Jounin
Jounin's biggest problem, in my opinion, is Poison Dart but I will get into that later.
Survival Improvement Ideas (all values are set at lvl 50)
1. Increase Jounin's innate defense and add some Resistance: Summon Lions sets a good example of how a melee-oriented pets should be like. I would suggest the following:
Smashing Resistance: 29.88%
Lethal Resistance: 29.88%
Psionic Resistance: 14.94% (Lions have 29.88% Cold but I feel Ninjas are trained assassins that shouldn't be easily mind controlled.)
2. Another idea I have is to make Jounins more different from Lions. Ninjas don't wear much armor and are more elusive, so maybe we can make defense higher with less resistance.
Smashing Resistance: 22.41% (25% weaker than Lion's)
Lethal Resistance: 22.41%
Melee Defense: 17.42%
Range Defense: 17.42%
AoE Defense: 17.42%
* Defense Debuff Resistance: 33%?
Behavior Improvement Idea
1. Like I said before, I believe Poison Dart really hinders Jounin's performance because it is very easy for Jounins to waste the first critical attack on Poison Dart's low damage. I think Lore Pet Victoria sets a very good example of how a strong but longer recharge attack can benefit Stalker style much more.
I would suggest the dev increase Poison Dart's recharge to 8s with a much higher up-front damage so the initial critical damage is higher. Having 8s should also "force" Jounins to go melee because there's no more range attack to use. If the range attack only has 4s recharge, Jounins sometimes still shoot Poison Dart and pause for a while and then go in for melee attacks.
2. Caltrops is a double edged sword. At one hand, it causes "fear" to reduce the rate the enemies attack but on the other hand, Jounins need to chase the targets and sometimes it hurts dps. Probably the biggest problem with Caltrops is how it ends prematurely if the target dies. I understand the base recharge (30s) is already lower than other Caltrops (45s) but I would also recommend increasing the base damage a bit so when caltrops hit, they hit harder. If Jounins are going to spend time to chase, caltrops should do a bit more damage?
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.
Oni
Survival
Oni actually survives pretty well because he has S/L resistance but his Defense value is only at 7% at level 50. I think we only need to increase his defense and that's good enough.
Melee Defense 11.21%
Range Defense 11.21%
AoE Defense 11.21%
* 33% resistance to Defense Debuffs
Behavior Problems
I believe Oni has the most messed up AI and he suffers from "MORE IS LESS" syndrome. Oni has 2 melee attacks, 3 range st attacks, 1 cone and 1 target aoe. The 5 ST attacks are all on pretty short recharge (less or equal to 8s) and it is not uncommon to see Oni only using certain attacks once he draws his sword. He does not cycle everything when the attacks are recharged. It's almost like he sometimes can't decide what to use at what distance.
We need to decide which powers should be on Oni's Priority list and what role does Oni play in this set?
I feel Oni should be primarily a Range + Control specialist. We already have 5 Ninjas going in and when Oni is at range, he uses Immb and Hold more and his long-range position would make Breath of Fire more effective. Demon Prince is what I consider "Oni done right". Demon Prince has similar attacks and purpose on the team. The Prince provides controls and melee attacks and it makes sense for him to go melee because he has pbaoe Chilling Embrace and his good AoE attack in pbaoe Frozen Aura. Oni only has a narrow Cone and a location-based aoe that spreads out the mobs and ends prematurely if the target dies. Prince is superior in many ways. Prince has better melee attacks, nasty slow/recharge debuffs (Oni has no debuffs), similar hold, better damage (Chance for Smashing proc applies to all of Prince's attacks. Fire-based attacks have no secondary effect) and probably better aoe in frozen aura that comes up once every 20ish. The only thing Oni has that Prince doesn't is ST Immb. Ring of Fire is good but it also negates four knock down chance from Jounins (Soaring and Golden Dragonfly) and three knock backs in Crane Kick on that single target.
List of Improvement Ideas:
1. Drop Fire Sword Hack - this attack has like the worst DPA of all time. For a 6s attack, it has 3s animation time?
2. Improve Fire Sword Slash - If Oni chooses to go in, he needs to hit HARD just like Demon Prince. I would increase Fire Sword Slash from 3s recharge to 8s recharge.
