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Ninja was a new class first introduced in KTERA with January 26th Update. It is race-locked to Elin, and was introduced with new Hairs, Faces, and a unique idle animation. It is easy to mistaken Ninja as a mid-ranged DPS like Reapers, but since most of their core skills are melee, they are more like Melee DPS. They also carry a large Shuriken on their back which is used to restlessly strike enemies.
Ninjas use another source of energy called Chi, which is similar to Gunner’s Willpower and Brawler’s Rage. It is used for their Chi skills [Burning Heart] and [Fire Avalanche].
For a guide focused more on the NA perspective of Ninja, read Yurai’s Ninja PVE Guide.
Although their damages on each hit aren’t strong, the overall damage turns out to be superior compared to other DPS classes. Just like a certain class at their initial release, Ninja’s performance was so great that they had been nerfed continuously. However, they continue to remain as the top DPS class despite all the changes. With a few exception, Brawlers are usually seen to be inferior compared to Ninjas in terms of DPS. Also, one might find that Ninjas have higher attack speed compared to Warriors, sometimes causing other DPS classes feel “clunky”.
[Combo Attack] is a core skill in rotation due to its 0.5 cooldown reduction on every hit for core skills on top of mana regeneration, quickly cutting down the cooldown of Decoy Jutsu (a skill very similar to Warrior’s and Slayer’s Backstab) which has a base 10 second cooldown. After adding on nostrums and cooldown reduction on weapon roll, Decoy Jutsu’s cooldown becomes very short, allowing her to use it very often, and making Ninja the easiest class to have high back time compared to other classes as they can DPS almost freely without worrying about Boss attack patterns.
Since Ninjas must constantly use Combo Attack, mana should not be an issue just like with Gunners, so Glistening Crystals (as well as Glisteningly X Dyads) are not needed. If mana management becomes an issue, the rotation used is suboptimal.
Due to their play style, they are also known as Fire Mage and their DPS heavily depend on how often [Burning Heart] is used. Since each projectile from [Burning Heart] hits consecutively up to 3 times, the player must pay attention to hit boxes and aim the cursor to cover as much of area as possible. They also possess the strongest skill among all skills in game called [Fire Avalanche]. Its base damage is over 50,000, where Tanks were not able to hold aggro against it before the 20% nerf.
Ninjas also have a toggle buff skill called Focus, which raises 5% Damage and stacks 1% every 5 seconds, stacking up to 10 times. It increases damage up to 15% but the effect is lost when Ninja takes damage. That’s why it is important to avoid getting hit as much as possible to keep this buff up.
Despite being a Cloth Armor class, they have high endurance which makes them quite tanky among cloth classes. With the concept of Ninja, they possess the longest iframe compared to all classes. Their [Shadow Jump] can be used twice in a row, [One Thousand Cuts] attacks while iframing, [Smoke Bomb] allows party members within the area to iframe for 3 seconds, and [Decoy Jutsu] which is a very short iframe but extremely useful to get back time. Since [One Thousand Cuts] provide long iframe as well as a decent DPS, it allows them to keep up with DPS while ignoring attack patterns simultaneously. As [Smoke Bomb] also allows other party members to iframe, it is an extremely useful skill that can be used in Shadow Sanguinary 2nd Boss, allowing party to burn while ignoring its floor pattern mechanic. Additionally, on 22nd Floor Shandra Manaya, Ninja can use smoke bomb to completely ignore wipe mechanic when the party fails to follow the debuff mechanic.
The new dungeon (Shadow Sanguinary NM/HM) Bosses follow the new enraged status, where every enraged status last ~35 seconds. Considering this fact, Enraged Top Line will be more beneficial in parties that can burn bosses quickly.
[Double Cut] is much more powerful compared to other possible rolls. It is the most frequent skill with highest crit rate at a proper gearing and glyphs. Although other lines such as Circle of Steel damage or Fire Avalanche cooldown reduction have been suggested before, Double Cut damage is the most optimal.
5 Power / 9 Crit Factor / 2.25% Attack Speed.
4 Endurance / 6% Movement Speed / 2% MP Regeneration.
Keen etchings on both Weapon and Glove are recommended because Ninja’s skills are very heavily reliant on crit factor to produce the most optimal DPS.
Although some skills have Glyph of Carving, a low crit factor may not produce satisfying crit rate, so it is recommended to build full crit set as one of Ninja’s burst DPS skill [Burning Heart] is also heavily affected by it. Most KTERA Ninjas have agreed that Crit build is the optimal choice, so full crit jewelry set is used.
