Ninjutsu Review!

My mind needs a little distraction, so below is my quick review of the various ninjutsu available to NIN. This should go without saying, but I’m going to say it because this is the internet: these are merely my impressions rather than any attempt to get you, dear reader, to agree (or to induce the game designers to do anything differently). This is a discussion forum, so this is something to discuss.

I didn’t include any ninjutsu-adjacent abilities, like Ten Chi Jin, though maybe I’ll throw them in a follow-up post.

Fuma Shuriken

• Animation: The animation works for your first ninjutsu—it’s quick and simple, isn’t magical beyond summoning a giant shuriken, and the slashing animation when it connects is a nice touch.
• Function: I started FF14 last year, and Fuma Shuriken was baller when you get it. At level 30, it hits like a truck and using the mudra and ninjutsu buttons takes the weeb factor over 9000. The problem, of course, is Raiton. The second you get Raiton, Fuma Shuriken becomes that thing that happens at the start of Ten Chi Jin or when a murda sign doesn’t register while trying to do another ninjutsu.
• Suggestions: This one is honestly tricky, and I don’t quite know what to do with it. It’s great from levels 30 to 35, but completely replaced by Raiton. It could be given a DoT component, but hard to get around it being strictly better or worse than Raiton in a lot of cases. It could be replaced with some utility, but it would have to be strong enough to compete with Raiton in the burst window (more on this below with our friend, Hyoton). My suggestion might be to change this to a decent heal—niche for solo situations mostly—but I really don’t have a great answer here.
• Grade: D (Grade A from levels 30-34)

Katon

• Animation: The fireball itself is one of the better animations in the game and has been one of my favorites since I started playing. The casting animation is a little weak, particularly that the fireball arcs rather than going directly at the target—it feels like an underhand lob rather than overhand throw.
• Function: Your basic AoE ninjutsu—know it and love it.
• Suggestions: My only suggestion would be to give it a six-yalm radius to match Hellfrog Medium.
• Grade: A

Raiton

• Animation: Lightning attack animations in MMOs tend to be rough, but Raiton has a great one. The casting animation is great—10/10 weebs. The lightning itself looks good, though I’d personally tone down the purple a bit.
• Function: Your basic single-target ninjutsu—know it and love it.
• Suggestions: My only suggestion would be tone down the purple in the animation and use more blues/whites. That being said, I know that lightning gets associated with purple not infrequently, so I’m not mad at it.
• Grade: A

Hyoton

• Animation: The casting animation is the same as Katon except with frost effects rather than fire—it looks good. The spell effect is pretty good, especially with the addition of the ninjutsu glyphs, but I would make the shape of the ice a little more like ice shards (straighter edges, more orthogonal) rather than the current graphic, which feels more organic. (Imagine skinning it as wood and adding some leaves.)
• Function: Hyoton—poor, tragic Hyoton. The bind is useful approximately never, and the damage is strictly inferior to other options. Delete this ninjutsu.
• Suggestions: I love putting group/raid utility on DPS, and this is the best place to put it. The difficulty with a utility ninjutsu is that mudra charges are a precious resource, all the more so when their best and highest use is setting up the burst window and doing damage in the burst window—any utility would have to compete with a huge amount of a NIN’s damage. My radical suggestion: replace Hyoton with an ice-based resurrect. It would be inferior to RDM and SMN rez spells as the opportunity cost for NIN is much, much higher, but it would allow for clutch rezzes (which are fun), could compete with DPS ninjutsu without replacing them, and let me get that rez achievement in Bozja. Also, I could macro it to Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei!
• Grade: Kill It With (Somewhat Ironic) Fire

