Kyo’s Ninja Guide

Greetings. I’m Kyorakun Shunsui of Tonberry and I’ve been playing Ninja since 3.2 (Midas).

Disclaimer: I don’t claim to be an expert of the current Ninja but I would like to share some of what I’ve learnt about 4.0 Ninja thus far. This guide is also a work in progress and I’ll update it accordingly.  My information is as follows:

FFLogs     Youtube Twitch   Twitter

To start off, I feel that Ninja has not changed a lot from its 3.0 counterpart and hence, I will not be explaining each and every skill the Ninja has. I’ll be clarifying what raid buffs affect Ninjas because we have skills that are affected quite differently. I’ll also be looking into the new resource that was released in 4.0: Ninki and how to use them effectively and efficiently.

Last Update: 16th April 2019 (patch 4.5)

P.S: Editing rights to this guide are currently being shared with Sheenda Naweh, Mao Shizhong, Soonahn and Niah Najhiri

View post on imgur.com

^ infographic with openers

Table of Contents

Changes from 3.0 3

New skills 5

Ten Chi Jin (TCJ, 100s CD) : 5

Bhavacakra (50s CD): 6

Hellfrog Medium: 7

Before pull: 8

Openers 8

5th GCD TA Bhava Opener: 9

5th GCD TA TCJ Opener: 10

Other openers 11

6th GCD TA TCJ Opener: 11

5th GCD TA Aeolian Bhava opener: 12

DPS rotation 13

Ninki rotation 13

AOE Rotation 13

Role Actions 14

What mudra to use for damage? 15

Best in slot 16

Basic optimisation 17

Deltascape (O1S-O4S) 18

Sigmascape (O5S-O8S) 29

The Weapon’s Refrain (Ultimate) / UWU 37

Consolidated TLDR 40

O9S 42

O10S 43

O11S 44

O12S (M+F) 45

O12S (Final) 46

Skills

Contents show

Changes from 3.0

Hide (20s CD) – grants stealth and resets mudra when out of combat. 

Uses: To reset your mudra for a shorter countdown, ability to precast Doton for a significant potency gain, very useful in gauntlet-esque pulls in dungeons. 

Dream within a dream (60s CD) – cooldown shortened from 90s to 60s, potency increased from 300 to 450.

Uses: Damaging oGCD, always use during Trick Attack due to both being 60s CD. 

Mug (90s CD) : Now also grants 30 ninki upon use.

Uses: Use on CD unless your ninki is above 70 to prevent ninki overflow. You may use it when your ninki is above 70 if you messed up your TA timing and want to get a Ninki inside the TA urgently. Use in TA if you don’t gain an extra Ninki finisher from the 30 Ninki increment or another use of Mug.

Duality (90s CD): Duality hits can now crit/direct hit. 

Uses: Use on CD (but only on AE) or in TA if TA is <10s. If you can’t get another use of it in a fight, save it for TA as with all oGCDs. A note on duality is it’ll always align with your 4th TA, but if you need to get off your 4th TA asap (due to phasing), it is better to double weave duality with TA in your opener. 

Shadow Fang: Now applies slashing and is the 3rd skill of a combo (Spinning edge – gust slash – shadow fang). Slashing debuff only affects initial potency, the dot can be snapshot, meaning it will continue to deal increased damage based on the raid buffs available when it was applied.

Uses: You’ll need to clip it at 2-3s unless it’s right after a TCJ, in which you can execute an Aeolian combo at 5s and refresh after due to GCDs lost in TCJ.

Aeolian Edge: Your highest potency combo, if you are unable to hit positionals, use this combo. 

I’ve been asked questions on when to use TA to catch every shadow fang. TA is a duration of 10 seconds and allows you to hit 5 gcds in it. To illustrate, you can TA between these GCDs in the following rotation:

1. Spinning edge – gust slash – Shadow fang

2. Spinning edge – gust slash – Aeolian edge

3. Spinning edge (Trick Attack – shadow fang at 11s) – gust slash – aeolian edge

4. Spinning edge – gust slash (Trick Attack – shadow fang at 5s) – shadow fang.

In 99% of cases, do not refresh SF early just to get inside TA. Refresh SF naturally as normal. In an ideal world, TA always has SF naturally in it but this will not happen every time.

Also, Trick Attack is a raid wide damage buff, so do not insist on delaying it to be optimal for yourself only. It is almost always much better raid DPS to simply use it on CD regardless of how it lines up with your GCDs. There is a time and place for TA delays but it is very situational and requires you and your group to know exactly what is going on and why.


Auto Attack (AA): 110 potency. Gives 6 ninki every auto attack. Affected by all buffs except contagion. AA speed is not affected by the skill speed stat, only by “auto-attack delay” stat on weapons and GCD-altering skills (e.g. huton, arrow, fey wind, slow etc.)

Removed skills: Blood for blood (no BFB duality windows anymore), Mutilate, Internal release (no TA, IR windows), Dancing edge, Sneak Attack

New skills

Ten Chi Jin (TCJ; 100s CD) :

Costs 80 Ninki. Duration of 10s. Resets the current cooldown of your mudra. Allows you to use 3 consecutive mudras without breaking the chain of mudras used. The 3 mudras used inside TCJ have their potencies doubled. 

Uses: The most efficient use of it is to use it to set up a TA. This means skipping out on a hard cast suiton and using a raiton/fuma instead (more potency, less clipping of GCDs). It is better than using TCJ in a TA. If possible, use TCJ a GCD after a mudra.

You can also execute a Fuma, Katon, Doton which is a potency gain. Here is the math:

With slashing:

Fuma + Raiton + Suiton  = 1713.6

Fuma + Katon + Doton = 1943.6

Difference = 230

TCJ Fuma + Katon + Doton vs TCJ Fuma + Raiton + Suiton for TA set up.

Fuma + Katon + Doton + hard cast Suiton = 2033.6

Fuma + Raiton + Suiton + hard cast Fuma  = 2033.4

The base potencies are close but suiton clips your gcd by around 1s, which makes TCJ suiton TA set up the best way to use TCJ. 

This means that purely by damage, TCJ Doton > TCJ Suiton by around unless you lose 3 or more ticks of doton.

Update: There will be many instances throughout your ninja career where you don’t get to TCJ right after a mudra use due to TA being on cooldown and inadequate Ninki. What this means is you eat into the cooldown of your mudra, this is fine IF you don’t lose a cast of mudra. If you try to set up TA with TCJ but you end up losing a mudra cast, it is better to TCJ Doton and hard cast the suiton in order to not lose the mudra. Here’s an interesting thought, you may end up trading a mudra for a GCD depending on the number of hard cast suitons you use. 

TLDR: Use TCJ to set up TA > TCJ Fuma Katon Doton > TCJ Fuma Raiton Suiton. If you lose a mudra trying to set up TA, use Fuma Katon Doton instead.

Any other combinations for TCJ are not used in any rotation except if you mess up.

Bhavacakra (50s CD):

80 Ninki cost, deals 600 unaspected damage (non physical). Unaffected by Embolden, Brotherhood, slashing debuff and dripping blades trait. Affected by: Trick Attack, Contagion, Hypercharge, Foes Requiem, Battle Litany, Chain Strategem, Balance, Dragon Sight and Devotion.

Bhavacakra vs TCJ:  The type of GCDs lost can only be calculated at the end of a phase or the fight. However, the type of GCDs lost in the opening TA is fixed, which means the 10% of a GCD is fixed and in this case, they’re Spinning Edge and Gust Slash.

With slashing, 2 GCDS + 2 AAs and Gust Slash + Aeolian Edge as your GCDs :

TCJ = 1713.6 (Suiton), 1853.6 (Doton), 1853.4 (TA set up)

Bhavacakra = 600 + 1029.6 = 1629.6

TLDR: TCJ > Bhava, Bhava 2nd priority.

Hellfrog Medium: 

0s CD. 80 Ninki cost, deals 400 magical damage. Unaffected by Embolden, Brotherhood, slashing debuff and dripping blades trait. Affected by: Trick Attack, Contagion, Hypercharge, Foes Requiem, Battle Litany, Chain Strategem, Balance, Dragon Sight and Devotion.

TCJ vs Hellfrog Medium: On the surface, it’s pretty obvious that TCJ is better than Hellfrog. However, there will come a point in your rotation where TCJ is off cd but you can’t use it set it up for TA unless you delay it by an 80 ninki cycle (~30s). Logically, you should delay TCJ if you won’t get another off in the fight. 

TLDR: Use as few hellfrogs as possible, delay TCJ to set up TA if you can’t get another off.

