This guide is meant to serve as a tool for those who wish to find out more information about the job combo RDM/NIN. The information contained within deals with the various strategies, battle tactics, equipment choices, and other frequently asked questions about Ninja as a subjob for Red Mage. It represents the collective information provided by my own experience and information of other players. The information is organized in such a manner so that it is cumulative as you progress throughout your RDM/NIN career.

I.) Basic Information on Level Progression

- Levels 1-19

NIN sub offers little at these levels. It is best to go with another sub that would be more beneficial to you (/WAR, /MAGE). While you do get Tonko: Ichi (grants effect of Invisible) at level 18, sooner than that of RDM itself, there is little to gain from subbing NIN at these levels.

- Levels 20-23

Here is where you start to get your first important skills of NIN sub. Dual Wield comes into play at 20, but unfortunately it is not as beneficial as one might hope. You will only have Dual Wield I, and this will increase your attack intervals. However, coupled with the sword enhancing spells, the combo can still be effective, and more importantly fun.

- Levels 24-33

At level 24 you get the NIN spell Utsusemi: Ichi. Here is where the fun begins. The combination of Fast Cast and Utsusemi gives you a lot of power coupled with the RDM enfeebles used correctly. The benefit of other enhancing spells, such as Phalanx, Protect, and Shell provide you the protection you need to begin soloing monsters somewhat safely. You still don’t have the abilities needed to take on mobs that are very difficult, but you are getting a chance to train the ability of blinking, enfeebling and killing with damage over time.

- Levels 34-40

At level 34 you gain the RDM spell Stoneskin. When used with Utsusemi and various RDM spells and abilities, Stoneskin becomes not only a way to negate damage, but also a way to cast your spells uninterrupted during the periods of time when you are not under the protection of Utsusemi shadows. Mobs that are faster and more difficult become more easily soloed once Stoneskin is attained. Additionally, Convert will play a major role in your ability to “out-live” the monster. Under the protection of Utsusemi and Stoneskin , it becomes possible to use Convert mid-battle with minimal risk, thereby increasing your characters longevity.

There are those who believe that RDM/NIN doesn’t truly come into power until 74 (when Utsusemi: Ni is gained), but it is here, with proper skill and training, that RDM/NIN begins to see the soloing capabilities.

- Levels 41-48

Refresh and Haste add to your ability to produce more damage to the monster faster than the monster can do damage to you. This further improves the “Time Factor” killing ability of RDM/NIN (to be discussed later). Haste lowers the “cool-down” time of your spells. This attribute provides the reduction in the time where you are hit with Stoneskin up and will allow Utsusemi and Stoneskin (as well as other spells) to be available sooner. Refresh restores your much needed MP which is the facilitator for RDM/NIN’s longevity.

- Levels 49-60

Here some of your more important gear becomes available. Most important of which is the RDM AF Warlock Chapeau. The Chapeau offers an enhancement to the Fast Cast ability. This further reduces the casting times and cool down times of your spells, and is a RDM/NIN’s single most important weapon. Also, more useful gear becomes available that will further enhance your abilities.

- Levels 61-73

These levels will remain pretty much unchanged until you reach level 74. There will be various changes in gear along the way, but the methods of battle will not change for a very long time. What you can solo will depend more on your ability to hit the monster, the monsters job, and the monsters attack speed.

- Levels 74-75

True RDM/NIN power! At level 74 you gain access to a number of enhancements to your ability to SLOWLY destroy the hardest of monsters. The additions of Utsusemi: Ni and the enhance Fast Cast effects of the Duelist’s Tabard and the Loquacious Earring give RDM/NIN solo powers that are unsurpassed. The techniques learned the previous level will support you very well, and the incorporation of Utsusemi: Ni will further enhance the abilities you have honed to this level.

II.) Battle Tactics and the “Time Factor”

The information in this section is meant to be cumulative. As you read it, the information will build upon the battle tactics in preceding sections. Many of the tactics do not change once Stoneskin is gained.

- What is the “Time Factor”

The “time factor” is what actually does the killing for your RDM/NIN by producing small amounts of damage over large amounts of time, and ensuring that your character’s resources are not depleted before the monster dies.
A RDM/NIN’s job is not to deal massive amounts of damage to kill a monster, but rather deal a decent amount of damage over time (DoT). The usage of En-spells, Poison, Dia, and Bio can do a considerable amount of damage to a monster over the course of a battle. The use of Utsusemi, Stoneskin, Phalanx, and various enhancing spells provide for negation of damage. Additionally, the ability of Fast Cast allows you to restore your protection quickly, efficiently, and effectively.

