*Due to the relatively expensive costs of elemental stones required to perform many of the Ninja's main skills, it is not advisable for this to be your first character if you're just starting out.
Ninjas are a fun class to use and can be a welcome break from your main characters. Their strengths include being near invincible to physical attacks and having short base cast times. This makes them extremely viable for solo PvM. Their power level puts them somewhere between 2nd job and trans classes.
However, expanded classes in general are not meant to be PvP viable against trans classes due to restricted gear availability. That said, they do bring their own unique strengths to the table. The main role of a magic ninja in WoE is to provide support with the stalling ability of Blaze Shield and Freezing Spear.
Stats
Your initial stats should be:
Str:1
Agi:5
Vit:1
Int:9
Dex:9
Luk:5
Your final stats for a WoE/PvP build would look something like this:
Str:1
Agi:5
Vit:50
Int:99
Dex:80
Luk:5
A pure PvM build would be:
Str:1
Agi:5
Vit:1
Int:99
Dex:99
Luk:5
Int
Every 5 int, you get a a bonus to your max Matk. Every 7 int, you get a bonus to your min Matk. With the best +int gear, you should be able to hit 120 int (without bless). At higher lvls, dropping even 1 int could mean losing roughly 50 Matk. While 50 Matk doesn't seem like a lot by itself, it gets multiplied by 900% from Exploding Dragon to 450 damage. 900-1800 damage if the target is lexed/weak to fire.
Dex
As for dex, you really don't need to max it since most ninja skills have a very low base cast time. You can make up a lot of it through +dex equipment. However, higher dex does make a difference in long casts such as lvl 10 Freezing Spear or lvl 5 First Wind.
Vit
Vit is very important since Ninjas are rather squishy. The main purpose of this is to increase your max hp so you don't die instantly in PvP. A sinx's Soul Destroyer can do, on average, 5k damage even with Cranial, Beret, and Immune. At lvl 99 with only 1 vit, you will only have about 4.1k base hp. If you have 50 vit, you will have 6.1k base hp which is more than enough to survive most SD's.
Skills
Flip Tatami
This skill allows you to block all ranged attacks for 3 seconds, similar to a priest's Pneuma. This includes Soul Destroyer, Acid Bomb, and Falcon Assault which are the main killers of Ninjas. However, it does come with a catch: For those 3 seconds, you may not move or attack in any way. Technically, you can move, but if you do, you will no longer be under the tatami's protection and you will still have the aftercast delay. Although you are essentially immune to all ranged attacks, you are a sitting duck for melee/magic attacks.
Shadow Leap
This skill has a lot of use in both PvP and PvM. However, a hide accessory is required to use it. It's main use is to leap out of range when being chased and escape. It does have a 1 second aftercast delay after use, so you can't keep spamming it unlike a Taekwon's Leap. Shadow Leap is disabled in WoE.
Cicada Skin Shed (CSS)
This is the defining skill of the Ninja class. It allows the ninja to dodge almost all physical attacks and take no damage. If anything strikes you while this skill is active, you will be pushed back 7 spaces. There are both pros and cons of this. The pros are that they give you plenty of time to cast your skills. While you have CSS on, your cast will not be interrupted when hit by a physical attack. It also maintains your range, keeping you safely away from melee range. However, if you get too close to a wall, you may be trapped against it as the enemy attacks you. This is especially dangerous if the enemy has high attack speed. Try to use CSS only in open areas and avoid putting your back to walls. Also note that while it makes you nearly invincible to physical attacks, it does nothing to block magic attacks and other specific skills.
Lvl 3 CSS is the minimum you need for efficient leveling/pvp since it blocks 2 attacks before you need to recast it again. Some people max it to lvl 5 for the extra dodge, but this is mostly personal preference.
