Opinions on this Kaze Skillset?

[HaxMiner]

So I've been looking at Kaze's skillset/any Ninja that has access to Samurai as an alternate class. So without further ado, here we go!

Poison Strike. [Reduces target's HP by max of 20% after battle]

Explanation: Extra damage is amazing. Weakening enemies further is just icing on the cake after you've done damage to them previously.

Duelist's Blow. [Avo +30 when unit initiates an attack]

Explanation: With how high a Master Ninja's avoid is already, this just further bolsters their abilities to dodge when on the offensive. Pairs nicely with Poison Strike to encourage offensive play.

Vantage [if HP is 50% or less, user will always strike first when in battle]

Explanation: It's just the best defensive skill in the game. With how weakened enemies are going to be after attacking, getting to pick them off if you're weakened before they can hit you is amazing.

Shurikenfaire [+5 damage dealt if using a Shuriken/Dagger]

Explanation: It's for extra damage really. You can swap it out for something else if you don't want.

Life and Death [+10 to damage dealt and received]

Explanation: It's the same as Shurikenfaire, but it's technically twice as effective in terms of damage output. Compounding an additional 15 damage on top of the 20% health [essentially an extra 31 damage [Faire+L&D and Poison Strike] on top of whatever damage you're outputting with your attacks if the enemy has 80 health.]

This set obviously could use some work. If you want to run Vantage+Sol with the Hero class gained from A+/S supports with a Friendship/Partner seal you could do that.

So anyways, that's the skillset! Feel free to critique it or say suggestions to change some of the skills around.

[Quintessence]

Life and Death is not imo a good choice. Vantage is a good couple but you'll need an offesive skill like Astra to take advantage of Life and Death, Vantage and a Faire skill. Still, it's not really reliable with Kaze's squishiness, and a Brave Lance Gen can one shot him, so imo remove posion strike and go for Astra, or remove Life and Death.

[HaxMiner]

Life and Death is not imo a good choice. Vantage is a good couple but you'll need an offesive skill like Astra to take advantage of Life and Death, Vantage and a Faire skill. Still, it's not really reliable with Kaze's squishiness, and a Brave Lance Gen can one shot him, so imo remove posion strike and go for Astra, or remove Life and Death.

Hmm, I didn't think of that. If possible, could also give him Luna if you use a Friendship Seal with Silas or Xander which could arguably be better than Astra.

[Quintessence]

Astra benefits more Kaze at Vantage range because it'll raise Kaze's Dual Guard gauge at once and will make him block lethal hits. On the other hand, Luna is more player phase oriented.

[HaxMiner]

Well, with Duelist's Blow it can be considered more of a player phase oriented build. I feel like Astra+Vantage is if you want to go for more of a Tanky build, while you could remove Vantage entirely and go with Luna for a Player phase oriented build. That way you get to keep the benefits of Poison Strike's weakening abilities while not sacrificing your damage output by removing Shurikenfaire or L&D.

[Roflolxp54]

Savage Blow would be a nice skill on any Master Ninja, especially if combined with Poison Strike. Kana, Shigure, and the kitsune and wolfskin can also put on Grisly Wound for even more post-battle damage.

Seal skills are great for more debuffs (though debuffs that are of the same stats wouldn't stack, just the larger debuff for that stat gets prioritized).

Female Master Ninjas would have fun with Toxic Brew shenanigans.

[HaxMiner]

Savage Blow would be a nice skill on any Master Ninja, especially if combined with Poison Strike. Kana, Shigure, and the kitsune and wolfskin can also put on Grisly Wound for even more post-battle damage.

Seal skills are great for more debuffs (though debuffs that are of the same stats wouldn't stack, just the larger debuff for that stat gets prioritized).

Female Master Ninjas would have fun with Toxic Brew shenanigans.

Set with Grisly Wound, Savage Blow, Poison Strike, Toxic Brew, and Warp? That could be incredibly annoying. You could just freeze an enemy in place, then Warp back to safety if necessary after taking away 60% of their HP at minimum.

[Roflolxp54]

Set with Grisly Wound, Savage Blow, Poison Strike, Toxic Brew, and Warp? That could be incredibly annoying. You could just freeze an enemy in place, then Warp back to safety if necessary after taking away 60% of their HP at minimum.

