want to go all the way for damage dealing situations, because in FFXI you will only notice the effects of almost any stat if you stack that attribute. So just don't do it.

Waist. The best reasonably available waist piece for any Ninja is the Swift Belt. Take the time and frustration to get one now and you will have a lot less to worry about later. Although all jobs benefit from haste Ninja especially gets a lot from haste and it combines very well with the Dual Wield bonuses they inherently have available. If you don't have a Swift Belt yet, the I would suggest a Life Belt or a Potent Belt in general when you are below the accuracy cap (which should happen most of the time). Also, Swordbelt +1 is an option at the accuracy cap I suppose but I think I have already stated my opinion on that already.

Legs. The best is Byakko's Haidate and that should be the first goal of any level 75 Ninja, even before a Swift Belt. Good for DD, tanking and just about anything else you do on Ninja. The next alternative is the Koga Hakama which surprisingly increases your swing speed even more than the 5% haste of the Byakko's Haidate depending on your level of Dual Wield. This is because Dual Wield acts the same as haste when it comes to reducing swing speed, the more you have the better the effect. It also has a huge chunk of HP on it which is nice, but it lacks the true haste for recasts and it lacks the 15 Dex which is a good chunk of accuracy. The next good leg piece are the Shura Haidate which have good accuracy combined with STR which is a nice additional bonus. Ninja Hakama +1 is probably the next step down the ladder of good Ninja leg pieces, having some accuracy but not much else. There are multiple other pieces of gear that can be used for the leg slot, like the Pahluwan Seraweels, the Galliard Trousers or the Denali Kecks but they are all pretty far down on the list.

Feet. The best and relatively easy to get item for this slot are the Fuma Suna-ate. The haste on the Fuma's are really the driving force here, and for the longest time they were basically the best and only option aside from the Fuma Kyahan or Sarutobi Kyahan which have the same haste just no AGI and lower defense. Recently though, with the addition of the Enkidu's armor set, there is a new option for the feet. The Enkidu's Leggings provide a decent set of stats for a slight reduction in haste, now for some jobs I would favor these over the Fuma's but for Ninja it is anyone's guess and I doubt any kind of parse would give you much indication one way or the other.

That is it for TP gear. Ninja is much more straight forward in gear selection no matter what kind of set-up you choose. There are no real gear selection trade-offs like with some other jobs and subjobs don't effect gear selection. For WS gear it is just more of the same, you are going to be using Blade: Jin almost all of the time that you aren't making skillchains. The modifiers for Jin are STR and DEX at 30% and a TP modifier of Critical hit chance, but remember that STR always increases your damage by more that other secondary modifiers so you will need a whole lot of DEX to justify a trade off with an WS that has an equal modifier of STR. In this case, and this is without doing any calculations to confirm it and assuming that you are at the fSTR/4 level (you almost always will be) you should have to gain at least 2 DEX for each STR you give up. I could be talking out of my ass here, but the only place this really matters is in the legs and smarter people than I have shown me the math to prove this is the case. The important thing to remember really is that STR and DEX don't have an equal trade off for Blade: Jin, so favor STR over DEX in cases of equal trade-offs. For Jin, my general rule are that modifiers are good because you will probably be eating Sushi and have a bunch of good places where you can make up accuracy from what you lose by using gear with modifiers, but when you don't have modifier stats to go in a slot, then go with more accuracy.

Head. I would aim to get a Shura Zunari Kabuto as your ultimate goal, but I can understand why it might take a while to get due to cost. In the end this is one of those pieces that it is worth dumping the money into getting. It is good enough that you can pay the cost and still be considered frugal. Voyager Sallet is a very good second option here, if a bit complicated to get one. The stats are good, and doesn't hurt the accuracy all that much. Alternatively, an Optical Hat can help in low accuracy situations or if you do decide to go with a meat set-up. A Fourth Haube has a couple of STR that can help out and there are a few other head pieces with some stats that are helpful, but in general the first three head pieces should be the ones that you should go with.

Neck. And here we have the ultimate debate: do Sea Gorgets work for multi-hit weaponskills? The more and more evidence that is provided the more that I believe that they do have some kind of modification on the accuracy of multi-hit weaponskills, so I am going to suggest, and I have used for a long time even before this information was available, a Breeze Gorget. Once you have Sea, this should be relatively easy to get and doesn't really cost more than the chip from the goblin to make it. If you do not believe that Sea Gorgets effect multi-hit weaponskills, then the tried and true Chivalrous Chain is the way to go. Decent accuracy with decent STR, it wont let you down.

Earrings. Since I already assume that you are going to have a Brutal Earring for TP build, you should be using it here too. Even a 5% chance of an extra hit on a WS is enough potential damage to outweigh almost any other modifier modifier you can get in one slot let alone how poor the modifiers are in the ear slot. After the Brutal, the Minuet Earring will do well in most XP parties as you will probably have a BRD and you are going to be getting the accuracy bonus. There is also the option of using a Triumph Earring but I do not think this is a frugal item and should only be purchased to finish off your Ninja, not to start it. The cost does not justify its use over something like the Minuet Earring.

Body. Use a Haubergeon. Good accuracy, attack, STR and DEX. Everything you want for Blade: Jin. I would suggest against using a Kirin's Osode as I do not believe the loss in accuracy is enough to justify the gain in WS modifiers. This is from my personal testing and most Ninja that I have talked to tend to agree with this notion. Just stick with the Haubergeon and you can't go wrong.

Hands. Universally, meaning both day and night, Ninja Tekko +1 are the best piece that you can get for Blade: Jin. A very large amount of STR and DEX and not really that difficult to get your hands on really. Depending on your other gear and the direction you want to go, this could be one of the first pieces you will want to upgrade of the Ninja AF. There is a pretty large fall after the Ninja Tekko +1 for reasonably obtainable gear with decent stats. You can alternatively use attack gloves which are supposed to be a good replacement for other items with fewer beneficial stats. The list includes Ochiudo's Kote, Ochimusha Kote, Horomusha Kote and a few others, but essentially any of the kote that give a good chunk of attack are very useful here. I would go with these before you consider something with lesser stats, like the Fourth Hentzes, but I would consider the new Enkidu's Mittens worth looking into because the stats are good, and the accuracy is very good for a multi-hit WS. Finally, stay away from Gigas Bracelets (Pallas's, Alkyoneus's, etc.) as they do have very good STR, and STR is definitely better for any WS with STR as a mod than any other additional modification, but it is a 1:1 trade off on WS modifiers and it decreases WS accuracy on a multi-hit WS which is a no-no.

Rings. Ok, now you can use your Rajas Ring and feel good about it. For the other ring it will generally depend on if you are using sushi or not, but my assumption is that you will be using sushi so I will stick with that, but if you are using meat then go with any of the accuracy rings that listed under the TP build section. Since sushi will almost always be the situation, or you will be in a situation where you won't be using food like Greater Colibri which really don't have enough evasion to justify a major change, I would go with STR rings. I think that a Flame Ring is just outside of the reasonable amount that I would immidiately pay for a STR ring. I would pick up a much cheaper Ruby Ring and spend your gil rounding out your Ninja, then come back to this later when you are doing your final tweaks.

Back. Amemet Mantle +1. I don't need to repeat myself again here.

Waist. Two good and easily obtainable options here. First, Warwolf Belt. It has STR and DEX in a very good portion, and the DEX also translates into a bit of accuracy. With sushi, I think this is the better option of the two good options, but if you are still lacking some accuracy on Jin then I think a Potent Belt is a perfectly acceptable option. Both of these options are cheap and easily available on the AH, and you probably even already have them for other jobs, so there really is no reason to look any further.

Legs. Ugh, another pretty long list because of the relative difficulty in getting the best pieces. First, is Byakko's Haidate and believe me, I asked and got a bunch of good math to prove it's quality. 15 DEX for WS mods, 7.5 accuracy. There isn't anything better for Jin. This is actually going to read close to the TP build set up but with a few excetions, but in this case, the Shura Haidate is the next best option with it's equivalent accuracy and 5 STR, but pretty much equally annoying to get from Byakko. Enkidu's Subligar followed closely by Pahluwan Seraweels are next. Actually, the Enkidu's Subligar may actually be ever so slightly better than the Shura Haidate, but I don't know if I would give up even 1 STR and 5 accuracy for 4 DEX. The damage bonus just isn't going to pan out over time. The Pahluwan legs are a decent filer until something better is obtained. If you are hurting for something quick and need it off the AH, then the Royal Knight's Breeches can plug that hole in the short term, but they aren't going to keep the boat afloat for long.

