The Problems With Ninja In Endwalker

[Seraphor]

This doesn't sound right. Forked+Fleeting Raiju is higher total potency than any 2 GCDs from the standard 1-2-3 combo. There's clearly potency lost if Raiju is skipped. It would be like telling someone to just always use Armor Crush instead of Aeolian Edge because they're "virtually the same potency."

There are traits that increase the potency of the 1-2-3 weaponskills post level 80.

The difference in potency between Forked-Fleeting and 2-3 will be in double digits.
Plus Aeolian Edge will give 15 Ninki while Forked and Fleeting give 5.

[Pyitoechito]

There are traits that increase the potency of the 1-2-3 weaponskills post level 80.

The difference in potency between Forked-Fleeting and 2-3 will be in double digits.
Plus Aeolian Edge will give 15 Ninki while Forked and Fleeting give 5.

MrHappy's video shows that both Raiju give 5 Kenki each (and Phantom Kamaitachi gives 10 total under Bunshin), even though the current tooltips say otherwise.

Let's math it out. For the sake of argument let's say that Armor Crush is never used and we live in a hypothetical world where we only use Aeolian Edge of max potency (and don't lose Huton). For every Raiju combo we use during the fight, we drop 2 regular GCDs off the end. So if we use 3 Raiju combos, that's 1-2-3-1-2-3 or two of each weaponskill.

3 Raiju combos total potency: 2550; total Kenki: 30
2 regular combos total potency: 1960; total Kenki: 50; potency + 1 Bhava: 2260

Raijus win by 590 potency, but lose 20 Kenki. It would be difficult to count the Bhava against the Raijus because the Kenji difference was only 20 but if we give the regular combo one Bhava it still loses by 290 potency.

Also, Raijin combo vs. 2-3 regular combo is 100 potency. That's still in the triple digits (albeit 10 Kenki in the 2-3's favor).

Edit: We could extend it so both sides use Bhavas with no leftover Kenki:

15 Raiju combos total potency: 12,750; total Kenki: 150; Total + Bhavas: 13,650
10 regular combos total potency 9,800; total Kenki: 250; Total + Bhavas: 11,300

Total difference in potency: 2350 potency in Raiju's favor.

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The real issue is actually Phantom Kamaitachi. If Raiton is used during Bunshin with only 1-2 charges left and Phantom Kamaitachi still hasn't been used, then the Phantom has to be sacrificed for Raiju. I can definitely see this as being problematic down the road.