Tips for /Nin!

[gijoespouse]

I currently have a level 13 StJ/Nin stalker, and really enjoying things. I am looking at nailing down a solid build using Mids so I can respec her, but I'm not exactly sure what I need to aim for with the build. Should I be looking at soft cap to positional? Recharge? Really rusty when it comes to builds, especially for a stalker, so looking for any advice here!

[Inphinity]

Softcap and recharge is usually a good place to start. Maybe consider the Agility Alpha slot from Incarnate too since /Nin lacks the quickness power that /SR has. I am not super familiar with nin but I believe you also need to build some knockback protection too, since it has none.

[gijoespouse]

Softcap and recharge is usually a good place to start. Maybe consider the Agility Alpha slot from Incarnate too since /Nin lacks the quickness power that /SR has. I am not super familiar with nin but I believe you also need to build some knockback protection too, since it has none.

 

It does not have KB protection, but I think I can cover that with Steadfast Protection's KB thing. Thank you so much for replying, I'll have to look at Agility once I get up to Incarnate content. Admittedly I haven't even looked that far ahead just yet.

[Erydanus]

I was looking at the Stalker version of ninjitsu and it's really annoying that Bo Ryaku, the knockback protection power for the set, was passed over. As far as I can tell, it was skipped to make room for caltrops, which I don't see as a great choice in the light of the assassin's strike buffs. I could see the original devs not wanting to give stalkers a passive damage buff, but if they just stripped that out you'd still have a 7.5% resist all and knockback protection passive and that's great.

 

Caltrops would be better in an Advanced Ninjitsu stalker epic (ie a rework of Weapon Mastery for stalkers) if you ask me.

[Justisaur]

I've currently got a 40 psi/ninj stalker. 

 

Caltrops is a little disappointing, but it can cause enemies to run away, if you're single target focused like I am that's a good thing, as it lets you concentrate on one while the others attack less.  It could be useful solo for mitigation, but it's pretty useless in a team, and there's the next couple powers for mitigation.

 

What I'm really disappointed with is Blinding Powder, the sleep is so short - only 5 seconds, it's not really enough to do much of anything, the confuse is the same length of time and usually only gets one or two targets usually, the cone feels really narrow, and I'm not sure what good it does having the mobs both asleep and confused. I've read possibly slotting it with contagious confusion could be useful.  I'd also consider instead slotting it for sleep duration, it might be enough to matter for sleep if it's 10 seconds long, that might be enough to kill two or three mobs in quick succession solo.  I feel like I'm missing something I can do with the power.  This seems like this is another useless on a team power, but I love my confuses, so I might stick with it and see if I can figure out something to do with.

 

I didn't take the Smoke Bomb, the idea of an area effect placate sounds awesome, but apparently it isn't a real placate, I've read it won't put you into hide, so you can't auto crit against the placated mobs - it may be an alternative to blinding powder, or allow you to run away to live another day.

 

My favorite part of the set is the pretty big heal.  Slotted with some recharge and heal, it's usually up if you need it, and if it isn't you can run away and usually get it off shortly thereafter in time to save your skin. 

 

All that taken, it's probably a much better solo set than any other available.

[Marshal_General]

I think the saving grace of Blinding Powder is that it takes a confuse proc if I remember right. This can make it worth having.

[oldskool]

Softcap and recharge is usually a good place to start. Maybe consider the Agility Alpha slot from Incarnate too since /Nin lacks the quickness power that /SR has. I am not super familiar with nin but I believe you also need to build some knockback protection too, since it has none.

 

I'd rather plan towards softcap positional with global recharge and then use Musculature to push damage.  Quickness is a great perk for /SR since it can save you set bonuses on recharge in exchange for other options like global damage.  For /Nin though, you can just delete Quickness from your memory. 

 

Nin has a lot of toys which are optional.  They can take on some good sets though.

[Erydanus]

All that taken, it's probably a much better solo set than any other available.

I'm thinking that's Willpower actually, based on soloing 2 elite bosses at the same time with my Psi-melee/WP stalker.

 

I used to have a MA/Nin stalker on live who I loved, and I got him to 50. For some reason, I just don't remember this set well. I remember liking that character and being really irked when stalker MA got rejuggled but as I was looking over the ninjitsu set in the planner before commenting, it just felt unfamiliar. I don't think it got changed but right now I don't think I'd choose this powerset over willpower or a couple of the others I would pick for thematic reasons.

[Generator]

Hey,

 

Back in the day, I had an Elec/Ninjitsu Stalker I liked well enough.  Didn't get him to 50 (mid/high 30s), but hey that didn't mean I didn't like him.  At the time, I think I saw fit to skip on Caltrops, and at least one or the other of Smoke Bomb and Blinding Powder; it's possible I passed on all three of those.

 

Anyone out there got a mind to make me reconsider those choices?  Are those three all as skippable as I thought eight years ago?

 

Thanks!

 

Generator

[Justisaur]

All that taken, it's probably a much better solo set than any other available.

