Shadowbringers Ninja Job: Complaints, Feedback, and Suggestions

[Eorzean_username]

Do you currently enjoy playing Ninja in Shadowbringers?

Not really, no. I've pretty much lost interest in using it at all, for any kind of content.

However, to be clear, I don't think that the current version of Ninja is "bad", per se:

• It's not a design disaster.
• It's completely "usable".
• Numerically, it pulls its weight well in raid instances.
• Its rotation is not particularly obnoxious to play.
• For the most part, it's not unfairly difficult, either.
• And the design isn't problematic enough to be considered "unfun", in my opinion.

Instead, I think that the key word that I would use for the current version of Ninja is "disappointing". And in that sense, I find Shadowbringers Ninja very disappointing:

• Post-5.10 Ninja doesn't feel at all like the Job that it used to be.
• Ninja has drifted a very far distance from its initial roots in the ARR Rogue Class introductory experience, and that initial introduction now feels very misleading.
• Ninja does not feel like it satisfies the fantasy niche that it was originally intended to, and is one that FFXIV is distinctly missing: the traditional "Thief", "Rogue", "Assassin".
• A great deal of aspects about the rotation do not feel comfortable or satisfying to perform any more, especially compared to previous Ninja designs.
• Other aspects of Ninja's design have been problematic since their inception, and either remain unaddressed, or have been compounded over time.
• A lot of the Ninja toolkit does not have a satisfying place in AOE situations, such as the entire "Trick Attack" / "Vulnerability Up" window.

In this post, I would like to try to explore why Ninja no longer feels as appealing and fun as it used to. I would also like to explore ways that Ninja could be refined and improved from its current state, preferably without rebounding the design back into having the historical design issues that the aggressive Patch 5.10 changes attempted to address.

[Eorzean_username]

What do you think are the current problems with Ninja?

I would break this up into several categories:

1. Ninja has a problematic fantasy and presentation that I think falls short of most of the "Class Archetypes" that players are expecting Ninja to be, especially coming from other games, RPGs, MMOs, etc.
2. Related to the above, Ninja has drifted a long distance from feeling like a true "Melee" combat experience, and feels too much like a "Low-budget Caster" now.
3. Ninja has several rotational issues that make it feel weird, clunky, and awkward to play, some of which were freshly-introduced with Patch 5.10, ironically as part of an attempt to reduce these issues in other areas of the design.

1. Ninja fantasy and presentation is underwhelming, lacking, or even confusing compared to its potential or expectations.

1a. What fantasies does Ninja successfully fulfill?

I... honestly don't know. In my opinion, FFXIV Ninja currently does not do a good job of feeling like a "Thief", nor a "Rogue", nor even an "Assassin", nor even the typical "Ninja" found in most other games that I have tried.

Coming from the perspective of someone with a primarily "Western" fantasy background, my impression of the current state of FFXIV Ninja's fantasy presentation is that it is some kind of strange... "magical"... "cartoony"... thing? I don't know.

It's very strange, and I really don't know what "fantasy niche" FFXIV Ninja is supposed to be fulfilling. I think it's safe to assume that this is due to some sort of cultural "blind spot" or ignorance on my part, because the developers almost certainly had some kind of design intent and vision when laying out Ninja's developments over the past several expansions.

But, my own lack of ability to summarize what Ninja is supposed to "be", may be worth noting from a design standpoint, since I'm not a particularly unique or remarkable individual. So, if I feel confused by what Ninja has ended up as, I'm probably not alone.

1b. Lack of fantasy satisfaction: "Assassin"

At this point, to me, Ninja feels like a borderline-silly "Melee Magical Caster" Job, almost as much as, if not more than, any sort of "Melee Physical Attacker". I think that "Knife Wizard" or "Mudra Mage" or something might be a more accurate Job name.

Even the Ninja Job quests have gradually shifted from being quite dark and serious at level 30-50, to being an honestly-excruciating series of cheap running sitcom jokes about Karasu playing HiLaRiOUs pranks on Oboro, with Tsubame reduced to "token girl that gets kidnapped sometimes and otherwise forgotten" (after initially being introduced as dangerous and competent).

Even the contrast between the sinister-looking ARR Ninja Relics of "Yoshimitsu Nexus" and "Sasuke's Blades Zeta", vs. the "Bright Blue Neon-LED Rave Glowsticks" aesthetic of subsequent Ninja Relics, seems to underline this change in tone and intent. It's honestly kind of bizarre.

The entire Job just feels like it's a cartoony, running joke to the developers at this point, which makes the early presentation of "dark edgy mysterious shadow killer Job" seem outright misleading.

Now, I'm not necessarily arguing that "dark edgy mysterious shadow killer Job" doesn't have problems of its own in terms of tedious cliché issues, but it's at least cooler and more RPG-iconic to this Archetype than... whatever Ninja has currently been reduced to.

Also, in almost all MMO-style games that I've tried where "Thief"/"Rogue" is not an option, they instead provide an "Assassin"-type option, which still has a heavy emphasis on shadows, ambushes, and close physical/weapon combat, and any "magical" aspects are generally reserved strictly as a flourish or embellishment. Some examples include (bolstered by Google for games that I haven't tried personally):

• EverQuest 2: Assassin
• Guild Wars 1: Assassin
• MapleStory: Assassin
• TERA: Ninja
• WildStar: Stalker
• Blade and Soul: Assassin
• Black Desert Online: Kunoichi, Ninja, Hashashin

1c. Lack of fantasy satisfaction: "Thief / Rogue"

"Thief" or "Rogue" is an absolute, fundamental, staple part of RPG / Fantasy settings, and players coming from almost any other MMO or RPG will expect to have access to this Class Archetype.

This list is not at all exhaustive, but just quickly off the top of my head based on games that I've tried, and then helped further by Google:

• EverQuest 1: Rogue
• Final Fantasy XI: Thief
• EverQuest 2: Swashbuckler, Brigand
• World of Warcraft: Rogue
• Dungeons and Dragons Online: Rogue
• Lord of the Rings Online: Burglar
• MapleStory: Thief, Rogue
• Rift: Rogue
• Neverwinter: Rogue
• Star Wars The Old Republic: Scoundrel, Operative
• Dragon Quest X: Thief
• Guild Wars 2: Thief
• Elder Scrolls Online: Nightblade
• Dungeons and Dragons 5e: Rogue
• ... etc... etc... etc... I'm definitely missing or forgetting many, many other examples.

For players that make this sort of Class their "main" in games, FFXIV is distinctly lacking anything that fulfills this niche, and in fact provides something that is directly misleading in the form of the initial Rogue Class requirement, that transforms into a final Ninja design at level 70-80 that is pretty close to a complete "bait and switch".

1d. Lack of fantasy satisfaction: Stealth, Thieving, Ambushes... anything "Rogue-like"

Stealth (aka, "Hide")

This aspect is so incredibly bad compared to most other games's implementation that it's almost insulting (at least to the extent that an emotionally-stable adult person should feel insulted by a FF video game's design decisions).

Other games implement Stealth as a way to...

• Sneak past unwanted encounters
• Do sneaky things like pickpocket or thieve
• Perform powerful ambushes on targets to open combat
• Vanish from sight in the middle of combat in order to set up more ambush attacks.
• ... etc ... You know... fun or cool things that feel like a sneaky character...

In FFXIV, "Hide" is obnoxiously slow, to the point that the player is basically punished for even toggling it on. It has no purpose or value in combat, and aspects of "hiding" are not brought into combat in any way.

Instead, it's been repurposed as... ah, yes, of course... a way to allow the Ninja to use even more Magical attacks while preparing for combat.

So not only is "Hide" disappointing in terms of its expected function, but further, its sole actual use is just as a counter-intuitive "Magic reset button" to give the Job even more of a "magical" emphasis.

Thieving

Other games allow players to live out the "Thief"/"Rogue" fantasy by... well... stealing things:

• Stealing directly or increasing rare drops in Final Fantasy XI
• Pick Pocketing lockboxes from mobs in World of Warcraft
• Sneaking into homes in Elder Scrolls Online
• Gaining temporary actions in Guild Wars 2
• ...However it's implemented, most games with a "Rogue"-type class try to allow the player some actual active sense of this, and reward for it.

In FFXIV, you can... press "Mug" on CD for totally-unrelated reasons to... generate "Ninki" (), and sometimes this will accidentally-maybe make a mob drop an extra, useless, crafting ingredient that you're just going to vendor for 1 to 7 gil. You have basically no control over what you "steal", it's on a 120 second cooldown, it barely works, and in general it's just so unsatisfying and forgettable and pointless that it's basically little more than depessing flavor-text that might as well not even be there.

Ambushes

At this point, Ninja has basically no incentive to start combat "Hidden", and it can't ever "Hide" during combat (despite "in combat stealth" being a special type of action for most "Rogue"/"Assassin" types in most games).

Instead, everything relies on — yes, that's right, of course — magic. Big, bright, flashy magic. In this case, magical... water? Yes, that's my Rogue/Thief/Assassin fantasy: splashing some water in my enemy's face and then somehow being able to "ambush" them as a result, because I wield the same fearsome power as an angry date at a sit-down restaurant.

Furthermore, if a player does stubbornly decide to try to indulge the "ambush fantasy" with "Hide", they will... slowly... very slowly... plod up to the target, to the point that you're basically nerfing your own gameplay by making everything take 10x as long for no benefit or advantage.

And furthermore, if a player expecting the "Thief"/"Rogue"/"Assassin" gameplay from other games decides to try to Stealth up to a Boss to prepare for combat? Oh, they just got auto-detected and accidentally started combat. Because FFXIV Ninja isn't even allowed to use "Hide" to sneak up and ambush any target that actually matters.

Poisons

Another "Rogue" / "Assassin" iconic feature. Ninja even used to have these — "Kiss of the Wasp" and "Kiss of the Viper". And then they just... disappeared.

Sure, it was implemented quite blandly, adding not very much as a "stance"-type buff that a lot of players forgot to even toggle on. But that meant that the design idea needed iteration or improvement, not that it needed to be deleted completely.

I think developers sometimes underestimate how much effect on a player's fantasy experience that something as simple as "I clicked a button and put poisons on my blades" can have, even if it seems trivial.

It's just missing... almost everything!!

FFXIV Ninja doesn't feel or play anything like a typical fantasy "Thief". Or "Rogue". Or even "Assassin", at this point. I think that it's likely to be very, very disappointing for players coming from other MMOs, Fantasy, or RPGs, and looking for these sorts of familiar and iconic design elements.

1e. Overall effect: Disappointment

FFXIV's bright, happy, very "magical" Ninja seems to completely miss nearly every archetype that a player from another game is expecting to get when they invest into leveling the "Dual Wielding Rogueish Shadowy Stealth Class" option.

At this point in its design evolution (or, in my opinion, "de-volution"), FFXIV Ninja...

• Is obnoxiously bright and perky, rather than dark and shadowy
• Seems to be more and more about strange Magical attacks, rather than direct Physical combat or ambushes
• Lacks, in actual practice, just about anything meaningful or iconic about "Thief"/"Rogue"/"Assassin" archetypes in other games.

1f. To be clear: It's not the presence of most of the "cartoon/folklore Ninja" elements that's bad, it's that they seem to come at the complete expense of most of the other important iconic elements for this archetype.

In other words: I'm not saying that "bright and perky" designs are objectively a bad thing.

Happy perky class designs are fine. If everything in a game is "dark and edgy", then it just feels oppressive and cheezy.

Instead, I'm saying that these design aspects feel confusing and out of place on a Job that's blatantly presented as FFXIV's answer to the Rogue/Assassin archetype, and makes it disappointing for players that assumed that they were signing up for something very different.

I'm also not saying that having elements of classical "Ninja" tropes and fantasy is a bad thing.

• A little magical fire or lightning thrown out here or there, summoned by mystical hand gestures? Okay. Sure. Cool.
• Disappearing in a puff of smoke as the enemy attacks your wooden-log decoy? Yep, that's a classic.
• Throwing shurikens to kill people, even though that's not really how it actually worked historically? Sure, fine. What's a ninja without throwing-stars?
• ... etc, etc, etc...

Instead, what I'm trying to say is that FFXIV Ninja is way too lop-sidedly imbalanced toward one aspect of design, and ends up just being a disjointed pile of weird cheesy cartoony stuff, to the point that it lacks much satisfaction for players expecting something aligned with more typical RPG depictions of this type of class, and especially players expecting a much more "Melee" or "Physical" kind of "Dual Wielding Melee Attacker".

Instead, Ninja has been turned into something much more akin to a cartoony magical attacker that just happens to be obligated to stand in melee range, and that feels... very weird, and somewhat like false advertising.

2. The current Ninja design does not really feel very much like a Physical Melee attacker any more, and feels far too "Magical" instead.

2a. Ninja's design has devolved to place far too much emphasis on Mudras and "Magical" actions.

I'm not really sure why the developers decided to go deeper and deeper down this route with Ninja.

In Heavensward, Ninja still felt like a "Rogue"/"Thief"/"Assassin" design, seemed to be trying to retain the core ideas of the archetype, and focused on making them all better:

• "Armor Crush" reduced the amount of magic that needed to be used in combat.
• "Dream Within a Dream" added a strong, agile-looking, multi-strike Physical OGCD to the rotation.
• "Duality" further emphasized Physical combo Weapon damage.
• "Shadewalker" and "Smoke Screen" pulled in iconic elements of "Rogue"/"Thief"/"Assassin"/"Ninja" deception and misdirection, and solidified Ninja's party role as a unique support Job.

