Ninja (Final Fantasy XI)

Ninjas appear in Final Fantasy XI as an advanced job available to players who have reached level 30 and completed the ninja flag quest. The quest itself is mostly just sneaking around, which suits well the class unlike a few other advanced job quests that do not seem to follow with the spirit of the job in question.

In Final Fantasy XI, ninjas are one of the two tank classes in the game. A tank is the person in a party that is supposed to make the enemy hate him the most so that the enemy attacks the tank at the exclusion of all others. Ninjas do this with low Vitality and Defense because they have good evasion, agility, and a few spells that allow them to create shadows. This is the most popular Ninja spell, called Utsusumi. It comes in Ichi and Ni formats, which is Japanese for one and two. The ichi form creates 3 shadows, and the ni version creates four, for a total of 7 shadows at any one time.

Ninjas also get other spells that allow them to blind, paralyze, and slow the enemy, as well as elemental attack spells and spells to make themselves invisible. All of these spells use powders or tools. They do not have an MP cost. Ninjas themselves have no MP at all, but they do benefit from Subjobs that give them MP, like Black Mage because of the raise in Intelligence.

Like in other titles, Ninjas have the ability to Dual Wield exclusively, making them a highly popular sub job in addition to their many other spells and ability.