My Dragon Ninja build

[Witcher]

Upon getting an ethereal Dragon Sword as reward in Master Ninja, I decided to go full Dragon Ninja build with 2 (-1) Hiraishi armor piece.

I found Katana skills more boring than Spear and became a glass cannon - easily 2 shot in WotW b/c still can't use Katana's evade innate skill properly :/ Lai is OP if I walk up to enemies invisible and Flowing Shadow is also good except misses a lot for fast moving enemies. Haze II is also good against humans when if executed but I still can't parry non-sword wielding humans.

I still haven't executed Backwave II once yet b/c it's so risky in WotW. I can practise in WotStr but it's still risky to use in WotW where humans can 1 or 2 shot me with a HP of 5k and a bit.

Sword of Discernment is quite good but it just butts and slashes enemies but doesn't seem to drain their Ki except at least is usable against yokai.

Upon switching back to tonfas briefly, I realised Kato grants signficantly more Ki than 9 Tails, hence I decided to try Dragon Build with Kato again but maybe with Kusarigama. Whilst I was not running out of Ki with Dragon Build and 9 Tails, I couldn't see my Kusarigama attack values go up - why?

How have others found the Dragon Ninja build and do you use the Sword more or the Kusarigama?

Also, a friend thought there's a special Dragon Ninja skill that's randomly build - is this true?

Edit: Found 2 Flame Dragon scrolls used by Jin that can be readied at Shrine as Ninjutsu.

[Adran010]

only 1 piece of heavy armour doesn't decrease enough damage received to make a difference. if you had that health with 4 heavy 1 light, then you can take some hits and not be afraid :) 5k HP is awesome.

It was good seeing you wreck stuff last night! :) your damage is VERY nice! my advice would be to stay invis and lai attack everything around except the red enemies, then fight them last. go back to invis rinse and repeat :)

But the biggest question is..... are you enjoying the glass cannon dragon build? :)

[puzzlefox]

I dunno about Kato not raising numbers but I feel like I’ve experienced that too. Sometimes I switch to the equip drop rate hawk and see no real difference in damage. I do see some but not much. Although I do notice a difference in skill damage. Maybe try blue dragon. With your build being for dodging it might produce better damage and be more practical. Katos ki buffs should be next to useless with A agility.

Sword skills are weird. Flowing shadow is actually crazy powerful if you can get the rhythm of it. Lai quickdraw is your godhand though. If you find a dragon ninja sword with lai QuickDraw damage divine, keep it and defile it if you like that build.

Sword vs kusarigama should be very straight forward, sword for humans, kusarigama for yokai (I forget the inherent bonuses on those weapons so if one has +dmg against the opposite of what I said, ignore that) Blade spin is one of the best skills in the game and be sure to abuse the skill where you stand in place and flurry slashed against big slow enemies like cyclops spider lady when you pound her butt and she transitions into defense mode.

[Witcher]

Originally posted by Adran010:

only 1 piece of heavy armour doesn't decrease enough damage received to make a difference. if you had that health with 4 heavy 1 light, then you can take some hits and not be afraid :) 5k HP is awesome.

But the biggest question is..... are you enjoying the glass cannon dragon build? :)

I need to wear 6 DN pieces with Yasakani to unlock it's 7th armor set bonus which "Speeds up Ki recovery and increases Attack when you are using the Dragon Sword or Hayabusa Style Kusarigama".

I'm giving this build a 3rd go with Kato mainly using Kusarigama and may switch back to 9 Tails if all goes well with my learning to evade - reason being 9 Tails weakens enemies defense when scorched and increases probability for ethereal drops

Originally posted by puzzlefox:

I dunno about Kato not raising numbers but I feel like I’ve experienced that too. Sometimes I switch to the equip drop rate hawk and see no real difference in damage. I do see some but not much. Although I do notice a difference in skill damage. Maybe try blue dragon. With your build being for dodging it might produce better damage and be more practical. Katos ki buffs should be next to useless with A agility.

I was referring to the DS Truth (7th) bonus - why am I not seeing increase attack value for Hayabusa Kusarigama? And yes, my Ki was fine with DS build and 9 Tails, hence will use it again with Kusarigama b/c I have fire element damage on it.

Originally posted by puzzlefox:

Sword skills are weird. Flowing shadow is actually crazy powerful if you can get the rhythm of it. Lai quickdraw is your godhand though. If you find a dragon ninja sword with lai QuickDraw damage divine, keep it and defile it if you like that build.

Yes, Flowing Shadow is very good if all 3 hits contact with enemy but it's also susceptible to enemy attacks in between :/ I had star'ed Tiger Sprint on the sword but reforged it to something else as I don't use that skill.