In Stormblood, Ninja suddenly went off the rails, devoting its new actions to heavily emphasize "Magical" aspects instead:

• "Dancing Edge and "Mutilate" are removed, further cutting out Melee/Physical actions.
• The act of applying poisons was removed, baked into passive traits that no one had to think about, so... basically not even there.
• A bizarro "Ninki Gauge" is tacked on (because EVERYONE MUST HAVE GAUGES!!!), and is consumed to deliver flashy, overtly Magical attacks: "Hellfrog Medium" and "Bhavacakra".
• The rotation has more physical GCDs displaced, and significant time consumed, by "Ten Chi Jin", being forced to come to a full stop and clunk out three extra Mudra/Ninjutsu commands per ~100s.

In Shadowbringers, Ninja goes completely mad for Mudras, and seems to marginalize almost everything else about the archetype:

• "Shadewalker", "Smoke Screen", "Goad" are gone, further cutting out any ties to the "sneaky support" archetype.
• "Duality" and "Jugulate" are gone and "Shadow Fang" is diverted into a ~60s CD, further reducing the variety of Melee/Weapon attacks, and further reducing the amount of Physical emphasis in the rotation.
• "Assassinate" is nerfed and modified into an embarassing afterthought of an action, with almost no bite or satisfaction to it.
• "Kassatsu" has its CD chopped in half, and then given two charges, overloading the Opener and Burst rotations with the ability to cast Mudra/Ninjutsu again after putting Mudra/Ninjutsu on-cooldown.

  • This is eventually changed to be slightly less over-loaded in 5.10.
  • But it keeps its new lower CD, and also doesn't interact with the normal Mudra/Ninjutsu CD, so it still causes even more Mudra/Ninjutsu to be crammed into the rotation than prior to Shadowbringers.

• One of the big "new things' for Shadowbringers is just that "Kassatsu" upgrades Mudra/Ninjutsu to be even bigger, and flashier, and more Magical.
• "Ninki" and "Bhavacakra" are changed to allow "Ninki" actions to be used more freely, without CD, and "Bhavacakra" begins to be used constantly in the rotation to dump "Ninki", resulting in even more big flashy magical actions filling up the screen.
• Another big "new thing" is "Meisui", encouraging you to splash the target with water even more often so that you can slurp the water back up and empower yourself to cast... even more Magical "Bhavacakra". Hooray.
• "Ten Chi Jin" is mildly improved from the Stormblood chore, but remains a clunky, fragile, rotation-halting mess that further bloats out the Opener and Burst windows into almost nothing but Mudra/Ninjutsu.
• Potency and design changes to Mudras/Ninjutsu in 5.10 push "Fuma Shuriken" entirely out of the rotation and replace it with significantly more "Raiton" lightning bolts, even further tilting Ninja feel and visuals toward "Magical Caster".

STOP.
Please. I am once again asking you to STOP. Enough Mudras. Enough Ninjutsu. Ninja has enough Magical Elemental attacks. STOP.

2b. Ninja combos look flimsy, feel weak, and are unsatisfying to perform rotationally.

So, okay, first of all: Ninja does look "cool" enough while doing "Aeolian Edge" combo with the spins and jumpy slashes. I don't think these actions look bad.

Instead, the Ninja combo cycle just feels... weak:

• It lacks visual weight, or a sense of "impact".
• It doesn't look dangerous.
• It doesn't look "sharp".
• It doesn't look harmful.
• It doesn't have a sense of physical contact.
• It just... doesn't convey a sense of actual weapon combat, the way that — for example — Warrior axe attacks, or Gunbreaker slashes, do.

...This is hard to explain properly. Like, yes, obviously, the Ninja is making slashy motions with its daggers, it's obviously "using" its weapons. But it feels and looks more like "play fighting", or fake motion-capture studio stuff, than an actual weighty, aggressive, real attack.

Furthermore, at this point, the Ninja rotational Weaponskill cycle has been pared down so far that it's very bland and unsatisfying.

Aside from a few "Armor Crush" sprinkled here and there, it's just endless, repetitive "Aeolian Edge" spam.

Even assuming the Heavensward habit of ignoring "Dancing Edge" (because a Warrior was covering the Slashing debuff), the Ninja rotation now doesn't even have the intermittent "Mutilate" and "Shadow Fang" variations that it once had.

I think that it's really bland and unsatisfying, both visually and rotationally, and it contributes even further to Ninja feeling like a "Fake Melee" that the developers don't really want to be a "melee attacker", and just has double-daggers and some token slash animations because it's technically obligated to.

Also, "Armor Crush" animation looks... really strange and awkward.

At a basic level, the "dagger lunge" of "Armor Crush" looks fine enough. But it's also kind of weird and "tacked-on", and doesn't fit the rest of the aesthetic. It blends very awkwardly with other animations.

But most importantly, it displaces the Ninja's model to an unusual degree for a GCD action, causing it to sometimes be difficult to understand where your character is "actually" positioned (in server terms) at critical moments for tight mechanical placements.

Also, also, "Bunshin" is borderline-unnoticeable, and disappointing, and honestly kind of lame.

"Bunshin" is... yeah... disappointing. This could have been a cool opportunity to place more emphasis back on Ninja rotational weaponskill attacks.

But since it doesn't actually mimic the Ninja's specific GCD actions, and because its awkward 90s CD doesn't line up cleanly with the rest of the rotational cycle, it has almost no serious strategy to its timing or use: it's just a "whack it and forget it" background buff that sometimes accidentally lands inside "Trick Attack".

And it barely looks like anything visually. Most of the time, in actual combat situations, I'm only certain that "Bunshin" is actually happening because I can see the "stack counter" in my Enhancements tray counting down.

3. Ninja rotational gameplay has picked up more and more awkward, clunky aspects over time, undermining the moment-to-moment playfeel.

3a. Placing Mudras on the GCD make the rotation sluggish and unappealing.

Patch 5.10 switched "Mudra" and "Ninjutsu" to the GCD, in an effort to try to remove the OGCD weaving pressure on Ninja players with higher latency, or any player trying to fit 2-3 Mudras into one GCD.

While this did achieve that goal, it had the unintended side effect of making the Ninja rotation feel slower and clunkier. It also even further drives the Ninja into a "Fake Caster" playfeel.

The root of both issues is that GCD Mudras happen way too frequently: base 20s CD, with 2 charges, plus "Kassatsu" in parallel per 60s, plus "Ten Chi Jin" in parallel per 120s.

Placed onto the GCD, these now displace a significant amount of weaponskill GCDs per rotational cycle. Furthermore, a lot of this displacement happens during Ninja's big, important "burst" windows during "Trick Attack", meaning that the biggest, most important part of the rotation — where the player "wakes up" and focuses for an intense 15 seconds — is now almost entirely occupied by "empty" hand-signal animations, or magical lightning bolts, ice shards, and water splashes.

This slows down the feel of the rotation significantly, because Mudra GCDs are clunky and "empty" (you're not actually attacking or "doing" anything). It also strips away a great deal of the "Physical Weapon Attacker" fantasy and feel and visuals, and makes the Ninja's dual-blades feel more like decoration than anything.

When Mudras were weaved in-between weapon attacks, Ninja felt much more like a melee attacker with some magical powers sprinkled on as embellishment. Now, it feels more like a spellcaster that half-heartedly hits the target with knives when it has nothing better to do.

3b. "Rabbit Medium" is a questionable, malicious gameplay mechanic that is not appropriate for a game like FFXIV, and is long overdue for removal.

I think that the original idea behind implementing "Rabbit Medium" was that Ninja would be a Job aimed at the higher end of the skill spectrum, with a "high risk / high reward" playstyle where mistakes would be tangibly and humiliatingly punished.

However, I think that there are some major problems with this kind of idea being placed inside FFXIV.

First of all, this is a laid-back cooperative game, not a competitive or solo game.

• In a solo game, being punished heavily for messing up is fine, you're only affecting yourself. The sense of pressure is different.
• In a cooperative game, you have multiple other players relying on your performance. Giving players the ability to make one small error, and then destroy their ability to perform a crucial support action on-time, is too much. It changes it from "Oops, I messed up" to "Oh, I just let down the entire raid".
• In some games, this is still appropriate, because those games are advertised and designed as high skill-cap games with a punishing playstyle. But FFXIV is absolutely not that kind of game, and I think that this design is inappropriate for FFXIV's design environment.

Second of all, this sort of design bizarrely and only targets this one specific Job.

• No other Job in FFXIV is punished in the way that Ninja is punished for making a single wrong keypress.
• Other Jobs can, of course, "mess up" in ways that affect their combat performance in severe ways:

  • A Job can accidentally drift a CD by failing to use it on time, or allowing it to slide out of buff windows, such as unfortunate Samurai drifting "Tsubame Gaeshi" out of raid buffs. But, at least they still get to use the action, just "late".
  • Or, a Job can accidentally mis-use an action entirely, such as using "Reassembled" on "Slug Shot", or performing a "Syphon Strike" during "Delirium" (and thus losing a "Bloodspiller"). But it's very difficult to actually do these kinds of major mistakes unless the player is just not paying attention at all, and it's relatively easy to fix these gameplay errors after making the mistake at most a few times.
  • Even Dancer, the other "code input" Job, could have a stroke and slam its forehead on the wrong key 10 times in a row, and it would still be able to put up "Technical Step" for the party, rather than losing the cooldown completely.

• Ninja, on the other hand, has an opportunity every 20 seconds to not just drift an action, or reduce the benefit, but to completely lose everything and be entirely "out" that entire action for an entire cooldown window.
• Furthermore, Ninja is punished more intensely than any other Job for small errors, because a badly-timed "Rabbit Medium" error can potentially cost the entire party their damage output by denying a party-wide coordinated burst cycle the boost from "Trick Attack".

Third, the "Rabbit Medium" design does not take into account the realities of playing a server-based game, from a wide variety of locations, using a wide variety of hardware types and qualities.

• The reality is that no matter how much the developers keep trying to adjust Mudras to be "less punishing" or "more forgiving", it still doesn't account for a lot of cases that happen to players in real situations.
• Does a player have a bad ISP or peering network, and is subject to unexpected lag spikes? The 0.5s GCD on Mudras is hyper-sensitive to this, and can result in the correct Mudra not acknowledging, or queuing unpredictably. So the player either randomly gets "Rabbit Medium" through no fault of their own, or the player has to clip their rotation by baby-touching every Mudra GCD to make absolutely sure that it was accepted correctly.
• Any kind of unstable hardware latency? A server hiccup? A sudden FPS drop? A hand spasm? The list goes on...
• Most Jobs in FFXIV are relatively forgiving to these kinds of issues, in the worst cases being either being recoverable, or suffering a relatively mild potency drop.
• Ninja is disproportionately harmed by all kinds of situations outside the player's immediate control due to the hyper-sensitive design of Mudras/Ninjutsu and the speed with which the design is expected to be input.

Fourth, Mudras are designed in a problematic way that impairs effectively taking advantage of "action queuing" to try to offset these problems.

• The fact that inputting the same Mudra twice in a row counts as a "Rabbit Medium" failure means that a player with an unstable, or unpredictable, or even slightly-off connection or other latency situation cannot effectively take advantage of action queuing to compensate for it via brute-force action repetition. The same applies for having a low-quality input device (such as a laptop with a membrane keyboard), and many other situations.

  • Normal combos, for example, can have the key spammed repeatedly to ensure that the action activates on-time, even in situations of high or unstable latency.
  • Spamming a 0.5s Mudra GCD, on the other hand, is extremely likely to just cause it to register twice, and thus trigger a "Rabbit Medium".
  • So, instead, the rotation has to slooooooow dooooooown for every stupid Mudra every 20s to ensure that the thing doesn't fail for one of hundreds of possible reasons.

• Ironically, this issue was barely improved — or maybe in some senses actually made worse — by GCD Mudras, because now the player has exactly 0.5s to enter and server-confirm the Mudra correctly without stopping their GCD, whereas in the past, there was some leeway within a single GCD sweep to make sure that, for example, "Fuma Shuriken" was entered and acknowledged correctly.
• The new emphasis on "Raiton" also makes Mudra entry ironically "tighter" and more prone to errors slipping in than before, because now every Mudra sequence needs to be at least 2 Mudra+Ninjutsu long.
• The net result of all of these factors is that they further contribute to the risk of many players being punished with "Rabbit Medium" if they don't slow the pace and rhythm of the rotation in awkward ways.

3c. "Mudra Codes" are a problematic design that hobbles the Job's design evolution.

Yes, I actually did just "go there". To be clear: I think that Ninja's Mudra "code entry" design was a very cool idea, and it really captivated me when I first discovered the Job.

Unfortunately, I am arguing here, now, today, in 2021, that it is possible for an idea to be conceptually cool without being practically effective or workable, and that "Mudra Codes" have long ago exhausted their "Beta testing" goodwill, and instead become a problematic idea that holds the Job back design-wise.

The way that I see it, the core issue is that the "punch-code" gameplay can only take a few possible shapes:

• Entering the code is very slow and forgiving.

  • This is basically not possible with OGCD Mudras, because they will bleed over the GCD clock, and thus effectively just become GCDs anyway.
  • This is still problematic with GCD Mudras, because entering the codes instead slows down the rotation dramatically (even more than it already has since Patch 5.10).

• Entering the code is very fast-paced and unforgiving.

