Issue 7 Ninja/Poison Guide for Masterminds
By
ConFlict,
Posted on: 2006-06-06 07:28 in Player Guides
Black on a dark blue background... my eyes hurt. Fix that and I might read past the first paragraph without getting a headache.
I actually changed it to black because someone actually said the white words were harder to read. DOH!!!
Bump and Grind Bane/SoA
Kenja No Ishi Earth/Empathy Controller
Legendary Sannin Ninja/Pain Mastermind
Entoxicated Ninja/PSN Mastermind
Ninja Ryukenden Kat/WP Scrapper
Hellish Thoughts Fire/PSI Dominator
Thank You Devs for Merits!!!!
i would rather pull my fingernails out with pliers than try and read that. ouch.
At first, I was secretly hating the OP for his color choice. But it only took me a second or two to adjust, and I read it just fine.
The kicker? Reading the first reply was like staring at the sun after walking from a dark room. Was quite a shock 
OP: Nice write up. I had a Ninja/TA in beta. I LOVED ninjas, but hated TA. I got burnt out because of TA and didn't remake a Ninja MM for live. I have plans one day though, and your write up pushes me a little closer.
I've already forgotten about most of you
I would include why you didn't pick certain powers. I love antidote and hate poison trap.
I agree with most of what you got up there. The onebig diffrence i see between mine and yours is mainly slottting flavor. I would recommend more slots in envenom. Yes it is great out of the box, but with that said slotted up it is even better.
I also skipped Elixir and stealth and went the leadership route. The bonuses are nice though not required. I really went leadership for the res to confuse and placate. And the +percetion is as nice for stealthy pve opponents as well as pvp.
Just my opinion though. I honestly believe you would have to put some hard work into making a bad nin/poi.
Duel me.
I will work on my sig pic more when I have time.
I figured it was an in-character thing, ninjas hiding in the shadows and all that...
Then again, not everything needs a storyline reason...
Nice guide. All you you have to do to make it easier to read is right click and select all.
Im thinking that Ninja/poison will be my next toon. I would like to see a little more on the PvP aspect of this set though.
couple of questions first:
Does weaken and envenom stack?
Antidote: Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Slow, and Immobilize effects and leaves them resistant to such effects for a good while as well as res to cold and toxic. Is it me or is this power the shizzle? i cant imagine not having this on say your jounin. Can anyone comment on this power in pve and pvp. From experience with other toons, slow and -regen powers in pvp are the bomb. Would this not be a huge help in pvp and pve?
pvp: does anyone have anything to add to pvp info or recommend a ninja/poison guide? I have a 33 nin/poison and i am going to be pvp ready at 38 (WB). I saw a /poison mm own a tanker in RV. He had no fitness, and he took conceal, medicine, leaping and leadership. Just wondering what peeps had to say about this topic.
comment: I have leadership as well, seems very great for mm's
In this guide you will learn the proper way to care for and feed your ninja henchmen.
Before I talk about the ninja primary I want to talk a little about the mastermind AT. Masterminds are a unique AT to City of Villains. Unlike most primaries or secondaries in other ATs the bulk of our damage does not actually come from us but our henchmen. As a mastermind you have a special aura called supremacy. All of your personal henchmen within about 65 ft will gain a buff to accuracy and damage. This buff is about 15% for both accuracy and damage. This was done as a counter to the fact that when progress through levels some of your henchmen will be lower in level than you. This will be discussed later in the guide. Also new to issue 7 is a new feature called body guard. If you set your henchmen to defensive follow they will absorb a lot of the damage instead of you. With all henchmen guarding you, you will have about 75% resistance to all damage.
Why choose a mastermind? You actually solo well at higher levels with your henchmen, you get to order your henchmen around, you are a lot less likely to die because your henchmen will almost always have more aggro than you and because they are your body guards. It is an easy AT to learn and level up.
Why choose ninjas? Ninjas are similar to a scrapper stalker hybrid. You will do a lot of damage in a very short period of time. Ninjas look cool. The ninjas have very small crowd control ability. It is mostly for their survival. Ninjas have incredible speed.
Now lets look at the Ninja Primary and choose a good secondary to pair it with.
We have the traps, dark miasma, trick arrow, force field, and poison secondary.
Snap Shot
Single target arrow shot that does lethal damage. This attack does very little damage but can be used for pulling. Slotting- just one accuracy SO.