- Pre-Stoneskin Battle Methods

Before you get Stoneskin it is very tricky for you to solo difficult monsters. Here you will function much as a low level NIN/WHM, with a few perks.

Getting your buffs up is a very important task throughout your RDM soloing career. As a RDM/NIN it plays an equally important role. Establishing any protection you can for damage reduction and resource conservation will be vital for your survival against difficult monsters. Protect, Shell, and Utsusemi, should be cast before the battle begins, and any other defenses should be established.

Next, you have to set up your offence. It is important to know your mobs weaknesses, so you can exploit them effectively. Cast the corresponding En-spell to the mobs weakness and draw your weapons. Pull your mob with Slow and begin your attack. Cast any enfeebles you feel necessary for the battle, but remember that Slow, Blind, and Paralyze are of the utmost priority. Continue to bash the mob using your weapons and En-spells while maintaining your defenses, most notably Utsusemi. Cure when necessary, but conserve your MP as much as possible. The use of Regen will play a crucial part in keeping your HP high while conserving MP.

Damage dealing magic spells are best kept to a minimum. The use age of DoT magic spells, however, are a great way to deal damage to a mob that you will be fighting for extended periods of time. Dia (-DEF) and Bio (-ATK) are great DoT spells that should be used to their full potential, further hampering a monster’s ability to resist your damage or do damage to you. Poison is another great DoT spell that is equally as valuable in bringing down a monster while using as little MP as possible. It should be noted, that DoT spells should be used carefully and wisely. DoT spells prevent sleep, both on you and the monster. Therefore, any mobs that you plan to, or think you may have to sleep, should not hit with DoT spells.

- Stoneskin and Utsusemi… Spell Interruption, <No, thanks.>

Once you get Stoneskin, negating damage becomes a lot easier. Your main battle tactics will be to keep Stoneskin up to prevent damage and spell interruptions while Utsusemi is down and to keep the mob enfeebled as much as possible. A basic run through of a battle once Stoneskin is obtained will consist of a lot of casting and recasting the same spells over and over while your weapons do the talking for you.

Before you fight you will cast Stoneskin and Utsusemi and engage your target. After about 3 swings, your average monster will have exhausted your shadows. Without many of the later obtained Fast Cast equipment bonuses or Haste, you will definitely experience a time where you are not under the protection of your shadows. Blink can be an effective substitute, but it must be stressed that MP usage be kept to a minimum, and reserved for Stoneskin, enfeeble recasting, and healing. While Stoneskin is up you can take a short beating while you wait for Utsusemi to return to use. Once Utsusemi has become available again, you should be able to cast Utsusemi uninterrupted while under the protection of Stoneskin.

The Utsusemi/Stoneskin pattern will continue throughout the duration of the attack with various improvisations occurring with situation. Eventually, it will be the damage that you have dealt over the course of time that takes the monster down. The “time factor,” while monotonous, will kill the monster, and you will have used minimal resources allowing for prolonged battle readiness.

Note: Ice Spikes can be very effective at these levels but lose effectiveness at later levels, which will be discussed further down the guide.

- 60 and So On…

With the introductions of Haste (Level 48) and the various Fast Cast bonuses, the shadow downtime is reduced. It will be imperative that Haste be maintained as often as possible. (It should be stated here that +Haste and the Haste spell reduce recast timers and speed up attacks. They do NOT reduce spell casting times, which is a trait unique to Fast Cast.) If Haste is maintained, your Stoneskin will last longer as a result due to increased shadow availability.

The battle tactics remain the same as before though. That is to say to keep your shadows up and stay under the protection of Stoneskin. So, rather than to talk further about battle tactics, I’m going to discuss use of weapons and armor.

Now that better weapons and armor are at your disposal, it should be stressed that under no circumstances are you to sacrifice equipment with Enhance Fast Cast trait for any other gear. If you do not like to use these items, then you must macro them into your spells. If you do not use the Enhance Fast Cast items then you will lose the majority of your effectiveness as a RDM/NIN. While I like to play around with gear and weapons a lot, these items are not to be compromised.