  • This contributed to the fast, responsive, fun gameplay of OGCD Mudras. However, it also turned them into a "race against latency" to try to enter codes without clipping into the subsequent GCD, which in turn scaled brutally against players with even minor imperfections in their game latency at any point along the pipeline between client and server.
  • This also contributes to problematic gameplay with GCD Mudras: because players are under pressure to not clip their GCDs at all, short-duration GCDs on Mudras either significantly increases the risk of something going wrong ("double tap", latency spike not registering, etc) due to the need to spam GCDs to ensure that they queue, or causes a stilted, uncomfortable "staring match" sort of gameplay where the player has to try to hesitate and "guess" if it's safe to press the next Mudra yet.

It's possible that a compromise could be to simply remove the "failure chance" on Mudra Codes, allowing them to be entered much more aggressively and much more freely. However, I think that this still wouldn't really resolve the issue:

• If Mudras are returned to OGCDs, then it simply changes the gameplay back to the "race against time" issue that punishes player latencies disproportionately.
• If Mudras are kept as GCDs, then Ninja design remains problematic as a "Melee Attacker" that spends far too much of its GCD uptime punching in empty "code" animations, instead of attacking with its weapons.

3d. "Ten Chi Jin" is a lot less fun than it "should" be.

In the design state that this action has continually been in since Stormblood Patch 4.00, I really don't want it, and honestly I have not ever wanted it, because it slows down the rotation and makes it more fragile in annoying ways that really oppose what I am signing up for when I choose an "Agile Physical Melee Attacker" type of Job.

The basic idea — "Hey, you can do 3 Ninjutsu in 1!" — was fine enough, I guess, if you just love Mudras. Or something? I don't know. I'm not a Mudra-philiac like the Ninja developers seem to be, so I can only speculate.

However, the actual implementation of "Ten Chi Jin" has been upleasant and frustrating. Rather than being excited about it, I mostly just dread this action coming off CD, and I don't have much fun with it. It also contributes even more to the feeling of Ninja being a "Pretend Caster" or "Fake Melee" rather than a "Melee Attacker":

• I'm choosing a MELEE ATTACKER JOB. I do not want to be glued to the floor for 3-5+ seconds in the middle of raid combat. As a Melee attacker, I expect to be agile and mobile. If I wanted to be glued to the floor, I'd be playing a Black Mage!
• "Ten Chi Jin" is also infuriatingly fragile.

  • Melee Jobs constantly need to pivot around the target to hit positionals and dodge the hundreds of nuisance AOEs that the game loves to barf out directly on top of bosses.
  • It's extremely frustrating to be forced to use a 3-5+ second rotational action that instantly cancels itself if the player accidentally TURNS THEIR CHARACTER even half a millimeter after activating it, because I'm constantly pivoting and turning my character as a Melee DPS.

• "Ten Chi Jin" also drags the rotation to an awkward halt, because there is a noticeable and uncomfortable lag between entering a Mudra, and the server actually updating the action to allow the next Ninjutsu. Especially with Mudras now on the GCD, this makes "Ten Chi Jin" feel more like a chore and a "speed-bump" than... whatever it's supposed to be.

[Eorzean_username]

What do you think would improve the current design of Ninja?

1. Darker and/or more "street-level" aesthetic and concepting.

There are many good guidelines and inspirations that can be used to model a better direction for Ninja that aligns more with the familiar fantasy archetypes that Ninja seems like it's "supposed to" be imitating:

• Take direction from the visuals and tone of the level 30-50 ARR Ninja questline, as well as the designs and effects of "Yoshimitsu Nexus" and "Sasuke's Blades". All of this was much darker, more intimidating, and more sinister than the weird, bright, cartoony direction that Ninja's design and presentation has devolved into since the ARR period.
• Beyond FFXIV, look at how the many other games that I've mentioned tend to depict "Thief", "Rogue", or "Assassin".
• Give Ninja more physical, weapon-based actions.
• Treat the Job and its visual design more like a "street thief" or a "shadow killer" that uses stealth, subterfuge, blades, and direct ambush attack to resolve situations.
• Heavily scale back how much "energy"-, "elemental"-, or "magical"-looking animations are part of the Job's core rotation and aesthetic design.

I think an important point to focus on is that FFXIV does not have "subclasses" or "sub-specs". So it needs to choose a broader, more general "fantasy" to focus on when it implements an archetype:

• For example, a game like World of Warcraft can afford to have a silly "gambler/pirate" spec in "Outlaw", because Rogue players still have access to "Assassination" and "Subtlety" specs if they want a more serious "Rogue" or "Assassin"-type fantasy.
• On the other hand, in FFXIV, if a player is searching for the more common and familiar RPG "Rogue" or "Assassin" trope, and you only give them access to "Happy Silly Funny Bright Neon Magic Person (With Some Knives Sometimes)", then they have no alternative, and many will feel frustrated and disappointed.

Again, let me stress that I'm not equating "dark and edgy" = "good" and "bright and splashy" = "bad".

• I personally enjoy bright splashy jobs like Red Mage, and Bard, and Paladin.
• However, I think that this is an inappropriate design direction for Ninja — FFXIV's only available analogue of the traditional RPG "Thief" / "Rogue" / "Assassin".

2. Massively revamp Mudras/Ninjutsu and reassess their importance to the Job's design.

• I think that "Mudra Codes" have proven to be a very cool but unfortunately failed experiment in practical terms.
• I think that "Mudras"/"Ninjutsu" have come to dominate the Ninja rotation far too much, making it feel too much like a "Melee Caster" rather than a "Melee Weapon Attacker".

3. Delete "Meisui"

What even is this action? It's such a flaccid and unsatisfying addition to the Ninja rotation. I think that this is just pointless design bloat and clutter, and the "payoff" for using it is entirely underwhelming. Shoo, go away, "Meisui".

4. Remove the emphasis on "Magical" skills and shift the Job's design balance back toward "Physical" and "Weapon" actions.

• Increase the amount of time spent on rotational attacks that utilize the dual-wielded blades that define the Job's aesthetic.
• Improve the overall enjoyability of the "Physical" portion of the Ninja rotation.
• Improve the feel and weight of Weaponskill attacks. Make them look more dangerous and more like actual attacks.
• Improve the variety of weaponskill attacks in the rotation, so that the visuals feel less stale than "Aeolian Edge" → "Aeolian Edge" → "Aeolian Edge" → "Aeolian Edge" → "Aeolian Edge" → "Aeolian Edge" → armor crush → "Aeolian Edge" → "Aeolian Edge" → "Aeolian Edge" → "Aeolian Edge"
• Improve the "Armor Crush" animation to displace the player model less awkwardly and confusingly. Change the name to something that feels more appropriate for the "shadowy assassin" Job.
• Put more emphasis on "Physical" OGCDs, such as "Fuma Shuriken" and "Dream Within a Dream".
• Make "Assassinate" feel like a satisfying action to use again.

5. Bring back Poisons (in a way that feels satisfying to play)

This could be done in many different ways. I'll depict one example in my "Example Revamp" below, but there are likely many other creative ways to add the fantasy "Rogue" trope of "Poisoning things" back to this Job.

6. Fix "Hide" so that it's not a sad excuse for a real "Thief" / "Rogue" / "Assassin" Stealth action.

This is just entirely wrong, and always has been. A "Thief"/"Rogue"/"Assassin" player should feel like using Stealth is an effective and satisfying option. Exploiting the ability to sneak around undetected is a core part of this archetype's fantasy.

7. Put much more emphasis on "ambush" attacks, and reward their successful usage.

This archetype should feel rewarded for sneaking up on an unsuspecting target and executing a successful "ambush" attack. This is another core aspect of the archetype's fantasy.

[Eorzean_username]

An example of a Ninja redesign that could address these complaints.

There are many different possible design solutions that could address the above complaints. Here is one example of a redesign idea that could both clean up Ninja's gameplay, and also give it a more satisfying and familiar "Rogue" / "Assassin" aesthetic and fantasy.

"No! Your ideas are bad, and you should feel bad!"

Okay maybe. But I'm also not being paid to do this, so I have only so much time to spend brainstorming and balancing. All I'm trying to do is show one way that Ninja could be modified to feel closer to the way these archetypes are designed in other games, while still fitting into the general FFXIV system.

1. Fix Ninja Stealth to be an actual fun feature of the Job, instead of awful:

MODIFIED ACTION — "Hide"

• Cooldown reduced to 3s
• Pressing "Hide" a second time automatically toggles it back off (Why does this still require a macro, even in Shadowbringers? )
• The Ninja moves at normal run speed while "Hidden"
• The Ninja is no longer detected and attacked by "Boss" targets while "Hidden"
• The Ninja's "Hidden" is no longer broken by the party initiating combat with a "Boss" target
• "Shukuchi" has no cooldown while the Ninja has the "Hidden" status
• "Hide" no longer resets "Mudra" CDs

  • The point of this is to refocus this Job's "Thief" / "Rogue" / "Assassin" tools around actually being a sneaky assassin, rather than just part of a pipeline in being a pretend Geomancer.

• While "Hide" is active, the Ninja automatically, passively, and continually gains 20 seconds of "Heavenly Blades", up to a maximum of 70 seconds. (See below; "Heavenly Blades" replaces "Huton", and is functionally the same effect).

RETURNED ACTION — "Smoke Screen"

• 60 second CD.
• 7 seconds duration.
• While "Smoke Screen" is active, all Ninja actions behave as if the Ninja is "Hidden", even during combat.
• While "Smoke Screen" is active, the Ninja can still be targeted, attacked, and receive damage.
• While "Smoke Screen" is active, the Ninja's chance to "Evade" direct targeted attacks is increased by 50%. (This is just for flavor, more than any specific purpose)
• "Smoke Screen" is not ended by receiving damage.
• "Smoke Screen" has infinite duration until the Ninja causes direct damage to a target.
• Upon causing direct damage to a target, "Smoke Screen" changes to a 7 second duration.

2. Bring back some FFXI Ninja flavor:

NEW ACTION — "Utsusemi"

• 10 minute CD.

  • This would inevitably be used as a way to weasel out of healing tankbusters, but that's completely expected, and part of the point: a wink and nod to the old FFXI Ninja role.
  • The long CD is meant to restrict this gimmick to once per encounter. That should reduce any concerns about Ninja becoming "mandatory".
  • For example, Warrior's 4-minute "Holmgang" allows some encounters to "invuln" every tankbuster, but Warrior is still not considered "mandatory" because in most cases, not having a Warrior only makes the tankbuster plan slightly more inconvenient (for example, needing to actually "respect" a single one of the Umbra Smashes in Litany Savage).
  • In a similar way, this would allow a Ninja to feel like a "support hero" on some encounters, but in a relatively simple way that "fixes itself" when the timer wears off, and is infrequent enough to not be a rotational pressure.
  • Additionally, if a particular encounter becomes too trivialized by Ninja being able to do this, due to some bizarro confluence of design factors, then that one specific tankbuster can just be hard-coded to pierce "Utsusemi".

• Instantly "Provokes" all targets within 5 yalms of the Ninja.

  • I'm not too afraid of giving a DPS this power, because it only lasts for 10 seconds, it can only be done once per pull due to the long CD, and it "un-provokes" right back to the actual Tanks once the effect wears off.
  • If the concern is that someone could use this to troll the party by pointing a cleave tankbuster backwards or something, well... "Rescue" is still in the game.
  • On the other hand, for the vast majority of non-pathological players, the ability to do something cool like hold an entire giant dungeon pull while the Healer gets the Tank back up from an accidental KO is the kind of "Ninja hero" moment that I'm imagining with this support tool.

• Grants "Utsusemi" to Ninja for 10 seconds:

  • For the duration, all hostile direct targeted attacks received by the Ninja are instead absorbed by a "Shadow Copy". (The "Shadow Copy" briefly appears, is hit by the attack, then fades away.)

    • Does not absorb AOE effects.
    • Does not absorb Environmental effects.

  • After 10 seconds, the Ninja automatically vanishes in a puff of smoke.

    • Does not grant "Hidden" status. (No incentive to use for personal DPS)
    • Immediately transfers all Enmity that the Ninja had at time of expiration to the previous highest target before "Utsusemi" was activated.
    • Then sets Ninja's Enmity on all engaged targets to zero.

3. Place more emphasis on "Thief" / "Rogue" flavor aspects:

NEW ACTION — "Kiss of Venom"

• 30 second CD.
• OGCD.
• Does not end "Hidden" status.
• Grants "Envenomed Blades" status for 30 seconds.
• Does not extend the duration. Sets the duration to exactly 30 seconds on each use.
• While active, "Envenomed Blades" causes all successful Weaponskills that strike a target to cause the target to suffer additional Physical Poison damage over 6 seconds.

NEW ACTION — "Steal"

• 1 second CD.
• Can only be used while "Hidden".
• On successful "Steal", target is afflicted with "Empty Pockets" debuff of infinite duration, preventing the target from being stolen from again.
• A successful "Steal" always grants:

  • A random minor amount of Gil
  • A "Stolen Bundle".