I'm thinking that's Willpower actually, based on soloing 2 elite bosses at the same time with my Psi-melee/WP stalker.

 

I used to have a MA/Nin stalker on live who I loved, and I got him to 50. For some reason, I just don't remember this set well. I remember liking that character and being really irked when stalker MA got rejuggled but as I was looking over the ninjitsu set in the planner before commenting, it just felt unfamiliar. I don't think it got changed but right now I don't think I'd choose this powerset over willpower or a couple of the others I would pick for thematic reasons.

 

It's probably more useful before focus was introduced, as you could theoretically cast blinding powder, pick off one with AS, run off with none the wiser wait for hide and repeat.  Caltrops is still useful to get less attacked while you're killing them off one by one with them attacking less, or again run off leaving it behind to block the path.  And smoke bomb is much the same - placate everything run off... seeing a pattern here?  I'd probably only take one if slots are tight but all three is a lot of ability to run away and return for another hidden AS, which is what I mean about it being good solo. 

 

I suppose caltrops would also be useful to put between mobs and squishies to keep them separated, but I never think of the squishies.

[Erydanus]

Yeah I think that's exactly what was going on. I remember doing cobra strike a lot to get breathing room... I was probably breaking off to Hide and coming back to shank them with my Assassin's Boot To the Head.

 

Pity, because MA/NIN is an obvious thematic pairing but now I think NIN needs some tweaking due to the Focus change. You know what would be REALLY nice? A ninja combat teleport move (Shukuchi). That is just a total staple of a lot of ninja powersets in media and games. In practice it would be similar to electric melee's lightning rod. Or alternately teleport and re-activate hide as you come out of it. It'll never happen of course but it would be sweet. Heck you can sorta pull it off with regular teleport at this point (do a macro using powexec location target I think) and just having the AT set with the hide proc.

 

 

[Justisaur]

I was playing around with a Ninj/Ninj stalker I made on the Beta server at 50 with IO sets, no incarnates.  Oof, it was pretty rough compared to Bio.  I took all three of the questionable utility powers, I tried using Blinding Powder to start off, I was lucky if I could hit 3 mobs at a time, and it didn't really seem to do much, even with Contagious Confusion and the rest of that set the confuse didn't last long enough to be worth it, and at most still hit 2, usually still 1, and I didn't even see anyone ever slept longer than you could blink.  I felt very safe for a bit, but then boom, something got through my defense and I was in a world of hurt, I got back a couple times with the heal, then no warning and I was hit twice in a row and down.  I had no time to actually use any of the utilities to get out of Dodge.  With Bio it was more slowly losing health and trying to keep up with it with the heals and absorbs, giving me enough time to run away and recover if things were going too poorly.  It was also much harder to remember to keep my anti-mez power up on Ninj because it's a click instead of a toggle, and if I didn't remember, I was toast as well.  This was against 54 Rikti.  I was able to sit on a pylon for some time, but it was again a bit more harrowing as I'd get hit once in awhile, and the odds of a 2 hit streak seemed like it'd be high enough to end me. 

 

Ninja Blade seemed very good compared to Psi, I was able to kill a 52 heavy suit, while I couldn't even do a 51 with psi, and was slowly piling up damage on the pylon, I just gave up as proving my point after it was down to 1/4 vs. slivers which were healed up with psi before I could put more on.

[siolfir]

I was looking at the Stalker version of ninjitsu and it's really annoying that Bo Ryaku, the knockback protection power for the set, was passed over. As far as I can tell, it was skipped to make room for caltrops, which I don't see as a great choice in the light of the assassin's strike buffs. I could see the original devs not wanting to give stalkers a passive damage buff, but if they just stripped that out you'd still have a 7.5% resist all and knockback protection passive and that's great.

 

Caltrops would be better in an Advanced Ninjitsu stalker epic (ie a rework of Weapon Mastery for stalkers) if you ask me.

In case you were not aware, nothing was skipped for the Stalker version of Ninjitsu - the other versions didn't exist on any live server prior to the NCSoft shutdown, and Scrappers had Caltrops in one of their epic pools already so it made sense as the power to remove when porting it. The only deliberate "screw you" for Stalkers was not plugging the KB hole for them when fixing it for the other ATs that get the secondary; it's not like they plugged the Psi hole in EA or Inv when porting either of those sets, so the holes in the set should have remained or been fixed for all ATs sharing it.

[Microcosm]

Late to see this thread, but I had a few /nins on live. Caltrops is a deceptively good power for adding some damage as well as mitigation. People tend to ignore the damage component since it's a slow tick, but per activation it's really not bad. You can also slot a knockdown proc in there as well as other things. Blinding Powder is just an extra layer of something (especially with Contagious Confusion), because if you use pools/ios to get to the softcap, you've essentially got SR with a heal and tricks but without the DDR and +recharge.

 

The pbaoe placate, however, is for sure skippable; it's activation time is too long, it doesn't give you hidden status, and it can literally be replaced 1 for 1 with a temp power from the P2W vendor... so ya.