How-To Guide: Ninja

Teenage Mutant Ninja Tarus
(No, I’m not saying Tarutarus are the best Ninjas, it’s just the only thing that starts with a “T”, has two syllables, and makes sense.) Ninja is a really interesting job that’s gone through one of the biggest changes since its start. Ninja is the only job in the game that can equip single-handed Kunai (also known as Katana), and the only job that can use Shuriken throwing weapons. They also get a wide variety of Ninjutsu-type spells. However, not too long after the job was created, all of that was essentially abolished, and Ninja is now considered the game’s secondary tank; all because of its Utsusemi line of Ninjutsu. It’s actually quite sad how today’s Ninjas are forced to lose touch with its otherwise great damage-dealing, enfeebling, and pulling prowess mostly because it’s the only job other than Paladin that can ’tank’. Strangely, if people would continue to use Shurikens, it would really help with keeping enmity for tanking, and cost quite a bit less for their effect than using the Elemental Wheel. Ninja is a fun job. Play it how you like it. Though chances are very, very high you’ll be chosen for tanking. (Making your own parties is a great choice if you don’t want to tank!)  '''Please note: This is only a guide. Please add anything if it is needed, and take away anything that is either untrue or not needed.'''

Job-Race Combinations
Please note that race is the absolute last thing you should worry about when picking a job. Anything said here is seriously exaggerated. A single piece of gear can often make up for a race's negligible lack in a stat. Every race also gets "Race Specific Equipment", or "RSE", that will boost a race's stats to equal, or possibly even surpass other races.

Hume

 * Ninja is a job that requires a lot of balance between both evasion and enmity, at least for tanking. For dealing damage, strength, dexterity, and agility are all great stats to have. Hume definitely doesn’t disappoint the job-class Ninja, as it has these three stats, as well as vitality and HP for taking hits, and intelligence for its enfeebles and Elemental Wheel.

Elvaan

 * The higher-end of damage per hit for Ninja, and definitely the one to keep the most hate if nothing but direct hits are counted. Ailment and damaging Ninjutsu are hindered by low intelligence, accuracy is hindered by low dexterity, and evasion/ranged accuracy are hindered by low agility. On the other hand, Elvaan’s naturally highest strength does for the most part make up for these few low stats, as it brings home the highest enmity as I said. If low evasion bothers you, there’s a ton of stuff out there for you Ninja types.

Tarutaru

 * An all-round solid job-race combination. Tarutarus enjoy a relatively high agility, so evasion and keeping shadows up shouldn’t be a problem. However, low vitality and HP mean that if the Tarutaru loses his or her shadows, they’re out of luck. High intelligence means proper ailment-inducing Ninjutsu, and a slightly more powerful Elemental Wheel. Their higher agility as I mentioned is also good for a second thing- Shuriken accuracy if you so choose to use them to keep hate.

Mithra

 * Mithra provide Ninja with the highest both dexterity and agility in the game, allowing for accurate and precise both attacks and ranged attacks, as well as great evasion. Average HP means relatively high survivability, and average intelligence means better Ninjutsu. Mithra also possess a moderately high strength attribute for dealing damage per hit. The only true downside to a Mithra Ninja is her low vitality, meaning if her shadows go down, she’d better get them back up pronto.

Galka

 * With the highest HP and vitality in the game, and a moderate agility to boot, Galka prove great Ninja tanks to any party. They even have high strength and relatively high dexterity for dealing hits and keeping hate.