3. Increase Fire Blast's damage from 4s recharge to 6s - This should give Oni a more smooth attack chain. Ring of Fire 4s, Fire Blast 6s and Char 8s at long range and throw in Breath of Fire in between.
4. Reduce Rain of Fire Recharge from 60s to 45s - Jounin's version of Caltrops have reduced recharge and I believe Oni's version of Rain of Fire should have reduced recharge too because RoA can end prematurely if the target dies.
5. Please allow Oni to take both Immb and Hold set. Oni is still showing that he can take Knock Back set but he has no knock back. Demon Prince can take Hold set, so Oni should too.
6. Give H2O Boost healing power to Oni. In the description, Oni is supposed to have both Fire and Wind powers but he really doesn't have any Wind power. It would be nice to give Oni H2O Boost to make him more different from Demon Prince.
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.
Smoke Flash
Looks like some people are not too happy with Smoke Flash. I think Smoke Flash should work even better if Oni has better AI but if there is room for improvements, I'll list here. In a way, Ninja user is kind of forced to throw Smoke Flash because the bow attacks do little damage and don't benefit much from secondary procs.
1. Reduce 30 endurance cost down to 22.5 (25% better)
2. Increase duration from 10s to 12s (those two extra seconds can mean one more use of a higher damage attack)
3. Add some minor +defense during 10s since Smoke Flash is supposed to be a mix of offense/defense.
4. This is a crazy idea I have. Smoke Flash turns one Ninja into "Blood Thirsty" mode for 15s. That Ninja's defense/resistance are reduced but he has 15s to enjoy 100% critical chance.
5. Please consider changing Smoke Flash to a pbaoe version. I am sure the dev can work out the Critical Chance and Duration and recharge.
Summary
This is a lot of changes for one set but if time is an issue, I'll list out what I think should be looked at asap:
1. Increase Ninja's Defensive and Resistance Values to match Beast's.
2. Reduce Crane Kick's knock back to knock down.
3. Improve Jounin's Poison Dart (look at Victoria) so he doesn't waste his critical damage on the weakest attack.
4. Improve Oni's AI so he always uses Fire Blast, Char and Ring of Fire when they are recharged. Fire Blast has better DPA than Fire Sword Slash and Fire Sword Hack.
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.
I, personally, think that fistful of arrows should be swapped out for The lotus drops. That way you can actually get into the ninja action too, and it make the set different from the older ones in that you have a useful melee attack. So you would have two arrow attacks and one sword attack.
While we're at it, why not make smoke flash a sort of pet-wide AOE, that perhaps requires some building points like the new beast one.
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Having a Bow and Sword means there will be two weapon draws. |
Originally Posted by Blitzy
I, personally, think that fistful of arrows should be swapped out for The lotus drops. That way you can actually get into the ninja action too, and it make the set different from the older ones in that you have a useful melee attack. So you would have two arrow attacks and one sword attack.
While we're at it, why not make smoke flash a sort of pet-wide AOE, that perhaps requires some building points like the new beast one. |
With Mastermind's low damage scale, I don't think Lotus Drop would do much damage. It does put you in more danger because you need to be at pbaoe range. I don't like/take the bow attacks either but Smoke Flash sort of balances it out. If there is one thing that they can do, they can add a bit more +defense in Smoke Flash. With the number of things I've listed, this is not on the priority list of course.
Smoke Flash grants one ninja pet 100% critical chance for 10s (minus caltrops and rain of fire). It is pretty good in theory. The description says smoke flash "hides" that pet but it's kind of hard to tell if the pet is attacking as well. Making it aoe would turn several Ninja pets having critical chance. I don't think that's going to happen.