That's assuming if that unit survives until the next player phase before Warping though...

Also, Spy's Shurikens can be annoying to the enemy (3-range A-rank shuriken); can't directly retaliate to 1-2 range attacks though.

Edited May 19, 2016 by Roflolxp54

[HaxMiner]

That's assuming if that unit survives until the next player phase before Warping though...

True. With either an avoid Pair Up/Defenses Pair Up it could be viable. Or just isolating enemies to pick off like that.

[Quintessence]

Well, with Duelist's Blow it can be considered more of a player phase oriented build. I feel like Astra+Vantage is if you want to go for more of a Tanky build, while you could remove Vantage entirely and go with Luna for a Player phase oriented build. That way you get to keep the benefits of Poison Strike's weakening abilities while not sacrificing your damage output by removing Shurikenfaire or L&D.

Thing is, skills like Faire, Life and Death, Luna, etc., are more for a killer unit, and coupling it with crippling options like Savage Blow, Poison Strike, etc., won't work together because a group of them work for sweeping (and stuff like Poison Strike, etc., will be redundant) and the others work for crippling so any other extra unit takes the kill. It depends on what role you want Kaze to play: something like Poison Strike, Duelist Blow, Seal Strength, maybe a Faire will be ok because another unit will inmediately take the kill, and his main focus will be debuffing enemies; while an offensive one will want to improve combat as much as possible and there will be no room for debuffing because in the end the enemy will die at his hands. So it depends on the situation.

Asides, I'm not certain if HP reduction skills stack together, iirc they don't but I have no certainty about it.

A female ninja with Poison Strike, Toxic Brew, Lunge, Savage Blow, Spy weapon and maybe a seal will be hell with some Rescue users.

[HaxMiner]

Thing is, skills like Faire, Life and Death, Luna, etc., are more for a killer unit, and coupling it with crippling options like Savage Blow, Poison Strike, etc., won't work together because a group of them work for sweeping (and stuff like Poison Strike, etc., will be redundant) and the others work for crippling so any other extra unit takes the kill. It depends on what role you want Kaze to play: something like Poison Strike, Duelist Blow, Seal Strength, maybe a Faire will be ok because another unit will inmediately take the kill, and his main focus will be debuffing enemies; while an offensive one will want to improve combat as much as possible and there will be no room for debuffing because in the end the enemy will die at his hands. So it depends on the situation.

Asides, I'm not certain if HP reduction skills stack together, iirc they don't but I have no certainty about it.

A female ninja with Poison Strike, Toxic Brew, Lunge, Savage Blow, Spy weapon and maybe a seal will be hell with some Rescue users.

True. See suggestions like this are exactly why I posted this here. I'm under the impression Spy weapons are just RNG based when people give you random items around your castle since I've never seen one yet and you can't buy them. [Note: I'm on Conquest. I've learned you can in fact buy them on Birthright but I don't have that version. I'll just have to wait until Visitor Rank gets high enough]

A supporting set could be Seal Strength, Seal Speed, [seal Defense, Seal Resistance], and Toxic Brew/Poison Strike. (If running Spy Shuriken you don't actually need the Seal Def and Seal Res. Swap it for something else) for Female/Male Ninjas respectively. Now this all Seal set can only be achieved on Birthright [Revelation maybe but I haven't played either so...] by usage of Friendship and Partner Seals to gain the Oni Savage and the Spear Fighter classes from Kumagera and Oboro Respectively. This set can be devastating in online play because it completely renders a unit "helpless" upon being attacked by the ninja. Utilizing the Spy Weapons 3 range (I know this much about them) you can be a long range nuisance and cripple enemy sweepers with ease while staying safe yourself. On Conquest, running Seal Strength, Seal Magic, Toxic Brew/Shurikenfaire, Poison Strike, and Savage Blow possibly. The Spy Shuriken's -5 Def/Res is almost as good as a Seal skill.

A sweeping oriented set can be [EMPTY SLOT], Shurikenfaire, Luna/Astra/Aether, Aggressor, and Galeforce. With this set, you can run a defensive stance pair up and run Astra to get a full dual guard bar with ease. Luna/Aether is used for additional damage. Aggressor essentially gives all the benefits of Life and Death without the +10 damage taken stipulation. if you really wanted to tack on the extra damage you can run L&D (which is essentially 22 extra damage with Aggressor, Faire, and L&D). But I'd run something like Duelist's Blow or Lifetaker over it.

