RIP Ninja

[Allyrion]

Wrong, originally the entire Impulse Drive -> Disembowel -> Chaos Thrust chain had a positional requirement on each move, and Heavy Thrust also had a positional requirement rather than a bonus.

Oh, there was Impulse Drive.
Disembowel never had a positional.
Chaos Thrust didn't either, but they added a bonus to it.

[Kiroh]

No, the original was that impulse drive had to land a hit from behind to chain I to the other two (but disembowel/chaos could be from anywhere)

But they did have damage bonuses from being in the correct position, which has been removed from Impulse Drive (requirement) and from Disembowel (bonus) and added directly to the skill damage by default.

[Allyrion]

But they did have damage bonuses from being in the correct position, which has been removed from Impulse Drive (requirement) and from Disembowel (bonus) and added directly to the skill damage by default.

What's confusing here?
They took away ID's positional requirement and added a positional bonus to Chaos Thrust.
They left the positional bonus on Heavy Thrust, and the buff doesn't have a positional requirement anymore.

SE are okay with positionals once they're bonuses.
Trick Attack seems to be a noticeable exception but it's basically a raid cooldown, so that's probably why it's exempt.

Just because they said they have new positionals on NIN, there's no reason to assume they're requirements.
It's going to be bonuses like the other two melee classes are designed for.

[Craiger]

What are you on about? MNK have positionals on every single attack pretty much, and I have no problem doing them, why is it such a big deal for NIN?

They are changing this because NIN have too much gain without actually doing anything... MNK have their positionals and GL, DRG have a pretty complex "rotation"(and I mean with all their oGCD abilities to be used at the right time), as well as at least 2 positionals that gets used pretty often.

NIN have 1 positional that they use rarely in their rotation, and they don't have a very complex rotation either... I'm not saying they're a faceroll, but with their high DPS and Trick Attack/Goad, you'd expect them to have at least some more challenging mechanics.

Also, what are you talking about them removing positionals from DRG and giving it to NIN? DRG still have the same requirements as before to get bonus damage(have always been just 2 abilities, just CT instead of ID), and the only difference is that you can continue your combo even if you don't get that bonus damage. I'm 99.9999% certain NIN would get the same mechanic.

[Riepah]

While MNK and DRG seem to get all new, interesting mechanics that sound like a huge boost in strength, Ninja gets the ability to decrease enmity of a target. Whoopdeedoo. In what kind of content has enmity ever been a real problem? And if it becomes a problem in Heavensward, how is lowering the enmity of a single target going to solve it?

NIN is starting to sound like a babysitter class.

[Ultimatecalibur]

Actually the only skills that have any positional left on them at all for DRG are heavy thrust and chaos thrust, the others were outright removed.

Impulse Drive and Heavy Thrust were the only ones that originally had positional requirements. Heavy Thrust was changed so that the hitting flanks was not required to get the buff or give Ring of Thorns the combo bonus. Impulse Drive's positional was moved to Chaos Thrust. Dragoon's still have the same number of positional requirements.

[RedAntares]

I really hate positional skills, when you play alone you do minimal damage unless you root the mob, or manage to position yourself when they cast skills, and the biggest problem is that now that there are going to be a huge increment in new tanks, classes with positonal skills will suffer the most when they get a newbie tank that starts moving the mobs around all over the place breaking your combos, gonna be fun.

I guess I'll focus on Machinist once HW comes.

[ChaozK]

Impulse Drive and Heavy Thrust were the only ones that originally had positional requirements. Heavy Thrust was changed so that the hitting flanks was not required to get the buff or give Ring of Thorns the combo bonus.

You actually still need to hit the flank for it to trigger ring of thorns' bonus for some reason. Maybe they forgot about it.

On topic: I am absolutely positive that NINs positions will work like MNKs or DRGs new system, rather than the old one. Having positionals per se is not a problem, when it prevents you from using your weapon skills, it is, which was the reason why they changed it for DRG.

[Nep_Nep]

While MNK and DRG seem to get all new, interesting mechanics that sound like a huge boost in strength, Ninja gets the ability to decrease enmity of a target. Whoopdeedoo. In what kind of content has enmity ever been a real problem? And if it becomes a problem in Heavensward, how is lowering the enmity of a single target going to solve it?

NIN is starting to sound like a babysitter class.

Question. Sorry if dumb.
I didn't see much of the live letter but is it the ability to lower hate on itself like quelling strikes? Or another target in the party?

[Kallera]

Not very happy with the nin changes. I switched to escape having to run around like a MNK to do decent damage, cause that nonsense was hurting my hand when I was handling that for long periods of time and boss mechanics.

Not sure how the lower enmity is going to work, it might have a purpose if people didn't die so fast once things went wrong. if enmity goes out of control people tend to die quick, otherwise the tank has a staggering lead.