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.
i could see some of this happening, however i think they should have prolly slightly more defense, they are ninjas after all, and only maybe the oni should have less than 7% def the others should have 15% def, 10-20% resist to smash and lethal sounds about right since ninjas never wore a lot of armor
overall i do agree with most of these changes, personally i think the only thing that absolutely needs a revamp is smoke flash as it is not very useful and costs a horrendous amount of end even though it can be spammed
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I can edit and add some ideas to improve Smoke Flash. Which part you want to revamp? The endurance cost? Duration? I feel the endurance cost is a bit high and while it is spammable, Ninja doesn't always have the attacks to get the most out of it. This is why I usually put it on Genin because I know Genin cycles the most # of attacks during 10s. In some ways, one can probably get more dps by using bow attacks. It's more consistent and probably costs less endurance during 10s. |
Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master
i could see some of this happening, however i think they should have prolly slightly more defense, they are ninjas after all, and only maybe the oni should have less than 7% def the others should have 15% def, 10-20% resist to smash and lethal sounds about right since ninjas never wore a lot of armor
overall i do agree with most of these changes, personally i think the only thing that absolutely needs a revamp is smoke flash as it is not very useful and costs a horrendous amount of end even though it can be spammed |
However, if Oni's AI has improved (meaning he cycles more attacks when they are recharged), Smoke Flash on him could be a lot more effective. The old Oni AI allows me to position him during smoke flash and starts the fight with Critical Breath of Fire. It was quite useful but after they changed all pet's AI, Oni no longer opens the battle with BoF. In fact, he can't seem to decide when to use BoF and it is frustrating to see one of his better attacks not used to the fullest potential. Just look at Dire Wolf. It always open the battle with two cone attacks. The behavior is predictable and it's good because you can position Dire Wolf to get the most out of his two opening cones. Oni, on the other hand, only uses Rain of Fire consistently but it's on a 60s recharge and can end prematurely.
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.
i think smoke flash should be changed in to something different entirely, as to what i am not totally sure but something maybe a bit more useful
what i think might be funny (and maybe a bit overpowered) is a patch that you can place and any baddies who are in the patch get attacked by random ninja that come out of nowhere (like using the "shadow selves" that dual pistols makes heavy use of but to dash across and attack the target
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I don't think the dev would have time to create a completely new power and that would touch the "cottage rule". |
Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master
i think smoke flash should be changed in to something different entirely, as to what i am not totally sure but something maybe a bit more useful
what i think might be funny (and maybe a bit overpowered) is a patch that you can place and any baddies who are in the patch get attacked by random ninja that come out of nowhere (like using the "shadow selves" that dual pistols makes heavy use of but to dash across and attack the target |
Smoke Flash gives one Ninja 100% critical for 10s and offers some minor protection (by placating around him). I think they dev can reduce the endurance cost just a tab bit or increase duration to 12s.
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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even then personally i would prolly still skip smoke flash, i would rather have a better power than something that barely does anything now, for the current cost of the power it should make ALL of your ninja drop a smoke flash and then it might actually be useful without changing the power too much|
Originally Posted by Jibikao
I don't think the dev would have time to create a completely new power and that would touch the "cottage rule".
Smoke Flash gives one Ninja 100% critical for 10s and offers some minor protection (by placating around him). I think they dev can reduce the endurance cost just a tab bit or increase duration to 12s. |
i think the part i hate about it the most is having to target a specific ninja to click it off
Ninjas IMO should have the highes def of all pets. Look at thug/ with the leadership of the enforce they get 16%(8x2)% def vs all. If your add another Manuver or/and +def auras like shadowfall your will have like 30%vs all. Now add +def proc from enchament and you will have 40% def vs all for a set that isn't melee.That why Thug are one of the best power for MM.
Now what ninjas need ninjas:
Genin/jonin
Base 20%def possitional def all of then
Base 20%res vs L/Sm
+hp or self heal
and the code to save then from been one shot
Oni
Give oni O2 boost to heal the other, In his description it say it:"The Oni is a formidable creature who possesses the skill of a warrior and the powers of wind and fire."
It have zero wind power.
Smoke flash
I like smoke flash how it's, it useful but complety skippable. I only wish that smoke flash give a -tohit AoE and last longer b/c the end cost is too high for only 10 sec. I would be awesome that it affect all ninjas.
All arrow power should be replace for shuriken or katana attacks
I want /Fire stalker. Because nothing says stealth like dumping a can of gasoline on yourself and lighting a match. -Morac
I want this bumped. so I did 
I just started playing ninja/ MMs because it and necro are the two I have had the least of (as in.. none) since CoV came out.
As such, I don't have the breadth of specific experience with Ninjas that the pro's do but I have 45 MMs so I think I know the AT pretty well over all.
