Ninjer/Windower Guides
Sooooooooooooo... Hi. Been a while since the last update! But I guess what else is new?
I think I'm on an all-time-high with how behind I am; I have about 600 screens to look through and edit (across two computers).. As always I make myself promise to update more frequently after I complete an update so I don't get into this position, but then I go and do it anyway. Some good news though, with all thanks going towards
sylphet (thanks again!), I now have a top-of-the-line computer that will replace my laptop for FF play. The screens look substantially better on this computer; just about as good as possible minus Photoshop enhancements (sadly I'm stuck with MS paint still though). So in the future once I get all the screens I wanted to post off my laptop, they will all look a lot better.
Oddly enough though I ended up probably having more free time during college than I did during the summer... Between working full time and often overtime, catching up with a lot of friends from high school that also returned back here from college, my best friend leaving for the coast guard a week ago, a few visitors, and all the normal FF crap... I didn't have much time at all!
So, now I'm on my two-week break between work ending and college starting.. And I haven't really attempted to make the time to go through all those screens, but instead for now I'm going to at least do the thing I promised to for a lot of people quite a few months ago, and make the 'how my NIN works' sequel. I'll also include a quick explanation of windower macros.
Introduction
Just like before a lot of people have been asking me about this in tells/PMs/posts/LJ comments... And it's just about impossible to explain this in detail in any of those situations. On top of all of that I've been basically telling most of them that if they wanted anymore information I'd make another LJ update to explain it better and in much more detail, since the old one is very outdated.
So I'm going to put all of the information here for reference and as a sort of guide, in the same fashion that I did in the older post. I'd also like to take this opportunity to quickly point out that per recommendation of and advice from
genomeffxi (thanks again) I fixed my profile to include a detailed list of links to most of the helpful/guide/interesting sections of my older LJ updates, as seen here: http://rukenshin.livejournal.com/profile
And, this is the older post that I'll be sort of working off: http://rukenshin.livejournal.com/9212.html
I'm going to review windower macros and my own macro lay out first of all, and then go into details about the equipment I use for each situation.
Macro Layouts
-Windower Macros
IMO, this is by far the best feature of the the archbell windower now at http://www.windower.net/. It really makes equipment swaps infinitely easier than FF macros, allowing you to compress a limitless amount of lines into one space of a macro.
Seeing as all my equipment macros currently revolve around the windower setup and a lot of people asked me how to do it since I praise it so often, I'm going to quickly try to outline exactly how to make these macros now. Feel free to skip over this section if you already know how, I'm not really going to say much about NIN here.
First of all, you have to make the script that will replace your normal macro. In order to do this you have to locate your current windower folder, open it, and find the folder named "scripts." Inside that folder you make a .txt file for each individual macro you want to have (right click > new > text document). Currently this is how my script folder looks:
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2931/scriptssw4.jpg (maximize for unskewed image)
I organized them by job to make them a little easier since I'm changing them all the time for different situations. Once you make a text document name it whatever you want (short names recommended), and open it to make the macro. Then, you just follow this model for making the macro:
All equipment changes are preceded by 'input /equip' with the equipment in quotations, and followed by a ';' and an enter as seen above.
Sometimes equipping two of the same piece of equipment (in the example above, Sniper+1) one right after the other for ring1/ring2 or ear1/ear2 will result in one of the two not being equipped.
This can be countered easily by putting a /wait 1 and /equip ring1 "ring" follow by /equip ring2 "ring" in the actual FF macro, or by making a line in the text between the two rings that says just "pause 1" (waits do not work in the text documents), or by putting ring1 at the top and ring2 at the bottom of the document, or just simply hitting the macro twice. Either of those methods will usually fix it.
Lastly, you edit the actual FF macro so that windower knows to go to the macro you made. By doing this you type '/console exec nameofdocument.txt' in the macro window, like so:
If you forget the file extension (.txt) it won't work. The rest of the lines are free for whatever you want, and now 16 or whatever many equipment changes are all inside of a single macro line. <3
It saves space and makes life a LOT easier, and makes a macro dependent whore like me smile on rainy days. :)
-My Macros
Eh, this information isn't really important but I included it in my last NIN update and so I guess I'll include it this time as well. Thanks to windower macros my three pallets dedicated to NIN is now cut down to two, with one dedicated to exp/soloing and the other dedicated to HNM. I'll go over what the actual equipment swaps are later.
This is the first pallet:
Mostly self explanatory.. I'm on this for exp PTs and soloing.