    • Acts a "lockbox" (like those found in "Palace of the Dead" or "Eureka" or "Bozja"), stackable (to 999).
    • Prevents inventory clutter from lots of different random pick-pocketed junk while out questing.
    • Can be taken to the Limsa Lominsa "Rogue's Guild" for appraisal.
    • Contents can randomly be any of:

      • "Lore flavor" gray junk items.
      • Potions
      • Meals
      • (other random useful or marketable items)
      • Rare minion: "Rabbit Minimum" — tiny Rabbit Medium
      • Rare minion: "Hellfrog Minimum" — tiny Hellfrog Medium
      • Rare mount: "Hellfrog Maximum" — rideable Hellfrog Medium

        • Hops along on the ground
        • Inflates its froggy neck like a balloon to float in the air
        • Mount Action: spits a fireball

MODIFIED ACTION — "Mug (Trait)"

• Removed as a combat action.
• Becomes a Trait instead.
• "Mug (Trait)": Successfully striking a target with "Ambuscade" or "Machibuse" automatically performs "Steal" on the target. (These actions are explained further down)

4. Reward the Ninja for "ambush" gameplay.

NEW TRAIT — "Infinite Death (Trait)"

When a target that the Ninja has successfully struck with "Trick Attack" or "Assassinate" is KO'd, immediately reset the CD of "Trick Attack" and "Smoke Screen".

5. Bring back an emphasis on Ninja "Weaponskills", and make the "Weaponskill" rotation less repetitive and bland.

MODIFIED EFFECT — "Huton"

• No longer reduces weaponskill recast time and auto-attack delay by 15%.
• Changed to a different design (see below).

NEW EFFECT — "Heavenly Blades"

• Replaces the traditional "Huton" status.
• Reduces weaponskill recast time and auto-attack delay by 15%. (It's just "Huton" with a new name and application method)

NEW TRAIT — "The Path of Hidden Winds (Trait)"

• While "Hide" is active, the Ninja automatically, passively, and continually gains 20 seconds of "Heavenly Blades", up to a maximum of 70 seconds.
• This is the new method that Ninja uses to apply the Attack Speed buff while outside combat.

UNCHANGED ACTION — "Spinning Edge"

Unchanged.

UNCHANGED ACTION — "Gust Slash"

Unchanged.

MODIFIED COMBO — "Spinning Edge" → "Gust Slash" → "Aeolian Edge"

• 480 potency. (or whatever fits the potency balance in 6.00, this is just a potency reference frame)
• If the Ninja is currently under the effect of "Heavenly Blades", extends the effect by 30 seconds (up to a maximum of 70 seconds).
• If the Ninja is not currently under the effect of "Heavenly Blades", grants 30 seconds of "Heavenly Blades".
• In almost all cases, the Ninja will want to have "Heavenly Blades" pre-applied to maximum duration by being "Hidden" before combat.
• However, if you have bad luck with a behaviorally-impaired Tank that does not understand pull countdowns, then "Aeolian Edge Combo" can be used in a pinch to brute-force the buff application.

NEW COMBO — "Spinning Edge" → "Gust Slash" → "Mutilate"

• 480 potency. (ie, equal to "Aeolian Edge" — Combos are chosen strictly based on which "Combo Bonus" is most desireable)
• If the target is currently under the effect of "Twisted Blades", extends the duration of "Twisted Blades" by 30 seconds (up to a maximum of 70 seconds). (This will be explained further down)
• DOES NOT apply "Twisted Blades" if it is not already active on the target!
• Applying "Twisted Blades" during the Ninja's burst phase, and then preventing it from dropping until the next reapplication by using "Mutilate Combo", will be a (very modest) "skill check" on the "filler" period of the Ninja rotation.

MODIFIED GAUGE — "Ninki"

• Now generated only by specific actions, rather than all Weaponskills.
• The goal is to make "Ninki" more predictable, more consistent, and less arbitrary / "spammy".

RETURNED COMBO — "Spinning Edge" → "Gust Slash" → "Dancing Edge"

• 480 potency (ie, equal to other Combo Finishers)
• Generates 25 "Ninki".
• This is the Ninja's new "filler" combo, when nothing else needs to be maintained.
• This is also the new primary method of generating "Ninki" during the "filler" windows between "burst" periods.

REMOVED ACTION — "Armor Crush"

• I think "Armor Crush" is an awkward animation that looks bad and makes precise player positioning confusing.
• Also, I think "Armor Crush" is a bizarre and mismatched name for the Ninja job. (It's very possible that I'm just missing some cultural or pop-culture reference here, though, in which case you may passive-aggressively ridicule me)
• Also, I think that the "Wind Elemental Haste Effect" should be extended by the attack named "Windy Edge", rather than the attack named "I Bashed Something Metallic With a Blunt Object".
• However, if you just really love "Armor Crush", then fine, this hill is not worth dying on for me — just replace any reference to "Mutilate" with "Armor Crush", and keep going.

UPGRADED ACTION — "Hakke Mujinsatsu"

• I think that this action already looks great and is fun to use in its Shadowbringers design, and does not need any significant modification to its base design.
• Instead, I only propose some usability improvements to make Ninja AOE feel less awkward and "half-designed".
• IMPROVED COMBO BONUS — Extends "Heavenly Blades" duration by 30s to a maximum of 70s.

  • The 10 second extension in Shadowbringers is unnecessarily-small, and causes "Huton" to frequently fall off between pulls, and it's just annoying for no good reason.

• NEW COMBO BONUS — If this action strikes any target affected by the Ninja's "Vulnerability Up", applies "Vulnerability Up" to all other targets struck by "Hakke Mujinsatsu". Duration: The duration remaining on the initial target.
• NEW COMBO BONUS — If this action strikes a target affected by the Ninja's "Twisted Blades", applies "Twisted Blades" to all other targets struck by "Hakke Mujinsatsu". Duration: The duration remaining on the initial target.

NEW ACTION — "Ambuscade"

• 3 yalm range.
• Weaponskill GCD.
• Rogue Class action.
• "Spinning Edge" changes to "Ambuscade" while the Rogue is "Hidden".
• Stand-alone action. Does not have combo prerequisites.
• Does not interrupt combo chains.
• Deals more potency in one GCD than the average Ninja Weaponskill Combo potency-per-GCD. (In other words, the Ninja always wants to use "Ambuscade" if it's available).
• Animation: idk, something ambushy that a Rogue would do, not too fancy but not too bland either. (I'm running out of time to work on this post)

NEW TRAIT — "Passage of Blood (Trait)"

Upgrades "Ambuscade" to "Machibuse".

NEW ACTION — "Machibuse"

• 3 yalm range.
• Weaponskill GCD.
• Ninja Job action.
• Upgraded version of "Ambuscade" with higher potency and a fancier animation.
• "Spinning Edge" changes to "Machibuse" while the Ninja is "Hidden".
• Stand-alone action. Does not have combo prerequisites.
• Does not interrupt combo chains.
• Deals significantly more potency in one GCD than the average Ninja Weaponskill Combo potency-per-GCD. (In other words, the Ninja always wants to use "Machibuse" if it's available).
• Animation: idk, I'm running out of time to work on this post. Something appropriate for a sneaky Ninja attacking someone from stealth. Some flourish and fanciness, but not too obnoxious-looking when spammed several times in a row.

NEW ACTION — "Emptiness"

• 5 yalm range.
• Weaponskill GCD.
• Intentionally does not scale with Attack Speed. Always a fixed 2.50 second GCD, to accommodate a long, fancy animation, and allow smooth weaving into the second phase of the "burst window".
• "Spinning Edge" changes to "Emptiness" while the Ninja is under the "Awakened" status (explained later).
• Stand-alone action. Does not have combo prerequisites.
• Does not interrupt combo chains.
• Deals massively more potency in one GCD than the average Ninja Weaponskill Combo potency-per-GCD. (In other words, the Ninja always wants to use "Emptiness" if it's available).
• Animation: idk, I'm running out of time to work on this post. Probably something cool that looks like Japanese Buddhism blended with knife fighting, or like something an indigenous shaman would see if they were playing FFXIV while experiencing the effects of ayahuasca. A big, flashy, "ultimate physical attack" kind of thing.

MODIFIED ACTION — "Shadow Fang"

• Redesigned. No longer applies a damage-over-time effect, and no longer functions as a 60 second CD. (I'm basically just reappropriating the name and animation.)
• Higher potency than "Spinning Edge".
• "Spinning Edge" changes to "Shadow Fang" while "Kassatsu" is active (explained later).
• Deals "Shadow" (or "Unaspected") damage, rather than "Physical" damage.
• On a successful strike, if the "Kiss of Venom" status is active on the Ninja, "Shadow Fang" extends "Kiss of Venom" by 6 seconds, to a maximum of 30 seconds.

NEW ACTION — "Void Arc"

• Higher potency than "Gust Slash".
• "Gust Slash" changes to "Void Arc" while "Kassatsu" is active (explained later).
• Continues combos cleanly. (ie, if the player had the "Gust Slash" combo step ready before activating "Kassatsu", then the "Void Arc" combo step will be ready instead).
• Deals "Shadow" (or "Unaspected") damage, rather than "Physical" damage.
• Animation: The Ninja slashes both blades in an upwards/backwards motion across their front, causing two curves of shadowy energy to arc out and slice through the target.

NEW ACTION — "Hell Crescent"

• Generates 50 "Ninki".
• Higher potency than "Dancing Edge".
• Replaces "Dancing Edge" while "Kassatsu" is active (explained later).
• Continues combos cleanly. (ie, if the player had "Aeolian Edge / Mutilate / Dancing Edge" combo step ready, then the "Hell Crescent" combo step will become ready instead).
• Deals "Fire" (or "Shadow", or "Unaspected") damage, rather than "Physical" damage.
• Animation: The Ninja leaps into the air and twirls in an swirl of shadow and flames coming off the Ninja's blades, then arcs down into the target in a trail of flames, releasing a flash of more shadow and flame. (This is intentionally flashy and "magical", similar to "Hellfrog Medium", because it only occurs during the Ninja's "Magical Burst Window" under "Kassatsu".)

NEW ACTION — "Shadow Seed"

• "Death Blossom" changes to "Shadow Seed" during "Kassatsu".
• "Shadow Seed" has the same potency and Combo Bonuses as "Death Blossom", but deals Magical ("Unaspected" or "Shadow") damage instead of Physical damage.
• If "Shadow Seed" successfully strikes at least one target, it also extends the duration of "Kiss of Venom" by 6 seconds, to a maximum of 30 seconds.
• Animation:

  • Somewhat like "Death Blossom", the Ninja leaps into the air and throws out knives.
  • But the knives are released with a swirl of shadowy energy, and the knives themselves are made of shadowy energy, and they trail billowing clouds of shadowy smoke behind them as they fly through the air.
  • When each shadow-knife impacts the ground, it sinks down into it, briefly igniting one of the types of glowing red Doman runes seen in "Doton" and "Hakke Mujinsatsu".
  • Then the runes also sink into the ground in a smolder of shadowy smoke.

NEW ACTION — "Hell Flower"

• "Hakke Mujinsatsu" changes to "Hell Flower" during "Kassatsu".
• "Hell Flower" has the same potency and Combo Bonuses as "Hakke Mujinsatsu", but deals Magical ("Unaspected" or "Fire" or "Shadow") damage instead of Physical damage.
• Animation:

  • The Ninja slices their knives upward into the air, and a pattern of Doman runes made of flickering flames rises out of the ground around the Ninja in an elaborate, flower-like set of overlapping spirals.
  • As these flame-runes cool and fade, they burn charred, curved lines full of smoldering embers into the ground.
  • Then, geysers of spooky-looking flames mixed with smoky shadow energy erupt upwards from the charred lines.

6. Give rotational OGCDs a more Physical / Weapon emphasis, except under a certain window of the rotation.

MODIFIED ACTION — "Dream Within a Dream"

• 60 second CD.
• 3 yalm range.
• Physical damage.
• Generates 50 "Ninki".
• Largely unchanged, but the Shadowbringers sad follow-up "Assassinate" is removed (since "Assassinate" is repurposed as an upgraded "Trick Attack"), and the potency on "Dream Within a Dream" is significantly increased, to make it the premier "Physical Burst" attack that Ninja looks forward to pressing every 60 seconds.

NEW TRAIT — "Dreams of Slice (Trait)"

• "Dream Within a Dream" now additionally causes the Ninja to rapidly blink-strike between any and all additional targets within 5 yalms of the primary target, dealing 50% of the potency inflicted upon the primary target.
• This is to make "Dream Within a Dream" feel satisfying to press in cleave situations, or on large trash pulls in Dungeons.

NEW ACTION — "Awakening"

• 5 yalm range.
• OGCD.
• Physical damage.
• Deals 50% more potency than "Dream Within a Dream".
• Replaces "Dream Within a Dream" while the Ninja is under the "Awakened" status (explained later).
• Does not share a cooldown with "Dream Within a Dream", but is only available under specific conditions.
• On activation, consumes all available "Ninki", increasing linearly in potency with "Ninki" consumed (up to maximum potency at 100 "Ninki" consumed).
• On activation, immediately ends the "Awakened" status.
• Animation: A halo of clear blue sky forms above the target. The Ninja leaps into the air and slices open this sky above the target, causing it to unfold like a scroll and melt away. From the opening created, a cascade of flower-shaped metal blades rains down upon the target.

MODIFIED ACTION — "Bhavacakra"

• 60 second CD.
• OGCD.
• 5 yalm range.
• Magical (Unaspected) damage.
• Deals equivalent potency to "Dream Within a Dream".
• Replaces "Dream Within a Dream" while "Kassatsu" is active (explained later).
• Does not share a cooldown with "Dream Within a Dream", but is only available under specific conditions.
• Generates 50 "Ninki".

