Water/nin, what to skip?

[Microcosm]

So I have a water/nin blaster. I really enjoy the theme, and having a blaster with a katana. I have also read about how nin is a low performer, though some people claim it has 'tricks' that make it good but don't share what that means... I had /nin stalkers on live and can appreciate blinding powder, but can see the problems with the set in general. If anyone can share what I might be missing there I'd appreciate it. Right now I'm planning to skip the placate, because it's two seconds of not attacking for a 10% -res, seems I'd be better off just attacking instead. Also have no idea what to skip in water, except for the very first blast.

 

Also also, wondering if this combo will be too weak in single target damage compared to others.

 

Thoughts?

[Novacat]

Unfortunately you cannot skip Immobilizing Dart. Despite being a DoT most T1 immobilizes hit harder and cast faster

 

Sting of the Wasp is pure trash. It's one of the weakest early melees for blaster secondaries and offers nothing but a paltry -7% def as its 'special'.

 

Choking Powder's not bad at all. It has a quick cast and does alright damage.

 

Shinobi's your stealth, and also a very, very mild damage buff (a bit more every 30s which you should make sure gets used on your nuke as an opener when the opportunity arises). It's not nearly as good for damage as having Aim let-alone Build-Up though - less buff, less attacks (just one instead of all for 10s), and potentially less often (depending on your haste and recharges). Still, it's what you've got.

 

The Lotus Drops may not hit all that hard but it IS a PBAoE and actually hits harder than Sting up there even against single targets. Not a bad choice here, not a bad attack at all really. Plus it's an opportunity to stick a different purple category into right?

 

Kujin-Toh is your Sustain, so it's your level 20 power. Not 22, not 24, 20. It's perma out of the box so feel free to auto-set it and forget it, instead focusing those slots on the health and endurance it offers (As a blaster health and stamina are better places to put the globals like Panacea's or Performance Shifter as the numbers they offer are way lower than what an enhancement does to your Sustain).

 

Smoke Flash isn't terrible - it can buy you a few seconds of not being shot and inflicts -res. It's a 20ft radius which isn't terrible.

 

Blinding Powder I personally think is none too good: too weak on both the sleep and confuse magnitudes, plus confuse can steal XP away so some groups dislike it. It would be fun in the flash-arrow or smoke grenade way except it's a deathly short cone with too small an angle to be of much use with such short range, doesn't last all that long, and has too long a recharge time to actually stack up on its own.

 

Golden Dragonfly's a good one. Ultra-short as far as cones go but pretty good sized for a melee one, and has a decent level of damage with alright casting time.

 

Now granted Water's not the strongest single target affair either, but you can leave that to others in a team or focus on bigass groups instead of higher levels when solo. You've got one of the best cones available (hits nearly at T3 blast levels) and can double-tap water jet for decent-ish single target output. With a well slotted sustain your Recovery will easily allow you to use a few AoEs against single targets in a way pretty much no other AT can. Some Sentinel secondaries can let'em come close but even then nowhere near as easily.

So that means you can consider Steam and Golden Dragonfly for use in this fashion.

 

Archvillains might be a bit of a problem if you're not IO'd up, but just get an ST-happy buddy: YOU will be clearing rooms like nobody's business.

[Microcosm]

Thanks for your reply. It's pretty weird that the hold is better dpa than the single target melee attack. I went on test server to see if maybe the "tricks" people talk about were using a sniper attack for +range followed by golden dragonfly. The idea would be that increasing the range would greatly increase the number of enemies you could fit in that cone, but no, the range is unenhanceable. It seems like a differently skinned /devices with the cloak and lack of buildup. It's trading some poor damaging katana attacks for devices's long activation explosions, so not completely bad I guess.