Anyone like the Ninja changes? Let's look at what we saw so far.

[Arkenne]

So I was seeing it right, ninki is now generated on weaponskills.

I've never been happier to be wrong.
When they introduced Ninki in SB I was hoping the proc to be from Weaponskills, but disappointingly was from autoattacks, then I was wishing Duality to be a Weapon Skill repeater that crashed my dreams within dreams once I got it.

Now we got the Ninki Proc dependant on Weaponskills, Bunshing replacing the never-to-expectation Duality, and almost all the Ninjutsus we could hope for.
Even Bhava now only has a 1s CD, so you don't have to frog for single target like... ever.

What makes me curious (altho I may already know the answers) are the other ogcds:
- DwaD may still be quite the boring skill it has always been, but now gives a buff to cast Assassinate within the next 10 seconds, Assassinate now is a lvl 60 skill that no longer requires the target to be below 20% HP but can only be casted with this buff, however Assassinate has a 1s CD, does that mean its spammable? That would be OP so I believe is a 1 cast per min, which is fine by me honestly.

- Mug is not being talked about either in the trailer, nor in the reports from the media tour, so does it still give 30 ninki? ...NVM I just saw the Larryzur video and it not only is still there and gives you Ninki... it is now 40. Still on a 90s CD tho.

- Shukushi has 2 charges with a charging time of 60s, but does it still reset uppon using 2 mudra ninjutsus?

- Jugulate is gone, huh? you'll be missed buddy.

- Seems the venom trait is also gone? So NIN no longer has a passive power increase for GCDs?

And yes, the opener alone will be nothing short of insane, with NIN retaining its CPM king title over all the jobs definitely.

Edit: On the min-maxer side tho... for better or for worse Meisui requires Suiton, this means that there are 2 reasons to cast Suiton in a 1 minute window.

Suiton, however, as this tooltip list suggests, has been nerfed to 100 potency while the alternatives of the non-GCD-clipper Shuriken got boosted to 280 and the minor-GCD-clipper Raiton onto 400.
Suiton still being the Huge-GCD-clipper that it is, Ninki coming off of weaponskills and Bhavacakra also having a nerf to 500 potency sounds sort of like a negative on the long run thing?

Is +40 Ninki every 60 seconds worth the about 1s GCD delay (~4 Ninki) and the 180~300 Ninjustu potency trade of?
What are your thoughts on that??

[Realism_Snide]

Not a min-maxer here, but I feel like using Meisui right after using a TCJ ending with Suiton would be the best worth of regaining that 40 ninki, cause that means you can fill that ninki bar quicker for a Bunshin and Bhava in between TA's.

[Arkenne]

NIN is a very situational job, so I can't really rule out the possibility of using TCJ Suiton for Meisui for Ninki's sake.

As for the opener......... makes me think......

Is just that with TCJ we could have a 560 Pot Shuriken and a 800 pot Raiton, also getting Bunshin for an 880 Pot Aeolian and maybe 1 Hyosho which is also 550 Pot...

But not sure if we would have time to weave in the 600 Pot DwaD and the 260 Pot Assassinate... as TCJ is already 4~5 seconds off of TA and Hyosho being a 2 mudra Ninjutsu will already make it difficult to weave in twice... definitely no Bhava would fit in and Mug's CD would be delayed considerably...


Will need to see >_>;;

[Kyohei]

I'm not a main NIN but it has always been a job i like to play and my second job to level. The changes seemed appealing to me. I liked that they conserved most of its skills and upped them with kassatsu not simply being a second charge but adding something to the mudras. Ninja still seem as fun to play and i'm waiting to try this and the other changes.

[Arkenne]

Its not only that, really, they fixed some animation problems!!

With Dream within a Dream being the biggest offender of the bunch as the animation was always being chopped off by the next skill. Now you will do the DwaD animation and if you do another skill, a shadow of yourself will carry on the DwaD animation while you do the next input.
Same applies for Assassinate, as a shadow of yourself is the actual one to do the animation.

Its so amazing~♪

[ern815]

I saw the commentary on Ninja's media tour and I would say IT'S AWESOME! from the looks of it.

[KageTokage]

I think I'd probably use Meisui after the TCJ finisher during the opener just for the sake of making the rotation flow more smoothly.

You could open with Suiton, Meisui, then do another Suiton using Kassatsu after Shadow Fang so you can Mug and get a Bhavacakra off within the TA window, but I'm not sure if that's worth it or not since finding a spot to squeeze in the Bhavacakra would be rather difficult.

[DAILO]

Assuming tooltips stay true on release, you will have 80 NINKI off a basic opener due to 8 NIN per weaponskill (5 GCDs) and Mug giving 40 NIN (IIRC it got increased on 5.0) by the time you do your first TA. You don't want to spend it on Bhava since you definitely want to Bunshin during TA for 16 NIN per weaponskill which should fit in a Bhava near the end of TA window. The only issue here is you might not hit the NIN requirement for that Bhava due to having to cast enhanced mudras in-between GCDs if you have poor latency (you should only use Hyosho during this time as the enhanced mudra).

Now the question is, where do you want to utilize TCJ and Meisui? Using TCJ currently is roughly equivalent to 3 GCDs which means you won't have time to use it directly as an opener (unless they introduced significant reductions in input delay) since Mug, Kassastsu, and Pots need to fit in before a TA. With Suiton being 20secs, you have more leeway for landing TA, but I assume people still want it on time after 5 GCDs. If numbers are the same on release, a Bunshin during TA with a Bhava ender will deal more damage than a Bhava -> TCJ -> Suiton -> Meisui especially considering you still need to utilize your Kassatsu mudras during that time.

These are all assumptions, but I believe people will still stick with the normal opener except Bunshin instead of Bhava and use TCJ into Meisui after TA has already expired for Bhava spamming. TCJ is more meant for filler damage once you use up your Ninjutsu cooldowns from Kassatsu. I don't think anyone will use TCJ into Doton anymore due to Meisui existing.

[Arkenne]

Hrm, on the term of the opener, I have yet to see...

Im also kinda worried by what happens 60 seconds past the start of the fight...

So far the opener Im liking the most is:

Huton > Hide > Suiton > SE(Meisui) > SF(Pot) > SE(TCJ Suiton) > GS (Kassatsu) > AE (Mug) > SE(Bunshin + TA) > GS(Hyosho) > AE(Kassatsu + Bhava) > SE(Hyosho) > GS(DwaD + Assassinate) > AE > SE > GS(Bhava) > AE > SE > SF > carry on

In Bold whats covered by TA, in Underline whats covered by Bunshin.

Im also delaying SF during Bunshin there because I don't know if the clone will leave its own DoT, if not then the potency from SF in Bunshin would be something like 260*2 + 50*6 = 820, which is simply lower than going for another 440 * 2 AE. If the clone however leaves its own DoT, by all means gimme more damage :v

I also tried out an opener with Suiton > TA and TCJ inside TA, but the 4~5 whole seconds sacrifice for TA is too great to my liking and also delays Bunshin in quite a bit, without mentioning that TCJ CD is of 100 which makes it a bit awkward...