Optimal Crit set is a mix of Shadowvain (Tier 2 Crit) set and Shadowmaze (PVP Crit) set.
Optimal rolls are 4 Power/4 Crit on Rings, 4 Power on Necklace, 4 Endurance/4% HP on Earrings.
Setting up like this will result in about +250 ~ 254 Bonus Crit Factor.
The optimal brooch for Ninja is the new brooch released with Ninja patch called Quatrefoil Brooch. This brooch gives 30 Power, 30 Crit Factor, and 12% Attackspeed for 15 seconds, so it is similar to having both Empowered and Quickcarve Brooches combined. As a base stat, it has 3 Power/6 Crit Factor and 2 more re-rollable stats. The optimal rolls are 3 Power/6 Crit Factor. Quatrefoil Brooch and Quickcarve Brooch do not share cooldowns, so double brooching is possible. However, if you cannot afford Quatrefoil Goddess Brooch, you may take Empowered Brooch instead for double brooching with Quickcarve Brooch. Keep in mind that Quatrefoil Brooch and Empowered Brooch share cooldowns so you cannot double brooch with these two.
[Active]: For 15 seconds, increase Power by 30, Crit Rate by 30, Attack Speed by 12%, and also cleanses any debuffs.
[Empowered Prowess]: Increases Crit Factor by 50 and Attack Speed by 12% for 15 sec.
Weapon crystals should always have Focused, Bitter, and Savage.
For the last crystal slot, you have choice of either Pounding, Carving, or Forceful.
If you are not familiar with the class, lacking crit factor, or feel that you are not critting enough, Carving crystal is a solid choice. Although it may not be optimal, it is still very efficient while learning the class. Also, it may be more efficient in Priest party which lacks crit buff, yielding higher average DPS.
On the contrary, pounding may be more efficient in Mystic parties.
Once your bonus crit factor is +240 or higher, where using Lamb Bulgogi in Mystic Party will yield total of over 370 crit. After numerous testing, Pounding was superior over Carving in average DPS at this crit factor, where the overall crit rate seem to become consistently high.
Forceful crystal is usually not considered to be an optimal choice because on average party and skill, Pounding is more efficient than Forceful. However, this might be due to personal taste, so if you are unsure, it is better to use Carving to be on safer side.
Reduce 0.5 second cooldown on the following skills: Double Slash, Triangular Slash, Circle of Steel, One Thousand Cuts.
Its main role is to cutdown cooldown on your core skills, so use this whenever you can weave this skill in. It reduces the cooldown on your core skills by 0.5 second per hit, making it extremely useful. Another very good use of this skill is Attack Speed Glyph proc as well.
With auto glitching, the swift glyph has about a 40-50% up time, allowing for faster rotations without the cost of an enraged top line.
You gain 10 Chi per hit of this skill.
You can cast twice within 3 seconds. A cooldown triggers after the second usage (or 3 seconds after the first).
This is your first and main iframe skill. It also acts as super cancel on most skills.
This skill is not affected by attack speed.
Leaves a decoy log in the original spot, and then teleports behind a target within 15m while landing a strike. 0.3 sec iframe after casting.
This skill allows Ninjas to have highly efficient back time as its cooldowns can be decreased quickly with Combo Attack. The skill itself also have quite a bit of base damage, as well as having a glyph with 50% chance to reset cooldown on Double Cut effect, so this skill will have high frequency as you will find yourself trying to take advantage of the resets every time you use this off cooldown.
Decoy Jutsu gives 8 Chi on cast, and another 8 on hit, giving 16 Chi in all.
25% (50%) chance to reset cooldown on [Double Cut] when hitting monsters.
On successful hit, chi will not degenerate for 30 seconds. Also, hitting player characters will double chi regeneration. The generated Chi will be consumed on skills : [Burning Heart] and [Fire Avalanche].
Slash a target in front twice.
Ninja’s core skill along that makes up basic rotation with Skyfall. With a proper build and its Rare Glyph that triples crit chance, its crit rate is extremely high at around 90% and above. On NA, it is confirmed that Double Cut is superior compared to Skyfall due to higher frequency of this skill with the reset glyph from Decoy Jutsu.
Double cut is affected by Combo Attack, so it has a very high uptime, often less than 3-4 seconds of it being on cooldown. Spam this skill off cooldown, and use Energetic, Powerlink, and Carving glyphs for it.