Openers

As with most classes, there are some skills that need to be used before the boss is pulled. You should do the following:

Before pull:

~10s: huton, hide

~4s: shadewalker + smoke

~3s: start using ten and chi

~1s: Suiton the boss

View post on imgur.com

^ infographic for openers

Commonly used Openers

Patch 4.4 (Alphascape savage) go-to openers (no consistent kill time):

O9S – Bhava

O10S – Bhava

O11S – TCJ

M+F – Bhava

Final – Bhava

5th GCD TA Bhava Opener:  

http://ffxivrotations.com/12o9

Starting Ninkis: Bhava > TCJ to set up TA > Bhava > Frog (mug + duality) > Bhava (in TA)

Suiton  – Spinning Edge (SE) – Kassatsu – Gust Slash (GS) – Pot (Infusion) – Shadow Fang (SF) – Mug  – SE – Jugulate – GS – Trick Attack (TA) – Aeolian Edge (AE) – Fuma – SE – Dream within a Dream (Dream) – GS – Duality – AE – Bhavacakra

  1. This opener is extremely easy to use, and allows you to use TCJ to set up your second TA. 
  2. It has two major hidden benefits: You are very unlikely to lose a cast of Bhavacakra and your third and more important TA, which is aligned with Embolden, Battle Voice and/or Chain Strategem will not be delayed because you did not use TCJ to set it up.

Use this if

  • You are able to use TCJ to set up your second TA
  • You do not lose a cast of TCJ in the fight.
  • If you want to maximise GCDs at the start of the fight due to phasing.

Use this in

  • O3S / O4S (Neo) / O6S / O7S / O8S (Godka) / O9S / O10S / O12S (M+F) / O12S (Final)

Note: You will have to overcap ninki on your first TCJ with this opener. Aim to use it the GCD after your mudra resets, around ~14 seconds left on the cooldown for TA.

5th GCD TA TCJ Opener: 

http://ffxivrotations.com/y6p

Starting Ninkis: TCJ > Bhava > Frog (in TA) > Bhava (mug duality) > TCJ to set up TA

Suiton – Spinning Edge (SE) – Kassatsu – Gust Slash (GS) – Pot (Infusion) – Shadow Fang (SF) – Mug – SE – Jugulate – GS – Trick Attack (TA) – Aeolian Edge (AE) – Fuma – SE – Dream within a Dream (Dream) – GS – Duality – AE – Ten Chi Jin (Fuma – Katon – Doton)

  1. Before you suiton your target, make sure you are as close to it as possible to get an auto right after your first GCD. This is to ensure that you have enough ninki to use TCJ right after duality + AE. 
  2. Delay the TA for half a GCD before applying, this is to ensure you can get off at least one mudra of TCJ inside the TA. You use fuma for your kassatsu to reduce clipping as much as possible to attempt to fit a TCJ – katon inside the TA as well.
  3. If the boss does not move out of your doton in the next 24s after your TCJ, executing a Doton TCJ is better than a Suiton TCJ, this is discounting raid buffs.
  4. Apart from the extremely unforgiving nature of the AA window, this opener faces another significant problem which is a big risk of losing a cast of Bhavacakra in the entire fight.

Use this if

  • You are certain you can get enough AAs in to get at least 1 TCJ mudra under trick.
  • You are unable to TCJ to set up your second TA.
  • Lose a cast of TCJ using the Bhavacakra Opener
  • Do not lose a cast of Bhavacakra.

Use this in:

  • O4S (Exdeath) / O5s / O8S (Clown) / O11S

vvv THIS BIT IS A FUNKY OPTIMISATION THAT SHOULD ONLY BE DONE WHEN YOU’RE CONFIDENT AND ALL WITH EVERYTHING ELSE (and your group is willing to adjust) vvv

If possible, do a precast doton for every fight. I don’t exactly recommend this in progression as it’ll consume a significant amount of time in the countdown but it is a 240-280 potency gain (not 320 because the boss will likely be needed to be pulled into your doton, and you still have to be precasting your suiton before the boss is pulled). 

How to execute a precast doton: 

Find the max aggro range of the boss (may cause a wipe or two) – Huton at countdown from 23-24s, Sprint (3s from mudra CD), Smokescreen (2s from mudra), Shadewalker (1s from mudra), Doton, Hide (to reset mudra CD), Suiton, have the tank pull the boss into your doton.

^^^ DO NOT EVEN BOTHER WITH THIS IF YOU’RE LEARNING STUFF – IT’S NOT WORTH IT AT ALL IF IT CHANGES OR SHIFTS ANYTHING IN YOUR OPENER/ROTATION ^^^

Also don’t bother with it in PUGs…people won’t adjust.

Other (situational/defunct) Openers:

6th GCD TA TCJ Opener:

http://ffxivrotations.com/zwx

Follow up Ninkis: TCJ > Bhava > frog (TA) > Bhava (mug duality) > TCJ (to set up TA)

Spinning Edge (SE) – Suiton – Gust Slash (GS) – Pot (Infusion) – Shadow Fang (SF) – jugulate – SE – mug – GS – Kassatsu – Aeolian Edge (AE) – TA – SE –  Raiton – GS – Duality + Dream – AE – Ten Chi Jin (Fuma – Katon – Doton)

  1. Delay your TA by half a GCD.
  2. Use Raiton for the kassatsu as all your mudras in TCJ should be inside the TA. Kassatsu raiton is also a dps gain over Kassatsu fuma.
  3. For your TCJ, it’s a dps gain to execute a Doton TCJ over a Suiton TCJ.
  4. This is your 2nd highest PPS opener and a much easier version of the 5th GCD TA tcj opener.

Use this if:

  • You are unable to TCJ to set up your second TA.
  • Lose a cast of TCJ using the Bhavacakra Opener
  • Do not lose a cast of Bhavacakra.
  • Your group likes to early pull and you can shukuchi in at 1s to get the first GCD in on time.

Use this in:

  • O1s, O2s, neo exdeath (refer to optimisation guide)

5th GCD TA Aeolian Bhava opener: 

http://ffxivrotations.com/ukq

Follow up Ninkis: Bhava > TCJ to set up TA > Bhava > Frog (mug + duality) > Bhava (TA)

Precast Doton – Suiton  – Spinning Edge (SE) – Kassatsu – Gust Slash (GS) – Pot (Infusion) – Aeolian Edge (AE) – Mug – SE – Jugulate – GS – Trick Attack (TA) – Shadow Fang (SF) – Fuma – SE – Dream within a Dream (Dream) – GS – Duality – AE – Bhavacakra

  1. Delay your TA by half a GCD
  2. This opener requires good knowledge of the fight and a warrior. You realise you are losing 2 ticks of SF at the end of the phase because your reapplication of your final SF would be a DPS loss vs using AE. Using this will still be a loss of 2 ticks of SF but you gain a 10% potency increase in your very first SF as it is applied in the TA. T
  3. This can be tricky to use as delaying the TA may result in the SF not being snapshot. Use this when you are extremely familiar with the fight and your group is consistent enough to always phase at the same time. Upload it FFlogs for further clarification on the TA – SF relationship.

Use this if:

  • You lose two to four ticks of shadow fang at the end of a phase/fight.
  • You have a warrior applying slashing on the second GCD for you.

Rotational Information

DPS rotation:

Apply SF.

Refresh SF at ~3s, which is every 2 aeolian combos.

Replace any AE with AC if huton is < 40s and not buffed by TA.

Eg: SF combo – AE combo – AE combo – SF combo.- AE combo – AE combo etc.

Sometimes TCJ will mess with your SF reapplication and you find yourself at 5s left on SF, you should AE instead and reapply SF on the next combo.

Ninki rotation:

Generally, prioritise TCJ – Bhava – Frog. Here’s how you can follow up on the openers:

Everytime you set up TA with TCJ – your rotation becomes: TCJ (TA) – Bhava – frog – Bhava – TCJ (non TA, can be delayed to set up next TA). 

Always plan ahead of your next TA 20-30s in advance by asking yourself what ninki to use, and what OGCDs are in that TA. Unlike 3.0, your only buff now is TA (apart from raid buffs), so you need to find out how many OGCDs you can use in a fight and use them effectively. I can’t emphasize its importance enough.

TLDR: TCJ > Bhava > frog, TCJ to set up TA if you don’t lose a cast.

AOE Rotation:

Auto attacks generate ninki so you will want to target a mob and hit it with an OGCD/GCD before using death blossom. 

2 targets: SF both targets: TCJ: use fuma katon doton unless the targets will die in less than 4 ticks of Doton.  Use fuma katon otherwise. If TCJ on CD: use Hellfrog medium. 

