Ninja class series

The Ninja class series is a tri-elemental class series available to the Venus Adepts, the Mars Adepts and to a limited extent, the Jupiter Adepts. The Venus Adepts will be under the influence of this series if they have both Jupiter and Mars Djinn set to them; similarly, the Mars Adepts become this class when they have Jupiter and Venus Djinn set to them. The Jupiter Adepts can only access the Ninja stage of the class, and require Venus and Mars Djinn to be set to them. The access to this class series by the Jupiter Adepts is a vastly overlooked quirk to the Ninja class not found in Golden Sun.

This class series's Djinn cadence is very similar to the Dragoon, Ranger, and Medium class series in structure. Unlike these other classes, the Ninja does not combine together the two variations of another class (in this case, the source would have been the Venus and Mars Enchanters), but has a unique variety of Psynergy. Whereas the Enchanters seem to specialize in status abilities, all of the Ninja's Psynergy except Mist is some sort of attack.

The class series, when at its highest stage of Master and compared to the other series at their highest respective stages, has unsurpassed Agility that is the highest Agility rating of any class, superb Attack tying with the Chaos Lord for second-highest Attack rating (with only the Savage Fiend surpassing it), excellent HP tying with the Paladin and Chaos Lord and surpassed only by the Ronin and Savage Fiend and even above average PP, but with lower Defense. The series has low Luck tying with the Beast Lord and being above only the Chaos Lord. Noteworthy Psynergy from an endgame perspective includes Annihilation, Death Leap, and Shuriken, and the heaviest area-of-effect Psynergy it has are Thunderhead and Punji Strike. Average stats from an endgame perspective are 157% (172% if you don't factor in Luck).

Notes on Class Names

 * Hover your cursor over class names for alt-text of series' Japanese names.

Analysis
General: The Ninja class is a fast, hard-hitting class. Any Ninja in the lineup is almost always going to be taking his or her turn first, and probably only bested by another Ninja in the lineup with a superior baseline agility (Jenna vs. Garet, for example). Offensively, the Ninja boasts three elements worth of hard-hitting, offensive damage dealing Psynergy and a good PP to run with it. For these reasons, the Ninja is one of the best classes for bringing down multiple enemies. However, the Ninja has no beneficial buffing Psynergy, and would need another party member to fulfill that role. Gale functions like Whirlwind in terms of a utility Psynergy, which is nice as you are probably taking Whirlwind away from Sheba and/or Ivan to make somebody a Ninja. Annihilation is an excellent offensive choice, due to its damage multiplier and side effect.

When comparing the Master class to the Ronin class, the decision usually comes down to the player's individual preferences, desires and goals. The Master will usually hit first, weakening enemies with their high Attack and multi-target Psynergies. Meanwhile, the Ronin is slower, but is sturdy, and has strong single-target Attacks to finish off any remaining enemies. The Ronin also possesses the buffing Psynergies the Ninja lacks. Despite these differences, the two classes to work well in tandem and thus the player may decide to have one of each.

By Game
Golden Sun: Assuming all available Djinn have been collected, the Ninja class will be available to Isaac by the time he reaches the Colosso Finals. At this point, the class's offensive abilities are amongst the best available. Death Plunge will make quick work of the other combatants, and the attack stat is decent enough to still do good damage. Should the player have leveled high enough to access Annihilation (admittedly rare), it's 1-Hit KO effect may even destroy the participants, most noticeably Satrage, in a single blow. The player should still try to collect nuts for healing, just as a precaution. Luckily, Ivan will usually have Growth, thanks to the trade of Jupiter Djinn for Venus Djinn. This frees up Garet to do any Moving necessary for the finals.

Golden Sun: The Lost Age: The Ninja Class may be one of the best classes, if not the best, for Jenna (barring high level four Ronin runs) given that she is more "caster" oriented yet has many of the "warrior" classes like the Brute or Samurai. From her mono-elemental Flame User class, she gains a lot more attack, health and agility, while maintaining the same defense and Psynergy Points at the cost of 10% of her luck. Her natural PP growth is higher than any of the other adepts who can utilize this class (not including Ivan and Sheba who can get this class partially) and her ability to use light blades will allow her to capitalize pretty well on all aspects of the class.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: The Ninja class is an excellent option for both Venus Adepts in the party. The changes to the Unleash system mean that weapon unleashes are less reliable for high damage against powerful enemies. However, the Ninja's high Attack combined with the strong damage multiplier of Annihilation, make the Ninja a reliable option for inflicting damage. Matthew and Himi's naturally higher Venus Power serves to further increase Annihilation's power.

On an individual basis, Matthew is sometimes placed in the Master class after being places in a set-up guaranteed to trigger an Unleash from the Sol Blade. The Djinn line-up combined with Matthew's naturally high Venus Power increases the power of all four of the Sol Blade's Unleashes, while the high Attack helps him to take advantage of Centurion's and Megiddo's damage multipliers. Himi, the other Venus Adept, gains similar benefits from the class as Jenna from The Lost Age. The 170% attack increase is the highest she can gain. The class also has higher HP, Defense and Agility. Though the PP and Luck multipliers are lower, Himi has naturally high PP and the highest natural Luck, minimizing her losses.

As a Partial Class
General: From The Lost Age on, Jupiter Adepts are able to access the first stage of the Ninja class for a massive 6 Earth or Fire Djinn and 3 Fire or Earth Djinn. The Ninja class can arguably be one of the best partial classes, as it often provides an extensive offensive boost to the mostly mage-styled Jupiter Adepts. In addition, the naturally higher Jupiter Power boosts Death Plunge, the Gale series, and the Thunderclap series. However, the staggering djinn cost, combined with the frailty of the setup (the Adepts can be knocked out of the class with only a single Djinn in Standby) must be taken note of.

By Game
Golden Sun: The Lost Age: The Ninja class can be a good option for both Ivan and Sheba. Statistically, the 150% attack is the best either Adept can hope to achieve and the 170% agility is on par with the Sorcerer, the top level of their mono-elemental class. At the same time, the 140% PP stat won't seem too bad with their natural PP stat (Ivan and Sheba hold the best and second best natural PP stats respectively). Additionally, Ivan can capitalize on the above average attack stat with his access Light Blades. The specific Djinn requirements do give some cause for hesitation. If you are attempting to utilize Item Dependent classes however, then the Ninja might help make use of the leftover Djinn that often results.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Karis, as a mage-styled Adept akin to Ivan, can benefit from the class due to her access to Light Blades and Bows. The Attack is the highest she can access, while she has naturally high PP to boost her PP pool. For Sveta, however, the class comes in second-place compared to her unique Scrapper class series. She is able to gain equal or higher stat boosts in nearly all categories, with the exception of her PP pool, with a much less risky Djinn lineup. In addition, the Scrapper class allows Sveta to fully benefit from her Wild Animal class series, accessible via Beastform. When considering Sveta's superiority as an offensive battler, it is possible to ignore the Ninja class completely, letting Karis remain a supporter/healer.

Trivia

 * In Golden Sun, Thunderhead was called Thunderstorm. However, that name caused problems with fitting text into single lines, so it was changed to the shorter Thunderhead for The Lost Age.
 * In Dark Dawn, the Power-based and Support Psynergies of the class feature a unique casting animation that involves colored symbols emerging from a similarly colored scroll, with the color matching the element of the Psynergy. However, the Elemental Physical Psynergies feature the standard casting animation.