NEW TRAIT — "Circle of Life (Trait)"

• "Bhavacakra" now additionally deals damage to all targets within 5 yalms of the primary target, dealing 50% of the potency inflicted upon the primary target.
• This is to make "Bhavacakra" feel satisfying to press in cleave situations, or on large trash pulls in Dungeons.

7. Improve "Gauge" gameplay to emphasize Physical Attacks, except for during certain specific windows of the rotation. Also, bring back the classic FFXIV Ninja feel of frequently flinging off shuriken, which felt twitchy and satisfying.

MODIFIED GAUGE — "Ninki"

• Now generated by specific actions only, rather than all Weaponskills.

  • This gives the gauge a more methodical, paced, predictable feeling, and allows certain actions to feel like a satisfying "payout" that can be immediately followed up by a gauge-dump.

• "Dancing Edge": +25 Ninki
• "Hell Crescent": +50 Ninki
• "Dream Within a Dream" +50 Ninki
• "Bhavacakra" +50 Ninki
• "Mudra" actions +50 Ninki

MODIFIED ACTION — "Fuma Shuriken"

• 1 second CD.
• Consumes 50 "Ninki".
• 15 yalm range. (The range drop is intentional, to try to pull Ninja back toward being a "Melee Attacker").

NEW TRAIT — "Dancing Stars (Trait)"

• "Fuma Shuriken" now additionally ricochets to all targets within 5 yalms of the primary target, dealing 50% of the potency inflicted upon the primary target.
• This allows "Fuma Shuriken" to be a satisfying substitute for "Hellfrog Medium" (which has been modified, see below) during the "Physical" phase of cleave situations or large Dungeon pulls.

MODIFIED ACTION — "Hellfrog Medium"

• 1 second CD.
• OGCD.
• 15 yalm range. (The range drop is intentional, to try to pull Ninja back toward being a "Melee Attacker").
• Potency is equal to "Fuma Shuriken", including the AOE falloff.
• "Fuma Shuriken" changes to "Hellfrog Medium" while "Kassatsu" is active (explained later).
• Consumes 50 "Ninki".

8. Give the Ninja a clearly-defined "Physical" / "Weaponskill" burst phase.

MODIFIED EFFECT — "Vulnerability Up"

• Targets affected by the Ninja's "Vulnerability Up" gain the "Vulnerabilities Guarded" effect for 58 seconds, preventing any additional applications of "Vulnerability Up".
• This allows the Ninja to choose to begin an encounter with either its "Magical" or "Physical" Burst Window, without affecting the ability of the raid to benefit from "Vulnerability Up", because both "Kassatsu" and "Assassinate" now apply "Vulnerability Up".
• However, the "Vulnerabilities Guarded" debuff prevents the "Vulnerability Up" window from being extended beyond 15 seconds per 60 seconds: if "Kassatsu" is used first, then the "Vulnerability Up" from "Assassinate" will fail to apply, and if "Assassinate" is used first, then the "Vulnerability Up" from "Kassatsu" will fail to apply.
• In either case, the party will still get 15 seconds of "Vulnerability Up" per 60 seconds.

MODIFIED ACTION — "Trick Attack"

• 60 second CD.
• Applies "Vulnerability Up" to the target, duration: 15 seconds.

  • Targets affected by "Vulnerability Up" gain the "Vulnerabilities Guarded" effect for 58 seconds, preventing the application of "Vulnerability Up".

• On a successful strike, also grants the Ninja the effect of "Trick Move" for 15 seconds:

  • "Trick Move" only affects the Ninja (personal buff).
  • All Physical Damage caused is increased by 15%.
  • All Physical Damage has +25% Critical Hit Rate (additive).
  • "Trick Move" cannot be active at the same time as "Kassatsu" (one buff will always immediately overwrite the other buff). ie: Don't try to combine them.

MODIFIED ACTION — "Assassinate"

• Whenever the Ninja is under the status "Hidden", "Trick Attack" changes to "Assassinate".

  • "Trick Attack" and "Assassinate" share a cooldown (it's basically the same action, just changing in potency between "Normal" and "Hidden" status).

• Applies "Vulnerability Up" to the target, duration: 15 seconds.

  • Targets affected by "Vulnerability Up" gain the "Vulnerabilities Guarded" effect for 58 seconds, preventing the application of "Vulnerability Up".

• Applies the "Twisted Blades" Bleeding damage over time effect to the target, lasting for 30 seconds.

  • If the target is currently under the effect of "Twisted Blades", extends the duration of "Twisted Blades" by 30 seconds (up to a maximum of 70 seconds).

• On a successful strike, also grants the Ninja the effect of "Assassination" for 15 seconds:

  • "Assassination" only affects the Ninja (personal buff).
  • All Physical Damage caused is increased by 30%.
  • All Physical Damage has +75% Critical Hit Rate (additive).
  • "Assassination" cannot be active at the same time as "Kassatsu" (one buff will always immediately overwrite the other buff). ie: Don't try to combine them.

NEW TRAIT — "Assassin's Koan (Trait)"

On a successful strike, "Assassinate" additionally grants the Ninja the effect of "Assassin's Koan" for 15 seconds:

• Allows "Aeolian Edge", "Mutilate", and "Dancing Edge" to each be used one time for full effect without requiring combo prequisites.
• Each time one of these weaponskills is used, the Ninja gains 1 stack of "Desire, Form, Spirit".
• Each time a stack of "Desire, Form, Spirit" is gained, any currently-active combo timer is extended by 5 seconds.

  • This is my brute-force solution to Ninja's combo cycles potentially drifting out-of-alignment with the burst cycle.
  • Due to this combo timer exension, it doesn't matter what GCD the Ninja begins "Assassination" on as an encounter progresses.
  • The Ninja will always be able to roll any lingering combos all the way to the end of the "Assassination" window, so there will be no stress about trying to play "GCD Tetris" to avoid dropped combos.

• Upon reaching 3 stacks of "Desire, Form, Spirit", that status ends, and the Ninja gains the "Awakened" status, which instantly grants the Ninja 100 "Ninki".
• While the Ninja is under the "Awakened" status, "Spinning Edge" is changed to "Emptiness", and "Dream Within a Dream" is changed to "Awakening".
• "Awakened" status ends immediately if "Assassination" status ends. (This means that a Ninja cannot carry usage of the "Awakening" OGCD outside the "Assassination" window, and reinforces that "Awakening" is to be used as the "finisher" for the "Physical Burst Window")

"That's very bursty..."

Yes. That is the point, that is my goal. This is a "Thief"/"Rogue"/"Assassin" archetype. It should be bursty. That is what they do, that is the fantasy archetype here: huge ambush bursts of damage, followed by fading back into the shadows and lurking around poking and wearing away at their targets until they can seize the next opportunity to burst again and finish things off.

TO-DO / UNFINISHED — Make the "Physical Burst Window" feel satisfying in Cleave/AOE situations

• Unfortunately, I'm out of time to work on this post.
• However, I would like to find some way to make "Smoke Screen" and "Assassin's Koan" feel powerful in AOE situations.
• However, this would require more design adjustments than I currently have time for.
• Currently, I'm imagining something like this:

  • "Death Blossom" changes to an AOE version of "Machibuse" while "Hidden".

    • Currently, I don't know what this action would be titled. Possibly something like "Killing Spree", although perhaps that's a little too morbid given the current state of the world.

  • "Assassin's Koan" also enables "Hakke Mujinsatsu" to be used without combo prerequisites.

    • And, unlike the three single-target weaponskills, "Hakke Mujinsatsu" can be used three times in a row and will still grant a stack of "Desire, Form, Spirit" each time.

  • "Emptiness" deals AOE damage around the target.

• However, I am not formally implementing these changes into the overall system yet, because I have not had enough time to think about how they might impact it.

9. Remove "Mudra Code" gameplay entirely, redesign how "Mudras" and "Ninjutsu" fit into the rotation, and scale back how much rotational time is occupied by "Magical" attacks. At the same time, make the "Magical" aspects of Ninja significantly cooler and more satisfying.

REMOVED ACTION — "Meisui"

• Removed.
• I think that this action is unexciting, unfun, lame, and basically just a pointless rotational chore introduced in Shadowbringers.
• There are much better ways to spend player hotbar space and keybinds than bland actions like "Meisui".

MODIFIED ACTIONS — "Mudras" and "Ninjutsu"

• No longer entered as "codes".
• No longer affect the GCD.
• Changed to "long-animation OGCDs". (ie: It is not appropriate to "double-weave" "Mudra", similar to Red Mage "Displacement" or Dragoon "Jumps")
• Animation: Upon activating a "Mudra" OGCD action, the Ninja automatically animates the appropriate chain of hand signals, and then automatically releases the appropriate corresponding "Ninjutsu".

REMOVED, CONSOLIDATED, MODIFIED ACTIONS — "Ten", "Chi", "Jin", "Ninjutsu"

• "Ten", "Chi", "Jin", and "Ninjutsu" are all removed as individual actions.
• Replaced by new single action: "Mudra".

  • These actions have come to dominate the Ninja design far too much. It's bizarre, it's off-message and off-brand for this fantasy archetype, and it's not even inspired by the vast majority of "Ninja" implementations across Final Fantasy games.
  • Additionally, the current (2.xx to 5.xx) system is significant and unnecessary hotbar clutter and keybind bloat. It is inelegant and clunky design.

NEW ACTION — "Mudra"

• 3 charges
• 20 second recharge (ie, 3 charges per 60 seconds)
• "Long OGCD"
• Upon activating "Mudra", a "Ninjutsu" will automatically be performed.
• The "Ninjutsu" used depends on the "Mudra" activated.
• The "Mudra" activated depends on the current "Kuji-kiri" buff status.

  • Activating "Mudra" one time triggers "Ten" and grants the Ninja "Kuji-kiri: Chi" for 20 seconds.
  • While "Kuji-kiri: Chi" is active, activating "Mudra" triggers "Chi" and grants the Ninja "Kuji-kiri: Jin" for 20 seconds.
  • While "Kuji-kiri: Jin" is active, activating "Mudra" triggers "Jin".

• This system allows the Ninja to cycle through the three "Mudra" with one keybind.
• The "Kuji-kiri" buff design allows the Ninja to still cycle in the correct order, even if the key is pressed slightly early.

  • For example: The Ninja has 2 charges, and the 3rd charge is about to recover, but the Ninja presses the key a few milliseconds early.
  • In this case, "Ten" will still activate despite being used at 2 charges (because no "Kuji-kiri" buff is currently active), and then shortly thereafter, "Mudra" will recharge back to 2 charges again, and the Ninja will be able to use "Chi", and then "Jin", as desired.
  • Basically, the Ninja has a 20-second window after any "Mudra" keypress in which to advance the sequence to the next "Mudra", providing a lot of forgiveness and leeway to advancing through the "Ten" → "Chi" → "Jin" sequence.
  • However, due to the 20-second recharge time, this sequence will still "fail" if the Ninja activates "Mudra" drastically out-of-sync with buffs, or when too much time remains before the 3rd charge recovers. I believe that the window of forgiveness on this is generous enough to not be punishing.

• While a Ninja player technically could just smash "Mudra" every time it lights up and therefore spam "Ten"/"Huton" every 20 seconds for an entire encounter, that won't be very good for the Ninja's personal DPS.

  • I believe that this is an acceptable "skill check", because it is very clear and forgiving once the player is taught to understand it, and it is also relatively intuitive.
  • ie: "I have 3 possible charges, I have a burst buff that increases the damage of these actions, I should save them up for the burst window".
  • Players that do not intuitively figure this out can still easily be taught to do it, because the concept is simple and clear ("Don't press 'Mudra' unless it's at 3 charges and you're inside 'Kassatsu', except for before downtime").

• The "correct" gameplay is to save up 3 charges, and then dump them all during the "Kassatsu" window (explained later) every 60 seconds.
• Additionally, the charge system allows "excess" Mudras to be dumped off before a phase change, intermission, or other disconnect. This enables experienced Ninja players to squeeze out more potency in situations where the 3 charges will recharge back anyway before the next burst window.

MODIFIED ACTIONS — "Ten" and "Huton"

• Activated by "Mudra" while there is no "Kuji-kiri" buff active.
• Grants the status "Kuji-kiri: Chi".
• Generates 50 "Ninki".
• Causes the Ninjutsu "Huton" to be executed.
• NINJUTSU EFFECT — "Huton"

  • Grants the Ninja the effect of "Huton", which surrounds the Ninja with swirling winds for 9 seconds.
  • The effect of "Huton" is centered upon the Ninja.
  • The effect of "Huton" moves with the Ninja.
  • Upon every "tick" of the "Huton" effect, deals Wind damage to all targets within 5 yalms of the Ninja.

MODIFIED ACTIONS — "Chi" and "Katon"

• Activated by "Mudra" while under the effect of "Kuji-kiri: Chi".
• Grants the status "Kuji-kiri: Jin".
• Generates 50 "Ninki".
• Causes the Ninjutsu "Katon" to be executed.
• NINJUTSU EFFECT — "Katon"

  • (Functional effect of "Katon" is basically unchanged from Shadowbringers)
  • After Level 76, uses "Gokka Mekkyaku" animation and increases in potency.

MODIFIED ACTIONS — "Jin" and "Raiton"

• Activated by "Mudra" while under the effect of "Kuji-kiri: Jin".
• Removes the status "Kuji-kiri".
• Generates 50 "Ninki".
• Causes the Ninjutsu "Raiton" to be executed.
• NINJUTSU EFFECT — "Raiton"

  • Calls down a bolt of lightning to strike the Ninja's location, dealing immediate Lightning damage to all targets within 5 yalms of the Ninja.
  • This change to "Raiton" design is to allow all Mudra/Ninjutsu to feel "useful" in all situations, including cleave and large Dungeon pulls.