Huton

• Animation: Similar to Raiton, the casting animation is great as is the swirling wind spell effect. Solid animation work!
• Function: This is where the magic happens. It is not easy going back to the normal GCD once you’ve had a taste of this wind life. 70 seconds is a long duration, but keeping it up without recasting Huton is a fun little bit of gameplay given the mechanics of some fights.
• Suggestions: It’s great! Don’t make it more complicated of finicky or whatever people might be suggesting. Some fights have intermissions long enough to make even the 70 seconds very awkward. The timings of E12N platforms seem designed to tilt Huton-using NIN.
• Grade: S

Doton

• Animation: The casting animation of slamming the ground is great. The ninjutsu glyphs and blue-flame points around the circle are great. The persistent doton animation, a sort of swirly sand thing that gets more opaque towards the edges, is great. Great animation work!
• Function: A persistent ground AoE. I love using this in dungeons (despite getting jebaited by tanks who occasionally avoid it like the plague), though mobs in all but the highest-level dungeons often die too fast for it to be useful over Katon, which is a shame.
• Suggestions: Somehow make it more functional between levels 45 and 70.
• Grade: S

Suiton

• Animation: Similar to Doton, the slamming animation for casting is great, and I like the addition of water elements to the slamming motion. The giant water spout over the target—don’t pretend like you don’t love it! This is a great way to do a water animation that communicates the skill—water, dousing the target—in a very short animation window (in terms of time). It’s also big enough that no one (with spell effects on) can miss it.
• Function: The Trick Attack enabler. I like the flexibility in terms of the 20-second window to use Trick Attack. (I recognize that it isn’t flexible relative to optimal rotation, but it’s flexible in the sense that you can use the window to adjust timings based on boss mechanics.)
• Suggestions: Not a suggestion for Suiton per se, but Meisui feels like a button that exists to justify the single-target Ten Chi Jin combination ending in Suiton, which is not a good enough reason for a button, in my humble opinion. Frankly, I’d like to see Meisui deleted and its functionality either wrapped into something else (probably not feasible given how NIN flows) or obviated through changing Ten Chi Jin (which is tough as I quite like Ten Chi Jin).
• Grade: S (A with Meisui)

Goka Mekkyaku

• Animation: I have yet to find a spell animation that I like more in the game than the Goka Mekkyaku fireball—THAT’S an explosion. (BLMs don’t @ me). I also like that the casting animation has the character jump in the air, wind up, and spit hot fire. In contrast to Katon, the fire travels in more of a straight line to the target, communicating the force of the cast.
• Function: The big daddy AoE ninjutsu. Dropping this on the biggest pulls is immensely satisfying. This does everything that you want a one-minute cooldown (in conjunction with Kassatsu) to do.
• Suggestions: Let me use this more often? :D
• Grade: S

Hyosho Ranryu

• Animation: Get ready to get tilted—I hate this animation. Let me break that down: I like the casting animation (point and pull), I hate the ice shuriken (both the actual shuriken and their lackadaisical motion, and I hate the weak shuriken motion for our hardest-hitting single-target ninjutsu.
• Function: Basically our hard-hitting secret technique that we bust out when it’s time to finally defeat out enemy (after several episodes of powering up). The damage… the crits…
• Suggestions: Give this the animation that it deserves! Also, make this a lightning attack using the same mudra signs as Raiton to maintain symmetry with Katon/ Goka Mekkyaku—keying off of Hyoton srikes me as obtuse. (I feel much more strongly about the animation than I do about ice/lightning.)
• Grade: D (S with a worthy animation and being lightning rather than ice.)

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Originally Posted by Equitable_Remedy

Raiton
Animation: Lightning attack animations in MMOs tend to be rough, but Raiton has a great one. The casting animation is great—10/10 weebs. The lightning itself looks good, though I’d personally tone down the purple a bit.

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Yo I love raiton too.
If I'm doing some casual content, even if another Ninjutsu would make more sense, I'll sometimes throw a Raiton out instead.
I love the way it looks and the ways it feels to use it. Personally, I love the purple, but to each their own.

This was well put together. I agree with every aspect of this, including my extreme dislike of the Ice Shuriken animation for our biggest hitting spell.