3 or more targets : Death blossom spam with frog unless targets die in 3s. If not, TCJ with fuma katon doton.

Role Actions (you can now take all 10):

True North:

Very useful for hitting positionals when you’re unable to due to mechanics. Useless in fights without positionals such as o5s and o6s. Often used to hit TA during tricky mechanics.

Goad:

To boost TP regen for people who died or to help out with aoe spam, mostly useful in dungeons or death recovery.

Diversion:

Decreases aggro generation by 90%. Helps avoid turning you into a tank.

DO NOT STACK THIS WITH SHADEWALKER (or shadewalker will transfer only 8% of base aggro instead of 80%, basically rendering it useless).

Second Wind:

Useful for fixing small mistakes or to lighten healer load during tougher healer checks.

Bloodbath:

Similar to Second Wind, useful for fixing small mistakes.

Invigorate: 

Restore TP. Used for death recovery or during AOE spam in dungeons.

Arm’s Length:

Prevent knockbacks like in O12S M+F.

Feint:

Feint is to be a teamplayer and reduce damage from tank busters. Useful for Chaotic Dispersion (O9S), Tail End (O10S), Electric Slide (O11S), Optimized Bladedance (O12S M+F) etc.

What mudra to use for damage?

With good ping, Fuma does not clip your GCD (guaranteed clip from 1.90s or faster, which cannot be reached yet).

Raiton clips 0.3s of your GCD (assuming 2.10s GCD).

Suiton (and Doton) clips 0.8s of your GCD (assuming 2.10s GCD). 

Hence, every 3 casts of suiton ensures a loss of 1 GCD. 

You should always do fights with fuma until you realise that there is a consistency in the GCD you end the phase on, and the duration before the next GCD. With that knowledge, you should adjust your previous mudra accordingly. 

If you end the fight just after a GCD, then keep using fuma. If you end the fight halfway to the next GCD, switch one or two of your fumas to raitons. Even a kassatsu raiton is only a gain over a kassatsu fuma if no GCD is lost from the clipping.

Doton should be used if it is precasted (i.e. boss is untargetable) and the boss does not move away from it (e.g. Ultima Weapon (UWU)).

You never want to hard-cast Doton on single target mid-fight (i.e. when boss is targetable). You clip way too hard that you’ll lose more than you gain basically 99% of the time.

TLDR: Use Fuma – not Raiton/Doton

Somehow still not convinced? :thinking:

Potencies have been adjusted to account for passive dripping blades trait (+20% physical only) and slashing (+10%).

Fuma = 240*1.1*1.2 = 316.7p

Raiton = 360p Gain = ~ 43p or 44p

Spinning Edge (weakest GCD) = 150*1.1*1.2 = 198p

^ Choose one.

Best In Slot

Crit > DH > Det  Back during 4.1 party composition mattered for this, but now crit values are high enough to outscale the other two no matter what.

For general non-best in slot purposes, stick with this stat priority. You might notice det or sks melds in the best in slot, these are there for specific stat tiering reasons. If you want more information on how these work, refer to here, or visit the TheoryJerks discord.

4.5 BiS

(Best) Eureka Set: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/18MRP 

This does not include the weapon as the stats are variable. If you have a Eureka weapon, you can use the spreadsheet below and manually input stats to work out your own BiS. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ELscgnbpYvE2nie5o8hdURsb4ODE8-ky1SIEB8d9Z8M/edit#gid=2079110431

(Second best) 2.10s GCD Set: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/17GNY
This BIS uses a pentamelded crafted ring to hit very specific stat tiers. This is the reason why the melds are what they are, and no, they are not wrong. This is the highest theoretical damage set.

(Third best) 2.08s GCD Set: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/177WJ
This BIS does not use any crafted gear, which is much more feasible for players if they don’t have a lot of gil. This is slightly less damage than the BIS above, but is a very minor loss.

Basic Optimisation

  1. Try not to die Do not die.
  2. Adapt your dummy oGCD rotation (mainly ninki and TA) to the fight.
  3. Uptime, uptime, uptime.
  4. Try to align your 60s, 90s, 120s cooldowns with the rest of your party, especially if they are buffs like Battle Litany, Chain Stratagem etc.
  5. If you don’t know the fight length or if you are mainly unsure of the fight, just use your oGCDs on cooldown.

To truly optimise your DPS, you should delve thoroughly into FFLogs and POVs, if available. Here’s a quick video on how I do it. 

CHEAT SHEET FOR EASY ORANGE

LOGS

I don’t claim to have optimised everything so take this with a grain of salt so this will be a work in progress for a while as I, too, learn more things. There will not be a TLDR for this section because it is for players who want to really optimise for their own parses or speedruns.

O1s

Additional skills: True North, Bloodbath, Second Wind, Feint, Diversion.

Uptime tips:

  • If your tank is being a twat (not moving the boss slightly north to get maximum GCDs and dodge exploding inner fires simultaneously), move out once levinbolt has finished casting
  • Shukuchi rubberband every downburst, count to 2-3 GCDs as downburst starts being casted, then shukuchi right before the knockback happens to maintain uptime.
  • For the first classical elements, if your tank is not cooperative (not standing in front of the boss after it teleports to middle), remember that the boss turns after the fire explosion occurs, instead of right after classical elements, so plan your positionals.

Non speedrun ninki rotation

  1. 6th GCD TA TCJ Opener – Shukuchi in for first GCD, Kassatsu fuma to reduce clipping as you want your GCD to be cooling down as the boss teleports to the middle for classical elements, watch your buffs ie. dragon sight, balance, hypercharge, embolden, brotherhood, pot, only armour crush after they wear off)
  2. Bhavacakra after the shukuchi rubberband
  3. Hellfrog + TA – Suiton – armour crush combo – TA after spinning edge and get shadow fang + hellfrog in
  4. Bhava with duality and mug
  5. TCJ set up TA + kassatsu – again, make sure you have ample time left on huton
  6. Bhava
  7. Hellfrog + mug + duality + TA – Pop True north in advance, and suiton as early as you can (to put mudra on cd so you raiton to reset shukuchi before clamp rotation) 
  8. Bhava
  9. TCJ (if you can get off an additional cast in the fight), Hellfrog (if you can’t to set up)
  10.  TCJ to set up TA (if you used hellfrog earlier) or Bhava in TA (if you used TCJ earlier)
  11. Hellfrog (if you set up TA with TCJ) or Bhava (if you didn’t) – duality – mug
  12. Bhava or Hellfrog – TA (speedkills should end even before this TA). 
  13. Bhava
  14. TCJ to set up final TA (fight should end here for non speedkills)

12 ninki speedrun ninki rotation (5:40 to 5:50ish)

  1. 5th GCD TA Bhava opener + Kassatsu + Duality + Mug
  2. TCJ to set up TA
  3. Bhava + mug + duality
  4. Hellfrog + kassatsu + TA
  5. Bhava
  6. TCJ (Doton)
  7. Bhava + duality + mug + TA
  8. Hellfrog
  9. Bhava + TA 
  10. Hellfrog + mug
  11. TCJ to set up TA + duality + pot + kassatsu
  12. LB and Bhava

11 ninki speedrun rotation (5:30ish)

  1. 5th GCD TA Bhava opener + Kassatsu + Duality + Mug
  2. TCJ to set up TA
  3. Bhava + mug + duality
  4. Hellfrog + kassatsu + TA
  5. Bhava
  6. TCJ (Doton)
  7. Bhava + duality + mug + TA
  8. Hellfrog
  9. Bhava + TA + kassatsu
  10. TCJ + pot + duality + mug
  11. Bhava + TA and LB.

10 ninki speedrun rotation (below 5:30 mins)

  1. 5th GCD TA Bhava opener + Kassatsu + Duality + Mug
  2. TCJ to set up TA
  3. Bhava + mug + duality
  4. Hellfrog + kassatsu + TA
  5. Bhava
  6. TCJ (Doton)
  7. Bhava + duality + mug + TA
  8. Hellfrog
  9. Bhava (delay TA)
  10. TCJ to set up TA + duality + mug + kassatsu + pot

O2s

Additional Skills: True North, Bloodbath, Second Wind, Feint, Diversion.