MODIFIED ACTION — "Kassatsu"

• 60 second CD.
• Requires a hostile target.
• Deals moderate Magical (Unaspected) damage to the target.
• Applies "Vulnerability Up" to the target, duration: 15 seconds.

  • Targets affected by "Vulnerability Up" gain the "Vulnerabilities Guarded" effect for 58 seconds, preventing the application of "Vulnerability Up".

• Grants the Ninja the effect of "Kassatsu" for 10 seconds:

  • "Kassatsu" is no longer a "consumed effect"; it is now a buff that always lasts for the full 10 seconds.
  • "Kassatsu" only affects the Ninja (personal buff).
  • All Magical Damage is increased by 25%.
  • All Magical Damage has +30% Critical Hit Rate (additive).
  • While the the "Kassatsu" effect is active, "Fuma Shuriken" changes to "Hellfrog Medium", and "Dream Within a Dream" changes to "Bhavacakra".
  • "Kassatsu" cannot be active at the same time as "Trick Move" or "Assassination" (one buff will always immediately overwrite the other buff). ie: Don't try to combine them.

MODIFIED ACTION — "Bunshin (Trait)"

• "Bunshin" removed as an action.
• "Bunshin (Trait)" added as a replacement:

  • While "Kassatsu" is active, the Ninja additionally gains the effect of "Shadow Self", lasting for the duration of "Kassatsu".

• "Shadow Self" effect:

  • The Ninja summons their Shadow Self to attack alongside them.
  • Changes the Ninja's "Dancing Edge" combo to the "Shadow Fang" → "Void Arc" → "Hell Crescent" combo.
  • Causes all Weaponskill attacks to strike twice: once normally, and once in a follow-up "Shadow" animation. (This occurs after a short delay, so that it's actually noticeable to the player and "looks cool".)
  • Increases the range of all Ninja Weaponskills by 10 yalms.

    • Animation: If a Weaponskill is used beyond 3 yalms, the Ninja's shadow will separate from their body and rush over and perform the attack instead (followed by the appropriate "Shadow" duplicate damage after a short delay).

MODIFIED ACTION — "Ten Chi Jin (Trait)"

• "Ten Chi Jin" removed as an action.
• "Ten Chi Jin (Trait)" added as a replacement:

  • Activating "Kassatsu" additionally causes the Ninja to automatically perform the "Ten Chi Jin" ritual.

• "Ten Chi Jin" effect:

  • Immediately grants the Ninja 3 stacks of "Heavenly Seal".
  • While at least 1 stack of "Heavenly Seal" remains, all "Ninki" generated in excess of 100 will automatically summon the "Hellfrog Medium" to strike the target with "Hellfrog's Flames".

    • "Hellfrog's Flames" deals potency equivalent to the ratio caused by "Hellfrog Medium".
    • (ie: let's say "Hellfrog Medium" does 600 potency for 50 Ninki, a ratio of 12 potency-per-Ninki. If the player has 75 Ninki and generates 50 Ninki, that would cause an excess of 25 Ninki over the cap of 100. The automatic "Hellfrog Medium" summoned by this event will automatically convert the overage into 12 * 25 = 300 Potency of "Hellfrog's Flames".)

  • Each use of "Mudra" removes a stack of "Heavenly Seal".
  • When the last stack of "Heavenly Seal" is removed:

    • The Ninja will immediately gain 3 "Hellbound Seals".
    • The duration of "Kassatsu" will immediately be extended by 10 seconds.
    • The Ninja will immediately be granted 3 charges of "Umbral Mudra", which temporarily replaces the Ninja's "Mudra" action.

      • "Umbral Mudra" do not share a cooldown with "Mudra", and can only be used while "Hellbound Seal" is active.

  • While at least 1 stack of "Hellbound Seal" remains, all "Ninki" generated in excess of 100 will no longer automatically summon the "Hellfrog Medium", and will instead automatically summon the "Shadowrabbit Medium", which will dance upon the target's head, striking it with "Shadowrabbit's Torment" for potency equivalent to the ratio caused by "Hellfrog Medium".
  • When the last stack of "Hellbound Seal" is removed, the Ninja will immediately gain the "Forbidden Seal" status. The "Forbidden Seal" status immediately grants access to 1 usage of "Forbidden Mudra", which temporarily replaces the Ninja's "Mudra" action.

    • "Forbidden Mudra" does not share a cooldown with "Mudra", and can only be used while "Forbidden Seal" is active.

NEW TRAIT — "Malevolent Latency"

• "Shadowrabbit's Torment" now additionally spreads to any target within 5 yalms of the primary target, summoning additional "Shadowrabbit Mediums" to dance upon each of their heads, and dealing to each one 50% of the potency inflicted upon the primary target.

NEW AND MODIFIED ACTIONS — "Ten (Umbral)" and "Hyoton"

• Grants the status "Kuji-kiri: Umbral Chi".
• Generates 50 "Ninki".
• Causes the Ninjutsu "Hyoton" to be executed.
• NINJUTSU EFFECT — "Hyoton"

  • Effect is similar to Shadowbringers "Hyoton"/"Hyosho Ranryu", except it swirls around the target for 9 seconds, damaging all targets within 5 yalms of the target each pulse. If the target moves, the effect of "Hyoton" moves with the target.
  • After Level 76, uses "Hyosho Ranryu" animation and increases in potency.

NEW AND MODIFIED ACTIONS — "Chi (Umbral)" and "Doton"

• Activated by "Mudra" while under the effect of "Kuji-kiri: Umbral Chi".
• Grants the status "Kuji-kiri: Umbral Jin".
• Generates 50 "Ninki".
• Causes the Ninjutsu "Doton" to be executed.
• NINJUTSU EFFECT — "Doton"

  • Basic design of "Doton" is unchanged, but it now snapshots potency buffs on cast, rather than per-tick.
  • "Doton" now also deals its damage over a reduced duration of 9 seconds, at a higher potency per tick. (The purpose of this change is to reduce the risk of having the target move out of the ground effect before receiving full damage.)

NEW AND MODIFIED ACTIONS — "Jin (Umbral)" and "Suiton"

• Activated by "Mudra" while under the effect of "Kuji-kiri: Umbral Jin".
• Removes the status "Kuji-kiri".
• Generates 50 "Ninki".
• Causes the Ninjutsu "Suiton" to be executed.
• NINJUTSU EFFECT — "Suiton"

  • "Suiton" deals damage equivalent in potency to "Raiton".
  • "Suiton" manifests as a huge tsunami of water, that flows outward for a length of 15 yalms from the Ninja's front, as a 180°-radius line AOE of 10 yalms width, striking any targets in its path as it travels.

NEW ACTION — "Forbidden Mudra"

• "Long OGCD" (Do not attempt to "double weave")
• On activation, consumes all available "Ninki" to linearly increase potency relative to "Ninki" consumed (up to maximum potency at 100 "Ninki" consumed).

  • At maximum potency, deals massive-potency Magical damage.

• Summons the "Prince of Hellfrogs" to deal massive potency to the target, and all targets within 8 yalms of the target.

  • A successful strike also leaves an 8 yalm radius circle of flames at the target's location. This effect continues to burn any targets within its radius for damage over 6 seconds.

• On a successful activation, immediately ends the "Kassatsu" status.

  • Both the direct and ground damage "snapshot" the "Kassatsu" damage bonuses before ending the "Kassatsu" effect.

• On a successful activation, expunges all of the Ninja's sins and impurities, granting the Ninja the status "Harae".

  • "Harae" makes the Ninja translucent. The Ninja also sparkles. However, the Ninja does not gain any vampiric lifesteal effects.
  • "Harae" lasts for 10 seconds and causes the Ninja to have 75% chance to Evade direct targeted attacks, and to be considered "Hidden".
  • "Harae" immediately ends if the Ninja causes direct Physical damage to a target.

• Animation:

  • A circle of Doman runes made of flame rises out of the ground around the Ninja. Molten fire then bubbles up and expands out to fill this circle.
  • Next, a gigantic, Bahamut-sized Hellfrog rises out of the circle.

    • It has an elaborate golden moustache + beard, fiery claws, fiery red eyes, black shiny horns, black shiny spikes all over its skin, and a very tiny little golden crown.

  • The Prince of Hellfrogs then hops up into the air and opens its gaping jaws, which are full of multiple rows of serrated shark-like teeth, and then hovers while it spits out a barrage of fireballs upon the target in a display reminiscent of the Seventh Umbral Calamity.

    • Each fireball is accompanied by a Mudra symbol.
    • If you look closely, you can see the Prince of Hellfrogs making little Mudra gestures with its little frog hands.

  • The Prince of Hellfrogs then dives down into the molten lava and disappears.
  • The lava then closes up and vanishes, as the Doman runes extinguish into smoke.
  • Finally, anyone in your Alliance Raid that was trying to determine the location of ground effects near your target, immediately dies.

DESIGN NOTE — I've tried to make each Ninjutsu still feel somewhat "unique" in its effects. In the new design, this "uniqueness" comes from the way that each effect behaves:

• Katon: Deals immediate AOE damage around the target.
• Raiton: Deals immediate AOE damage around the Ninja's casting location.
• Suiton: Deals traveling AOE damage forward from the Ninja's location.
• Huton: Swirls pulsing AOE damage around the Ninja, that travels with he Ninja.
• Hyoton: Swirls pulsing AOE damage around the target, that travels with the target.
• Doton: Deals pulsing AOE damage at the Ninja's initial location, that remains fixed at that location.
• Forbidden: Deals pulsing AOE damage at the target's initial location, that remains fixed at that location.

"That was a lot to read. Could you please explain what is actually going on during 'Kassatsu'?"

It looks complicated, but in actual practice, it summarizes to this:

1. Activating "Kassatsu" increases Magical damage, so this is the time when the Ninja wants to dump all "Mudra" and other "Magical" actions.
2. "Mudra" take up a lot of OGCD slots and also generate a lot of "Ninki"; however, this isn't an issue, because during "Kassatsu", any "Ninki" generated over the 100-point cap is automatically converted to damage. Therefore, the Ninja won't "waste" any potency, despite the fact that the Ninja is "OGCD locked" while dumping all of the "Mudra" charges, and cannot spend off "Ninki" directly.
3. For the duration of "Kassatsu", the Ninja's Weaponskills get multiple bonuses that emphasize this as a special "Magical" phase:

   • The filler weaponskill combo is upgraded to a Magical version, allowing the Ninja to take full advantage of the "Kassatsu" buff while also continuing to strike the target with weapon attacks from the Ninja's iconic dual-blades.
   • The Ninja also gets doubled "shadow" attacks on its Weaponskills, and its attack distance is upgraded to 10 yalms range for the duration of "Kassatsu".

4. When the Ninja initiates "Kassatsu", the Ninja also gain 3 stacks of a buff that is "peeled off" 1 at a time by using "Mudra".
5. After "peeling off" all 3 stacks by using 3 "Mudra" ("Huton" → "Katon" → "Raiton"), the Ninja automatically gains a new 3 stack buff, and access to 3 more "Umbral Mudra".
6. After "peeling off" the 3 more new stacks with the unlocked "Umbral Mudra" ("Hyoton" → "Doton" → "Suiton"), the Ninja gains yet another new buff, which enables access to "Forbidden Mudra".
7. "Forbidden Mudra" consumes all of your "Ninki" for one final "ultimate" Magic attack, and also ends the "Kassatsu" buff and the Magical burst phase.

[Eorzean_username]

Summarizing how the rotation would play for the example redesign above:

Note: The actual ordering might differ once potencies were implemented for each action, and theorycrafters had torn it apart and optimized out the ideal order and timing for everything. But, this should give a good rough idea of how the revised playstyle might play out.

Single-target "Raid Boss"

• -5: "Hide"

  • (applies "Heavenly Blades" Haste effect, and gives enough time for it to naturally stack to 70s)

• -2: Stealth up next to Boss, or "Shukuchi" over
• -1: "Kiss of Venom"

  • (can also apply "Kiss of Venom" as an OGCD any time after pulling, but this allows the very first GCD of the encounter to proc the "Poison" effect on the target)

• 0: "Machibuse"

  • (an extra "Machibuse" for the encounter, since you can begin the encounter already "Hidden")

• ~2.17: "Spinning Edge"
• ~4.34: "Gust Slash"
• ~6.51: "Dancing Edge"

  • ("Heavenly Blades" is already active, and "Twisted Blades" hasn't been applied to the target yet, so there's no reason to "Aeolian Edge" or "Mutilate".)
  • (Also, choosing "Dancing Edge" as the finisher here allows more "Ninki" to be fit into raid buffs)

• OGCD: "Smoke Screen"

  • (Puts the Ninja in a pseudo-"Hidden" status, enabling "Assassinate" for a stronger burst window, and also enabling "Machibuse", to fit more potency inside the Physical burst window granted by the "Assassination" buff)

• 8.68: "Machibuse"

  • (Attacking causes the 7s timer on "Smoke Screen" to begin, so by applying "Smoke Screen" in the previous OGCD slot, the Ninja gains an extra use of "Machibuse" under raid buffs / Potion, even if it's outside the "Assassination" Physical buff window)

• OGCD: "Assassinate"

  • ("Trick Attack" is upgraded to "Assassinate" because "Smoke Screen" is causing the Ninja to be considered "Hidden".)
  • (The Ninja waits until the latest non-clipping point in the GCD clock, causing "Vulnerability Up" and "Assassination" to apply at ~10.0s from pull)
  • (Since "Assassinate" is used due to "Smoke Screen" status, also applies "Twisted Blades" Bleeding DOT to the target for 30 seconds)

• 10.85: "Machibuse"

  • (Since "Smoke Screen" is still active, the Ninja can continue using "Machibuse" for a potency gain over the combo average. About 4.83 seconds of "Smoke Screen" remain.)