Feet. Finally, feet. The Denali Gamashes are just sexy for this slot. A little boost in STR which is going to be hard to find in this slot, a good boost in accuracy which is never bad considering you are making trade-offs in accuracy in other slots for Jin, and they are only a level 20 Nyzul Isle drop. I don't do Nyzul Isle, so I don't have these yet (but I know Highlife is going to take care of me eventually, LOL) so I think this is the first number 1 pick that I don't actually own yet myself. The reason I am not too pressed to get these quickly though (besides the fact that I neglect my Ninja more than Britney Spears neglects her kids) is because I have the ol' reliable Rutter Sabatons. Very easy to get the pop item, very easy to low man NM, and pretty universally useful across several jobs. The Fourth Division Schuhs have an equal amount of STR but lack the attack of the Rutter Sabatons. The last of the STR feet are the Heroic Boots which are one of those pieces that if you need off the AH quick in a pinch go for it, but quickly try to get something better. Now, there are a few pieces that are worth mentioning that lack STR but make up for it with a good portion more DEX and accuracy or attack, enough so to merit mention. Enkidu's Leggings The DEX is the secondary modifier sure, but it has a little bit of attack for Jin too. They are like the Rutter Sabatons done wrong. Finally, and I mention this only if you have them already because I don't think they are worth the 20k in Assault points but the Pahluwan Crackows have DEX and accuracy in surprising large amounts for the feet slot. Don't get them for Jin, but if you already have them, then why not use them?

So there we have it. Ninja on the cheap. I do want to emphasize that again for the people that miss things, like the fricking title of the series. Yes, I know that I didn't include everything, that was not my goal at all. My goal was to help out those that wanted a quick reference on how not to be gimp. Often times we see gimp people all over, and we wonder what the hell they are thinking. This is a helping hand to them to get them on their feet without the normal mockery that happens in the game all the time. My two main goals have always to include the critical pieces and the bargain pieces. The idea that you should get a Forager's or Cerberus +1 for your back piece is utterly ridiculous if you have other more important slots to fill first. If you are already to the point where you are considering a Forager's or Cerberus Mantle +1 then this guide is probably not for you at all because you probably already have all the gear you need and already know all of the information I have presented, or you are too dumb to figure out that spending that much gil on a very marginally better piece is not good, and you are more worried about what people will say when they check you than actually playing your best.

Now that I have railed on about what other people suggest, let me do the same to myself. I don't know everything, I don't even know a few things, I am just supplying what I think is help and if you don't think it is helpful, then let me know so I can fix it! Just keep in mind the goals of the series and I will listen to just about anything you have to say. For example, in the Ninja guide I already had to fix the fact that I included the Fowling Earring but forgot that Ninja can't even use it. LOL Anyway, I am willing to listen, learn and change these guides as new gear comes out and new opinions are presented.

Like I mentioned before, Ninja is more than just a DD job, and I might go back later and make a tanking guide for Ninja, but for right now I want to move onto another job.