Weapon

 * Ninja is the only job in the game that can equip Katana. It also has an A- in the skill, so that will be your primary weapon for the vast majority of the game. However, by Lv.10 you will have the ability to wield two single-handed weapons at one time. Use your standard Katana until Lv.10, but when you can first Dual Wield, equip a Sword in your offhand. This will provide you with the powerful Blade: Retsu from Katana, plus all the damage of a sword. You’ll want to continue this until about Lv.25 or so, then switch to dual Katana. Since there aren’t an enormous number of Katana to choose from, look toward purchasing the ones with better stat enhancements and damage per second. Otherwise, pick the ones with higher damage per hit. Later in the game, a Ninja may choose to equip daggers or other somewhat odd weapons. That’s okay too, just make sure you have high enough skill to use them and whatnot. The best thing about Dual Wield is, no matter what, you’ll always have at least one good weapon, even if the second one’s just for stat enhancements. As for ranged weapons, most Ninjas either leave it blank, or fill it will a stat-boosting weapon. Ninja has A- in Throwing, people! Lv.15 gives you access to the Rogetsurin chakram weapon that drops from one of two notorious monsters in Konschtat Highlands. It’s quite good, with an agility buff, and never runs out. An alternative arises when you hit Lv.18 and are capable of first equipping actual shurikens. Shurikens are unbelievably powerful in both damage per hit and over time. Also, they’re not as expensive as they look. You get much more damage out of them for slightly more money than other things you could pick. If you have your blacksmithing skill relatively high, you can make your own Shurikens for cheap. The Lv.18 Shurikens overpower the most powerful Lv.50 weapons, and the Lv.28 Shurikens overpower the Excalibur! (…In terms of base damage over base delay.)

Armor

 * Ninja has the privilege to equip a wide variety of different pieces of armor in the game. Depending on how you want to play, you can choose your own combinations. Purchasing evasion and enmity-type gear is good for tanks, and attack and range-type gear for damage-dealers. You’re given access to Harness, Leather, Far-Eastern gear, and even Chainmail. What you think you need to enhance yourself as a tank or damage-dealer is solely up to you.

Advanced Job Quest

 * Ugh. This is a really long quest, and is also one of the more difficult ones. However, this job is really worth getting, whether or not you ever take it past Lv.37. First thing’s first, you go to Port Bastok and talk to Kaede at I-5 for a cutscene involving her father, Ensetsu. Go to “Warehouse 2” and talk to Kagetora, then go back to the house and talk to Ensetsu. Now you have to get a friend (Lv.50+ preferably) or a party (consisting of Lv.45+) and head through Bastok Mines into Korolloka Tunnel. Go to the right side of K-8 and click on the ??? to spawn three leeches. There are other leeches there, you might want to kill them first to both get TP and to prevent link. After you kill the leeches, click on the ??? again to get a key item. Take that key item to Ensetsu, who will tell you to go to Norg. Follow the left wall upon entering Norg to the docks, then talk to Ryoma, who will give you another key item. Return to Ensetsu with the item, and he will allow you to become a Ninja. Congratulations!

Soloing 1 to 10

 * I personally had a lot of fun in these levels. I played Mithra Ninja, and I love how Katana are single-wielded. Unfortunately, once I hit Lv.10 I was succumbed to equipping two weapons, giving me the same stance as half of the game’s population. Ninja’s weapons, or at least the Lv.1 Kunai, are really fast and are quite fun to use. Equipping high defense gear is favoured, and probably a support job like Warrior for dealing extra damage. You get your first weapon skill at Lv.3; Blade: Rin. It sucks. You generally get more damage out of normal hits.