To me Ninjas seem like a mollification set. As in, "We should have ninjas, so make a set by Mondays deadline and we'll slap it in since they are asking for it". It is poorly balanced and conceived to my mind.
Still as a stop gap measure to stop it from being a joke all that has to be done is to give the ninjas (Genin and Jounin) a HUGE boost in Defense, and the Oni better Defense and Resistance.
To me, that's it. The rest of the ideas above are great, but every older MM primary has issues, and can be worked around to a degree, but insta-killed ninjas make this set a sideline Primary at best. At worst its an example of how to NOT design a Primary Power set.
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Originally Posted by Yorukira
Ninjas IMO should have the highes def of all pets. Look at thug/ with the leadership of the enforce they get 16%(8x2)% def vs all. If your add another Manuver or/and +def auras like shadowfall your will have like 30%vs all. Now add +def proc from enchament and you will have 40% def vs all for a set that isn't melee.That why Thug are one of the best power for MM.
Now what ninjas need ninjas: Genin/jonin Base 20%def possitional def all of then Base 20%res vs L/Sm +hp or self heal and the code to save then from been one shot Oni Give oni O2 boost to heal the other, In his description it say it:"The Oni is a formidable creature who possesses the skill of a warrior and the powers of wind and fire." It have zero wind power. Smoke flash I like smoke flash how it's, it useful but complety skippable. I only wish that smoke flash give a -tohit AoE and last longer b/c the end cost is too high for only 10 sec. I would be awesome that it affect all ninjas. All arrow power should be replace for shuriken or katana attacks |
This stuff.
And give Genin the MA move Crippling Axe Kick. Three of them doing it would help to immobilize anything you focus on and negate a lot of the issues I see Ninja MM's talk about. Caltrops, knock back, staying in range.
I am adding some of the stuff that are talked about here in the first 3 posts.
As for Ninja's design, I think they were designed to "spread out" rather than focusing on the same target. Spreading out means their caltrops and rain of fire won't end that fast and Jounin and Genin's knock back/down/up work better on different targets.
The only problem with this design is that Ninjas chase very fast. Enemy AI makes them run away when things go really wrong and the "fear" effects make the mobs run away as well. Some secondaries like /Time and /Trick Arrow have good aoe slow but in general, I don't like letting my pets choose their targets. I am pretty specific about which target I want them to focus on.
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.
One of the big things I feel that Ninjas should have that they currently lack is some support ability in the pets. The reason they're so much squishier than all the other sets is, in a big way, because of this.
Thugs (the Tier 1 pet) have NO defenses or resistances, but Enforcers give them a base of 16% Def(All) which can be enhanced to 25% (the discrepancy in Pet IOs favoring Thugs and Demons plays a role too, but that's another issue entirely).
Robotics get 15% Def(All) on the Tier 1 and 3 pets and 7.5% on the Lieutenants, plus healers.
Demons get 10ish% to common resistances, an AoE heal, and a single target heal from their lieutenant.
Necromancy gets tons of -tohit (admittedly less useful than the above, but better than ninjas' nonexistant support powers).
Even Mercs get the lolmedic.
What I think would be cool would be if, whenever a Ninja dies, it fires off a huge radius (like, 100+, so that it will basically guarantee that it never misses any of your pets) Vengeance-type power on itself that only affects your ninja pets. This would play into the old meme of "the fewer ninjas there are, the more dangerous they become" and the age-old plot of "YOU KILLED MY NINJA CLAN. I KILL YOU ALL NOW," that is so common in Ninja stories.
Of course, they still do deserve better personal defenses than they get. Genin being so squishy has never made any sense to me.
@Draeth Darkstar
Virtue [Heroes, Roleplay], Freedom [Villains], Exalted [All Sides, Roleplay]
Code:
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.
I re-read all the post and i most say that I agreed with 75% of the ideas Jibikao suggest but I disagreed with the how AI "Improvement".
You really hit the nail in almost any issues but the AI is a global problem in all MM Sets, it's that in ninjas the AI issues have a biggest impact(They need ot fix it at a global Lv). BUt you also have to remenber that almost all secondary of MM have some kind of AoE control that help you. That is why you most pick a good secondary that have good synergie with the primary. For that reason set like /Time and /Dark work so great with it. It almost eliminate all the AI issues.