Ok, Ninja is much, much more varied than SAM or MNK, and there are also a bunch of different options that you can choose from for how you want to play Ninja. I am not going to go over tanking gear right now, because there are even more potential options for tanking that vary on sub job, the fight and your support. I am also not going to let this melt down into a million different versions of what you can and can not do to be a good Ninja. There are speed set-ups, there are accuracy set-ups, there are split set-ups, but here is the universal thing. Ninja's don't have that great accuracy. I wish they did, but they don't, so if you are going to for speed you will probably need to eat sushi, and if you are going to go accuracy then, well I guess you can use meat but I don't know if it is the best direction to go, just in my opinion. In fact, let me just say that I think that if you are just getting to end-game on Ninja, you should use Sushi no matter what, even with full Katana merits. <br /><br />Anyway, the point with Ninja is haste, and as much of it as possible, and you can get a lot. Ninja has access to a good selection of haste gear and already has very low swing delay to begin with, so gearing it isn't that difficult even if it does making a guide somewhat difficult because there are so many alternatives. The interesting dichotomy about Ninja is based around that concept, it is indeed relatively easy to create a good DD set up for Ninja, and yet I think it is the job that most people screw up, and they screw it up bad. The problem is that people try to go the middle of the road route, a little from column A and a little from column B. And like with most other melee jobs this just doesn't work, you are just going to undercut your ability to be effective at anything.<br /><br />I will say this about Ninja, it is easier than many other jobs to get to the point where you are effective in your role in end-game (at least as a DD) and even the pinnacle for Ninja is much lower than it is for other jobs. I would say though that it is more equipment dependent for being effective than some of the other jobs that I will create guides for in the future. So, focus on getting good equipment and you should be very well off. <br /><br />Now, the rules for the On the Cheap series: <br /><blockquote>1. You can't be dumb. Sorry, if you are dumb, I can't help you. If you are the kind of person that hears something and then sticks to it no matter what, just quit now. If you can't adapt to changes in the game, quit. If you refuse to do something because you don't think that should be the play style of the game, then just fucking die in a fire. Flexibility is key, the more we learn about things in the game, the more we improve the play style and the more things change.<br /><br />2. You have to really be an end-game player. I am not expecting you to have every title in the game, and have done ever mission everywhere, but I do expect you to have done main story-line content. This should be a goal of an end-game player at the very least. Zilart should be finished up to at very least Sky, CoP should be finished up until the end, and Aht Urhgan up until the end. If you don't have these, or at least most of it and trying to get to the end, then you aren't an end-game player, you are just lazy or your are just making pretend.<br /><br />3. You have to be able to do some end-game events. I am not demanding that you be in a full-time HNM LS or anything, but you should have access to a LS that does at least some of those end-game areas/events. If you don't then you really aren't an end-game player, you are just a player with a job at 75.<br /><br />4. You have to be willing to spend at least a little bit of gil. Sure, this series is called "On the Cheap" but it is not called "On the Gimp" so you will need to spend some gil getting some of the gear that you need. I am not going to tell you to get all HQ gear unless it is cheap, and I will also indicate expensive items that you will need anyway, or cheap items that are good replacements. This is like the Frugal Gourmet for FFXI. Yes, I know, none of you got that reference. :(<br /><br />So, basically, don't be stupid and try your hardest.</blockquote><br /><br />Now, for Ninja gear.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Weapons</u></span>. In general, and by default, your main hand Katana should be a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Senjuinrikio"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Senjuinrikio</span></a>. It is easily obtained from several of the more common KS30 runs and a lot of time if you can find a group of people going to do a couple of them you can leach off of them because the Senj is so common and most people that already want one has one. It has a nice and high base damage for the main hand where most of your damage is going to come from on Blade: Jin (which is the only real WS for NIN) and the additional 6% crit rate is very nice for both TP build and Jin because it is a crit hit WS. The best pairing for the Senj is a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Perdu_Blade"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Perdu Blade</span></a> for the exact opposite reason that the Senj is good for the main hand. It has a low delay and a decent base damage, but also has the hidden effect of extra accuracy and attack. This is the standard DD set up for most Ninjas, but there are still a good number of alternatives. The <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Fudo"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Fudo</span></a> is a good alternative for the main hand if you don't have a Senj yet, and also a good alternative for the off-hand if you don't have a <span style="font-weight:bold;">Perdu Blade</span>. Also, there is the option of either the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Unji"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Unji</span></a> or the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Unsho"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Unsho</span></a>, either of which can replace the Senj if you have a <span style="font-weight:bold;">Perdu Blade</span>, or can be used for off-hand to be paired with a Senj. Also they can be paired together rather effectively, and in fact prior to the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Perdu Blade</span> they were probably one of the best Katana pairings in the game. Also, a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Hayabusa</span></a> can be used as an alternative to a <span style="font-weight:bold;">Perdu Blade</span> until you get the ISP and Assault Rank to get one. For the speed option the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Perdu Blade</span> in the main hand and <span style="font-weight:bold;">Hayabusa</span> in the off hand can make in incredibly low delay combination that still has a decently high damage in the main hand considering the latent effect. Also, <span style="font-weight:bold;">Unsho</span> or <span style="font-weight:bold;">Unji</span> can be used for a speed set up but I don't think that it will be as good obviously. I should note that the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Hayabusa</span> is at the upper limit of cost of this guide because it's usefulness is limited because a speed set-up is not necessarily better or worse than the Senj/Perdu pairing, so unless you really want it badly, I would just suggest sticking to Senj/Perdu.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Neck</u></span>. If you have read the two other On the Cheap articles then you will know that I generally think that <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Spectacles"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Spectacles</span></a> are the best way to go for the neck slot. Cheap, effective and better than the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Chivalrous_Chain"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Chivalrous Chain</span></a> that most people use instead. Now, the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Chivalrous Chain</span> is decent, but again, I do not think the STR on it during TP build is going to make as much difference as additional accuracy especially on a relatively low accuracy job like Ninja and especially one that is using a low delay set-up.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Earrings</u></span>. Ahh, I love easy slots, the required piece for a good end-game NIN is a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Suppanomimi"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Suppanomimi</span></a>. An ear piece that decreases your delay by 5% is just insane, and remember Dual Wield effects are very similar to the way that Haste works, in that a higher percentage of delay reduction will improve the speed of your swings multiplicatively. The other obvious earring is the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Brutal_Earring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Brutal Earring</span></a>; with it's 5% Double Attack, this is excellent for Ninja because of the increasing in TP gain. If you don't have either of these or both, the next option is <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Ethereal_Earring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Ethereal Earring</span></a>. Now, I do not suggest worrying about evasion at all while creating a DD build for Ninja, and the reason is that is not the goal of a DD build for Ninja. Going the middle of the road, trying to get some evasion and some DD gear is only going to make it so that you don't have decent evasion and you only decrease your DD potential. Like Mr. Miyagi say "Walk on road, hm? Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later get squish just like grape." It isn't bad when you can get some extra benefit on some pieces, but never worry about picking up something like evasion when you could be getting even a marginal improvement in DD stats. After that are the normal fall backs of <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Coral_Earring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Coral Earring</span></a> or <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Merman%27s_Earring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Merman's Earring</span></a> are also acceptable. There are also a myriad of other earrings that have some combination of stats and accuracy that could fill the gap, but they are all a step down.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Body</u></span>. This is a slot that is highly dependent on other aspects of your TP build. There are two basic options, the first being a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Haubergeon"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Haubergeon</span></a>. Good accuracy, good attack, good stats, and bad evasion which you shouldn't be caring about. The other option is <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Ninja_Chainmail"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Ninja Chainmail</span></a> or <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Ninja_Chainmail_%2B1"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Ninja Chainmail +1</span></a>, with the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Ninja Chainmail +1</span> being slightly but still obviously better, because of the added DEX for a little bit of accuracy. Using the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Ninja Chainmail (+1)</span> is probably of increasing benefit as you get more haste but neither one will steer you wrong. If you need more accuracy but don't have a <span style="font-weight:bold;">Haubergeon</span> yet then both a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Scorpion_Harness"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Scorpion Harness</span></a> or a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Pahluwan_Khazagand"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Pahluwan Khazagand</span></a> can work well until you have something better.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Hands</u></span>. It used to be that <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Dusk_Gloves"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Dusk Gloves</span></a> were far too expensive even if very good for me to suggest for this guide, but the price is now in a good range for this guide. I would say that they are pretty much a requirement for Ninja at the very least, as there isn't much else that can provide the haste that you can get from the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Dusk Gloves</span>. I was going to suggest a few other options, but really their aren't any that are even close to being this good, and you should be able to farm up the gil for the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Dusk Gloves</span> without much problem. So do it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Rings</u></span>. Ok, I am bad here because I still use my <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Rajas_Ring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Rajas Ring</span></a> and I really shouldn't. I might have mentioned that my Ninja has fallen into disrepair every since I elevated my Samurai and Monk, since they required cutting back on my Katana merits. I have just accepted the fact that my Ninja won't be up to par with my Monk and Samurai so I will always just use Sushi for it, and using Sushi pretty much lets me use <span style="font-weight:bold;">Rajas Ring</span> because my accuracy is so high, but honestly, I shouldn't be for TP build. It doesn't really justify the trade off in Accuracy when I could be using my <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Blood_Ring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Blood Ring</span></a> and <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Ulthalam%27s_Ring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Ulthalam's Ring</span></a>. The exception to this is if you are capped on Accuracy, but for more merit situations you aren't going to be. On Trolls or Mamool Ja you are not going to be capped even with Sushi, and on Colibri you are not going to be able to use Sushi, so I would lean toward more Accuracy where ever you can find it. Of course the nay-sayers will say quip about the additional bonuses on the Rajas Ring, such as the Store TP and the Subtle Blow. Subtle Blow will have next to no noticeable effect in a DD situation, and Store TP might or might not help you hit 100 sometimes, but with the inherent randomness of TP return on multi-hit WS's, double attack and misses the amount of times you get to 100TP instead of 99 will be nothing close to the reliability of a two-handed weapon set up. Other alternatives, as always, include the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Woodsman_Ring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Woodsman Ring</span></a> or the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Sniper%27s_Ring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Sniper's Ring</span></a>. The <span style="font-weight:bold;">Sniper's Ring</span> being the slightly superior alternative. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Back</u></span>. This is pretty obvious by now but you should be using an <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Amemet_Mantle_%2B1"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Amemet Mantle +1</span></a>. I do want to mention that you should not be using a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Boxer%27s_Mantle"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Boxer's Mantle</span></a> because as I have explained several times, you don't want to mix and match, you want to go all the way for damage dealing situations, because in FFXI you will only notice the effects of almost any stat if you stack that attribute. So just don't do it. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Waist</u></span>. The best reasonably available waist piece for any Ninja is the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Swift_Belt"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Swift Belt</span></a>. Take the time and frustration to get one now and you will have a lot less to worry about later. Although all jobs benefit from haste Ninja especially gets a lot from haste and it combines very well with the Dual Wield bonuses they inherently have available. If you don't have a <span style="font-weight:bold;">Swift Belt</span> yet, the I would suggest a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Life_Belt"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Life Belt</span></a> or a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Potent_Belt"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Potent Belt</span></a> in general when you are below the accuracy cap (which should happen most of the time). Also, <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Swordbelt_%2B1"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Swordbelt +1</span></a> is an option at the accuracy cap I suppose but I think I have already stated my opinion on that already. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Legs</u></span>. The best is <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Byakko%27s_Haidate"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Byakko's Haidate</span></a> and that should be the first goal of any level 75 Ninja, even before a Swift Belt. Good for DD, tanking and just about anything else you do on Ninja. The next alternative is the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Koga_Hakama"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Koga Hakama</span></a> which surprisingly increases your swing speed even more than the 5% haste of the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Byakko's Haidate</span> depending on your level of Dual Wield. This is because Dual Wield acts the same as haste when it comes to reducing swing speed, the more you have the better the effect. It also has a huge chunk of HP on it which is nice, but it lacks the true haste for recasts and it lacks the 15 Dex which is a good chunk of accuracy. The next good leg piece are the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Shura_Haidate"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Shura Haidate</span></a> which have good accuracy combined with STR which is a nice additional bonus. <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Ninja_Hakama_%2B1"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Ninja Hakama +1</span></a> is probably the next step down the ladder of good Ninja leg pieces, having some accuracy but not much else. There are multiple other pieces of gear that can be used for the leg slot, like the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Pahluwan_Seraweels"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Pahluwan Seraweels</span></a>, the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Galliard_Trousers"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Galliard Trousers</span></a> or the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Denali_Kecks"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Denali Kecks</span></a> but they are all pretty far down on the list. