Patch Update Details!

[DrSerpico]

Some inside info

I'm just back out for a quick report here...
While working on my nin sub, and having slow invites, I decided to solo some worms in korroloka... lvl20 nin, packed my kabob, shihei and sairui and headed for the mines...

However, when getting down to business, I noticed that both sandspin and tremors deblinked me. These are 2 worm tp attacks that previously just passed through utsu, leaving it unhurt. Now I have no idea if it is because my ninjutsu was uncapped, or because it's like that in the new patch.

Just thought you'd like to know.

This also means that unless it's a "special occasion", you won't be able to retain shadows from bubble shower either.
[sarcasm] Ah well, that doesn't matter much, you hardly level on crab mobs anyways. [/sarcasm]

More to come...

[Ozymandis]

Bubble shower is a low-damage attack, whereas Tremors and Sandspin both do decent damage from what I recall. If it takes shadows, it should be just one at capped skill, hopefully.

[Gryff]

bubble shower doesnt remove any shadows, neither does the raptor disease breath, was exping in teriggan earlier.

[Macht]

Bubble Shower and Disease Breath both seem to be breathing type attacks. Like the update states those attacks pass through the Utsusemi but doesn't take any away.

Kiyosuki, I really have my doubts on that idea for San. Utsusemi is suppose to be like shadows copies, not decoys that you toss out to take a hit for you. Shadow copies fool the enemy in attacking them and not you, if the enemy uses any Area effect then the shadows should be useless because the enemy isn't targeting 1 person but all around it.

Again with logic to that there should be possibilities were a shadow will also evade certain attacks hence the quality of your ninjutsu taking effect. This change I will say does open the possibility for San but I see it more as just being a larger number of shadow copies with the possibility or some limiting factors with it and the other two.

I'm sure though if San is put in it'll follow the same restrictions that Ichi and Ni does. Also depending on how many more shadows it adds it may have some type of restricting factors, so it might keep it from becoming another option to cover Ichi and Ni when their timers are still counting down.

The change seems good to me though, the NINs are not as powerful with their Utsusemi now but they are still formadible with it.

[Rudo]

This is what I noticed last night after patch, but keep in mind I'm a WAR/NIN. Damage area moves can have 3 effects on Utsusemi and it goes as follows:


Breath(Fafnir Fire Breath) and Self-Destruct(Doll Meltdown) moves ignore Utsusemi and do damage but at the cost of no shadows.

AEs like Typhoon from Dolls or Whirl of Rage from Weapons are blocked by Utsusemi and the number of shadows taken away depends on damage of the move and Ninjutsu skill. For example Groundskeepers in RuAunGards took away 2 shadows per Typhoon on me. These are Tough con mobs to 75. Now this is isn't too bad because the damage is blocked and you can Utsusemi up again with not much danger of interruption.

The final type of area attack is the one that worries me some. Stuff like Hurricane Wing from Fafnir/Wyvern mobs and Crystal Rain/Ice Shard from Golems completely ignored Utsusemi like they have always done in the past but they now knock down all the shadows as well. Thing is it doesn't give the # of shadows taken away message. Just says copy image effect off like when a ga spell lands. This leads me to believe no Ninjutsu skill check is carried out. Maybe it's because my Ninjutsu is too low but I doubt it because if a Ninjutsu skill check was done it would give me # of shadows taken away message like against Whirl of Rage and other AEs of that nature. That's what I think anyway.

So what I ask is that you high lvl NINs go test this against Golems, Damselflies, Wyverns or any mob with damage AE moves that ignored Utsusemi but didn't take away shadows before patch to find out if they're capable of blocking them now with their high Ninjutsu skill. I fear there isn't a Ninjutsu skill check against these type of AEs so they will act like GA spells. This wouldn't be that big of a deal though except against HNM/NM that spam these attacks. In normal exp situations you can easily make up by stunning the mob afterwards plus some extra healing.

[Kyoujin]

Non-damaging single-target enfeebles bypass shadows now... Silence, gravity, bind, paralyze etc. Yay for ballista!

[Cade]

I wonder if all gob bombs will be considered self destruct or only the ones that actually kill the gob too.

Bomb Throw is considered self destruct because every time the Gob does it, theres a chance he'll kill himself.

Utsusemi is suppose to be like shadows copies, not decoys that you toss out to take a hit for you.

Shadow copies fool the enemy in attacking them and not you

...hence... a decoy.

[Kiyosuki]

Yeah, thats what I mean.

Personally, while we could get another spell to have an overkill of shadows, I think this idea would be much more sensible. It would still require good planning and timing, and make tanking with images and decoys a little easier once you get to the third spell at those levels, sort of like rewarding you and preparing you for the later levels at the same time.

The concept of a special decoy that absorbs an area magical attack, or an area attack isn't unheard of actually. In Ninja mythos there's usually four types of the "decoy" trick found.

1. A light to darkness trick, literally a shadow image. Usually someone would attack the Ninja and the Ninja would leap out of the way in such a way that was so fast, that it would appear for a few moments as if he was till where he was. Sort of going on the hand is quicker than the eye kind of stuff. While the opponent was distracted the Ninja would attack elsewhere in that moment.

Real Ninja's were taught to use tricks like that actually, since our eyes can't adapt from the light to darkness completely in an instant, there's a number of eye tricks you can play.

Although its not quite the mystical shadow image thats seen in more fantasy-ish stuff, which is what's probably found here.

2. The old Wooden block trick. If your here on the Ninja forum, or have seen Naruto or some amount of Ninja stuff, you must know what this looks like. Opponent hits the Ninja, thinks he's got him, but "no..", he finds he's hit a piece of wood or another inanimate object while the Ninja is nowhere to be found.

3. The Ninja makes duplicates of himself that arn't real, but appear so, this is mostly fictional ofcourse. But its one of they're most famous tricks in mythology. Although some of its mythos could be traced to the fact that sometimes Ninja's all dressed the same if they were out of disguise, so someone could mistakenly think one's duplicated himself. In more mystical terms, think of Hanzo's thing where he makes many versions of himself in Samurai Spirits, or what not. You know what this is.

4. A magical talisman or artifact is used to make the enemy think that someone else or even an animal is the Ninja, and once its killed its true form is revealed to the attacker...while the Ninja banks on his disorientation. Think of the Ninja putting a leaf or something magical on a hapless victim, and whoever is looking for the Ninja would think that person was him. This is the rarest form of the whole decoy thing and ofcourse, is totally mythical. Its similar to how the Tanuki use leaves to disguise themselves as other animals or people. In one famous play its said that one Ninja learned this magic from a real Tanuki in return for sparing his life..

Any of these (Except for maybe 4, which is kinda close to Trick Attack but some kind of magic. :D) could be used to describe what Utsusemi does. What I like to think is that the first one is 1, since its the simplest technique. Then ni is 3, because its a little more complicated but its faster, then San could be based off of 2, where as a last ditch effort, it may appear like the Ninja is hit, but he isn't.

Think of it like if the monster area attacks all the shadows out of there and thinks he's got the Ninja..think again *poof*.

On a more eh...simpler explanation, game wise it really doesn't matter if it makes sense in mythos or not, as a spell it would be very sensible I think.