Guide to the Ninja Blade/Regeneration scralker
by Sneaky Beef
Hello to you who dares venture forth into the dark realm of stalking. I'll be your host, Sneaky Beef, to this guide about an excellent combination of stalker powers, Ninja Blade and Regeneration. I've read numerous guides on these forums and I recently noted the very few guides to Ninja Blade and so I began working on this guide.
This guide obviously reflects my opinions, personal experience and stuff I've read around here ; your mileage may vary. Everything here is mere suggestion. I've tried my best, through three respecs, to have a very survivable build and now that I look back at my 43 Threat Levels, I do think I managed, through trial and error, to reach my goal. Please note that most comments are PvE-related. You might still want to read the other Ninja Blade guide as well as Katana guides for scrappers for more information. I'm also including a small collection of useful links at the very end of this guide.
Ninja Blade
You might wonder why you should choose Ninja Blade in the first place : damage certainly isn't the highest, plus it deals Lethal damage that even my grandma could resist in the mid- to end-game.
The first reason you might choose Ninja Blade is style. Yeah, some people DO like to have a cool character and I believe that Ninja Blade's animations are some of the coolest. But if style doesn't float your boat much, think about a build for which your opponent spends most of his time on his butt. With a well-built Ninja Blade stalker, a single opponent won't get much of a chance to hit you. Also, the +5% Accuracy bonus inherent to the set certainly doesn't hurt, especially at lower levels. Oh, and don't forget that most Ninja Blade attacks - except Divine Avalanche - will reduce your opponent's Defense (we're talking about -7.5% per attack, unslotted), meaning that each succesful attack increases the chances of your next attack of hitting - and the same stands for your teammates, of course. In short : Ninja Blade is an excellent scrapping set.
There is a major hurdle in your path though : Ninja Blade really is a late bloomer. I honestly have to tell you that my late teens and early to mid 20's were a MAJOR pain ; perhaps due to inexperience, or possibly something lacking in my build, but this seems to be the general feeling. Also, except for Gambler's Cut, I don't think any of the powers is really skippable.
My usual slotting for low-level Ninja Blade powers is 1 Accuracy, 1 Recharge, 3 Damage. Pre-Stamina, you might want to put an End Redux instead of a Damage so you don't end up crying for your END. I place an End Redux in higher-level attacks for the same reason. We're in for the long run, baby, let's be prepared. Also, putting a Defense Debuff enhancement won't hurt your team if you entend to not solo much.
Enough rant, let's review those powers.
Sting of the Wasp (level 1): Pretty much your bread-and-butter attack. With reasonable damage and recharge time, you'll be using it a lot. Slotting: 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage, 1 Recharge.
Gambler's cut (level 1): *sigh* Look, I hate GC. It sucks. The damage is sub-par (2.3333 BI compared to 3.2222 BI for Sting of the Wasp), Endurance is lower but not much. The only upside is the recharge time which is quite faster. Not necessatily a bad power but it certainly won't scale well with levels, and stalker builds being pretty tight as they are... don't waste a power. Still, if you intend on taking it, don't take Sting of the Wasp, builds are tight enough as they are.
Flashing Steel (level 2): by swinging your blade in a wide arc in front of you, you get to hit a few enemies at the same time. In game terms, you might think of Flashing Steel as a very wide but short cone attack. The damage certainly isn't impressive but with some training, you could manage to hit two enemies or more (my personal max being 6). Useless against a single enemy, it is useful with large mobs and of course it does lower their DEF. Also, by not taking this power, you won't have much of an attack chain before Divine Avalanche, which really isn't much of a damage dealer. However, if you find your build to be too tight, you may want to skip this one, especially if you choose to get Air Superiority. So : take it or don't (now
that's good advice). Slotting: 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage, 1 Recharge.
Assassin's Blade (level 6): What can I say ? You chose to roll a stalker, so take Assassin's Blade as soon as it is available. The damage is incredible, and the animation for Ninja Blade is absolutely WICKED. Slotting : depends on your playing style. PvPers will go with 3 Accuracies and 3 Damage ; I chose to go with 2 Accuracies, 3 Damages and 1 Recharge. In a PvE context, a Recharge SO allows you to AB, scrap a few minions and then have AB ready after Placate in a lot less time.
