Trying to Make Ninjas/FF Work

[Milk Sheik]

Fooling around with a character concept, I decided on possibly the silliest primary/secondary combination I could. My MM "Fan Service" now has ninjas, force fields, and a Catholic schoolgirl uniform, so she's basically a 12-year-old's fantasy checklist. Now that I've reached level 35, I'm trying to make the toon a little more formidable.

I heard that ninjas are reasonably high DPS when they get into melee, but I've got them trained and enlightened, got a full set of ATOs in Jounin and Oni, and Overwhelming Force in the Genin, and still they don't seem to be dishing it out much. I've got Aid Other, Aid Self, and Field Medic to supplement the shields (Personal Force Field + Aid Self saved my butt several times; Aid Other means I can touch up henchmen or teammates between fights), but I'm nearing the epic levels and running out of powers. The shields are useful but it's hard to make ninjas anything other than squishy, and Aid Other puts me in jeopardy way more often than I'd like. 

I haven't seen anyone try this particular build combo before, so I'm open to suggestions. I'm thinking I need to add Maneuvers & Tactics to stack defense and deal with high-defense enemies (I recently got humiliated by Behemoths -- minions! -- that turn on Invincibility and laugh at the ninja mob surrounding them). But that doesn't leave a lot of slots for epics, Fighting, any spare attacks (I've only got Snap Shot and Force Bolt at the moment) and the high-tier powers from the FF secondary. Anyone got recommendations?

Edited May 30, 2022 by Milk Sheik

[pblue]

I am happy with my Ninja/FF Mastermind which is now comfortably beyond Vet 100. I use just a cheap, casual build because I am a cheap, casual player, but playing solo I find it is more than competitive compared to my other cheap, casual builds, Mastermind or other AT. I don't think there is any secret trick or mystery about this combination. FF+Mace allows you to soft cap your Ninja in all positional Defences, which fixes the set's fatal flaw. The other FF tricks, to be honest, work better with ranged pet.  The Ninja damage potential always seemed fine to me, especially if you concentrate your attacks, but I guess am easy to please.

 

To eek more damage out of Ninjas, you may want to look at link below. Just bear in mind the personal attacks slotting is predicated on the high recharge (which Time facilitates).

 

 

Edited May 30, 2022 by pblue

[Milk Sheik]

Hmm. I tried a little action in the RWZ last night and the damage against even con enemies was more impressive than I remembered. I guess I've been sidekicking too much and trying Summer Blockbusters (a.k.a. "AV City") for their damage really to come into their own. +2-5 higher enemies really swat the ninjas down and resist the damage dramatically. I'm still not near the defense cap yet, though...

Edited May 30, 2022 by Milk Sheik

[pblue]

Just a thought, if you are slotting full sets in you Oni and Jounin, where are you slotting the pet +DEF and +RES auras? Most builds break the set up in the pets to fix in the auras and the odd proc (Achilles Heel -RES proc in the Jounin is quite popular and it will help with the damage).

[Meknomancer]

I love the title, i've been trying to get ninjas to work since live with not much luck. Tried them with /dark /traps /nature /storm so far, the last 2 being the more better options but i suspect thats purely because nature and storm are a lot of fun. I was disappointed with /dark i really thought that would help them out once darkest night was applied , enemies feared and the -res patch dropped, but no, they insist on kb'ing everything out of tar patch and knock DN anchor into (and often through) walls. So...bubbles. I do love my mercs/bubs and i have a thugs+bots/bubs. But they are mostly ranged attack pets so the higher level picks in FF can be useful to keep mobs away from pets, exactly the opposite of what you want with melee pets. I still have no clue about the best slotting for ninjas so i just threw stuff in mids to see what i'd get and ended up with no travel because wanted medicine. I use that on all my ff mm's its just handy. I see no point slotting force bolt or taking the mm's attacks like aimed/fistful, unlike thugs/bots/mercs where you can slot for knockdown/stun/soft control, only force bolt helps out and it'll only hit a single target and if you don't slot a kb/kd your sending your pets even further away from yourself (always a bad thing with ninjas). So you want some control. And you don't want to be squishy. Not much choice. So mace it is (again) Anyway its something to look at, at least you can pin mobs down hold stuff and keep enemies knocked down with envelope/cocoon/volley and you don't have to worry much about redraw if your not doing anything except those. I couldn't play this but maybe it'll give you some ideas:

 

 

This Villain build was built using Mids Reborn 3.2.17
https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn

NIN FF MACE: Level 49 Magic Mastermind
Primary Power Set: Ninjas
Secondary Power Set: Force Field
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

