Quote Originally Posted by Raidoser View Post
Then i don't see why people are complaining about Raiju stacks, if you can't use them because there is a mechanic stopping you going melee it also mean you can't use melee weaponskill so you just use throwing dagger while waiting to use your Raiju stacks.
I mean throwing dagger no longer break combo so we don't lose shukiho passive when using it (combo also last 30 sec now) and the melee/ranged potency of Bunshin is the same (160 potency).
maybe i will think differently when i will have it but for the moment the complaints look a lot like when TCJ was introduced in stormblood.
Your regular weaponskills work as long as you are in within maximum melee range and allow you to move while attacking. So for example if a boss uses a point blank aoe that's about as large as max melee range that would allow a melee player to continue attacking EXCEPT with Raiju. Another example would be a mechanic where your party first needs to stack and then spread, or where you for some other reason need to be able to evade quickly, the animation lock on Raiju can make the difference between dodging or not. Both of these issues are the exact same that dragoons have to deal with when using jumps but there is one last major difference between DRG jumps and Raiju; that Raiju is both on the GCD as a weaponskill and that Raiju is lost if not used immediately. So where you can simply choose to delay your DRG jumps a few seconds (not optimal but also not a giant loss) while continuing your regular rotations, these same situations cause lvl 90 NIN to grind to a complete halt. It's incredibly frustrating to be within max melee range but still have to use throwing daggers because Raiju would move you out of your safe spot and does not tolerate you using any other melee weaponskill until you have burnt through all 6 stacks of Raiju.
And as a small bonus, a certain currently relevant trial fight (both normal and extreme mode) does include quite a few times where your character is temporarily bound. This also prevents you from using Raiju even though you are within melee range, due to it being a gap closer. It's not very fun.

If Raiju was changed to either not drop off when using melee weaponskills or to not be a gap closer (preferably the first option) then that would make a world of difference in how enjoyable NIN is to play.