I can't really imagen playing my Ninjas with other set that isn't /DM
I want /Fire stalker. Because nothing says stealth like dumping a can of gasoline on yourself and lighting a match. -Morac
I gave up playing Ninja's because of Smoke Flash, I can't believe that you need to give it out every 10 seconds or so.
This should operate the same way as an upgrade; choose a ninja and all get it if they are in the vacinity and keep it until they are defeated. The AI can be adjusted to make sure that it's not overpowered.
This change is the only thing that would make it fun for me to play Ninja's again - I see this more as a QoL change not just performance.
L50s: Tanks: Cryofission - Ice/EM - Dr Celsius - Fire/Ice - Saint George - SD/SS | Controllers: Psichosis - Ill/Kin - Major Chaos - Ill/Stm | Scrappers - Neutron Crusader - DM/SR
Currently Levelling: Angelic Blade - BS/WP Scrapper | Seeds of Destruction - Plant/Kin Controller
Great thread Jibikao! Hopefuly this will be a good starting point for some dev ninja lovin'.
I for one would be satisfied if smoke flash was tagged to accept Recharge Intensive Pet sets. Or genins- at least I seem to be summoning them often enough.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
...[I]t would be more proper to say this game is slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowly dying.
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I am going to collect more data/ideas and then I'll PM synapse about this thread. There is one similar like this in the tanker form. I plan to make one for Merc and Necro.
Looks like more people have problems with Smoke Flash. The one problem I have (besides endurance cost) is how I need to click on a pet pretty often and when I do that, I sometimes lose track of which target I was attacking. It's not a major issue but if the duration is a bit longer, then I don't need to do that as much. I think an increase of 12s shouldn't break the balance. There is also a tiny delay right when the ninja throws the smoke bomb and then attack. Sometimes the first attack isn't a critical because the ninja is still in smoke bomb animation.
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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The AI improvement ideas I have are mostly what affects Ninja's performance the most. Knock back is not good for pets. There is a reason why they changed Lich's aoe knock back and Call Hawk to knock down. The pets simply cannot react when a target gets knocked down. They can only react if 1. they are very close to it 2. right before the target gets up. Knock back also causes pets to chase and Genin is extremely good at it too!|
Originally Posted by Yorukira
I re-read all the post and i most say that I agreed with 75% of the ideas Jibikao suggest but I disagreed with the how AI "Improvement".
You really hit the nail in almost any issues but the AI is a global problem in all MM Sets, it's that in ninjas the AI issues have a biggest impact |
As for Oni's AI improvement ideas, well, I think Oni is simply broken right now. He is the only pet that doesn't seem to have a predictable behavior. Besides using char/ring of fire and rain of fire to start, he doesn't use powers in a predictable manner. He doesn't open the battle with breath of fire and when he draws out his sword, he doesn't cycle fire blast enough even though fire blast only has 4s recharge. If the target is moving and Oni draws his sword, he usually runs and pauses...runs and pauses. it's almost like he can't decide what to use at what range. Demon Prince is better because even if he doesn't immb the target, he has tons of -slow which makes it easier for him to chase and hit.
I think if the dev can only do one thing for AI improvement, I would just change Crane's kb to kd.
The other one about Jounin's Poison Dart. Not really an AI issue but if giving the weakest attack to a "stalker" as a battle opener is a good idea, the lore pet Victoria should have something similar too? But no, she has a pretty high damage battle opening move. She only has 3 attacks but she is enjoying what I would call "LESS IS MORE" syndrome. Less number of attacks but each one is meaningful and useful. I am not against Jounins having poison dart (although I did wonder what Jounin's performance would be like without it). I just think Poison Dart needs to be better so Jounins don't waste its first critical on the weakest damage.
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.
Now if we change Smoke Flash to a pbaoe type of power with maybe 10' radius, what effects would you want that's not going to be overpowered. Giving all Ninjas 100% critical for 10s is overpowering so that's not going to happen. :P
Remember, if it's pbaoe, endurance and recharge will need to be adjusted as well. It may not be a spammable power.
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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But with the pbaoe effect (and the resultant ability to hit more than one ninja/minion), that seems like a good trade-off, I.e. a reduction in spammability. It is also a quality of life improvement in that it removes one additional step in the usage of the power - targetting.