Stats displays TP in echo or PT chat, along with the recasts of Utsesumi and Provoke and such. Haste basically throws on all my haste gear, Norm is my mostly evasion gear build for solo on tougher mobs.. Vamp equips a Vampire and Koga Tekko for nightime, I hit it after I put on WS gear for extra STR in WS at night. Koga equips just koga tekko, to replace Dusk gloves also for night.
All of my WS macros on all of my jobs save RNG have a /clock after the first line, so I just about always know the time of day, and I'm in the habit of watching for it and hitting the macro to equip Vampire for extra STR at night during WS. It's not really worth the effort at all but I'm a bit of a perfectionist (big surprise there). =(
Second:
HNM pallet, for.... HNMs! Little more complicated/informative than the first pallet.
I use the Stats macro on this one very often, it reports recasts for Utsesumi Ni/Ichi and Stun/Voke. Ni macro has a haste script tacked onto it, and sky macro (I forgot why I named it that) is all my magic defense gear... Provoke is replaced with Stun and also has a haste scrpit tacked onto it for NIN/DRK. All three ninjutsu debuffs have corresponding HQ staves macroed in for higher effectiveness, Aero was a wind resist set we experimented with for AV and Fire is the one I use on Tiamat. DRK equips HP/Acc/Haste gear I use for meleeing with Souleater. Warcry/Defender are macroed but I don't use them, I'm in the habit of pressing Ctrl+J and watching timers directly from there whenever I'm not casting.
And that's it for macros!
The Equipment Sets:
Now for most of the important equipment sets of gear I use. I'll explain what stats they give, when I use them, and occasionally examples of their effectiveness along with a picture of the gear and a write-out of the gear. Originally I took the pictures of the gear to escape from having to type all the gear out, but looking back at the post I'm just going to edit it all in.. I can already see a billion questions asking "what piece is that on xxx slot in xxx gear set?", but I didn't take all these pics for nothing so I'm putting those up too!
-Defense
My now favorite set of gear. It gives around 580 defense, -50% damage taken, +22 VIT, and leaves me at 1.5k to 1.6k HP depending on food. Tacos are great for HP and Defense, but Pescatora is my personal favorite. It's like the Carbonara equivalent for tanks, it gives around 175 or so HP max along with a good amount of defense (although slightly less than a Taco). Only problem being it costs a good 200k a stack, so in most cases isn't worth it.
Main: Terra's Staff
Sub: -
Range: Ungur Boomerang (not much else available D:)
Ammo: -
Head: Arhat's+1
Neck: Fortitude Torque
Ear1: Cassie
Ear2: Pigeon+1
Body: Arhat's+1
Hand: Seiryu's
Ring1: Defending
Ring2: Jelly
Back: Gigant
Waist: Warwolf
Legs: Byakko's
Feet: Suzaku's
I use this set of gear strictly for taking physical damage, whenever shadows are down or I'm just plain face tanking. The results of it are amazing and can be seen in other LJ entrees, but the damage you take with this setup is probably lower if not equal to a PLD/WAR in all the best gear possible (at least based on what I've seen). A sample screen:
-Enmity
I use this build only on NIN/WAR for Provoke, Warcry, or any other ability/ninjutsu that I use while trying to get hate as well as on NIN/DRK for everything other than Stun. Enmity total comes out to +35 from gear and combined with merits it's +39. Under most circumstances I don't use Toreador's cape anymore, and instead use Resentment in its place. In some situations I also replace Mermaid Ring with Defending Ring, mostly just for any time I can't react fast enough to get defense gear on in time. Most situations though I take very little to 0 damage in enmity gear, so I don't worry about my defense. BQ ring is to make up for the lack of HP in this set.
Main: (doesn't matter, although usually Terra's)
Sub: -
Range:
Ammo: Nokizaru Shuriken
Head: Arhat's+1
Neck: Harmonia's Torque
Ear1: Eris'+1
Ear2: Eris'+1
Body: Arhat's+1
Hand: Yasha+1
Ring1: Mermaid/Defending
Ring2: Bomb Queen Ring
Back: Toreador's/Resentment
Waist: Warwolf
Legs: Arhat+1
Feet: Yasha+1
Meh, not much else to say... More enmity the better as far as holding hate goes, no arguments there I hope.
-Magic Defense
Another set of gear I really enjoy for how effective it is. I swap to this set of gear for any sort of magic damage that I'm about to take, with the exception of magic I have a set of specific elemental bar____ gear for (like Tiamat). It gives a good amount of HP along with -23% magic damage taken, +30 MND, and a good amount of +resist of all the elemental types. In the picture I have the wrong staff on, I usually use Neptunes for +5 MND, and in place of Jeweled Collar I usually use Faith Torque as well for +35 MND. In areas under my nation's control Resentment Cape fails to work, so I replace it with a Lamia Mantle+1 for 4 Magic Defense Bonus. I also am currently looking into the Bow with +MDB on it. I also normally use Water or Ice belt or Survival for HP.
