The Problems With Ninja In Endwalker

[Raidoser]

Your regular weaponskills work as long as you are in within maximum melee range and allow you to move while attacking. So for example if a boss uses a point blank aoe that's about as large as max melee range that would allow a melee player to continue attacking EXCEPT with Raiju. Another example would be a mechanic where your party first needs to stack and then spread, or where you for some other reason need to be able to evade quickly, the animation lock on Raiju can make the difference between dodging or not. Both of these issues are the exact same that dragoons have to deal with when using jumps but there is one last major difference between DRG jumps and Raiju; that Raiju is both on the GCD as a weaponskill and that Raiju is lost if not used immediately. So where you can simply choose to delay your DRG jumps a few seconds (not optimal but also not a giant loss) while continuing your regular rotations, these same situations cause lvl 90 NIN to grind to a complete halt. It's incredibly frustrating to be within max melee range but still have to use throwing daggers because Raiju would move you out of your safe spot and does not tolerate you using any other melee weaponskill until you have burnt through all 6 stacks of Raiju.
And as a small bonus, a certain currently relevant trial fight (both normal and extreme mode) does include quite a few times where your character is temporarily bound. This also prevents you from using Raiju even though you are within melee range, due to it being a gap closer. It's not very fun.

If Raiju was changed to either not drop off when using melee weaponskills or to not be a gap closer (preferably the first option) then that would make a world of difference in how enjoyable NIN is to play.

I'm in the minority then, did a bunch of expert dungeons + the final days trial had no problem to use raiju without wasting stacks, maintain dps uptime and not dying (the animation lock is very short), every time i couldn't use raiju it was because a mechanic was coming and i just had to use throwing dagger or mudra while waiting for the opportunity to go back to melee, the Forked raiju - Fleeting Raiju combo doesn't even break if you use anything except melee weaponskill between them : you can do Forked Raiju - Shukuchi to Dodge - Throwing dagger/Mudra - Fleeting Raiju back to melee.

i have more of a problem with hollow nozuchi animation making sometimes hard to see aoe on the ground on thrash pack in dungeon.

[Elena_Farron]

Update: Solutions to Ninja in Endwalker

First of all I want to thank everyone for actively discussing Ninja in this thread and since release there have been a lot of opinions on the changes. Now that me and others have had plenty of time to test Ninja thoroughly, do the math, apply the rotation in real scenarios, etc. I think a lot in our perspectives have changed and I'd like to give an update as to what I like, what I don't like, and possible solutions on how to improve Ninja. A lot of this will mostly show a change of heart since my first post so I would be thankful to hear your responses.
Coming from someone who has only played the 5.1+ iteration of Ninja, I've actually come to appreciate a lot of the updates that have been brought in with Endwalker a lot more, and here is what I've found.

The Rotation
So far in Endwalker the new Ninja rotation has actually been quite engaging. Factors for thus are: Less 123 spam, more ogcds due to increased Ninki gain, and greater range for optimization. With Raiju replacing your basic combo for a good portion of the fight, you are less reliant on positionals and can burst for a much more extended period of time within 20s raid buff and 30s pot windows, which is very satisfying.

Forked Raiju/Fleeting Raiju
While a lot of people seem to take issue with this ability for valid reasons, as do I, there are quite a few positives to this skill in more ways than people might think, so bear with me.

There is some merit to the idea of having slight changes to Raiju, but it is not:
- changing the gapcloser funcionality
- turning it into an ogcd

Raiju replacing the basic combo for 4-6 gcds is not very much but greatly appreciated, as the 5.1+ playstyle for ninja and the repetetive 123 spam was mindnumbing especially at higher levels of play. It now also replaces those weaker gcds that we were previously just stuffing in our trick windows as filler.

As with the idea of an ogcd, many people underestimate the strengths of a gcd gapcloser, and with our current rotation we are already running low on spaces to weave ogcds inside burst windows, adding 6 additional ones into 2min windows, alongside Mug, 4 Bhavacakras, occasionally Bunshin, Dream within a Dream, would be daunting to say the least. And while I understand that people might not enjoy the idea of the Raiju combo being integrated into a single button, calling it "braindead", it seems a common theme in terms of job design, and quite frankly I don't find spamming 123 to be any more engaging, less so in fact.