The Sahagin’s Stash

 * If you’re going to level Ninja, whether you tank or not, you’re going to literally need the Ninjutsu spell called Utsusemi: Ichi. Here’s a walkthrough for that quest. First thing’s first, you need fame in Norg. It’s the biggest pain in the rear, I know, but it must be done. Go to the Yagudo stronghold near Windurst called Giddeus. Kill the Yagudo in there and collect their “Yagudo Bead Necklaces”. Take in a number of them at a time, take them to the Cat Burglar and trade her four at a time. You’ll end-up needing to trade approximately two hundred and twenty of them. Alternatively, either kill worms, mine or purchase zinc ore at Auction Houses and hand them over to Talib (Port Bastok) in Shady Business. Once you have sufficient fame in Norg, you can begin. First off, you go to Norg. Talk to Laisrean at H-7. Purchase a Silver Beastcoin (or find one), and bring some form of warp, and have some form of sneak with you. You will need a lot of sneak, trust me. Silent Oils or the spell itself-- either way. Escape may be more ideal than Warp, but either way, it’s a lot faster than going all the way back through the hard way. Next, head outside of Norg and head through the unmarked stone door in the caves ahead. Head east after you go through the door, and then follow the right wall. You will find yourself heading south and going down a number of steps. Note that you will not be able to go backwards at this point. Now, heading south, follow the left wall. You will generally be going south, but occasionally east or south-east. Once you hit the coordinate L-13 on your map, start following the right wall again. You will find a door. Examine it. It will say pretty much nothing. That is okay! Examine it about five more times until it says there are silver shavings around the engravement. Trade your Silver Beastcoin to the door. It will let you pass through. From here, hug the right wall like it was family. You do NOT want to fall down the cliff to the left. You do, however, want to fall down to the right once you hit H-8. Drop down, then continue following the right wall. Head through the door, then touch the ??? to receive both a cutscene and a key item. Now either warp, escape, or run back (to run back, head out of the door, drop down the cliff to the right, then just follow the right wall pretty much the whole way back. Talk to Laisrean again to receive your scroll. Congratulations! Now, don’t forget to bring your scroll with you, as you’re definitely going to need it once you hit Lv.12.

Valkurm 10-20

 * Your journey to Valkurm starts much unlike most jobs. You’re deemed actually quite useless until about Lv.12, and as such, you’ll probably have to make a party or two just to be able to use your scroll of Utsusemi: Ichi. Once you get that job, you’ll be immediately branded a tank. In order to tank as a Ninja, you have to have really good timing and knowledge of how the game overall works. Allow me to give you a brief overview of how it works. Before a fight starts, use Utsusemi. This will give you three shadows, or three free hits. This spell has a four second casting time and a thirty second recasting time. When your party pulls, Provoke to take hate. It won’t be too long before you lose your second of three shadows. Keep count! Once the second one goes down, pull up the spell and start casting. The enemy should take down your third and final shadow as you get Utsusemi up, giving you an additional three hits. After your second shadow is dropped again, hit a macro that lets your party’s secondary tank know that your Utsusemi is down and that he needs to use Provoke. Once you can get Utsusemi up again, re-Provoke and take hate again. This is the basic strategy for all Ninja tanks between Lv.12 and Lv.36. At Lv.15 you get the Elemental Wheel. I suggest using it right away to try and re-cap your Ninjutsu skill. I actually had one guy tell me that just using Utsusemi would cap your skill. Yeah, right. Anyway, the biggest benefit to Ninja in these levels is the fact that you have Tonko, which is a very, very cheap way to invisible yourself to pass Goblins and stuff. There’s a Lv.15 Katana called the Gassan that‘s really good. You can get it by killing sheep on Vomp Hill and getting the blood drop. Take it to Dangruf Wadi and trade it to a ??? that appears in random positions throughout the map. Kill the NM named Chocoboleech (he’s high level, be careful). Once you hit Lv.18 you can start using Shurikens. I suggest using them if you have throwing skill capped. Otherwise, try and cap it with a thrown-returns weapon some other time.

Mid-levels 20-40

 * Assuming you don’t have your Ninjutsu skill capped by now, it’s really easy to go out to Qufim Island and spam it on the Worms. As long as you have Utsusemi up, the only way they can touch you is if they use Stonega. Stonega has a long casting time, so as long as you’re paying attention, you could easily step out of the way. Remember, their casting range is longer than your’s, so you’ll have to step back quite a bit. I neglected to mention enfeebling Ninjutsu; you actually get your first one at Lv.19, a Blind, at Lv.23, a Slow, at Lv.27, a Poison, and at Lv.30, a Paralyze. These spells are quite useful. However, with a long casting time, you may only be able to get a few off per fight. Also, since you consume tools with each use, it might be quite expensive. These spells share the element as their normal White/Black Magic counterparts, so don’t waste ones on monsters that have a high resistance to a specific element (such as Dokumori (Poison) on a Crab). Lv.34 is your second tier of Tonko (it doesn’t have any better effect, it just has a shorter cast time). But at Lv.37 is when your whole strategy will change. You get your second tier Utsusemi. It’s a fast-casting, four-shadow buff that truly makes your parties a lot better. You still can’t hold hate for beans, but you can tank without the need of someone else to help you Provoke. Still, you should always team-up with a Thief so he or she can Trick Attack a load of hate onto you. One thing to keep in mind is that Utsusemi: Ichi won’t overlap Ni. With that said, if you find yourself casting Ichi with Ni still in effect, you may very well have to turn it off. Once you get Ni (very expensive, have to beat a BCNM to get it other than AH), you’ll want to cast it at the end of fights, then save Ichi for later. When Ni goes down, cast Ichi. When that goes down, cast Ni again. Hopefully if you have enough evasion, you can out-last it and can cast Ichi again. If you have really good evasion, just use Ni. Remember at Lv.28 you can use the next level Shurikens! If you’ve used them this far, continue using them; you won’t regret it. Especially with a Ranger support job, yo.

