Ninja Equipment Guide III (Update: 10/17/2008)Follow

Nice guide, i'd add Denali Bonnet which replace Walahra Turban.

Possibly only for a haste/evasion hybrid build for soloing, and even then it's a sidegrade.

koga body is one of the best tp body pieces currently available if you need accuracy/attk and if you dont need them youd probably use af in your haste build.



this is true. those rings are good for any dd class and 50 charges will last you a fair few levels. easily take you to 30 where you might use shikrae rings or maybe 40 for woodsman/snipers.

i'll agree. its true that accuraccy should be your first concern on jins but last time i checked these hands were not cheap. if you need accuracy and you can get them then do it. or put simply attack means nothing if you cant land hits in the first place.



all i can say is lol not a week goes by where someone doesnt ask this. i tend to agree with the wikiforum users h is better till dusk then get o for ws and tp in dusk.



i'm a freaking galka!!! but yeah rse feet are worth a mention i believe the taru boots have str+4!

other aditions shikrae rings lvl 30acc+2 racc+2 can be a pain to get but still nice given the lack of alternative accuracy options available.

other than all that your guide is looking pretty good and has a nice chunk of the newer armour pieces listed which is nice to see.



yes its true some stuff can be hard to get but not its not just the beginners that could use an equipment database. i'm 75 in 5 jobs and i still flick through various equipment guides and occasionally see a "wow i didnt know about that item" so leave em in.

to remove something from the guide because its hard to get could leave you with an empty guide. a noob ninja just dinging lvl 34 would find it hard to kill mee deggi for example so better take kotes out of the guide. same noob would find it impossible to do pms and get rajas so get take it out the guide. and ulathaens, suppa, koga, byakkos etc etc. soon have an empty guide.

so yeah leave it all in. youve linked all the items so ppl can easily read up on them and work out if having x item is an option to them. whos to say whats acceptable and whats not. for example to some ppl byakkos might be extremely easy to get but to others just finding a sky shell that has good times for them can be a nightmare making byakkos seemingly impossible for them. leave it all in the guide and let the person reading decide if they can get that item or not.

Edited, Aug 4th 2008 12:44pm by Marneusc

I've added the new armour the people have suggested.

The mighty ring for some reason never appeared on my radar, even after levelling that many DD jobs on 3 characters. lol

I've also updated the comments on certain pieces with better descriptions that others have provided.





The improvements have really come from the nin community wanting to help out.

Correcting mistakes/omissions aside, there have been some great suggestions including the section dealing with stats and weapon choices. This kind of information is invaluable to us noobs.

Still I appreciate the thanks, I've put roughly 2 weeks of gaming time into it so far, but I see it as time well spent.

Added Orphic Egg and Peiste Dart thanks for spotting them.

I've also added the stats of all armour, weapons, ammo as it was requested.

Not everyone has Javascript enabled on their browser to see the mouse overs.
In doing that I had to create space between each item on the list to make them easier to read.

I still think you need a few things since you decided to have other sections that the current Equipment FAQ doesn't have. Comparing Dual Wield enhancing gear versus Haste enhancing gear might be nice to see under your Haste section (Too bad Pahn isn't a Ninja, though I could play with the math later and post it or find a link for you).

You should probably list links to other guides for certain points you make in the beginning of the guide. For example, you say tanking as a Ninja pre-37 is kind of rough, but you don't really give a detailed explanation on how to handle it. In fact, you kind of make it sound abysmal (Saying that there is nothing you can do to make it a success without a co-tank. While this is partly true, you should give people a little hope or some suggestions via a linked guide!).

You could also list the NIN/RDM guide under the Magic Attack/etc section. If people are going to gear for it, they might as well be aware of making the most of it. Providing a link to Kanican's enmity testing or at least a summary of the findings would be great, too. Little things like the fact that you DO lose enmity (or mob hate) when losing shadows would be nice to see listed as well, though that kind of is out of the scope of a equipment FAQ (Just mentioning it since you do have an enmity section and it wouldn't do the guide justice not to provide more info in some form).

Here's a link to Kanican's stuff. If you scroll down on the page, it does mention a few things concerning enmity boosting gear.

Any other ways that you can flesh out and add more detail to the stuff under "An Overview of Ninja Stats" would be great too. I'm not sure if the 2 AGI = 1 evasion is fact, but I'm not going to dispute it. I can't find any hard proof for it though (whereas we can check the 2 DEX = 1 accuracy thing).

For readability, maybe you could color your comments a different color? It isn't really necessary, but, since you're using colors already to label what build it is for, it could make things a bit easier to read. Alternatively, you could use a different color for the stats of each item.

Still not agreeing with you listing the Hikazu Hara-ate. If the regular gear we could equip wasn't better than the other lowbie Salvage gear needed for the Usukane set, I feel that you would list those pieces as well (the level 15, 25, and other level 35 pieces) as well and that doesn't really sit well with me (Doesn't make you look too experienced if I'm just going to be blunt about it). At least make a comment that the piece wouldn't be available to someone that isn't participating in Salvage with another job because you make it seem like it would be accessible to anyone (As if they simply needed to camp a NM or do a quest).