I hate the fact that Fuma Shuriken is mostly useless after Raiton... I agree that it could be nice if they'd just turn Shadow Fang into something else and gave a bleeding dot to Fuma Shuriken.

Actually the current Shadow Fang design is pretty bad. A dot with a recast time longer than the dot duration basically removes the principle of a dot play, which is to keep monitoring the debuff and reapply at the best time possible, usually just before it expires. You basicallt don't have to worry - at all - for the debuff.

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Originally Posted by Raikai

I hate the fact that Fuma Shuriken is mostly useless after Raiton... I agree that it could be nice if they'd just turn Shadow Fang into something else and gave a bleeding dot to Fuma Shuriken.

Actually the current Shadow Fang design is pretty bad. A dot with a recast time longer than the dot duration basically removes the principle of a dot play, which is to keep monitoring the debuff and reapply at the best time possible, usually just before it expires. You basicallt don't have to worry - at all - for the debuff.

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This is the problem with having multiple choices for the same kind of attack. You have four options for single target damage using your ninjutsu, and one is strictly better in most cases than the other three. We had the same thing happen in reverse in previous expansions where due to the bonuses from slashing damage resist down, poisons, and ninjutsu clipping you GCD, it was always better to use fuma instead of raiton. The only way to eliminate this issue is to eliminate one of the attacks entirely.

Even if we took your suggestion of adding a DOT to fuma, there will be an objectively better and objectively worse choice. If the initial damage + DOT is the same or more than the damage on fuma over raiton, then raiton will never get used. If it's lower (or too much lower because of the 1 second to use a second mudra) then fuma still will never get used.

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Originally Posted by wereotter

This is the problem with having multiple choices for the same kind of attack. You have four options for single target damage using your ninjutsu, and one is strictly better in most cases than the other three.
[...]
Even if we took your suggestion of adding a DOT to fuma, there will be an objectively better and objectively worse choice. If the initial damage + DOT is the same or more than the damage on fuma over raiton, then raiton will never get used. If it's lower (or too much lower because of the 1 second to use a second mudra) then fuma still will never get used.

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Multiple options can lead to redundant options, that's true. Though Raikai's suggestion could still be a way to get the player to use both. Use Fuma to refresh it's DoT, and use Raiton the rest of the time.

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Originally Posted by ItMe

Multiple options can lead to redundant options, that's true. Though Raikai's suggestion could still be a way to get the player to use both. Use Fuma to refresh it's DoT, and use Raiton the rest of the time.

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In practice, this would probably amount to adding a 60 second DoT to Fuma Shuriken, right? In practice, we're trying to cram two Raitons into the burst window, so a 60-second DoT on Fuma Shuriken would change one of those Raitons to a Fuma Shuriken whenever the DoT would tick long enough to outdo Raiton. That... sounds ok to me :)

Make it so!

My personal opinion? Replace or change Hyoton to:
1. an ability for solo content that gives survivability
2.Turn it into a situational ability that makes using Fuma Shuriken or other ninjutsu worthwhile under certain conditions.
3. Make it a party utility skill - Ex: enemy incoming damage reduced by 10%

I am leaning towards options 1 and 3 since they are more for situational usage of mudras - this is because we already have our main damaging single target mudras in the form of Suiton and Raiton, and our AoE mudras in the form of Doton and Katon. With only 2 charges, Hyoton is hard pressed to fight for a place in their kit, especially when one of the mudras is set to Suiton every 60 seconds. However, it doesn't other mudras don't have a place either - Huton being the obvious ninjutsu to use prepull and maintain, but is worth refreshing if the Huton timer runs out. I use this example because in non-ideal situations such as fight progression or when everyone starts dying for whatever reason, it wouldn't be such a bad choice to sacrifice some damage for that extra layer of survivability. Ideally, it would act like vercure and verraise where you shouldn't use it because it'll hurt your damage output as a DPS, but the option to give some survival utility exists if it doesn't look good.