Edited May 20, 2016 by HaxMiner

[InsaneNoire]

Life and Death isn't really good, especially considering Kaze's defense is absolute crap and any extra damage from magic attacks in unnecessary. Like everyone else said, Savage Blow would be a good choice. Astra would work as well.

[HaxMiner]

Life and Death isn't really good, especially considering Kaze's defense is absolute crap and any extra damage from magic attacks in unnecessary. Like everyone else said, Savage Blow would be a good choice. Astra would work as well.

Well, I'd say it's situational. Ninjas imo are dedicated mage slayers. They have weapon triangle advantage along with pretty solid res. If utilizing L&D, only the tankiest of tank sorcerers would be able to survive the ninja's onslaught. I've outputted a whopping 44 damage per hit with L&D and Shurikenfaire against an Onmyoji using a Silver Shuriken while taking only 20 in return. Utilizing Galeforce along with Rescue staves you should be able to kill off mages with relative safety.

Edited May 20, 2016 by HaxMiner

[Shadow Mir]

Well, I'd say it's situational. Ninjas imo are dedicated mage slayers. They have weapon triangle advantage along with pretty solid res. If utilizing L&D, only the tankiest of tank sorcerers would be able to survive the ninja's onslaught. I've outputted a whopping 44 damage per hit with L&D and Shurikenfaire against an Onmyoji using a Silver Shuriken while taking only 20 in return. Utilizing Galeforce along with Rescue staves you should be able to kill off mages with relative safety.

I don't really like Life and Death. And yes, while ninjas are good against mages, I think Life and Death ruins that - 10 extra damage means even something that'd be next to no threat otherwise is that much more threatening to you.

Edited May 20, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[HaxMiner]

I don't really like Life and Death. And yes, while ninjas are good against mages, I think Life and Death ruins that - 10 extra damage means even something that'd be next to no threat otherwise is that much more threatening to you.

True. If you look at a different one of my sets that I've come up with in an alternate reply it actually uses Aggressor over L&D to achieve essentially the same effect. Idk why, but I've been really intrigued by the skill for some reason and want to incorporate it somehow despite how squishy it can make units.

[Shadow Mir]

True. If you look at a different one of my sets that I've come up with in an alternate reply it actually uses Aggressor over L&D to achieve essentially the same effect. Idk why, but I've been really intrigued by the skill for some reason and want to incorporate it somehow despite how squishy it can make units.

Some other things I should've mentioned, but didn't:

-Galeforce got noifed - it only works if you can defeat an enemy unsupported

-Rescue staves are limited in this game, especially in Conquest

-Kaze essentially being the ninja version of Arthur makes Life and Death that much riskier for him

Edited May 20, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[paladin21]

True. See suggestions like this are exactly why I posted this here. I'm under the impression Spy weapons are just RNG based when people give you random items around your castle since I've never seen one yet and you can't buy them. [Note: I'm on Conquest. I've learned you can in fact buy them on Birthright but I don't have that version. I'll just have to wait until Visitor Rank gets high enough]

A supporting set could be Seal Strength, Seal Speed, [seal Defense, Seal Resistance], and Toxic Brew/Poison Strike. (If running Spy Shuriken you don't actually need the Seal Def and Seal Res. Swap it for something else) for Female/Male Ninjas respectively. Now this all Seal set can only be achieved on Birthright [Revelation maybe but I haven't played either so...] by usage of Friendship and Partner Seals to gain the Oni Savage and the Spear Fighter classes from Kumagera and Oboro Respectively. This set can be devastating in online play because it completely renders a unit "helpless" upon being attacked by the ninja. Utilizing the Spy Weapons 3 range (I know this much about them) you can be a long range nuisance and cripple enemy sweepers with ease while staying safe yourself. On Conquest, running Seal Strength, Seal Magic, Toxic Brew/Shurikenfaire, Poison Strike, and Savage Blow possibly. The Spy Shuriken's -5 Def/Res is almost as good as a Seal skill.

Kumagera's class cannot be passed, since he cannot support.