You gain 16 Chi per hit, for a total of 32 for the whole skill.
Leap into the air and slash enemies in front 3 times.
One of the highest damage yield among Ninja’s skills. It has glyph that doubles crit chance, allowing it to have high crit chance at around 70% and above. When chained from Double Cut, the powerlink glyph increases Skyfall’s base damage by 25% which lasts 5 seconds so you have plenty of time to chain from Double Cut.
Skyfall is also affected by Combo Attack, with a static 9 second base cooldown on NA, and comes off cooldown about once in every 1.5-2 Double Cuts.
You gain 13 Chi per hit, totaling 39 Chi for the entire skill.
Increase damage of [Circle of Steel] by 25% (30%) when chained.
Charges in a zigzag up to 18m based on the cursor’s aim. When targeting an enemy you will slash them at the end.
This skill can be used as a gap closer, but it’s main role is its glyph’s effect: Increase all Skill Base Damage by 10% for 3 seconds. So this skill can determine your maximum DPS potential depending on how you can utilize the glyph effect. See Rotations for some examples.
Gives 25 Chi on hit.
100% chance to increase all skill base damage by 10% for 3 seconds.
Spin the shuriken rapidly and slash enemies. Damaged enemies will be knocked airborne. At the end of spin, you will strike down airborne enemies to the ground.
This skill have high damage, but clunky animation. The damage efficiency can be argued upon compared to Double Cut, so this guide will provide two different build where this skills is used in one of them. However, I do recommend Circle of Steel build for for players who have high ping as they cannot benefit much from Burning Heart.
This skill hits total of 6 times: 5 times while spinning then a heavy blow. Damage distribution seems to be 12% per spin tick + 40% final blow.
6 Chi per hit over 6 hits, totaling 36 Chi.
If used properly, it allows maintaining some dps uptime through an attack that would otherwise hit you and make you lose focus. Therefore, to utilize this for iframing long attacks as you can use Shadow Jump for short ones.
This skill hits up to 16 times: 15 consecutive slashes then a final blow, where damage distribution seems to be 5% per slash and 25% at final blow.
The usual skill to get yourself back up on your feet after being Knocked Down.
As Ninja, you should never take any damage so this skill should not have any glyph points invested.
Rapidly spin the shuriken and fling it forward. It will travel about 8m, pushing enemies away as it travels. It will stay at its maximum range for 2.5 seconds, pulling all enemies toward it.
Not used in PvE; however, it does an amazing job in PvP with staggers.
Hits up to 16 times.
The chance of being Knocked down/ Staggered is reduced by 10% due to Posied Steps.
The chance of being Knocked down/ Staggered is reduced by 10% due to Balance Training.
Leap backwards and throw a Impact Bomb where the character was. When the bomb land, it will cause explosion, inflicting damage. Targets affected by it will be knocked airborne.
Not used as part of rotation, but it is very useful as mobility skill as well as gap closer. It is extremely useful for mobs in Shadow Sanguinary pathways as it knocks them airborne.
Does not give Chi, and is not an iframe.
Throws 8 Kunais forward consecutively. They will fly 18m through enemies inflicting damage to any target in range. If you target an airborne enemy, the skill will make them airborne again and has a 100% chance to increase your crit.
It is not used as part of rotation as its DPS is very low. However, with Impact Bomb it is extremely powerful during mob fights as the skill’s effect has 100% chance to crit on airborne monsters and a glyph that increases 60% damage.
Hits up to 8 times.
Inflict 40% (60%) additional damage to Airborne enemies.
Disguise yourself as another player within 30m. It lasts 60 seconds and using a skill or receiving damage will nullify this effect.
This is not used in PvE.
Fire a volley of fireballs that stagger and deal double damage to normal mobs and minions and automatically crits targets suspended in air. Maximum of 10 fireballs, and cooldown of skill increases by 2 seconds for each fireball.
One of ninja’s most important skill, being extremely powerful burst DPS despite lack of Glyph of Carving (Crit Chance). Each projectile hits up to 3 times, which you can utilize by aiming your cursor to maximize the area the projectile can cover so it can hit the target as much as possible. When against mobs, you can use Impact Bomb and Skill’s Glyph that increases damage on airborned target by 50% for greater performance.
This skill is fairly ping dependant. Having over 180 (possibly lower) ping makes the cast delay of this skill too long to be worth using.
Regenerate 1% of Max MP on each successful hit.
