Ninja (Final Fantasy XI)



Ninja appears in Final Fantasy XI as an advanced job available to players who have reached level 30 and completed the quest Ayame and Kaede. The quest features the story of Ensetsu's family and their connection to the pirates of Norg.

Originally, Ninja was not meant to be a tanking job. However, the player base discovered a method that enables Ninjas to avoid most attacks directed at them by monsters. In time, ninja became one of the two tank classes in the game. Ninja are able to tank despite having low Vitality and Defense because they have good evasion, agility, and a few spells that allow them to create copy images. This is the most popular Ninja spell, called Utsusemi. It comes in Ichi and Ni forms, which are Japanese for one and two. The Ichi form creates three shadows, and the Ni version creates four if a Ninja is casting it. However, Utsusemi: Ni will only grant three shadows to players who are only using Ninja as their subjob. Originally intended as a damage-dealing class, the ninja job was cast into tanking by the players, due to their utsusemi-blinking and the ability to provoke enemy attacks by using Warrior as a Support Job.

Ninja 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 or grant the effect of sneak. All of these spells use ninja tools rather than MP, allowing Ninja to cast without worrying about running out of MP. Ninja themselves have no MP at all, but they do benefit from Support jobs that give them MP, like Black Mage because of the raise in Intelligence.

Ninja are the first job to gain the Dual Wield ability, with Dancers, Blue Mages, and Thieves also gaining the ability at later levels. Ninja is a popular support job both for Dual Wield at a lower level and for Utsusemi.

Becoming a Ninja
Ayame and Kaede:

Ensetsu wishes to reclaim an item he has sold to the Tenshodo, but they will not exchange it for anything other than a Strangely Shaped Coral from the Korroloka Tunnel. You must go and retrieve it for him.

Ninja Abilities
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Job Abilities

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Job Traits

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Ninjutsu List
The resistance down on an elemental ninjutsu is -30 despite the level of the ninjutsu and always lasts for 15 seconds.

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Combat Skill Ratings

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Magic Skill Ratings

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Ninjas in Final Fantasy XI
Though originally designed to be an enfeebling and direct damage job, Ninja has developed into one of the two major tanking jobs in Final Fantasy XI. Where a Paladin relies on damage reduction based on high Vitality and Defense, a Ninja's ability to tank relies almost entirely upon never getting hit. This form of tanking is often called Blink Tanking because it relies on Utsusemi, a Ninjutsu form of the spell Blink.

Strengths

 * Ninjas are sought after for parties because they require little healing.
 * Ninjas can take on the roles of tank or direct damager.
 * Because they can evade attacks so well, enfeeble enemies, and cast Utsusemi, Ninja/Dancer can solo some of the most powerful monsters in the game.
 * Their enfeebling Ninjutsu is often more accurate or more potent than the White Magic and Black Magic counterparts.

Weaknesses

 * Ninjas have poor enmity creation, often making Ninja reliant upon Thieves at lower levels.
 * Ninjas have weak physical characteristics for tanking, making them prone to taking heavy damage when a hit does connect. In many cases they can even be killed in a single hit by enemy Weapon Skills, if they're vulnerable at just the wrong moment.
 * Their damage-dealing Ninjutsu spells are not very powerful.
 * Ninja tools, required for Ninjutsu, can cost a lot of gil, especially for Ninja who cast most or all Ninjutsu.

Warrior
Warrior is used for most Ninjas in experience parties because of Provoke more than any other reason. This is the most simple form of enmity management and is the primary ability of any tank in keeping hate. At later levels, Warrior is a good support job for Double Attack, increasing the number of attacks the ninja gets, as well as Berserk and Warcry which add to the attack rating.

Black Mage
Black Mage is often used as a support job for ninjas who are fulfilling another role other than tank or high level damage dealing. Ninjutsu's strength is determined by Intelligence, so Black Mage is used as a support job as the job that generates the highest total intelligence for the Ninja. Ninjutsu elemental spells are capable of doing significant damage in this setup.

Dark Knight
Dark Knight is used for tanking NMs such as Gods or Limbus kings. The ability to cast Stun and many other spells, including the job abilities Soul Eater and Last Resort makes it much easier for the ninja to hold hate.

Dancer
Dancer is used for an effective support job for ninja who like to solo, for self-healing abilities like Drain Samba and Curing Waltz. When NIN/DNC takes hits after shadows fail, the Ninja can restore his or her own HP.

White Mage
At level 80+, NIN/WHM becomes a very viable combination; it's usually the best combination for a solo Ninja along with Dancer at high levels. At level 80, setting White Mage as support job will grant the Ninja access to Haste (Ability), which, combined with Haste equipment, will easily minimize the recast times of Utsusemi: Ichi and Utsusemi: Ni, and will make the Ninja's attack speed with Katana very fast (a speed nicknamed "Hundred Katana" by players, after Monk's Special Job Ability, Hundred Fists). With Haste causing the Ninja to attack the enemy almost non-stop and minimizing Utsusemi's recast times, and spells like Dia II, Protect II, Shell II, Reraise, Stoneskin, Aquaveil, and White Mage's array of status healing spells, NIN/WHM has become a very potent combination for soloing, under one condition: that the Ninja has some sort of Refresh status, because NIN/WHM has abysmally low MP. NIN/WHM is at its best in Abyssea while under the effects of at least one Atma granting Refresh status.

In groups, NIN/WHM has very little enmity, allowing for great use of Innin, but the Ninja will be rather powerless to protect its allies from enemy attacks.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Ninja appears in Final Fantasy Trading Card Game.