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Feet</u></span>. The best and relatively easy to get item for this slot are the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Fuma_Sune-Ate"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Fuma Suna-ate</span></a>. The haste on the Fuma's are really the driving force here, and for the longest time they were basically the best and only option aside from the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Fuma_Kyahan"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Fuma Kyahan</span></a> or <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Sarutobi_Kyahan"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Sarutobi Kyahan</span></a> which have the same haste just no AGI and lower defense. Recently though, with the addition of the Enkidu's armor set, there is a new option for the feet. The <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Enkidu%27s_Leggings"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Enkidu's Leggings</span></a> provide a decent set of stats for a slight reduction in haste, now for some jobs I would favor these over the Fuma's but for Ninja it is anyone's guess and I doubt any kind of parse would give you much indication one way or the other. <br /><br />That is it for TP gear. Ninja is much more straight forward in gear selection no matter what kind of set-up you choose. There are no real gear selection trade-offs like with some other jobs and subjobs don't effect gear selection. For WS gear it is just more of the same, you are going to be using Blade: Jin almost all of the time that you aren't making skillchains. The modifiers for Jin are STR and DEX at 30% and a TP modifier of Critical hit chance, but remember that STR always increases your damage by more that other secondary modifiers so you will need a whole lot of DEX to justify a trade off with an WS that has an equal modifier of STR. In this case, and this is without doing any calculations to confirm it and assuming that you are at the fSTR/4 level (you almost always will be) you should have to gain at least 2 DEX for each STR you give up. I could be talking out of my ass here, but the only place this really matters is in the legs and smarter people than I have shown me the math to prove this is the case. The important thing to remember really is that STR and DEX don't have an equal trade off for Blade: Jin, so favor STR over DEX in cases of equal trade-offs. For Jin, my general rule are that modifiers are good because you will probably be eating Sushi and have a bunch of good places where you can make up accuracy from what you lose by using gear with modifiers, but when you don't have modifier stats to go in a slot, then go with more accuracy. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Head</u></span>. I would aim to get a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Shura_Zunari_Kabuto"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Shura Zunari Kabuto</span></a> as your ultimate goal, but I can understand why it might take a while to get due to cost. In the end this is one of those pieces that it is worth dumping the money into getting. It is good enough that you can pay the cost and still be considered frugal. <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Sallet"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Voyager Sallet</span></a> is a very good second option here, if a bit complicated to get one. The stats are good, and doesn't hurt the accuracy all that much. Alternatively, an <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Optical_Hat"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Optical Hat</span></a> can help in low accuracy situations or if you do decide to go with a meat set-up. A <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Haube"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Fourth Haube</span></a> has a couple of STR that can help out and there are a few other head pieces with some stats that are helpful, but in general the first three head pieces should be the ones that you should go with.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Neck</u></span>. And here we have the ultimate debate: do Sea Gorgets work for multi-hit weaponskills? The more and more evidence that is provided the more that I believe that they do have some kind of modification on the accuracy of multi-hit weaponskills, so I am going to suggest, and I have used for a long time even before this information was available, a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Breeze_Gorget"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Breeze Gorget</span></a>. Once you have Sea, this should be relatively easy to get and doesn't really cost more than the chip from the goblin to make it. If you do not believe that Sea Gorgets effect multi-hit weaponskills, then the tried and true <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Chivalrous_Chain"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Chivalrous Chain</span></a> is the way to go. Decent accuracy with decent STR, it wont let you down. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Earrings</u></span>. Since I already assume that you are going to have a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Brutal_Earring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Brutal Earring</span></a> for TP build, you should be using it here too. Even a 5% chance of an extra hit on a WS is enough potential damage to outweigh almost any other modifier modifier you can get in one slot let alone how poor the modifiers are in the ear slot. After the Brutal, the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Minuet_Earring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Minuet Earring</span></a> will do well in most XP parties as you will probably have a BRD and you are going to be getting the accuracy bonus. There is also the option of using a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Triumph_Earring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Triumph Earring</span></a> but I do not think this is a frugal item and should only be purchased to finish off your Ninja, not to start it. The cost does not justify its use over something like the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Minuet Earring</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Body</u></span>. Use a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Haubergeon"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Haubergeon</span></a>. Good accuracy, attack, STR and DEX. Everything you want for Blade: Jin. I would suggest against using a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Kirin%27s_Osode"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Kirin's Osode</span></a> as I do not believe the loss in accuracy is enough to justify the gain in WS modifiers. This is from my personal testing and most Ninja that I have talked to tend to agree with this notion. Just stick with the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Haubergeon</span> and you can't go wrong.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Hands</u></span>. Universally, meaning both day and night, <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Ninja_Tekko_%2B1"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Ninja Tekko +1</span></a> are the best piece that you can get for Blade: Jin. A very large amount of STR and DEX and not really that difficult to get your hands on really. Depending on your other gear and the direction you want to go, this could be one of the first pieces you will want to upgrade of the Ninja AF. There is a pretty large fall after the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Ninja Tekko +1</span> for reasonably obtainable gear with decent stats. You can alternatively use attack gloves which are supposed to be a good replacement for other items with fewer beneficial stats. The list includes <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Ochiudo%27s_Kote"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Ochiudo's Kote</span></a>, <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Ochimusha_Kote"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Ochimusha Kote</span></a>, <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Horomusha_Kote"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Horomusha Kote</span></a> and a few others, but essentially any of the kote that give a good chunk of attack are very useful here. I would go with these before you consider something with lesser stats, like the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Hentzes"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Fourth Hentzes</span></a>, but I would consider the new <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Enkidu%27s_Mittens"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Enkidu's Mittens</span></a> worth looking into because the stats are good, and the accuracy is very good for a multi-hit WS. Finally, stay away from Gigas Bracelets (<a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Pallas%27s_Bracelets"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Pallas's</span></a>, <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Alkyoneus%27s_Bracelets"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Alkyoneus's</span></a>, etc.) as they do have very good STR, and STR is definitely better for any WS with STR as a mod than any other additional modification, but it is a 1:1 trade off on WS modifiers and it decreases WS accuracy on a multi-hit WS which is a no-no.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Rings</u></span>. Ok, now you can use your <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Rajas_Ring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Rajas Ring</span></a> and feel good about it. For the other ring it will generally depend on if you are using sushi or not, but my assumption is that you will be using sushi so I will stick with that, but if you are using meat then go with any of the accuracy rings that listed under the TP build section. Since sushi will almost always be the situation, or you will be in a situation where you won't be using food like Greater Colibri which really don't have enough evasion to justify a major change, I would go with STR rings. I think that a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Flame_Ring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Flame Ring</span></a> is just outside of the reasonable amount that I would immidiately pay for a STR ring. I would pick up a much cheaper <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Ring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Ruby Ring</span></a> and spend your gil rounding out your Ninja, then come back to this later when you are doing your final tweaks. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Back</u></span>. <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Amemet_Mantle_%2B1"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Amemet Mantle +1</span></a>. I don't need to repeat myself again here.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Waist</u></span>. Two good and easily obtainable options here. First, <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Warwolf_Belt"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Warwolf Belt</span></a>. It has STR and DEX in a very good portion, and the DEX also translates into a bit of accuracy. With sushi, I think this is the better option of the two good options, but if you are still lacking some accuracy on Jin then I think a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Potent_Belt"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Potent Belt</span></a> is a perfectly acceptable option. Both of these options are cheap and easily available on the AH, and you probably even already have them for other jobs, so there really is no reason to look any further. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Legs</u></span>. Ugh, another pretty long list because of the relative difficulty in getting the best pieces. First, is <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Byakko%27s_Haidate"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Byakko's Haidate</span></a> and believe me, I asked and got a bunch of good math to prove it's quality. 15 DEX for WS mods, 7.5 accuracy. There isn't anything better for Jin. This is actually going to read close to the TP build set up but with a few excetions, but in this case, the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Shura_Haidate"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Shura Haidate</span></a> is the next best option with it's equivalent accuracy and 5 STR, but pretty much equally annoying to get from Byakko. <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Enkidu%27s_Subligar"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Enkidu's Subligar</span></a> followed closely by <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Pahluwan_Seraweels"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Pahluwan Seraweels</span></a> are next. Actually, the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Enkidu's Subligar</span> may actually be ever so slightly better than the Shura Haidate, but I don't know if I would give up even 1 STR and 5 accuracy for 4 DEX. The damage bonus just isn't going to pan out over time. The Pahluwan legs are a decent filer until something better is obtained. If you are hurting for something quick and need it off the AH, then the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Royal_Knight%27s_Breeches"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Royal Knight's Breeches</span></a> can plug that hole in the short term, but they aren't going to keep the boat afloat for long.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Feet</u></span>. Finally, feet. The <span style="font-weight:bold;">Denali Gamashes</span> are just sexy for this slot. A little boost in STR which is going to be hard to find in this slot, a good boost in accuracy which is never bad considering you are making trade-offs in accuracy in other slots for Jin, and they are only a level 20 Nyzul Isle drop. I don't do Nyzul Isle, so I don't have these yet (but I know Highlife is going to take care of me eventually, LOL) so I think this is the first number 1 pick that I don't actually own yet myself. The reason I am not too pressed to get these quickly though (besides the fact that I neglect my Ninja more than Britney Spears neglects her kids) is because I have the ol' reliable <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Rutter_Sabatons"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Rutter Sabatons</span></a>. Very easy to get the pop item, very easy to low man NM, and pretty universally useful across several jobs. The <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Schuhs"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Fourth Division Schuhs</span></a> have an equal amount of STR but lack the attack of the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Rutter Sabatons</span>. The last of the STR feet are the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Heroic_Boots"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Heroic Boots</span></a> which are one of those pieces that if you need off the AH quick in a pinch go for it, but quickly try to get something better. Now, there are a few pieces that are worth mentioning that lack STR but make up for it with a good portion more DEX and accuracy or attack, enough so to merit mention. <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Enkidu%27s_Leggings"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Enkidu's Leggings</span></a> The DEX is the secondary modifier sure, but it has a little bit of attack for Jin too. They are like the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Rutter Sabatons</span> done wrong. Finally, and I mention this only if you have them already because I don't think they are worth the 20k in Assault points but the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Pahluwan_Crackows"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Pahluwan Crackows</span></a> have DEX and accuracy in surprising large amounts for the feet slot. Don't get them for Jin, but if you already have them, then why not use them?<br /><br />So there we have it. Ninja on the cheap. I do want to emphasize that again for the people that miss things, like the fricking title of the series. Yes, I know that I didn't include everything, that was not my goal at all. My goal was to help out those that wanted a quick reference on how not to be gimp. Often times we see gimp people all over, and we wonder what the hell they are thinking. This is a helping hand to them to get them on their feet without the normal mockery that happens in the game all the time. My two main goals have always to include the critical pieces and the bargain pieces. The idea that you should get a Forager's or Cerberus +1 for your back piece is utterly ridiculous if you have other more important slots to fill first. If you are already to the point where you are considering a Forager's or Cerberus Mantle +1 then this guide is probably not for you at all because you probably already have all the gear you need and already know all of the information I have presented, or you are too dumb to figure out that spending that much gil on a very marginally better piece is not good, and you are more worried about what people will say when they check you than actually playing your best. <br /><br />Now that I have railed on about what other people suggest, let me do the same to myself. I don't know everything, I don't even know a few things, I am just supplying what I think is help and if you don't think it is helpful, then let me know so I can fix it! Just keep in mind the goals of the series and I will listen to just about anything you have to say. For example, in the Ninja guide I already had to fix the fact that I included the Fowling Earring but forgot that Ninja can't even use it. LOL Anyway, I am willing to listen, learn and change these guides as new gear comes out and new opinions are presented.<br /><br />Like I mentioned before, Ninja is more than just a DD job, and I might go back later and make a tanking guide for Ninja, but for right now I want to move onto another job.