Your AF Weapon

 * As a Ninja, you naturally get two weapons. One is fast, but weak, the other is hard-hitting, but slow. Their stat boosts complement each other so there’s one dexterity and one strength. However, they’re quite weak in general. Personally, I suggest off-handing one to the Ohaguro. Once you get one level higher and can equip Bokuto or its higher quality version, equip those in both hands. Therefore the weapons are only useful for a single level.
 * Your first step is to go to Norg and speak with Ryoma (H-8). Now, go to Port Bastok and enter Warehouse #2. Talk to Kagetora, who sends you to see Ensetsu at I-5. At this point, get a high’ish-level friend, and then head to Eastern Altepa Desert, in the little nook at H-5. Kill the spider, then prepare to fight. Touch the ??? when you're ready. You will fight two notorious monster spiders. These are both approximately Lv.42, cannot be slept, and cannot be charmed. They have a fairly large amount of HP, and have an attack effect of poison that hurts you for 20 HP per tic. Once you've defeated them both, touch the ??? again to receive a key item. Bring the item to Ryoma in Norg to complete your quest and acquire your two weapons. Congratulations!

Mid-High Levels 40-60

 * You should like Lv.40. Here’s where you can start using your second tier (Ni) Elemental Wheel. With a nice 1.5 second casting time, but 45 second recast, you don’t just spam them. They are open for 10 seconds for you to cast the next (in terms of resistance-down), so cast every 5 or so seconds. This will hopefully generate a lot more hate than before (and make up for the lack in Shurikens you’ve used at this point, unless you took my advice earlier). Lv.40 is when White Mage gets Haste, and Lv.48 is when Red Mage gets Haste. Demand this spell. Out of all jobs in the party, you are the only one who truly needs this spell. One White Mage complained about the 40 MP cost in a party I was in as Thief. The 15% Haste the spell gives reduces Ichi's recast time to 25.5 seconds (from 30), and Ni's recast time to 38 seconds (from 45). That's a very noticeable difference, and you should never party without it active at almost all times. But I digress. Anyway, at Lv.44, you get your second-tier Blind, and 48, second-tier Slow. These both stick better and have a better effect, so I suggest using them at the start of the fight. Provoke, Hojo, Kurayami, Elemental Wheel. In these levels is where you get your AF and the oh-so-sweet Scorpion Harness. It’s also where you beat the limit-breaking quests so you can go higher in levels, starting at Lv.50 and going all the way to 70.