Build Up (level 8) : A useful power, of course, which a lot of power sets have in some form or another. Build Up + Assassin's Blade = major burst damage. Still, you need Placate more than Build Up, and you'll also need to fit in a pre-travel power as well as Swift/Hurdle, so you might be tight in your build, so you might want to rely on inspirations for a while. Delaying it is no sin. Slotting : see slotting advice for Placate.
Placate (level 12) : The third and final tool of the perfect stalker's toolbox. You'll need it. Extremely useful for assassinating that lone enemy or getting a few seconds less attention from a hateful Boss. Slotting : when you start meeting Elite Bosses and Arch Villains, you might want putting in an extra Recharge or two. Assassin's Blade will be your primary damage dealer, especially if you solo a lot, so having Placate up as much as possible is vital.
Divine Avalanche (level 18) : Divine Avalanche is what makes Ninja Blade a strange set. First of all, its damage is negligible. Second, it will not lower an opponent's DEF, even though it does require you hit your opponent : instead, it will increase yours. The bonus is +15% and with recharge enhancements, you can double stack it for an interesting +30% DEF bonus - unslotted. Heck, it seems you can triple-stack it with Hasten. In a Defense-less build, such as this one with /Regen, this is HUGE. A hint : attack your weakest opponents (e.g. minions instead of bosses) since you're more interested in hitting than in dealing damage with this. Slotting : don't bother with damage, slot for defense and accuracy, throw in a recharge when you get to SOs (see "Attack chain" section). Slotting : at the very least 1 Accuracy (since it requires you to hit your opponent to get the +DEF bonus), 3 Defense.
Soaring Dragon (level 26): Oh boy. Now we're talking. By spinning around and doing an upward thrust of your sword, this little jewel will deal quite a bit of damage AND will knock up your opponent. This is where the set begins to get serious : with Divine Avalanche you can protect yourself against Bosses and then you knock them up with Soaring Dragon. You don't need defense against an opponent flat on his back !
Golden Dragonfly (level 32): And now, for the cherry on the Ninja sunDivine Avalanchee. Golden Dragonly deals excellent damage, it can hit enemies in a straight line (think of a rather short and very narrow cone) AND knock them back. As all tier 9 stalkers primaries, it can also land critical hits, just like scrapper powers, but the price to pay for that is that you won't necessarily land critical hits from Hide.
Regeneration
I once read something on this forum (don't know who this came from, sorry), who summed this secondary set pretty well : "Whatever will not kill you in 15 seconds won't be able to kill you". This means that Elite Bosses and Arch Villains and other opponents dealing a large amount of damage in short periods of time ("burst damage") will be tricky but that you can waste large mobs of minions and lieutenants with ease, generally speaking.
This set offers mainly powers that affect HP regeneration (surprise !) as well as excellent mez protection, with very little toggle powers (2) slowly sucking your Endurance away. The downside is that you get virtually no Defense and very limited damage Resistance, and no Resistance to Fear and Confuse. But we'll talk about coping with these weaknesses in the next section.
A lot of powers in the Regeneration set
are skippable - those who aren't are Hide (level 1 power) and Integration (the uber mez protection). Other powers have various levels of usefulness.
Hide (level 1): Well, heh, every stalker needs Hide, huh ? So here's yours. Critical hits when hidden ; a huge AoE defense bonus ; a large -Perception (-500 ft.) debuff on opponents. Sweet. Slotting : don't bother with End Redux, Hide sucks only 0.24 End/s. I suggest throwing in a Recharge enhancement so that, if you ever get detoggled, you can get Hide back on ASAP. Having a DEF enhancement couldn't hurt, too.
Fast Healing (level 2) : Believe it or not, this power will increase your HP regeneration (+75% HP regen, or about twice as much as Health). Slotting : Three-slotting with Healing is a must.