The gate.

My WHM is now 69. And in one level I get to start looking like a proper WHM with new Blessed gear. It is still a while off but I did have a party the other night with several good players. We went to the Imp camp on the way to where Khimaira spawns, and we dealt with the Imps handily. Some would die so fast that I would cast Dia II and then only get off one Haste before the puller was off getting another mob. It was very late to be partying so we did not stay for very long, but it is still stimulating to have such a fine party at that level. It was almost a burn party, but it wasn't. I just need a few more parties like this and I will be 75 before I even realize.

I wanted to congratulate Qtipus on finally completing his Gungnir. So far the damage looks pretty impressive, and apparently the WS isn't that bad at all but the damage can vary and the additional effect from the WS is interesting and helpful but it doesn't really stand out as something to me that really sells the Gungnir. I want to check out the defense down effect because it seems pretty massive for just a regular random proc on a swing. Well, outside of the speculation, I just wanted to say congratulations, and now that Qtipus has his relic out of the way maybe he can leverage the leadership of Obsidian to start sponsoring long-time good members (not me, LOL) so that we can get some more relics in the LS.

Late last night we did an Achamoth and it was rather interesting to say the least. Getting to the spawn is pretty easy in general, but the pull from the spawn point to the zone where it should be fought can be a bit rough, and it can be even more rough when you pull the mob to zone before you have someone clear all the mobs out first. This was a simple miscalculation on my part, but it was also a rather obvious problem that I should have noticed ahead of time. Well, we basically had to wipe to make sure that Achamoth made it to the zone but it did and it is surprisingly easy to hold there because it does not move with the same speed returning to it's spawn point as many other ZNMs. We had 7 people, Izman on PLD, Omoikitte on WHM, Ninjafox on RDM, Skooter on BLM, Darkdawn on DRG, Kallo on THF and I was on NIN. The fight is pretty straight forward, with a few exceptions. It summons baby Wamouracampa, but if the person with hate zones, then they will despawn. The person that is zoning the babies needs to be dedicated to this because they do spawn rather quickly but you do have enough time to zone then zone back and be ready to pull the next baby. You do not have to be out of party for this to happen, so this is different from how Experimental Lamia operates. You do not want to debuff it for the simple reason that Exuviation will increase the damage healed by a lot with the more debuffs it has on it. You should dispel it though as it will buff itself often and will waste time recasting buffs if they are dispelled. 7 people can reasonably do this after the pull if you have enough healing, but it should be noted that we did have some MP problems when we had two melee on it, but once they were pulled off of it Iz was easily able to tank it and the mages were able to quickly get MP back. With 7 people the mages are going to build up a lot of hate, so it is important to keep that in mind and have them rotate a bit. Melee damage and mage damage both seemed decent. Finally, at a certain HP level which I suspect is 25~30% it will start using Fire Break and it seemed to use it pretty often. It is a single target fire-based move, and it did quite a bit of damage to Iz (600~700 range in normal PLD tanking gear, I don't think he had switched to magic resistance) and I think it either went through shadows or wiped them. Either way, once it starts using it you will want to kill it quickly, but it should be easier to put more melee on it for a short period of time because it seemed to prefer Fire Break over the AoE moves that tended to cost more MP for healing the melee. I should mention that Evaine showed up about half way through the fight on WHM which massively sped the process of killing Achamoth because the melee could stay on it and take AoE damage and give it more TP without as much worry.

I want to profoundly thank Omoikitte, Kallo, Darkdawn, Ninjafox and Evaine for helping so much with the fight and of course the man himself, Iz for tanking it like a beast as usual. :)

My WHM is now 69. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/WHM_69.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/WHM_69.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a> And in one level I get to start looking like a proper WHM with new Blessed gear. It is still a while off but I did have a party the other night with several good players. We went to the Imp camp on the way to where Khimaira spawns, and we dealt with the Imps handily. Some would die so fast that I would cast Dia II and then only get off one Haste before the puller was off getting another mob. It was very late to be partying so we did not stay for very long, but it is still stimulating to have such a fine party at that level. It was almost a burn party, but it wasn't. I just need a few more parties like this and I will be 75 before I even realize. <br /><br />I wanted to congratulate Qtipus on finally completing his Gungnir. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Q_Gungnir.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Q_Gungnir.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a> So far the damage looks pretty impressive, and apparently the WS isn't that bad at all but the damage can vary and the additional effect from the WS is interesting and helpful but it doesn't really stand out as something to me that really sells the Gungnir. I want to check out the defense down effect because it seems pretty massive for just a regular random proc on a swing. Well, outside of the speculation, I just wanted to say congratulations, and now that Qtipus has his relic out of the way maybe he can leverage the leadership of Obsidian to start sponsoring long-time good members (not me, LOL) so that we can get some more relics in the LS. <br /><br />Late last night we did an Achamoth and it was rather interesting to say the least. Getting to the spawn is pretty easy in general, but the pull from the spawn point to the zone where it should be fought can be a bit rough, and it can be even more rough when you pull the mob to zone before you have someone clear all the mobs out first. This was a simple miscalculation on my part, but it was also a rather obvious problem that I should have noticed ahead of time. Well, we basically had to wipe to make sure that Achamoth made it to the zone but it did and it is surprisingly easy to hold there because it does not move with the same speed returning to it's spawn point as many other ZNMs. We had 7 people, Izman on PLD, Omoikitte on WHM, Ninjafox on RDM, Skooter on BLM, Darkdawn on DRG, Kallo on THF and I was on NIN. The fight is pretty straight forward, with a few exceptions. It summons baby Wamouracampa, but if the person with hate zones, then they will despawn. The person that is zoning the babies needs to be dedicated to this because they do spawn rather quickly but you do have enough time to zone then zone back and be ready to pull the next baby. You do not have to be out of party for this to happen, so this is different from how Experimental Lamia operates. You do not want to debuff it for the simple reason that Exuviation will increase the damage healed by a lot with the more debuffs it has on it. You should dispel it though as it will buff itself often and will waste time recasting buffs if they are dispelled. 7 people can reasonably do this after the pull if you have enough healing, but it should be noted that we did have some MP problems when we had two melee on it, but once they were pulled off of it Iz was easily able to tank it and the mages were able to quickly get MP back. With 7 people the mages are going to build up a lot of hate, so it is important to keep that in mind and have them rotate a bit. Melee damage and mage damage both seemed decent. Finally, at a certain HP level which I suspect is 25~30% it will start using Fire Break and it seemed to use it pretty often. It is a single target fire-based move, and it did quite a bit of damage to Iz (600~700 range in normal PLD tanking gear, I don't think he had switched to magic resistance) and I think it either went through shadows or wiped them. Either way, once it starts using it you will want to kill it quickly, but it should be easier to put more melee on it for a short period of time because it seemed to prefer Fire Break over the AoE moves that tended to cost more MP for healing the melee. I should mention that Evaine showed up about half way through the fight on WHM which massively sped the process of killing Achamoth because the melee could stay on it and take AoE damage and give it more TP without as much worry. <br /><br />I want to profoundly thank Omoikitte, Kallo, Darkdawn, Ninjafox and Evaine for helping so much with the fight and of course the man himself, Iz for tanking it like a beast as usual. :)

In Technicolor!