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Originally Posted by AnotherPerson

My personal opinion? Replace or change Hyoton to:
1. an ability for solo content that gives survivability
2.Turn it into a situational ability that makes using Fuma Shuriken or other ninjutsu worthwhile under certain conditions.
3. Make it a party utility skill - Ex: enemy incoming damage reduced by 10%

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I hear what you're saying and have had some of these thoughts myself, but some thoughts:

1. Despite my own suggestion of a heal for solo content, I don't actually think that a solo ability is either sufficiently useful nor in keeping with the general design of FF14 classes.
2. I see where you're going with this, but we already have an ability that modifies ninjutsu - Kassatsu. I'm skeptical that layering other ninjutsu modifiers on top of Kassatsu is a good idea. (For instance, Kassatsu and Ten Chi Jin already don't play well together.)
3. Similar to (1), I like this idea but don't think that it works. An ice-based group barrier could be cool, but it'd basically only be useful during those periods where a boss is winding up a big attack and everyone is just standing there; outside of that, it's hard for a shield to be useful. Encounters can't be designed around a NIN shield, so the NIN shield would be largely superfluous and likely not compete with just doing damage.

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Originally Posted by Raikai

I hate the fact that Fuma Shuriken is mostly useless after Raiton... I agree that it could be nice if they'd just turn Shadow Fang into something else and gave a bleeding dot to Fuma Shuriken.

Actually the current Shadow Fang design is pretty bad. A dot with a recast time longer than the dot duration basically removes the principle of a dot play, which is to keep monitoring the debuff and reapply at the best time possible, usually just before it expires. You basicallt don't have to worry - at all - for the debuff.

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Shadow fang CD lines up to be used in the truck attack window, always, if you’re playing optimally.

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Originally Posted by Equitable_Remedy

I hear what you're saying and have had some of these thoughts myself, but some thoughts:

1. Despite my own suggestion of a heal for solo content, I don't actually think that a solo ability is either sufficiently useful nor in keeping with the general design of FF14 classes.
2. I see where you're going with this, but we already have an ability that modifies ninjutsu - Kassatsu. I'm skeptical that layering other ninjutsu modifiers on top of Kassatsu is a good idea. (For instance, Kassatsu and Ten Chi Jin already don't play well together.)
3. Similar to (1), I like this idea but don't think that it works. An ice-based group barrier could be cool, but it'd basically only be useful during those periods where a boss is winding up a big attack and everyone is just standing there; outside of that, it's hard for a shield to be useful. Encounters can't be designed around a NIN shield, so the NIN shield would be largely superfluous and likely not compete with just doing damage.

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For 2, I'm thinking something more similar to the lines of using the base skill rather than be modified into a different ninjutsu by Kassatsu. For example, Hyoton applies a 250 potency bonus stacking buff to fuma shuriken for 10-15 seconds, so each use of Fuma Shuriken increases the stack by 1 but all stacks go away after 15 seconds.

In this situation, using Hyoton when Ten Chi Jin is up would be better to use Hyoton + Fuma Shuriken over Raiton x2. Things however simplify after unlocking Hyosho at lv 76 since you have a huge damage upgrade upgrade to Hyoton under Kassatsu.

Suiton + Hyoton + Kassatsu Fuma Shuriken
600 + 400 + 750(*0.3) = 1975
Sution + Raiton + Kassatsu Raiton
600 + 800 + 800(*0.3) = 2440
Suiton + Hyoton + TCJ Fuma + Kassatsu Fuma Shuriken
600 + 400 + 750 + 1000(*0.3) = 3050
Sution + Raiton + TCJ Fuma + Kassatsu Raiton
600 + 800 + 500 + 800(*0.3) = 2940

