Issekigan...

[ThaiChi]

So testing this one out.

5 minute recast
30 second duration

This was disappointing. But when I tested it out on the Sand Sweepers in Abys-Altep it seemed like a respectably high parry rate. 3 times in a row with the JA up. Although it may be attributed to the capped parrying they give you. I also had a very high parry rate against Tablilla. I haven't had a lot of situations available to test out the enmity bonus.

Tested again, without shadows or blinding tablilla (I was being cautious the first time) the entire duration of the job ability I parried every single attack it threw at me. It wore off before it used a TP move though.

[Shiyo]

Whoa, so it's like 100% parry for 30 seconds? That's insanely good!! Didn't SE talk about wanting NIN's to have a way to survive with shadows down? This is perfect for that :D

<3 this new ability.

Too bad SE has no idea how to balance RDM

[Karbuncle]

Being able to raise your parry rate 5% of the time i guess could be useful.

[SpankWustler]

Being able to raise your parry rate 5% of the time i guess could be useful.

It's actually 10%, not that this really matters for anyone other than the autism demon whispering in my ear.

Assuming the ability doesn't wear off after a certain number of attacks and is thus useless against Hundred Fists and the like, this is a pretty amazing addition to Ninja.

[ThaiChi]

Hm... Now I want to go test on something that uses hundred fists.

[ThaiChi]

Ok, went out to test it out. Here's some results

Did these all in my basic TP gear @ lv 95. Dynamis - Xarcabard.

NIN95/WHM47
AGI: 85+17
Kannagi90/Kamome/-/Qirmiz
Iga Head+2/Iga Neck/Brutal/Suppa
N. Chainmail+1/Koga-Dusk+1/Epona/Raja
Atheling/Twilight/Byakko/Iga Feet+2

First: did on an EM Kindred.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/705/issekiem.jpg/

Second: did on an DC, used Innin to compensate for the level.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/4/issekidc.jpg/

Third: did without Innin also on a DC Kindred
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/13/issekidc2.jpg/

Innin screwed up damage mitigation a lot, but the parry rate is pretty high for the most part. I had issues obviously with evading more than parrying, which is why I opted to sub WHM instead of DNC to keep myself alive. Still evaded a lot regardless.

While the second test clearly shows that its not exactly 100% parry, it is still a pretty high rate. Hopefully when the update hits and we can get to 95 on our own servers we can use Issekigan to get a nice boost in parry skill ups. Mandies anyone?

[SpankWustler]

Thanks for that. It was exactly the kind of test I was hoping to see, since that situation seems like a very practical time to apply the ability.

[Shiyo]

Nice, ty for testing. This ability is INCREDIBLE!

[FrankReynolds]

This seems awesome, the recast should be like 3 minutes though. Hopefully they lower it before release on the masses. :)

[Karbuncle]

Okay i can see a positive in this. Its a very nice ability to use when a mob uses hundred fists :o.

Try asking for 3min, Might happen. The ability isn't too broken since parry rate is clearly not 100%.

[ThaiChi]

Hope the devs see this thread then, going to add a tag.

Devs, please consider a 3 min cooldown for Issekigan. While 5 min isn't too horribly long, 3 minutes might provide a more dynamic play for most battles. 30 seconds is very brief especially when you look at how often you would potentially need to switch between Utsusemi Ichi and Ni. But if 3 minutes is tipping the game balance, I wouldn't mind settling for Utsusemi San in the near future. :)

[esoR]

for those with low parry skill, these results may be misleading, possibly a test of your base parry rate at capped skill without the job ability could show the difference.

[ThaiChi]

The test server currently has the adjustments to parrying planned for the upcoming update already applied. It seems that parrying attacks is going to happen more frequently regardless. But that seems beside the fact. Unfortunately I will be unable to test the effects low parrying even on my own server as my parrying is currently at 328.

[esoR]

would take some parse data regardless, but with 330~350 parry skkill, capped parry rate of 15-20%, apply JA for 25-30%+ parry rate. seems decent overall on paper.

[Bayohne]

Issekigan was designed as an ability that makes it easier for the player to avoid attacks and target the opponent.

As I'm sure you know, the order for avoiding attacks goes: Evade>Parry>Utsusemi, so the stronger the opponent (with higher physical attack accuracy), the bigger the effects.

We have received feedback saying that "I would like this ability to parry every time, so I can use it to support Utsusemi," but this would make the ability way too strong, so we cannot implement this kind of change.

However, we felt like the effect duration was too short, so we changed the duration from 30 seconds to 60 seconds. This has been reflected in the Test Server, so try it out!

[Shiyo]

This spell already seemed really good and you made it better O_o

Why can't you guys fix spells that obviously suck and update them properly? Your change to bully doesn't make the ability better at all..just barely usable now ._.

[Urteil]

Scarlet Delirium still sucks, what the hell SE?

You made Samurai stuff from GOOD TO AMAZING?

[ThaiChi]

.......:D:D:D:D


That is a very favorable compromise. Thank you!

[ThaiChi]

Tested again. This time in PvP against a MNK95/WAR47. He used aggressor and defender. I was NIN/PLD for Sentinel. I used an earth staff so I wouldn't kill him. So out of this sample test we could see the how effective it is with a larger volume of attacks that actually land.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/15/issekipvp.jpg/

The count this time is ~50 parries out of ~97 attacks. The attempt prior to this was lost in the chat log but the MNK who helped me out counted something to the effect of 30 parries out of 50 attacks. (I was using my Katanas then, so I ended up killing him faster than either HF or Issekigan could wear off).

Against another player who could hit me pretty accurately, its nice to see this many parries in the chat log.

[FrankReynolds]

This is awesome. Can you guys put it on thief too and get rid of bully?

[Sira]

This is awesome. Can you guys put it on thief too and get rid of bully?

or rather fix parry skill, capped parry skill and almost never parry is well hardly worth attempting to cap the skill.

[Dragoy]

Similarly to Hagakure, I felt something like this would be done with Issekigan and I am glad to see it come true. ^^


Good job!


Edit:

That said, after being using it a while, I do appreciate the longer duration, but I'm feeling I would rather use it more often still. Maybe even with a bit of a cut on the duration if need be... well of course I would not hope for that, but yeah, I find myself often opening the ability menu to see if the timer is at 0 yet heheh...