So, I haven't had any decent screenshots in a while, and since reading is boring I am going to rectify that today. :)

First, my self-indulgent screenshot of hitting 68 on WHM. :) Still farming for my Noble's, but didn't get much of it done yesterday because Limbus and Assaults ran long. Hehehe, had some fun in Assaults though. Getting batty with Omoi is fun. :) And so is a tarutaru in your lap! Also trying to figure out why Izman has a clone is kind of weird too! Ok, enough with the cute pictures. :)

We had too many people for Limbus last night even for a split run, so we will likely be splitting into three groups after we do the three boss runs we already have on us. In fact, Versus has gotten decently big as of late with several new good members joining. It's a nice problem to have and it lets us do more in the same amount of time. There has been a lot going on in Versus lately, and that is limiting my free time in the game, but I have been able to get some things done, like farm some Zeni or farm for my Noble's Tunic. I have also finally gotten my leathercraft to 39 but now I am facing a small roadblock around rams which I don't mind farming, but I will just try to bump it up a little bit then get to a better and cheaper synth. Well, I will just break out the RNG/THF and do some farming for Ram Skins.

So, I haven't had any decent screenshots in a while, and since reading is boring I am going to rectify that today. :) <br /><br />First, my self-indulgent screenshot of hitting 68 on WHM. :) <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/WHM_68.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/WHM_68.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a> Still farming for my Noble's, but didn't get much of it done yesterday because Limbus and Assaults ran long. Hehehe, had some fun in Assaults though. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Batty.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Batty.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a> Getting batty with Omoi is fun. :) And so is a tarutaru in your lap! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Cute_coe.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Cute_coe.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a> Also trying to figure out why Izman has a clone is kind of weird too! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Izman_Izm.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Izman_Izm.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a> Ok, enough with the cute pictures. :) <br /><br />We had too many people for Limbus last night even for a split run, so we will likely be splitting into three groups after we do the three boss runs we already have on us. In fact, Versus has gotten decently big as of late with several new good members joining. It's a nice problem to have and it lets us do more in the same amount of time. There has been a lot going on in Versus lately, and that is limiting my free time in the game, but I have been able to get some things done, like farm some Zeni or farm for my Noble's Tunic. I have also finally gotten my leathercraft to 39 but now I am facing a small roadblock around rams which I don't mind farming, but I will just try to bump it up a little bit then get to a better and cheaper synth. Well, I will just break out the RNG/THF and do some farming for Ram Skins.

Good drops.

Finally got a full drop set from Jailer of Love, and Elfaria finally got his Novio earring! The Novia went to Izman for use with his BST. The Love Torque went to Hellzfury who was very deserving of the torque and finally got his! Finally, the Love Halberd went to Jess. Our Jailer of Love moved much more quickly than the last one because we had positioning for our tanks all set from the very beginning and we able to put damage onto it much more quickly. I again came as MNK/DRK which was the high damage job the last time that we did this, but this time I was surpassed by Samuraisoldier on SAM/WAR. MNK/DRK has the fairly bad draw back of pulling a whole lot of hate very quickly, and even with tanks that have been on Love for a long time it is very easy to very quickly catch up to them, so I would get smacked in the face once and be put down because I am already feeding it HP from Souleater. Sam on the other hand was able to keep up good damage for the whole time he was on JoL. So next time I will probably come SAM/WAR, because that should be more damage over the course of the fight. I still don't have a screen shot of Elf with his new earring but he went out to solo with it last night and was losing his mind about it. :)

Also, as you can see from the previous post, we did rather well for our last Einherjar run. We had over ten minutes left over after we killed the boss. The first set of rooms appears to be rather easy to deal with for now, and I can see us clearing them in the first couple of runs so we can see what tier two is like. There is already increasing pressure on Omoi to start doing Einherjar twice a week, but I think she is a little disinclined to dive right into this while we are already busy. The other problem is finding a place to shove it into our already busy schedule. I am just pleased with how we are adapting to Einherjar so far, and I know the next tiers are going to be much more difficult, but at least we know we can do well with what he have so far. It's definitely the new fun event for the LS.

In other news, I have pretty rapidly been leveling my WHM and I am enjoying it. It is now 68, and I am saving up to get a Noble's Tunic before I finish taking it to 75. I can say that I now understand why mages drool over refresh gear. If you are standing around or running some place it is very nice to have full MP when you get there instead of immediately having to rest to get MP, so I am very much looking forward to using it. Now, I have to say that I am already looking at gear that I want to use for my WHM at end-game and I am glad that I have many decent options so far. I know that I am going to have to finish up SCH soon, and I know that Iz and Omoi and both itching to finish up RDM and DNC too. Right now, for normal healing I am looking at this for my end-game gear:

Main: Light Staff
Sub: Staff Strap
Ammo: Phantom Tathlum
Head: Walahra Turban
Neck: Beak Necklace
Earrings: Loquacious Earring and Astral Earring (or Antivenom Earring when Omoi wants her Astral Earring back ^.^)
Body: Noble's Tunic
Hands: Blessed Mitts
Rings: Serket Ring and Ether Ring
Back: Blue Cape
Waist: Hierarch Belt
Legs: Blessed Trousers
Feet: Blessed Pumps (until I get something better)

That is what I am aiming at for healing, but I plan on making a few other set ups including resting, standing and divine for Repose.

I can't wait to get WHM to 75. :)

Finally got a full drop set from Jailer of Love, and Elfaria finally got his Novio earring! The Novia went to Izman for use with his BST. The Love Torque went to Hellzfury who was very deserving of the torque and finally got his! Finally, the Love Halberd went to Jess. Our Jailer of Love moved much more quickly than the last one because we had positioning for our tanks all set from the very beginning and we able to put damage onto it much more quickly. I again came as MNK/DRK which was the high damage job the last time that we did this, but this time I was surpassed by Samuraisoldier on SAM/WAR. MNK/DRK has the fairly bad draw back of pulling a whole lot of hate very quickly, and even with tanks that have been on Love for a long time it is very easy to very quickly catch up to them, so I would get smacked in the face once and be put down because I am already feeding it HP from Souleater. Sam on the other hand was able to keep up good damage for the whole time he was on JoL. So next time I will probably come SAM/WAR, because that should be more damage over the course of the fight. I still don't have a screen shot of Elf with his new earring but he went out to solo with it last night and was losing his mind about it. :) <br /><br />Also, as you can see from the previous post, we did rather well for our last Einherjar run. We had over ten minutes left over after we killed the boss. The first set of rooms appears to be rather easy to deal with for now, and I can see us clearing them in the first couple of runs so we can see what tier two is like. There is already increasing pressure on Omoi to start doing Einherjar twice a week, but I think she is a little disinclined to dive right into this while we are already busy. The other problem is finding a place to shove it into our already busy schedule. I am just pleased with how we are adapting to Einherjar so far, and I know the next tiers are going to be much more difficult, but at least we know we can do well with what he have so far. It's definitely the new fun event for the LS. <br /><br />In other news, I have pretty rapidly been leveling my WHM and I am enjoying it. It is now 68, and I am saving up to get a Noble's Tunic before I finish taking it to 75. I can say that I now understand why mages drool over refresh gear. If you are standing around or running some place it is very nice to have full MP when you get there instead of immediately having to rest to get MP, so I am very much looking forward to using it. Now, I have to say that I am already looking at gear that I want to use for my WHM at end-game and I am glad that I have many decent options so far. I know that I am going to have to finish up SCH soon, and I know that Iz and Omoi and both itching to finish up RDM and DNC too. Right now, for normal healing I am looking at this for my end-game gear: <br /><br />Main: Light Staff<br />Sub: Staff Strap<br />Ammo: Phantom Tathlum<br />Head: Walahra Turban<br />Neck: Beak Necklace<br />Earrings: Loquacious Earring and Astral Earring (or Antivenom Earring when Omoi wants her Astral Earring back ^.^)<br />Body: Noble's Tunic<br />Hands: Blessed Mitts<br />Rings: Serket Ring and Ether Ring<br />Back: Blue Cape<br />Waist: Hierarch Belt<br />Legs: Blessed Trousers<br />Feet: Blessed Pumps (until I get something better)<br /><br />That is what I am aiming at for healing, but I plan on making a few other set ups including resting, standing and divine for Repose. <br /><br />I can't wait to get WHM to 75. :)

Einherjar #2 - Parse results and drops.