Uptime tips:

  1. If you are using the 6th GCD TA TCJ Opener, after your 18th GCD, you’ll need to stack middle for venn diagram mechanic (I don’t know what that is lol). So an estimate of 20-21st GCD is where you need to go middle for 5th GCD TA Bhava Opener. Plan your positionals based on that.
  2. Death Gaze – face away between GCDs
  3. Put all of your DPS on the same side for -100 GS (punt up mechanic)
  4. -100 GS (punt up, as you come down, you can hit the boss for 2 GCDs, if the boss is in melee range, 1 GCD if the boss isn’t, before the death gaze)

Non Speedrun Ninki rotation (7:20ish)

  1. 6th GCD TA TCJ Opener
  2. Bhavacakra
  3. HellFrog – TA
  4. Bhava + duality + mug (hit the bhava before the mug, death gaze happens close to this part)
  5. TCJ set up TA + kassatsu (weave true north and sprint before the fuma into TCJ as you are moving here to dodge tentacles)
  6. Bhava
  7. Hellfrog (delay the TA and duality for after the punt)
  8. Bhava + TA + Duality (treat this as a bhava reopener)
  9. TCJ to set up TA + kassatsu
  10. Bhava
  11. Hellfrog + mug + duality
  12. Bhava + TA (try to TA as early as possible to maximise uptime in TA before the knockback, pop true north too, DO NOT shukuchi rubberband the knockback or arm’s length, it’ll kill the party.)
  13. TCJ (Doton)
  14. Bhava + TA + Kassatsu + duality

Speedrun 13 Ninki Rotation (6:40-6:50ish)

  1. 6th GCD TA TCJ Opener
  2. Bhavacakra
  3. HellFrog – TA
  4. Bhava + duality + mug 
  5. TCJ set up TA + kassatsu 
  6. Bhava
  7. Hellfrog + dream + TA + duality
  8. Bhava 
  9. TCJ to set up TA (delay kassatsu, if kill time is above 6:40, use kassatsu here)
  10. Bhava + duality + mug
  11. Hellfrog – TA
  12. Bhava 
  13. TCJ to set up TA + Duality + kassatsu + pot

Speedrun 12 Ninki Rotation (sub 6 mins) 

  1. 5th GCD TA Bhava Opener early duality
  2. TCJ to set up TA, clip the shadow fang in this TA, use the TA asap
  3. Bhava
  4. Hellfrog + mug + duality
  5. Bhava + TA + kassatsu
  6. Hellfrog 
  7. TCJ setup TA + duality (before -100s) 
  8. Bhava (second mudra after -100s to suiton at trick at 10s)
  9. Hellfrog + TA (delay kassatsu)
  10. Bhava (delay duality)
  11. TCJ to set up + TA + duality + mug + kassatsu + pot (after tentacles)
  12. Bhava

O3s

Additional Skills: True North, Bloodbath, Second Wind, Feint, Diversion.

Uptime Tips:

  1. Try to clip as little as possible in your opener to get the 2nd shadow fang refresh before spellblade holy. This means you should use fuma on your kassatsu mudra
  2. For spellblade holy, have the two tethered aoes on opposite flanks, the person with the stack mechanic front of the boss and the person with ground aoe marker  tethered to stack mechanic be at the rear
  3. For flame, if your group’s DPS is high, have your tank move the boss to the flame after 1 aoe.
  4. I used to create strats for my old static’s speedruns for O3s, try using the following for final phase scenarios.
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Non Speedrun and Speedrun Ninki Rotation:

  1. Bhava + duality + kassatsu in ta
  2. TCJ after sf refresh after mudra to set up ta
  3. Bhava before briar, end on spinning edge, duality + mug after briar
  4. Frog – Delay suiton by 2 gcds, weave in true north and kassatsu before trick. If dps is low, trick flame with bhava, assassinate flame
  5. Bhava (either on flame with low dps or boss with high dps)
  6. Hellfrog after briar – Double dot dragon and boss, katon dragon and boss, dodge ribbit, mug to get 80 ninki
  7. TCJ (fuma, katon, SUITON), assassinate the dragon, trick boss with shadow fang + duality
  8. Bhava
  9. Hellfrog in TA, kassatsu
  10. TCJ (doton), katon for the mudra pre TCJ, Dodge puddles and squelch, duality + mug after TCJ
  11. Bhava + TA
  12. Hellfrog + LB after the game
  13. TCJ set up ta + kassatsu + pot + duality  (after spellblade holy)
  14. Bhava
  15. Rage at teammates if fight hasnt ended (probably hellfrog into TA into Bhava)

13 to 14 Ninki speedrun Rotation (sub 7 mins, double LB 3)

  1. 5th GCD TA Bhava Opener
  2. TCJ after sf refresh after mudra to set up ta
  3. Bhava before briar, end on spinning edge, duality + mug after briar
  4. HellFrog – Delay suiton by 2 gcds, weave in true north and kassatsu before trick. If dps is low, trick flame with bhava, assassinate flame
  5. Bhava + TA(either on flame with low dps or boss with high dps)
  6. TCJ doton
  7. bhava (suiton into TA + duality + mug)
  8. Hellfrog
  9. Bhava out of TA on boss + TA after + kassatsu
  10. TCJ (wait for puddles) + apanda + duality
  11. Bhava + TA  (before spellblade holy) 
  12. Hellfrog LB + bhava + LB before spellblade holy. Hope you don’t get briar.
  13. TCJ setup TA before spellblade + kassatsu + duality

Exdeath:

Additional Skills: True North, Bloodbath, Second Wind, Arm’s Length, Diversion.

Uptime Tips:

  1. Arm’s length and true north are a must. If you are not precasting doton (no reason not to), huton at 6s on countdown to maximise huton buff
  2. During the first flares, have everyone stand slightly off the edge so that the boss spawns in a spot where you don’t have to waste TN to hit the rear
  3. After first flare, pop sprint right after and shukuchi to the boss if it’s far away (you can get a gcd if it’s thunder 3 before having to move out, at 80% of thunder 3 cast bar, you can move back in)

Non speedrun rotation (4:10ish)

  1. 5th GCD TA TCJ Opener – double weave ta and duality (ta comes first)
  2. Bhava
  3. Bhava + TA + Duality + mug
  4. TCJ (Doton, make sure bholes are out of the way before you TCJ)
  5. Bhava + TA + kassatsu (Kassatsu right after the suiton to get an extra mudra in this phase)
  6. Bhava
  7. TCJ set up TA + duality (try your best to use the TCJ asap)

With good ping, you ideally get off a full TCJ doton without losing a mudra or the third skill in your three skill combo before the boss becomes untargetable.  If you are unable to get any of those off, you should go switch to a TCJ fuma + raiton opener instead. If you get thunder 3 as your first elemental skill after tentacles, you will not be able to get off the bhavacakra in trick before the boss becomes untargetable for the second tentacle phase. In order to keep huton active throughout the downtime during the FIRST tentacles, remember to armor crush at ideal points of the fight.

6 Ninki Speedrun Rotation (3:40ish)

  1. 5th GCD TA Bhava Opener (since you only get  2 x TCJs), also allows you to get off 1 more mudra in p1
  2. TCJ suiton
  3. Bhava + TA + duality
  4. Hellfrog + kassatsu on cd to get off 1 more mudra
  5. TCJ set up TA (potential bhava)
  6. Bhava + duality

5 Ninki Speedrun Rotation for good ping (pre tentacle kill) 

  1. 5th GCD TA TCJ Opener (double weave trick and duality)
  2. Bhava 
  3. Bhava + TA
  4. TCJ doton
  5. Suiton + Bhava

Neo Exdeath 

Additional Skills: Bloodbath, Second Wind, Feint, Diversion, Invigorate

Uptime Tips:

  1. Due to the long run up to neo, I prefer to shukuchi in to hit the 1st GCD as the pull happens. 
  2. As grand cross alpha reaches the end of its cast, get the final GCD on the boss (should be a spinning edge on TCJ openers, and shadow fang on Bhava openers) and jump towards the middle. Jumping delays the animation of hysteria until after you land.
  3. Shukuchi is your most important movement skill in this fight to maximise uptime, the idea is to create a rubber band effect with your shukuchi by using its delayed animation to cancel the animation of the knockback. In essence, it looks as if you were knocked back halfway and dragged back to the boss by shukuchi. For me, I use shukuchi at the end of the cast of flood of naught. You should practice this. 
  4. For instance, if you are using the TCJ opener, you will have a mudra available as hysteria from the first grand cross alpha ends. Pop sprint after hysteria ends and if the boss teleports to close to where your hysteria ends, you should use a gcd before weaving fuma into another GCD. This allows you to use 3 GCDs before the knockback happens.
  5. During the first meteors, you should delay your hellfrog out of TA and overcap your ninki to use it on one of the closest meteors to the boss, you will also find yourself having a mudra off cooldown. Delay that to use it on the closest meteor to the boss after it teleports. Both katon and hellfrog medium will hit its targeted meteor and the boss near it, thereby granting a potency gain.

