Jibikao

I am going to collect more data/ideas and then I'll PM synapse about this thread. There is one similar like this in the tanker form. I plan to make one for Merc and Necro.


Looks like more people have problems with Smoke Flash. The one problem I have (besides endurance cost) is how I need to click on a pet pretty often and when I do that, I sometimes lose track of which target I was attacking. It's not a major issue but if the duration is a bit longer, then I don't need to do that as much. I think an increase of 12s shouldn't break the balance. There is also a tiny delay right when the ninja throws the smoke bomb and then attack. Sometimes the first attack isn't a critical because the ninja is still in smoke bomb animation.

I am adding some of the stuff that are talked about here in the first 3 posts.

As for Ninja's design, I think they were designed to "spread out" rather than focusing on the same target. Spreading out means their caltrops and rain of fire won't end that fast and Jounin and Genin's knock back/down/up work better on different targets.

The only problem with this design is that Ninjas chase very fast. Enemy AI makes them run away when things go really wrong and the "fear" effects make the mobs run away as well. Some secondaries like /Time and /Trick Arrow have good aoe slow but in general, I don't like letting my pets choose their targets. I am pretty specific about which target I want them to focus on.

Smoke Flash

Looks like some people are not too happy with Smoke Flash. I think Smoke Flash should work even better if Oni has better AI but if there is room for improvements, I'll list here. In a way, Ninja user is kind of forced to throw Smoke Flash because the bow attacks do little damage and don't benefit much from secondary procs.

1. Reduce 30 endurance cost down to 22.5 (25% better)

2. Increase duration from 10s to 12s (those two extra seconds can mean one more use of a higher damage attack)

3. Add some minor +defense during 10s since Smoke Flash is supposed to be a mix of offense/defense.

4. This is a crazy idea I have. Smoke Flash turns one Ninja into "Blood Thirsty" mode for 15s. That Ninja's defense/resistance are reduced but he has 15s to enjoy 100% critical chance.

5. Please consider changing Smoke Flash to a pbaoe version. I am sure the dev can work out the Critical Chance and Duration and recharge.

Summary

This is a lot of changes for one set but if time is an issue, I'll list out what I think should be looked at asap:

1. Increase Ninja's Defensive and Resistance Values to match Beast's.

2. Reduce Crane Kick's knock back to knock down.

3. Improve Jounin's Poison Dart (look at Victoria) so he doesn't waste his critical damage on the weakest attack.

4. Improve Oni's AI so he always uses Fire Blast, Char and Ring of Fire when they are recharged. Fire Blast has better DPA than Fire Sword Slash and Fire Sword Hack.

Oni

Survival

Oni actually survives pretty well because he has S/L resistance but his Defense value is only at 7% at level 50. I think we only need to increase his defense and that's good enough.

Melee Defense 11.21%
Range Defense 11.21%
AoE Defense 11.21%
* 33% resistance to Defense Debuffs

Behavior Problems
I believe Oni has the most messed up AI and he suffers from "MORE IS LESS" syndrome. Oni has 2 melee attacks, 3 range st attacks, 1 cone and 1 target aoe. The 5 ST attacks are all on pretty short recharge (less or equal to 8s) and it is not uncommon to see Oni only using certain attacks once he draws his sword. He does not cycle everything when the attacks are recharged. It's almost like he sometimes can't decide what to use at what distance.

We need to decide which powers should be on Oni's Priority list and what role does Oni play in this set?

I feel Oni should be primarily a Range + Control specialist. We already have 5 Ninjas going in and when Oni is at range, he uses Immb and Hold more and his long-range position would make Breath of Fire more effective. Demon Prince is what I consider "Oni done right". Demon Prince has similar attacks and purpose on the team. The Prince provides controls and melee attacks and it makes sense for him to go melee because he has pbaoe Chilling Embrace and his good AoE attack in pbaoe Frozen Aura. Oni only has a narrow Cone and a location-based aoe that spreads out the mobs and ends prematurely if the target dies. Prince is superior in many ways. Prince has better melee attacks, nasty slow/recharge debuffs (Oni has no debuffs), similar hold, better damage (Chance for Smashing proc applies to all of Prince's attacks. Fire-based attacks have no secondary effect) and probably better aoe in frozen aura that comes up once every 20ish. The only thing Oni has that Prince doesn't is ST Immb. Ring of Fire is good but it also negates four knock down chance from Jounins (Soaring and Golden Dragonfly) and three knock backs in Crane Kick on that single target.

