Claws? Or Ninja Blade?


BlindFaith_EU

 

Posted

I'm planning on rolling a Stalker, something of a ninja... so he will be */nin. Now at first it seemed obvious that nin/nin should be the direction to go, however I also thought that Claws may be a good alternative and possibly a little different from the average ninja. So in the end it's come down to which one is the more efficient set, Claws? Or Ninja Blade?


 

Posted

Claws would be the way to go.....


 

Posted

Claws pros - fast activating attacks, with low endurance costs and reasonably quick recharges. Ranged attacks in Focus and (to a lesser extent) Shockwave. Claws cons - lack of a big hitter attack.

Ninja blade - slower activation, but has two biggish hit attacks, plus divine avalanche to increase your survivability at the expense of damage output.

Both have cool Assassins Strike animations, but i prefer claws - it just looks plain evil.


 

Posted

I'd go ninja blade every time.

Claws has quicker recharge and lower end but lacks the damage of Ninja Blade. Given that a stalker is all about hitting high damage attacks then ducking back out of combat to drop back into hide, the damage is a lot more important.

Claws would be better for prolonged battles to give you lower end a more constant attack chain but stalkers aren't really designed to go toe to toe for prolonged periods


 

Posted

Personally ninja blade for me.

Ninja blade is a slow starter but you have 2 excellent final attacks and I can scrap well in most fights if I want thanks to divine avalanche, which fills in between the big attacks.


 

Posted

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I'd go ninja blade every time.

Given that a stalker is all about hitting high damage attacks then ducking back out of combat to drop back into hide


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Which is one way of looking at the stalker role - I personally believe that stalkers are perfectly capable of scrapping very effectively, and claws is very good at scrapping.

PVE wise - BU + AS the boss (maybe a couple more attacks depending on rep). Placate a lt, AS. Scrap the other LT, or two minions, while placate recharges. The other alternative is to bail out to get back into hide (say 10 seconds as a reasonable timeframe). In those 10 seconds, I can drop a couple of foes.

PVP wise, as I'm not EM, Assassins Claw is a big part of the game, and any followup attack to get around the no-oneshot code. If facing multiple opponents, or a tough opponent, having good sustainable damage is far more important, with placate/AS providing burst damage. Unlike ninja, I've also got range as an option to catch runners.

I went /dark to allow me to scrap a little more, but conventional wisdom is that /dark is rubbish for stalkers too - which it is if you try to play hit and run. It's very good if you scrap though (and tremendous fun).

YMMV of course, but i just think nin/nin is awfully dull (especially when you consider that ninjas are entirely lame in comparison to say, pirates )


 

Posted

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Claws cons - lack of a big hitter attack.


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AS anyone?

Im fairly certain that eviscerate compares ok to other 'bighitters' apart from energy transfer.

Claws scrapping is all about focus and eviscerate. Focus makes a great followup to the AS with its range and very fast activation.

Personally Im not saying that Claws is great - I made a claws stalker because
- it is good 'enough'
- it is by far the coolest stalker primary
- to show it can be done

If you want to err on the side of FOTMness, take ninja blade.


 

Posted

I'm with Hammerfall and the Cap'n on this one. I have no experience with ninja blade but I can say that my claw/sr (lvl 23) is alot of fun. If you want burst damage, rely on AS. Focus is a good second. Hidden, Buildup + Focus = One shot on a +1 minion. Eviscerate has slightly higher damage then focus but doesn't garantuee a crit from hide since it's a cone. Looks very stylish btw.

I also rebuild my Claw/Sr in the test server RV event. Only hide to ...well hide me and I did fine. Got plenty of kills in and had lots of scraps with scrappers (of which I won half). It appeared having a good ranged attack is what really makes a difference in the 'to be seen or not to be seen' discussion. As long as I could attack first (from a distance) I'd be fine .


 

Posted

I've decided to go for Claws/Nin, mainly because I already have a Scrapper with Katana, so a bit of variety would be nice. Thanks for the help guys .