Non speedrun rotation (10:40ish)

  1. 6 GCD TA TCJ Opener 
  2. Bhava (post grand cross alpha)
  3. Hellfrog + TA (Spinning edge into TA after having refreshed shadow fang, your ninki bar should be at 56 to catch the hellfrog)
  4. Bhava + duality
  5. TCJ set up TA + Kassatsu
  6. Bhava
  7. TA + duality (delay mug, hellfrog on meteors, mug, katon on meteors)
  8. Bhava
  9. TCJ set up TA (after vaccum wave) + kassatsu
  10. Bhava + duality + pot
  11. Hellfrog asap, outside of TA (grand cross omega)
  12. Huton
  13. TCJ set up TA + duality + mug + kassatsu
  14. Bhava
  15. Hellfrog 
  16. Bhava + TA
  17. Hellfrog
  18. Bhava + TA (before meteors) + duality
  19. Hellfrog (meteors)
  20. TCJ set up TA + kassatsu 
  21. Bhava  + duality

 Untested Speedrun rotation (9:30ish)

  1. 6 GCD TA TCJ Opener 
  2. Bhava (post grand cross alpha)
  3. Hellfrog + TA (Spinning edge into TA after having refreshed shadow fang, your ninki bar should be at 56 to catch the hellfrog)
  4. Bhava + duality
  5. TCJ set up TA + Kassatsu
  6. Bhava
  7. TA + duality (delay mug, hellfrog on meteors, mug, katon on meteors)
  8. Bhava
  9. TCJ set up TA (after vaccum wave) + kassatsu
  10. Bhava + duality + pot
  11. Hellfrog asap, outside of TA (grand cross omega)
  12. Huton
  13. TCJ set up TA + duality + mug + kassatsu
  14. Bhava
  15. Hellfrog 
  16. Bhava + TA
  17. Hellfrog
  18. Bhava (delay TA)
  19. Hellfrog (meteors)
  20. TCJ set up TA + kassatsu + duality 

Optimal Speedrun rotation (9:30ish)

  1. 5th GCD Bhava opener (double weave TA + duality, to allow for duality in TA before meteor, sprint at 15s)
  2. TCJ set up TA
  3. Bhava + duality
  4. Hellfrog
  5. Bhava  + TA + kassatsu
  6. TCJ suiton
  7. Bhava + TA + duality
  8. Hellfrog  OR Bhava (on meteors or boss) + mudra
  9. Bhava OR Hellfrog (you can overcap ninki for this bhava) + TA + kassatsu + pot (this is extremely important, save the mudra to suiton when TA is at 10s cd, allowing you to put TA on cd asap and get a full TA before GCO)
  10. Hellfrog + duality
  11. TCJ setup TA
  12. Bhava in TA
  13. Huton (grand cross omega)
  14. Bhava in TA + duality
  15. Hellfrog 
  16. TCJ doton
  17. Bhava + TA
  18. Hellfrog + duality (if 9:20, delay this duality for until trick after meteors)
  19. Bhava (delay TA) (pot after meteor)
  20. TCJ set up TA + Kassatsu (TA may have to be manually if tcj on cd)
  21. Bhava + duality

O5s:

General tips:

Use Arm’s Length to dodge the knock back from Single ghost (diabolic whistle)

Avoid stacking for Diabolic Headlamp (knocks you back) unless you have arm’s length

Have a proper mitigation strategy for head on (feint, shadeshift, adloqium delploy, reprisal, palisade, dismantle/troubadour)

Use shukuchi to rubberband the headon, put enough distance between you and the headon impact such that you can see your shukuchi marker when you are about to use it.

Ninki/Cooldown usage

1.     5th GCD TCJ TA (shukuchi to the train to ensure you get fuma + katon in the TA)

2.     Bhava

3.     Hellfrog (in TA)

4.     Bhava (save duality)

5.     TCJ TA set up (use duality here, save kassatsu for adds)

6.     Hellfrog (save this for adds)

Adds (Death blossom spam, katon, kassatsu katon, hellfrog, use mug, save the following ninki for when boss returns) This assumes you have a warrior who’s cheesing the ghost debuff – allows everyone to stay out. While you are out, huton.

7.   TCJ TA (bhava, duality) set up reopener (try to delay TA by the max amount of GCDs possible to gwet the mudra in at 1s on TA duration) (Speedkill: You get two TAs, so delay the TCJ for the next TA)

8.   Hellfrog

9.   Bhava (TA) (Speedkill: TCJ here instead, pot, duality, kassatsu)

10. Hellfrog

11. TCJ set up TA (pot, duality, kassatsu here)

Passenger ghost cds: Raiton + Duality + Bhava + Dream

Tips: If your adds die quickly, get your katons out asap, then hellfrog to ensure you have raiton going into the ghost carriage. Stand on the edge of platform and pop duality right before going in.

After boss returns (if you did passenger ghost)

  1. Hellfrog (in TA)
  2. Bhava
  3. TCJ set up TA + kassatsu + dream + duality

O6s:

General Tips:

Hotkey duty actions for fast access to use paint/pet hotbar slot 12 for fast access to getting down from the black paint aeroplane

Ask for a countdown of 5s, huton + hide during it. The optimal timing to shade is when the first dialogue box appears, after that start preparing your suiton so that when the boss comes down you can suiton asap without weaving it when it is already hittable.

When the boss uses possession, he moves to the painting he’s tethered to, so prepare your movement.

When the boss uses release, he moves to the middle of the arena.

Use your paint duty action skill between gcds as much as possible.

Keep your blue paint for as long as possible to avoid losing GCDs to grab the paint.

Have your PLD cover you for the homing sandstorm thing. There’s supposedly a spot inside the rock to dodge water painting while keeping uptime. If you can’t find it, hit 2 gcds on the boss before you dodge the painting properly.

You can dodge the floor aoe (shortly after the first earthquake) by going to the flank of the boss.

Ninki/Cooldown usage

  1. 5th GCD TA Bhava Opener
  2. TCJ TA set up (after spinning)
  3. Bhava 
  4. Hellfrog + duality
  5. Bhava (in TA)
  6. TCJ Doton
  7. Bhava + duality (in TA)
  8. Hellfrog
  9. Bhava (in TA)
  10. TCJ Doton
  11. Bhava (in TA)
  12. Hellfrog
  13. Bhava (in TA)
  14. TCJ Doton (Speedkill: TCJ Suiton)

O7S:

General Tips:

1.   Arm’s length every dadaluma knockback

2.   Assassinate every add (ultros, air force, dadaluma, biblio)

3.   Use shukuchi to keep uptime (to get back to boss after virus tethers, to get to the boss after it returns from ultros/virus, you can use it to get to the boss BEFORE it drops down AFTER viral weapon + cannon, this is to keep uptime while executing the no move mechanic properly)

4.   No move mechanic: you cannot move but you can use your GCDs.

5.   Have good strats for uptime for bilbio/atomic ray, mostly boss positioning. For first set of biblio, position the boss between the 2 waypoints the melees/tanks are going to. For second set of bible, place the boss close to the second waypoint so you can hit the boss while executing the no move mechanic)

6.   Atomic ray – the orb spawns on you 1 to 1.5s AFTER the cast bar is finished

7.   For serious speedkillers, if you should be aiming to get dadaluma first so you only get one set of ultros in this fight.

Ninki/CD Rotation

1.   5th GCD TA Bhava Opener (double weave ta and duality)

2.   TCJ set up TA (no. 2)

If dadaluma first                                                   If Biblio first

3. Hellfrog                                                                         Bhava (in previous TA)

4.  Hellfrog                                                                        Hellfrog

5.  Bhava + Kassatsu + TA, good place to use true north. (no. 3, do this asap, to maximize number of gcds and AAs in the TA before having to move for bible, potentially losing a GCD and 100% losing at least one AA)

6.   TCJ Doton

7.   Bhava + duality (use these 2 on cooldown here, don’t save for the TA) + mudra (Air force add, do not suiton the add and TAa the boss asap as you are likely to lose a cast of mudra + the boss turns around for magitek ray, also, your next TA will be after ultros add dies regardless)

8.   Hellfrog + TA

9.   Bhava + mudra (Don’t hold your ninki for hellfrog, hold the mudra if it comes off cooldown after the aoes from tentacles are out)

Virus

10. TCJ set up TA + pot + duality + kassatsu + Bhava (You get the bhava here because you didn’t hold ninki for hellfrog for ultros) For non speedkill: use your pot here, for speedkill: hold your pot for the TCJ TA with litany after the entirety of virus

11. Hellfrog

12. Bhava + TA (use your suiton asap (at TA 11s) to get an additional mudra before the boss phases, get huton up at a high enough duration before you TA, boss flies up soon 3- 4 gcds after viral weapon finishes cast, basically it flies up after magitek ray. try not to True North here.