List of "physical" skills that pierce Cicada Skin Shed:
Acid Bomb (Biochem)
Soul Destroyer (SinX)
Falcon Assault (Sniper)
Excruciating Palm (Monk)
High Speed Cart Ram (Master Smith)
Venom Knife (Sin)
Stone Fling (Sin, Rogue)
Gloria Domini (Crusader)
*Note: Lord Knights are the only ones out of all the trans classes that can't pierce CSS.
Ninja Aura
Although +5 int may not seem like much, at higher lvls it will add about 50 Matk. This skill should be saved for last since it doesn't do a lot at low lvls. With this skill and full +int gear, it is possible to reach 125 int self-buffed and 135 int with bless (950 max Matk).
Flaming Petals
This skill should be learned early on to help with leveling. I stress however, that you will never need to have it over lvl 5 since Exploding Dragon will be far superior to it. There will almost never be a situation where you will use this over ED. However, if you can remember to skill reset before you hit Base lvl 40, lvl 10 is helpful for early leveling.
Blaze Shield (BS)
Blaze Shield is a great tool for both leveling and WoE. When leveling, all you need to do is cast Blaze Shield and drag a monster into it. Each cell will hit a certain amount of times depending on the skill's lvl. One tactic when using it is to drag monsters in a straight line across it so that you can keep track of it more easily. Also, instead of watching the monster, watch the cells under it as they disappear so that you can time when you need to move. Monsters with very high movement speeds (Rideword, Mimic) will skip right through this and take very little damage. In WoE, it is one of the few skills in the game that stalls movement while inside a castle, making it the skill of choice for WoE ninjas.
Exploding Dragon (ED)
At 900% MATK, Exploding Dragon is by far the most damaging skill a Ninja has in its arsenal. When used, it hits everything in a 5x5 area around the targeted enemy. This makes it a great leveling skill when mobbing. However, while it does massive damage with a short cast time, it does have a 3 second after-cast delay so make sure CSS is activated prior to using it.
Exploding Dragon 2x Hit Bug:
If the monster is moving during the ED animation, there's a good chance that they'll be hit twice with it. You'll know when it happens if you see more than 3 numbers pop up in rapid succession. It is harder to do on slow moving monsters like Mi Gaos but easier on faster moving ones.
*This trick doesn't work on stationary monsters like Geos nor will it work if the monster is staying in one spot being tanked.
The easiest way I've found to do it is to have CSS on and wait until half a second before the monster hits you before casting ED. The pushback should cause the monster to chase after you and keep it in motion. It should also give you just enough time to finish the cast before the monster can catch up to you.
The reason this bug works is because ED hits in a 5x5 area around the target. While the animation is going, each of the cells around the target is "hot" and does damage. If the target runs through two cells of the ED, it will essentially be hit twice. The window for this to happen appears to be half a second. I've heard that this works the same way for a wiz's Heavens Drive.
Freezing Spear
Freezing Spear has the fastest cast time of any Ninja skill. It also has no aftercast delay so it is one of the most spammable skills in the game. Lvl 1 hits three times per cast so it is great for stalling people in WoE. It also prevents someone from casting/Hiding/Cloaking if you continue to spam it on them. In PvM, it does decent damage as well and you can kill most things with just Lvl 1.
Watery Evasion
Watery Evasion is mainly a PvM skill used to slow large groups of monsters down (i.e. packs of 5 or more) which would otherwise tear through your Blaze Shield. It is also used for fast moving enemies like Mimics or Ridewords, which run through Blaze Shield in a matter seconds. In PvP, it can be used to slow players but Blaze Shield is usually a better alternative. It also can be used in place of a Sage's Deluge skill, allowing a wizard to use Waterball or a priest to use Aqua Benedicta. If you are not planning to get Snow Flake Drift, then either get lvl 4 for the extra area range or don't get it all.
*This skill appears to be the only one in the game that slows MVP movement speeds as well.
Snow Flake Drift
In my opinion, this skill is not worth getting. Snow Flake Drift is almost exclusively a PvP skill. At max lvl, it only has a 60% chance to freeze, as opposed to a wizard's 100% chance from Storm Gust. Subsequent casts will also not damage frozen enemies. The range of the skill is dreadful and is only made worse by its long cast time. If you get knocked back by CSS before you finish casting it, it will miss. Although the skill sounds great in concept, it is not very good in practice. Avoid at all costs.