Main: Neptune's
Sub: -
Range: Ungur
Ammo:
Head: Black Ribbon
Neck: Faith Torque (sometimes Jeweled Collar)
Ear1: Merman's
Ear2: Merman's
Body: Osode
Hand: Seiryu's
Ring1: Defending
Ring2: Merman's
Back: Resentment/Lamia Mantle
Waist: Survival Belt/Water Belt/Ice Belt
Legs: Koga
Feet: Suzaku's
This set of gear sees a lot of use as well.. I use it for Ouryu/Jorgy when they're in the air, as well as any time a spell is being cast like Stonega IV from Kirin or Mega/Giga/Terra-flare from BahamutV2. With normal buffs it turns a 1.5k Stonega that hits just me from Kirin into a 900 damage one, and turns a 900 Megaflare into a 600 one, a 1200 Gigaflare into a 800 one, etc. Also as just recently tested from AV, in this gear I was hit for 798 on Aeroga IV (same number each time from -ga oddly),800-900 on TornadoII/AeroV and Meteors for 1300. I'll upload those screens later though, this is the sample for now:
-Barfira
Very very useful for fights against Tiamat, I really don't recommend fighting him without it. As long as you have the proper support, the difference is HUGE and will save a lot of MP. The gear is all relatively cheap and easy to obtain as well (don't need HQs for it to work). Two corrections though in the screen shot, I now use Defending Ring in the ring1 slot and more often than not Resentment Cape(Lamia Mantle when nation controls area) for the back piece. With this set of gear plus Barfira/Carol from a WHM with merits/AF2 legs and a BRD with Crumhorn+1, I get about 350 barfira on the dot, which is a bit overkill. In reality you only need about 310-325 to resist at about 90-95% of the time. Anything over that is too much IMO, since you can never resist 100% of the time. If you make fun of how I look I'll kill you.
Main: Neptune's
Sub: -
Range: Ungur
Ammo:
Head: Black Ribbon
Neck: Jeweled Collar
Ear1: Triumph
Ear2: Triumph
Body: Bastokian Harness (now Republican though! gogo blue boarder)
Hand: Dino Gloves
Ring1: Defending
Ring2: Malflame Ring
Back: Resentment/Lamia Mantle (sometimes Dino)
Waist: Water Belt
Legs: Dino Legs
Feet: Suzaku's
The new magic number now is... 3! With normal tank PT buffs and the gear above, I get hit for 3 damage a hit in the air, 5-8 damage from Firaga/Inferno Blast/Wing. I normally just use this gear for when Tiamat is in the air, but I'm also sort of experimenting with it in the Bahamut V2 BC. Screens of damage taken can be found in previous updates, and one sample:
-NIN/DRK
The hate machine that makes up for NIN/WAR's puny hate in comparison to combinations like PLD/NIN. The main focus of this set of gear is Haste, followed by Enmity. I put Haste in every slot possible and then Enmity wherever else. With just Refresh you'll get MP back fast enough to spam Stun every 21 seconds and still have MP left over, so it doesn't require MP builds as long as your RDM is awake. It gives 22% Haste and +21 Enmity, or +25 counting merits.
Main: (doesn't matter, although usually Terra's)
Sub: -
Range:-
Ammo: Nokizaru Shuriken
Head: Walahra Turban
Neck: Harmonia's Torque
Ear1: Eris'+1
Ear2: Eris'+1
Body: Arhat+1
Hand: Dusk Gloves
Ring1: Mermaid/Defending
Ring2: Bomb Queen Ring
Back: Resentment/Toreador's Cape
Waist: Speed Belt
Legs: Byakko's Haidate
Feet: Fuma
Usually with this gear and just Haste Stun is down to 28 seconds, and with March I hit the 50% haste cap. NIN/DRK works on anything really except for Bahamut V2 since you don't want him to build a resistance to Stun or you'll get fried with Firaga IVs later in the BC. I also don't recommend using it on mobs you sort of have to face tank sometimes, since it can be too much hate and /WAR is best there for reducing damage taken. (IE, Ouryu, Jailer of Prudence, etc)
But even on mobs that resist Stun casting the spell will still give the same hate, although landing Stun also makes tanking easier it's not the main benefit. I use it on most things I tank now, and just spamming Stun alone is a lot of hate. Tossing in Bind and/or Sleep (only mobs that don't build resistance, or if you end up having to sleep it you won't be able to) also helps hate along with ninjutsu if you want, and Last Resort works like Warcry except possibly stronger. Weapon Bash helps a little as well. Souleater is usually overkill. All in all when used correctly in the right situations, it's a much more efficent way of tanking IMO. I still want to see a 3x NIN/DRK PT on like Tiamat, with it stunned every ~7 seconds it'd be a little baby.