Reconstruction (level 4) : A nice little power to have. It really is like having a permanent green inspiration in your pocket. Unslotted, it will make you recover 25% of your HP. Oh, and don't forget the standard +15% RES to Toxic that comes gratis. Slotting: Whether you want a higher percentage or faster recharge is up to you, but I sure prefer having it available sooner than getting bigger green numbers.
Dull Pain (level 10) : Dull Pain is a very common power. It temporarily increases your max HP by 40% and gives you that same amount of HP. Oh and remember : higher max HP means higher regeneration rate (in terms of HP gained per tick). Slotting: See Reconstruction, although I do recommend Recharge slotted early since the recharge timer is quite long (???). Any Healing enhancement you put in it does not increase the max HP boost, it does however affect the amount of HP you're gaining.
Integration (level 16) : One of the greatest powers this set has to offer. Integration increases your HP regeneration (yeah, ANOTHER +50%, I know) and increases your Resistance to Knockback, Disorient, Hold, Sleep and Immobilization to rock-solid level. It really is a über mez protection power, so take it or die. It's that simple. Slotting : again, 3-slot for Healing.
Resilience (level 20) : a nice but certainly not mandatory power. This auto power offers the only damage resistance this set has, against smashing, lethal and toxic damage (5.625%). It also gives you excellent resistance against Disorient. This is immensely useful when you need to use Awakens, because you can start walking around in a matter of seconds instead of walking around like a zombie for what seems like hours. Slotting : slot for Resistance but don't bother 3-slotting unless you've got too many slots on your hands.
Instant Healing (level 28): IH has been widely discussed on these forums, and by doing a search you'll certainly find a lot of threads discussing it. I'll simply say this : it is a powerful tool that can certainly save your bacon but I don't think it's absolutely necessary. Slotting :
Revive (level 35): I read a lot of bad comments on Revive's uselessness. I personnally chose to take it for the very simple reason that I always forget to bring Awakens and that I'm too much of a kamikaze to go without it. I don't regret my choice, but I can certainly imagine a build without it. Another argument for Revive is debt protection : while your Awaken will protect you from debt for 10 seconds, Revive provides 90 seconds of protection. That's a minute and a half, for you non-math types. Still, if you think of taking it, I don't suggest taking it too early, you've got much more important powers to think about. Slotting : depends on your faceplanting abilities.
Moment of Glory (level 38): MoG has been largely discussed. Have a look at the excellent
Why Moment of Glory sucks thread for more information on why it does or doesn't suck, then make up your own mind. Slotting : you don't need to slot a power you're not using, heh, so... don't slot it.
Power Pools
Concealment : If you think about going the PvP way, Stealth is a must. Grant Invisibility is nice for teammates, especially if you like to stealth through missions, although Recall Friend is better in that respect in my opinion. Invisible is pretty useless to a Stalker, I believe. Phase Shift is a nice emergency power to have but then again, so is Moment of Glory.
Fighting : Getting Tough doesn't seem too useful to me, even though it does give you about twice as much RES as Resilience and getting Weave would be useful, even though that mean 3 less powers in your build, and Stalker builds are generally pretty tight. Plus you need the Endurance and you probably wouldn't have much use of Boxing (lame Disorient) or Kick (knockback that doesn't compare to SD or GD).
Fitness : your pre-DO and SO days should quickly convince you that you NEED Stamina. So take Swift or Hurdle, depending on your pre-travel power, take Health (yep, even MORE HP regen, you'll get used to it) and then Stamina straight at 20. Don't bother slotting up Health until you find yourself with "too many" slots because Health's regen bonus is not as good as Regeneration's or Integration's.
Flight : an interesting option I thought about is taking Air Superiority. This will give you a knock down power available 20 levels before Soaring Dragon and Golden Dragonfly. I haven't tried it, but thinking about it makes my skin all tingly. Even knocback-resistant opponents will kneel before you ! As for the TP itself, I believe Fly is the safest, if the slowest, travel power, but with Hide on you won't be noticed by anybody. Group Fly isn't of much use to a stalker, obviously.
