The Sealed Dagger: A Ninja Guide

quite disappointing if thats indeed all theyre going to do for the job. So far looking like rdm/dnc/drg(even if it was something so small as separating jumps) got actual job adjustments

Ninja is great again:

"With the ninja, we’ve elected to turn some merit point ninjutsu abilities into scrolls, much as we have for previous jobs. In line with this, we’re decreasing the number of merit point categories from eight to six in order to better line it up with the number of augments available. This means to the Suiton: San and Raiton: San merit point categories will be going away and any points placed into them will vanish into thin air, so I recommend that you re-allocate your points so that you have only one point in them—this will enable you to obtain the spells automatically without buying the scrolls separately and minimize the amount of merit points that you lose."

These changes are right in line with the bare minimum expectations of a forgot about job like ninja. The only thing I thought they would have added would be reduced innin/yonin timers to 3 minutes, but that would have required too much decay testing on their part (about five minutes).

Uhm... Recast timer is already 3 minutes for both Buukki, what are you even talking about D:

Then my mistake. Was confusing the duration. Nothing else expected to be changed.

Bois. Metsu Ammo. Rejoice.

Might be a hard choice in group 2 merits now.

All depends on what the Yonin and Innin effects actually do, the notes did not detail what they do.

I mean like no matter what it is everyone is gonna 5/5 innin. 100% certainty. Holy ***was I wrong, Sorry!

Question is if Yonin will get more than loleva.

Sange is already (debatable*) ((not debatable as in is it the best to have, debatable as in if you care enough to carry expendable shurikens))

Yonin: Increase HP by 50 < Ninja is now Monk, light up the torches and ready pitchforks for unfair HP advantage.
Innin: SC and MB 1%
Macc: 5
Mab: 4

Mehhhhhh

That’s per merit? Innin 5% SC bonus is pretty nice, actually.

Aside from keeping a merit in Sange, Macc is prob best other choice, since resists are often the biggest issue for nuke damage and it helps enfeebles too.

HP for a blink tank (with Migawari to avoid OHKO to boot) okaaaay...

MAB whatever.

Also, is the relic hat augment change just a nerf to magic damage? Innin/Yonin augment worth anything? Need to be worn only on activation?

Considering all they stated previously was merits->scrolls, this update is miles ahead of what I anticipated. Macc/mab was 100% expected, didn't think they'd double up with innin effect for mab though. Kind of a waste there. The hp is weird but welcome on a "tank" role. The innin is also strange with scd.

1/5 sange just to unlock the ja if you're a shuriken user (I've fully stopped using that ability because I'm tired of throwing my good ammo away and I have +2 neck, 0/5 for me)
5/5 macc since that will have an immediate ninjutsu effect on damage rate and land rate
5/5 yonin since I do not of my solo stuff on ninja anyways (htbf etc) so free hp)
If you're ever nuking or not tanking, you just switch yonin for innin merits. Mab is going to go 0/5 by most people, but if you're looking to trick out that damage for merit parties it's fine I guess.

Ninja also got a decent piece of ammo from htbf. Wasn't totally a bad update for ninja. you do just have to chalk it up to SE just not knowing how to improve ninja without their heads exploding. They are totally out of touch with the job and these merits just show. But any increase is an increase

SC damage should be more useful even on solo NIN (edit: I guess unless that requires being behind the mob too) Lots of self light/darkness on NIN. HP is kinda meh to me... you either have shadows to protect you most of the time, or Miga to guard against the one big shadow wiping attack. HP strikes me as fairly pointless.

Nice ammo, I like Innin SC dmg, and I won’t complain about 6/6 full strength San nukes or some extra Macc. No meta-shattering surprises here, but decent enough little perks.

More damage on innin just means you pull hate faster, really would've just preferred more enmity- (beyond cap?)

Trust already doesn't let me stay in innin for more than a few seconds.

IDK feels like a big missed opportunity on yonin/innin, probably just going 5/5 macc and 5/5 yonin. NTE is cool though for being lazy.

I never expected them to make significant Innin/Yonin improvements, so I guess low expectations somewhat exceeded for me. At the very least, in a pt with real tank it gives a little bit of extra dps whenever you close a SC.

Subtle Blow II on Yonin woulda been cool. Better than HP.

I kinda just expected Crit 5% and Eva + 50 maybe with more enmity -/+ respectively

SC MB and HP don't even meet the already low expectations I had.

(at 75, +250 HP is pretty huge though, as if being 75 was useful for anything)

Am I the only OCD person particularly unhappy they put the Macc/Mab augment on relic FEET instead of relic HEAD?
I'm feeling so anally triggered in my OCD-ness atm.

I'm glad to see Yonin/Innin merit categories, granted none of those seem to be particularly appealing (better than nothing though?).