Suiton + Raition + Kassatsu Hyosho
600 + 800 + 1200(*0.3) = 2960
Suiton + Raiton + TCJ Fuma + Kassatsu Hyosho Ranryu
600 + 800 + 500 + 1200(*0.3) = 3460
Suiton + Hyoton + TCJ Fuma + Kassatsu Hyosho Ranryu
600 + 400 + 750 + 1200(*0.3) = 3310

Numbers and potencies for Hyoton and stacking buff can be adjusted, though that's a lot more number crunching and specifics than I would like. I look at Kassatsu's ninjutsu separately than grouping up general ninjutsu with them because ideally, you wouldn't be using Kassatsu for skills outside of their improved counterparts (Hyosho Ranryu, Goka Mekkyaku, and whatever other future ninjutsu gets upgraded), which will make more complications with Hyoton, hence I don't favor this idea as much because ultimately at the end of the day, you run into the same problem as before - Suiton and Raiton occupies the main DPS ninjutsu slots which squeezes Hyoton out of the picture. Hence I rather see Hyoton as a defensive-support oriented skill that shares a slot with DPS skills.


For 1, it depends on how you consider a job's general design. Summoner is probably the most notable version - has 2 charges of Stoneskin if they choose to sacrifice DPS for self shields + Phoenix in their rotation for group & solo healing. With Ress, Party Buff (devotion), and a group heal, they are very well rounded for solo play. MNK has Riddle of Earth x3, but can also use Fists of Earth to be extra tanky if they decide to not use Fists of Fire. RDM has vercure on the GCD which can be hardcast if necessary while the dualcast spell can be used for DPS. SAM has Third Eye into Merciful Eyes if you don't use the DPS alternative, but they are very heavily centered to dishing out as much damage moreso than other jobs. However, there is certainly a lot more control to play it safer in other job's toolkits under non-optimal situations. Nin on the other hand just has Shadeshift and it has a 120 second cooldown. Hence, I was thinking for Nin, the tradeoff for big DPS is a decently strong survival tool.

For 3, I was thinking more along the lines of keeping it as an attack, but remove the bind effect and replace it with a 10% damage down effect (something similar to DoT but the status effect is a Reprisal instead). It's a DPS loss, but the tradeoff is the defense it offers instead. I wasn't thinking that encounters should be designed with a NIN shield but rather along the lines of the way encounters aren't designed with a RDM on standby to ress people if healers end up dying. Using something like this requires more situational awareness, such as if the caster died before they got to addle and the ranged dps's tactician/shield samba is on cooldown.

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Originally Posted by Ariel_Valmont

Shadow fang CD lines up to be used in the truck attack window, always, if you’re playing optimally.

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Wait... are DoTs affected by Trick Attack??

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Originally Posted by ItMe

Wait... are DoTs affected by Trick Attack??

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I think they are while they tick during the vulnerability. Would need confirmation.

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Originally Posted by ItMe

Wait... are DoTs affected by Trick Attack??

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DoTs snapshot any active buffs or debuffs when they are applied. It's why during the BRD opener you'll see them Iron Jaws right just before Raging Strikes ends to ensure that they get another 30s of buffed DoTs. The exception to this would be DRK's Living Shadow and MCH's Automaton Queen which only pay attention to what's currently active and don't snapshot since they're basically Pets and don't care about your buffs or debuffs.

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Originally Posted by Beddict

DoTs snapshot any active buffs or debuffs when they are applied. It's why during the BRD opener you'll see them Iron Jaws right just before Raging Strikes ends to ensure that they get another 30s of buffed DoTs. The exception to this would be DRK's Living Shadow and MCH's Automaton Queen which only pay attention to what's currently active and don't snapshot since they're basically Pets and don't care about your buffs or debuffs.

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Thanks for the response, I wouldn’t have been able to answer with 100% certainty, but I figured that’s how they worked.

Ditto.
Thank you for the answer Beddict~

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Originally Posted by Ariel_Valmont

Shadow fang CD lines up to be used in the truck attack window, always, if you’re playing optimally.

