Ninjas

[TygerDarkstorm]

4 hours ago, Ultimo said:

Well, I mean it's impossible to heal them if I'm at range, using my bow.  It would be easier to convince me to get in melee range if I had access to martial arts moves (perhaps as alternate animations for the Fighting Pool), or a ninja-to.

I did originally give the Kinetics character Grant Invisibility, but I found it very annoying to use, just constantly spamming the thing over and over every couple of minutes... and it seems to have a habit of running out at the most inopportune moment.

 

Your modifications to my quandry do kind of simplify things... I'm just not quite sure if it helps me decide!

 

I have a bunch of Masterminds, I wanted to make one with each pet set.  The Bots MM is a juggernaut, paired with Force Fields.  I have a Necromancy/Darkness MM who does tend to get stuck in.  My Thugs/Poison MM also tends to get stuck in close (based on the Joker, it seemed in character for him to get his hands dirty).  The Beasts MM has Plants, and the Demons MM uses Electric Affinity.  After the bots, the most effective seems to be my Mercs/Radiation MM... and I also have a Mercs/Empathy MM.  I've been tinkering with a Thugs/Traps MM, but I can't get into the Traps set... I find its uses very few and far between.

 

My point is, I'm fine bringing the MM into melee range if it's appropriate for the character.  It definitely WOULD be for a ninja, but there's no way to get a sword or martial arts skills to use in melee range.

Perhaps I can just get by with the fighting pool, but it's frustrating having to accept something that doesn't quite fit.  Perhaps there's a temp power that uses the katana or ninja-to?

There's literally 0 reason you can't use a bow in melee range outside of some arbitrary condition you're making for yourself. If you insist that you can't use a bow in melee range, then I would roll up a Ninja/Time either on the regular shards or on the beta server, grab the heal, then put the pets on Stay and see exactly how far away you can be for the heal to reach them. However, not playing in melee is doing you a disservice as Time anyway because one of Time's main debuffs is a PBAOE toggle that you need to be in melee, or super close to it, to trigger.

 

If you're truly wanting to play ranged because your head canon says that bow = range, then you need to pick a more range friendly secondary. If you're wanting a heal, you're looking at Thermal (which also brings a couple of great debuffs that can be used from range), Pain Dom, Empathy, Electrical Affinity, Nature, Marine, etc.

[UltraAlt]

On 8/2/2025 at 8:53 PM, Ultimo said:

Some ideas:

For the Mastermind himself... perhaps something other than just a bow?  Perhaps have one bow attack, one sword attack, one blinding powder?

 

Switch the bow attacks to shuriken (like in https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Martial_Assault)

Yeah, switching blinding powder in for https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Ninjas#Smoke_Flash would help with survivability in general.

 

On 8/2/2025 at 8:53 PM, Ultimo said:

For the Ninjas... they should ALL have the capacity to be invisible.  The Oni could turn into wisps of smoke, perhaps?

 

I have https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Concealment#Grant_Invisibility on all my ninja masterminds

 

On 8/2/2025 at 8:53 PM, Ultimo said:

The Ninjas need to do more damage if they're going to be so squishy.

 

I try to stay close to them and use 2 of 3 of these:

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Mark_of_Supremacy:_Endurance/Pet_%2BResist(All)_and_%2BRegen_Aura

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Command_of_the_Mastermind:_Recharge/Pet_%2BAoE_Defense_Aura

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Expedient_Reinforcement:_Resist_Bonus_Aura_for_Pets

 

Of course, slot up Train Ninja with defense and Kuji In Zen with heal.

 

I'm usually alway in defensive/tank mode and targeting through my highest level henchman.

 

On 8/2/2025 at 8:53 PM, Ultimo said:

Wolverine is constantly filled with arrows on ropes and the like.  They also seem to be really NUMEROUS.  Perhaps there should be something like Gang War for the Ninjas?

 

Well, you can keep summoning them all day. 

How does that saying go? Something like one ninja is very dangerous, but a bunch of ninja are easily defeated while one pirate is not a threat, but a bunch of pirates are dangerous.

[Force Redux]

The inverse law of ninjutsu 😁