Leaping : Super Jump is my travel power of choice. Also, by getting Combat Jumping first, you gain some extra mobility in your pre-TP Divine Avalanche days, as well as a (very) small measure of Defense and Resistance to Immobilization. Also, CJ barely needs Endurance. As for Jump Kick, it might be a good attack - read my argument for Air Superiority. However, Air Superiority is a faster attack. Acrobatics, however, is not necessary in the sense that Integration gives you far more mez protection.
Medicine : Heal Self might be nice, even though it's interruptable while Reconstruction isn't. At higher levels, however, Reconstruction's recharge is considerably shorter with proper slotting, so I'm not quite sure about this one. One might respec out of it, I guess. As for Resurrection, well... just hand out the Awakens you saved with Revive to your teammates.
Presence : I've heard good things about using Fear powers in PvP, but otherwise, I never needed Fear in my build and I don't think I'd have any use for a Taunt power, except to get into EVEN MORE trouble, if that's even possible.
Speed : I don't think I need to explain Hasten's coolness. Super speed is a great power to get yourself out of trouble quickly, too, even though the stealth aspect of Super Speed is a non-issue to us Stalkers. I don't think it's the best way to go for a stalker but hey, who am I to judge ? PvPers seems to dig it.
Attack chains
Depending on your level and the situation, various attack chains are possible.
At lower levels, you won't have much options : with Sting of the Wasp, Flashing Steel and Assassin's Blade in your bag, there's not much you can do. Use the universal Build Up + Assassin's Blade + Sting of the Wasp.
Flashing Steel's damage is not as great as Sting of the Wasp but when fighting multiple enemies, take the time to reposition yourself so as to it more than one opponent. The same goes for Golden Dragonfly at your latter levels, although it's much more tricky to hit more than one consistently.
As soon as you get Divine Avalanche, USE IT. As soon as you get out of hide because of Assassin's Blade, use it : coming out of hide after a mega-damage attack has that tendency of giving you lots of unwanted attention. With a Recharge SO in Divine Avalanche, you can use the following sequence : Divine Avalanche + attack1 + attack2, where attack1 is your most damaging attack available. For instance, when you get Soaring Dragon, use Divine Avalanche + Soaring Dragon + Sting of the Wasp, this will give you Defense against your opponent and its pals, then Soaring Dragon will send him flying in the air, letting you enough time to land another attack, say Sting of the Wasp, then another Divine Avalanche. Of course, when you get the chance, use Placate + Build Up + Assassin's Blade.
At level 32, do yourself a favor and get Golden Dragonfly, and slot it heavily at level 33. Then, you'll use Divine Avalanche + Golden Dragonfly + Soaring Dragon... wrong ! You should use the following sequence : Divine Avalanche + Golden Dragonfly + attack + Divine Avalanche + Soaring Dragon + attack. The reason is that it's not optimal to use 2 knockdown/knockup attacks one after another. By the time your opponent gets back on its feet, you have enough to use 2 attacks, so you can safely land a Sting of the Wasp or Flashing Steel and then Divine Avalanche again, then use your other knockdown attack, like this : Golden Dragonfly + Divine Avalanche + attack + Soaring Dragon + Divine Avalanche + attack. With a recharge SO in each of your attacks, you should have Golden Dragonfly back by the time this attack chain is over, so you can just repeat it. The other advantage of this chain is that by consistently using Divine Avalanche, you'll have it double-stacked as long as you use it every 3 attacks, giving you a large Defense bonus.
Random advice
- Make sure you don't use your Regeneration click powers (Reconstruction, Dull Pain, etc.) when it's not necessary : the downside of click powers is that you'll use an extra second to unsheathe your sword before your next attack.
- Soaring Dragon's damage is not as high as that of Golden Dragonfly, but remember that Golden Dragonfly will not necessarily make an extra double damage when you strike out of Hide, which happens often in PvP and sometimes when you don't have the time the ready yourself for an Assassin's Blade (e.g. when a stupid teammate gets too much aggro for his own sake). So Soaring Dragon is safer in that sense.