There is also much debate about what types of weapons to use, swords or daggers. At these levels Wise Wizard’s Anelace are among the best choices IMO. It would be a great idea to invest time/Gil into getting a fast dagger as well. Its best if both of these skills are kept leveled. As more Weapon Skills become available, you will be able to use them accordingly under certain circumstances (i.e. Energy Steal/Drain, Spirits Within). When fighting mobs with MP daggers are the way to go, once Energy Steal/Drain are obtained. When mobs with extremely high defenses are battled, Spirits Within is very useful. Knowing a mobs attributes will help you choose Weapon Skills that will allow you to defeat a monster quickly and more efficiently.

- “I know Kung Fu”: Endgame Soloing (74-75)

Ok, so you have Utsusemi: Ichi and Ni, Stoneskin, etc. etc. etc. what are you going to do with them? Well, with the addition of Utsusemi: Ni at level 74 soloing becomes a lot easier. There will be little time spent fighting a monster where you are not under the protection of shadows or Stoneskin. Once again, most of your battle time will be spent maintaining your protections and buffs while attacking and enfeebling the monster. The difference really is not in how you fight, but what you fight.

Once you start to take on harder endgame monsters and NMs then you must refine your tactics. Mid-battle converting and DoT kiting will be used a lot more often now that you are dealing with monsters whose stats and abilities greatly exceed that of your own. Battles will be long and drawn out, and you must develop a patience for these types of fights. DoT spells should be used more often, and your gear should reflect the abilities that keep you alive. Disabling a monster while you regenerate HP and MP is a must in cases where a monster’s has extremely high longevity, and Bind and Gravity play a bigger part now than ever. If you need to buy time for a convert to come back this is a great way to do so. DoT spells allow you to continue to do damage during these periods.
- Chainspell + Utsusemi = Invincible?

It is very important to note within the Battle Tactics section the importance of Chainspell Utsusemi. When you are in a sticky situation, Chainspell Utsusemi can provide 60 seconds of near invulnerability. The best way to utilize this is by casting Utsusemi then Stoneskin immediately after and continue to spam Utsusemi as it exhausts from attacks. It is a life saving strategy and should be reserved for situations where it is most needed.
Note: If a spell is used before Chainspell, you will still have to wait for its recast to drop before it can be cast again. Plan use of this ability accordingly or you can end up with a wasted Chainspell.

- Macros

If you want to be the most effective RDM/NIN you can be, you need to use some very creative macros. As all macros, they can/should vary from situation to situation. Here I will display some macros that will be increase your effectiveness and the situations where they are most useful. (These are the macros I use and are only suggestion, feel free to use what you most comfortable with.)

One of the most important macros you need is the basic RDM/NIN Enfeebling Magic macro:

/equip Body “Warlock’s Tabard”
/equip Neck “Enfeebling Torque”
/ma “Spell” <t>
/wait X (X = spell cast time in seconds)
/equip Body “Preferred Body”
/equip Neck “Preferred Neck”

This Enfeebling Magic macro can be used for the majority of your Enfeebling Magic spells. It allows for a reasonable amount of +Enfeebling Magic Skill in a single convenient macro. It can be used for both solo and party combat.
While on Enfeebling Magic, the Sleep/Sleep II macro is another important macro you should add to your list. For this macro it is best to use the basic Enfeebling Magic macro with a function. This will assist you for solo and party combat in situations where you get links and are locked on to a target.

Another important macro is one for Stoneskin/Phalanx/Barspell:
/equip Neck “Enhancing Torque”
/equip Legs “Warlock’s Tights”
/ma “Spell” <me>
/wait X
/equip Neck “Preferred Neck”
/equip Legs “Preferred Legs”

This macro will increase the effectiveness of your protective Enhancing Magic spells and can be used for party or solo use.

Both of the macros listed above can adjusted to support other skills or spells by adjusting certain macro functions like <me> to another function such as <t> or <stpc> or by adjusting different equipment slots according to the situation.

Weapon Skill macros are also very important to increase your effectiveness as a RDM/NIN. Many Weapon Skills have modifiers that increase the WS’ damage. You can adjust these macros accordingly by using equipment for the appropriate WS modifier.