Minor stuff:

- The third point under the Haste sentence just cuts off. I don't know if you copied it from somewhere, but it's very incomplete. Here's the line ...

"Remember! Haste is pointless for DDing if it only means you miss the mob faster but it."

- You didn't color the ranged stuff. A lot of it has some INT boosting stats and I wasn't sure if you just forgot to or if it was too small of a list to justify coloring it.

- I.. forget what point I was going to make here. I guess you could include how the Dual Wield traits affect katana delay, but that fits into the Haste vs Dual Wield piece I mentioned above.

It's nice otherwise, but I think you could make it the standard guide with some of those tweaks.

Edited, Aug 6th 2008 1:05am by KidHendrix

Just noticed an error on Perdu blade description, you list it as obtainable with Chief Sergeant rank but it is Second Lieutenant. ^_^d

Okay.. I'm guessing my posts are being ignored. If anything, you could have a lot responded to the things under Minor stuff.

Good luck with your guide and I hope you finish it, but I suggest you start putting your feelings aside and listen to people who have gotten Ninja to 75. If I hurt your feelings, then drop me a PM and we can talk it over.

Edited, Aug 6th 2008 12:44pm by KidHendrix

Koga Chainmail is frequently overrated...though the degree to which it is, IMO, is also a bit exaggerated.

What is typically overlooked is that it lacks the STR and DEX of a Hauby. While a NQ Hauby is only 10 ATT/ACC in comparison, the STR and DEX contribute to other things, while also pushing the effective ACC/ATT to 12.5 each. A HQ Hauby, in turn, is 15 ACC/ATT plus the STR/DEX bonuses.

'course, Koga Chainmail also has a nice Ranged bonus and no negative stats. It's a very nice all-around piece, but then again so is a Hauby.

In practice though, going from -20 evasion (well, -22.5 counting -AGI) to neutral evasion only slightly boosts evasion rate in merit (~2% on Greater Colibri with my parsing). If throwing is boosted, then the ranged stats on the Koga would likely be appreciated more.

I have Koga, and Haub +1, Osode, AF+1... really, you're not going to see a huge difference between Koga Chainmail and an NQ Hauby in terms of TP gear (Koga isn't great for WS anyway), or between a Haub and Osode for WS. I've parsed.

The big thing to consider is that your benchmark here is a ~200k AH piece (these days anyway). You can buy a Haub +1 (or a lot of other things) for what people pay for an Osode. It could take months and months to be in the position to lot Koga (or it could use points that take you out of priority for something better).
All that gil/time for something that'll perform around on par with something you've probably owned since level 59, at least as far as TP/WS go.

They're not -terrible-, they're just slightly less optimal pieces that take a lot more effort to get.

Edited, Aug 6th 2008 3:26pm by Isiolia

How exactly are people still believing this garbage?

Okay, let's say you're an average endgame ninja in a merit party. Swift Belt, Haidate, Fumas, Dusk Gloves, which makes this a choice between 19% and 20% haste from gear. You've got another 15% from Haste, and 35% delay reduction from Dual Wield. 417 combined Delay on your katanas.

271 Delay after DW
176 Delay 35% haste
179 Delay 34% haste

3 Delay doesn't mean anything to you? That's a difference of a 20th of a second per attack round (Put better, a 1.7% increase in attack speed). If a mob lasts 10 attack rounds (They usually last a bit longer), that's half of a second saved. It's not much, but it's more than 3 more attack gives you. Throw in a march from a BRD/BRD or BRD/COR party and some premium gear, and the difference is still a 20th of a second, but in this case that's a 2.1% increase in attack speed.

This idea that haste gear has to save you one full attack round to be of any use is ludicrous. If your rounds are coming quicker and it only effectively saves you two-thirds of an attack round, guess what? The mob is still dead faster.

Edited, Aug 6th 2008 4:35pm by Weeksy

as far as i'm concerned saving less then half a second off kill time is pointless.



it depends on your acc. assuming haste spell, fuma, and no march, you'd need atleast an 80% hit rate for speed belt to do better, i believe. if you have march, then you'd need even less acc for speed belt to be better.


a few simple things:

for fenrir's earring you swapped the times. it's good in the day, not the night ;)
usukane legs have description for hands. also for these you should move the set effect the end, as some may interpret it as haste+3, and atk+10 being set effects. (this also applies to the rest of the set, excluding feet)

denali hands are listed under body.

for enkidu cap, you recommend ohat over it, even though ohat has .5 more acc. but the 3 dex enkidu has can (maybe) help crit rate, and of course dex is a mod for jin.


overall although i think it still needs some work, i think it's good enough to warrant being stickied.

tbh hauby is overated imo. where by your comparing a nq haub 12.5 acc 12.5 attack to a koga 12acc 16 attack. seems obvious koga is better. yes its true the dex will have a small affect on crits but the 3.5 attk advantage would pretty much outweigh from the various math posts i've read + you would need tons of dex to see a noticable impact on crits.

