NIN Gear Sets; Need Some Advice

I'm trying to set up spellcast for the first time and I'm a little confused as to how to approach NIN because of the tons of gear sets. I realize now would be a good time to sort out and revise all of my sets. I'm not sure if I need a group on spellcast for max evasion, tanking, pulling and things such. I'm not sure what the ideal sets would be but here's what I've at the moment/what I'm trying to achieve.
Note: -Physical Damage set is what I most commonly use when pulling Fell Cleave burns.

TP Set


Blade: Hi


Evasion


Utsusemi Recast


-Physical Damage


Enfeebling/Nuking

the PDT set nin cant use that grip >.<

Evasion Set:

I'm going to assume you use this set for evasion tanking while TPing. But if we're talking pure evasion set: than there's also Sveltesse Gouriz/Scouter's Rope, as well as EVA earrings and Rings, and Ungur Boomerang. Torero Torque and Evasion Torque would also be welcome additions. Empress Hairpin/Fugacity Beret for head would be better than Optical, Usukane Body/SH+1/Alcide's(+1) would be good upgrades as well over Aurore.

Utsusemi Recast Set:
If you're able to get your hands on Magorago necklace for Ichi Recasting, that would be a nice addition to that set, as well as a Loq. earring.

PDT Set:

I'd also like to point out that your PDT set is over-shooting on PDT by a bit. (Unless your Dark Ring is extremely crappy?)

Terra's Staff = -20%
Arhat's Jinpachi +1 = -6%
Arhat's Gi +1 = -9%
Twilight Torque = -5%
Jelly Ring = -5%

The above alone put you at -45%. Your dark ring probably covers the last 5% I'm going to assume? Which will hit the cap of -50% for you. This allows you to remove Jingang Greaves to make room for something better like AF +1 (for movement speed) or Evasion feet. I also recommend throwing in more evasion items where you're not using PDT to finish the set off, ie Sveltesse Gouriz/Scouter's Rope, Ungur Boomerang, Ocelot's Trousers, Novia/Elusive/Evasion Earrings, etc. Basically where you can't get PDT, use evasion.

Also, if you can try to get a second Dark Ring to replace that Jelly Ring, for completion's sake.

For your utsu recast there is the necklace that gives casting time -10%, can't remember what it drops from off the top of my head.

For PDT go for a second dark ring rather then the jelly (if you can get ones that can double for both mdt and pdt, I lucked out and got one with 6%mag and 5%phisical)

Going by the blade Hi thread your WS gear needs to change alot based on what your fighting, i recomend taking a look through there though I havn't played with many combos myself yet so idk how accurate it is.

For TP Dusk +1 hands and usu feet are best from what i've heard, though with augments on BH it might be better to use that instead of usu feet inside abyssea but not too sure. Iga neck might be more useful then the collar too since on alot of stuff you don't need to worry as much about subtle blow before the last 25% anyways (and can thow up the ninjitsu for it and put yurin on for that last 25% to solve any problems there)

Earth staff for PDT sounds good but if you really need to cap it out it would be better to build a pair of sekkas, though even then you would probably be better too go with Kannagi and kamome so the mob dies faster.

Eva you can probably drop a couple peices in favor of haste, though keep the set for that odd mob that just has stupidly high acc.

Optimal PDT Set: (Excluding items such as Defending Ring, Shadow Mantle. Dark Rings x2 adding up to -10% PDT as a minimum.)



Optimal Evasion Set: (Not Engaged)



Obviously, all this evasion gear would be over-kill, considering mob's hit rating is floored at 20%, so your max evasion chance will be 80% no matter how much evasion you stack on. For an engaged set, something with the right mix of Evasion, Haste, and Subtle Blow gear would be alot better.

That totally went over my head, woops. Thank you.
I'm still unsure about how to go about the tanking/evasion hybrid set, was wondering if you know of an ideal set for it? I'll aim to get the other evasion pieces you mentioned.

For Utsusemi recast I did add the loquacious earring (I totally forgot about it when creating the set) and I will try and kill Apademak for that neck.

For -Physical Damage, the dark ring is 5%. I will try and fill in the rest of the slots with evasion for when I hit the cap

I think what you're looking for can be achieved more elegantly by making use of layered sets. For example, a snippet from mine:

As you can see, I have multiple sets that draw from my default TP set, only adding pieces that are different from the baseset. It removes excess code. What I do from here is I have two variables, one that controls which is my DD TP set (TP, TPAcc, TPCrit), and then another for what level of evasion I'm going to use. If my evasion variable is set to 0, it'll equip TP/TPAcc/TPCrit depending on the first variable. If it's set to 1-3, it'll equip the appropriate evasion set. I set it up with multiple sets to allow me to choose a level of evasion that's sufficient to keep shadows up while maximizing damage. UtsusemiPre works on top of all of this by maximizing my evasion in non-haste/fastcast slots then adding in my fastcast pieces and Iga Kyahan +2 (precasted for Apoc procs). Whichever set is my current TP set determines how much haste/evasion I'm casting in for those slots in order to simultaneously minimize my recast timers and my chances of getting hit midcast.