Originally posted by puzzlefox:

Sword vs kusarigama should be very straight forward, sword for humans, kusarigama for yokai (I forget the inherent bonuses on those weapons so if one has +dmg against the opposite of what I said, ignore that) Blade spin is one of the best skills in the game and be sure to abuse the skill where you stand in place and flurry slashed against big slow enemies like cyclops spider lady when you pound her butt and she transitions into defense mode.

Yes, Blade Spin is good for crowd control like Renegade Dragon which I have as star skill but is also susceptible to enemy attacks during the animation with small iFrame window. Renegade Dragon is good except takes up to a sec to trigger hence can be interrupted by fast attacking enemies.

[Adran010]

isn'tt he 7th skill sword of truth.... well..... for the sword? I don't know though, i only bothered with trying out the full set bonus once, and didn't find it made me the best glass cannon ever so swtiched back to master swordsman and crossed sickles. :)

[Witcher]

The Truth bonus is for both Dragon Sword and Hayabusa's kusa.

Invisible and lai work well for me, except some yokai can see thru this ninja skill - e.g., fox and dung blob. Both these yokai gave me a hard time last night in Rising Shadows when I thought I could sneak from one shrine all the way down the sewers to retrieve my GS - lost quite a lot of amrita when they both surprised me :/

[Adran010]

oh damn! yeah, dogs also spot you through invis ;)
That is why I have sense enemies on helmet now. so I can navigate around all that if I need to get my souls.... amrita back :D

I'm going to be doing the abyss before too long. Did you want to join me in the beginning? I know you can't do past lvl 20, but I am going to be starting from level 1 :D

[Witcher]

Couple more questions for DN build vets:

1. My Agility value went from B (green) to A (blue) - is blue better than green?

2. If so, my Toughness dropped from around 240 (blue) iirc to 150 (green) and my guard gets broken easily now, hence need to evade more than guarding?

[Witcher]

Originally posted by Adran010:

oh damn! yeah, dogs also spot you through invis ;)
That is why I have sense enemies on helmet now. so I can navigate around all that if I need to get my souls.... amrita back :D

I'm going to be doing the abyss before too long. Did you want to join me in the beginning? I know you can't do past lvl 20, but I am going to be starting from level 1 :D

Yeah, ninja dogs too - they maybe blind folded but have got good ears

Sure about Abyss except cannot yokai realm with companion. You will need to offer me white ochoku cups for every sub-arena and boss room. Imho, it's better to fight boss solo, else you will face 2 bosses. Sub-arenas are a mixed bag of difficulties though and there's no preview

[Deostades]

Eh, the second boss tends to be an easily-crushed human that goes down like hot chocolate on a cold December night.

That said, my own experience has been that you only need to summon once per floor; heading back to Terra Firma has never booted me when I'm visiting or my buddy when I'm summoning.

[Adran010]

cool. so one summon per floor is perfect :)

Yeah, dropping below 200 toughness means you can get staggered easily.

[Witcher]

Except I don't know why I had to offer one cup per arena when summoned a friend with secret word, though this was quite some time back.

Thought this game encourages you to use guard more often but DN build demands you learn to evade/dodge more

[Adran010]

DN build teaches you to be ninja.... strike from shadows. insta kill everything besides red enemies. go back to the shadows to strike again ;)

[Witcher]

Lol, that's why I have to relearn evasion/dodge instead of guarding and relearning the sword skills with light armor got me confused.

[DooG Is Eternal]

tbh if you really want to learn how to use dragon ninja, just drop the suppa catwalk altogether.
ive climb 400 floor with it without ever using them, it helps you to feel when to strike and one shot everything.

forget about ki draining lol, nothing will last longer than your burst damage, maybe only date :3.

sword for swording.

kusa just urgg turn on your living weapon, you lose all the extra iframe with kusa, those long ass animation are not going to help with being a glass cannon.

Dragon truth dun increase flat attack rating, it would be useless if it does that.
it increase overall damage output about 20~25%, its an special "affix" on its own.

[Witcher]

Nah, I don't plan on spamming invisible with lai except when I need to sneak back to retrieve my GS Besides, kusa's Summer Twilight can one shot most anyway.

I've almost gave up on Backwave II b/c it requires target to be low ki except I saw you do it on a boss in Abyss. So, I'm going learn to evade/dodge more than guard with kusa - although not as fast as tonfas @ draining ki, it has better reach.

Kusa's LW strong attack in high stance is same as Reaper iirc - short animation and reach but keeps enemies away so I can re-buff. I may re-learn/use the sword one day except why doesn't the Hayabusa kusa have the same nice glow as sword?

Don't you go down (instead of climb) the Abyss floors ;p