Replenish your Chi by 500.
Although it is used to replenish 50% of Max Chi, it is mainly used to take advantage of glyph that increases Burning Heart and Fire Avalanche casting speed by 30%. To utilize this, you must supercancel Attunement by using Shadow Jump or Decoy Jutsu just as you cast it (but not replenishing 50% Max Chi), which will still trigger the glyph, then use Jagged Path (for 10% extra damage), then usually followed by Burning Heart.
Increase casting speed of “Burning Heart” and “Fire Avalanche” by 20% (30%) for 10 seconds.
Lunge forward and stab a target at close range, stunning for 3 seconds.
This is usually not used as it is ninja’s only stun skill. Its crit rate is around 50% so it is recommended to use Combo Attack to reduce cooldown on Double Cut and Skyfall instead.
Keep in mind that this skill moves your character forward by about 3.5m, as well as several reports on desync (mostly from PvP).
Ring of shuriken that damages all within 7m, and pulls them towards you and knocks down.
It is a PvP skill. Not needed in PvE.
Create a smoke cloud to evade enemy attacks. Lasts for 3 seconds and affects allies.
A support skill for party which allows them to avoid (iframe) attacks for 3 seconds.
It is a damage absorber for anyone standing in the circle this skill places under you. It acts exactly like recall and warp barrier does, meaning it can absorb one shots that go through iframe. There is a small amount of cast delay for this skill, but there is a regular iframe during the animation.
Dive attack an enemy within 13m and knock it down. Can use up to 3 times before a cooldown applies.
The most powerful bust DPS skill in the game among all skills. This skill have 3 parts, where each part attacks 3 times. Your character will leap in air and, engulf herself in flames and tackle toward where ever you are aiming. Using this skill will give you 10 second timer on buff bar, giving you an option to use the skill again within that time frame or use other skill in between. This is very important feature which will be covered in Rotations.
Infuse energy into weapon to increase damage by 5%. Drains 20 MP per second while active. Gain an additional 1% damage increase for every 5 seconds you do not take damage. Stacks up to 10 times and ends if you are hit by an attack.
Ninja’s Toggle skill which contributes a lot to DPS. Although it will vary depending on player skill, if you do not take any damage from attacks, you will utilize this to its maximum potential — 15% increased Attack.
This is so important that it deserves its own section. The fun thing about Ninja is that their Combo Attack have a lot of utility which can have an impact in min-maxing their DPS.
Cooldown reduction for core skills allow increased frequency of skill uses.
0~70ms : Cannot perform glitch or does not occur frequently enough to utilize it.
150ms or higher : Combo Attack cycles through all 1st ~ 7th hit, most likely to skip most of them including 7th hit.
Auto Glitching can be utilized to gain slightly faster Chi regeneration as well as increasing skill frequency as Combo Attack also reduces Cooldown of major skills by 0.5 seconds each hit, but you may have to try them out yourself if this is right for you.
Once you are comfortable with your build and rotation, you can start adding in Combo Attack between some skills in your rotation. This is found to be effective for Ninjas because its damage is considered as a damage boost (or helps in maintaining your DPS) and if you have Attack Speed Glyph, it increases the chance to have glyph proc to maintain its effect throughout the combat.
However, please note that you must be aware of the Powerlink Glyphs, especially Jagged Path. Note that this will take some practice, but it is also not for everyone.
Also keep in mind that, Auto-weaving is quite ping dependent, so it is more friendly to those who have lower ping.
This is very basic rotation that all Ninja should start on when learning the class. Note that Jagged Path depends on how you want to utilize it– it might depend on Skill Cooldown and/or which ever feels more comfortable/fluid to you. I feel that it is better to do as shown above as 3 seconds should be enough to cover both Double Cut and Circle of Steel.
However, at enough attack speed, whether there is Lancer’s Adrenaline Rush effect, using Lein’s Dark Root Beer, popping Quickcarve/Quatrefoil Brooch, etc, you will be able to land all three consecutive combos of Fire Avalanche within 3 seconds of Jagged Path’s Powerlink glyph effect.
Use your Build’s Core Rotation for filling up chi.
Attunement can be canceled by either Decoy Justsu or Shadow Jump. If you have glyph of blaze, you can still proc it. However, cancelling attunement like this will not replenish Chi.
Fire Avalanche should be used for either Burn while considering the conditions mentioned above or for emergency during shield phase/DPS check.