Anyway, 3 eva sets and all that may be overkill for you but hopefully you get the general concept.

Now, set advice:

Arhat's Gi isn't terribly useful for casting Utsusemi, completely negating damage is almost always more effective than simply reducing what damage you do take. Use Aurore Doublet.

PDT is not only useful for cleaving, it's also excellent for minimizing damage you can't reliably evade (TP moves). In this case you're probably not using a staff, so you need more PDT. Metallon Mantle, Melaco Mittens, Darksteel Subligar/Desultor Tassets with PDT-4% augment, maybe some augmented earrings.

I'd recommend splitting up your enfeebling and nuking sets. Any slot that doesn't have skill+ should have haste in it for the enfeebling set in case you get a resist.

This would be the best set I think for pure damage on elemental ninjutsu. Yes, I'm extremely bored today. Too bad it's not very practical to carry around all this gear, this looks fun lol.




Well, you're going to want to cap your Subtle Blow. NIN gets Subtle Blow +25 from Subtle Blow V by default, so you'd be wanting around +25 in gear to cap out. Notable gear with Subtle Blow on it that are practical for use in an EVA set are Rajas Ring, Heed Ring, Slither Gloves, Torero Torque just to name a few.



The above gives +26 Subtle Blow, merely 1 point above the cap, and the gear is quite easy to obtain. Can fill in Evasion or TP gear in elsewhere, depending on the mob. Personally, I would just fill it in with haste stuffs, and full EVA if it's a Heroes NM.

Merits add 5 Subtle Blow and Myoshu is 10 more, only need 10 SB to cap really. Rajas + Agasaya's, Rajas + Heed, Torero + Heed are combinations I use to cap depending on the situation. From there, it's all about dAGI (which is one reason I use AF+1 head over Fugacity).

He'll have a WHM with +2 boots auspice at all times, for what it's worth.

Wow that's insanely helpful about the spellcast sets, thanks a bunch Nightfyre. I'm going to try and aim for the top gear sets, so I'll try and get those 3 evasion sets. For utsusemi casting, would something like SH+1 or Alcide's(+1) be better than Aurore? As far as PDT goes, I'll work on getting the items you mentioned. And I'll recreate the enfeebling and nuking sets. Thank you everyone for your input thus far!

That was a major woosh on my part, thanks for pointing that out. I sorta just entirely forgot about those, looks like I need to get some sleep lol.

In addition to Auspice, THF's Collabarator also increases SB which would be filling the gap otherwise as well if you ever do stuff with any THFs.

SH+1, Alcide's +1, Usukane Body would all be better for Utsusemi Casting, considering it boils down to whether or not you want the 4 AGI or more pure Evasion, the other stats are moot since you aren't meleeing while casting.

It caps at 50, but NIN natively gets 25 from their job trait. I was under the impression that AGI lowers TP gained by your attacks past the SB cap though?

Random thought about the nuking set: AF+1 feet have 6 INT so they'd beat out Denali, but now that Ninjutsu skill acts as a modifier Koga feet might be better still.

Related: Ninjutsu skill at time of cast affects your Migawari HP threshold. Iga Ningi +2 is still applied when you actually take damage, not at time of cast, which is why I have a toggle that can lock mine in if Miga is active (but bypass it for things like Discoid). I strongly recommend making a set that maximizes both haste and Ninjutsu skill for it and at least having it on a toggle (may not always want your threshold low so not always casting in skill is understandable). Can get 24% without the feet slot (Koga Kyahan gogo), 26% with Zelus Tiara instead of AF3+2.

Glad I could help! You'll find that the third set (which I hope to improve on with Hachiryu feet in the near future) is almost always overkill if you have an AGI Sekka +2 (which I swap in manually). It's mostly used when I'm trying to feed as little TP as possible, but inside Abyssea dAGI is capped with Gnarled Horn anyway. Giving up Kamome is a much smaller sacrifice than giving up nearly all your gear haste for another 25 evasion though, especially where recasts are concerned.

Yes, SH+1 or Alcide's would increase your evasion over Aurore body.

It's a separate calculation that caps at another 50% reduction, so you can drop your TP feed as low as 25% of what you'd feed naturally now. Caps at 75 dAGI iirc.

Any idea how much AGI the higher tier nms (heroes) have?
Should'nt cruor buffs + GH be enough to cap?

I think it's something like 110-120 AGI for the tougher Heroes stuff, so yeah. Like I said, I hardly use it. Used to use it more when I only had one hybrid-eva set instead of two, but my gear improved and I split my set and found that I could cap eva on most everything with the second set instead of going all-out, especially with the AGI Sekka.

So Isn't it better to have the higher damage weapon in your main hand? That's what I've always been told/thought. So like in this case wouldn't it be better to main hand the Kannagi? The stat bonus from the Kamome will still be the same no matter the hand it is in, right?

http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/104909-Migawari-and-Igi-Ningi-2

Correct. I don't think it was intentional, getting weapons into the right hand for XIAH item sets can be a pain sometimes.

Why can people never understand that you cant allways control which hand weapons end up in here on these sets lol

Doesn't always work.