• OGCD: "Dream Within a Dream"

  • (Use this powerful OGCD during the window of very high Physical damage output. It also generates a large amount of "Ninki", enabling more to be spent inside this buff window)

• 13.02: "Machibuse"

  • (since "Smoke Screen" is still active, the Ninja can continue using "Machibuse" for a potency gain over the average combo value. About 2.66 seconds of "Smoke Screen" remain.)

• OGCD: "Fuma Shuriken"

  • (since the Ninja now has 75 "Ninki" ["Dancing Edge" 25 + "Dream Within a Dream" 50], spend 50 with "Fuma Shuriken", and benefit further from this highly-buffed Physical damage window. The Ninja now has 25 "Ninki".)

• 15.19: "Machibuse"

  • (since "Smoke Screen" is still active, the Ninja can continue using "Machibuse" for a potency gain over the average combo value.)
  • (About 0.49 seconds of "Smoke Screen" remain at the beginning of this GCD, so this will be the last GCD under the effect of "Smoke Screen", and thus the last "Machibuse" under raid buffs.)

• 17.36: "Dancing Edge"

  • (since "Assassinate" was used, the Ninja is under the effects of "Assassin's Koan", allowing the Ninja to use "Dancing Edge" without combo prerequisites, and generating 25 more "Ninki")

• OGCD: "Fuma Shuriken"

  • (since the Ninja now has 50 "Ninki", spend 50 with "Fuma Shuriken".)
  • (The Ninja now has 0 "Ninki", which is desired, since the completion of "Assassin's Koan" in a couple GCDs will generate full "Ninki", and the Ninja doesn't want to waste any)

• 19.53: "Mutilate"

  • ("Assassin's Koan" allows the Ninja to use one "Mutilate" without combo prerequisites, and the Ninja must do so to trigger "Awakened" status.)
  • (Also extends the current raid-buffed "Twisted Blades" effect on the target by 30 seconds, bringing its current duration to ~50.47 seconds, and allowing it to comfortably last through the entire "Kassatsu" phase.)

• 21.70: "Aeolian Edge"

  • ("Assassin's Koan" allows the Ninja to use one "Aeolian Edge" without combo prerequisites, and the Ninja must do so to trigger "Awakened" status.)
  • (Also extends the Ninja's "Heavenly Blades" effect on the target by 30 seconds, bringing its current duration to ~70.00 seconds, and allowing it to comfortably last through the entire "Kassatsu" phase.)
  • (This third finisher triggers "Awakened" status, instantly generating 100 "Ninki", changing "Spinning Edge" to "Emptiness", and changing "Dream Within a Dream" to "Awakening".)
  • ("Assassination" and "Vulnerability Up" should both have ~3.30 seconds left when this GCD begins, and ~1.13 seconds when this GCD ends. Combined with FFXIV's semi-hidden buff/debuff "slush window", this should comfortably allow any Ninja player enough time for one more Physical GCD and one more Physical OGCD.)

• 23.87: "Emptiness"

  • (The Ninja is allowed one use of this powerful, upgraded "Machibuse" due to the "Awakened" status)
  • (The long GCD triggered by "Emptiness" ensures that this will be the last GCD of the "Assassination" window)

• OGCD: "Awakening"

  • (the Ninja is allowed one use of this powerful, upgraded "Dream Within a Dream" due to the "Awakened" status.)
  • (This also consumes all of the Ninja's "Ninki", and it will have maximum potency, since the Ninja has 100 "Ninki".)
  • (This will also end the "Awakened" status, just in time for the expiration of "Assassination" and "Vulnerability Up".)

• OGCD: "Kassatsu"

  • (because the 2.50 second GCD of "Emptiness" does not scale with Attack Speed, its long animation should allow any Ninja to comfortably double-weave "Emptiness" into "Kassatsu" for a smooth transition into the Magical Burst Window).
  • ("Kassatsu" is now active, transitioning the Ninja into the "Magical" window of its burst cycle.)
  • ("Kassatsu" will attempt to apply "Vulnerability Up" to the target, but this will fail, due to the target already having "Vulnerabilities Guarded", triggered by the earlier "Vulnerability Up" applied by "Assassinate".)
  • (Due to "Ten Chi Jin (Trait)", the Ninja will also immediately gain 3 stacks of "Heavenly Seal" status now.)
  • (Due to "Heavenly Seal" status, the Ninja will automatically spend any excess "Ninki" generated over 100 to automatically summon a "Hellfrog Medium" that scales its damage linearly with the amount of overage generated)
  • (Due to "Bunshin (Trait)", the Ninja will immediately gain the "Shadow Self" status for the duration of "Kassatsu", upgrading the Ninja's "Spinning Edge → Gust Slash → Dancing Edge" Physical weaponskill combo chain will change to the "Shadow Fang → Void Arc → Hell Crescent" Magical weaponskill combo chain, and causing the Ninja's weaponskills to have +10 yalms range.)

• 26.37: "Shadow Fang"

  • (Extends "Kiss of Venom" from ~2.63 seconds to ~8.63 seconds.)
  • (Alternatively, if the player dislikes cutting it this close on the refresh, "Kiss of Venom" can be used earlier pre-pull, such as -10 seconds, and then refreshed during an open OGCD slot in the "Assassination" window.)
  • (However, the extension from "Shadow Fang" should ensure that either way, "Kiss of Venom" will last through the "Kassatsu" window without having to risk causing OGCD slot clashes to manually reapply it.)

• OGCD: "Bhavacakra"

  • (Generates 50 "Ninki", bringing the Ninja to a total of 50 "Ninki".)
  • ("Bhavacakra" is used first in this example to try to ensure that it fits inside the last few seconds of any lingering raid buffs or "Potion" effects. But "Bhavacakra" can technically be used at any time that it fits, as long as it's used before the "Kassatsu" effect expires.)

• 28.54 "Void Blade"
• OGCD: "Mudra" (which is currently set to "Ten")

  • (Triggers the Ninjutsu effect "Huton".)
  • (Generates 50 "Ninki", bringing the Ninja to a total of 100 "Ninki".)
  • (Triggers the "Kuji-kiri: Chi" status, changing "Mudra" to "Chi".)
  • (Removes 1 "Heavenly Seal", leaving the Ninja with 2 stacks of "Heavenly Seal".)

• 30.71: "Hell Crescent"

  • (Generates 50 "Ninki", bringing the Ninja to a total of 100 "Ninki" + 50 excess "Ninki", and thus automatically summoning the "Hellfrog Medium" to deal damage with "Hellfrog's Flames" with potency scaled to the amount of excess "Ninki".)

• OGCD: "Mudra" (which is currently set to "Chi")

  • (Triggers the Ninjutsu effect "Katon".)
  • (Generates 50 "Ninki", bringing the Ninja to a total of 100 "Ninki" + 50 excess "Ninki", and thus automatically summoning the "Hellfrog Medium" to deal damage with "Hellfrog's Flames" with potency scaled to the amount of excess "Ninki".)
  • (Triggers the "Kuji-kiri: Jin" status, changing "Mudra" to "Jin".)
  • (Removes 1 "Heavenly Seal", leaving the Ninja with 1 stacks of "Heavenly Seal".)

• 32.88: "Shadow Fang"

  • (Extends "Kiss of Venom" from ~2.12 seconds to ~8.12 seconds.)
  • (current "Kassatsu" duration as this GCD begins = ~2.64 seconds remaining)

• OGCD: "Mudra" (which is currently set to "Jin")

  • (Triggers the Ninjutsu effect "Raiton".)
  • (Generates 50 "Ninki", bringing the Ninja to a total of 100 "Ninki" + 50 excess "Ninki", and thus automatically summoning the "Hellfrog Medium" to deal damage with "Hellfrog's Flames" with potency scaled to the amount of excess "Ninki".)
  • (Removes the "Kuji-kiri" status, changing "Mudra" back to "Ten".)
  • (Removes 1 "Heavenly Seal", ending the "Heavenly Seal" status.)
  • (Due to "Ten Chi Jin (Trait)", ending the "Heavenly Seal" status immediately grants the Ninja 10 more seconds of "Kassatsu" status; current "Kassatsu" duration as the t:32.88 "Shadow Fang" GCD ends = ~2.64-2.17+10.00 = ~10.47 seconds remaining)
  • (Due to "Ten Chi Jin (Trait)", ending the "Heavenly Seal" status immediately grants the Ninja 3 stacks of "Hellbound Seal" status)
  • (Due to "Hellbound Seal" status, "Mudra" is changed to "Umbral Mudra")
  • (Due to "Hellbound Seal" status, the Ninja will automatically spend any excess "Ninki" generated over 100 to automatically summon a "Shadowrabbit Medium" that scales its damage linearly with the amount of overage generated)

• 35.05: "Void Blade"
• OGCD: "Umbral Mudra" (which is currently set to "Ten (Umbral)")

  • (Triggers the Ninjutsu effect "Hyoton".)
  • (Generates 50 "Ninki", bringing the Ninja to a total of 100 "Ninki" + 50 excess "Ninki", and thus automatically summoning the "Shadowrabbit Medium" to dance upon the target's head, dealing damage with "Shadowrabbit's Torment" with potency scaled to the amount of excess "Ninki".)
  • (Triggers the "Kuji-kiri: Umbral Chi" status, changing "Mudra" to "Chi (Umbral)".)
  • (Removes 1 "Hellbound Seal", leaving the Ninja with 2 stacks of "Hellbound Seal".)

• 37.22: "Hell Crescent"

  • (Generates 50 "Ninki", bringing the Ninja to a total of 100 "Ninki" + 50 excess "Ninki", and thus automatically summoning the "Shadowrabbit Medium" to dance upon the target's head, dealing damage with "Shadowrabbit's Torment" with potency scaled to the amount of excess "Ninki".)

• OGCD: "Umbral Mudra" (which is currently set to "Chi (Umbral)")

  • (Triggers the Ninjutsu effect "Doton".)
  • (Generates 50 "Ninki", bringing the Ninja to a total of 100 "Ninki" + 50 excess "Ninki", and thus automatically summoning the "Shadowrabbit Medium" to dance upon the target's head, dealing damage with "Shadowrabbit's Torment" with potency scaled to the amount of excess "Ninki".)
  • (Triggers the "Kuji-kiri: Umbral Jin" status, changing "Mudra" to "Jin (Umbral)".)
  • (Removes 1 "Hellbound Seal", leaving the Ninja with 1 stacks of "Hellbound Seal".)

• 39.39: "Shadow Fang"

  • (Extends "Kiss of Venom" from ~1.61 seconds to ~7.61 seconds.)

• OGCD: "Umbral Mudra" (which is currently set to "Jin (Umbral)")

  • (Triggers the Ninjutsu effect "Suiton".)
  • (Generates 50 "Ninki", bringing the Ninja to a total of 100 "Ninki" + 50 excess "Ninki", and thus automatically summoning the "Shadowrabbit Medium" to dance upon the target's head, dealing damage with "Shadowrabbit's Torment" with potency scaled to the amount of excess "Ninki".)
  • (Removes the "Kuji-kiri" status, changing "Umbral Mudra" back to "Ten (Umbral)".)
  • (Removes 1 "Hellbound Seal", ending the "Hellbound Seal" status, changing "Umbral Mudra" back to "Mudra".)
  • (Due to "Ten Chi Jin (Trait)", ending the "Hellbound Seal" status immediately grants the Ninja "Forbidden Seal" status)
  • (Due to "Forbidden Seal" status, "Mudra" is changed to "Forbidden Mudra")

• 41.56: "Void Blade"

  • (current "Kassatsu" duration as this GCD begins = ~3.96 seconds remaining)
  • (current "Kassatsu" duration as this GCD ends = ~1.79 seconds remaining)
  • (It's a good idea to get into the habit of not spending "Ninki" here, despite having an open OGCD slot, because if any uptime issues have caused you to lose a GCD inside the "Kassatsu" window, you will not be able to regenerate back to 100 "Ninki" in time for a full-potency "Forbidden Mudra")

• OGCD: "Kiss of Venom"

  • (Refreshes "Envenomed Blades" status from ~3.27 seconds to 30.00 seconds)
  • (If desired, this can also be postponed until the first GCD outside the "Kassatsu" window, and it should not cause a loss of uptime on the "Poison" effect on the target, due to it being applied for 6 seconds per melee strike)

• 43.73: "Hell Crescent"

  • (Generates 50 "Ninki", bringing the Ninja to a total of 100 "Ninki" + 50 excess "Ninki", and thus automatically summoning the "Shadowrabbit Medium" to dance upon the target's head, dealing damage with "Shadowrabbit's Torment" with potency scaled to the amount of excess "Ninki".)
  • (current "Kassatsu" duration as this GCD begins = ~1.79 seconds remaining; this will be the final GCD of "Kassatsu")

• OGCD: "Forbidden Mudra"

  • (Consumes all available "Ninki" to summon the "Prince of Hellfrogs" for a final massive-potency attack. Because the Ninja has 100 "Ninki", "Forbidden Mudra" will have maximum possible potency.)
  • (Also immediately ends the "Kassatsu" status, terminating the Ninja's "Magical Burst Window".)
  • (Also grants the Ninja the "Harae" status, causing the Ninja to be considered "Hidden".)