Weaving in Combo Attack for Attack Speed Glyph procs may depend on personal preference.
You have to consider how to utilize your skills and rotations based on situation. You will be able to fill up 100%Chi before Attunement cooldown is finished, but sometimes not due to mechanics, you were unable to attack the Boss , and /or you were dead and had to revive. So consider on how to use Attunement more effectively in this casel if you know there will be DPS check/Shieldphase soon, it might be better to save that Attunement.
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3/24: Removed Knockdown on 1st and 2nd hit when attacking players.
2/18 : Doubled Damage on Normal Monsters and Minions.
2/18 : Minions gets staggered when hit.
2/18 : The caster iframes while casting until smoke appears.
Unless I read the comments wrong, a main issue with this guide is that a 60% increase off chi management on KTera is regarded as a ‘small’ thing, while it is in fact completely defining how you play ninja.
Yes Burning Heart is the skill you are playing towards, which the guides main aim is but if a core part of your rotation is 60% less effective on different servers it becomes extremely obvious you simply have to add other parts of your dps chain into your rotation to increase both DPS and chi. To put it further into perspective, KTera gains more chi by simply auto attacking with their talent than other servers using either DC or CoS.
This is why CoS outperforms this propsed rotation hands down, it’s not the base damage, it is because your alternative is a lot less performant on other servers.
To give an analogy, it would be saying a warrior poison blade is just as good with or without noctenium. Where KTera has noctenium on and other servers dont have this buff.
Does anyone know RedStrike’s build?
Without the talent system, what are the most optimal build for ninja(PvE) right now ? Does anyone know RedStrike’s build?
Hybrid build. These are his glyphs. He rolls Double Cut on chest.
The description for Skyfall’s powerlink glyph [Circle of Steel] still says Spin Slash.
I’m playing on Tera Gameforge does it affect the guide ?
No, not really. The only difference between Gameforge/EU and Enmasse/NA would be region-exclusive exclusive items like having extra CDR, but that just means you would autoattack less and use more main skills. Only KTera has the Talent System which does massively change the playstyle of the class.
Sadly even the hybrid build kinda lacks the damage for Ninja now. The nerf hit extremely hard, some players with max +15 gear and amazing crit factor can still play with the old rotation, but the Double Cut reset (due to no Talent System in NA/EU) is mostly just lacking damage, and the Hybrid Rotation feels weirdly setup. Wonder how this will continue to be honest.
Ninja damage is still insane. CoS nerf only hit them by only about 5% in PvE. Fire Avalanche still exists and Double Cut and Skyfall have really high Crit chances. How is the hybrid rotation weird for you? It feels good for me.
So with the nerf to NA now for ninjas, is circle still used? Reset build the winner now?
The best build in NA would be a CoS and DC reset hybrid. It uses Decoy-DC reset and CoS powerlinks to deal damage. Glyph build would be something like this. The lack of the talent system really hurts Ninjas.
I’ve been running that exact build for weeks now but I wasn’t sure with the circle nerf if it would chagne things.
Circle nerf won’t change things because there’s no talent system in NA that makes Burning Heart usage much higher.
Can a ninja dps as much as a gunner, at equal gear ?
Ninja is by far the highest DPSing class in the game right now, as well as having some of the strongest skills in the game for utility and burst.
btw, for the auto-glitching, would you happen to have a video example?
Mathematically speaking, CoS is very powerful if you contribute all of the powerlink buffs on it. However, for CoS to be very effective, you must have very high crit factor. But from the data I’ve seen and feedbacks received, I hardly saw the difference in both Double Cut Reset core build and Circle of Steel core build.
1. Frequency — The more you use the skill, the higher Damage yield it will give, and have higher DPS contribution to your build.
2. Reliability — The skill’s ability to maintain your DPS effectively.
3. Consistency — The skill’s crit rate.
4. Fluidity — The skill satisfies your play style — your current rotation of choice which usually allows you to continuously repeat the Rotation cycle restlessly regardless of interruptions. Some people find it very unsatisfying that CoS “feels clunky” or “not as smooth as Double Cut Resets”. Some may find that Double Cut Reset relies on the Reset glyph RNG too much and often interferes with their rotation.
With these in consideration, you need to see which is more effective for you.
So far CoS is pretty powerful, some saying it makes rotation easier, than Double Cut Reset build, but as long as you try to keep Double Cut > Decoy Jutsu > Double Cut (reset) very consistently, it should result in similar Damage Yield.
