RIP Ninja

[Shurrikhan]

To be fair, the only said that we need to check out skills for moves getting positionals. They didn't say that any existing skills were getting positionals, only that "we should pay particular attention to certain weaponskills and make note of certain actions". It could be that only the new Huton-extending move gets a positional, and nothing else. It's probably not going to be as bad as we think.

"added positioning to several weapon skills" - as not all of the new job abilities will be weaponskills, it seems unlikely that the existing moves were left untouched. The mention of adding to "current ninja" also implies this.

That being said, I see no issue with this change. But I also like Monk.
The only thing I'd have hoped for was they'd work a bit differently than the Monk/DRG positional potency bonuses. Rather than having a set position on each ability, I'd have liked to see combo-wide bonuses (likely through traits) that work based on positionals, in which the positional bonuses aren't per ability but just work off alternation or sort of combos of their own. Flank, Flank, Back would have some certain effect vs. Back, Flank, Back or Flank, Back, Back, etc--each with some ideal place in rotation, even if only in the long term (e.g. on certain moves, crits from the back refresh Assassinate while attacks from the flank slightly extend Huton duration and additionally, each ability done from one side (L flank, Back, R flank, Front) gives a stacking bonus, within the combo, for the bonus effect on the next move). Just so it's at least doing something newish.

[ShaliaK]

I still don't think its going to be as bad as people are making it out to be. You can pretty well just stand to be edge of that little circle around the enemy and flick back and forth as necessary.

[Colorful]

I still don't think its going to be as bad as people are making it out to be. You can pretty well just stand to be edge of that little circle around the enemy and flick back and forth as necessary.

I'd have no problems with it if they fixed mudras first before adding unnecessary complications to the class.

[ChaozK]

I'd be surprised if NIN would get as many positionals as MNK. Its most likely going to be the same amount as DRG. To put things into context, a DRG does a positional roughly every 4th attack with a potency loss of 50-70, amounting to an overall dps loss of only 2% when ignored. Its very unlikely that NIN would have to position more often, most likely its going to be a positonal on some combo enders like dancing edge (which the english tooltip used to say).

Even the constant positioning of MNK has a smaller dps loss than most people would think. Its really not that bad guys.

[Destomius]

With Ninja's fast GCD, they'd have to position more often even if they had the same amount of positionals as DRG.

[ChaozK]

With Ninja's fast GCD, they'd have to position more often even if they had the same amount of positionals as DRG.

It would have the same dps loss though (small fast hits vs slow big hits), which is what matters here.

The thing with positionals is that 90% of the time they are a complete non issue. The other 10% are when you have to do mechanics, like stacking with the team and in those cases it matters how much dps you lose. Best example would be pre patch drg and post patch drg. Both versions had the same amount of positioning yet pre patch you would lose tons of dps due to not being able to access crucial skills and buffs while post patch its a non issue with just a 2% dps loss.

[AsahinaMyLove]

Cool another thing I can Ignore like Monk his "Go there" "atk here" xD

As IF I stare at the enemy little blue circle and atk the right angle for a little more damage Lol...

[Riepah]

Mudra lag, positioning, shortest GCD and on top of it we're supposed to support others with Goad and the new aggro decrease ability (the latter of which sounds useless for most relevant content, if aggro management stays as it is nowadays). In the meantime, MNK and DRG get actually new and seemingly very useful and strong mechanics.

I sure hope there's some amazing stuff coming for Ninja they just didn't bother mentioning, but from the live letter, the changes for Nin seemed to be a very sad joke in comparison to DRG and MNK.
From the way it sounded, we'll end up having the hardest class with the lowest DPS as far as melees are concerned. I just hope it won't really end up being that way.

[Kiroh]

I just hope it won't really end up being that way.

NIN is not even the highest DPS now, without the positionals. I cannot imagine it turning out any way but the way you expect by adding them.