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I know, but still makes it a "brainless" dot, since you don't have to manage the dot itself, which is exactly the element that I was talking about previously. Either being TA cooldown or the Shadowfang cooldown, you just fire the dot and forget about it until then.

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Originally Posted by Raikai

I know, but still makes it a "brainless" dot, since you don't have to manage the dot itself, which is exactly the element that I was talking about previously. Either being TA cooldown or the Shadowfang cooldown, you just fire the dot and forget about it until then.

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I suppose we should just homogenize NIN and bring it in line with every other dot job and make them mindlessly maintain it... that will fix it!

Sarcasm aside, I don’t see why every DOT needs to be a maintain me throughout the fight type of deal, it would be nice to see some more powerful dots that you use occasionally, or that interact with other abilities.

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Originally Posted by Ariel_Valmont

Sarcasm aside, I don’t see why every DOT needs to be a maintain me throughout the fight type of deal, it would be nice to see some more powerful dots that you use occasionally, or that interact with other abilities.

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I agree wholeheartedly.
More than one approach to DoTs can be successful.

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Originally Posted by Ariel_Valmont

Sarcasm aside, I don’t see why every DOT needs to be a maintain me throughout the fight type of deal, it would be nice to see some more powerful dots that you use occasionally, or that interact with other abilities.

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That's what ninja has now, and I am with you on this one. I like that better. If you're smart, you'll use it while you have trick attack up. This is a smart way to implement a DOT

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Originally Posted by Ariel_Valmont

I suppose we should just homogenize NIN and bring it in line with every other dot job and make them mindlessly maintain it... that will fix it!

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It's what we used to do - hell, we used to have two - and going back would be a welcome change to the current design philosophy of dumping everything into TA windows and then just pounding 1-2-3 until it's time for another TA, with the ephemeral bliss of every second Bunshin that falls outside a TA window, or if you're about to cap Ninki and it's not time for TA yet.

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Originally Posted by Ryd

and going back would be a welcome change to the current design philosophy of dumping everything into TA windows and then just pounding 1-2-3 until it's time for another TA,

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Or... what if it's Trick Attack that should go if it's leading to such degenerate rotations.

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Originally Posted by Ryd

It's what we used to do - hell, we used to have two - and going back would be a welcome change to the current design philosophy of dumping everything into TA windows and then just pounding 1-2-3 until it's time for another TA, with the ephemeral bliss of every second Bunshin that falls outside a TA window, or if you're about to cap Ninki and it's not time for TA yet.

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Some people, myself included, specifically like this pace. The nice thing about a game with multiple classes is that people who don't like this pacing can play another class.

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Originally Posted by Equitable_Remedy

Some people, myself included, specifically like this pace. The nice thing about a game with multiple classes is that people who don't like this pacing can play another class.

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I was talking with someone about this, actually.

Ninja's TA Window is fine. It encourages a quick and frantic burst window. however, outside of the TA window it needs something more to do. Not every job needs to be reduced to a 10/15s window out of 60/90 for its excitement.

As an example, we add a new weaponskill called Double Strike.

Double Strike
Weaponskill
2.5s Recast
Effect: Strikes twice for 150 potency. Reduces Huton Duration by 30s.

Combined with Bunshin, Double Strike deals 150 x 2 + 200 x 2, as Bunshin mimics the attack at 200 flat potency.

This means every Bunshin Window has an optimal set up of Double -> 1 / 2 / Armor Crush -> Double.

This is just an example. Given that TA is a finite window to fit in a ton of stuff, maxing the use of Bunshin within TA (1000 potency currently, 1400 with this) and TA priority probably won't change from unloading every possible mudra as the PPS of those GCDs is just higher.

So this is primarily an off-TA Bunshin gameplay focus, though I'm sure you can fit in at least 1 Double Strike into TA and not miss the mudrastorm.

