Ninja - Doing it right

=Ninja: Doing it right=

Introduction
This is Ninja, hopefully this will be the guide to be referenced when looking for proper information to playing and equipping the job. As of recent times of Abyssea, new age NINs really have to forgo all of the minor things you learn from 30-75 and beyond; this guide aims to inform of all those small things you should have learned had you leveled the job and spent time through each and every level. Obviously, nothing teaches better than the experience itself but I sure as well will try.

NIN as many people say were originally meant to be damage dealers that sort of found its role as a tank. And this is how I've treated it ever since I started leveling it seriously. I started FFXI as a damage dealer and loved that role. But becoming a bit more involved with end game, for me mindless damage dealing wasn't enough and I wanted to play an important role, and while Abyssea really brought out NINs, MNKs, THFs, and other DD tanks into the spotlight, Ninja has always been able to fill that role prior to the level cap raise beyond 75. I hope my guide will provide a proper mentality in playing it right, I plan to briefly cover some technical elements of game stats such as enmity and haste.

Within each section I will include gear you should care about that was important to each level range and a note of things you should have learned about the job if you had leveled old style and spent thoughtful time through them. This guide is meant for those who want to take the job seriously and have a good basis to start with.

Getting started
If by some really small chance that you are a brand new player to FFXI, this is where you start once you get your character a support job.

Elder Memories or The Old Lady

And once your character has a Main Job to 30...

Ayame and Kaede

For your first 10 levels it's straight forward. Buy any katana, go hit stuff. When you get to level 10, you get Dual Wield, if it isn't clear, it means you get to put a second katana on.

Levels 10-19
Yay, you get to use two weapons! Boo, it's pretty slow. You should be subbing WAR. Level 12 comes around you should have Utsusemi: Ichi. Go quest it, buy it, do whatever it takes to get this spell. You should not reach level 12 without it ready. You get Tonko: Ichi at level 9 and Ichi elemental spells at level 14. Don't worry so much about casting nukes for damage so much as casting them for skilling up, Ninjutsu skill is very important to keep capped because higher skill gives higher chance of not being interrupted from taking a hit, it won't play a big role during these levels but at much higher levels you'll definitely see a difference. And obviously you could hold off skilling up until later especially if you burned through your levels and get up to Ni spells, but we're assuming here that you want to get the full old school leveling experience without actually having to do it. Accuracy will be a pretty big issue throughout most of the levels. For low levels you might want to consider using Jack-o-lanterns.

Equip Notes

 * Pick any 2 katanas you can wear, it really doesn't matter.
 * Leaping/Bounding Boots
 * Get a STR +2 ring and a DEX +2 ring. You don't have to worry about gear swapping just yet.
 * Fill in other spots for defense, evasion or HP if you can't find equipment that gives an offensive stat.

What you should learn from these levels

 * Start counting those shadows that you lose in the chat log. The shadows remaining icon makes things much easier than when I was leveling NIN, its a lost art but try doing it anyway. Utsusemi: Ichi gives you 3 shadows that absorb single hits: meaning it's a hit a healer does not have to heal you for.
 * Shadows are your main source of defense, but Utsusemi: Ichi takes 4 seconds to finish casting, 30 seconds for cooldown and reapplies over remaining shadows. If you start casting Utsusemi when you have 1 shadow remaining, you will be fairly safe in being able to reapply a fresh 3 without taking a hit.
 * Start using that Provoke. Face it, you're going to tank. At these levels you should start getting the hang of keeping the mobs attention on you. Party members won't be doing more damage than the amount of enmity provoke generates, so when a mob turns to attack someone else, provoke.
 * If you're dual tanking, be mindful of the other person's HP, provoke if he's in danger. If the other tank is another Ninja, start learning to count other peoples shadows, voke if he loses 3.
 * If you have been keeping your katana skill capped, you should have Blade: Retsu at level 9. The additional effect is Paralysis which makes a mob skip an attack round, giving you more time for Utsusemi counters to cooldown. Debuffs are very important to avoiding damage.
 * Always try to keep 3 shadows up at all times. And pay attention to the order you do things. (e.g. if you're going to use a weaponskill or provoke, have shadows up before)
 * Start paying attention to the mobs attack animation and timing the start of your casting. There's a rhythm to their attacks and if you can start casting shadows a split second before the mob begins its attack swing your casting will finish before it starts its next attack.