Your Artifact Armor

 * It's amazing. All six pieces have at least a few uses. Your first pieces are acquired at Lv.52, and they're your leg pieces. They provide you with a small HP boost, and an enormous ranged accuracy boost for those of you who use Shurikens (or at the very least, Chakrams). At night time (18:00-06:00) in-game, they also provide you with a wicked +10 to evasion. Next up are your Lv.54 footwear pieces. These are also amazing. Providing you with another small HP buff, some +4 agility, and at night time, a 25% boost to movement speed. Believe me, that movement speed is noticeable, and is quite nice to have around for both pulling or just running around. Lv.56 AF head is next. It's often the least-used piece due to the Emperor Hairpin's usefulness. However, it does provide the wearer with HP, resist-versus-ice, and a small +5 boost to Ninjutsu skill. If anything, I suggest macroing your Ninja Hatsuburi in for your Elemental Wheel and enfeebles. Lv.58 is when you get your body piece. It's shadowed by the Scorpion Harness, but still has its uses. Namely the Dual Wield enhancement which gives your weapons an extra +5% attack speed to your already 25% by that level. This enhances your melee attack damage over time by a marginal amount. It also gives vitality (an un-needed stat compared to evasion and agility), plus a Blaze Spikes effect if all else fails. Blaze Spikes simply deals damage to anything that attacks you physically. Finally your above-awesome gloves for Lv.60. Last certainly is best in the case of Ninja artifact equipment. Providing the wearer with +3 dexterity, +20 (that's right, TWENTY) ranged attack, and Throwing skill +5. No, it's not at all useful to anyone lame enough to skip out on Shurikens, but for all those using the all-powerful throwing stars, these gloves are just absolutely amazing.

High Levels 60-75

 * Now that you have your full artifact armor, all your Ninjutsu spells, and all the cool stuff out of the way, you don't have much to look forward to other than merit parties at Lv.75. It's all pretty much smooth-sailing from here on in. Continue to perform the similar Utsusemi: Ichi and Ni strategies you have been. By now you can start building some Haste%+ equipment for your spells. Continue to harass Mages for Haste (I'm kidding, obviously, but if they don't give it to you, you should politely ask for it).

End-Game

 * (Please add information about Dynamis, Limbus, Salvage, merit parties, etc.)

Warrior

 * Since Warrior has Provoke, and Ninja is deemed a tank now, it seems suiting to have this as your main support job... and that's pretty much completely correct. It also makes a decent support job choice if you decide to be a damage-dealer, providing you with more strength and dexterity, as well as a ton of awesome traits and abilities. Warrior provides you with Provoke as I said, as well as a number of other great abilities. Berserk, acquired at Lv.30, will allow you to deal more damage with its +25% attack. The -25% defense it gives you won't be any big deal, since defense isn't really a boon to Ninja anyway. Defender, on the other hand, is quite useless. Your damage taken is already getting quite mitigated, so having more defense isn't going to help much, and the attack-down just means less enmity and overall damage. Once Lv.50 rolls around, you get Double Attack, which, unlike Dual Wield, will give you normal TP and extra hits. Lv.70 means Warcry, which means further damage as well as more enmity. When you use Warcry, try to go in the middle of the party and get everyone. The more people it hits, the more the monster wants to tear your skull out and beat you to death with it... which is a good thing.

Dancer

 * The alternative to Warrior support job, and sacrificing certain elements for others. Subbing Dancer means you can use your TP for more useful things than watered-down weapon skills. It can be used to heal anyone if you lose hate (or yourself to keep hate), and to give certain buffs and whatnot. It also provides you with a weakened Provoke ability once you hit Lv.40. I certainly wouldn't suggest this sub against Colibri or other TP-destroying monsters, but for some situations, it can be better than Warrior. (I would really only suggest you sub this with a Thief in the party. Though since that should always be the case with a Ninja tank, you shouldn't worry about that too much.)

Ranger

 * The prime money-jettisoning support job, yet probably one of the best. Even if you're tanking, you won't even need Provoke with a consistent bombardment of Shurikens with high accuracy and damage. Another possible reason for this sub would be to use guns or Archery and doling out huge damage through Sidewinder or Slug Shot. I would one hundred percent suggest you sub this as a Shuriken-doling damage-dealer. Otherwise, stick with Warrior, or Dancer, or... Thief, I guess.

Thief

 * Turning Ninja into what it once was, Thief. Thief gives Sneak Attack, Trick Attack, and a busload of evasion. With this support job, you can easily stand at the sidelines, firing Shuriken after Shuriken, or hit after hit with your Katana, then SATA-weapon skill. Providing you're obviously not the tank, this can be quite good. Where this sub truly shines is in its soloing capabilities. Engage battles with Sneak Attack, then beat things to death. Steal and Mug giving you the occasional item/money, as well as Flee and Treasure Hunter. One of the best things about this sub is all of its Evasion Bonus stuff. Proving to be one of the best job-sub combos in the game for avoiding hits.

