Ninja Recommendations

[Kyofu]

Ninja has started out this expansion being exceptionally weak. I've been reading some of the other forum posts about ninja and I've noticed that no one seems to mention Huton. It is a pretty redundant skill to keep up. 15% skill speed basically? That could literally just be a ninja passive. Most of the ninja passives are worthless ninja flare skills. Run like 1% faster, take 1% less falling damage, etc. Why don't we have more combat oriented passives instead of these wastes of space? There's so much that could be added there. I think Huton's current effect should be moved to the passive skill section which could be titled Kaze no Gotoku (like the wind) or Ninja Reflexes or something like that.

What if you were to give Huton the effect of having a % chance of causing your attacks to double hit? That would add a fun element of randomness to it. Make it work like a passive mini Bunshin effect, where Huton gives you 30%~ chance for your weapon skills to proc twice, enhanced appropriately by position and combo, like how I believe Bunshin should function. It doesn't have to apply the dot from Shadow Fang but the weapon skill damage should be mimicked. (Bunshin probably shouldn't benefit from Huton procs, so you'd see a total of 3 weapon skill damages if you had a Huton proc while Bunshin is active.)

Then on to the issue of ninki, the skill usage window is so small that it's just not that enjoyable to use. If you were to lower the threshold on the ninki skills to 70, that would help with the skill usage window and would also provide a nice slight damage increase to ninja as well.

I think with these changes it would make ninja feel even more active, where you're getting to use your ninki a little more often, emulating the attack speed of dual wielding weapons. This in turn would improve the dps of the class by a fair amount, making them feel like a more competitive class while not simply tuning the potency of their abilities. It would be super fun and active, allowing the complexity of the class shine.

[Alistaire]

Considering how bad skill speed is for ninja I'd love to see huton changed from 15% speed to 15% potency.

[Kyofu]

I agree that skill speed isn't that great but I like that it fits the ninja theme. I also feel that having it give a raw potency increase would be a little too bland.

[Seraphor]

Ninja's speed is the sole reason I play it, it's fun, it's hectic, it's different from other jobs, and I don't like Monk enough to settle for that instead.

Ninja doesn't need to lose Huton to gain a potency buff, it doesn't need to be as weak as it is right now, it didn't use to be, so it needs a potency buff in the next patch anyway.

[Duskane]

i just want some utility back
like turn shade shift into a shield we can place on others (make it look like a substitute log)

assassinate being a little strong and Buton effecting abilities

[Seraphor]

i just want some utility back
like turn shade shift into a shield we can place on others (make it look like a substitute log)

assassinate being a little strong and Buton effecting abilities

Shadeshift being useable on others would justify it being a bit low on damage, but I think it's unlikely they'll make such a substantial change to a skill like that.
Assassinate being much more powerful would probably go a long way. It's a combo off a long cooldown ability, it shouldn't be anywhere as weak as it is.

[snipski]

Even Red-mages do more dmg then Ninjas now and they are a joke to play compared... Ninja needs a big ass buff.

[Kyofu]

I'm interested to see what might happen to ninja when the savage raid patch drops. People are speculating that there will be some fine tuning balance changes. Hope that ninja gets some love.

[Nakkir]

I kinda wish Assassinate wasn't bound to a high lvl, long CD skill :/

Having it play off Mug AND DWaD might be an easy way to resolve that.

[Kyofu]

I kinda wish Assassinate wasn't bound to a high lvl, long CD skill :/

Having it play off Mug AND DWaD might be an easy way to resolve that.

Yea I imagine that low level ninja feels pretty bare bones now. That's gotta be a rough and boring leveling experience. At the same time though I think that if they added assassinate ready to Mesui then Mesui would feel a lot more rewarding. Doing a 3 mudra ninjutsu that has a really low potency for 40 ninki doesn't really feel very satisfying. It would be cool if they offered some additional effect to Mesui or something.