List of Improvement Ideas:


1. Drop Fire Sword Hack - this attack has like the worst DPA of all time. For a 6s attack, it has 3s animation time?

2. Improve Fire Sword Slash - If Oni chooses to go in, he needs to hit HARD just like Demon Prince. I would increase Fire Sword Slash from 3s recharge to 8s recharge.

3. Increase Fire Blast's damage from 4s recharge to 6s - This should give Oni a more smooth attack chain. Ring of Fire 4s, Fire Blast 6s and Char 8s at long range and throw in Breath of Fire in between.

4. Reduce Rain of Fire Recharge from 60s to 45s - Jounin's version of Caltrops have reduced recharge and I believe Oni's version of Rain of Fire should have reduced recharge too because RoA can end prematurely if the target dies.

5. Please allow Oni to take both Immb and Hold set. Oni is still showing that he can take Knock Back set but he has no knock back. Demon Prince can take Hold set, so Oni should too.

6. Give H2O Boost healing power to Oni. In the description, Oni is supposed to have both Fire and Wind powers but he really doesn't have any Wind power. It would be nice to give Oni H2O Boost to make him more different from Demon Prince.

Jounin

Jounin's biggest problem, in my opinion, is Poison Dart but I will get into that later.

Survival Improvement Ideas (all values are set at lvl 50)

1. Increase Jounin's innate defense and add some Resistance: Summon Lions sets a good example of how a melee-oriented pets should be like. I would suggest the following:

Smashing Resistance: 29.88%
Lethal Resistance: 29.88%
Psionic Resistance: 14.94% (Lions have 29.88% Cold but I feel Ninjas are trained assassins that shouldn't be easily mind controlled.)

2. Another idea I have is to make Jounins more different from Lions. Ninjas don't wear much armor and are more elusive, so maybe we can make defense higher with less resistance.

Smashing Resistance: 22.41% (25% weaker than Lion's)
Lethal Resistance: 22.41%
Melee Defense: 17.42%
Range Defense: 17.42%
AoE Defense: 17.42%
* Defense Debuff Resistance: 33%?


Behavior Improvement Idea

1. Like I said before, I believe Poison Dart really hinders Jounin's performance because it is very easy for Jounins to waste the first critical attack on Poison Dart's low damage. I think Lore Pet Victoria sets a very good example of how a strong but longer recharge attack can benefit Stalker style much more.

I would suggest the dev increase Poison Dart's recharge to 8s with a much higher up-front damage so the initial critical damage is higher. Having 8s should also "force" Jounins to go melee because there's no more range attack to use. If the range attack only has 4s recharge, Jounins sometimes still shoot Poison Dart and pause for a while and then go in for melee attacks.


2. Caltrops is a double edged sword. At one hand, it causes "fear" to reduce the rate the enemies attack but on the other hand, Jounins need to chase the targets and sometimes it hurts dps. Probably the biggest problem with Caltrops is how it ends prematurely if the target dies. I understand the base recharge (30s) is already lower than other Caltrops (45s) but I would also recommend increasing the base damage a bit so when caltrops hit, they hit harder. If Jounins are going to spend time to chase, caltrops should do a bit more damage?

I've been wanting to create a major thread for the dev to read about how to improve Ninja since Synapse brought up that he is going to look into Ninja (Merc and maybe Necro). I am a long time Ninja user and have studied their behavior extensively. Please feel free to add your improvement ideas but if you have off-topic discussion or argument, please post them in other threads. I will break it down by Genin, Jounin and Oni.


Genin

I think most people would agree that Genin is probably the squishiest Mastermind pet in the game and there is a good reason for it! Genins can do a lot of damage but they do ZERO damage if they just keep dying. The lowest damage Battle Drone can out-damage Genins because they have the potential to survive maybe 3x better than Genins with their superior range, resistance, defense and knock back. It is my belief that we need to adjust Genin's Risk VS Reward ratio.

Survival Improvement Ideas (all values are set at lvl 50)

1. Increase Genin's innate defense and add some Resistance: Summon Wolves sets a good example of how a melee-oriented pets should be like. I would suggest the following:

Smashing Resistance: 18.68%
Lethal Resistance: 18.68%
Psionic Resistance: 9.34% (Wolves have 18.68% Cold but I feel Ninjas are trained assassins that shouldn't be easily mind controlled.)
Melee Defense: 11.21% (increase from 7%)
Range Defense: 11.21%
AoE Defense: 11.21%


2. Another idea I have is to make Genins more different from Wolves. Ninjas don't wear much armor so maybe we can make defense higher with less resistance and some resistance to defense debuffs.