Summon Genin
Your first ninja henchmen, these guys are ok at first but get worse later on. As a mastermind when you reach levels 6, and level 18 your first tier henchmen go down in level. At level 6 they will be -1 to your level but you get two of them, at level 18 they are -2 to your level but you get 3 of them. The Genin have Thunder Kick and shuriken stars initially. With the first ninja upgrade they get Storm kick and Snap shot. They also gain a quiver on their back for the arrows. On the last upgrade they get Crane Kick and Super Leap. They get a head band and mask for their faces. Also the Genin have about 7% defense to range, melee and aoe attacks. If any Genin die in battle you can summon more to replace those that are lost, if you attempt to summon more and none are dead the power does nothing. I can not stress enough on how the final upgrade ups their survival. Having them to chain knockback mobs is a beautiful site. Slotting-2 accuracy, 3 damage and 1 disorient or knockback SOs.
Aim Shot
Single target arrow shot that does lethal damage. This attack does more damage than snap shot but recharges a little slower. It is also good for pulling. Slotting-1 accuracy SO
Train Ninjas
Your first ninja upgrade. This power grants the ninja additional abilities and changes their appearance. Slotting-1 reduce endurance cost SO
Fistful of Arrows
A aoe cone arrow shot that does lethal damage. It does ok damage but uses more endurance than the other shots. Slotting-1 accuracy, 3 damage 1 range 1 reduce endurance cost SOs.
Call Jounin
These guys are your main damage dealers. They are also very stalker like in how they attack. Their initial abilities are Sting of the Wasp, Gamblers Cut and caltrops. After the first upgrade they get Soaring Dragon, Super Leap, Poison Dart, and Placate. The get an additional sword on there back when they are upgraded. After the final upgrade they get Golden Dragonfly, Blinding Powder, and Hide. Hide is a little bugged at the moment, the Jounin will not start hiding on their own, and you have to use a power to trigger it. You will need the next power Smoke Flash or Noxious Gas from the poison secondary. Currently this bug was fixed on issue 7. Also fter the second upgrade they get a head band and shoulder pads. These guys have 14% defense to range, melee and aoe attacks. The are very good at surviving but are a little shy to get their swords out at the start of the battle. Once they do that they do very good damage. At level 24 your Jounin becomes -1 to your level and your get 2 of them. Slotting-2 accuracy 3 damage 1 slow SOs
Smoke Flash
This power is an aoe version of the placate power. It makes your ninja untargetable by other mobs. It puts them in a pseudo hide status and enables criticals on the henchmen you have flashed. This is a good power to use to double the damage of your henchmen for 10 seconds or to save a henchmen till your heal comes back up. Slotting-3 recharge, 3 reduce endurance cost SOs
Oni
This is your boss level henchmen. He is more crowd control than damage. He is like a fire dominator corrupter hybrid. He is ugly as hell. His initial abilities are Super Leap, Fire Sword Slash, and Fire Blast. After the initial upgrade his abilities are Fire Sword Hack, Ring of Fire, and Fire Breath. His hands glow after the initial upgrade. For the final upgrade his abilities are Char and Rain of Fire. His eyes glow after the final upgrade. He also has 14% defense to range, melee and aoe attacks and 14% resist to fire, smashing and lethal damage. He does great aoe damage when you use smoke flash with him. Slotting-2 accuracy, 3 damage, 1 reduce endurance cost SOs
**Special Note** Slotting a reduce endurance cost on a pet summon does not reduce the cost of the summon but gives the henchmen summoned an endurance discount on their powers.
Kujin In Zen
Your final upgrade for your ninja henchmen. This power grants the ninjas additional abilities and changes their appearance. Slotting-2 Recharge 1 reduce endurance cost.
Now we need to look at each of these secondaries to see what works best with your play style and how it affects the ninjas.
First we look at traps. Traps is a good set but not a solid set for ninjas. The ninja henchmens defenses are defense based meaning they avoid damage as opposed to resisting it. The ninjas take a lot of damage in a short period of time so they need constant healing, and the triage beacon in the traps secondary is not going to cut it. This secondary is actually better for the mercenaries primary.
Next is dark miasma, this is a good secondary for ninjas if you team a lot or do missions with a higher spawn count. You get an aoe slow, damage debuff, heal and accuracy debuff. While it sounds good this set is very endurance intensive and the aoe heal radius is very small and has to hit an enemy target to heal. Also your weakness is that if you are hit with certain status effects your debuff toggle goes down. Which can be certain death for the ninjas.
