Ninja PvP Guide for FFXIV

Patch 6.1 came with a complete overhaul to PvP job tuning and a brand new game mode for players to enjoy. As part of this overhaul, Ninja has received many large changes compared to its previous PvP kit. Equipped with heavy damage, a crazy good Limit Break, crowd control, a personal shield, and even some extra healing, Ninja is quite versatile in both Crystalline Conflict and Frontlines.

This document will mainly focus on the new Crystalline Conflict mode, so while portions of it may apply to other PvP game modes, it is intended to apply to Crystalline Conflict.

Strengths

• High single target burst damage
• Limit break allows for complete team wipes with proper usage
• Good survivability thanks to Shukuchi, Meisui, and Huton

Weaknesses

• Improper Ninjutsu usage can lock you out of a key ability at the wrong time
• Ninja is a melee job, so you will be close to the fighting often

The very basics of Ninja in Crystalline Conflict are quite similar to the other melee in this mode, with job flavored differences in burst and utility. While you still have your Ninjutsu you are familiar with from PvE, they work quite a bit differently in PvP, requiring a charge of Three Mudra to activate, and with the added ability to use the same Ninjutsu twice in a row. In addition, Fuma Shuriken is not a typical Ninjutsu in PvP, instead being a seperate ability from Three Mudra with three charges on a 10-second cooldown.

While Ninja has access to all the standard utility that all PvP jobs have ( Guard, Purify, Recuperate, and Standard-issue Elixir), Ninja has a few other tricks up its sleeve to make it a valuable member in a Crystalline Conflict team. It has a standard three-step combo with Spinning Edge, Gust Slash, and Aeolian Edge as your filler GCD options, as well as a ranged filler GCD option with Fuma Shuriken.

In addition to these, Bunshin functions close to its PvE counterpart, with the added effect of placing an 8,000 potency shield on you for 10 seconds, with a 30 second cooldown. The damage of your combo actions are fully mirrored with Bunshin, but your Fuma Shuriken and Assassinate damage is halved for the Bunshin attack. Mug is also similar to its PvE counterpart, dealing a small amount of damage and increasing the amount of damage your target takes by 10% for 10 seconds. It also has the added effect of reducing your Fuma Shuriken cooldown by 10 seconds. Shukuchi only has a single charge in PvP with a 15-second cooldown, but has the added effect of granting you the "Hidden" buff, which will make you invisible for 5 seconds after the movement, provided you do not take any damage during the movement of Shukuchi. While invisible, enemies cannot see you or target you, and your combo will turn into Assassinate, a powerful attack that can only be used while you have the "Hidden" buff.

In PvP, Ninja does not cast their Ninjutsu using a combination of Ten, Chi, and Jin, as in PvE content. Instead, you have an ability named Three Mudra. This ability has two charges on a 15-second cooldown, and it allows you to cast a Ninjutsu. When activated, other abilities on your hotkeys will be replaced with an associated Ninjutsu. When you use a particular Ninjutsu, you will gain a debuff named "Sealed <Ninjutsu>." This debuff blocks execution of the same Ninjutsu twice in a row, meaning if you have the "Sealed Hyosho Ranryu" debuff, you will need to use a different Ninjutsu first before you can cast Hyosho Ranryu a second time.

The first Ninjutsu is Forked Raiju. When Three Mudra is activated, you will gain the "Forked Raiju Ready" buff and your combo will be replaced with Forked Raiju. Forked Raiju functions as a gapcloser and crowd control, moving you to your target, stunning them for 2 seconds and dealing damage to the target. When using Forked Raiju, you will gain the "Fleeting Raiju Ready" buff, which allows you to execute Fleeting Raiju. It functions identically to Forked Raiju, rushing you to your target, stunning them, and dealing a small amount of damage.

The second Ninjutsu is Hyosho Ranryu. When Three Mudra is activated, your Fuma Shuriken hotkey will be replaced with Hyosho Ranryu. This Ninjutsu is used for burst, dealing a significant amount of damage to your target.