Black Mage

 * Another twist on the damage-dealer, is the one that uses its Elemental Wheel over any other form of attack. With a large boost to intelligence plus “Magic Attack Bonus” give your Ni Elemental Wheel some large damage numbers. In mid-high levels, you can even buy Elemental Staves to increase damage even more, at the complete loss of TP and physical damage. It’s not the best choice, but if you want to deal some high damage (especially as a Tarutaru), this may be a good one.

Red Mage

 * A twist on the twist job (Black Mage), providing less overall damage through spells, and giving more speed on the spells. Fast Cast reduces casting and recasting time of all spells, including Ninjutsu. Normally, it’s RDM/NIN, but the other way is workable too. Even if you choose not to use your spells, you can even use the Enspells like Enthunder to increase your damage over time. Since Ninja attacks super-fast, this just increases overall damage by quite a large amount.

Scholar

 * No, Ninja is not a mage, and no there is no Art that works with Ninjutsu. However, it does change up the whole Black Mage or Red Mage thing with Light and Dark Arts. The intelligence boost is almost as much as Black Mage itself. The sacrifice of Magic Attack Bonus is made-up by the addition of the Arts, which allows you to fire-off any spell with “B” status. Unfortunately, Scholar doesn’t get a lot of spells to call its own. It is true, though, that Scholar does have Protects, Shells, Cures, Drain, Aspir, and a large number of elemental ‘nukes’.

Ninja as a Support Job

 * Ninja is seen as the universally “ultimate” support job. Ninja actually does work quite well as a support job. Tonko is a great alternative to wasting money on Prism Powders, since you can get a stack of either for about the same price (yet Shinobi-Tabi stacks in 99, and Powders stack in 12). Also, Ninja has the spell Utsusemi which really helps for soloing, mitigating damage, and survivability as almost any job in the game. It also gives Dual Wield. However, aside from that, there truly isn’t any major point to subbing Ninja. Extra survivability is about the only real point to it. Dual Wield is quite pointless unless you’re using two incredibly awesome stat-boosting weapons, and Utsusemi is only really useful if you’re playing a job that can’t handle a lot of damage. Jobs that are completely expected to sub this are Warrior Lv.30+, Thief Lv.30+, Ranger Lv.24+, Bard Lv.39+, Dancer Lv.30+, Monk end-game, and Red Mage end-game. These are the jobs EXPECTED to sub Ninja. It doesn’t mean they’re the only jobs that ever sub it, and they’re sure not only capable of subbing Ninja, but that’s what parties generally want. Parties also seem to want Blue Mage to sub Ninja, but I personally, one hundred percent will NEVER sub Ninja to my Blue Mage unless, A, it will cost me my party otherwise, or B, I’m between levels 50 to 59. (Remember people, this is only a guide. Completely my own, 100% biased opinionated words here.)

Your Two-Hour Ability

 * Mijin Gakure is your two-hour ability. It’s actually your only job ability in the game, unless you count your meritable job ability Sange. It basically makes you self-destruct. BOOM! You sacrifice every last one of your remaining HP and fall to the ground, while dealing a significant amount of damage to the target. It’s truly a last resort ability. No, it won’t make you lose experience points, so don’t worry about it. Many Ninjas use this as a free form of warp, but generally it’s a precaution to bad party situations. However, with the change to Raises, the experience lost from dying is a lot less significant. Despite what a lot of people think, Mijin Gakure is non-elemental. It is also based on your current HP. Damage dealt is considered magical, so can never miss. However, it is subject to resists. When it’s used to finish off a monster, the Ninja won’t get experience points, as unconsciousness is determined first. One final note. When used to home point after leaving a party, make sure you disband before you use the ability. Otherwise, the party will get attacked.

