Nagi + Yagu Darkblade Now Worth It?

Is Nagi worth going after now Yagu is available. Asking for pure tanking reasons. Anyone have to test or report back?

Afaik the idea is to pair yagu with the SU5 katana fudo masamune path C to generate hate.
Or do you mean weapon swapping like PLD sometimes does so you'd use yagu fudo for shadows and all other abilities/spells with nagi?

Just if Nagi would get more hate than Fudo I guess. Basically is it a stand out weapon now or still a side toy etc

path C is +10 enmity per shadow, so even with just a fresh utsu ichi you have more enmity than nagi. Now if shadows are constantly being wiped nagi will be a more reliable enmity stick but if shadows are being constantly being wiped idk why you'd be on nin to begin with

If I understand it correctly you'd get a flat 40 extra enmity from a utsusemi cast with nagi, regardless of how many party members you'd hit in AoE or how many images are created.

With fudo masamune path C you get 10 extra enmity for every shadow image created.
I don't know how many shadows gets these days but Hattori Kyahan and Andartia's Mantle should bring even Utsusemi: Ichi to at least 5 shadows without any AoE effect. Means on self cast only without AoE you'd get 50 extra enmity from ichi, 60 from NI and 70 from San.

Just looking at utsusemi casting and hate fudo should be better than nagi.

Ok super clear, thanks all . Fudo still the preferred choice then

From BGwiki:


From a tank perspective, Fudo Masamune gives HP+150 and +20 more acc/macc on top of racc+50 and no need to deal with maintaining AM3 and -25% ninjutsu recast to fit in more defensive gear instead of fast cast. It's just a better tanking katana all around.

The coolest katana is Kannagi, and the coolest WS is Blade: Hi.

Though Im biased, as as someone who was "born" in the abyssea era, Kannagi was the most popular weapon ever, as NIN was the most popular job, and Blade: Hi the WS who would benefit the most from the crit hit atmas.

Good question OP!
I love that the all of the latest NIN topics are so civil and informative! One love, also yea I've been drinkin sorry for spamming much today.

I would have normally agreed, but now that I have yagyu to lock style, that one has to be the sickest katana model by far, imho.

Fudo/kujaku +1 lockstyle is pretty gaudy. My personal favorite

Anyways, Nagi is "dead" from a tanking perspective (not really, if you have one, use it, but don't make one FOR tanking). I'd pick Fudo C all day, but Nagi has a more consistent enmity value than Fudo does, since you'll lose shadows (enmity) and your enmity will fluctuate. The key is to apply a fresh Ni/San, then use abilities only when you have 5-7 shadows, equal to 50-70 enmity (including stuff like Flash, Foil, issekifan etc). You multiply your enmity by so much more if you do it this way.

So too gaudy, but also ultimate flex? Poidh. ;p

I believe it's +10 enmity for every shadow on you at the time the action happens, not created, so if you gain enmity immediately after casting san it's +70%, but if you have no shadows and gain enmity it's at +0%.

This would fluctuate, and with darkblade's enmity multiplication mechanic, you'd need to constantly spam utsu on top of yourself to really get a bonus out of it, however neither ichi nor ni can overwrite even a 1 shadow remaining san, so you'd get hate for casting those two with san up but no additional shadows. Seems like a massive pita to deal with this for hate. Nagi, for what it's worth, would just provide a static +40% enmity bonus and you could manage shadows as you see fit.

The recast reduction on fudo, though, is pretty huge, so it's likely the far better main hand option even though it's bonus hate from yagyu shadows would be negligible.

So, I have all of R15 Nagi, R25 Fudo Masamune C, and Yagyu Darkblade.

Fudo/Yagyu with Yonin up is absolutely the best enmity generation. If that's your main concern, that's the pair you want. And you really don't need to spam shadows excessively during a fight (outside of like, hate resets or something). San to San is just fine for getting large amounts of hate, you'd really have to have strong DDs going ham to need to focus on casting solely to maintain enmity. I will often start an NM fight with a quick Ni -> overwrite with San (or even rapidfire Ichi-Ni-San) to get it started with a hate spike though.

I do like Nagi/Yagyu too, when I want a better balance of DPS and enmity. The static Enm+40 on Nagi is still quite good - with Yonin up that will still generate lots of hate. But Nagi is better for DPS due to Mythic AM3, which in addition to its TP gain also procs on WS (I tend to go for hybrids when viable, when OA2-3x procs they spike quite high). Malignance armor is also a great fit with a Nagi (DT/Eva/Meva for tanking, STP/Acc works great offensively with AM3 up).