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Ein_070308-1.jpg?t=1215132330"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Ein_070308-1.jpg?t=1215132330" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Ein_drops.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Ein_drops.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 293px;" /></a>

On the Cheap 3: Ninja. First installment.

Ok, Ninja is much, much more varied than SAM or MNK, and there are also a bunch of different options that you can choose from for how you want to play Ninja. I am not going to go over tanking gear right now, because there are even more potential options for tanking that vary on sub job, the fight and your support. I am also not going to let this melt down into a million different versions of what you can and can not do to be a good Ninja. There are speed set-ups, there are accuracy set-ups, there are split set-ups, but here is the universal thing. Ninja's don't have that great accuracy. I wish they did, but they don't, so if you are going to for speed you will probably need to eat sushi, and if you are going to go accuracy then, well I guess you can use meat but I don't know if it is the best direction to go, just in my opinion. In fact, let me just say that I think that if you are just getting to end-game on Ninja, you should use Sushi no matter what, even with full Katana merits.

Anyway, the point with Ninja is haste, and as much of it as possible, and you can get a lot. Ninja has access to a good selection of haste gear and already has very low swing delay to begin with, so gearing it isn't that difficult even if it does making a guide somewhat difficult because there are so many alternatives. The interesting dichotomy about Ninja is based around that concept, it is indeed relatively easy to create a good DD set up for Ninja, and yet I think it is the job that most people screw up, and they screw it up bad. The problem is that people try to go the middle of the road route, a little from column A and a little from column B. And like with most other melee jobs this just doesn't work, you are just going to undercut your ability to be effective at anything.

I will say this about Ninja, it is easier than many other jobs to get to the point where you are effective in your role in end-game (at least as a DD) and even the pinnacle for Ninja is much lower than it is for other jobs. I would say though that it is more equipment dependent for being effective than some of the other jobs that I will create guides for in the future. So, focus on getting good equipment and you should be very well off.

Now, the rules for the On the Cheap series:

1. You can't be dumb. Sorry, if you are dumb, I can't help you. If you are the kind of person that hears something and then sticks to it no matter what, just quit now. If you can't adapt to changes in the game, quit. If you refuse to do something because you don't think that should be the play style of the game, then just fucking die in a fire. Flexibility is key, the more we learn about things in the game, the more we improve the play style and the more things change.

2. You have to really be an end-game player. I am not expecting you to have every title in the game, and have done ever mission everywhere, but I do expect you to have done main story-line content. This should be a goal of an end-game player at the very least. Zilart should be finished up to at very least Sky, CoP should be finished up until the end, and Aht Urhgan up until the end. If you don't have these, or at least most of it and trying to get to the end, then you aren't an end-game player, you are just lazy or your are just making pretend.

3. You have to be able to do some end-game events. I am not demanding that you be in a full-time HNM LS or anything, but you should have access to a LS that does at least some of those end-game areas/events. If you don't then you really aren't an end-game player, you are just a player with a job at 75.

4. You have to be willing to spend at least a little bit of gil. Sure, this series is called "On the Cheap" but it is not called "On the Gimp" so you will need to spend some gil getting some of the gear that you need. I am not going to tell you to get all HQ gear unless it is cheap, and I will also indicate expensive items that you will need anyway, or cheap items that are good replacements. This is like the Frugal Gourmet for FFXI. Yes, I know, none of you got that reference. :(

So, basically, don't be stupid and try your hardest.

Now, for Ninja gear.

Weapons. In general, and by default, your main hand Katana should be a Senjuinrikio. It is easily obtained from several of the more common KS30 runs and a lot of time if you can find a group of people going to do a couple of them you can leach off of them because the Senj is so common and most people that already want one has one. It has a nice and high base damage for the main hand where most of your damage is going to come from on Blade: Jin (which is the only real WS for NIN) and the additional 6% crit rate is very nice for both TP build and Jin because it is a crit hit WS. The best pairing for the Senj is a Perdu Blade for the exact opposite reason that the Senj is good for the main hand. It has a low delay and a decent base damage, but also has the hidden effect of extra accuracy and attack. This is the standard DD set up for most Ninjas, but there are still a good number of alternatives. The Fudo is a good alternative for the main hand if you don't have a Senj yet, and also a good alternative for the off-hand if you don't have a Perdu Blade. Also, there is the option of either the Unji or the Unsho, either of which can replace the Senj if you have a Perdu Blade, or can be used for off-hand to be paired with a Senj. Also they can be paired together rather effectively, and in fact prior to the Perdu Blade they were probably one of the best Katana pairings in the game. Also, a Hayabusa can be used as an alternative to a Perdu Blade until you get the ISP and Assault Rank to get one. For the speed option the Perdu Blade in the main hand and Hayabusa in the off hand can make in incredibly low delay combination that still has a decently high damage in the main hand considering the latent effect. Also, Unsho or Unji can be used for a speed set up but I don't think that it will be as good obviously. I should note that the Hayabusa is at the upper limit of cost of this guide because it's usefulness is limited because a speed set-up is not necessarily better or worse than the Senj/Perdu pairing, so unless you really want it badly, I would just suggest sticking to Senj/Perdu.

Neck. If you have read the two other On the Cheap articles then you will know that I generally think that Spectacles are the best way to go for the neck slot. Cheap, effective and better than the Chivalrous Chain that most people use instead. Now, the Chivalrous Chain is decent, but again, I do not think the STR on it during TP build is going to make as much difference as additional accuracy especially on a relatively low accuracy job like Ninja and especially one that is using a low delay set-up.

Earrings. Ahh, I love easy slots, the required piece for a good end-game NIN is a Suppanomimi. An ear piece that decreases your delay by 5% is just insane, and remember Dual Wield effects are very similar to the way that Haste works, in that a higher percentage of delay reduction will improve the speed of your swings multiplicatively. The other obvious earring is the Brutal Earring; with it's 5% Double Attack, this is excellent for Ninja because of the increasing in TP gain. If you don't have either of these or both, the next option is Ethereal Earring. Now, I do not suggest worrying about evasion at all while creating a DD build for Ninja, and the reason is that is not the goal of a DD build for Ninja. Going the middle of the road, trying to get some evasion and some DD gear is only going to make it so that you don't have decent evasion and you only decrease your DD potential. Like Mr. Miyagi say "Walk on road, hm? Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later get squish just like grape." It isn't bad when you can get some extra benefit on some pieces, but never worry about picking up something like evasion when you could be getting even a marginal improvement in DD stats. After that are the normal fall backs of Coral Earring or Merman's Earring are also acceptable. There are also a myriad of other earrings that have some combination of stats and accuracy that could fill the gap, but they are all a step down.

Body. This is a slot that is highly dependent on other aspects of your TP build. There are two basic options, the first being a Haubergeon. Good accuracy, good attack, good stats, and bad evasion which you shouldn't be caring about. The other option is Ninja Chainmail or Ninja Chainmail +1, with the Ninja Chainmail +1 being slightly but still obviously better, because of the added DEX for a little bit of accuracy. Using the Ninja Chainmail (+1) is probably of increasing benefit as you get more haste but neither one will steer you wrong. If you need more accuracy but don't have a Haubergeon yet then both a Scorpion Harness or a Pahluwan Khazagand can work well until you have something better.