Post Virus

13.   Mug

14. TCJ set up TA + duality + kassatsu  Good place to use true north. (for speedkills: use pot before you TCJ)

15. Bhava (If biblio first: use this on ultros and hold the TA for after boss returns)

16. Mug

17. Hellfrog + TA (For speedkill: hold this TA for after biblo because you won’t get another cast)

18. TCJ doton + TA + duality on boss (For speedkill – pre add, TCJ set up TA) For anything post add: use TCJ doton, decide whether to hold your previous TA based on your projected kill time) P.S:  This is not a TCJ set up, it is more potency to TCJ doton + suiton here than to set up TA with TCJ fuma katon suiton because doton will be hitting 2 targets. Boss should be dead here in a speedkill

19. Bhava + TA + Kassatsu

20. Hellfrog

O8s (clown kefka):

General tips:

1.   Use Arm’s length for the graven image knockback in p2, the timing to use is during mana release cast after graven image.

2.   Always take note of the GCD you end on every phase, especially in phase 2. if you can gain a gcd by not having duality in TA, any gcd gain outweighs the potency gained from getting duality in TA. Likewise, if you notice that you do not gain a gcd even after minimizing clipping (kassatsu fuma, single weaving), then you can start by clipping on purpose to gain a GCD.

3.       Have efficient strats for uptime. It is more efficient to draw a square (ABCD) around the inner center circle of the arena and place the boss between any of 4 parallel corners. This minimizes movement for lightning as the boss will be within melee range of either pattern (in/out). 

Not only are the lightning truth/fake patterns the same in the same set, their line patterns are similar. This means that if you have a scenario where ice is in, the safespot for the first lightning pattern will mirror that of the second one, provided it’s in the ice. This also means you can have the tank memorise the safespots of the first lightning pattern and move accordingly IF ice is OUT, thereby maximizing uptime for all classes. 

For fire spread, request the rear.

4.  Take note of your kill times, at very specific kill times (6:16ish, as long as you do not get off the final trick), you can use dream within a dream before TA in your opener to get another cast.

Ninki/CD rotation

1.   5th gcd TA TCJ (doton) (jugulate after 4th GCD, double weave duality + TA, kassatsu fuma, this ensures you get 1 more GCD before the phase is over.)

2.   Bhava (huton timer at around 45-50s)

3.   Bhava + TA + duality (3 GCD max, 2 recommended. you could go for 4 but you may end up losing out on a mudra cast in this phase) (if you ta after 4th gcd, kass as soon as you get use a mudra, instead of saving it for the following TA)

4.   Hellfrog

5.   TCJ set up TA+ kassatsu (Good time to use true north)(do this asap, do not wait for your mudra to cooldown, Kass > gcd > ta > mudra, this is to ensure you get one more mudra off before the phase) 

6.  Bhava (huton timer at around 30-40s)

7.  Hellfrog + TA + duality (hold the mudra for a suiton when TA has 12s left on its cooldown) (For speedruns: hold duality and ask to hold litany for the following TA)

8.   Bhava

9.   TCJ set up TA (wait for the mudra to cooldown before using TCJ)(For speedrun: duality used here) (huton at around 30-40s)

10.   Bhava

11.   Hellfrog + TA + duality + pot

12.   Bhava

13.   TCJ/Hellfrog

14.   TCJ set up TA + kassatsu

O8s God Kefka:

General tips:

1.   Take note of the GCD you are on while executing the first celestriad, if you find yourself comfortably getting a GCD off before the centre aoe hits, you can adjust your first kassatsu to ration instead of fuma. Likewise, if you notice that you cannot get the extra GCD off, reduce the amount of clipping in your opener.

2.   Have a good skull tether strategy (heartless archangel) for uptime, when doing double wings, you do not have to be at max melee range (max melee range will result in loss of auto attacks). Keep second wind for the second skull tethers.

3.   Use arm’s length for tethered knockbacks.

4.   If possible, work towards an efficient forsaken 2 strategy for uptime with your group.

Ninki/CD rotation

P.S: This is my preferred rotation, there’s an alternate one with 5th GCD TA TCJ and you are likely to gain an extra TCJ in a speedkill doing that. However, you will have to be very mindful of your TAs and the overall boss movement as the TCJs come up at awkward timings of the fight.

1.   5th GCD TA Bhava opener

2.   TCJ set up TA (during skulls, have a good skull uptime strat)

3.   Bhava (in TA ideally)

4.   Hellfrog + mug + duality

5.   Bhava + TA + kassatsu (after trine)

6.   Hellfrog (delay TCJ for next TA)

7.   TCJ set up TA + duality (before forsaken 2)

8.   Bhava (before aoes come out)

9.   Hellfrog

10.  TA + kassatsu (during/after celestriad)

11.  Bhava + duality + mug

12.  Hellfrog (delay TCJ)

13.  TCJ set up TA + pot (before forsaken 3)(for speedruns: save pot for final burst)

14.  Bhava

15.  Hellfrog

16.  TA + Bhava + kassatsu + duality + mug (during skulls)

17.  Bhava

18.  Hellfrog

19.  TCJ set up TA (after small trine)(For speedruns: save TCJ, litany for final TA)

20.  Bhava

21.  Hellfrog + mug + duality (For speedruns: save duality for final TA)

22.  Bhava + TA + kassatsu (before forsaken 4) (For speedruns: use TCJ, duality and pot, litany/BV )

23.  Hellfrog/TCJ (if boss is dying, use TCJ doton)

24.  TCJ set up TA.

Alternate rotation


1.    5th GCD TA TCJ opener
2.    Bhava
3.    Hellfrog + TA (during skulls)
4.    Bhava + duality + mug
5.    TA + kassatsu + TCJ Doton
6.    Bhava
7.    Hellfrog + TA + mug + duality (litany BV)(before forsaken 2)
8.    Bhava
9.    TCJ TA setup + kassatsu
10.    Bhava
11.   Hellfrog (TA)
12.    Bhava
13.   TCJ Doton

14.   Bhava (TA)

15.  Hellfrog

16.  Bhava (delay TA)

17. TCJ set up TA

The Weapon’s Refrain (Ultimate) UWU:

Preface:

This is an ultimate fight and is designed to test your consistency and awareness. During progression, do not greed GCDs if you are unsure of it. Your role as a DPS  is to make as little mistakes as possible while maintaining good DPS. LB when you need to. Your trick timings should be tailored to your comp, there is little value in maximising your GCDs in your tricks (eg. insisting on tricking after spinning etc). Instead of stating the ninki/cd rotation, I’m going to emphasize more on uptime while dealing with mechanics as well as abusing your OGCDs smartly.

Traits to get: Second wind, Bloodbath(in prog)/arm’s length (for aetheric boom), true north, feint, diversion

Garuda: 

Opener:  5th GCD TA + pot (delayed TCJ, if your ping is good, you can double weave kass + jug, if not, use jug after sf and save mug to use in TA, true north the trick as garuda turns). You tcj after reapplying shadow fang.

Satin + spiny plumes: TCJ + 2 x death blossom, while you are spamming dbs, make sure you are still auto attacking garuda. Also select low HP satins to assassinate. Ideally, you should use 2 x death blossoms here and spinning + gust on the Spiny. 

Pad mode: break your second SF combo with TCJ, 2 x dbs, kassatsu katon. 

Garuda teleportation: reapply shadow fang and do an armor crush combo. Use fuma asap here. Bhava will be up too. On the next aeolian combo (at gust slash) the boss will turn to cast friction, so move accordingly for the aeolian positional. 

Garuda aerial blast: After aerial blast, I usually reapply shadow fang (because i dont run with a warrior and also to ensure that when dodging feathers I do not have a positional to hit) and make sure I’ve ample ninki (54-60) before I trick. This is to ensure your hellfrog is in the trick attack.

Second set of satins+ spiny: Save a katon + hellfrog for this. If your raid DPS is on the lower end, be sure to use assassinate asap. You may be able to get off another before the end of the phase. 

Before phasing (wicked wheel), make sure to save up ninki for a TCJ TA opener on ilfrit. When you get the ninki for it, make sure to see the % of garuda, if it’s around 15-17%, use the bhavacakra because you’ll have enough ninki before you get to ilfrit (ideally, you want 66 and above)

TLDR: 2 x 60s, 2 x 90s, 1 x 120s. Ninki order: delayed TCJ, bhava, hellfrog (in TA), hellfrog (on adds), save ninki for TCJ opener in ilfrit unless you have multiple deaths. 