-Souleater
This is the set of gear for when I melee with Souleater on NIN/DRK. It gives a good balance of HP, accuracy, enmity and haste. With the acc from Souleater and NIN's high attack speed, hitting isn't really much of a problem so you don't need sushi or anything to make it work. Damage usually goes up to about 100+ damage a hit per katana at full HP with this setup, and even more with HP food.
Main: Unji
Sub: Unsho
Range: Ungur
Ammo:
Head: Walahra
Neck: Peacock
Ear1: Eris'+1
Ear2: Eris'+1
Body: Scorp Harness+1
Hand: Seiryu's
Ring1: Sniper+1
Ring2: Bomb Queen Ring
Back: Gigant Mantle
Waist: Life Belt
Legs: Byakko's
Feet: Yasha+1
This generates a great deal of hate and does a lot of damage in exchange for a good amount of MP, but as fun as it may sound it's really not worth using outside of certain situations IMO. I really don't recommend using it besides emergencies for the most part. Using Souleater alone will generate a lot of hate, and meleeing with it on is overkill at the expense of a lot of MP. However, when the time calls for it, it can be very useful. For example: after Horrid Roar, or recovering from a death, or when hate is lose, or to finish off a crazy 1% Tiamat, etc. Don't get me wrong, used properly it can be very effective in keeping others from dieing and helping you recover hate, as well as it dealing a lot of damage. But, IMO its best to be saved for emergencies. HP drops very fast with it on as well, so healers need to be aware.
-Evasion
Despite the effectiveness of this gear set, I almost never use it anymore. It gives +22 AGI and around +115 evasion (at night, counting evasion from AGI, and evasion skill). It's extremely effective in dodging just about anything (even more so when they're blinded), and I've yet to see it not work on any HNM in this game. However, with the improvements to my defense gear I haven't seen the need to go through the trouble of carrying all the gear around anymore. It used to be a way to avoid taking heavy damage, but with the defense gear I have now taking damage isn't really a problem. It's an effective set nonetheless, but just not as useful to me anymore. Requires blinding pots to activate Bat Earrings.
Main: Wind Staff
Sub: -
Range: Ungur
Ammo: -
Head: Optical
Neck: Evasion Torque
Ear1: Bat Earring
Ear2: Bat Earring
Body: Scorp Harness+1
Hand: Seiryu's
Ring1: Bloodbead
Ring2: Bomb Queen Ring
Back: Boxer's Mantle
Waist: Survival Belt
Legs: Koga
Feet: Fuma
Most of what I wanted to say was said earlier, and examples of effectiveness are in older posts.
-HP
While I use this gear more often than Evasion, I don't use it nearly as often as I used to. For a while I was a huge HP whore and I'd just stack as much as I can and figured the more I have the more likely I'll live, and while it may be partially true it's not the most effective. Getting hit for 200 damage with 1500 HP is just as survivable as getting hit for 400 damage with 1900 HP, but on a bad side you cost the mages considerably more MP over time. While I never tanked in this set of gear for normal circumstances, I did sort of mix it in sometimes. But stopped doing this over half a year ago now. This set gives me 1963 HP combined with the HP food I normally use with it. And btw, yes, Walahra+Harness+Cassie gives the same HP as Genbu+Osode+Cassie, but the first way I don't have to carry Genbu's Kabuto around just for that set of gear.
Main: Tutelary
Sub: -
Range: Ungur
Ammo: -
Head: Walahra
Neck: Evasion Torque
Ear1: Cassie
Ear2: Pigeon
Body: Scorp Harness+1
Hand: Seiryu's
Ring1: Bloodbead
Ring2: Bomb Queen Ring
Back: Gigant Mantle
Waist: Survival Belt
Legs: Koga
Feet: Fuma/Yasha+1/NINAF+1
Primarly used now to start off fights with Spirit's Within when possible, or just for Mijin Gakure fun. I could get more HP but don't feel like devoting anymore room to just HP gear when I don't use it too often. Mijin can be good damage though, and help out when things get in a pinch and the mob is at the last few % HP and it needs to die. I've kill shot like the last 2-3 Ultima with it, so it's a useful thing to have.