Levels 20-29
These are the levels where you start trying out evasion. With Beetle +1 gear available at 21 and an Empress/Emperor hairpin at 24. It's the same ideas to pay attention to during the previous levels because you don't get Utsusemi: Ni until a little bit later. These levels where you really start seeing debuffs play into your game. When I leveled through these levels I had to deal with Mandragoras. It was frustrating because they were MNKs and attacked twice. I honestly hated playing NIN because it seemed like Utsusemi was really a waste of gil every time I casted it.

Equip notes

 * Emperor/Empress Hairpin
 * Spike Necklace, Beetle Earrings, Harness, the usual fare throughout these levels
 * Fill in equipment slots with evasion or defense where there's no attack or other offensive stats available
 * Keep looking for katanas with high base damage for your main hand and a kunai type katana for your offhand with lower delay.

What you should learn from these levels

 * Hojo: Ichi (Lv.23) and Kurayami: Ichi (Lv.19): This is why you wanted to keep your Ninjutsu skill close to your level. Hojo is slow, Kurayami is blind. Couple those with Blade: Retsu and you have the 3 main enfeebles that will help you keep shadows up.
 * You can definitely start equipping your NIN for evasion at this point, while evasion during these levels are relatively low in comparison to what you'll be doing at high level, you'll start getting an idea of why evasion is important. You may have some situations where you'll have 2 shadows up and Utsusemi: Ichi is already ready to use if you already didn't have those situations come up in earlier levels.

Levels 30-39
This is where you really start seeing the job for what it really is. You start having access to equipment with stats valuable and longstanding to high levels. You get Utsusemi: Ni and that spell completely changes the feel of NIN. Back when the level cap was 75. This was the de facto subjob for most Melee and even some Mage jobs, simply for being able to use Utsusemi: Ni. Back before jobs were updated and level cap was lifted from 75 this was the only way any job had access to Dual Wield if Ninja wasn't their main job. Nowadays, it is subbed only to have Utsusemi. Ni Spells only take 1.5 seconds to finish casting and a 45 second cooldown and the beauty of it is that as a NIN main you get 4 shadows while as a sub job you only get 3. Damage from weaponskills start putting out decent numbers and you really get to start using quite possibly the best mission reward in the game. And you start getting your first piece of haste gear. Jubaku: Ichi becomes available but suffers from the 4 second casting that all Ichi spells have. THF gets Sneak Attack/Trick Attack which will help you out with hate if done properly.

Equip notes

 * Ochuido's/Ochimusha Kote
 * Horomusha Kote
 * Peacock Charm/Amulet
 * Nanban Kariginu
 * Fuma/Sarutobi Kyahan
 * Rajas Ring
 * Level restrictions on Chains of Promathia missions were removed. If you do not have them done, do yourself a favor and get them done. The rewards from that expansion are the most fulfilling, hands down. If you have friends or any other job at a high level there should be no excuse for not having this expansion completed. Your Rajas ring will be the only ring you will ever need for anything. Until you start doing really complex equipment macro changing you won't have any reason to take this ring off.