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Originally Posted by Jibikao
Now if we change Smoke Flash to a pbaoe type of power with maybe 10' radius, what effects would you want that's not going to be overpowered. Giving all Ninjas 100% critical for 10s is overpowering so that's not going to happen. :P
Remember, if it's pbaoe, endurance and recharge will need to be adjusted as well. It may not be a spammable power. |
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
...[I]t would be more proper to say this game is slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowly dying.
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The thing about Smoke Flash is that even though it's listed as having two purposes (critical and placate others for more safety), it's primary use 90% of the time is just adding more damage. |
Originally Posted by Nyghtmaire
But with the pbaoe effect (and the resultant ability to hit more than one ninja/minion), that seems like a good trade-off, I.e. a reduction in spammability. It is also a quality of life improvement in that it removes one additional step in the usage of the power - targetting.
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If smoke flash somehow is pbaoe, would that change how the enemies fight because they'll turn aggro from your pets to yourself? I hate using bodyguard mode and I am not sure if I want my pets to lose all the aggro.
In fact, while I was soloing Black Scorpian, I've noticed that if I keep using smoke flash, Black Scorpian sometimes change his target to me even though I did not even attack him at all. I think it has something to do with the placate effect from smoke flash. I put it on Jounin all the time during that soloing.
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.
Just let you guys know that I've had some good PMs with Synapse.
We probably won't see any major changes on the powers (like smoke flash) but numbers can be improved especially on the defensive end.
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.
I've been wanting to create a major thread for the dev to read about how to improve Ninja since Synapse brought up that he is going to look into Ninja (Merc and maybe Necro). I am a long time Ninja user and have studied their behavior extensively. Please feel free to add your improvement ideas but if you have off-topic discussion or argument, please post them in other threads. I will break it down by Genin, Jounin and Oni.
Genin
I think most people would agree that Genin is probably the squishiest Mastermind pet in the game and there is a good reason for it! Genins can do a lot of damage but they do ZERO damage if they just keep dying. The lowest damage Battle Drone can out-damage Genins because they have the potential to survive maybe 3x better than Genins with their superior range, resistance, defense and knock back. It is my belief that we need to adjust Genin's Risk VS Reward ratio.
Survival Improvement Ideas (all values are set at lvl 50)
1. Increase Genin's innate defense and add some Resistance: Summon Wolves sets a good example of how a melee-oriented pets should be like. I would suggest the following:
Smashing Resistance: 18.68%
Lethal Resistance: 18.68%
Psionic Resistance: 9.34% (Wolves have 18.68% Cold but I feel Ninjas are trained assassins that shouldn't be easily mind controlled.)
Melee Defense: 11.21% (increase from 7%)
Range Defense: 11.21%
AoE Defense: 11.21%
2. Another idea I have is to make Genins more different from Wolves. Ninjas don't wear much armor so maybe we can make defense higher with less resistance and some resistance to defense debuffs.
Smashing Resistance: 14.01% (25% weaker than Wolve's)
Lethal Resistance: 14.01%
Melee Defense: 14.01% (25% stronger than Wolves)
Range Defense: 14.01%
AoE Defense: 14.01%
* Defense Debuff Resistance: 33%?
Behavior Improvement Idea
One of the biggest complaints on Melee pet's AI behavior is when a target gets knocked back. It is especially apparent when Call Hawk used to knock back and you see all the melee pets sit and watch which hurts DPS so much. To avoid this problem, I would suggest the following:
1. Change Crane Kick's knock back to knock down. This only has one minor problem if more than one Genin uses crane kick at the same time which may produce a knock back. In Beast set, only two of the tier 1 Wolves have knock down so the chance of them using at the same time is much less.
2. Change Crane Kick to Cobra Strike. This is a more dramatic change but not only it won't cause knock back issues (which leads to Genins chasing and causing unnecessary aggro), it should add more survival to the paper Genins. And also, Oni has Ring of Fire which negates -kb so in that situation, Crane Kick's knock back doesn't really add anything, but the stun effect will. The dev can lower the stun chance down from 66% to 33% and mag 3 to mag 2.
3. Change Crane Kick to Crippling Axe Kick for immb so Genins won't chase that much.
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.