Job Abilities

 * Sange is your only non-two-hour job ability, and it can only be acquired through merits. What it does is activates a sort of “Barrage” ability that fires off ammo of your ranged attacks equal to how many shadows you have remaining. Using it with Ni freshly cast, then a ranged attack, will consume all four shadows and fire off four of your Shurikens, dealing a ton of damage. The ability lasts either one minute or one ranged attack, whichever comes first. It begins on a fifteen-minute counter and can be reduced to five with full merits.

Job Traits

 * Monster Radar is a trait I neglected to discuss about the other jobs that get it. However, Ninja's Monster Radar is the biggest out of all other jobs, so here's a brief discussion on it. What Monster Radar does is... well, you know that radar thing you get at the bottom, left-hand corner of your screen, displaying you, your party members', and any NPC's current location within a general vicinity of you? Monster Radar also displays monsters on it. And since it's always there, and its slightly extended range is exclusive to Ninja, it's great for pulling, as any job even subbing Ninja.
 * Stealth is a Lv.5 job trait that lower your agro radius toward sound based monsters. Since the addition of Monomi Ninjutsu, this skill has become fairly useless.
 * Dual Wield is a Ninja-exclusive job trait that allows you to use two single-handed weapons, equipping the second weapon in the "sub" slot instead of shields. Since Ninja has no use for shields or two-handed weapons (and grips), they make by far the most use of this job trait out of any job. People use Ninja as a support job solely for Utsusemi and this trait. Using two weapons will add your delays together and attack simultaneously, one after the other. Each tier of this trait will lower the overall delay by a certain percent, and at the same time, lower TP gain per hit. So in general, you get the same TP for slightly added damage. Though subbing Ninja will only allow for the first two tiers, Ninja can get up to a fourth tier, allowing for a grand delay reduction of 30% by Lv.65. The first tier is 10% at Lv.10.
 * Resist Bind is also learned at Lv.10. It will give you the chance to resist Bind effects, but it doesn't kick in to do that very often. It does, however, always greatly lower the duration of this effect, allowing you to escape monsters, especially those pesky worms in Qufim, or the Goblin Tinkerers in Valkurm. This trait really helps for pulling. You get four tiers of this trait, each one helping resist just a little better (to counteract monster's higher INT for extended effects).
 * Subtle Blow is a very potent Ninja trait that is also shared with Monks. What it does is lowers TP gain by monsters when you connect hits with them. Since most of the TP monsters gain is by you and your allies landing blows on them, performing the same hits with a bit more finesse will lessen the TP gain monsters get from your own. Though Ninja doesn't get its first tier of this trait until Lv.15, it gets an exclusive fifth one by Lv.75, allowing for a total of 25% Subtle Blow. Meaning that if you hit the monster and give him 10% TP normally, you'd only give it 7.5%. Not a huge difference, but it will add up over time.
 * Ninja Tool Expertise is a great merit choice for Ninjas who find themselves always strapped for cash. What it does is occasionally allows you to cast a Ninjutsu spell without the use of tools! Each time this trait is merited, a 5% proc rate is added to it, up to a total of 15%. That means that out of twenty spells, about three of them won’t consume the tools. It may not seem like much right here, but it does add up. And in case you decide to merit the crap out of Sange, that would leave you with only 3-5 free merits, which isn’t actually enough to merit the entire “San” Elemental Wheel anyway. In short, if you merit Sange fully, you might as well merit this fully.