What you should learn from these levels

 * Ni finishes casting significantly faster than Ichi.
 * Utsusemi: Ni overwrites remaining any remaining shadows, either cast from Ichi or Ni. However casting Ichi will not overwrite any remaining shadows cast from Ni.
 * Ni Shadow canceling: You can manually remove shadows by selecting the buff from the status bar and clicking it off.
 * You do this to strategically cast Utsusemi: Ichi while you have one remaining shadow from Ni.
 * While casting Ichi on a last remaining Ni shadow, canceling the shadow around 50% on the casting bar will ensure that you still have shadows up but allows you to finish casting Ichi and receive a new set of shadow images.
 * This is why learning how to count shadows was important when u first learned Utsusemi; being aware of how many shadows you have left will really help with knowing which Utsusemi spell to cast and when.
 * At these levels you really start seeing good damage come out your weaponskills and should start experimenting with using accuracy % food (i.e Sole Sushi).
 * With higher output on weaponskills you should start to notice that they also will help keep a mobs attention.
 * Through these levels, key things that you have to consider about your party is that WHMs get erase, and RDMs get dispel. If a mob, like bats or lizards, puts evasion down on you, make sure that your WHM erases that off you. Slow needs to be erased immediately as well too.
 * Depending on how well geared you are, you can keep an eye out for opportune times to weapons kill for hate, like after you see Dia cast for more damage and still have the option to provoke for hate.
 * Having both Utsusemi: Ichi and Ni available will give you a taste of being untouched from having a good cycle and rhythm of shadow casting going.
 * These are the levels where SAMs get meditate, RNGs get barrage and DRKs get Souleater, they all will make it very difficult to hold hate.
 * Blade: Retsu is still arguably your best available weaponskill and will be until you get Blade: Jin.

Levels 40-49
Here we go, the Elemental Ni Wheel. These are the first time where I saw I could cement hate on myself and keep it on me, regardless of what jobs I had in my party and how well they were geared. This is also the level range where WHMs get haste (and RDMs a little bit later). You will come to love this being cast on you, and when you get higher, you will want to have more of it. Stating the obvious, haste increases your attack speed. But it also lowers recast timers on magic spells, which is defensively why it's so important. At Lv. 39 you will get your first piece of haste equipment. Recent updates have given another very viable option at Lv. 44. Kurayami: Ni and Hojo: Ni become available and will prove to be excellent uses of Ninjutsu enfeebling due to its very fast casting time. These levels will also start showing importance of equipment with enmity on them. Artifact Weapon quests start here, use these katanas, they're very good katanas for their level. And while I didn't have it available when I leveled NIN, Yonin really tips the scales in your favor for holding hate, but necessitates the need to use accuracy % food. I started using Dorado Sushi exclusively for when I needed to tank from this point.

Equip notes

 * Headlong Belt
 * High Breath Mantle
 * Jujitsu Gi

What you should learn from these levels

 * This is really the only time it really shines, but use the Ni elemental wheel to deal damage.
 * Suiton (Water) > Raiton (Thunder) > Doton (Earth) > Huton (Wind) > Hyoton (Ice) > Katon (Fire)
 * Learn to cast a Ni spell in between hits in the order listed above. At these levels the damage out put from cycling through these spells well deal more damage than your katanas -- (this is speaking before Ninjutsu skill was updated, so damage is greater now than when I first leveled Ninja).
 * You can get TP and deal damage from swings in between elemental casting. If any problem with holding hate actually come up, you can focus mainly on getting through all 6 elements on the wheel to the point where you are waiting on all 6 to cool down and have auto-attack build enough TP to have Blade: Retsu ready.
 * The High Breath Mantle cannot be taken off if you want to receive its enchantment. So it must me left on.
 * The elemental Ni wheel can be cycled faster than most two handers and dual wielders can auto attack. This is one of the reasons why, during these levels when there isn't a lot of haste gear available, the elemental wheel works so well; just eyeballing it, you can get around 2-3 spells cast before a DRG with a lance can swing once.
 * Hojo and Kurayami are also used well for enmity generation as they are not dependent on the damage you deal.
 * A select few jobs start to get defined through these levels as well, SAM gets Sekkanoki, which allows them to hold TP and perform 2 weaponskills back to back and create a skillchain.

