Ideal SJ for thief?Follow

Didn't play for 2 years but seems /NIN is still major.

There's a point where /WAR give you more attack and some would argue it's a better choice, but later proved still subpar to /NIN due to dual wield delay and offhand hit, plus missing the off hand dagger stats bonus which is getting bigger and bigger with the new daggers.

Thinking back my THF days and FFXI in general, it want to declare that /NIN is a curse of FFXI. /NIN give such distinct advantage to many 1 hand classes that effectively eliminates most main/sub combinations which could have been decent and fun to play.

Think about how stupid PLD/NIN sounds outside of FFXI circle...

The highest hp, defense class that can cure, can negative physical damage and (given enough time to start) can build and maintain max hate on all (most?) HNM.

For the love of god no /NIN with shadows BS in FF14. Please...

Want to know how they could fix this?

Give THF a stance that reduces 1H weapon delay, adds ATT and ACC and increases critical hit rate at a low enough level that it can be subbed. Also when active 1H weapons will get a 50% DEX bonus on Sneak Attack from THF sub.

THF becomes /SAM for 1H DD's basically.

It is an innovative thing and it's part of FFXI uniqueness, but that doesn't mean the game can't be better without it.

Surely THF (and a lot of class) without /NIN will suck, but that's because it's overpowered. They should balance the basic of the classes instead.

SE just don't have the guts to fix that hole and instead let more and more people to be dependent on it.

It could have been the number of shadows used is dependent on the actual damage absorbed, that way people can still use the spell for protection, but PLD (comeon, it's a /NIN, not a NIN) won't be mitigating 90% of physical damage of most HNM.

The entire art of keeping shadows up and keeping max haste on PLD might require some skill, but once you get used to it, every fight is the same. PLD build hate, BRD RDM keep hasting, WHM keep spamming cure.

The spell might be innovative but it's limiting creativity at the end, because anything else is so less efficient and unsafe that no LS will do them.

Ninjutsu stoneskin would do virtually nothing to address the issues in this game.

Could SE completely revamp the damage mechanics of the game, making DEF/VIT matter and bloodtanking feasible? Sure. But why should they when there is already a perfectly reasonable mechanism in place? It's not like there is any objective reason to promote bloodtanking over blink tanking.

What you are basically asking for is for SE to nerf the optimal build. If they do this people would just find another optimal build and do that instead. You are not going to get people do use a variety of different ways to accomplish a task. They will find whatever is most efficient and stick with it. It is human nature to do this.

What you are asking for is impossible. It is the nature of MMOs (and in fact nearly everything) that there will always be an optimal way of accomplishing a thing. It is impossible to perfectly balance everything. The only thing you can do to prevent it is keep nerfing the optimal build and if they keep doing that eventually people will just get pissed off and quit the game.