The typical Weapon Skill macro looks like this:
/equip Slot “Equipment Name” (enter appropriate item slot and item name)
/equip Slot “Equipment Name”
/ws “Weapon Skill Name” <t>
/wait 1
/equip Slot “Equipment Name”
/equip Slot “Equipment Name”

In some cases people prefer to use multiple macros to equip gear for various functions. Depending on how many pieces of equipment you wish to rotate in and out, this may or may not be useful to you. These kind of macros consist of multiple /equip functions and possibly the Weapon Skill on one macro, then the normal melee equipment /equip functions on another. These types of macros offer the maximum amount of effectiveness while sacrificing convenience. They can be used for other skills as well, but it is not wise to do every macro in this manner for obvious reasons.

It is important to note that if not done properly or for some reason a macro is interrupted a mix up in your current equipped gear will result. For this reason I use macros that normally have few functions to insure certain equipment is always being equipped. For example, you can use your Utsusemi macro to make sure that your normal melee equipment is always being put back on:
/nin “Utsusemi: Ichi” <me>
/equip Body “Assault Jerkin”
/equip Ring1 “Flame Ring”
/equip Ear2 “Suppanomimi”
/equip Feet “Ogre Ledelsens +1”

III.) RDM/NIN Tanking

RDM/NIN is a very selfish job. By this I mean to express that RDM/NIN, while having incredible soloing capability, is not much of a team combo. It is very possible, however, for you to tank/solo NMs and other monsters for your peers. While it may take a long time, in some situations RDM/NIN tanking may be the best option.
There are a few important things to take note of when tanking for your party:

• You are NOT a tank.
• Your resources are limited.
• You cannot main heal and tank, so maintaining hate is a must.

The best way for your party to utilize you to your full potential is to let you do your tanking and get involved once you have established hate. Since the only methods you have of keeping hate are through curing, casting Enfeebling Magic, and through melee DoT, you will not be able to easily keep those alive around you that are more vulnerable to taking damage. While curing your party members is one way to ensure that you maintain hate to prevent further MP usage, this must be kept to a minimum.

The resources available to you are very limited. If those around you continue to pull hate, MP consumption will be quick and the ultimate result will be tanking failure. Once your MP has run out and Convert has been used, your ability to tank will soon breakdown. Therefore it is best that hate be transferred to you as much as possible to avoid mp usage, and if this is not possible then it is best to have your teammates involve themselves when you have established hate. Sometimes this time may never present itself and soloing a monster will be the best option almost to the very end of the battle.

IV.) Kiting RDM/NIN Style (AKA: Run Like a B*tch)

- Standard Kiting

Any type of kiting by any job requires a bit of practice. Once you get good at it, you will learn how to avoid as much damage by maintaining a safe distance from the monster. RDM/NIN kiting is not much different than that of any other job, except that it RDM/NIN is highly supported by magic due to the use of the RDM magic skills.

There are a few important aspects to kiting as a RDM/NIN:
• Avoid taking damage.
• Maintaining reasonable distance.
• Proper usage of Bind and Gravity.
• Holding claim/hate.
• Conserving/restoring MP and HP.

When kiting, you must have ample room to get out of a monster’s range of attack (RoA). The range a monster’s attack may vary depending on the monster’s job and assorted abilities.

Kiting is not always done by using Bind and Gravity and running in big circles. More often than not you will have to kite in close-quarters. Long as you follow the aspects of kiting you should fair well. When kiting in close-quarters, you should run to a reasonable distance away from the monster and be ready to cast the next kiting spell when the effect from the previous spell wears off.

When kiting in large open areas, the strategy remains much the same, however in this situation it is best to run as close to a circle as you can. This method provides for a reasonable distance outside of a monster’s RoA while coming within close contact to the monster as little as possible. When kiting in a circle, it is recommended to kite around a wide fixed object, using the object as a barrier from a monster’s range of attack (ponds, pools of lava, pits filled with the blood of your enemies and wild kangaroos, etc. all work well here). It helps to know your surroundings well when kiting to prevent accidents such as aggro and falling into other areas.
Once one understands the basics of kiting then can work up to the complexities. Protection is of the highest importance when kiting. Nothing can be more frustrating when a monster continues to interrupt your spells while you attempt to cast your distance making magic. It is important to keep Stoneskin and Utsusemi up to ensure that your spells fire properly when a monster’s gets within its range of attack. Maintaining the protection of Stoneskin and Utsusemi will not only see that your spells fire properly, but will make certain that you are not taking damage when in a monster’s RoA.