Levels 50-59
Ahh, here we go. It's starting to look a bit like end game. Gear swaps, start doing them now. Artifact Armor quests start here. Take the time to quest these, good upgrade options are available later for this set. Swift belt becomes available, you first Dual Wield enhancement from equipment, clear cut evasion and weaponskill bodies. You're NIN probably will start swinging significantly faster if you are hasted and you're geared for attack speed.

Equip notes

 * Ninja Chainmail
 * Swift Belt
 * Haubergeon/Haubergeon +1
 * Scorpion Harness /Scorpion Harness +1

What you should learn from these levels

 * DRG and SAM may end up giving you a very hard time through these levels. DRG gets Penta Thrust at 49 and SAM gets it at 51. Not to mention SAM also gets access to Soboro Sukehiro at 50 and RNG gets Sidewinder at 55.
 * Elemental Ni Wheel may still be viable but, you definitely will struggle in holding hate. Retsu will start to show its age but is still a very good weaponskill to use for its additional paralyze effect.
 * Equipment macro swapping becomes very important here. Swift belt has -4 attack on it. Ninja Chainmail has nothing but DEX and Dual Wield, and if you're still using Emp. Hairpin for evasion that does nothing for your weaponskill damage, you should have been starting to macro that out during the 40s, but really that wasn't all that important because of the Ni Wheel.
 * Macro in haste gear for Utsusemi, having it equipped when you finish casting will give you a pretty nice reduction in recast time. Coupled with being hasted from your mages, you'll start to see Utsusemi: Ni ready to use almost as fast as Ichi is without haste gear.
 * Around these levels you may start seeing provoke do almost nothing for keeping mobs' attention. Try to use tricks that worked during the 40s. You should start having a DD mindset, at times I found that kept hate fairly well just trying to compete on damage with the rest of the DDs in my party. Remember that you have many options available for generating hate. (Kurayami, Hojo, Jubaku, Weaponskill, Provoke, Berserk + WS, Yonin)
 * Find pieces of equipment that truly benefit katana weaponskills (Most are modified by both STR and DEX), Swift belt doesn't do much, so swapping out to a Life Belt (this is what I used back in the day for lack of foresight of better options, but you be the judge), a Vangaurd Belt or a Swordbelt(+1). The same applies to Ninja Chainmail and Haubergeon (+1).
 * Starting at Lv. 50 NIN will start benefiting from WAR subjob even more with the Double attack trait.
 * Start equip swapping the Ninja Hatsuburi to help land enfeebles.
 * Start loving night time hours (18:00-06:00) because a lot of Ninja and Koga Equipment have stats that are only active at night. At these levels Ninja Hakama gives a pretty large boost to evasion even its only at night. Ninja Kyahan gives movement speed at night.

Levels 60-69
Hey hey, Blade: Jin. This weaponskill is your bread and butter, its the thing you'll be using almost forever and has the most damage potential. These levels have Arhat's Gi set. The +1 versions of the head and body are things you want to invest in for the physical damage reduction stat. Other pieces such as legs and hands you'll want to consider for Emnity pieces. In terms of gear, there isn't much change from the things you were using in the previous levels. These levels there's a lull for notable gear. Chivalrous Chain and Potent Belt is something to consider for weaponskills.

Equip notes

 * Arhat's Gi +1
 * Arhat's Jinpachi +1
 * Fire Bomblet

What you should learn from these levels

 * Blade: Jin can be used when provoke isn't ready.
 * Blade: Jin is great for damage.
 * You should start comparing your damage to other DDs. DRKs get Guillotine at 60. Any DD that is subbed SAM starts gets Meditate. SAM gets its first of the big 3; Tachi: Yukikaze. BLUs get 2 of their first 3 big damage physical spells in Frenetic Rip and Hysteric Barrage. The better you're geared for weaponskills, the better you'll hold hate when any of those DDs knock off a large chunk of HP from the mob.
 * You may start seeing other strong DDs hit quardruple digit numbers, while at best, Blade: Jin's range in damage will be around 500-800 (Going off memory, these numbers are definitely not exact). The simplest way of understanding damage for hate is comparing numbers to others; overlooking any other action (Provoke, auto-attack, etc) if you deal more damage than someone else you'll have the mobs attention, if a DD deals more damage than you, then that person will have the mobs attention.
 * That being said and without having to get into the complexities of Volatile and Cumulative Enmity and enmity calculation, Provoke itself is comparable to dealing 1800 points of damage without any adjustments from equipment, Yonin, or merits.
 * Blade: Ten is decent for damage, but Jin is what you want to be using.