Villain Profile:
------------
Level 1:    Call Genin            OvrFrc-Dam/KB(A), SlbAll-Build%(3), SprMarofS-EndRdx/+Resist/+Regen(3), SprMarofS-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), SprMarofS-Dmg(5), CaltoArm-+Def(Pets)(7)
Level 1:    Force Bolt            FrcFdb-Rechg%(A), SuddAcc--KB/+KD(7), HO:Nucle(9)
Level 2:    Deflection Shield        DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(15), EndRdx-I(15)
Level 4:    Insulation Shield        DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(17), EndRdx-I(17)
Level 6:    Train Ninjas            EndRdx-I(A)
Level 8:    Kick                Empty(A)
Level 10:    Combat Jumping            LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Krm-ResKB(46)
Level 12:    Call Jounin            TchofLadG-%Dam(A), AchHee-ResDeb%(19), SprMarofS-Dmg/EndRdx(19), SprMarofS-Acc/Dmg(21), HO:Nucle(21), ExpRnf-+Res(Pets)(23)
Level 14:    Tough                GldArm-3defTpProc(A), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(23)
Level 16:    Personal Force Field        LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A)
Level 18:    Smoke Flash            EndRdx-I(A)
Level 20:    Dispersion Bubble        RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFrt-Def/Rchg(25), RedFrt-EndRdx/Rchg(25), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(27), RedFrt-Def(27), RedFrt-EndRdx(29)
Level 22:    Aid Other            Prv-Absorb%(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(29), Prv-Heal/Rchg(31), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(31), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(31), Prv-Heal(33)
Level 24:    Maneuvers            LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Rct-ResDam%(33), Rct-Def(33), Rct-Def/EndRdx(34)
Level 26:    Oni                SprCmmoft-Rchg/PetAoEDef(A), SprCmmoft-Dmg/EndRdx(34), SprCmmoft-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), SprCmmoft-Acc/Dmg(36), EdcoftheM-PetDef(36), SvrRgh-PetResDam(36)
Level 28:    Aid Self            Prv-Heal/Rchg(A), Prv-Heal(37), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(37)
Level 30:    Weave                RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFrt-Def/Rchg(37), RedFrt-EndRdx/Rchg(39), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(39), RedFrt-Def(39), RedFrt-EndRdx(40)
Level 32:    Kuji In Zen            EndRdx-I(A)
Level 35:    Scorpion Shield            LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(40), ShlWal-Def(40), ShlWal-Def/EndRdx(42)
Level 38:    Web Envelope            GrvAnc-Hold%(A), GrvAnc-Immob/EndRdx(42), GrvAnc-Acc/Rchg(42), GrvAnc-Acc/Immob/Rchg(43), GrvAnc-Immob/Rchg(43)
Level 41:    Assault                EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(43)
Level 44:    Web Cocoon            UnbCns-Dam%(A), UnbCns-Acc/Hold/Rchg(45), GhsWdwEmb-Dam%(45), IceMisTrmt-+ColdDmg(45), IceMisTrmt-End/Slow(46), SprEnt-Acc/Hold(46)
Level 47:    Mace Beam Volley        SuddAcc--KB/+KD(A), PstBls-Dam%(47), PstBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(47), Ann-ResDeb%(47), Ann-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(48), FrcFdb-Rechg%(48)
Level 49:    Tactics                HO:Cyto(A), HO:Cyto(49)
Level 1:    Brawl                Empty(A)
Level 1:    Sprint                Empty(A)
Level 1:    Supremacy    
Level 2:    Rest                Empty(A)
Level 1:    Swift                Empty(A)
Level 1:    Health                Mrc-Rcvry+(A), Pnc-Heal/+End(9), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(11)
Level 1:    Hurdle                Empty(A)
Level 1:    Stamina                PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(11), PwrTrns-+Heal(13), PwrTrns-EndMod(13)
Level 1:    Genin    
Level 12:    Jounin    
Level 26:    Oni    
------------

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[Nexros]

The beauty of ninjas/ff is that you won't need to take a large portion of the ff powers to have a tough team. I probably wouldn't take anything except the 3 shields--2 casted, and one toggle area shield. Instead, I would focus on things like mace AoE immob, field medic instant casts, and crazy ammounts of -end from sets like leadership, and IO end discounts. This way you can effectively spam smoke bomb. Smoke bomb is very VERY expensive, but also underestimated because of it. It both doubles minion damage for a fairly long time and removes aggro from them as you cycle through them.

 

I think ninja/ff could be rather strong and it combos well with their natural def.

[evetsleep]

I've made ninja with a number of secondaries, including FF and ice (I like ice a LOT better), but the combo that I really enjoy the most is trick arrow.  With the quality of life changes make to MM's where pet summoning recharges so fast it's not a huge issue with ninjas and allows for a little more flexibility.

 

That said trick arrows flash arrow greatly boosts thier survivability.  And if a ninja dies I can easily resummon and not worry about re-shielding them since their survivability comes from the -tohit debuffs.

 

FF works though, you just can't push them too far...since...they are paper dragons (but still fun!)

[Nexros]

Threw away my ninja/cold since power boost doesn't affect def component of ice shields for some dumb reason... if you plan on using power boost like you can on ff, forget it, doesn't work.