This still isn't close to being done, but I want to leave early from work and I haven't posted anything in a few days so this incomplete post is what I have so far. :(

Ok, Ninja is much, much more varied than SAM or MNK, and there are also a bunch of different options that you can choose from for how you want to play Ninja. I am not going to go over tanking gear right now, because there are even more potential options for tanking that vary on sub job, the fight and your support. I am also not going to let this melt down into a million different versions of what you can and can not do to be a good Ninja. There are speed set-ups, there are accuracy set-ups, there are split set-ups, but here is the universal thing. Ninja's don't have that great accuracy. I wish they did, but they don't, so if you are going to for speed you will probably need to eat sushi, and if you are going to go accuracy then, well I guess you can use meat but I don't know if it is the best direction to go, just in my opinion. In fact, let me just say that I think that if you are just getting to end-game on Ninja, you should use Sushi no matter what, even with full Katana merits. <br /><br />Anyway, the point with Ninja is haste, and as much of it as possible, and you can get a lot. Ninja has access to a good selection of haste gear and already has very low swing delay to begin with, so gearing it isn't that difficult even if it does making a guide somewhat difficult because there are so many alternatives. The interesting dichotomy about Ninja is based around that concept, it is indeed relatively easy to create a good DD set up for Ninja, and yet I think it is the job that most people screw up, and they screw it up bad. The problem is that people try to go the middle of the road route, a little from column A and a little from column B. And like with most other melee jobs this just doesn't work, you are just going to undercut your ability to be effective at anything.<br /><br />I will say this about Ninja, it is easier than many other jobs to get to the point where you are effective in your role in end-game (at least as a DD) and even the pinnacle for Ninja is much lower than it is for other jobs. I would say though that it is more equipment dependent for being effective than some of the other jobs that I will create guides for in the future. So, focus on getting good equipment and you should be very well off. <br /><br />Now, the rules for the On the Cheap series: <br /><blockquote>1. You can't be dumb. Sorry, if you are dumb, I can't help you. If you are the kind of person that hears something and then sticks to it no matter what, just quit now. If you can't adapt to changes in the game, quit. If you refuse to do something because you don't think that should be the play style of the game, then just fucking die in a fire. Flexibility is key, the more we learn about things in the game, the more we improve the play style and the more things change.<br /><br />2. You have to really be an end-game player. I am not expecting you to have every title in the game, and have done ever mission everywhere, but I do expect you to have done main story-line content. This should be a goal of an end-game player at the very least. Zilart should be finished up to at very least Sky, CoP should be finished up until the end, and Aht Urhgan up until the end. If you don't have these, or at least most of it and trying to get to the end, then you aren't an end-game player, you are just lazy or your are just making pretend.<br /><br />3. You have to be able to do some end-game events. I am not demanding that you be in a full-time HNM LS or anything, but you should have access to a LS that does at least some of those end-game areas/events. If you don't then you really aren't an end-game player, you are just a player with a job at 75.<br /><br />4. You have to be willing to spend at least a little bit of gil. Sure, this series is called "On the Cheap" but it is not called "On the Gimp" so you will need to spend some gil getting some of the gear that you need. I am not going to tell you to get all HQ gear unless it is cheap, and I will also indicate expensive items that you will need anyway, or cheap items that are good replacements. This is like the Frugal Gourmet for FFXI. Yes, I know, none of you got that reference. :(<br /><br />So, basically, don't be stupid and try your hardest.</blockquote><br /><br />Now, for Ninja gear.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Weapons</u></span>. In general, and by default, your main hand Katana should be a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Senjuinrikio"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Senjuinrikio</span></a>. It is easily obtained from several of the more common KS30 runs and a lot of time if you can find a group of people going to do a couple of them you can leach off of them because the Senj is so common and most people that already want one has one. It has a nice and high base damage for the main hand where most of your damage is going to come from on Blade: Jin (which is the only real WS for NIN) and the additional 6% crit rate is very nice for both TP build and Jin because it is a crit hit WS. The best pairing for the Senj is a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Perdu_Blade"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Perdu Blade</span></a> for the exact opposite reason that the Senj is good for the main hand. It has a low delay and a decent base damage, but also has the hidden effect of extra accuracy and attack. This is the standard DD set up for most Ninjas, but there are still a good number of alternatives. The <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Fudo"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Fudo</span></a> is a good alternative for the main hand if you don't have a Senj yet, and also a good alternative for the off-hand if you don't have a <span style="font-weight:bold;">Perdu Blade</span>. Also, there is the option of either the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Unji"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Unji</span></a> or the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Unsho"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Unsho</span></a>, either of which can replace the Senj if you have a <span style="font-weight:bold;">Perdu Blade</span>, or can be used for off-hand to be paired with a Senj. Also they can be paired together rather effectively, and in fact prior to the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Perdu Blade</span> they were probably one of the best Katana pairings in the game. Also, a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Hayabusa</span></a> can be used as an alternative to a <span style="font-weight:bold;">Perdu Blade</span> until you get the ISP and Assault Rank to get one. For the speed option the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Perdu Blade</span> in the main hand and <span style="font-weight:bold;">Hayabusa</span> in the off hand can make in incredibly low delay combination that still has a decently high damage in the main hand considering the latent effect. Also, <span style="font-weight:bold;">Unsho</span> or <span style="font-weight:bold;">Unji</span> can be used for a speed set up but I don't think that it will be as good obviously. I should note that the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Hayabusa</span> is at the upper limit of cost of this guide because it's usefulness is limited because a speed set-up is not necessarily better or worse than the Senj/Perdu pairing, so unless you really want it badly, I would just suggest sticking to Senj/Perdu.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Neck</u></span>. If you have read the two other On the Cheap articles then you will know that I generally think that <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Spectacles"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Spectacles</span></a> are the best way to go for the neck slot. Cheap, effective and better than the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Chivalrous_Chain"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Chivalrous Chain</span></a> that most people use instead. Now, the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Chivalrous Chain</span> is decent, but again, I do not think the STR on it during TP build is going to make as much difference as additional accuracy especially on a relatively low accuracy job like Ninja and especially one that is using a low delay set-up.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Earrings</u></span>. Ahh, I love easy slots, the required piece for a good end-game NIN is a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Suppanomimi"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Suppanomimi</span></a>. An ear piece that decreases your delay by 5% is just insane, and remember Dual Wield effects are very similar to the way that Haste works, in that a higher percentage of delay reduction will improve the speed of your swings multiplicatively. The other obvious earring is the <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Brutal_Earring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Brutal Earring</span></a>; with it's 5% Double Attack, this is excellent for Ninja because of the increasing in TP gain. If you don't have either of these or both, the next option is <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Ethereal_Earring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Ethereal Earring</span></a>. Now, I do not suggest worrying about evasion at all while creating a DD build for Ninja, and the reason is that is not the goal of a DD build for Ninja. Going the middle of the road, trying to get some evasion and some DD gear is only going to make it so that you don't have decent evasion and you only decrease your DD potential. Like Mr. Miyagi say "Walk on road, hm? Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later get squish just like grape." It isn't bad when you can get some extra benefit on some pieces, but never worry about picking up something like evasion when you could be getting even a marginal improvement in DD stats. After that are the normal fall backs of <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Coral_Earring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Coral Earring</span></a> or <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Merman%27s_Earring"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Merman's Earring</span></a> are also acceptable. There are also a myriad of other earrings that have some combination of stats and accuracy that could fill the gap, but they are all a step down.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Body</u></span>. This is a slot that is highly dependent on other aspects of your TP build. There are two basic options, the first being a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Haubergeon"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Haubergeon</span></a>. Good accuracy, good attack, good stats, and bad evasion which you shouldn't be caring about. The other option is <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Ninja_Chainmail"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Ninja Chainmail</span></a> or <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Ninja_Chainmail_%2B1"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Ninja Chainmail +1</span></a>, with the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Ninja Chainmail +1</span> being slightly but still obviously better, because of the added DEX for a little bit of accuracy. Using the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Ninja Chainmail (+1)</span> is probably of increasing benefit as you get more haste but neither one will steer you wrong. If you need more accuracy but don't have a <span style="font-weight:bold;">Haubergeon</span> yet then both a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Scorpion_Harness"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Scorpion Harness</span></a> or a <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Pahluwan_Khazagand"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Pahluwan Khazagand</span></a> can work well until you have something better.<br /><br />This still isn't close to being done, but I want to leave early from work and I haven't posted anything in a few days so this incomplete post is what I have so far. :(