Positionals: Ninja and Monk - Food for thought.

[Tharian]

Technically speaking, Ninja is SUPPOSED to have Positional Requirements.

• Sneak Attack is supposed to do more damage (alot more) when used from the front of the target.
• Dancing Edge is supposed to also do more damage when executed from the flank of the target.
• Trick Attack too is supposed to do more damage when executed from behind the target (fortunately it shares a cooldown with Sneak Attack, meaning it is one or the other of these two).

Point is, as a Rogue/Ninja you really should be using your positionals to be optimal. Unfortunately Square-Enix messed up when they programmed the Rogue/Ninja. Almost all Rogue/Ninja Positionals currently do max damage from any side of the enemy. Meaning there isn't really any point to moving into the correct position as a Ninja. I have this sneaking suspicion that the primary Ninja nerf that is going to occur tonight is in fact fixing the Ninja so that the positional attacks work as intended.

[SarcasmMisser]

Ninja's skill ceiling is in execution of rotation, monk does not have a difficult rotation so its ceiling is in positional management. The idea is that optimal DPS should be difficult to hit on all jobs but in different ways.

[Yumi_umi]

Monk is about positionals and stacks while ninja is about mudras with combos and dots.
Monk's combos seem more straight forward more so like a press 1-2-3 button kind of thing while ninja requires ppl to weave in the ever so laggy mudra while keeping up dots from doing combos.
So yes lets keep ninja with little to no positioning as we don't need it to be a monk wannabe.
Can u imagine if they made mudras positional? Thatd be kinda dumb lol!

[Krr]

Technically speaking, Ninja is SUPPOSED to have Positional Requirements.

• Sneak Attack is supposed to do more damage (alot more) when used from the front of the target.
• Dancing Edge is supposed to also do more damage when executed from the flank of the target.
• Trick Attack too is supposed to do more damage when executed from behind the target (fortunately it shares a cooldown with Sneak Attack, meaning it is one or the other of these two).

Trick Attack and Sneak Attack both work as intended, and require positionals to deal full damage and TA's debuff. Dancing Edge was reported as a translation error, not a bug.

[Velox]

Ninja's skill ceiling is in execution of rotation, monk does not have a difficult rotation so its ceiling is in positional management. The idea is that optimal DPS should be difficult to hit on all jobs but in different ways.

This is true for the most part. As far as rotation goes, it's a give and take for balance. Each has something they have to worry about to optimize DPS, so it's a fair tradeoff. However, that being said, in terms of shear utility, survivability, and DPS potential on all targets (boss and non-boss) NIN is well ahead of MNK and miles ahead of DRG. This is where the prime discrepancy in melee DPS lies and not so much in the management of the job itself. To be balanced the order of total DPS potential (greatest to least) on 90% of all fights (boss and non-boss) should be DRG>MNK>NIN. That is, DRG should have the highest DPS output in 90% of all scenarios, followed by MNK and then NIN. SE seems to have recognized the discrepancy as well with the release of NIN, as they have already alluded in multiple forums that buffs/nerfs are needed to correctly balance the melee jobs against each other.

[Felessan]

I Think you are missing the entire point of my thread. Ninja is not a monk wannabe... if anything, Monk is a ninja wannabe at this moment. Attacking from blind spots is a "sneaky" trait, that should be associated with a "sneaky" class. Then again, Ninja itself is a monk wannabe, since it attacks head on with an opponent - something that a "sneaky" class does not stereotypically do.

You can think it in another way.
As punches damage potential are much lower than good old swords, monks try to compensate it by aiming to critical points and to certainly hits them, they need move a lot (as front usually is a most sturdy and protected part of a body). Ninja on other hand just slash everything. And you don't do this tricky stuff in combat, just in preparation and assassination (i.e. on opener).

Why not just remove "postional" requirements from ALL classes? Its kind of a hinderence especially with all of the aoe's in this game that force you to move.

Yes, and also gives everyone ability to damage on the run and from any range. Every class has their own skillcap to differentiate good players from bad players.
NIN has their own set of problems like having to execute perfectly 15+ streaks of keys on the run and never fail a jutsu. Otherwise we would not see "150dps" ninja and there are many of those.