The fun thing is that, Circle of Steel at around 55%+ crit rate begins to out perform Double Cut despite being 85%+ crit rate. However, as stated above you have to consider the actual frequency, reliability, and consistency of the skill that was being used during the whole combat.
In this particular case, CoS hit 47 times while Double cut hit 18 times. That’s 47/6 = ~8 times compared to 18/2 = 9 times, considering the Decoy jutsu was used only twice, it may have reset 2x, 1x or none at all. CoS damage contribution was 35M while double cut was 16M, at similar frequency, CoS yielded ~2.16 times better performance. CoS had 2.3M highest crit dmg and ~951k avg crit damage while Double cut had 1.14M highest crit damage and ~998k avg crit damage. We can see that CoS outperformed Double Cut in Reliability. Also, the crit rate on each was 74.5% on CoS while Double Cut had 88.9%, showing that the consistency of CoS was very high compared to the average reported crit rate, making it much more effective. I’m not sure about this ninja’s crit factor and how their actual rotation went, but this proves that the solid maths that was theorized somewhere on the forums quite true.
1. Frequency — The skills hits 6 times, 5 times at 12% of damage yield per hit and an ending slash at 40% of damage yield, reported to take about 1.1 second during whole cast time with supercanceling.
2. Reliability — Very Effective when powerlinked properly, some reporting that it performs the best; however, there were few reports showing that its crit rate is too unstable to be reliable.
3. Consistency — from the majority of the data I’ve seen, have consistency of 40% crit rate on average, Reports saying it becomes very reliable starting 50% crit rate but the skill’s lack of carving glyph makes its crit rate inconsistent despite high crit factor sometimes.
4. Fluidity — Varies by person. This build is very good for high ping users because it makes up for the DPS loss from Burning Heart due to ping.
1. Frequency — This skill hits 2 times, and can be reset with glyph on Decoy Jutsu. Double Cut > Decoy Justsu > Double Cut is total of about 1.2 seconds (or faster).
2. Reliability — As effective as the frequency of Reset Glyph’s activation. Usually its effectiveness is high, but can be low when resets do not occur. It can be quite an RNG.
3. Consistency — from the majority of the data I’ve seen, have consistency of 85% crit rate on average. With high crit factor (52+ 200 or higher), it should show 90% or higher frequently.
4. Fluidity — Varies by person. Most reports that this is extremely fluid and have managed to perform similar DPS output with CoS heavy builds.
i can see, your bottom line is, based on current stats and feedbacks, CoS and DC rotations does not give much difference in dmg output, so pretty much choose based on individual’s play style.
But based on your example given above, the one where CoS yields a higher dmg output, can i say that person’s top chest roll is increase CoS by 10%?
would it be less effective if a person uses CoS rotation, but uses DC as top chest line roll?
That’s actually what’s throwing me off. That person would be better if the chest top line was CoS but I think that person’s choice for top line was Skyfall. The Damage contribution ranked Fire Avalanche >> CoS >skyfall >> Double Cut > Burning Heart.
Just because one Data say so doesn’t make it the most effective build as RNG kicks in for either build to be most efficient anyways– which is why hybrid build is listed as well which relies on both skill so that one skill can cover for the other in case it fails.
This is why i strongly suggest testing various builds. The feedbacks and data i see shows that Ninja is pretty flexible when it comes to playstyle and most of the time they are equally efficient unless RNG kicks in odd was as the example i gave you.
Tbh, the second question you have is currently what I’m stuck on. But if I have to guess l, you may need to see the how often CoS out-DPS your DC and how much Damage yield each skills contribute to your DPS. The reason why this is so difficult to reach conclusion is because the more crit rate varies, it is less consistent and less reliable depite high frequency. But if CoS turns out to have 55% crit rate and DC is around 90% crit rate quite consistenly, the chances are CoS will out-DPS DC if they are used at similar frequency as CoS have higher total Base damage even without powerlink. The main reason why CoS build is questionable is due to lack for carving glyph, making it unstable unless you have high crit factor and pretty much good RNG. CoS build is only DPS loss if you have bad day where it just doesn’t crit enough to be worth it.
This is why DC build is a thing as it is much more reliable, as well as skyfall because they provide more frequent crits with decent DPS yield to keep up, and its rotations are fairly quick and more simple compared to CoS/hybrid rotation.
I’m currently using the Skyfall chest roll since that’s what the guide initially talked about, but now I’m trying to decide between a DC reset build (which is what I’d been using till yesterday) and a CoS build.
