Primary recomendation for /nin?

Hey all

I'm a long time player of primarily ranged and support characters and I have seriously never touched the stalker AT. Lately I've been feeling the need for some change though and my eyes have fallen on the stalker for a very different experience

Ninjutsu seems very interesting and unique to me so I'd really like to try that out, but what about the primaries? Thematicly I'm drawn to Ninja Blade or Martial Arts but while I enjoy things for concept, I also prefer to play things that work well in-game.

Could anybody give me a quick rundown on the primaries, what ones work well, what ones to avoid and such? It'd be greatly appriciated!

I can give a quick overview, though there are a few guides on every set that can go far more in-depth. As a general rule, unless it's noted otherwise, none of the sets are "bad." Most sets work very well, and it's really just a matter of playstyle.

Broad Sword: The slower recharge, higher damage and less "elegant" cousin of Ninja Blade. Quirks of note include Parry coming kind of late at level 18, but it would certainly help a defense based set like /nin through periods where it's still far and away from the softcap. Head Splitter is actually a very narrow cone, which is great considering it hits pretty damn hard.

Claws: It's set theme is light on end, and fast activating. Quirks of note include Eviscerate losing the cone it has on Brutes and Scrappers, and having a slightly higher crit rate. It also loses Follow Up in exchange for typical Stalker build-up, so it feels fairly different than the other versions overall.

Dark Melee: Theme here is -tohit, which means getting hit less (which happens to be /nin's specialty). Quirks include Siphon Life, the set's self-heal which will blend nicely with Ninjitsu's heal and aid in survivability. Touch of Fear is, as expected, a Fear power, and offers a bit of utility. Midnight Grasp is an immobilize, which while not amazing, can be slightly useful.

Dual Blades: Well, this one's a bit of an oddball. With the i22 changes, Dual Blades looks a bit better, but it loses out on some of the sets unique combos by putting them in Placate and Assassin's Strike. Since the play of it is so tied to the combos, I can't speak much of it otherwise since I haven't played Dual Blades.

Electrical Melee: Considered one of the better Stalker sets due to it retaining a good amount of AOE. The set's theme is end drain, which isn't stellar. Quirks include Lightning Rod, the tier 9 and hardest hitter not breaking Hide. It flows nicely into Thunder Strike, which is a melee AOE that will always crit the selected target from Hide, and has a 50% chance to crit anything else it hits.

Energy Melee: Never bothered with it, and it's been nerfed rather heavily so it's fallen out of favor with most people. Quirks include Total Focus not doing double damage, Energy Transfer not draining health instead of critting, a total lack of aoe, and a utility power in Stun... which, well, stuns.

Kinetic Melee: Theme here is stuns and knockdown, and a bit of -dmg in the first power. KM works rather well, because rather than having its tier 9 crit, it recharges Build Up instantly. Other oddities include Burst, the pbaoe, having a 100% crit chance from Hide. With the i22 changes and putting the new Stalker hide proc into Assassin's Strike, maintaining 100% uptime on Build Up isn't as crazy as it sounds.

Martial Arts: Mostly just stuns here, but there are a few things to note. MA is one of the best single-target only sets, but is literally single target only. No aoe to speak of. Oddities include Cobra Strike and Crane Kick being the same exact power with two different secondary effects (stun or knockback), the aforementioned lack of aoe, and Storm Kick being awesome.

Ninja Blade: As expected, the faster and less hard-hitting version of Broadsword. Not much else to say that Broadsword doesn't cover.

Spines: Toxic DoTs and small magnitude immobilizes in every power, here. Also, an abundance of aoe, -speed, and -recharge effects. Spines is looking to benefit a good deal from the Stalker changes in i22, since it's a bit lacking in single-target as of right now.

Street Justice: Theme here is combos, built with most powers in the set, and finished with 1 of 3. Higher your combo, the better the damage of your finisher, and level 3 combos have extra effects tossed in as well. Oddities include Assassin's Strike building 2 combo points instead of everything else's 1, and the fact that the set kept all of its aoe when it got ported to Stalkers. That, and a combo level 3 Crushing Uppercut crit from Hide hits a tad harder than Assassin's Strike. With the i22 changes, that might be easier to set up though.

Staker Eagles claw does not grant the crit modifier.

It does have a much higher brawl index to compensate.

My suggestions...

ELM
KM
StJ

ELM has the AOE and with i22 the ST. I'd say Stalker make out the best with ELM.

KM with Hide Proc and i22 changes makes Build Up practically permanent.

StJ has it's AOE, and oh hey look, 2 attacks (AS plus one other) to make a tier 3 CU!

Thanks guys

My eyes have fallen on Kinetic Melee, from what you say and what I can see it seems pretty awesome, and what's more I like how it looks and the concept fits well with ninjutsu too (though I'm pondering maybe taking Energy Aura instead?)

I'm also pleased that the stalker version does not have that AoE Knockback power Kinetic Melee usually comes with.

I play a KM/Nin and really enjoy it.

The side effects of some powers (stun, kd) really help with survivability (added body mastery for additional energy/mitigation through Energy Torrent but you can get pretty much any APP and not be disappointed). And the BU refresher is really a nice twist on the criticals. It will become even better with i22 as has been pointed out.

Thanks all, I've started up a Km/nin to check it out!

I also can't quite shake the thematic lure of Ninja Blade, I'm pretty set on Kinetic Melee but I'd still like to ask how Ninja Blade compares to the rest of them?

I love my elec/nin

With the new AS changes + AF ... I like it even more.

It has solid ST with nice AoE (can pick up a Epic AoE too)

The LR + extra attack so a lot of fun.