then to throw in haub+1 15 acc 15 att. and a cost of 2.5 - 3 mill is again a lot of farming time for most ppl and reading all the various maths posts in the forums your only really going to see maybe a 1-1.5% increase in your dot from wearing a haub+1 over koga. in comparison to you ~2% evasion parse. again 2.5 - 3 million gil can be just as hard to get as koga in dynamis and if you find dynamis more fun than farming koga tp and nq haub ws seems a pretty nice choice and potentially saving you 2 or 2.5 million with which you could upgrade a lot of your other equipment choices with.

with a bit of thinking the equips you could buy with that money could give a much bigger boost to your overall dot. at the end of the day you need to think about ya equipment 1 piece wont make or break you and if obtaining x is going to me more fun than obtaining y then and theres minimal difference between them do it lol

Not at all, I had to work late the last few nights, then spending time with the wife and kid means I don't have time to respond to all posts immediately.

I'll be working on more of them tonight, will take a day or two off after tonight as I haven't actually played FF in 2 weeks now while working on this (although I did get a couple of nights of Lost Odyssey in.)




Knowing my luck it'll never be finished will just take less time.




That earlier comment wasn't meant at you, one particular post came across as very condensing, but you get them in forums from time to time, hell I've done a few myself.

I thought I covered why a Haub is actually slightly statistically better despite the very similar ATT/ACC stats. STR and DEX.

fSTR will be there. It's not worth gearing only for STR, but hey, +1-2 damage to both of my Katanas, that's pretty nice. It might take a bit of DEX to see a real difference in crits, but hey, "free" DEX is better than none >.>

Yeah, a +1 is a small difference. The thing to me there is that you're enhancing something that's already successful. A 2% evasion boost on top of the typical 3-7% in merit doesn't make tanking really any different. Edging your ACC%, WS average, etc up just adds to your overall effort. Every little bit helps.
If you're building for evasion, then sure, Koga would be preferable in the slot...but still not as good as some other pieces (Ekidnu's, SH, etc).

The bigger reason is, as I mentioned, a NQ Haub is your benchmark. A 200-250k, level 59 piece that many NINs will have already had since they could wear it.
You can use it on a number of other jobs, in capped events, and for WS. A +1 is a fine investment due to that, but not required.

If you want to TP in Koga, hey, fine, like I said, it's not a big difference. For the purposes of an equipment guide, however, it should be put in perspective.

Please consider adding a comment for fudo & senji that the +% crit only adds to that hand's weapon.

Consider commenting on dusk gloves+1, since you're including speed belt and AV drops.

Man.. no more complaints? I guess this is about ready to be stickied if nobody has anything else to add. I'll give it a look over and edit my post in a bit, but I don't think there was anything else I wanted to mention.

Not in England! :P

Changed the comment on Sai to reflect this.




We spell the same as the brits, I'm not changing that one.




I had changed the staves section to incorporate this already, for some reason it wasn't updated in the post, had to redo it. Alla does this from time to time.




Updated that section to add that info.

The +40 hp on koga legs is useful for a CB build or another max HP application.

This is a nice guide. Great job.

There are several places you suggest swapping a piece of enmity gear in for Provoke. There are other reasons to swap in enmity gear such as warcry, elemental & enfeebling ninjutsu, and black magic spells and job abailities for /drk.

Some gear is great to swap in with Utsusemi but I didn't see that mentioned. I prefer to only swap slots which won't blink me so for example:
Evasion Torque
Swift Belt (haste) Scouter's rope (evasion)
Boxer's Mantle
Evasion Earring
Ethereal Earring
Wivre Ring x2 (I personally don't bother to use these to save inventory space)

the ring has a high proc rate (25% iirc? not sure exactly). the mantle isn't great (5% proc rate iirc?). mantle has it's uses, like when you don't need the extra enmity from cerb/hbm, or on darksday for vit+20.

It's a very good guide, I have only 1 minor correction to add. You got the required Assault rank for the Perdu Blade incorrect. Should say Second Lieutenant, not Chief Sergeant

The 15dex on byakko's haidate gives you 7acc. Both pieces are equal accuracy wise. It's an argument of 5str, raising fSTR, or 15dex, raising crit %.

For WS, if you're using Blade: Jin, STR and DEX mods are equal. 15dex > 5 str. Seeing that it is crit based, I'd be hard pressed to use shura over byakko's.

For TP, the 5% haste puts byakko's over the top.

I think you should replace your comment with "These are excellent for both TP and WS, until Byakko's Haidate."

I'm of the mind that shura haidate should be left for the monks when they're using hundred fists.

Edited, Nov 19th 2008 1:40am by Renowaikk

Been awhile since anyone posted in this but I thought I`d put in a recommendation (assuming no one has already made it) for lower level NINs. If they have it, a Dash Sash is a really good choice for a belt slot piece early in level. An enmity boost is really nice when there is nothing else to fit in that area that`s worthwhile until like the 40s.