Ilfrit:

Opener: TCJ set up TA, I blow everything on ilfrit (including bhava and if possible, duality and mug) but that is entirely dependent on how your group does nails. 

Nails: In an ideal world, you would be able to double dot, use katon on ilfrit + a nail, hellfrog ilfrit + 2 nails, and assassinate a nail. But that’s extremely situational. Go for what is within reason instead. If you have to drop shadow fang on ilfrit, do it. 

Post hellfire: I suiton immediately (to get a mudra up just before ilfrit becomes untargetable 1.5s after the stacking fire mechanic) Ideally, you should be able to save true north and trick after spinning while getting bhava inside ta and miss 0 positionals. After the cross dives, be aware of where the healers are so you can get positionals accordingly.

Post dives:Ideally,  Pot before your first GCD, reapply shadow fang, use hellfrog, use 2 x armor crush combos with an assassinate, hold mudra for titan, possible duality usage to get an extra cast. Previously, I’ve mentioned getting the extra TCJ in, upon giving it extra thought, it’s probably more worth it to have a consistent opener trick attack for titan and also a guaranteed katon on gaols

TLDR: 2 x 60s, 2 x 90s (1 x 90s for speedruns), 1 x 120s. Ninki order: TCJ set up TA, Bhava, Hellfrog (on nails), Bhava (preferably under TA, watch your auto attacks closely), hellfrog.

Titan: 

Opener: 

ideally, you end ilfrit on gust slash, and reapply shadow fang on titan immediately, suiton, spinning, trick, gust, kassatsu + duality aeolian, fuma, spinning, dream, gust, bhava, aeolian, dodge weights, end with sf combo (if you dont have a warrior, end on armor crush if you have one, to ensure you use SF combo during upheaval which means no missed positionals). If you can, you should aim to get the kassatsu fuma off asap without clipping too many GCDs. This is to ensure your mudra is off cd before titan knocks you back with upheaval to reset shukuchi with raiton

Upheaval: Either sf combo or armor crush combo depending on what combo you ended on earlier. Raiton here and look behind. The moment you knocked back, shukuchi back to the boss to get off a GCD. 

Landslides: Ideally, always look for a right angle landslide so you can keep uptime. Works for woken landslides too. Safe spot for double landslides is at titan’s rear/flank edge outside of its hitbox.

Second trick: TCJ set up TA.

Gaol: Ideally, use hellfrog + assassinate on it without using GCDs on it, with GCDs all on the boss due to slashing debuff. That is near impossible. I recommend you to use a couple of GCDs on it so you can get off the assassinate (this is fairly risky as assassinate locks you for a second, and there are landslides after), 

Third trick: Bhava in TA.

Pre ultima: (for padding purposes), you can get off a mudra + duality + mug on bits + 4 gcds if you are quick, and a mudra + 7 GCDs on lahabrea + jugulate if you don’t have to LB.

TLDR: 3 x 60s, 2 x 90s (2nd 90 at bits), 2 x 120s. Ninki order: Bhava (in TA), TCJ set up TA,Hellfrog (on gaol), bhava (in TA)

Preface for ultima:

To truly optimise this phase, you should get maximum GCDs and miss 0 positionals.

Huton when titan runs at ultima. 

Why doton? Doton has more potency than fuma/raiton, if you can precast doton, which means you don’t clip any GCDs, it is a DPS gain. 

Ultima reopener: Prepot + doton + TCJ TA setup (after shadow fang), if your ping isn’t great, use fuma and avoid double weaving. Ideally you should get off 12 GCDs. (Shadow fang combo, duality aeolian combo, aeolian combo, armour crush combo). Ninki used: TCJ, Bhava

Post Predation: If your ping isn’t good, use fuma here again, to ensure you get off max GCDs in this phase. (Sf combo, armor crush combo x 2, sf combo during plumes, try not to drop GCDs here, depends on your strategy, use a hellfrog here and ideally end on an aeolian/armour crush) True north the trick attack. Ninki used: Bhava, hellfrog

Annihilation: Delay duality to ensure you get the positional if you can. During annihilation, titan and ilfrit will spawn on different intercardinal sides of the map. For maximum uptime, when dodging the woken ilfrit cross charges, always dodge to side where ilfrit is initially charging from. For ease of execution, you should be seeing a landslide close to the boss, so dodge outside of the boss’ hitbox but don’t run in too quickly due to searing wind. Mudra on cooldown .Ninki used: Bhava

Post Annihilation: To ensure that you have a good suppression push (you want to bait out the homing lasers and lower the boss’ health as much as possible so that enrage is more easily dealt with), do a TCJ set up trick during radiant plumes, and call for chain before if possible, so that your TCJ lands in the chain.

.  Ninki used: TCJ 

Suppression: when you hear the first garuda scream, start casting raiton, this ensures you hit the gaol the moment it becomes targettable. 

Post Suppression: Precast suiton, 5th GCD TA, double weave duality with TA and armor crush.  The key thing in the entire phase here is to keep uptime and miss as little positionals as you can. Also, go for 2 x trick attacks, of which the last one is set up by TCJ.  Pot only when everybody reopens during when the boss is stationary. For the primals, you should aim to LB 3 right after doing the 2nd primal mechanics, if LB3 isn’t up by then, delay it until after the final burst and after buffs wear off. Save true north for garuda (unless it’s the second primal and you are going to LB)

UWU TLDR:

Garuda

Normal: delay TCJ until after 2nd sf refresh, 2 x DB, 1 x assassinate, all gcds on garuda

Pad mode: delay TCJ right before 2nd sf refresh, kassatsu katon, 2 x DB, 1 x assasinate, all gcds on garuda

CDS: 2 x 60s, 2 x 90s, 1 x 120s. 

Ninki order: delayed TCJ, bhava, hellfrog (in TA), hellfrog (on adds), save ninki for TCJ opener in ilfrit unless you have multiple deaths. 

When to true north: if your healer is to the side, save true north for first wicked wheel, if not, blow it in opener.

Ilfrit

CDS: 2 x 60s, 2 x 90s (1 x 90s for speedruns), 1 x 120s.

Ninki order: TCJ set up TA, Bhava, Hellfrog (on nails), Bhava (preferably under TA, watch your auto attacks closely), hellfrog.

When to true north: don’t use it here, predict ilfrit turns.

Titan

CDS:3 x 60s, 2 x 90s (2nd 90 at bits), 2 x 120s.

Ninki order: Bhava (in TA), TCJ set up TA,Hellfrog (on gaol), Bhava (in TA)

Pre ultima:

Bits: 4 x gcds, no ninki, any ogcds 90s and below.

Lahabrea: 7 x gcds, no ninki, any ogcds 60s and below.

Huton when titan appears in RP phase.

Ultima:

Predation:

Opener: Shadewalker, pot, precast doton, SF combo, TCJ set up TA, do not refresh SF, armor crush last combo.

Post predation: precast doton. CDS used: 1 x 60, 1 x duality. Ninki order: Bhava, hellfrog.

When to true north:  2nd trick.

Annihilation:

CDs used: 1 x 60s, 1 x mug, 1 x 120s.

Ninki order: Bhava, TCJ set up TA

Suppression gaol: 2 x gcd, 1 x raiton, 1 x bhava

Post Suppression:

CDs used: 2 x 60s, 2 x 90s, 1 x 120s

Ninki order: Bhava, hellfrog, Bhava, TCJ(save ninki for this to set up TA in final burst phase), bhava

When to true north: ideally after LBing 2nd primal.  Always try to use it before the 3rd gcd of the combo after SF combo.

Final thoughts on UWU: 

I think this fight is quite fun to optimise on Ninja and I do think with some killtimes, you probably can get off an extra TCJ. There is a lot of room for uptime strategies and the key thing here (after prog) is to go in and practice without the fear of dying to greed. Once you are familiar with your movement and ping, you will do well. However, during progression, I re-emphasize, it is more important to execute mechanics properly and be alive than to go for absurd assassinates, GCDs and positionals. 

O9s

Patch 4.4 added 5 additional slots to your role actions, increasing it from 5 to 10 slots.

General tips:

  1. Pop true north in your opener (double weave mug with TN) because the boss will turn if it’s blaze first.
  2. Have a high uptime crystal ball and blaze strategy. Arm’s length the first earthquake knockback. Learn to dodge the line aoe dance without missing gcds/positionals.Use shukuchi to reduce downtime for cyclones. You have roughly 3 GCDs before you need to execute the cyclone knockback mechanic.
  3. In a normal static setting, you want water first (to skip cyclone). Blaze first may be better for future speedkills (to skip crystal ball)
  4. Blaze first? Trick the orb asap (as holding trick will almost guarantee a lost cast). Tsunami first? Save trick for reopener (as orb will die just after trick).

