Ninja-Fu: Fine Tuning My DB/Nin/Weapons

[skoryy]

I had an old costume that's been sitting around since Live that I finally put together a concept for.  Rather than go the traditional Nin/Nin route, I went with DB since I've always loved the animations.  Even if the combos aren't nearly as fun as scrapper DB, I've found the powersets fun enough that I've got him to 35 in two days.  XD

 

That said, I've got a final build ready that I wanted to fine tune before I started throwing inf around.  It's a hasten-less build since I needed the slots for all the Ninjitsu and Weapons Mastery toys.  I also do a lot more teaming than soloing so I'm not worrying about his solo ability.  The chain will ultimately be AS -> SS -> filler? -> AS -> AB.  I do have a couple questions though:

• Is it better to proc out Caltrops or use it as a set mule?
• How useful is Smoke Flash?  I've been trying it out but it doesn't seem to drop threat all that much.  Is there a trick to using it?

 

If there's anything else I'm missing, I'm open to suggestions!

 

 

Street Ninja - Stalker (Dual Blades - Ninjitsu).mbd

[Worm_Kalpa]

I have a level 50 dual blades/ninjitsu stalker that had weapon mastery before a respec to take psionic mastery.  I also have played ninjitsu on stalkers a number of times.  I can share some insight.

 

For your questions:

 

• My takeaway from the old thread Caltrops as a "Proc Bomb" (just in case you haven't seen it) is that the proc bomb approach is alright but don't expect something great.  The issue with using caltrops while teaming is that the fear component of the power scatters enemies, which doesn't help when going through mobs but is useful in some situations.  The Overwhelming Force KD proc helps but it doesn't always go off so enemies can still scatter.  I've been experimenting on my ice melee/ninjitsu stalker slotting Caltrops with the Annihilation resist debuff proc and the Superior Frozen Blast immobilize proc/recharge, and it works well so far with Ice Patch providing KD.  You might want to test out swapping the Bombardment damage/recharge for the Frozen Blast immobilize proc.  That way, you have two procs and the slow component to keep enemies in the caltrops patch so they are more likely to take damage.
• Smoke Flash is not worth it.  The stalker version doesn't have the resist debuff or damage and to-hit debuff that the blaster and sentinel versions have.  Plus it has a long recharge time, and a longer animation time and lower magnitude compared to Placate.  Placate got a buff (or bug fix) some time ago that's talked about in this thread, plus it's part of the Empower combo for dual blades.  Smoke Flash can be replicated with a temp power from the P2W vendor.  I recommend dropping it and likely take Hasten.

 

You have the right idea in building for high global recharge for dual blades.  I would see if you can fit in a recharge reduction in Kuji-In Rin (the mez resist click power) for more stacking and in case you get a recharge debuff.  It currently recharges before the duration is up but some more security is nice.

 

The tricky thing about dual blades/ninjitsu stalker I found is that the combination is a very active play style.  There is building and maintaining focus, the combos from dual blades, and all of ninjitsu's tools.  The stalker version of ninjitsu was designed for the slower skirmish-style gameplay that stalkers were originally intended for, but stalker gameplay has changed.  You might miss combos or focus when using ninjitsu's tools.  Is that your experience as well?

Edited November 11 by Worm_Kalpa