Levels 70-75
Almost there. NIN gets its last bits of attack speed equipment, Relic armor becomes available. Limbus upgrades should be considered. Sky, Sea, Assault gear. These are the levels Ninja really comes together; where people start arguing about what to do, how to play, what gear is "best". Even though nowadays the gear you use(d) during these levels is more or less obsolete, its fairly important to look at everything and understand why certain pieces of gear were used.

Equip notes

 * Suppanomimi
 * Brutal Earring
 * Koga Tekko
 * Koga Chainmail
 * Byakko's Haidate
 * Walahra Turban
 * Dusk Gloves+1
 * Senjuinrikio
 * Perdu Blade
 * Fuma Sune-Ate
 * Cerberus Mantle+1
 * Yasha Samue Set
 * Loquacious Earring

What you should learn from these levels

 * Attack speed is your best friend. Wherever you can get haste gear, slap that on. That explicitly means, put time into Sky and kill Byakko for his pants. If you haven't done so, go build up some fomor hate in the Sacrarium and get yourself a Fomor Codex to get a Swift belt, of if you're lucky enough to have a Speed/Velocious Belt, have that in your waist slot. Get yourself 1000 Imperial bronze pieces and get yourself a turbo turban. Buy Dusk Gloves, Fuma Sune-ate. Do Divine Might for a Suppanomimi. Save up 75 Ancient Beastcoins for a Brutal Earring.
 * Attack speed is really where NIN is a contender with damage. If you were lucky and had Dusk +1 and a 6% Haste Belt when they were expensive/hard to get you would be sitting on 22% haste from gear. But lets assume that you were the average player and had NQ and only a swift belt so 20% haste, that equals out to about 3 second delay in between attack rounds when you factor in the Dual Wield enhancement from level IV job trait(30%), AF Body (5%) and Suppanomimi (5%) -- Total of 40% delay reduction that is independent of haste). The haste spell shaves off a almost one full second off your attack round in this setup.
 * Double attack starts playing into your attack speed as well. The animation from a second hit on any hand will play into how it looks while you're swinging for TP, to the point where you'll start seeing non-stop attack rounds.
 * You'll start seeing your own damage break four digit numbers from here. Blade: Jin is modified by STR and DEX. When gearing weaponskills there's a lot to consider: You need STR and attack to hit harder, and DEX and accuracy to make sure all 3 hits land and still have to consider using DEX because Jin is a weaponskill that crits, so more DEX will help with not the stat modifier, but also crit damage. When Blade: Jin crits is when you'll see the biggest numbers.
 * Notice up until this point, I haven't specifically pointed out any katanas you should be using. You basically looked for any katana with good base damage. Senjuinrikio was the best katana available for Ninjas for a very long time, even shortly after Trial of the Magians was introduced. This was THE katana you should have been main handing. 38 base damage (There were only a few katanas with higher base damage and one of those was a Kikoku) and the 6% Critical hit rate really put this weapon on top, particularly if you used Blade: Jin. Perdu Blade was a great offhand because of its low delay, decent base damage, and its hidden effects of 10 attack and 5 accuracy.
 * 20% haste from gear gives a 35 second recast without haste and 28 second recast with haste.