A sweeping oriented set can be [EMPTY SLOT], Shurikenfaire, Luna/Astra/Aether, Aggressor, and Galeforce. With this set, you can run a defensive stance pair up and run Astra to get a full dual guard bar with ease. Luna/Aether is used for additional damage. Aggressor essentially gives all the benefits of Life and Death without the +10 damage taken stipulation. if you really wanted to tack on the extra damage you can run L&D (which is essentially 22 extra damage with Aggressor, Faire, and L&D). But I'd run something like Duelist's Blow or Lifetaker over it.

A sweeping set should have either many damage increasers (there are a lot of situational skills, like Elbow Room, Quick Draw, Trample, Aggresor if available), or high chance of powerful skills to trigger, which comes often with Quixotic and Hoshidan Unity if possible, possibly adding Death Blow to either set to boost the crit ratio.

True. If you look at a different one of my sets that I've come up with in an alternate reply it actually uses Aggressor over L&D to achieve essentially the same effect. Idk why, but I've been really intrigued by the skill for some reason and want to incorporate it somehow despite how squishy it can make units.

It's a good addition for an Arena supporter, since it'll increase the damage output for that unit without incurring in damage received penalties. Once you get an Arena Shield, you can easily set the couple for the facility.

[Dragrath]

I don't really like Life and Death. And yes, while ninjas are good against mages, I think Life and Death ruins that - 10 extra damage means even something that'd be next to no threat otherwise is that much more threatening to you.

Life and Death seems to be a very situational skill as it effectively turns any unit into a glass canon as you are guaranteed that every enemy will do at least 10 damage

I can see it working on a Galeforce unit as they can't be supported for the effect to work Galeforce,Life and Death, Quixotic, proc skill of choice, and then your choice of initiation/support for the last slot

Kumagera's class cannot be passed, since he cannot support.

A sweeping set should have either many damage increasers (there are a lot of situational skills, like Elbow Room, Quick Draw, Trample, Aggresor if available), or high chance of powerful skills to trigger, which comes often with Quixotic and Hoshidan Unity if possible, possibly adding Death Blow to either set to boost the crit ratio.

It's a good addition for an Arena supporter, since it'll increase the damage output for that unit without incurring in damage received penalties. Once you get an Arena Shield, you can easily set the couple for the facility.

That is a great use for it I never really though of that...

maybe Life and Death, Aggressor, Certain Blow, Quick Draw and a faire skill?

Edited May 21, 2016 by Dragrath

[paladin21]

Life and Death seems to be a very situational skill as it effectively turns any unit into a glass canon as you are guaranteed that every enemy will do at least 10 damage

Warding Blow and Armored Blow do exist to soothe the damage glass cannons might suffer. Interestingly enough, each of the twin ninjas get access to the Blow that strengthes their weakness via Friendship Seal (Saizo with Tsubaki and Kaze with Silas or Xander). Even more interesting is that the additional class Kaze gets is the only one he can get via A+ support, and Saizo is limited to that support class in the BR campaign (both Ryoma and Kaze gives him samurai, which he already has).

That is a great use for it I never really though of that...

maybe Life and Death, Aggressor, Certain Blow, Quick Draw and a faire skill?

That might be a good setup, but Quixotic, Hoshidan Unity and Lethality (it doesn't matter enemy's defense or own power, if it triggers and hits, battle's won) for the frontman wouldn't let it shine too much (I have those three in an Avatar, and he just owns the Arena). He'd be better with Pavise and Aegis for increased protection.

[Shadow Mir]

Life and Death seems to be a very situational skill as it effectively turns any unit into a glass canon as you are guaranteed that every enemy will do at least 10 damage

I can see it working on a Galeforce unit as they can't be supported for the effect to work Galeforce,Life and Death, Quixotic, proc skill of choice, and then your choice of initiation/support for the last slot

That is a great use for it I never really though of that...

maybe Life and Death, Aggressor, Certain Blow, Quick Draw and a faire skill?

The problem I have with Life and Death is that the majority of Hoshidans are already fragile as is. Also, Quixotic's another double-edged sword. with a tendency to benefit the enemy more than it does the player.

[Quintessence]

I might as well say that skills like Quixotic and Life and Death are somewhat situational, preferable for 'Defeat the boss' chapters and LTCing.