I would recommend the Ninja/Time. The Ninja/FF will be able to get them loads of def but little other mitigation and no heal. Time gives nearly as much def (if you are willing to get Mace Mastery it gets absurd), tohit and damage debuffs, recharge debuffs, holds, and run speed debuffs as well as a serviceable heal. The good thing about the heal is that it is over time, so if you use it just before they take extreme damage, rather than waiting for it to recharge they'll just heal back up. Also, Time offers damage buffs for your nins, and a massive AoE def/res debuff for your enemies for quick killing. And said enemies will not be able to run due to two layers of caltrops, Distortion Field, and Time's Juncture.
Time is just about the only thing able to consistently keep ninjas alive. I've actually got a Nin/Time as my main. So yes, I'd recommend Time over Force Field.
How active do you want to be? Both'll keep them alive, and as long as ninjas are alive they don't need overly much help killing stuff...
/FF though, that's gonna leave you standing around not doing too much. You set the fields, and then you watch. Throw out the Aid Other now and then. Make sure you're standing the middle of your guys. /Time will have you playing with buffs and debuffs all the time. However, /Time will also be more appreciated when teaming, especially late game. Defense is your only trick with /FF, and the massive piles of it you'll be bringing will quite likely just be overkill for your team mates, who'd prefer the various other things /Time will throw about.
I'm going to go have some imaginary toast.
Chairman of the Charity of Pain; accepting donations of blood and guts.
Prophet of the Creamy Truth; "If it's empty, fill it with cream."
Ninja/Time/Mace is the way to go (for Power Boost). You get Survivability Plus More with Time, which is the critical consideration in endgame content, in that you bring MORE to the team/league than just a collection of uber-Pets.
It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...
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/Time/Mace is probably the best use of Ninjas in the game right now.
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Originally Posted by Redlynne
Ninja/Time/Mace is the way to go (for Power Boost). You get Survivability Plus More with Time, which is the critical consideration in endgame content, in that you bring MORE to the team/league than just a collection of uber-Pets.
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@Draeth Darkstar
Virtue [Heroes, Roleplay], Freedom [Villains], Exalted [All Sides, Roleplay]
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I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30)) Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.
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While I understand /Time is a busy set with many good powers to use, Ninja/FF isn't exactly "cast and forget" because with good recharge, I just keep throwing out Smoke Flash whenever it's up and yes, I do need to use Aid Other. And if things go well, I use vet. attacks or aoe immb from patron.|
Originally Posted by khorak_EU
/FF though, that's gonna leave you standing around not doing too much. You set the fields, and then you watch. Throw out the Aid Other now and then. |
But yes, I see /Time having way more versatility than /FF. The only thing /FF has over /Time is mez protection for yourself.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
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If you think those things add up to 'doing much', I would dearly recommend you never break out something like, say, /Storm Summoning or /Poison. And pretend that /Traps just doesn't exist.
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Originally Posted by Jibikao
While I understand /Time is a busy set with many good powers to use, Ninja/FF isn't exactly "cast and forget" because with good recharge, I just keep throwing out Smoke Flash whenever it's up and yes, I do need to use Aid Other. And if things go well, I use vet. attacks or aoe immb from patron.
But yes, I see /Time having way more versatility than /FF. The only thing /FF has over /Time is mez protection for yourself. |
Chairman of the Charity of Pain; accepting donations of blood and guts.
Prophet of the Creamy Truth; "If it's empty, fill it with cream."
Ninjas survive better when you use Provoke.
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Well yes, but so does everything else.
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
Ninjas survive better when you use Provoke.
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It depends and not necessarily.|
Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
Ninjas survive better when you use Provoke.
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For example on a nin/dark (dark is another decent choice for ninjas btw, though I would still say Time is better) you will take the alpha, then by the time they will even consider attacking your ninjas they will be debuffed enough that it really doesn't matter. Time will produce a similar effect while Farsighted Ninjas and TJ'd enemies. The most important part is that you take the alpha, after that it really doesn't matter.