Next is trick arrow this set looks good on paper but all the powers that make this set shine have really long recharges. You have no way of healing the ninjas with this set. It does have a lot of ways to increase the damage your ninjas do. Lastly the Oni can light the oil slick power for more aoe damage.
Next is force fields, this power has a lot of synergy with ninjas except for the last power in the set. The bubbles provide additional defense that stacks nicely with the ninjas defense. This set has no way of increasing the damage the ninjas do and the final power keeps mobs out of melee range but the ninjas do more damage in melee range.
Lastly is poison. It does have a single target heal but it uses a ton of endurance. It has a lot of other single target debuff that will cripple bosses, elite bosses and AVs. It is great for solo play but in teams it is really good for AV fights. Also if you get mezzed your debuffs will still be in effect for their duration. Poison gets some aoe debuff later in the set.
I choose to go with the poison secondary. This was because most of the time I would be soloing in CoV. Here is the break down of the poison set.
Alkaloid
A single target heal that is endurance intensive. This power also gives a minor resistance to toxic damage. Slotting-3 heal, 2 reduce endurance cost, 1 Recharge SOs
Envenom
A single target debuff, this power lowers the defense and damage resistance of a target. The damage resist debuff is about 25%. It is extremely good for those hard to hit targets and targets with insane smashing and lethal resists. This power also makes the target stop regenerating health and the target will heal for less when it tries to heal itself or other targets. Slotting 2 accuracy SOs
Weaken
A single target debuff, this power is awesome. It lowers the accuracy and damage of a target. It also works like a reverse version of power boost on the target. All secondary effects that the target can do are halved. Slotting-2 accuracy, 3 tohit debuff SOs
Neurotoxic Breath
This an aoe cone debuff that slows down a targets attack rate and run speed. This combined with the Jounins caltrops can put mobs at the slow cap. Slotting-2 accuracy, 3 slows, 1 recharge SO's.
Elixir of Life
This is a single target resurrect power that grants the target increased damage, accuracy, endurance recovery and increase attack rate, but this power has a bad side effect. After about 90 seconds the target will begin to puke their guts out. Slotting-1 reduce endurance cost SO
Paralytic Poison
A single target hold that holds mobs in place with 1 application that are lieutenants or lower. Once your oni gets his final upgrade he will be helping you hold bosses. Slotting-2 accuracy 3 hold 1 recharge.
Poison Trap
A point blank aoe that sleeps minions, sporadically holds mobs caught within the cloud of poison left by this trap. This power has a minor end drain component but it is not worth slotting for. This power was recently fixed in issue 7. Slotting-2 accuracy 3 recharge SOs
Noxious Gas
An point blank aoe that is centered around one of your henchmen. It lowers accuracy, damage and resistance of your foes around the effected henchmen. Slotting-3 recharge
Strategy
As you should know by now the ninjas are melee henchmen but for some reason they prefer range and will stay at range unless you command them to goto melee. It is best to learn how to use macros to get them into range.
For poison what I usually do is command the Jounin and oni to go into melee. If there is a boss or troublesome mob in melee I will hit them with weaken neurotoxic breath and envenom to soften them up for the Jounin. I use the Genin as meat shields if anything comes near me in melee range. They usually do a ok job at getting their attention.
For traps what I would do is place caltrops near a boss and he will not cross that path to get to you. I used the acid mortar to lower the resists of the incoming targets. Poison trap is always a good opener against a lot of mobs. Trip mines also make a great keep away zone.
As a mastermind it is better to not get the attacks in your primary, your AT modifier is so low that you will not do much damage with those attacks compared to the other ATs. Besides these attacks will draw more aggro to you. This may change in issue 7 with the body guard feature as your henchmen will absorb most of the damage instead. Also if you pick the ninja primary it is best to keep both Jounin alive at all costs they are your best source for damage and they usually do fine on their own. The Genin are basically meat shields for you past level 18. Smoke flash can help end a boss fight a lot faster, as will your debuff. Without your help your henchmen will eventually die as they will need help mitigating damage. The henchmen AI is very weird at times, just remember the goto command is your best friend.
