NIN mudras going into 5.0

[Gemina]

I just wrapped up the NIN SB questline. The final solo instance is nothing short of a shinobi battle royal, and a total blast! But it left me wondering a bit. I know the three mudras is already clunky, but could a fourth possibly be coming? Could it work and how?

Sasuke's lineage of shinobi only mastered three Mudras, so lore wise it might not fit, but man beast summonings, growing 10 stories tall, and freakin shadow clones! Going ant-man might not be an option, but how about the other two?

I think one possibility is four mudra is not really used during combat, but prior. Beast summonings and shadow clones would require no micro management and just attack whatever you do. They have low health and will require ninjitsu to be brought back out again.

Anywho, just some thoughts as I'm still a little giddy over the fight.

[Eloah]

This is how I see a possible fourth mudra being inplimented. My guess is it would be spirit/soul or Rei, since Tamashii is a bit long and Tama would mean more round, plus Rei fits with the single kanji, three letter word motif of the other mudra. But, Rei would be a level cap skill, and either cause an action on it's own, or allow for several other actions to be implimented, like changing what the commands of the other mudra create. Like instead of Raiton, the same input would create a larger more damaging skill, Raijin?, while under the effect of Rei.

[Crushnight]

i'd be fine with a forth mudra so long as things fit into 1 of 3 scenerios

1. no quad mudra combination - just new combinations/executions (can also add more skills with less button bloat overall)
2. quad mudra combinations would have to be be obsurdly powerful as clipping 2 gcds is huge loss otherwise
3. a quad mudra and couple less number of combinations, quad have insane potentcy etc

regardless how we get 4th mudra if we get it how will it interact with TCJ/TA

[Derio]

As long as their is no quad mudra combinations. However I would suffice if there was new jutsu but they are just 1 button. One big issue is the mudra input with server lag or poor latency.

I just hope they do ninja justice in 5.0

[Kurando]

Do you think they would ever remove Mundra input? I mean let's say you can set Raiton to your hotbar directly, but when you use it the animation plays for whatever Mundra is required to use that particular Ninjutsu. I suppose it would be like casting time except you can do it whilst moving, though the auto input means less issues with lag/latency.

[Shurrikhan]

Do you think they would ever remove Mundra input? I mean let's say you can set Raiton to your hotbar directly, but when you use it the animation plays for whatever Mundra is required to use that particular Ninjutsu. I suppose it would be like casting time except you can do it whilst moving, though the auto input means less issues with lag/latency.

They could negate those issues already by just moving the queuing moment up a bit and trusting the client timer for the animation lock duration. Sure, there might be some hackers at the highest end, but they wouldn't be able to post a log or play outside their static without being found out, which removes almost all reason to hack outside of glamour farms.

[Jandor]

A 4th would be ok, if they let you use other actions in between mudras.

[Seraphor]

If a 4th mudra was added, they'd have to limit jutsu to just three mudra chains.
Because it would add:
X 4
X X 4
X X X 1
X X X 2
X X X 3
X X X 4

So two more jutsu's if limited to three still, or SIX if expanded to four, and I think six new skills is a bit overkill.

[Jonnycbad]

If they're adding a 4th mudra, it's time to make Ninjutsu into an auto-cast action. You select Doton on your hotbar, your character casts the mudras automatically then you have to hit the Ninjutsu button to execute it. They can increase the amount of time to hold a Ninjutsu before executing it for an extra 5 seconds before it gets dropped.

[wereotter]

If they're adding a 4th mudra, it's time to make Ninjutsu into an auto-cast action. You select Doton on your hotbar, your character casts the mudras automatically then you have to hit the Ninjutsu button to execute it. They can increase the amount of time to hold a Ninjutsu before executing it for an extra 5 seconds before it gets dropped.

Part of me wants this already, but then I realized that doing so would potentially add more button bloat. Right now the mudras take up four hot bar spaces. If you took that away and just make them all seperate actions you'd need:
Fuma Shrunken
Raiton
Katon
Huton
Doton
Suiton

So this is already two more buttons than ninjas have to have now, not counting the useless Hyoton action. If a fourth were to be added, then even more skills, and even more button bloat regardless of how things are handled. My hope for 5.0 is a culling of useless skills and replace some mudras with other more interesting ones we've seen used in the ninja quests. Raiton can argubly be removed as can Hyoton. They could also split the difference between Katon and Doton and have it deal initial damage plus damage over time to each target it hits. That would free up potentially three combinations that could be used for new skills without needing to add a fourth mudra.