• 45.90: "Machibuse"

  • (Takes advantage of "Harae" status for some extra damage, and ends the "Harae" status.)

• 48.07: All burst windows now over. The Ninja drops down to a basic maintenance rotation:

  • "Aeolian Edge" if "Heavenly Blades" is getting low.

    • (Current timer should be ~45.80 seconds.)
    • (A top-up would be a good idea at some point before the next "Assassinate" at ~70.00, because otherwise the "Assassin's Koan - Aeolian Edge" extension won't be enough to last through "Kassatsu", and being cornered into sacrificing a "Hell Crescent" combo to prevent "Heavenly Blades" from dropping would be a Very Bad Thing)

  • "Mutilate" if "Twisted Blades" is getting low.

    • (Current timer should be ~24.10 seconds.)
    • (A top-up sometime soon is advised, because otherwise it won't last until the next "Assassinate" at ~70.00, and there is no way to reapply "Twisted Blades" if it drops before the next "Assassinate".)

  • "Dancing Edge" as the fallback filler (generating "Ninki" for the next burst window).
  • "Fuma Shuriken" to burn off excess "Ninki" (while trying to pool as much as possible for the next "Assassination" Physical buff window).

• ~68.00: The rotation will loop back every 60 seconds to the "Smoke Screen → Assassination" Physical Burst Window...
• ~83.00: ...followed by the "Kassatsu" Magical Burst Window.

Note: In some situations, it may be more optimal for a Ninja to instead open with "Kassatsu", followed afterwards by "Smoke Screen → Assassination".

• For example, this may align the increased attack distance of the "Kassatsu" window with a problematic phase of an encounter.
• This would be similar to behavior exhibited by Paladins with their "Requiescat" and "Fight or Flight" windows.
• Because both "Kassatsu" and "Assassinate" apply "Vulnerability Up", and because "Vulnerability Up" cannot be applied to the same target more than once within 60 seconds, the order in which "Kassatsu" and "Assassinate" are activated should have no effect on the party's overall DPS coordination and performance.
• This is the real reason that "Forbidden Mudra" grants "Harae" status: it allows the Ninja to have a clean OGCD weave slot to transition from "Kassatsu" to "Smoke Screen / Assassinate", without being forced to start an awkwardly-hanging "Spinning Edge" combo, or to do a very long "clip" by trying to double-weave "Forbidden Mudra" and "Smoke Screen".

Solo situations

• The Ninja will exploit "Hide" to ensure that "Heavenly Blades" is always automatically active, and to "Shukuchi" freely from target to target.
• The Ninja will exploit the "reset-on-target-KO" bonus to "Trick Attack" and "Smoke Screen" to ensure that every new target gets hit with "Machibuse" and "Assassinate", for perpetual "Assassination" buff on the Ninja, and "Vulnerability Up" on each target.
• In this way, the Ninja will cut through solo targets in a way that feels like a true "shadowy assassin" — appearing next to them without warning, dealing massive burst damage, and then vanishing again and appearing beside the next target.
• At the same time, the Ninja will be accumulating plenty of "Stolen Bundle" to take back to the Rogue's Guild later.
• Alternatively, if the Ninja enjoys the "Magical" attacks, they can spend some of their time every 60 seconds blowing up targets with the "Kassatsu" window. (I don't favor a design of actually resetting "Kassatsu" on KOs, however, because I'm trying to gently nudge Ninja back toward being a Physical / "Melee Attacker" Job, first and foremost, and leaving the Magical effects as flavor and embellishment.)

[Eorzean_username]

Addendum: Improving "Mudra Codes" if they must remain in 6.00.

If the designers think that removing "Mudra Code" gameplay is absolutely not an option for Ninja, then I would suggest the following ideas as an alternative, to at least bring the disproportionate post-5.10 impact on the rotation back under control:

1. Remove "chores" as Ninjutsu actions.

• "Huton" is no longer a Haste buff, and the Haste buff is either made a passive Trait, or baked into gameplay elsewhere (one possibility is suggested below).
• "Suiton" is no longer required to enable "Trick Attack", and is redesigned to have a different purpose.

2. Mudra presence in the rotation is significantly reduced.

• Mudras are brought back down to 1 charge.
• Mudra CD increased to 30 seconds.
• "Kassatsu" and "Ten Chi Jin" merged into one action, consolidating "Mudra CDs" and opening up much more space in the "burst cycle" for non-Magical actions.

3. Mudra GCD times are increased to 1.0 second, and potencies are adjusted further to compensate.

• Would this be slow-feeling? Hells, yes.
• Would this be annoying to long-time Ninja players? Probably, yes.
• Would this significantly even the field for players across a wide range of latencies, connection types, world locations, and physical capabilities? Yes, I think so. Look at how much more "user-friendly" Dancer Steps are.

4a. "Ninjutsu" confirmation action is removed.

• Mudras automatically execute after a successful sequence is entered.
• Mudras are redesigned to ensure that all sequences are unique. For example:

  • Raiton: Ten Jin Chi
  • Suiton: Ten Chi Jin
  • Katon: Chi Jin Ten
  • Hyoton: Chi Ten Jin
  • Doton: Jin Ten Chi
  • Huton: Jin Chi Ten

• This frees up a keybind, and also reduces the total amount of time spent typing in "Mudra Codes" by one action.
• Or, alternatively, you could...

  • Just remove "Suiton", "Huton", and "Hyoton" completely.
  • OR merge the "outlier" Ninjutsu ("Suiton", "Huton", "Hyoton") into the other three Ninjtusu as "dual-elemental" attacks.
  • Either of these two alternative options above allows Mudras to be reduced to only 3 different code sequences.

4b. Alternatively to 4a, "swap out" the keys for "Mudras", similar to Dancer "Steps", freeing up 3 keybinds.

• For example: press "Ninjutsu" once, and:

  • "Spinning Edge" becomes "Ten"
  • "Gust Slash" becomes "Chi"
  • "Aeolian Edge" becomes "Jin"

• Pressing "Ninjutsu" again confirms and activates the given code sequence.

5. "Rabbit Medium" is skinned, processed into canned Miqo'te food, and removed from the game.

• Similar to Dancer "Dance Steps", Mudras can no longer "fail".
• Pressing the same Mudra twice in a row either does nothing at all (as in the Shadowbringers version of "Ten Chi Jin")
• OR — similar to "Dance Steps", it simply wastes a small amount of GCD time, without breaking the Ninjutsu.
• OR — Pressing an incorrect Mudra sequence simply resets the sequence to "zero" and forces the player to start over, again wasting GCD time, but not breaking the Ninjutsu.

To be clear, I personally enjoyed Patch 5.00 crazy OGCD-weaving nonsense clipfest Ninja gameplay the most. However, my opinion on the matter of "Mudras" at this point in FFXIV is as such:

1. Zippy crazy fast-paced OGCD punch-code Ninja feels really fun and really good — if you can do it correctly.
2. However, zippy crazy fast-paced OGCD punch-code Ninja feels absolutely awful when it goes wrong — which for too many players is "way too often", and in many cases, due to factors outside of their personal control.
3. FFXIV is not the correct game for this type of gameplay or design. Its encounter style, its encouraged participation styles, its natural long GCD, its controller-friendliness, its open accessibility to a wide variety of players and physical capabilities, and its sluggish and clunky game engine and server connections all contribute to making this kind of fast-paced, "punishing" design inappropriate for a Job that all players have open access to in all types of content.
4. There are many other games that do this sort of "twitchy" gameplay idea much more robustly and much more completely, and while it was a cool experiment, I feel that actual evidence has shown over time that this design is not working out in FFXIV.

————————————————————————————————————————

"You are COMPLETELY. INSANE."

Possibly true.

However, with regards to this post in particular: I just really enjoy Ninja as a Job, at a personal level, and I always have, since soon after I first began FFXIV.

Or, more accurately, I really enjoy a lot of aspects of Ninja as a Job... but I feel like the sum of its parts always ends up feeling like less than the individual pieces when it all comes together, and frustratingly short of what it "could be", due to strange and stubborn design decisions.

For example, I don't feel compelled to create a post this radical or detailed for most of the current Jobs in FFXIV. In my opinion, most Jobs currently range from having "some problems" (such as Dark Knight), to being "pretty much fine, maybe a few tweaks here and there to clean it up" (such as Paladin or Machinist).

Ninja, however, I feel has drifted very badly out-of-whack from where it "should be", given the Fantasy/RPG archetypes that it is supposed to be representing in FFXIV, and I don't think that Ninja can be course-corrected with a few gentle nudges or tweaks. I think that Ninja really needs to be thrown on the operating table, completely dissected, and then sewn back together as a "real" Thief/Rogue/Assassin/Ninja class.

That's why I've gone crazy with this post: it started small, but the more I tried to write it, the more I realized how problematic and out-of-whack the Ninja design has become, until it became a giganto monster of a post in order to address everything I felt was necessary to explain about the Ninja design issues that I see.

"I disagree with your complaints, and I like Ninja exactly how it is in Patch 5.50, and also, I don't like you, and go away!"

Yes, that's all fine, and I think that it's to be expected that someone will disagree with my assessment. Also, if you feel that way, then I think that it's valuable for you to make that clear. The developers should hear all kinds of different perspectives, and ultimately, their job is to try to strike a balance that satisfies all players as best as possible, using the information that they have available.

However, I will say that in my proposals here, I have tried to respect players that enjoy the current "whimsical", "folksy", "mystical", and "Mudra/Ninjutsu" aspects of Ninja, by compressing those aspects down into an intense "Kassatsu" burst window, rather than removing them completely.

By doing that, it allowed the "Physical" and "Thief/Rogue/Assassin" aspects to expand back out and fill up most of the rest of the rotation. I personally think that this is a more appropriate ratio and balance for a "Melee Attacker Ninja" class design.

However, again: If you still disagree, and think that these changes would not improve the Job for you, then I believe that your opinion is important, and that the devs should read it, and weigh it equally. My goal is not to stamp out anyone's fun, but instead just try to improve what I see as big design flaws and gameplay/fantasy "let downs" that undermine my own fun when I try to use the current Shadowbringers version of the Ninja Job.

[Colt47]

I tried ninja and just sort of said it isn't for me. There is a saying called "Keep it simple, stupid" that is often used in programming that really applies here: If you only have two or three special skills that need to be activated on rotation, then activate them on rotation in the simplest way possible, which is a button press. This very same thing is going on with a ton of jobs right now in the game still, and they are trying to get around to fixing them, but I don't know what is keeping them from just doing it.

After sitting down and really looking at all the jobs in the game, they are mixing responsibilities between the jobs and the encounters in a way that doesn't really fit. Do you determine the side you attack the boss on or does the boss determine the side you attack from with his attack pattern? Do you choose where to stand to get the cast off, or does the boss determine where you stand to get the cast off with his attack? Fundamentally, they have this really confused design choice in the game, and it's why I dislike melee and casters in the game over things like the tanks, which lack the positional requirements, and Machinist, which can operate from just about anywhere fine.

So how does this factor into Ninja? Well, they decided that the best balance for ninja not having positionals (cough, trick attack), was to give it this crazy mini-game with mudra. I mean what should define melee is the higher risk from potentially being hit by boss attacks in order to get in more consistent damage, not "bouncing around on different sides of the boss because we decided to make potency increase if you do". The boss is going to tell you where you have to stand. It's not an option: you MUST stand where you are not going to get hit. So why on earth, would you design an ability that requires you to position on a specific side or sides, when the encounters are built to do side swipes and other types of directional, potentially one hit KO, abilities on top of it? They are in melee range, which means they should have to already do far more dodging than the ranged.

[Silberzerox]

Long Story short, you want a classic Rogue/Assassin. Thats fine. But arent you a little to "hardcore" about this "Ninja is not how i want it to be"?

The Ninja in FF14 is indeet catoonish, thats where the "magic"-inspiration comes from. Its mainly from an Anime/Manga called "Naruto".

[Beddict]

Long Story short, you want a classic Rogue/Assassin. Thats fine. But arent you a little to "hardcore" about this "Ninja is not how i want it to be"?

The Ninja in FF14 is indeet catoonish, thats where the "magic"-inspiration comes from. Its mainly from an Anime/Manga called "Naruto".

Bingo. Hell, check Reddit, Gamefaqs, or wherever and you'll probably find someone making fun of the Naruto run that NIN does when they have their weapons out. OP seems to have completely missed the video game series Ninja Gaiden as well where Ryu, the Ultimate Ninja, is running around channeling his chi to whip out Ninja Magic like Art of the Inferno. Or maybe Dead or Alive where Ayane, another ninja, who frequently uses Ninja Magic in cutscenes, whether it's blasting someone with fire or teleporting. Apparently ninjas using magic in anime and Japanese video games is totally unheard of to the OP.

[Rongway]

Dear OP,

I get that you have very detailed, precise ideas that you want to express. But please. Summarize. And. Edit. Your initial post is about 17,000 words and about 50 pages of 12 pt type when pasted into Word. I have read graduate theses that are shorter than this. We should not have to read a 50 page term paper, before comments, to be able to participate in a forum discussion.