[Elena_Farron]

To highlight the strengths of Raiju currently, you must compare it to other gapclosers in the game and how other melee jobs currently apply them, which led me to this conclusion:
Ogcd gapclosers MUST be weaved in between your gcd meaning that you need to gapclose back towards the boss before your gcd reaches the end of it's roll, raiju completely eliminates this by being the GCD that you use to continue your gcd roll, meaning you can continue your GCD at any distance from the boss, a great advantage to the gapclosers other melees have as well as leaving an incredible amount of freedom of movement in a lot of cases that I previously thought would be limited by this skill.

After having done both Endwalker Extreme Trials multiple times and applying a highly optimized rotation across all mechanics, I found that with proper planning and skill, the quite short animation lock and forced dash on Raiju still left an incredible range of movement (also thanks to the QoL buff to shukuchi) and were hardly as much of a detrimental factor as I thought it to be. You can dodge around a lot of the mechanics so far no problem with some thinking ahead. While it is true that the gapcloser as of right now cannot be shifted, keeping the gapcloser functionality of both Forked Raiju and Fleeting Raiju would be an incredible tool if they were to not break upon using other melee weaponskills, and would easily make it the best gapcloser in the entire game.

Solutions
The changes Ninja requires are very simple and I would be grateful to the developers should they implement these:

1. Change the "Forked Raiju Ready" and "Fleeting Raiju Ready" buffs to no longer disappear upon using other melee weaponskills, and extend the timer to at least 20s or more to help with this

2. Increase the strength of "Phantom Kamaitachi" to help it gain priority within raid buffs

3. Adjust potencies across various skills to be in line with other melee jobs (And, though unlikely, return to us our damage in 2-target-scenarios, it is very sad to see them now compared to what they used to be)

Final Thoughts
Fortunately Ninja still remains fun and challenging, as well as satisfying to use, and I am glad for the addition of Raiju stacks after the media tour. It was a change in the right direction and I am confident that the developers have found a good spot for ninja and while not everyone can be satisfied, I hope my post was able to bring a different perspective into this thread, and thank you very much for taking your time to read it if you did.

Also, please increase the volume on the Raiju sound effects, they are cool but far too quiet for skills of such strength, thank you!

[Kolsykol]

Totally agree with Elena, what NIN needs rly is just for Raiju to not break on weaponskills and potency changes.

I am actually really hype about NIN in Endwalker, I've leveled it every time since ARR but not played it so actively.
But I am VERY strongly considering it as a main in Endwalker.

[Cyrexs]

Well said. I agree with everything 100%.

[NeveBrightburn]

I fully agree with Elena's post, and hope to see these type of changes in 6.05

[AlnoAshen]

Elena said everything that i was frustrated about,currently i kinda dread to press raijus and these changes will make the job a lot more smoother.i really really reaaaally hope these changes will be implemented

[Equitable_Remedy]

i kinda dread to press raijus

Just press it, man - it's so good. When you've got Bunshin going and you're dropping fat Raijus - that's living, my friend.

I can't speak to whatever savage will be, but there's currently nothing that should cause you to "dread" pressing raiju. I guess that you could accidently miss LOSing in EX2, but that extremely niche and you can survive throwing knives for a GCD or two. In EX2 add phase, the dashes on Raiju can have you zooming around the map like Sonic with Chidori.

I have converted to the Church of Raiju. Join us.

[AlnoAshen]

Yes,there is.is the accessory trial,ur trick comes up right after the stars,and there u have to press raijus at the same time struggling with animation lock of raijus.
I just cant believe how bad this skill is,not only is it an animation lock,not only is it a gap closer,u also HAVE to press it right away.This makes assassinate looks god like cuz at least u could move assassinate in ur trick window in a part where u didnt have to move!

[Equitable_Remedy]

Yes,there is.is the accessory trial,ur trick comes up right after the stars,and there u have to press raijus at the same time struggling with animation lock of raijus.
I just cant believe how bad this skill is

This seems like a wild overreaction for a few GCDs in one fight when using Raiju isn't optimal depending on star placement. Maybe important for your parse party but irrelevant for the clear.

u also HAVE to press it right away.

You literally don't HAVE to press it right away, in the sense that you have the option to press other buttons (Throwing Dagger, Ninjustu, Phantom Kamaitachi, etc.) without losing Forked Raiju Ready, that you have the option to press other buttons and lose Forked Raiju ready, and that the buff lasts 15 seconds.

Look, I get it - Raiju is new and scary. When I first got it, I hated it precisely because it works differently that 80 ShB NIN worked, but that was because I was trying to use it like 80 ShB NIN. Once I let go of 80 ShB NIN and started playing 90 EW NIN, it felt much better.

I have been converted, my friends. I have seen the light(ning).