- Keep attacking. Even if you don't do much damage, especially at lower levels, your attacks will lower your opponents' DEF so that your teammates can pound them.
- Placate's use is not just to prepare for Assassin's Blade : sometimes, having it ready is useful if an angry Elite Boss, Arch Villain or Hero is intent on sending you to the hospital. Placate him/her/it and make yourself scarce or take the time to Rest right in their face if you still have Hide on. By the time your Placate is over, you'll be Hidden again.
- Make binds. In the heat of the moment, clicking on the right power can be hard. I personally bound '+' to Reconstruction, '/' to Dull Pain on my keypad. Here they are for the lazy among you :
ADD "powexec_name Reconstruction"
DIVIDE "powexec_name Dull Pain"
Sample build
Well, here goes : this is my last respec's build.
+---------------------------------------------
+ Built with SuckerPunch's Online Planner
+ http://www.cohplanner.com
+---------------------------------------------
Name: Sneaky Beef
Level: 43
Archetype: Stalker
Primary: Ninja Blade
Secondary: Regeneration
+---------------------------------------------
01 => Hide ==> DefBuff(1)
01 => Sting of the Wasp ==> Acc(1),Rech(3),Dam(7),Dam(11),Dam(19)
02 => Fast Healing ==> Heal(2),Heal(3),Heal(5)
04 => Flashing Steel ==> Acc(4),Rech(5),Dam(9),Dam(13),Dam(31)
06 => Assassin's Blade ==> Acc(6),Dam(7),Dam(9),Rech(11),Dam(13),Acc(15)
08 => Combat Jumping ==> DefBuff(8)
10 => Swift ==> RunSpd(10),RunSpd(40)
12 => Placate ==> Rech(12),Rech(15),Rech(40)
14 => Super Jump ==> Jump(14),Jump(34),Jump(43)
16 => Integration ==> Heal(16),Heal(17),Heal(17)
18 => Health ==> Heal(18),Heal(19),Heal(37)
20 => Stamina ==> EndMod(20),EndMod(21),EndMod(21)
22 => Divine Avalanche ==> Acc(22),Rech(23),DefBuff(23),DefBuff(25),DefBuff(29)
24 => Dull Pain ==> Rech(24),Rech(25),Rech(31),Heal(39),Heal(43)
26 => Soaring Dragon ==> Acc(26),Rech(27),Dam(27),EndCost(29),Dam(31),Dam(34)
28 => Build Up ==> Rech(28),Rech(37),Rech(40)
30 => Resilience ==> DamRes(30),DamRes(37),DamRes(39)
32 => Golden Dragonfly ==> Acc(32),Rech(33),EndCost(33),Dam(33),Dam(34),Dam(36)
35 => Reconstruction ==> Rech(35),Rech(36),Heal(36),Rech(39),Heal(42),Heal(43)
38 => Revive ==> Rech(38)
41 => Zapp ==> Acc(41),Dam(42),Dam(42)
+---------------------------------------------
Notes :I didn't take Reconstruction early on. I don't regret it really, but it certainly would've helped - although it would've meant to take another power later.
I also didn't take MoG or IH. I've used them for a bit on the Test Server, although not extensively. While IH certainly is amazing, it'll have to wait until level 47, since I want my Mu Hold first !
I put a recharge enhancement in pretty much all of my primary powers. This build is a scralker, I remind you, meaning you'll spend lots of time in melee, so we're far from the "Build Up + AS + attack + flee, rinse + lather + repeat" stalkers. Having at least one attack available at any moment is crucial to your survival. Of course, a 3-slotted Hasten is another solution to this problem. YMMV.
I know I've mentioned it, but this is a high-level build : at lowers levels, you might want to remove and Damage enhancement and put some Endurance Reduction instead.
No need to put as many slots in Super Jump as I do. I'm a jumping addict.
Well, that's it for today folks, I hope this is useful to some of you. If you have any comments or criticism, please post them. Thank you and good stalking !