Not a lot on Ninja feels very subtle or shadowy, so I rather like the ice shurikens for its current ultimate attack. It's more satisfying the farther away from the target you are, which is kind of sad, but I still like the overall animation nonetheless. It's like watching a femme fatale in motion every time.

Fuma's "utility" went away when they put mudras on the GCD to baby people. Seems like they take something I love about NIN from NIN every expansion. Stormblood took Dancing Edge, Mutilate, and Sneak Attack, instead of putting Sneak Attack on a separate cooldown. They also put venoms into a trait, taking away the ability to swap from having stun to having silence. :( SHB puts Mudras on the GCD @_@ blows up Jugulate, and pared Shadow Fang out of combo.

Katon is my favorite Ninjutsu, and I like the Kassatsu form for it.

Hyoton does have some solo utility as it stands. You can bind monsters in POTD or HoH that are susceptible to it, if you need to get a breather real quick and get some tic ups from your regen potions.

Raton is never not cool, though I do second the more blues/whites in its color makeup.

All in all though, I'm on Ninja less now than ever before. It doesn't feel like the job I fell in love with.

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Originally Posted by Kabooa

however, outside of the TA window it needs something more to do.

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I disagree with this assertion. Again, I'm not strictly opposed to it, but I don't agree that it's necessary.

The other way to look at it is over all melee classes—maybe NIN is at one end with the highest peak/lowest valley in terms of APM over the course of the rotation and the new melee class is at the other end with completely flat APM over the course of the rotation. I don't think that it's a bad thing to have that range rather than trending all classes toward the median.

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Originally Posted by Equitable_Remedy

I didn’t include any ninjutsu-adjacent abilities, like Ten Chi Jin, though maybe I’ll throw them in a follow-up post.

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And here's that follow-up post! I hope that this doesn't come across as a necro—I'm following up on the same topic as I suggested I might do. Also, for discussion purposes, I think that it's nice to have this all in one thread.

In any case, let's get back into it:

Kassastu

• Animation: Kassatsu’s animation fits it’s role very well. The petal design surrounded by ninja symbols, the power up aura with bits of lightning, and the character gestures all work together to suggest an shonen protagonist yelling “Secret Technique!” If I had one critique, it would be that the soft red color might not be my favorite, but I don’t hate it.
• Function: Secret Technique: Goka Mekkyaku! Obviously, Kassatsu enables our biggest ninjutsu, Goka Mekkyaku and Hyosho Ranryu, and providing extra mudra charges in a pinch. With a one-minute cooldown, it adds flexibility to the ninjutsu system without needing to add buttons or combinations while capturing that anime vibe of setting up the big attack.
• Suggestions: My main suggestion would be to add another Kassatsu-enabled ninjutsu or two, but the skill itself is great.
• Grade: S

Ten Chi Jin

• Animation: The animation is very cool, if a bit long. The quick series of mudra before doing a quick flip and laying down the square with ninjutsu symbols and purple flames definitely announces that you’re about to do something big. Much cooler than ley lines; BLMs don’t @ me.
• Function:
  
  + Ten Chi Jin
  - Ten Chi Jin
  Seriously though, this is a very interesting ability, locking you in place and allowing you to fire off three ninjutsu back-to-back. As a practical matter, there are only two sequences—one for multitarget and one for single. As someone who loves gish characters (do zoomers even know that term?), TCJ helps get me there, but it is a finicky ability. As I will discuss below, Meisui feels like it exists only because the single-target TCJ sequence ends with Suiton, which isn’t enough justification for a button, in my opinion.
• Suggestions:This is a bit of a tough one—I’d like this to have more flexibility than single-/multi-target, but I’m not sure how to achieve that within the rest of the ninjutsu system. (I’m also not sure that more flexibility is needed.) Some way to address losing TCJ if you use it right after letting go of a movement key would be nice.
• Grade: A