::insert 20 pics of doing 1k+ Mijins to HNMs here::
-DD
Exp PT gear! Stats mostly self-explantory, except now in most cases I wear a second Sniper+1 in place of Rajas. At night I replace Dusk gloves with Koga Tekko.
Main: Unji
Sub: Unsho
Range: -
Ammo: Bomb Core
Head: Walahra
Neck: Peacock
Ear1: Brutal
Ear2: Suppanommi
Body: Haubergeon+1
Hand: Dusk/Koga Tekko
Ring1: Sniper+1/Rajas
Ring2: Sniper+1
Back: Forager's Mantle
Waist: Speed Belt
Legs: Byakko's
Feet: Fuma
Not much else to say. I'm happy with it and the results are impressive as far as DD capablities go, don't think I'd change a thing.
-WS
Weapon skill gear, also mostly self-explantory. As mentioned earlier I equip Koga/Vampire in place of hand/ear2 gear at night for the extra STR. It's easy for me to know when it's night, all my WS macros have a /clock line that I'm in the habit of watching for. I forgot the picture for this and too lazy to do it now, so straight to the gear list.
Main: Unji
Sub: Unsho
Range: -
Ammo: Bomb Core
Head: Shura Kabuto
Neck: Breeze Gorget
Ear1: Brutal
Ear2: Merman's/Triumph/Vampire
Body: Haubergeon+1
Hand: Ochiudo's Kote/Koga tekko
Ring1: Rajas Ring
Ring2: Flame Ring/Sniper+1
Back: Forager's Mantle
Waist: Life Belt/Warwolf Belt
Legs: Byakko's
Feet: Rutter Sabatons
I really hate missing Jin hits, so usually I put Life Belt and Sniper+1 on in my Jin macro for extra acc. So far I'm happy with this setup though, much more consistant than the all out STR/DEX ones before.
-Solo
I still mostly revolve my solo gear in evasion, although as shown earlier I have a macro that throws on Haste gear over it as well for things that are easier to tank. But anything T or higher I normally just tank in this set of gear, and then just macro haste gear for Ni.
Main: Unji
Sub: Unsho
Range: Ungur
Ammo: -
Head: Optical Hat/Walahra
Neck: Evasion Torque
Ear1: Brutal
Ear2: Suppanommi
Body: Scorp+1
Hand: Seiryu's/Dusk
Ring1: Rajas Ring
Ring2: Sniper+1
Back: Boxer's Mantle
Waist: Survival/Speed Belt
Legs: Byakko's
Feet: Fuma
Blahblahblah... All done with that.
Putting it Together
Last but not least I suppose, although this is more the final notes.
I basically just have all gear swaps above stuck in the macros listed earlier, and move around between the sets of gear as needed. The enmity set is usually my base gear, as in it's what I'm wearing for most of the time (sometimes even on NIN/DRK, since haste gear is macroed into Stun). Then whenever I'm about to take physical damage I throw on physical defense gear, and whenever I'm about to take magic I throw on magic defense gear. Besides small things like breath and such that are instant, I can almost always get off the macros in time to reduce the damage before it lands. It's not really too hard, just takes some concentration and a decent reaction time. Thinking ahead and knowing what to expect helps too, like I often throw on defense gear while casting Ichi on the last shadow for Tiamat since occasionally he double attacks and will land a hit, etcetc.
Of course I don't carry all of that on me at all times... Every HNM usually has it's own set of gear I bring. I always have Enmity/Defense gear, and then the rest depends on the HNM. Like, for Bahamut V2 I usually bring Enmity/Defense/MagicDefense/HP.
Basically, the main thing that you probably should see from this I suppose is that all gear is situational... And IMO if you really want to try to be as good as possible for NIN, being able to use gear for a lot of different situations will make a huge difference. HQs are far from necessary in most cases and make a very small difference overall, so even if you're a little short on gil or worried about spending too much NQs will help just as well.
And yes I really mean all gear is situational IMO, it kind of pains me when people freak at the idea of anyone ever removing a shadow ring/mantle or defending ring or ridill or any other great gear at any time once they get it. Sure, it may be among the best gear in the game but what good does shadow mantle do when you have shadows up? If you could macro it in time before taking damage 99% of the time, and keep on another 4 enmity for provoke in exchange for that, why not for a little extra effort? Personally, as an example I do keep Defending Ring on for most of what I do involving HNMs, but not always.. IMO it's best like that as well.
But yeah, that's basically all to how my NIN works now.
I'll try to do a normal update sometime within the next five years. 6 AM now, /passout.