Kinda sad, but sorta expected, that we didn't get any adjustment at all other than the SAN spells being turned into scrolls.
/shrug


Wonder how the augs on Relic head/feet work.
First we have the usual question: will the augment work on JA use, or on equip when buff is up?
Then we'll have to answer the question on what those effects do.
could be +1 mab/macc per merit (total of +5) for the related Ninjutsu categories.
For Yonin it could be additional 10 HP per merit.
For Innin uh... +1% per merit seems too much considering you get 5% total. Guess it could be something completely different.

I might be more influenced by the pleasant surprise of a nice WS ammo, following last month’s killer ring. At least HTBF are giving fun NIN prizes!

Still, getting what I am assuming is 5/5 strength (from previous merits) in all 6 San spells is... something. Helps my occasional Futae MBs I guess. Not a big deal though.


LOL nope, I’ll keep you company.

They could have easily made yonin effect sb2, which would have capped ninja SB when using su5.

I just assumed the innin effect wouldn't even activate unless you're behind the monster, so that's not going to work soloing.

For whatever reason, migawari still doesn't work for some things, and when it does, it still has a timer on it. Shadows getting wiped in a matter of seconds is the life of a ninja, so from a tanking stance perspective, HP is the "safe" stat to put there to get yourself together before you get wrecked when your shadows inadvertently go down. Not that I disagree it's a weak merit.

The split with yonin and innin specifically gives offensive and defensive minded ninja roles a merit they can max. None are impressive

Complain on the OF about it, maybe they'll change it.

trash.

and to boot, my mb are now doing less somehow... goofing around with 5/5 innin and mattck.

edit* Going to guess the lower damage is from removal of previous reforged relic +3 head? "Elemental Ninjutsu III (San spell) damage +5% per merit level"

Probably from the swap on the relic head to the feet? Wow that would be hilarious if they nerfed ninja nuking from the augment changes, only to give you that damage back in meritable categories >_>

We should make a polite thread about it.
Or maybe use the Digest #3 thread?

I'd do a post now but I don't have my OTP generator with me so I can't login to the forums atm.

Btw, this is the first time we have a single Relic augment affecting TWO separate merit categories at the same time.


Edit:
Just noticed I was misremembering the previous effect on the head.
Thought it was just a small amount of magic damage on San Spells, it was actually a % bonus multiplier.
This means the loss is way bigger than I previously accounted for.
25% damage is no small feat, I doubt you'd be able to compensate for that even if you were to get +5 mab from going 5/5 in the Ninjutsu Mab category.

Similar to what they did with Protect and Shell for WHM, they need to imbue that +25% San damage into the San spells by default.

What's the best head nuking options now btw? Probably still Relic+3 I'd say, even without the previous augment.
We really need to complain about the missing augment btw, more than the Swap Feet/Head thing.

As far as we know maybe they actually INTENDED to imbue the san spells with that aug but forgot to (just like they initially did for WHM and their prot/shell relic augs)

RDM relic has double augs

It's not surprising on how very inconsistent they are when it comes to adding stats that work / should work / should be on select pieces of armor (not to mention the type of role it favors for on certain sets of armor pieces *cough* 0 INT Ea Pigaches)

Don't forget this piece



They always screw up stuff like this.

That's still an infamous piece of gear. Zero accuracy or attack. But WSD+10%. Yes SE, you got it right...

Is Hatsuburi (+3) gear augment glitched? It only shows "Enhances Innin Effect", but the update notes say it should have changed to Yonin + Innin effect.

Hard to say. We don't even know what the supposed augments to Yonin and Innin are to begin with.
Maybe someone can check the JP description to see if that's fine.

Checking Yonin right now, and it looks like the augment is +10 HP per merit (I have 5/5 Yonin). Head must stay equipped to retain the effect (aka useless)

base HP 2226
5/5 yonin + activation HP 2476 (+250)
with head HP 2582 (+106 HP, but 56 comes from hatsuburi base, so 50 total increase). Increase of 300HP total when using head base.

If there is to be anything gained from using Hatsuburi with Innin, it's probably going to be only useful when nuking. That in itself is a pain in the *** to test so I'll check it out later when I get a chance.

Not sure which merits I'll go for.
5/5 Yonin is nice if you tank a lot I guess.
5/5 Innin is... uh, meh but cool if you solo, lowmen or MagicBurst a lot. Sorta useless otherwise I'd say.

Macc and Mab could be useful, espcially the first, IF it applies to ALL ninjutsu and not just offensive, or even just san.
English Description hints at all ninjutsu (debuffs included) but it could be a bad translation.
Digest #3 is super vague but Fujito mentions "-ton" spells specifically (meaning all nukes), but he doesn't comment on the merit category in particular, so it doesn't say much.

Would have to be tested but good luck with that.



If it really turns out to be Macc+25 to ALL ninjutsu, I think I'll go 5/5 Sange and 5/5 Macc.