For the first time since the release of Ninja in Patch 2.4 of A Realm Reborn, it wasn’t the first job I took to the new level cap in the latest expansion. A lot of this came down to glamour, as I talked about a bit in my first glamour post of Shadowbringers, but the story had a huge part to play, as well. I’ve been very happy with my decision to go through the Main Scenario as a Dark Knight, but I didn’t want to leave Ninja behind, either. In between sessions of Main Scenario progress, I leveled Ninja in the background, and so I reached level 80 on it just a couple of days after I wrapped up the expansion’s excellent story.

None of the gear for Ninja really caught my eye as I leveled up, though I did briefly wear The Forgiven’s Chestpiece of Scouting from the final leveling dungeon because it had a nice color scheme. Instead, I was mostly waiting until the moment I got the new artifact armor to really put together a look for this new era of FFXIV. While I was worried I wouldn’t like the new set after seeing its promotional image, I was quite pleased to find that I like every piece in the set—a first for me when it comes to FFXIV‘s Ninja AF! Of course, I still have style preferences for Alahra, so I wasn’t going to run around with the entire ensemble!

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Glamour Components (Required Level: NIN 80)
Weapon: Weathered Heishi Shorinken
Head: Reading Glasses (Ul Brown)
Body: Weathered Hattori Chainmail
Hands: Weathered Hattori Tekko
Legs: Valentione Skirt (Dalamud Red)
Feet: Scion Healer’s Highboots

Upon first seeing it in the Shadowbringers Benchmark, I was disappointed that the Hattori set works with a lot of the same colors as the Kage-Kakushi set from Stormblood, but once I had my hands on it I found that I liked it much better. While I put together a few glamours with Stormblood‘s Ninja AF, it never really set right with me, and so far I’ve not had that trouble with the newer set. Red, of course, is one of my staple colors for Alahra, and I like the heavier chainmail elements of the Hattori body piece, as well.

Working around the new Chainmail proved pretty straightforward: obviously with the red and gold accents, I wasn’t going to shy away from the Scion Healer’s Highboots (though I did consider the Tigerskin Thighboots of Scouting) or Alahra’s canon glasses (in the same Ul Brown I had been using, even). I spent most of my time settling on legwear, this time, debating between the Scion Healer’s Halftights or one of several skirts. The Miqo’te Loincloth‘s natural red worked well, but it seemed too short. The Faire Kohakama had a better length, but I didn’t care for the way its leggings peeked out over the back of the Highboots. The Werewolf Bottoms seemed too long, so ultimately I went with the Valentione Skirt. While that one isn’t perfect, the stockings on it are completely covered by the boots, which tends to work better than the longer ones that come along with the various crafting bottoms that come with similar skirts.

The last decision I had to make came down to the gloves, then. Normally, I’ve found the tekko included with Ninja sets to be far too elaborate, and I’ve only ever used the Augmented Ninja Tekko from the A Realm Reborn set for any real length of time (though that was long before the beginning of my blog here). Something about the Hattori Tekko simply works, though. They’re far less elaborate even if they aren’t exactly plain, and alongside the Hattori Chainmail, they create the illusion of long armored gloves, which is what I normally favor for Alahra’s melee glamours. I did consider both the Sky Rat Hook of Scouting and the Replica Dreadwyrm Bracers of Scouting, since they fit in well with the Chainmail’s color scheme, but neither of them looked decidedly better than the AF piece.

As it stands, this glamour will probably survive for quite some time. While I’m in love with Ninja’s current aesthetic via the new AF set, I’m not at all enamored with its Shadowbringers gameplay. I likely won’t be playing the job much at all unless we see major changes to it, and so I don’t see this look needing any changes in the near future. I do like the look of the Goetia Tomestone gear for Ninja, though, so if I get around to actually gearing it, I might put together at least one look with that. Otherwise, I’m currently a Dark Knight main, from the looks of things, though I am on the lookout for a new DPS, since I can’t imagine I’m going to want to tank for the entirety of the expansion!