Hollow Nozuchi
  • Animation: I hate to say it, but the animation is kind of terrible. I understand that they’re supposed to be snakes, but you’d never know it from the animation.
  • Function: This unusual ability (not weaponskill!) gives some bonus AOE damage by adding some synergy between AOE weaponskills and AOE ninjutsu. This is a great idea, and I’d like to see more of it; bonus points for not needing to be on a hotbar.
  • Suggestions: My biggest suggestion would be with the animation: add the snake heads in there to make it clear what’s happening. Beyond that, get tanks to stop pulling mobs out of Doton.
  • Grade: A

Chidori Forked Raiju and Fleeting Raiju
  • Animation: These are interesting because that they look pretty good in combat, though they look quite janky frozen in gpose (the feet are just weird). The superman pose of Fleeting Raiju looks very strange to me, though Forked Raiju looks quite good. The lightning effects on both of these moves are quite good, especially the on-hit graphic from Fleeting Raiju.
  • Function: Obviously, Raiju has been and remains quite controversial. I’ll just say that I hated these when I first got them, but that they’ve grown on me a lot. I think my problem is that I initially tried to play them like a level 80 ShB NIN—cramming everything into the Trick Attack Window—which doesn’t work. Once I actually started playing like a level 90 EW NIN, they felt much better. Now, I like being able to zip around during add phases, and last-hitting a boss with Fleeting Raiju is cinematic, if nothing else.
  • Suggestions: I’d like to avoid this thread devolving into yet another Raiju whine thread, so I’ll leave suggestions to the numerous other threads/Reddit/Discord on the topic.
  • Grade: CONTROVERSIAL