Wind Blade
Wind Blade is used on monsters that you cannot use fire/water on (water property monsters i.e. biblan, ice dungeon). There is no difference between lvl 4 or lvl 5 other than sp costs so stick with using lvl 4. The only reason to get lvl 5 is to get Lightning Jolt.
Lightning Jolt
Lightning Jolt is almost as useless as Snow Flake Drift in that it does mediocre damage and has a small range. The only difference is that it doesn't have an after cast delay so it can be spammable. This should only be learned if you plan to get First Wind.
First Wind
First Wind is great for leveling in ice dungeon and on water monsters. It has the potential to do more damage than ED in PvP/WoE since it has no aftercast delay. Since it is wind element, its damage is not reduced by Valkyrie Shield and also does more damage to people wearing Aqua armor. It's also an AoE so you can use it to hit everyone at a choke point in WoE.
Final Skill Build
1 Flip Tatami
5 Shadow Leap
5 Cicada Skin Shed (CSS)
10 Ninja Mastery
5 Ninja Aura
5 Flaming Petals
7 Blaze Shield
5 Exploding Dragon
7 Freezing Spear
4 Watery Evasion
5 Wind Blade
5 Lightning Jolt
5 First Wind
Order in which to get skills:
1 Ninja Mastery
1 Freezing Spear
5 Flaming Petals
5 Blaze Shield
1 Flip Tatami
5 Shadow Leap
3 CSS
7 Blaze Shield
10 Ninja Mastery
5 Exploding Dragon
5 CSS
5 Wind Blade
5 Lightning Jolt
5 First Wind
5 Freeze Spear
4 Watery Evasion
5 Ninja Aura
7 Freezing Spear
A good skill build doesn't have to exactly match mine, since you can take out some points from Freeze Spear or Ninja Aura and put it elsewhere. It's really a matter of preference.
Equipment
Ninjas aren't really gear dependant but the basics that you will need are:
Ashura
Sohee shoes
Hide accessory
Heal accessory
Teleport accessory
Hard armor
-30% Racial shield
Ninjas also have the exclusive ability to create Ninja-only shields (Arm Guards) inside the Ninja Guild. There are 3 npcs inside, each creating a different shield. They will only talk to you if you are a Ninja.
Arm Guard [1]
Def: 5
Ingredients: Guard[1] + Arm Guard [0] (Bought from Ninja Guild)
Advanced Arm Guard [0]
Def: 4, MDef: 5
Ingredients: Mirror Shield [0] (Bought from Geffen Armory) + Arm Guard [0] (Bought from Ninja Guild)
Advanced Arm Guard [1]
Def: 4, MDef: 5
Ingredients: Buckler[1] + Advanced Arm Guard [0] (Created in Ninja Guild)
Recommended Gear:
Headgear: Crown of Deceit, Feather Beret(PVP)
Mid Headgear: Robo Eye, Takius Blindfold
Lower Headgear: Well-chewed Pencil
Armor: Hard armor, Unfrozen armor(PVP), Stone Curse armor(PVP)
Weapon: Bazerald, 3xDextrous Ashura [3], Jitte(PVP)
Shield: -30% Racial shield
Garment: Immune Muffler
Shoes: Green Shoes, Sohee Shoes
Accessories: Teleport clip, Heal clip, Hide clip, Earrings[0], Nimble gloves
Current Bugs:
Watery Evasion does not increase Freezing Spear damage.
Freezing Spear does 100% Matk per hit rather than the listed 70% Matk per hit.
Exploding Dragon sometimes hits 2x if the target is moving during the animation.
Shadow Leap does not ignore obstacles.
-NinjaXcution 99/70 Magic Ninja
Edited by Finalxcution, 25 July 2010 - 05:51 PM.