The third Ninjutsu is Goka Mekkyaku. When Three Mudra is activated, your Mug hotkey will be replaced with Goka Mekkyaku. This Ninjutsu deals a small amount of damage and places a damage over time that lasts 12 seconds on your target and all enemies within a 5y radius from your original target.

The fourth Ninjutsu is Meisui. When Three Mudra is activated, your Three Mudra hotkey will be replaced with Meisui. This Ninjutsu restores 8,000 HP to your target. In addition to the healing up front, it will also give the target a regeneration buff that will restore 4,000 HP per server tick for 15 seconds. This Ninjutsu can target yourself and any chosen ally within 30y.

The fifth Ninjutsu is Huton. When Three Mudra is activated, your Bunshin hotkey will be replaced with Huton. This Ninjutsu is very different from its PvE counterpart, no longer granting you a haste buff to speed up your GCD and auto attack. Instead, Huton will give you a shield with 16,000 HP and a movement speed buff in PvP. The shield and movement speed buff will last for 10 seconds or until the entire shield is absorbed, whichever comes first.

The sixth and final Ninjutsu is Doton. When Three Mudra is activated, your Shukuchi hotkey will be replaced with Doton. This Ninjutsu places a ground AoE at your feet, dealing a small amount of damage per server tick to any enemy who enters the ground AoE for 10 seconds. In addition, every time you use a combo action, Hyosho Ranryu or Goka Mekkyaku, it will trigger Hollow Nozuchi. When Hollow Nozuchi is triggered, it will deal a small amount of extra damage to all enemies within your Doton AoE, in addition to applying a 75% Heavy debuff to anyone hit by it.

Thanks to the 6.1 rework, all jobs received their own unique Limit Breaks, rather than having the old cookie-cutter Limit Breaks from before. Each Limit Break meshes well with a job's identity, and Ninja's is no different in this regard.

Ninja's Limit Break is called Seiton Tenchu. Seiton Tenchu will gap close to your target, rendering you untargetable while the ability is being executed. It will deal moderate damage to your target and place a debuff on them called "Death Link" for 4 seconds. When a target affected by "Death Link" is killed, you will gain a buff called "Seiton Tenchu Ready," allowing you to execute your Limit Break a second time without needing a second full Limit Break charge. The "Seiton Tenchu Ready" buff will last for 8 seconds, and if you do not use Seiton Tenchu within this window, you will lose it.

Seiton Tenchu has a second effect. If you use your Limit Break on a target who has less than 50% of their HP remaining, it will execute them, dealing damage equal to their maximum HP value. Killing someone in this way will also give you the "Seiton Tenchu Ready" buff, allowing you to use it again. With these two traits, you can effectively chain Limit Breaks, allowing you to wipe out an entire team. This makes it quite powerful in the right hands, despite the relatively small amount of damage its normal hit does compared to other Limit Breaks.

Now that we have covered all of Ninja's abilities and Ninjutsu, we can create an example burst rotation to put as much damage as possible on an enemy.

1. Bunshin
2. Mug
3. Fuma Shuriken
4. Shukuchi
5. Assassinate
6. Three Mudra
7. Hyosho Ranryu
8. Three Mudra
9. Forked Raiju
10. Fleeting Raiju
11. Seiton Tenchu

This sequence of abilities will do around 65,000 damage before the Seiton Tenchu cast at the end, sufficiently dealing enough damage to kill some jobs outright. Anyone not dead to the initial burst will likely be weak enough to finish off with Seiton Tenchu, provided they do not use Guard or receive additional healing from their allies. If your team is working with you, it most likely will not be an issue without a misplay. Additionally, you may choose to use Mug later in the sequence. This will cause the sequence to do less damage overall, but it may catch some players off guard or allow you to switch targets before most of your burst if an opportunity presents itself.