Spells/effects such as refresh and regen are vital for RDM/NIN kiting. While not taking damage from the monster you will be restoring HP and MP efficiently. A RDM/NIN’s ability to kite is heavily dependant on MP, so restoring these stats cost effectively is very important. Convert will also play a major role in kiting for extended periods of time. Just be sure to always Convert as far away from the monster as possible and always under the protection of Utsusemi and Stoneskin.

- BCNM Kiting

There are times when RDM/NINs are asked to kite inside of Burning Circle battles. Many of these battles will be determined by your skill to kite monsters effectively to buy time for another group to <Defeat this one first!>. Most of the battles where a RDM/NIN will be kiting are going to be very “gear-dependant.” It is very important that you be prepared for what might happen inside the Burning Circle. While BCNMs can be very luck related, chance favors the prepared mind.

If you have a BCNM to kite here are a few tips that can help you be a more effective:
• Do your battle research.
• Equip accordingly based on level cap and purpose.
• Bring plenty of items.
• Find out what you are kiting and what kind of attacks to expect.
• Be prepared for anything.

Even the most skilled players have experienced times where a BCNM they are good at goes wrong. By knowing what you are doing, how you plan to do it, and what to do if all that doesn’t work, you can reduce your chances of losing a BCNM.

Often when BCNMs go wrong there is more than one reason why it did. Poor preparation and freak accidents rank at the top of that list. These reasons are why you must be able to improvise and be prepared for the worst. May it be kiting more than one mob or curing another kiter till they can recover their defenses, if you know that these things may occur you can save a lot of people time, effort, and Gil.

- Gravity: A spell is so important it gets its own section.

Gravity has numerous effects. The spell reduces a target’s Evasion and lowers the target’s movement speed. Gravity also has other obvious (but often overlooked) uses. Not only can it aid you in hitting your target more often, but it also can buy you time to restore your spell recast times and Convert timers. Also, you can use Gravity to put distance between you and monsters long enough to regain MP/HP, cast long spells, or escape from battle.
One example of an often overlooked strategy is the use of Gravity to buy time for your Utsusemi timers to return to 0. This strategy can be used in kiting as well as normal melee combat. When you are soloing particularly fast monsters which are exhausting your shadows abnormally quickly, you can cast Gravity and kite it until you are able to recast Utsusemi.

Gravity has a lot of potential if you use it correctly and creatively. Learning to use this spell strategically is an invaluable skill to a RDM.

V.) RDM/NIN and EXP Parties

- Why not? =(

RDMs are among the most important and busy jobs in experience point parties. Unfortunately, RDM/NIN is not a very effective sub for EXP parties. Even with all the best gear and using proper food, it is very difficult to be as effective in an EXP party as a RDM that subs a mage job.

The loss of /MAGE-based spells and abilities that would aid your party is one major reason /NIN is a poor choice for parties. The utility spells offered by a mage sub assist your party much more than the abilities offered by /NIN. The mage sub ablities will increase your usefulness in a support role as a RDM.

Once level 51 is reached, meleeing becomes almost impossible with additions of the elemental staves. There will be so many changes in weapons with macros that TP will be lost, and it will be rare that you ever have any RDM damage dealing weapons equipped and engaged to target. Since your more effective weapons will not be active as often, then the En-spells will lose most of their effectiveness.

As a RDM if you are using attack food and meleeing, and not using elemental staves and resting when you can, you are not being as effective as you could be. Even though you may be doing all of your duties, and doing a very good job at it, you will not be as effective as you could be by using proper food, elemental staves, and resting. These factors make RDM/NIN very weak in an experience points party setting.

For more proper subjobs for RDM, see the RDM 101 Sticky.

- I don’t care what you think and I’m gonna do it anyway! =)

Note: If you seek for a party as /NIN expect to be met with resistance for it is not a widely accepted EXP subjob.
Ok, so you want to be a RDM/NIN in an EXP party. Well this is what you should do…

When EXPing as a RDM/NIN it is very important that you stick with gear that does not sacrifice any of your stats (you can’t afford to lose a single one). Go with food that is going to make up for your lack of MP and INT, not attack food. Make macros for your Enfeebling Magic spells that are tied in with the proper Ninjutsu resistance spell and equipment. Also, you will want to invest in decent weapons and armor to boost your ability to do respectable damage over time.

The usage of En-spells are of the utmost importance for melee damage. Your purpose is not to try to melee to deal damage, but rather to face the mob with your weapons engaged to the target paying no mind to them. Let the weapons attack aimlessly while you maintain your other RDM duties. Hasting, refreshing, enfeebling, and dispelling all must be dealt with in a timely and orderly fashion or your party will suffer greatly as a result of your negligence.

