Ninjutsu defense for tanks and brutes

[MsSmart]

Only a request, but could a defense set of ninjutsu be made for tanks and brutes, scrapers gets the choice.

 

 

[Psyonico]

I've asked for this several times over the years, so I'll throw my support in again.

[lemming]

Based on that HC has been making other powersets spread to other ATs  (Energy Aura & Regen for instance), we'll probably see Nin Tanks at some point.

[arcane]

yes

[Psi-bolt]

Sure; full proliferation please.

[Arbegla]

Aside from the obvious how do you make an agile/stealthy tank, I vote yes for more proliferations.  /Ninjutsu is basically SR with more toys, and I love more toys, so lets see it get on a Tanker and a Brute already 🙂

[Rudra]

30 minutes ago, Arbegla said:

Aside from the obvious how do you make an agile/stealthy tank, I vote yes for more proliferations.  /Ninjutsu is basically SR with more toys, and I love more toys, so lets see it get on a Tanker and a Brute already 🙂

I am of the opinion that Brutes all use Brute Stealth. (No one can ever say you were there if there is no one to say it.) I'm not going to stand in the way of the OP though. I may not think of Brutes as being sneaky, but that doesn't mean they can't be.

[Psyonico]

5 hours ago, Arbegla said:

Aside from the obvious how do you make an agile/stealthy tank

 

Brutes and Tanks already have access to Dark Armor and Cloak of Darkness.

[biostem]

54 minutes ago, Psyonico said:

Brutes and Tanks already have access to Dark Armor and Cloak of Darkness.

But they did conspicuously remove the stealth from energy aura when they ported that over to tankers...  Still, I'm not against the idea - maybe just replace shinobi with a taunt & damage aura - imagine if they kind of periodically spawned caltrops around them...  

[Chance Jackson]

28 minutes ago, biostem said:

But they did conspicuously remove the stealth from energy aura when they ported that over to tankers...  Still, I'm not against the idea - maybe just replace shinobi with a taunt & damage aura - imagine if they kind of periodically spawned caltrops around them...  

I unironicly love this idea

[Glacier Peak]

Plenty of tanky ninjas out there!

[Psyonico]

1 hour ago, Glacier Peak said:

Plenty of tanky ninjas out there!

[imzadi]

100% a fan of further proliferation

[Steampunkette]

I still think Ninjutsu tanks should take advantage of the Glittering Column design and have a placeable taunt-pet that temporarily takes the aggro off of them (so they have time to heal or whatever) and then it bursts after a moment to do a tiny amount of damage and redirect threat to the tank, rather than having a simple blanket taunt-aura.

 

Yes, it would make them take more effort to play than "Run in, stand still, don't die"... but it could be really need to bounce aggro between yourself and a clone while popping self-heals and dropping AoE for Pokevoke/Gauntlet.

[megaericzero]

14 hours ago, biostem said:

But they did conspicuously remove the stealth from energy aura when they ported that over to tankers...  Still, I'm not against the idea - maybe just replace shinobi with a taunt & damage aura - imagine if they kind of periodically spawned caltrops around them...  

2 hours ago, Steampunkette said:

I still think Ninjutsu tanks should take advantage of the Glittering Column design and have a placeable taunt-pet that temporarily takes the aggro off of them (so they have time to heal or whatever) and then it bursts after a moment to do a tiny amount of damage and redirect threat to the tank, rather than having a simple blanket taunt-aura.

 

Self-plug for a version I suggested in the Eco-Friendly Powerset Recycling thread here that gave them a non-damaging taunt aura - themed as you moving so much foes are hesitant to throw a punch (-recharge) and when they do they have a chance to hit something else such as an object you put in the way or switch with like a log as seen in martial arts and ninja-related media (self +absorb), the latter scaling with each nearby foe as you exploit them getting in each other's way. The visual representation just being the afterimages like in Dual Pistols (with a min fx option), assuming those could be made to mimic your movements in real time (or made to take on different, unobtrusive dodge poses and fade away quickly during combat).

