Upcoming ninja changes for 5.08 and 5.1

[CrashofZenki]

So... Instead of boosting NIN, they are gonna simplify it by making it a Melee DNC? Why cant they just freaking rework TA already and make us actual Assassins with actual damage. Ninja as a party buffer should have ended with them saying they wanted to remove synergy on the classes....

If they are to simplify NIN, then I aint gonna bother playing it anymore. It was pretty much the only class I enjoy playing BECAUSE of how hard it is to master. The only issue I had with it personally was how low pDPS and rDPS it gave despite the effort placed into it COMPAIRED to classes you can pretty much do 1-2-3 combo on.

The MNK changes was justified because of it being harder to play than SAM for sure. But they should have showed the same love for NIN. Make them up there with MNK.

Balancing should in first term be done by how hard a class is to play, THEN take into account any synegry.

Excusing themselves with "Oh no, we cant because bla bla would be perma META" is a lame and short minded excuse. Even if a class might fit perfectly in a meta doesnt mean the person playing the meta job is gonna perform to the hight of which the meta would result in a higher output than "unconventional" groupings.

Just because a job has the POTENTIAL to be "OMG OP PLZ NERF" Doesnt mean it should be unless a high majority of the players hit the numbers needed to kill another spot.

Even back in previous expansions NIN was never highest even accounting rDPS, so I dont get the focus on batteling META. Sheep voices should not dictate actual facts.

Just because people thought they needed a NIN for a static over lets say a MNK, doesnt give room to punish NIN for the short thinking of players.

Square Enix, dont take the easy way out. Make NIN how they should be. An actual Assassin, a master of dualweilding. A Killer, A lone wolf... Not a glorified team Buff. Because if this keeps going you might as well remove all its abilities except Trick Attack and have it do one ability every minute.

Thank you.

[ForteNightshade]

The MNK changes was justified because of it being harder to play than SAM for sure. But they should have showed the same love for NIN. Make them up there with MNK.

Actually, the Monk buffs epitomizes why balancing based on job difficulty or complexity doesn't work. Samurai is supposed to be the selfish DPS that offers nothing but raw damage yet Monk obliterates it in every aspect. It offers better personal damage, raid DPS and even some party utility with Mantra. Speaking purely pragmatically, Samurai has been rendered worthless because Monk does everything better. The same issue currently plagues the Casters. One could argue Summoner is far harder to play than Black Mage yet the latter dominates it all because the devs are once again obsessing over Raise as a utility.

Put simply, job complexity should only exist for aesthetic and enjoyment. A lot of people previously attracted to Ninja enjoyed it being a harder job to master while still feeling impactful. Simply buffing it to kingdom come accomplishes nothing except to push out another job. Stormblood showed exactly that, where the three overwhelmingly preferred jobs were Ninja, Dragoon and Bard because they all synergized better than anything else. Does that mean Trick Attack needs to go? Maybe. I do think the devs overcompensated because they're afraid Trick will cause Ninja dominate once again. So that needs to be addressed one way or another.

[Kabooa]

The same issue currently plagues the Casters. One could argue Summoner is far harder to play than Black Mage yet the latter dominates it all because the devs are once again obsessing over Raise as a utility.

https://www.fflogs.com/zone/statistics/29

Summoner has the same amount of usage as Black Mage.

https://www.fflogs.com/zone/statistics/25 Alphascape
https://www.fflogs.com/zone/statistics/21 Sigma
https://www.fflogs.com/zone/statistics/17 Alpha

[Reylin]

(...) make us actual Assassins with actual damage.
(...) Make NIN how they should be. An actual Assassin, a master of dualweilding. A Killer, A lone wolf... Not a glorified team Buff.

I agree in about every respect.
I main NIN in the hopes that one day, it'll turn into an independent Assassin class.

Off the top of my head, Ragnarok had a solid Assassin design. High speed, high dps, multiple cloaking options, positioning options, poisons, dualwielding - etc.
Here I am playing with mudras, being a TA-delivery system in dungeons, embarrassing myself in raids and throwing looks at SAM that say "hey, you know what? let me try that katana."

I don't know.

[osutin]

snip

Part of me agrees with you, but don't you think jobs should be balanced by their performance when played to their highest potential? If one job is more difficult than the others but performs markedly better when executed perfectly, it will become meta. MMOs aren't fighting games - the difficulty isn't all wrapped up in execution. I think it's short sighted (and probably impossible) to balance jobs based on average level of play. The average aptitude of the playerbase as a whole probably increases over the life of an expansion as people improve and less dedicated players leave the game, so classes balanced that way would need constant reworking (this is just a theory, I have no numbers to support this).

Just my 2 cents. NIN definitely needs a buff, I just think the design philosophy should aim to equalize jobs based on optimal performance.

[Kabooa]

Part of me agrees with you, but don't you think jobs should be balanced by their performance when played to their highest potential? If one job is more difficult than the others but performs markedly better when executed perfectly, it will become meta. MMOs aren't fighting games - the difficulty isn't all wrapped up in execution. I think it's short sighted (and probably impossible) to balance jobs based on average level of play. The average aptitude of the playerbase as a whole probably increases over the life of an expansion as people improve and less dedicated players leave the game, so classes balanced that way would need constant reworking (this is just a theory, I have no numbers to support this).

Just my 2 cents. NIN definitely needs a buff, I just think the design philosophy should aim to equalize jobs based on optimal performance.

People will chase the highest DPS. It's that simple.