The use of your Ninjutsu spells offers a great level of support to your party. Ichi elemental spells cannot be resisted and give the target -30 resistance to the corresponding element for 15 seconds. Not only can this reduce resists of your own spells, but also it can potentially increase the damage of Skillchains and Magic Bursts as well. While the tools may take up quite a bit of room in your inventory, they offer a very useful function if used properly.
Also, it is a good idea to build your own parties around the abilities you specialize in. One good way to do this is to set your self up as a SATA buddy. When done properly, this strategy can actually increase a party’s effectiveness. Once you know what you are doing, this can prove to be much better than always having that one SATA partner who gets hate and gets beat up, resulting in extra curing.

People are going to EXP as RDM/NIN anyway, might as well help them be as effective as possible.

VI.) RDM/NIN FAQ

- What kind of equipment should I wear?

There is much debate about what type of gear a RDM/NIN should go with, so I am going to explain in general what is best. The stats that you should look for on your gear are:
• +INT/MND for spell accuracy and effectiveness.
• +Fast Cast trait.
• +RDM spell related skill (i.e. Enhancing Magic, Enfeebling Magic, etc.).
• +EVA Skill or stat.
• +MP.
• +STR/ATK for extra damage.
• +Sword or Dagger Skill.
• +Haste for decreased recast time.

It is best not to compromise any of your other skills as often as possible, for as a RDM/NIN you utilize many of your stats at some point.

- What kind of food should I use?

Any +ATK food is nice, but often those types of food compromise some of your more important stats like INT. Here I find that it is best to go with foods that increase a few stats while reducing rather unimportant ones or none at all. Jack O’ Lanterns and Marron Glace are two of the best IMO, but there are others that add MP, ATK, ACC, etc. that are just as acceptable.

At lower levels pies, cookies, and MP refreshing drinks are very useful when engaging in battle.

- How useful is Ninjutsu?

If used properly, Ninjutsu can be very useful as a RDM/NIN. The Ichi enfeebling spells are very important to keep around. During times where you are low on mp they can save your life by keeping the mob disabled with the various enfeebling effects. Additionally, the Tonko spells are very useful for times where magic spells may not be a good idea to use. Areas like Sky, Delkfutt’s Tower, and Ifrit’s Cauldron have monsters that aggro magic spells, and tools are not classified under magic.

The elemental resistance reduction spells are also quite useful. They offer -30 resistance to the corresponding element for 15 seconds, and more importantly they cannot be resisted. There are many functions these the Ninjutsu can serve both solo and in a party. While your Ninjutsu Skill is half that of a NIN your level and the spells will do little or no damage they will still give the target the -30 resistance. The reduction in resistances can be used to increase effectiveness of other spells, Skillchains and Magic Bursts.

Proof of this can be found here.

It would be wise to keep your Ninjutsu Skill capped for the level of your NIN subjob.

- How many shadows do Utsusemi: Ichi & Ni provide?

For a level 37 NIN, Utsusemi: Ichi provides 3 shadows and Ni provides 4 shadows. When subbing NIN, Utsusemi: Ichi provides 3 shadows and Ni (gained at level 74) provides 3 as well.

- O-Hat vs. Pimp Hat… Which one is better?

Fast Cast enhancing items always trump every other gear. While the stats on the Optical Hat are very nice, they do not benefit you in the long run when compared to the Warlock’s Chapeau. Items that enhance Fast Cast will significantly add to your defensive capabilities by making spells cast and return faster. If you plan on using the O-Hat or other items used in a slot that is reserved for enhance Fast Cast items, then you should at least macro in the Fast Cast item into your various macros.

The problem with this method is that these kind of macros are not practical. These macros will increase the casting time and recast of spells that are not cast under the enhancement of Fast Cast.

- How useful are the spike spells?

Before you get Utsusemi: Ni, the spike spells can actually benefit you nicely. At lower levels there will be many times where your shadows are exhausted and Utsusemi is not ready. During these times Ice and Shock spike spells will benefit you by causing damage and disabling the monster with Stun or Paralyze effects. Blaze Spikes have little use outside of maybe increasing overall DoT.

After you gain Utsusemi: Ni at level 74, a lot less time will be spent without shadows up. At this point in time spike spells really only waste MP.