Here is the build that I used all the way to level 40
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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
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Name:
Level: 41
Archetype: Mastermind
Primary: Ninjas
Secondary: Poison
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01) --> Call Genin==> Acc(1) Acc(3) Dmg(3) Dmg(7) Dmg(7) KB_Dist(36)
01) --> Alkaloid==> Heal(1) Heal(5) Heal(5) EndRdx(17) EndRdx(17) Rechg(23)
02) --> Envenom==> Acc(2) Acc(9)
04) --> Weaken==> Acc(4) Acc(9) TH_DeBuf(11) TH_DeBuf(11) TH_DeBuf(21)
06) --> Train Ninjas==> EndRdx(6)
08) --> Hasten==> Rechg(8) Rechg(40)
10) --> Neurotoxic Breath==> Acc(10) Acc(37) Slow(37) Slow(37) Slow(39)
12) --> Call Jounin==> Acc(12) Acc(13) Dmg(13) Dmg(15) Dmg(15) Slow(21)
14) --> Super Speed==> Run(14)
16) --> Elixir of Life==> EndRdx(16)
18) --> Smoke Flash==> Rechg(18) Rechg(19) Rechg(19) EndRdx(23) EndRdx(31) EndRdx(31)
20) --> Antidote==> DmgRes(20)
22) --> Aid Other==> IntRdx(22) Heal(40)
24) --> Aid Self==> IntRdx(24) Heal(25) Heal(25)
26) --> Oni==> Acc(26) Acc(27) Dmg(27) Dmg(29) Dmg(29) EndRdx(31)
28) --> Paralytic Poison==> Acc(28) Acc(33) Hold(34) Hold(34) Hold(34) Rechg(40)
30) --> Stealth==> EndRdx(30)
32) --> Kuji In Zen==> Rechg(32) Rechg(33) EndRdx(33)
35) --> Poison Trap==> Acc(35) Rechg(36) Rechg(36)
38) --> Noxious Gas==> Rechg(38) Rechg(39) Rechg(39)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Supremacy==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
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I choose the slotting I used for specific reasons. This build is not really for pvp. I went with 2 accuracy in everything because I dont like to miss, and none of the powers that I choose appear to have accuracy bonuses. Missing a hit with weaken can be deadly to the ninjas in pve. I did not 3 slot accuracy in pets because the already get an extra DOs worth from the supremacy buff and the poison debuffs to enemy defense. As stated earlier in the guide it is kind of useless to get any mastermind attack powers as they do pitiful damage and draw you unneeded aggro. The only reason to get these would be for pulling. For that you could just get teleport foe and save yourself a lot of grief. Pretty much every power in poison is useful except poison trap but this is currently fixed for issue 7. So all powers are solid at that point. Most useful secondary power for me was Paralytic Poison. This helps a lot against longbow flamethrowers, Tsoo Sorcerers and those Nerva Ghosts with that black stuff on them. A good use of this power will keep the ninjas alive longer if those mobs get held faster. If I had to leave out a power it would be Elixir of Life and that is only if I did not team at all. Also the buff of resistance in poison is not worth slotting for either so If a power gives that it is just good to leave it at the default slot or slot for other effects.
Pool Powers that helped me the most were hasten and stealth. There are going to be times when on teams where your henchmen get totally slaughtered and you have to summon more. Because you cant slot the summons for recharge hasten is essential for that, also the final upgrade takes forever and a day to comeback, in issue 7 they have dramatically reduce the recharge time on it because it takes so long for masterminds to get back in battle right after death or if you zone out. My only regret with my mastermind is that I could not fit stamina in my build as it would have helped a lot soloing elite bosses. Maybe in the 40s I may get it instead of the epic pools. I also used stealth to help me get around some missions just to find a glowie or skip to the end. I mostly got this just incase a contact gave me a Circle of Thorns mission. Although in battle stealth wont help you much aside from the tiny defense buff, this is because every time your henchmen attack your stealth gets suppressed.
Leadership powers are good but I did not have room to fit them into my build. I would only go with assault and tactics, never bother with manuvers as it is just a waste of endurance even fully slotted.
Lastly I want to say that I hope this guide will be of some use to new ninja masterminds.
Bump and Grind Bane/SoA
Kenja No Ishi Earth/Empathy Controller
Legendary Sannin Ninja/Pain Mastermind
Entoxicated Ninja/PSN Mastermind
Ninja Ryukenden Kat/WP Scrapper
Hellish Thoughts Fire/PSI Dominator
Thank You Devs for Merits!!!!