Personally, I've kinda been leaning toward Nagi as my default tanky mainhand, and I shift to Fudo/Yagyu for situations where I'm really focused entirely on tanking. The shadow recast is helpful too (but less impactful at capped haste).

Or, Heishi/Yagyu for more general purpose stuff (or whatever other DPS focused mainhand). Still works for some lighter tanking, because Yonin is still good and you're getting lots of shadows (your own + the ones you put on party members). And obviously a lot stronger for pure offense. It's easier to fit into practical situations than people may realize too - just the other day we did a Dynamis - Jeuno Divergence, I came NIN just to mess around and it was fantastic. Tossed out a lot of shadows on my DRG THF COR BRD party members, which helped them avoid stuns from frypan and just for general damage mitigation. I was a little concerned about giving up my offhand for my own DPS, but hybrids were still hitting pretty hard and the benefit to the rest of the party was worthwhile.

Hi, i started playing ninja recently and got a Heishi Shorinken and a Yagyu Darkblade, what is a good tanking set for ninja?

Personally, I just roll with 5/5 Malignance as my standard as the core part of my engaged tanking set. Empyrean legs are a solid option too, DT- and counter (with Yonin up), good Meva.

If I know I'm more likely to take some hits (due to AoEs or something), or for truly difficult/dangerous mobs, I'll be less cavalier about things and will swap in more DT- gear for a set something like the following (DT-50%):
ItemSet 399729

If you are fighting stuff where you can keep shadows up fairly reliably and not take much damage, I'm not even all that concerned about capping DT- and would swap out a few of those defensive pieces.

Odnowa+1 -> DD ear of choice (Hattori+1 is my usual go-to)

Loricate+1 -> Ninja Nodowa +2 (or could go Null Loop as a compromise with some offense Acc/Racc+50, and some defense DT-5%/DEF+30/HP+50)

D.Ring -> Chirich+1 (Ilabrat is good too)

Everyone has their own style, and the above is pretty standard and fine, and I use it sometimes. But if I am tanking on NIN, I REALLY want to make sure I can take a few hits, so I made a few different variations of sets based on what I am fighting. I'm weird, and I'm sure nobody would make sets like this, but it's how I like to play NIN :)

I have a high-HP set and have a FC set that incorporates higher HP (to avoid losing excessive HP) over FC. It mainly relies on San timers and sometimes Ni, but Ichi is far too slow to cast without a huge compromise.

Tanking 1 (If enmity is not a problem, Yagyu is not needed)
ItemSet 399731

I can't check right now, but this set puts me somewhere around 3800+ HP during casting and over 4000+ with Yonin up and food, subbing WAR or RUN. It sacrifices the large amounts of magic evasion in exchange for large HP pool, which allows the healer extra breathing room to heal and not get flattened (not many mobs can deal 3500 damage instantly). If I need hate spikes, I swap offhand to Yagyu for a few casts, but I prefer Tsuru for pure Tanking. Cape has Counter+10 to pair with Tactical Parry or Issekigan, but you could go Parrying Skill instead to pair with /RUN's Inquartata II.

HP+FC swaps (46% Fast Cast, can be tweaked if you need more)

ItemSet 399733

You lose about 21% FC, but San casts so fast, you only need to be concerned about recast (Fudo C helps here).

When I'm not using this specialized HP set and I want to DD while tanking, I use Malignance mode and just keep shadows up. Can use a normal SIRD set

Normal SIRD set
ItemSet 399734

If something I am fighting deals a ton of magic damage (I might not even bother with NIN for this), I would switch to a full Magic Evasion set (5/5 Nyame is my personal favorite, but you can throw in Adamantite Armor for huge MDB and HP to split difference) and ignore the HP stuff.

ItemSet 399737

In most cases, I can just use my Kenda+1/Malignance/Nyame sets to accomplish whatever tanking and DDing mix. But I built the first set because of stuff like Iron Giant ambuscade and last month's, where there's a handful of mobs and I need to take a few hits while gathering the mobs together for sleep or w/e. It's not typical you would have NIN tank multiple targets, but it has worked in the past for me.

This is exactly why I created the post. Supper informative thanks. Lots to think about now for next mythic

Good stuff, Buukki!

Another thing I've noticed is that you can really get some use out of evasion these days. Gear you would want to use anyway (Malignance, Empy legs) has a ton of evasion. Make a couple of gearing choices with that in mind (e.g., Null Shawl's excellent evasion+50 paired with top tier DD stats), ask a BRD to toss you a Mambo, and you'd be surprised what you can evade. Which in turn makes it so much easier to consistently not need to cast anything but Utsusemi San. Which means you have more time to add damage or something - generally part of the reason I'm ever tanking on NIN.

Feels like that might be useful for Limbus from initial impressions?