Ninja: Little Bunny FooFoo-Jitsu

Ninjas Are Awesome

I will always choose ranged over melee, since I get a better view of what I’m doing, it’s usually a bit easier to move away from danger, and there’s almost always someone else standing between me and trouble.  So once I finished leveling up bard, black mage and summoner, the next obvious choice seemed to be machinist.

Except maybe not.

Machinist is SO.  SLOW.  SO FREAKING SLOW.  You’d think shooting a gun would be way faster than an ol’ fashioned bow-and-arrow combo (especially when you can load up to five special shots at once), but haaaay this is a fantasy game, so no.  I would weep with joy when astrologers gave me the attack speed buff, but then I would weep with despair once I realized I couldn’t really see much of a difference in my cooldowns.

Also, the Rook Turret makes an exceptionally annoying rubberbandy sound when it shoots.

Still, I kept trucking away, reaching level 45.  Then I happened to group up with folks from my FC.  One decided to show me the ninja mudras, and I learned that screwing up your mudra combo will cause a rabbit to appear on your head for a few seconds.

Wait, you mean I could have a bunny in a hat?

On my head?

Whenever I mess up?

…

SOLD

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I have named the bunny Mr. Plumpkins.  Mr. Plumpkins is the best.

Mr. Plumpkins the Ninja Bunny

Actually, now that I have a screenshot of Mr. Plumpkins up close from the front … he’s a little terrifying.

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Now, I waver between being a decent DPS and an incompetent ninja.

The more DPS I do, the more badass I feel (this is necessary because playing a female character means that my special ninja pants are actually shiny tights with a glitzy buttflap).

I Get Ninja Pants Too, Right?
Naw, they ran out. Oboro found some tights for me, though.

Yet the more incompetent I am, the more I see of Mr. Plumpkins and the more I laugh.

Decisions are hard.

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In terms of competence, I have two problems at present:

1. fffffff hitting the right buttons
2. fffffffffff mudras

There was a period in the low to mid 40s where ninja hit a sweet spot in terms of the number of total buttons I can manage/debuffs I can remember to keep up/ buffs I can remember keep up.  Then I hit the upper 40s and it all went to hell.

I prefer generally rotations that require only about eight important skills total.  This is partially because I am lazy, but also because that’s the default setting for my hands – sustaining a more stretched out hand position across the keyboard for a long time becomes uncomfortable.  (Yes, I have small hands.)  Besides, the more I end up having to move my hands for whatever reason – to grab the mouse, to use a skill that’s out of my default range of four, etc. – the more likely it is I will end up pressing the wrong buttons.

Then again, this could just be happening because leveling all the things means I sometimes forget which button is which skill unless I’m staring straight at ’em.  Suffice it to say I hit the wrong buttons a lot right now.

Then there are the mudras – a grand total of three buttons that you use in combination to gain a ninjitsu skill.  Problem is, you obtain access to several of these ninjitsu skills when you get the final mudra, making it way too much to remember all at once.   I’m going to write this crap down in the hopes that summarizing each one will help me recall them when needed.

SHURIKEN: Good for pulling at distance!  Better range than Dagger Throw.  Use any and only ONE of the mudra.

LIGHTNING ZAP: a.k.a. Raiton.  Seems to be potent!  Use Ten > Chi or Jin > Chi.

FIRE BOOM: a.k.a. Katon.  AoE that may cause others to think there is a BLM present.  Use Chi > Ten or Jin > Ten.

SPEED ME UP SCOTTY: a.k.a. Huton.  Increases attack speed for “whee I’m a squirrel on caffeine” feelings.  Use Jin > Chi > Ten or Chi > Jin > Ten.

EARTH CIRCLE: a.k.a. Doton.  Puts down bad that does AoE damage over time.  Use Ten > Jin > Chi or Jin > Ten > Chi.

WAIT, WAT(ER) IS THAT: a.k.a. Suiton, a.k.a. That Water Thing That Happened by Accident.  Briefly enables the use of skills that would otherwise require Hide (of which there are two).  Use Ten > Chi > Jin or Chi > Ten > Jin.

OOPS ICE: a.k.a. Hyoton. (Very) temporarily binds the opponent.  Use Ten > Jin or Chi > Jin.

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I’ve begun resenting machinists in general, but it’s not because the cooldowns feel so slow when I play it.  No, it’s because lots of machinists seem to think that knocking sheeyit back is no big deal.  Okay.  I mean, I’ve been to the magical Land of I Don’t Care.  I’ve knocked back my fair share of things as summoner because Garuda-Egi wasn’t on Obey.  But when I’m rogue/ninja/melee, I can’t visit the Land of I Don’t Care because in my new little melee world, knockbacks make me want to punch people while wearing pointy shoes on my hands.

Y U DO DIS

I’ve started to ask them not to use it.  Some of them don’t respond.  Some seem to be offended.  One said that she felt like melee overreacted so much, she felt forbidden from using it.

There was one who said she was doing it to interrupt crap.  This almost seems logical, so I’m gonna think about that for a moment.  Let’s see – if the tank hasn’t stunned it and nobody else with a stun has either, ask yourself: is this attack (probably) going to kill the tank?  If the answer is no, DON’T KNOCK THE MOB BACK TO INTERRUPT THE ATTACK.  Nobody cares about the attack, but SOMEBODY (at least me) cares if the damn mob goes flying.

The other thing was – she was also knocking back mobs that, yanno, didn’t actually have some fancy attack to interrupt.

Then because of the way the internet works, she pointed out that I forgot to use a poison on my daggers, which was true because the dang stuff comes off all the dang time.  SIGH.