Ninjutsu Spells

 * Tonko is your first Ninjutsu earned at Lv.9. It’s a great spell, especially for its level, and it allows you to turn yourself invisible for a short period of time, completely eliminating any sight-aggressive monsters. Each use will consume one Shinobi-Tabi Ninja tool. There is a second tier of this spell, but it doesn’t have any better effect. The only difference is that it has a much shorter casting time, and therefore more useful to use if your first one is wearing off. Tonko: Ni is acquired at Lv.34.
 * Utsusemi is your second Ninjutsu spell, and will almost guaranteed be one of your most-used ones. The first tier is acquired at Lv.12, which will give you three free single-target hits. Any area-effect attack that hits you will immediately strip all shadows. The second tier, Ni, at Lv.37, gives you four shadows, and the same rules apply. Each individual hit will consume one shadow. Meaning if a Goblin Rush hits you, you have a chance to lose anywhere between 1-3 shadows. Unlike the White Magic spell “Blink”, it will always work. If you don’t evade the hit, you will consume a shadow. This is why most Ninja use a lot of evasion gear. If a monster fires a ranged attack at you, your shadow will always block it, even if it would normally miss. Utsusemi will also block single-target spells and the majority of monster abilities.
 * Ichi Elemental Wheel is acquired at Lv.15. These spells include Katon, Hyoton, Huton, Doton, Raiton, and Suiton (Fire, Ice, Wind, Earth, Lightning, and Water respectively). They also lower a monster’s resistance to the element prior to its placement on the wheel. Meaning if you cast Doton (earth), it will lower its resistance to wind. With this notion, one can easily see where this is going: next, you would cast Huton (wind), which would lower resistance to ice, then you cast Hyoton (ice). The resistance down of all of these is a whopping 30 for 8 seconds. Mind you, these spells all take 4 seconds to cast, and their damage is quite low. The Ichi Elemental Wheel is pretty lame and should be used mostly for skilling up. These spells all consume different tools. Starting from Katon, they are Uchitake, Tsuara, Kawahori-Ogi, Makibishi, Hirashin, and Mizu-Deppo respective to the order at the start.
 * Kurayami is Lv.19 and consumes Sairui-Ran tools. It’s a single-target Blind effect. Great for any situation, but especially for the Ninja tank, who has to avoid as many hits as possible. This coupled with Hojo and Jubaku can greatly lower your Utsusemi consumption. Like Blind, it is dark-elemental, so don’t waste your Sairui-Ran on monsters like bats and Kindred. You get a second-tier Kurayami at Lv.44, having a better effect and a much shorter casting time.
 * Monomi is a Lv.25 Sneak spell, complementing Tonko to allow the Ninja to roam around undetected by any monsters except True Sound/Sight ones. Monomi only has one tier, but that doesn't matter anyway. Remember, to re-cast Sneak, you have to turn it off manually. Monomi will also remove Tonko when cast, so be careful.
 * Hojo is a single-target Slow effect earned at Lv.23, and having a second tier at Lv.48. As stated just above, Hojo works great with Kurayami and Jubaku to prevent as many hits over time as possible. This Ninjutsu consumes the Kaginawa tool.
 * Dokumori is one of only two Ninjutsu spells that has only one tier. It’s a Poison effect and generally the least useful one to use. However, Poison is always nice to have, especially if you have the time to cast it. It’s learned at Lv.27. This Ninjutsu consumes Kodoku tools to use.
 * Jubaku is the second of two Ninjutsu spells that only has one tier. This one tier is learned finally at Lv.30. What it does is Paralyzes the victim, interrupting some attacks and spells. It works great with Kurayami and Hojo to prevent a few attacks. However, if you decide to use Blade: Retsu, this spell isn’t going to be super useful. You consume Jusatsu tools to use.
 * Ni Elemental Wheel is learned at Lv.40 and is a lot better than the Ichi wheel. It has a short cast time of only 1.5 seconds (like all Ni spells) and a recast of 45 seconds. This incredibly long recast time is the only downside. However, since you have 10 seconds of elemental resistance down effect, you can wait a few seconds in between casts to ensure a consistent wheel. Using a large amount of Haste equipment can allow you to spin the wheel faster. Haste coupled with Fuma (or Sarutobi) Kyahan will lower the recast to about 37 seconds, allowing you to cast them almost one after the other.
 * San Elemental Wheel is a completely meritable set of spells. All six of them are individually merited. So if you want to have a brand-new Wheel, by all means merit all six. If you just want a couple of them to be fully-powered, only merit one or two. Remember, you can only merit ten group 2 merits, so if you want to improve any of those spells, you'll only be able to fully-upgrade one and you'd have to entirely forget about Sange or Ninja Tool Mastery altogether. The San spells have whole one-minute recast timers, meaning you really have to time it right (unless you have a nice Haste build). They take 2.5 seconds to cast, and their effects last 12 seconds.