How I played

 * I loved Koga Tekko. It was 4% haste at night hours when I couldn't afford Dusk +1 which was something like 18mil at the time. +1 gave me 2 more game hours to keep them on. It was entirely a hassle to have to carry around 2 sets of haste gloves, but it was worth it to me having as much haste as I could possibly have at the time.
 * Rewards for A Crystalline Prophecy and A Moogle Kupo d'Etat were geared specifically for how I played NIN.
 * Anwig Salade has STR +4 and Weaponskill accuracy +15 & DEX +4 and Critical Hit Damage +2%
 * Mirke Wardcors I augmented with Fast Cast +5 and Enmity +5, Stats a PLD would choose for his Nuevo Coselete.
 * Fast Cast becomes important in casting shadows. Which is why I listed the Loquacious Earring earlier. In this setup I finish casting shadows at around 60% instead of the usual 75%, this isn't a precise number but it will give you an idea of why fast cast gear is important.
 * The trick is to have all your fast cast gear equipped before you start casting and all your haste gear on when you finish casting; So in this specific setup you will finish casting in the 60% range and still have the recast low as 28 seconds with your 20% haste setup.
 * I focused on STR first, attack second for weaponskills for these levels, using Byakko's Haidate to WS usually kept my DEX close to my STR. In terms of WS bodies in my order of preference, it was Haubergeon < Koga Chainmail < Haubergeon +1.
 * When Trial of the Magians was introduced I started working on a high base damage weapon: the Mozu not knowing it would eventually turn into the Empyrean Weapon. This would prove the popular choice, which if you look at the lack of options in good katanas prior to 75 cap removal and looking at the Vana'diel census for 2011 as the reason why there are so many Kannagis around.

Levels 75-90 and beyond
Not much will change beyond Level 75. Aim to max out your haste. Finish Abyssea, get yourself all the associated Abyssea Gear. A lot of haste gear is easily obtainable with some work. Nothing like camping King Arthro, Sandworm or spending 99 Kindred seals. The Empyrean Armor set is very useful, and replaces almost all the old 75 cap gear that NINs used for so long. And assuming that one decided to have 8/8 Katana merits. Those are the ones that really affect the job. The job specific merits don't really have much bearing on how the job is played. So its really player's choice to do whatever he or she wants. Decide on if you want to undertake an Empyrean weapon trial, whether you want to do the full Empyrean or do the marginally easier Walk of Echoes path. But I must stress this: A Kannagi does not make a good Ninja or fixes the fundamentals you skip out on from burning your job from 30 to 90. I firmly believe that you could do reasonably well without a Kannagi or the Empyrean weaponskill. That being said, a Kannagi is absolutely worth making; its easy enough to kill Briareus, camping Gukumatz can be a bit frustrating, and Apademak can be costly if you're impatient and can be a bit of a pain to to fight.

Equip notes

 * Iga Garb +2 Set
 * Loki's Kaftan
 * Twilight Belt
 * Atheling Mantle
 * Epona's Ring
 * Qirmiz Tathlum
 * Ocelot Trousers
 * Hochomasamune
 * Kamome
 * Magoraga Beads

What you should learn from these levels

 * The enmity cap starts becoming a very important factor once you get to these levels, especially if you are aiming to tank. Once players start reaching the hate cap.
 * For all intents and purposes Enmity works like this: A decaying over time portion (Volatile Enmity: VE) and a Non-decaying portion (Cumulative Enmity: CE) both numbers added up constitutes Total Enmity. Each caps at 10,000 points and totals up to 20,000 for its total cap.
 * For many situations many other DDs cap enmity just as well as you do as NIN just on damage alone. The way you stay on top is to stay constantly attacking, which is why attack speed is so important; the more attacks you land the more enmity you are perpetually generating.
 * A good place to understand about hate would be here and the external links at the bottom of the page.