I know that CoS gets nerfed in the future. Is the CoS build going to become obsolete then, and DC reset will be the only viable build we have, or is CoS still viable post-nerf, just less damage than now? That’s one of the reasons I was using DC resets to begin with. If CoS is going to become useless, I’ll probably stop trying to adjust to using it and go back to DC resets, rerolling my chest to DC damage.
I’ve noticed that the most infuriating thing about CoS is when nearly every hit crits except for the last one. It seems much less consistent simply because of that massive hit not critting a lot of the time, vs going for a build that revolves around something else.
Anyway, awesome guide! Thanks for updating it as you learn more about how the class performs in NA. I’m actually quite surprised that I like it so much given how simple ninja is.
CoS will still be a viable build as the base damage will still be high with the glyph and the powerlink from Skyfall. CoS is good for high ping as well since they can’t use Burning Heart as effectively and that’s what the DC reset build is putting more focus on.
Yeah, CoS not having a crit glyph is pretty bad, but on average, it’s very good even if the last hit doesn’t crit because the number of crits and white damage will even out in the end.
So after getting my starfall weapon with all perfect rolls I found COS rotation to yield more dps, I assume this is going to be used until COS gets nerfed right?
We have to see. I’ve been getting different reports with different results saying one is better than the other. This is due to personal play style as well.
The maths do show CoS as higher DPS yiel, but the issue I’ve seen is the lack of crit, especially if you lack crit factor (or crit rate is just plain horrible cuz RNG hates you for some reason on that particular run).
So you can’t just rely on maths. You have to maximize utility from Ninja’s kit. When CoS gets nerfed, I will need to do testings again and/or receive various feedbacks and data to confirm. But I can speculate an estimate of 6~10%-ish DPS drop depending on how much your CoS DPS yields on total damage contribution.
then why not follow with CoS (it should have active powerlink from sky). Why mash autoattack (it won’t beat CoS with damage, neither before nor after nerfs) ?
Same goes for decoy as a movement command (and sometimes that’s inevitable), which kills it as a reset, and in such case jagged->sky->CoS would be an obvious follow.
Sorry for late reply. I was testing this tbh and I couldn’t really see much difference from CoS core build (usually). I had to take data from other people and it still gave me similar performance. So in the end the frequency differences of Double Cut + Decoy and CoS didnt make much difference in DPS gap.
But I posted the Hybrid build I’ve used and tested anyways. Remember, Ninja is all about skill utilization to maximize DPS potential.
Also is burning heart even useful with the current chi regen? I feel unless u use it with attunement or brooch, its quite bad on its own! What u guys think?
Also, why is there not Attunement cancel in front of Fire Avalanche Combo ?
What about the belt rolls?
I’m trying this rotation out but it just feels a lot weaker than just using Decoy Jutsu > weaving in 1 or 2 combo attacks > pressing spacebar > 1 – 2 combo attacks > spacebar… repeat repeat. Basically what I’m saying is the Spacebar rotation feels like it has a lot more DPS.
Maybe I’m wrong but also what do you mean by “Use whatever is off cooldown” What’s the priority list?
Spacebar rotation is never right except on maybe Slayer, but then you won’t understand the class as well either. Chi skills are extremely important to DPS and you should be focusing on those too since they’re “invisible” DPS skills.
“Use whatever is off cooldown” would be Double Cut/Skyfall, as with a few autoattacks, they’ll be back up again. Honestly, as long as you’re getting in the powerlinks for Skyfall, you’re doing it right. You only need Double Cut/Skyfall/Decoy Jutsu in your main rotation. Autoattack for filler and use Jagged Path when you’re going to be using a few skills after it.
Circle of Steel be nerfed by 20% on K TERA. We also used circle of steel before nerf. This rotation is the standard of K TERA.
Hello, I love this guide every much.
I have one question about the No Circle of Steel Rotation.
Since Jagged Path is buffing the following skills for 3 seconds. Why don’t you start of with this skill so the following core skills which are Double Cut > Skyfal will have more damage.
Only Combo attack, decoy and Reset double cut will benefit from 10% buff.
After waiting out the cooldown, should Jagged path always uses before Double Cut > Skyfal?
If I’m assuming correctly, the “randomly” part just means to use it whenever. The cooldown won’t sync with the rest of your skills because it doesn’t get reduced by autos, so you’ll never really have it up to use in that specific skill rotation. Just use it whenever it’ll hit a bunch of skill I guess.
