Good evening everyone,
As someone that has been a very dedicated NIN main since the end of Heavensward, I'd like to express my distaste with the projected job changes coming this Tuesday.
NIN has had a very cookie cutter way of playing since its introduction. Although, throughout the years there has been some marginal differences, its identity has stayed uniform no matter the expansion you're playing. Burst phase that helps your party, in your trick windows, and resource management for the remainder of the minute. This playstyle is why i love ninja still to this day and refuse to bring any other class in raid. Every burst window is different and the min max potential on the job while simultaneously being useful to the group is very exciting to play. The change with Mug being the new trick attack and becoming a 2 min buff, and trick attack essentially becoming riddle of fire has just morphed NIN into another flavor of monk without form shifts and a different buff to upkeep.
This breaks my heart as a NIN main as if i just wanted to play MNK i would. I dont quite understand the reasoning against moving trick away from being a party buff as its the last remaining 1 min party buff in the game. It's unique CD adds to the value of bringing a NIN to raid. NIN aligned incredibly well with ALL tanks as they are all bursting every 60 seconds. Im concerned they're going to make mug a 3% party buff instead of 5% on the 2 mins to better align with Reaper's "Arcane Circle", as if Mug was anything higher, it'd promote taking a NIN over a reaper. I also don't think its personal dps was ever an issue, if it was, I would play MNK/SAM instead. NIN shines as being a utility class.
I understand the argument of "Trick isn't going anywhere". But the issue isn't trick being changed to a personal buff. It's the fact that the job has seen such substantial changes this expansion especially with the changes to the Raijus the DAY the savage tier released. as well as we're getting another big job change that will ultimately change the rotation/openers/priorities of the job again right before DSWU is being released. This has made me really hesitant to play the job as I'm concerned with its power level going into this next ultimate. For the first time in the 5+ years ive raided, im highly considering playing something other than NIN. NIN in its current state was the least played job this tier.
I'd like to ask for other peoples opinions. Ultimately I will give this version of NIN a fair shot, as I have every other iteration. I'm a bit worried as I'm not sure the community was prepared for this substantial of a change and I'm curious to see how many groups will bring NIN into their Ultimate compositions.
Please forgive me as this was a bit of a ramble, i just wanted to display my concerns to the developers as this is the best way to reach them, as previously stated in live letters. I'll also be making posts on reddit as well to get as much visibility possible.