Meisui

• Animation: Meisui’s animation is the best part about this ability. Drawing in the sphere’s of water (off the Suiton) with some power-up aura and the centering gesture on the character is great.
• Function: Meisui’s function seems to be to justify the TCJ single-target sequence ending in Suiton, which as I said earlier, is not enough to justify a whole button, in my humble opinion. I appreciate Enhanced Meisui adding a boost to Bhavacakra (synergy is good), but it still doesn’t justify the button.
• Suggestions: Make this button more meaningful, though I admit that I don’t have any great ideas as to how. In the alternative, delete it.
• Grade: F

Bunshin

• Animation: Bunshin’s animation is a bit odd, but pretty good. I’m a big fan of almost any use of these symbols in NIN moves, and the Bunshin animation places them on the ground as well as curving through the air around your character. The typical ninjutsu character gesture works here, and I even know the mudra spheres that quickly spin around you, though they’re a bit random. I do not like the actual clone animation—the faded, delayed character model is ok, but I visually would have preferred an independent clone more like DRK. Shadowing attacks is ok and can look cool at times.
• Function: Bunshin is 5 stacks of a melee beast mode, which I think is great for a gish given TCJ for the magic side. I like the design here: stacks (rather than timed), damage boost based in part on the weapon skill used (adds a bit of optimization), and boosts Ninki generation for more Bhava/Hellfrog.
• Suggestions: My preference here would be for the clone to be an independent model ala DRK. Yes, this is a straight nod to Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, and I’m not apologizing for that. Level 100 trait to allow it to cast ninjutsu with you?
• Grade: A

Phantom Kamaitachi

• Animation: I love this animation, and it’s a great use of utilizing existing art assets (the ninjutsu gesture and Bhavacakra) for something new. The clone dashing in and executing the move looks great, and the wind graphics give the AOE feel while keeping the move pretty clean.
• Function: I really like that this ability keys off of Bunshin. At first, it [I[really[/I] grated on me because it was an oGCD in my mind’s eye, so the execution felt very awkward. I felt much better about it after moving the keybind (I initially put it in my old Assassination keybind), and now I quite like it. The range is nice during a forced disengage, and the AOE and synergy with Hollow Nozuchi is great in dungeons.
• Suggestions: The above being said, I still think that this would be better as an oGCD. The animation is quick (especially for the character), and the vibe of the move would be enhanced by very quickly firing off this clone.
• Grade: A

Hollow Nozuchi

• Animation: I hate to say it, but the animation is kind of terrible. I understand that they’re supposed to be snakes, but you’d never know it from the animation.
• Function: This unusual ability (not weaponskill!) gives some bonus AOE damage by adding some synergy between AOE weaponskills and AOE ninjutsu. This is a great idea, and I’d like to see more of it; bonus points for not needing to be on a hotbar.
• Suggestions: My biggest suggestion would be with the animation: add the snake heads in there to make it clear what’s happening. Beyond that, get tanks to stop pulling mobs out of Doton.
• Grade: A

Chidori Forked Raiju and Fleeting Raiju

• Animation: These are interesting because that they look pretty good in combat, though they look quite janky frozen in gpose (the feet are just weird). The superman pose of Fleeting Raiju looks very strange to me, though Forked Raiju looks quite good. The lightning effects on both of these moves are quite good, especially the on-hit graphic from Fleeting Raiju.
• Function: Obviously, Raiju has been and remains quite controversial. I’ll just say that I hated these when I first got them, but that they’ve grown on me a lot. I think my problem is that I initially tried to play them like a level 80 ShB NIN—cramming everything into the Trick Attack Window—which doesn’t work. Once I actually started playing like a level 90 EW NIN, they felt much better. Now, I like being able to zip around during add phases, and last-hitting a boss with Fleeting Raiju is cinematic, if nothing else.
• Suggestions: I’d like to avoid this thread devolving into yet another Raiju whine thread, so I’ll leave suggestions to the numerous other threads/Reddit/Discord on the topic.
• Grade: CONTROVERSIAL