I have try this build and so far its amazing, but i have one question about Attunement. Since you glyph the cdr of it.
that means you will use it as chi regen right? but what if this skill is on cooldown and you have full chi to use the 2 ultimate skills. what would you do? or you are just using it to get the casting speed glyph and cancel Attunement’s animation everytime. thank you for answering and you are awesome!.
CDR glyphs are most common core glyphs anyone would get, usually on skills they use the most. The “No [Circle of Steel]” build recommended in this guide will take benefit of [Attunement]’s Blazing glyph by canceling it in mid-animation but the reason why it also have CDR glyph is also because of the “if” scenarios.
If you accidentally use [Attunement] and put it on CD, you are going to suffer DPS loss because you will not be able to have the Blazing Glyph proc. Since [Attunement] has 1 minute cooldown, having 20% CDR will help to get the skill back 12 seconds earlier (also note if you have weapon CDR, making it 27.2% which is about 16 seconds reduced).
If you really need chi for burn phases like breaking shields, then quick charge in Chi with [Attunment] is worth it.
It is better to use [Fire Avalanche] as early as possible in case the fight becomes longer than 3 minutes (after using the skill) so that you can use it again since it is high burst DPS skill. [Burning Heart] doesn’t matter when you use it; you should spam it as much as possible, really!
In KTERA, there is a talent that reduces cooldown on [Attunement] whenever [Burning Heart] crits, so there’s that difference.
Story said he doesn’t know exactly how much of a difference it would make, and I have not actually measured the difference myself either.
Thing is the key point of Ninja is how frequently you can finish your rotation and throw Chi skills. The more you use Skyfall, the more Double cut resets you have, the more you spam burning heart, the higher DPS you’d have.
So that meanssss, better not put Attunement on cooldown if possible just for the speed casting, and only use it when you really need Chi for burns?
Btw, how to get Chi ? is it like gunner that each skills has different Chi regen? or it gains per hit. Just wondering about should I throw circle of steel in the rotation. Since NA tera does not have talent. We do not get as much as Burning Heart . I recongnize it has a really long animation, if it still give not much chi as auto attacks or the other core skills give, I think it is not worth to throw it in the combo.
Also, you have mention about how to use Burning Heart. Is it aimming the thickest area of the boss ._.?
I’m sorry. I took a mistake.
In the Skills and Glyphs section where it introduces down each skill. Circle of Steel is not listed.
Ah I keep forgetting;; really sorry about this.
Is this stuff based off of the talent system in ktera?
From what I’ve seen of ktera dungeon ninja runs, the recommended rotations on here are different from what people are using in the videos. comparing with highest dps on teradps.io, it looks like most of the top rated ninja aren’t use decoy jutsu a lot in rotation even tho it benefits double cut. From how it looks, most in videos are saving it for positioning during boss mechanics and put the reset glyph points into something else because utilizing double cut with cdr from auto attack is enough to keep it off cd thru a very small rotation. The standard rotation I’ve noticed in videos is double cut -> sky fall -> circle of steel -> (sometimes one thousand cuts) -> combo attack/other skills off cd (i.e. Chakra thrust) > rinse and repeat. I know circle of steel isn’t an optimal skill in ktera currently but since we aren’t getting the nerf in NA release is it arguable to include it in rotations until nerf? Taking into consideration glyph of persistence on decoy jutsu for reset costs the same as glyph of power on circle of steel and circle of steel would have higher base damage total vs damage from decoy jutsu + 2nd double cut (and you’d get to save a positioning skill for mechanics so it’s not like you’re losing it in your rotation, just utilizing it better until nerf for more uptime on back damage). At the same time, double cut has high crit chance with carving glyph so I’m curious. any thoughts? Another thing I’m wondering about is why nobody has one thousand cuts in rotations. Is it just to save for iframe/the long cd? We already have 2 other iframes (even though one has a huge cd, the other can essentially never be on cd if timed correctly). Is it really not good to include it in even tho that 20sec cd can be reduced via auto attack and be cast every other rotation? I haven’t played ninja so this is all completely theoretical, I just want some outside opinions because I set skill rotations a bit differently from what’s listed.
Since this is a long question (and the answer is quite a read;;;) I will link you a google document. Thank you for feedbacak which will probably answer some other questions too, and I will try to update this document as a Q&A for Ninja PvE guide.
Thank you for pointing them out; I must have overlooked them while revising x_x.