Ninki/CD Rotation

  1. 5th GCD TA Bhava opener (60s,90s,120s,180s <-  these are raid CDs ie. litany, BV)(Pray for water)
  2. TCJ set up TA (60s)
  3. Bhava
  4. Hellfrog (90s)
  5. Bhava (60s, 120s)(Before earthquake)
  6. TCJ doton 
  7. Bhava (60s,90s,180s)(After big bang)
  8. Hellfrog (crystal ball)
  9. Reopener: Doton + TCJ set up TA (60s,90s,120s)
  10. Hellfrog (Good LB time)
  11. Bhava (60s, delay 180s)(After blaze 1)
  12. Hellfrog (90s – you can delay it if you want)
  13. TCJ set up TA (60s,90s,120s,180s + pot)(When cyclone aoe spawns)
  14. Bhava
  15. Hellfrog (If applicable, you may have 90s again if you didn’t delay)

O10S

General tips:

  1. Have your tank drag the boss slightly pass the middle so it doesn’t turn when you trick.
  2. Max melee works for dodging Intercardinal/cardinal AOEs.
  3. Use sprint efficiently (getting to your safe spots, hot tail)
  4. Trick on CD, double weave duality and TA in opener to get the last duality before the boss phases. Prioritise dream within a dream after TA.

Ninki/CD Rotation

  1. 5th GCD TA Bhava opener (60s,90s,120s,180s)
  2. TCJ set up TA (60s)(After spin,spin)
  3. Bhava
  4. Hellfrog (90s)(Before roll,spin/roll)
  5. Bhava (60s, 120s)
  6. TCJ doton (after ice before akh rhai)
  7. Bhava (60s,90s,180s – extra cast)(After spin,roll/spin)
  8. Hellfrog (nails, you can TA the dragon if your static kills it slow)
  9. Reopener: Doton + TCJ (after SF) set up TA (after SE) (60s,90s,120s)
  10. Bhava (good time to LB is before the orbs spawn)
  11. Hellfrog (60s, delay 180s)(After exaflare + dive)
  12. Bhava (90s – you can delay it if you want)
  13. TCJ set up TA (60s,90s,120s,180s + pot)(Before exaflare + ice)
  14. Bhava
  15. Hellfrog (90s if you have it)

O11S

General tips:

  1. You want to maximise GCDs before boss jumps for level checker. At some point with lower SKS, you may want to delay your final gust slash to ensure your combo lasts through the downtime to apply shadow fang straight away on level checker when it’s targettable.
  2. For starboard/larboard, you can hit rear by standing right at the edge of rear/flank hitbox
  3. Use shukuchi to get to your spot for big fists so that you can maximise GCDs on the boss (make sure to keep SF up)
  4. Your reopener after delta attack should be a 4th GCD TA, this is to maximise TA duration due to big fists

Ninki/CD Rotation

  1. 5th GCD TA TCJ opener (60s,90s,120s,180s)
  2. Hellfrog (instead of bhava, to get bhava inside TA)
  3. Bhava (60s) (coloured fists)
  4. TCJ set up TA (60s, delay 120s if you’re skipping panto 2 and killing it shortly after. If not, use 120s) (level checker)
  5. Bhava (level checker)
  6. Reopener: Bhava (60s,90s,180s) (before flamethrower)
  7. Hellfrog (watch your mudra so it does not delay your suiton)
  8. TCJ setup TA (60s, 120s)(Before first set of big fists)
  9. Bhava (90s)(before second set of big fists)
  10. Hellfrog 
  11. Bhava (60s)(Before Flamethrower + HP down)
  12. TCJ set up (60s,90s,120s,180s)(After Pantokrator 1)
  13. Bhava
  14. Hellfrog (60s)(After red fists)(Good time to LB after your trick)
  15. Bhava (90s)
  16. TCJ set up TA (60s,120s)(During Pantokrator 2)
  17. Bhava
  18. Hellfrog
  19. Bhava (60s,90s,180s – if applicable)

O12s: M+F/Adam and Eve

General tips:

  1. Arm’s length knockbacks from Omega-F, max melee is fine for most optimised fire spreads.
  2. Prioritise jugulate, mudra and have a healthy huton duration before split
  3. Learn the timings of optimised blizzard (blade from female) to not drop a GCD

Ninki/CD Rotation

  1. 5th GCD TA Bhava opener (TA+duality weave to gain a cast) (60s,90s,120s,180s)
  2. TCJ set up TA *** (60s)(During first optimised fire) *** Use Arm’s length in normal TCJ spot, then hit TCJ the GCD after (i.e. 13s remaining)
  3. Bhava
  4. Hellfrog (mug first)
  5. Bhava (60s, duality,120s)(post split)
  6. TCJ set up TA (60s,180s)(Before shield/blade)
  7. Bhava 
  8. Hellfrog (60s,120s)(After swapped debuffs)
  9. Bhava
  10. TCJ set up TA (60s)(Before shield/blade)
  11. Bhava
  12. Hellfrog (60s,120s, 180s + pot)(During Optimized Sagittarius Arrow from Omega-F)
  13. TCJ doton (hopefully dead)
  14. Bhava (60s)

O12s: Final Omega

General tips: 

  1. Have an efficient Hello World strategy (popular strats inc. braindead and uptime):
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1d6pbEYqVx2jclVyvll8-CEMLozcYtk-mm_KyBSNf158/preview?slide=id.g43573ad5d4_562_0
  1. Tricks that cannot be delayed: hello world 1, hello world 2. Tricks that can and should be delayed: 3 cannons for 56 ninki, after tether cannons for better uptime, before archive all for better GCD alignment.
  2. Prioritise Dream within a dream in TA. 
  3. Do not delay your mudra in this fight, even if you have to LB, do it after using a mudra (unless enrage)
  4. My personal preference is to save true north for either 3 cannons (recommended for speed to ensure you trick when you have more than 56 ninki) or tethered cannons. 

Ninki/CD Rotation

  1. 5th GCD TA Bhava opener (60s,90s,120s,180s)
  2. TCJ set up TA after shadow fang if possible (60s) (Hello World)
  3. Bhava
  4. Hellfrog (90s)(Good time to LB)
  5. Bhava (60s, 120s)(3 cannons, watch for 56 ninki)
  6. TCJ doton
  7. Bhava (60s,90s,180s)(After tethered cannons)
  8. Hellfrog 
  9. Bhava (60s,120s, pot shortly after if you’re going for 3 pots) (Before archive all)
  10. Hellfrog (90s, delay TCJ as boss is going to teleport, may be better to TCJ doton, unsure yet)
  11. TCJ set up TA (60s)(Hello World 2)
  12. Bhava 
  13. Hellfrog (90s)(Good time to LB) 
  14. Bhava (60s,90s,120s,180s, pot here if 2 pots usage in fight)(3 cannons, watch for 56 ninki)
  15. TCJ Doton
  16. Bhava (60s)(After tethered cannons)
  17. Hellfrog (90s)
  18. Bhava (60s,120s – delay if you’re seeing enrage)(Before archive all)
  19. TCJ set up TA (watch ninki and mug CD, 60s, 90s, 120s, 180s, Pot here if you are seeing enrage)

Consolidated TLDR

  • Ninki Priority: TCJ > Bhava > Frog
  • TCJ TA setup > Doton > TCJ Suiton if boss does not move
  • 5th GCD TA TCJ and 5th GCD TA Bhava openers are the two viable ones in the current raid tier (Alphascape)
  • Delay using TCJ to set up for TA if you cannot get another one off
  • Use oGCDs on cooldown unless within 10s of a TA or unable to use another in a fight
  • Line up Dream/Kassatsu with TA.

Credits

I’ve quite a number of people I would like to thank. First of all, I would like to thank Momo Sama for inspiring me to push the Ninja class to its absolute limits back when we first met in Creator on his Youtube channel. I would also like to thank Sheenda Naweh for our incessant discussions on optimisation and continued mutual motivation in maximising the class; he’s an amazing and criminally underrated Ninja, Ez Katka for past discussions on class nuances and his introduction to TMP, Kaladin Stormbless and Hasu Wasu for their theorycrafting help in the early stages of this guide, Holy Goatmilk for being the best student I could ever ask for, Takashi Yukimura for being the beastly controller ninja whom I exchanged few but meaningful words with, Kotoo Atsu (even though I don’t speak Japanese) for pushing me to greater heights, Kairi L for the memes and Aio Auroka for being the best player in the world. Big shoutout to my static (hopefully, we’re still together by the time this is released) for being the light in my darkness created by people who lambasted at my undeserved toxicity. 

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