Ninja/Force Field ... "do's and don'ts?"

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

Wow. I didn't know there weren't any. I think I'll set one up pretty soon then. My favorite MM ever is probably my Ninjas/FF.


Force bolt is a magnitude 8 knockback. It really doesn't need boosting, but if you feel like boosting it, then go ahead. It can keep most bosses on the ground for most of the fight. They get to stand up and take a ranged shot at you every now and again (because you have to let them up before you knock them down again), but it mostly keep the strongest guy in the group out of the fight while your ninjas kill his henchmen.

I like putting the Devastation: Chance to hold proc on it just for overkill.

This part is kind of uncertain for ninjas. They're not the best at holding aggro, so sometimes mobs are going to come after you directly.

My pools were:

Concealment: Mostly took this for thematic correctness. Grant Invisibility does not allow your ninjas to do critical attacks. They have to have the stalker power they get with the Level 32 - "Kuji in Zen" in order to do stealth criticals. But Grant Invisibility would add to their stealth so they could sneak up on people more easily.

Medicine: The set is basically unplayable without Aid Other to refill your ninjas' health. It usually heals over half their health bar.

Fitness: Jumping is the only kind of travel that isn't slowed when using Stealth. So I like to take hurdle.

Travel Power : I used flight on my last build, but I'm considering Leaping this next time in order to have a thematically correct melee attack..... just for the thematic correctness though. Hover is great for keeping melee dudes from attacking you while you follow your henchmen around to keep them inside your Dispersion radius.


Yeah. Definitely resist it. They're tanks in their own right.

I don't think it's very useful. The only power I really wait on to recharge is Aid Other.

I didn't take either of these powers. I figure the only time you'll use them is like if you're on a Mayhem mission and your team wants you to keep the Longbow ambushes at bay for a while. Stuff like that. In combat, you want to stand close to your ninjas as much as you can, to further buff their defense.

I don't think I'd ever take it. It's only good if there's a super-powerful boss, and you want him out of the fight long enough to kill off his buddies, so you can focus on him all by himself after they're gone.

Definitely get your bubbles maxed out for defense, of course. And get Aid other pretty strong if you can. Other than that, I can't think of anything.

Alright. Everyone disagrees with me, but I say don't take Genin. They'll die, and keep dying, and then you have to keep resummoning them. Also: Aid other doesn't recharge fast enough to really keep 6 henchmen topped off for health as you move along. You can easily maintain 3 elites at full though.

Snapshot does almost no damage at all, but it's highly accurate and has a super-fast recharge, which makes it a great place to put procs. Such as Devastation: Chance to Hold.

It's a decent Oh $hit!! Button. Not bad damage either. It deal just as much damage as Fist Full of Arrows, actually, but it's smashing instead of lethal.

Smoke Bomb is really good. You can totally save a ninja who's about to die.

If you're doing concealment, go ahead and take Ethereal Shift. It's rad. Your henchmen go ethereal with you, and continue to draw whatever aggro they had provoked prior to using it. You can save your team from a total wipe, heal your henchmen, and even summon more of them while shifted. Just make sure and activate it a good while before you're about to die. Otherwise it might activate too late after you're already defeated.

Try to get your Jounins' defense up to the 45% soft cap if you can. Jounin have 14% natural defense. Your bubbles do 11% - slottable to about 16.5% Dispersion Field adds 7.5%, slottable to 10%. If you take the Edict of the Master +5% def proc, that helps too.

14 + 16 + 10 + 5 = 45%

Mace Mastery is the best Epic Pool because the Web Envelope Immobilize include fly protection (your Jounin can't stab fliers very well with their swords.) And Power Boost will add about 6% or so to the defense provided by your bubbles, helping you get your ninjas up to soft capped defense easier.


You'll want to slot for AOE protection, so you can stand close to your henchmen without getting killed by all the AOE's that get fired at them.

I've played Ninja/TA up to 39, and it's getting harder and harder to keep my Ninjas alive if they aggro more than 2 or 3 hostiles at a time. They really are quite suicidal faceless minions.

Kinetic Crash is loaded with things which are really nice for a Mastermind ... including Knockback Protection. Also, being able to pre-emptively "punt" just about any hostile into a corner of terrain where you can keep them pinned by use of Force Bubble and/or Repulsion Field isn't that bad either (assuming you have either of those powers in your build).

I do that quite a bit with my Controllers, so as to stack anti-Boss Mag levels that much more often. Problem is, neither Ninja/* nor */Force Field really has all that much to stack it with. As a MAG 2 Hold, the Devastation Proc's usefulness is limited unless teaming with others.

Never expected it to. If it did for your pets then it would for everyone (and thus everyone would be using it as a "build up" type power on teams). But since it doesn't, it ... doesn't ... and that's fine.

Sneaking up on people is less important than getting to the DEFense softcap methinks. And although half of Grant Invis' DEFense is dispelled by attacking, half of it still remains in effect even while attacking. So Grant Invis' is a pretty decent way to reach for the softcap if you're not quite there yet.

I've heard this from multiple sources, but to be honest I haven't found it to be true in my own experience ... and I'm playing Ninja/TA without Aid Other. With decent set slotting getting both endurance reduction and recharge over 55% and with a couple slots of endurance reduction in Train Ninja and Kuji-in Zen, it's a fairly simple thing to treat your ninjas as the disposable faceless minions they really are. Just keybind a dismiss pet(group) to dispose of survivors and simply resummon fresh idiots. The cost to buff them is the same as if you're summoning one or all of them, so there's little reason NOT to dismiss and resummon when you've lost a few to combat.

And Aid Other isn't going to save your bacon if your braindead pets INSIST on standing in lava.

Which makes me wonder if Stealth is incompatible with Ninja Run+Hurdle.

I've found the best slotting for Smoke Bomb is two Endurance Reduction and two Recharge Reduction. Lets you start using Smoke Bomb proactively as a Build Up power on your henchmen.

Huh?

Are you talking about Phase Shift, the Tier 4 in Concealment? Or are you talking about Ethereal Shift, the Temp Power you craft with salvage and a recipie? And how can it take your henchmen ethereal/phased with you? Isn't it a self-only power?

I was going to say the same thing about the Genin. With Genin defenses softcapped, they become MA/SR/Weapon Mastery scrappers. I know from experience playing a softcapped MA/SR scrapper just what is possible, with and without Aid Self.

Ah. I was wondering if Mace Mastery or Soul Mastery was going to be the better choice. Of the two, I'm thinking that Soul Mastery would fit a tad bit better with my playstyle and slotting choices.

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...