[Steampunkette]

9 minutes ago, megaericzero said:

 

Self-plug for a version I suggested in the Eco-Friendly Powerset Recycling thread here that gave them a non-damaging taunt aura - themed as you moving so much foes are hesitant to throw a punch (-recharge) and when they do they have a chance to hit something else such as an object you put in the way or switch with like a log as seen in martial arts and ninja-related media (self +absorb), the latter scaling with each nearby foe as you exploit them getting in each other's way. The visual representation just being the afterimages like in Dual Pistols (with a min fx option), assuming those could be made to mimic your movements in real time (or made to take on different, unobtrusive dodge poses and fade away quickly during combat).

1) The dual pistols after-images are pre-defined and tied to a specific animation. They cannot be applied to anything else without just -so- much animation work.

 

2) I still think they should not have a taunt aura, and should instead have a taunt-pet. So I'm not sure why you tagged my refutation of taunt auras with your suggestion for a taunt-aura.

[megaericzero]

6 hours ago, Steampunkette said:

1) The dual pistols after-images are pre-defined and tied to a specific animation. They cannot be applied to anything else without just -so- much animation work.

 

2) I still think they should not have a taunt aura, and should instead have a taunt-pet. So I'm not sure why you tagged my refutation of taunt auras with your suggestion for a taunt-aura.

I figured they might be pre-baked, hence the parenthetical alternative. I quoted you and biostem as my two-cents about the taunt aura was in response to both of yours.

Edited 20 hours ago by megaericzero

[MonteCarla]

Yes to more proliferation!

We've had stealthy tanks since issue 1 (Dark Armor) - Ninjutsu would work fine for the heavy melee classes.

 

[MsSmart]

Making any tank stealthy can be done with the purchase of celerity stealth and then from the speed pool, select super speed and you there.

 

What attracts me from Ninjutsu is that it is a well balanced power set that has self heal, self endurance, and stealth is just a cherry on top.

[CoeruleumBlue]

On 11/21/2025 at 12:29 PM, Arbegla said:

Aside from the obvious how do you make an agile/stealthy tank, I vote yes for more proliferations.  /Ninjutsu is basically SR with more toys, and I love more toys, so lets see it get on a Tanker and a Brute already 🙂

 

They already get it from Dark Armor. Ninjutsu is basically the only thing in the game that really works as a dodge set if you don't want to be weak to psionics and/or toxic and there's nothing wrong with a tanker or brute with caltrops in my opinion so I say yeah let's have it. I probably won't take the placates on a tanker or brute, or maybe they should be replaced with a taunt on their versions, but other than that there's literally nothing wrong with ninjutsu for tank classes in my opinion. The stealth power is fine, it's just what dark armor and energy armor already have, just the one placate power is weird, so probably replace that for them like how stalker armors get a power replaced with Hide and it's usually a passive AoE damage power but they can still take those anyway just like tanks can still take stealth from Dark Armor or Energy Armor. 

[CoeruleumBlue]

7 hours ago, MonteCarla said:

Yes to more proliferation!

We've had stealthy tanks since issue 1 (Dark Armor) - Ninjutsu would work fine for the heavy melee classes.

 

 

They'd have to replace the one placate power probably but they can just replace it with a taunt, probably not a super large amount of work there. Everything else is fine in my opinion yeah. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

My view is that tanks get a ton of resistance from their ATO, so giving them sets with great defense and giving them great resistance reinforces their status as HC devs favorite tank mage class.  That said, balance went out the window back when this was still a secret server.

 

But sure, give it to brutes.  Give them everything!

[arcane]

18 hours ago, MonteCarla said:

Yes to more proliferation!

We've had stealthy tanks since issue 1 (Dark Armor) - Ninjutsu would work fine for the heavy melee classes.

 

Technically false (Tankers did not have Dark Armor for years) but yeah I have no qualms with it.

[Psyonico]

41 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

My view is that tanks get a ton of resistance from their ATO, so giving them sets with great defense and giving them great resistance reinforces their status as HC devs favorite tank mage class.  That said, balance went out the window back when this was still a secret server.

 

But sure, give it to brutes.  Give them everything!

Shield and SR say "hi"