Smashing Resistance: 14.01% (25% weaker than Wolve's)
Lethal Resistance: 14.01%
Melee Defense: 14.01% (25% stronger than Wolves)
Range Defense: 14.01%
AoE Defense: 14.01%
* Defense Debuff Resistance: 33%?

Behavior Improvement Idea

One of the biggest complaints on Melee pet's AI behavior is when a target gets knocked back. It is especially apparent when Call Hawk used to knock back and you see all the melee pets sit and watch which hurts DPS so much. To avoid this problem, I would suggest the following:

1. Change Crane Kick's knock back to knock down. This only has one minor problem if more than one Genin uses crane kick at the same time which may produce a knock back. In Beast set, only two of the tier 1 Wolves have knock down so the chance of them using at the same time is much less.


2. Change Crane Kick to Cobra Strike. This is a more dramatic change but not only it won't cause knock back issues (which leads to Genins chasing and causing unnecessary aggro), it should add more survival to the paper Genins. And also, Oni has Ring of Fire which negates -kb so in that situation, Crane Kick's knock back doesn't really add anything, but the stun effect will. The dev can lower the stun chance down from 66% to 33% and mag 3 to mag 2.


3. Change Crane Kick to Crippling Axe Kick for immb so Genins won't chase that much.

Carnies!!! I would love to have a "joke" sets.

I think the most asked is a "natural beast" set and we got it now (sooner than I thought). Too bad we won't see a bear...


I hope we see a Flying primary. All primary sets are grounded (except for Soul Extraction).

Right now, I feel Staff has that perfect mix of good ST and good AoE.

You can't go wrong with Elec Melee and even SJ is good too. The aoe part is just a bit small.

I like Spines a lot especially with the new AS change because now it has a good ST attack that it was seriously lacking before.

Kin is good but animation time is on the long side.

All of my game friends are leveling Staff and all of them love it a lot. They love it more than Titan Weapon for sure.

The best Stalker experience imo are: Staff, Elec, Spine, and Kin. Dual Blade actually has a good mix of everything except that the combos kind of suck if that's what you want.

Not sure how this is going to affect Stalker's proc that much. The cap is 90% which is still very high and Stalker proc is the only one that you can't stack and has 10s restriction, so having even faster recharge on Assassin Strike doesn't make the proc happen more often.

I can see how it affects other ATO procs that can stack and quite frankly, some of them need to be tuned down a bit (dominator's?).

I don't like /sonic but if I am forced to make one, it will be beast, demon and maybe thug.

Beast and Demon are probably the best choices. Thug has bruiser so can be workable too.

Hard to pair with Merc because you'll need to goto a lot to get Disruption to work, and I guess same thing with Robot. The difference is that Assault Robot has two target aoe and Commando and Soldiers are mostly cone attacks, which means they are better standing far than going in.


Maybe Necro would work but as a fan of Necro, I can't imagine not having a good heal for them. Those zombies/grave knights melt just as fast as Ninja in some cases.

There are 4 sets that I would try and they are distinctive enough IMO.

1. Fire: Best raw damage period but you get like almost no control at all.

2. Ice: Great controls/debuffs and very good ST damage. It's one of the best soloing sets.

3. Sonic: Great ST damage and controls for soloing and its -resistance can stack up very very nicely. It's perfect for a team that needs to kill a tough AV/Monster. When you have a sonic on an AV, you can really tell the increased dps as a team.

4. Dark: It used to lack a tier 3 attack but now Life Drain is a decent attack on a much shorter recharge. It's the only primary set with self healing that can be used once every 8s or less. Dark also has good soft controls. I think it's unique enough to try.

The rest are ok. I hate Radiation. I prefer Beam Rifle on Blaster (due to redraws). I find Psionic damage too resisted when it happens and it really doesn't excel in any area. Archery is better on Blaster with Aim/Build Up IMO. Energy blast is just a very very mediocre set. Assault Rifle has good aoe but doesn't stand out enough for me. Electricity Blast has good aoe but Fire is better. Dual Pistol has good aoe but ST damage is quite bad with long animation time.