End Game
NIN can fill important roles in end game. Back at 75, Kirin, Proto-Omega, Proto-Ultima, I was able to fill roles traditionally meant for PLDs. DRK as a support job becomes something very interesting to try out, because it opens the option up of not having to deal damage to hold hate. Stun is the approximate equivalent to PLDs Flash, and Aspir and Absorb-TP (Formerly Sleep) can generate sizable amounts of non-decay enmity as well as your Ninjutsu enfeebles (which don't have to land to generate hate).The only downside is you will need proper support to make it work; that means refresh, and haste. And it goes without saying you need to gear it properly -- with a focus on haste then enmity to make sure each of your enmity spells are ready to use as soon as possible. My current end-game linkshell allows me to tank Tier IV Voidwatch NMs and I think I do well enough that the keep letting me do it on a regular basis.

Limbus
Now people start wondering whats the best gear for each situation. Personally I've always geared to prioritize Haste, Double Attack, and then Dual Wield. Ninja Chainmail is something I stick to despite newer gear for TPing. Limbus is an event worth doing to upgrade Artifacts to +1, now that the level cap is above 75, running zones to farm for +1 ingredients is very easy. SW Apollyon on the third floor with the mimics tends to put out an Ebony Lacquer and Temenos - Northern Tower on the 2nd Floor with Gigas has a high chance of putting out a Plaited Cord. The best upgrades are Ninja Tekko +1, Ninja Kyahan +1 and Ninja Chainmail +1, although the Body +1 doesn't give anything extra other than a few more DEX and shock spikes. Doing limbus also rewards out with ABCs to purchase a Brutal Earring, a Boxer's Mantle, and a Loquacious Earring.

Salvage
Salvage itself has been a notoriously difficult event to get gear from, particularly the Lv. 35 Armor pieces. The one piece to take note of from this event is Usukane Sune-Ate. This one piece gives the most enmity a Ninja can have in this slot,still doubles over as a great weaponskill piece and has a little bit of haste to boot. Usukane Haramaki is a great evasion piece but there's other comparable options here, wearing this piece is basically a trophy piece as Salvage bodies take a bit more work to obtain.

Sky
Byakko's Haidate and Seiryu's Kote if you plan on getting Blade: Hi. You can augment Byakko's pants with critical damage up to 4% and AGI up to 6. Seiryu's Kote can be augmented with critical rate up to 3% and some odd DEX. Make friends with a Synergist.

Gearing for a Kannagi
Crit damage gear is key here. The general consensus for gear is Loki's Kaftan, Seiryu's Kote, Ambusher's Hose, Hachiryu Sune-Ate, Epona's Ring, Atheling Mantle. If you can get an augmented Seiryu's Kote and Byakko's Haidate, it would be ideal pieces for Blade: Hi. Weaponskill Gorgets actually fares less than a Hope Torque but if that isn't something reasonably available Shadow or Soil Gorget would be the way to go.

Migawari
This spell is one of the best spells for having low physical defense, and less magic defense gear than a PLD. The effect is negating critical damage, basically it means any more that deals more damage than you have HP, the damage is annulled. It's most practical application is Proto-Ultima's Citadel Buster. You can see it coming, it has a countdown, and more than likely it's going to one-shot most people who aren't prepared to take the hit. Ninja on one hand, can throw up migawari and will take 0 damage from it. Iga Ningi +1 and Iga Ningi +2 make its activation at more than 85% of your HP and more than 75% respectively. Its recast without gear is 2 minutes, despite being an Ichi spell and it only lasts 1 minute, so it's best to be used strategically. By that, I mean that using either Empyrean body would waste Migawari. Sure it might be a little bit more taxing on your healer, but if an attack wasn't meant to one-shot you, it doesn't need to be negated. This is what I believe as its most effective use. "The best in practice example would be fighting Azdaja, and repeatedly having to face spike flail with the very real possibility of not having cruor enhancements. A spike flail that is hit with one remaining shadow may be absorbed by that shadow and will definitely deal damage possibly 75% and Migawari will negate it and be followed up by a -aga4. The most appropriate defense should be Migawari."

Other Notes about NIN
More to come as I think of things.