- Should I buy a Scorpion Harness?

Simply put, it is very useful to have and is one of the best pieces of body equipment IMO. If you can afford it go for it. If you can’t, invest time or Gil in other gear. The Assault Jerkin is a good and free option for RDM/NIN body gear. Also, the Warlock’s Tabard is a more than acceptable choice (the Warlock Tabard should be macroed into certain enfeebling spells when possible).

In endgame the best piece of body armor you can have is the Duelist’s Tabard, which possesses the trait Enhance Fast Cast.

- What does Haste do and should I put money into +Haste gear?

Haste does two things:
• Reduces recast time.
• Increases attack speed.

Once the spell Haste is gained at level 48, it is one of the effects to make sure that you always have on. +Haste gear is very useful for RDM/NIN because it has the same effects as the spell. Any reduction in recast time is extremely useful. Unfortunately, the equipment with +Haste on it is very expensive (and for good reason). So the answer to this question becomes… “How much are you willing to spend to equip your character?” If you have the money to blow, there are some great pieces of +Haste equipment that can incorporated to your standard gear.

Do you NEED +Haste gear? No.

- What kind of weapons should a RDM/NIN use?

Sword and Dagger are a RDM’s natural weapon skills. It is a good idea to keep both skills leveled appropriately, and keep both types of weapons on you at all times. Each weapon has different purposes. Swords are great for the majority of battles due to their power and reasonable speed. Daggers are great against monsters weak to piercing or that have MP that can be drained. Other than those reasons, it’s a matter of personal opinion.

- How important is Aquaveil?

The spell Aquaveil is gained very early on in your RDM career (Level 12). Before you gain the spell Utsusemi: Ni, Aquaveil can be very useful. At early levels, Aquaveil can become a very important tool in reducing spell interruption and may save your life. Before you get spells like Stoneskin and Utsusemi: Ni, and gear and abilities that lower you chances of a mob dealing damage to you, Aquaveil is a great spell to maintain for insurance against spell interruption.

As you get higher in levels, Aquaveil loses a lot of its utility. One of the reasons for Aquaveil’s diminish in usefulness is as you get higher in levels and gain more access to abilities, spells, and equipment that prevent you from taking direct blows, Aquaveil does not get the chance to be activated. The spell is very contingent on you getting hit directly, and if this does not happen often enough then the spell becomes a burden on your MP and buff/debuff upkeep.

Additionally, while Aquaveil may be beneficial to your RDM magic spells, your Ninjutsu Magic spells are easily interrupted if encountered with a damage dealing blow. Aquaveil will be very unhelpful in preventing the interruption of Ninjutsu. Therefore, it is best that you let the situation dictate whether or not you find Aquaveil worth maintaining.

- Should I get a Joy Toy? (…and I don’t mean Bob)

There is much to say about the usefulness of the level 70 sword, the Joyeuse. It is, arguably, the best off hand sword that you can invest in. The Joyeuse’s low delay and, more importantly, its often activated “Occasionally Attacks Twice” effect makes this one of the best weapons for TP gain and increased DoT.

The Joyeuse’s double swing feature makes great use of a RDM’s En-spells, adding a possible extra hit which activates your En-spells on each extra swing. Also, the extra swings each provide additional TP for you to unleash your Weapon Skills more often. Both of the previous aspects of the Joyeuse make it a great addition to your ability to do damage more effectively and efficiently over the course of time.
The Joyeuse is very “time factor friendly” and will pay off for you immensely if you invest the time in obtaining it.
- How effective is it to Dual Wield?

Using Dual Wield is ultimately a question of personal preference. The ability allows you to hold two weapons at once while lowering the overall Delay. Since Delay determines how much TP you gain per hit, Dual Wield lowers the TP you gain per hit. The ability offers many various advantages in spite of this setback.
One example is being able to hold more than one weapon with beneficial stats. Also, when used with En-spells, Dual Wield can increase over all melee damage output. There used to be advantages to Dual Wielding weapons of low Delay. Now that the TP Floor has been changed, Dual Wield no longer can be as easily exploited in this manner.

In some cases you may find that using a single sword and shield may be more effective for you. For example, the Joyeuse and Genbu Shield make a very formidable combo with /NIN. In cases where shadows are not enough protection, it may warrant use of a shield. In the end it is up to you to determine what method the situation calls for.

While Dual Wield has its pros and cons, it is a very valuable ability when used properly.