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I am one of the few MMs that never take provoke and Ninjas chase so much with that superb speed. Ninjas have rain of fire (fear) and two caltrops (more fear) and 3 knock backs. If I can command them during bodyguard mode, then that's great. I almost never let my ninjas choose their targets. I can't cancel their actions in time if they chase a running foe to another group.
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
Ninjas survive better when you use Provoke.
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What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
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Thats another thing in favour of /time, you can actually react in (sigh) time due to all the slows flying around and your enemies moving at a crawl. It helps alot on my beast/time, i would expect the same for a ninja/.|
Originally Posted by <span style="color: GoldenRod; font-weight: bold;">Jibikao</span>
I am one of the few MMs that never take provoke and Ninjas chase so much with that superb speed. Ninjas have rain of fire (fear) and two caltrops (more fear) and 3 knock backs. If I can command them during bodyguard mode, then that's great. I almost never let my ninjas choose their targets. I can't cancel their actions in time if they chase a running foe to another group.
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/FF is a set that really hasn't aged that well imho. Sure it has high defense, but /time/mace isn't THAT far behind on pure defense and its -tohit and -recharge and -damage pushes it actually far ahead. The thing is, FF can't bring every primary set to the softcap, and on those it can time/mace can aswell. Also some of the non defense based defenses in /FF rely on repel/KB which doesn't play nice with melee pets. Time also has more recharge due to chronoshift, so more smokebombs for you.
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Oh I totally agree with you that /time is superior than /ff. /FF is just way too one dimensional. Speaking about /FF, I took my Beast/Time to DA a few times and there are A LOT of auto damage type of aoe attacks. I can't really tell if they are auto damage or their accuracy is just that high (since I was only lvl 38 and the game setting is +4). Even with my aoe healing in /Time, I couldn't keep up with it. |
Originally Posted by Jeremia_Bane
Thats another thing in favour of /time, you can actually react in (sigh) time due to all the slows flying around and your enemies moving at a crawl. It helps alot on my beast/time, i would expect the same for a ninja/.
/FF is a set that really hasn't aged that well imho. Sure it has high defense, but /time/mace isn't THAT far behind on pure defense and its -tohit and -recharge and -damage pushes it actually far ahead. The thing is, FF can't bring every primary set to the softcap, and on those it can time/mace can aswell. Also some of the non defense based defenses in /FF rely on repel/KB which doesn't play nice with melee pets. Time also has more recharge due to chronoshift, so more smokebombs for you. |
If those earthquake and lightning are auto-hit, then my Ninja/FF will melt even faster! There is no way I can keep up with the healing with Aid Other. lol
I have a +3 Ninja/FF and I think I am done with Ninja for now. This toon is 4 years old. I shelved him for 3 years 'cause I couldn't stand two single upgrades and then 12 times ff shields. I had to do that so often that it was driving me crazy. I only recently took him out to level him to 50 because of the new group aoe buffs. That saves me sooooooooooo much time and endurance.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
Dont remind me, i still have nightmares of doing that 27 click pre battle preparation(on every zone in!), and then getting completely wasted on the first LT due to him throwing a fire bomb and my pets spazzing out and aggroing 4 different groups at the same time.
Saying that was unfun might be a LITTLE understatement.
Thanks all the interesting replies, I'll continue with the ninja/time 
Hello all
I like ninjas, I like how they look, I like how they fight, and I would love to have a level 50 ninja mastermind that i can use for endgame stuff, and so I'd like some advie.
So far I have two of them, a ninja/FF and a ninja/time, both in their 20s and I'm not sure which one of them to continue with. Or maybe another secondary then those?
I like concept characters BUT I also like characters that work well in the game and can face the game's many challanges in a good and meaningful way. So I'm wondering what seconday would be best for having ninjas that can work in the games more difficult content?
Everybody who replies in this thread will recive an imaginary toaster.