Quote Originally Posted by Dr Unne
FIR2, LIT2 and ICE2 can make a difference, if only to mop up what's left after your RM/BM is done. FAST can obviously make a difference. Every turn in battle matters. You can save a turn worth of waiting for your RM/BM to cast FAST on you, by casting it on yourself.

Ninjas are the second best in the game in terms of the quantity and quality of types of armor they can wear. I believe they're the first best in terms of how many weapons they can use. They are the only class which can use the third best weapon in the game.

They do seem to run better, in the remakes if not in the original. I don't know if the game mechanics back that up, but it seems so at a glance.

Everything is useless compared to a Knight, yes. Sometimes it's fun to take a party that's a bit weaker with greater variety. There's more to the game than maxing your stats. Armor and weapon discovery in the dungeons is lots of fun for me. But only if you actually get to use it all. Getting new magic is lots of fun for me. Ninjas are fun.
The thing is that I personally never use magic except during boss encounters or unless if it's absolutely necessary, so being able to "mop up" doesn't mean a whole lot to me. And when I have them attack, they do significantly less damage than a knight or black belt would. And I'm aware that they can use more items/armor, but that doesn't really matter since the best armor and weapons will always go to your fighter/knight anyway. And I personally prefer having a second fighter/knight so I can have someone that can absorb damage and dish it out too (which like I said before, I find ninjas do less even with similar weapons). The only real advantage to ninjas that I can find are the extra FAST/Hastes.

As far as theives go, I don't see a point. In the original/Origins versions, they can't deal any damage at all. And sure they can run away, but that doesn't really help much when you're in a situation where you can't (i.e. a boss). In DoS, they do get 3x hit but due to their limited weapon selection they still can't deal that much damage.

I can see why people might like them, but the way I play FFI I've always found them to be a waste. Now, Black Belts on the other hand are a godsend. I don't get why everyone hates them. But that's another topic altogether.