A Wish List for Ninja changes in later patches

[Taranok]

-Rename "Armor Crush" -> "Aeolian Edge"(since Armor Crush increases Huton, a Wind ability...aka an Aeolian ability); Rename "Aoelian Edge" -> "Dancing Edge"(since you jump up with a spin, kind of like a dance); Rename "Dancing Edge" -> "Armor Crush"(since "Dancing Edge" reduces slashing resistance, almost like reducing armor potency)

Surprisingly logical. I more or less like this change. The devs would need to shift the animations with the name change as well to keep everything nice and tidy, but I like it.

-Make current "Armor Crush" combo off of "Shadow Fang" instead of "Gust Slash"(This will help keep "Shadow Fang" from falling off and lower the number of finishers combo'ing off of "Gust Slash") or maybe have the current "Armor Crush" combo off of "Spinning Edge" and have "Shadow Fang" combo off "Armor Crush" to avoid clipping the DoT.

I disagree not because I don't want the rotation changed (it needs to be changed. Seriously.) but because I don't agree with how you want to change it. Right now, we have 2 20-second-long buff/debuffs. Or, more accurately, a 20 and 18 second duration ability. Dancing Edge and Shadow Fang. Putting Shadow Fang after Crush Armor makes no sense, as that's just "You permanently have Huton pending boss mechanics." Having AC after SF makes less sense for the same reason. If you apply SF, why wouldn't you just crush armor? Even with changes in potency, it'd still be required. You could lower the amount increased, but AC fits best as a "You use this to rebuild Huton if you need to." And it should stay this way.

The natural combo is Spinning Edge -> Dancing Edge -> Shadow Fang. The only change that would need to be made is that DE might need its duration increased, along with SF. Naturally, the potency of these 2 abilities would need a mild adjustment as well, but the current NIN combo is 2 3-length combos for every Shadow Fang, and since DE needs to be up anyways, may as well put it before SF.

Another alternative is to make DE its own combo starter that chains into Shadow Fang. The devs would just, again, need to adjust potency as necessary. Though I feel this might be less skill-intensive on the rotation than making SF a 3-length combo.

Either way, the nature of how DE interacts with AE and AC needs to be changed, because right now, the NIN rotation is just a mess unless a Warrior is present.

-Make "Shukuchi" a 35 yalm range, up from 25 yalm range.(-Almost- not worth doing)

The problem is less the range, and more how horrible the UI is for ground-targeted abilities in combo with the range.

For instance, if they made it teleport you to the closest point to your mouse cursor when casting the ability outside of max range, it would be substantially more useful. Extra range would only serve to mitigate the horrible UI issues.

Hell, I kind of wish I had the option to simply "Target GTAoEs at closest point to current target" as an option, honestly. That would also fix the problem, and make GTAoE abilities not a horrible mess to cast.

25 yalms isn't bad. 25 yalms with many fights that have distances exceeding 25 yalms in addition to a badly designed UI makes 25 yalms bad.

[Ninji]

I disagree not because I don't want the rotation changed. Having AC after SF makes less sense for the same reason. If you apply SF, why wouldn't you just crush armor? Even with changes in potency, it'd still be required. You could lower the amount increased, but AC fits best as a "You use this to rebuild Huton if you need to." And it should stay this way.

Yea, I am not saying my idea is the best, but as it is now, it is just a very messy rotation. Without a warrior(and sometimes even with a warrior) DE combo->SF combo ->AE Combo -> DE Combo(since it drops)-> SF combo(since it drops) -> Finally Armor Crush Combo, weaving in a mutilate, that is 34 seconds(with a 2.00 GCD) rotation and it is not counting Suiton+Trick Attack -> Kassasstsu+Raiton, so add another 4-5 seconds, almost 40 seconds before being able to armor crush @_@ it only adds 30 seconds to Huton, so we gotta sacrifice an Aoelian Edge later on to make up for lost time.

[Ninji]

The problem is less the range, and more how horrible the UI is for ground-targeted abilities in combo with the range.
For instance, if they made it teleport you to the closest point to your mouse cursor when casting the ability outside of max range, it would be substantially more useful. Extra range would only serve to mitigate the horrible UI issues.
25 yalms isn't bad. 25 yalms with many fights that have distances exceeding 25 yalms in addition to a badly designed UI makes 25 yalms bad.

Well I also mean for this change to also have a "fun" factor, and when I am running forward and I use Shukuchi to go further forward, it seems I just went 5 feet, doesn't feel like I am actually -poof-ing to another area, but I do like the idea of "closest point to your mouse cursor when casting the ability outside of max range" it can take a seconds to find the sweet spot of max range.

[AlphaDragoon]

It wouldn't make sense to change the name of Aeolian Edge to something else as the attack looks like a small whirlwind. Aeolian = things related to the Greek god of wind.

[Ninji]

It wouldn't make sense to change the name of Aeolian Edge to something else as the attack looks like a small whirlwind. Aeolian = things related to the Greek god of wind.

Lol you are agreeing with me and you don't realize it :P Okay, Imagine "Aeolian Edge" keeping the same look, but it instead does more dmg from the flank and increases Huton timer(Huton is a -wind- based Ninjutsu). Also imagine "Armor Crush" keeping the same look, but it instead doesn't have a positional requirement and decreases slashing resistance on the target(since you do more dmg with the debuff on the target, it is almost like crushing away their armor). Finally imagine "Dancing Edge" looking the same, but does more dmg when you are behind the target and is the most dmg ability.

Look, I am not -just- saying "change the name. It wouldn't break your logic and it would actually make more sense :P

[Korashy]

If they could double DE uptime, I'd be mostly happy.

[Ninji]

If they could double DE uptime, I'd be mostly happy.

Yea, I can see where you are coming from there. That could be a possible solution too, but we would still have 3 different finishers off one ability that we have to juggle against a DoT @_@. The point of this was for fun -as well as- to show developers that there can be ways to improve the Ninja. If we are just complacent then nothing will improve for Ninja. I just want to get some good ideas flowing and have a good discussion :P So keep your ideas coming!