the 4th Mudra for Ninja in 4.0?

[Atoli]

I don't actually remember that ever getting mentioned, which quest was that?

Gameplaywise, that would probably get too difficult, too many combinations to remember :x

Storywise, it would make more sense to obtain it from a future expansion when we go to Othard/Doma. Like finding a secret art in the country the art originated from

[Zojha]

I don't actually remember that ever getting mentioned, which quest was that?

In the 50 quest. It's part of the combat dialogue.

As for how many combinations it would unlock: Only 6. All mudra combinations right now only depend on the last mudra done and the amount of mudras done before, "not" the order of the mudras. Chi-Ten-Jin = Ten-Chi-Jin. Ten-Jin = Chi-Jin. So it would unlock 4 mudra combinations with 4 mudras involved (one for each ending), 1 for the 3-mudra sequence ending and 1 for the 2-mudra sequence ending.

[EdwinLi]

In the 50 quest. It's part of the combat dialogue.

Yep it was in the level 50 battle dialogue and from what it is said in the dialogue the 4th Mudra is considered a myth and legend in Doma so that person probably did not obtain the 4th Mudra in Othard/Doma but sometime after he left Othard/Doma.

That begs the question where is the knowledge of the 4th Mudra then if it is not in Othard/Doma?

[Zojha]

[...] and from what it is said in the dialogue the 4th Mudra is considered a myth and legend in Doma [...]

https://xivdb.com/quest/65770/master+and+student
I can't find that quote in the quests I'm afraid. Oboro himself says that he always thought the 4th mudra was just a myth - but that's just him. It should also be noted that Shinobi village =/= Doma. Doma was assaulted, Gekkais shinobi village not. It's quite likely the 4th mudra is just a very tightly kept clan secret and I would not be surprised if there were other ninja clans with different secret techniques. Ninjas do not hail from Othard proper after all, but rather from an archipelago east of Othard.

That said, I would wager since Gekkais clan was sworn to protect the people of Doma and Sasuke's clan is the only one named to join forces with the Warlords of Doma, he's a descendant of Sasuke's clan. But that's pure speculation.

Note: A lot of this is information from the lore book, so don't feel bad if you didn't know. If you can find a transcript or screenshot of the ninja pages, you can look it up yourself.

[Powercow]

As for how many combinations it would unlock: Only 6.

You say that like adding 6 more skills to a class isn't an enormous amount, especially when they said they'd like to not add as many this time around.

[Zojha]

You say that like adding 6 more skills to a class isn't an enormous amount, especially when they said they'd like to not add as many this time around.

I say it like that because you add only one button. The reason SE doesn't want to introduce lots of new abilities (and might actually prune some) is because of hotbar bloat - gotta place all the abilities somewhere on your hotbars. In that regard, 6 skills that take 6 slots is quite a lot - 6 skills that only take 1 slot is a lot less. Due to this, NIN currently has more skills than most jobs, but doesn't require more hotbar space.

[NoctisShiva]

I'd say, if we get the 4th mudra, it wouldnt be like the other mudras like that you need to do 4 mudra combinations and get more skills, that would be way too many skills since you could also do 2 and 3 mudra combos with the 4th one so yeah, that are too many skills.
I see it more like a mudra that you can only use once in a while , or even only with kassatsu , that you use after any kind of 3 step mudra to summon doppelgangers named ten, chi , jin, like in the jobquest ^^ and i think it would be more like a strong attack with those doppelgangers attacking at the same time and then vanish rather than you got 3 doppelgangers fighting for a while with you

[Jattou]

I see it more like a mudra that you can only use once in a while , or even only with kassatsu , that you use after any kind of 3 step mudra to summon doppelgangers named ten, chi , jin, like in the jobquest ^^ and i think it would be more like a strong attack with those doppelgangers attacking at the same time and then vanish rather than you got 3 doppelgangers fighting for a while with you

Ever since the lv50 quest I've been wanting the 4th mudra as a burst cooldown of some kind, I think it would be nice to have existing ninjutsu be augmented or "supercharged" by the 4th rather than have an entire spellbook consisting of Hyoton level useless useful spells that are entirely situational (if even that). I also found this post that puts forth another idea I like-

Hmm I'm not overly familiar with the whole Eastern philosophy but isn't Ten-Chi-Jin a some sort of holy triad in what, Taoism or something?

So if there were to be new mudra I motion it to be a separate one Yin and Yang to have Yin Mudra and Yang Mudra giving enhanced/changed effect.

Having a split spellbook where Raiton is a single strike that hits hard as we've been using, while on the other Raiton is a bit weaker but now applies a potent DoT, etc.

[Powercow]

I say it like that because you add only one button. The reason SE doesn't want to introduce lots of new abilities (and might actually prune some) is because of hotbar bloat - gotta place all the abilities somewhere on your hotbars. In that regard, 6 skills that take 6 slots is quite a lot - 6 skills that only take 1 slot is a lot less. Due to this, NIN currently has more skills than most jobs, but doesn't require more hotbar space.

It's not a matter of button count, it's a matter of complexity. Yoshida said that he likes the current difficulty/complexity (depending on which translation you see) for jobs and wants them to stay roughly the same in Stormblood. The only way to do that and add six skills with your new Mudra would be to remove a whole ton of stuff that already exists.

And besides, removing buttons from the hotbar is simple. That part's incredibly easy from a design standpoint, and definitely possible from a technical standpoint. It just likely requires too many adjustments and would be a jarring change to many classes, so they're saving it for the expansion.

[Jahaudant]

It's not a matter of button count, it's a matter of complexity.

Yoshida has expressed a desire to slightly simplify rotations, and reduce skill bloat by removing or combining skills. A lot of work needs to be done to counter skill bloat in this game... SCH/SMN suffers particularly.

For example; SA and TA could be combined in to a single skill with the effect and potency depending on your position.

Dancing Edge can be removed and the slashing debuff moved to Shadow Fang while increasing the DOT duration to 21s.

Personally, I hope they finally do away with the class system and bin cross-class skills then buff job abilities to compensate where necessary. e.g; Kiss buffs could be increased to 25% + more effects in return for dumping IR, B4B, etc etc. New job specific buffs can be added for burst requirements.

In 4.0 this frees up a lot of room to expand battle complexity with what makes each class cool and unique rather than the boring every-job cross class buffs and redundant skills everywhere.