I’m gonna wait and see what other changes they will bring to Bunshin first before committing to the build. As it is, taking x5 damage is too much of a drawback, evasion or no. At least Crown can help reduce damage on magic bosses by quite a bit.
But as far as damage goes, HL2-Hop2-Barb is probably the strongest Shinobi path based on the new update on kToS.
I hope they add Skyliner soon too
I shall execute tantamount leaps of joy should that happen 
Lol if it ever starts to copy Corsair skills, I’m so taking Ninja c8 on my Cor3 xD
anybody knows if your clones will get into Finestra stance or High Guard stance?
Clones are not affected by buffs. Anyway, is it true that hidden classes only have C1 and wont ever have C2 or even C3???
There is no C2 for Chaplain or Runecaster, so yes.
Thanks zell… ok FYI to those who went SwordC2>BarbC2>CorsC2>Shin, its time to to think what will be ur R8 class due to this:
Is this the final list of rank 8 classes for swordsman or they are still considering adding classes later on on this specific rank?(rank 8)
Final for Rank 8… more on higher rank i think.
Oh shoes!!..For Pelt>Hop2>Cor2>Shin what would be our R8 pick? I was considering Cor3 for Mana-Mana, pierce shots, and super hook but frikken lancer looks boss.
i think if murmilo no shield restric it will do , i dont think lacer will do since it use spear
i’m s1>pelt1>hop2>cors2>sh
i could get hop3 or cors3, but since lancer looks like a spear type, should i get it? what do you experts think?
i like this idea… i hope shinobis do copy all the earlier rank skills, coz it’s just stupid imo that they don’t. it’s not consistent with what shinobis should be.
Tbh, seeing that Gladiator is all about shield and Lancer is all about mount, I’m seriously considering going Ninja c8. Cuz my main is a PvP support (hook), and at the very least I’ll receive some invisibility, allowing me to position better before hook. Also some Kunais, allowing to burst those squishy worldbosses like Cerberus.
Ninja’s invis seems so short tho -_- Still, dont really see a lot of other options.
Btw, can you tell me about Mokuton? I understand it applies root, but how exactly? Ninja skills are so… complex.
I’d say Dragoon, for futureproofing. Serpentine gives 100% damage bonus for melee attacks at C2. Kunai seems to be a melee attack. Yep.
Fencer3 looks like it could go Shinobi at R9 if the new classes require different weapons.
Balestra Fente for a crit resist debuff, which will benefit Bunshins as well.
Instead of Spear Lunge for pierce debuff, you get Attaque Coquille for
defense ignore with pierce skills, which works out nicely with Kunai.
You can also set up with Prep first for double damage on Kunai.
Rapier Mastery: Aggression = 15% more damage on all pierce damage when not using a shield.
Thinking of going with Sw1-HL2-Pelt1-Barb1-Fencer3, which gives me Cleave debuff + Moulinet + Crown + Pelt skills for Clones.
Rotation will be something like Bunshin > Attaque Coquille > Kunai x2 > Crosscut > Lunge > Cleave > Moulinet > Skyliner x2 > Umbo/Rim Blow > Attaque Coquille > Kunai x2
I still think Hop2-Shinobi-Dragoon2 will have higher burst though, due to Serpentine. Fencer at least won’t rely 100% on Bunshin to burst thanks to Epee Stance.
Fencer-nobi will have higher burst imo, provided it have enough time to prepare all the skills needed to do so, because you had to: 1) Change to Epee Stance, 2) Bunshin, 3) use Balestra Fente, 4) Preparation, 5) into Attaque Coquille and finally Kunai. That’s a total of 5 skills that had to be casted before bursting down your opponent with Kunai.
The Shinobi - Dragoon 2 is more of a straightforward build imo, leaning towards Pierce type attacks, without hassling over any other debuffs/buffs that need a lot of work. Very effective I’d say in a low FPS environment, as opposed to the Fencer Shinobi build.
sadly we are ■■■■■■ up since that build is the worst one and IMC don’t bothers to support it with buffs, QoL changes or adding new shinobi spells/attributes
IF
a) Dust Devil damage got buffed super hard so it hit as hard as hexen
b) Shinobi got new spell (Throw Shurkien?) that would be copy of Kunai but deal Slash damage OR Kunai spell get attribute that could change damage from pierce to slash
c) Clones could use Corsair’s Dust Devil (so it would have synergy with soon incoming Barb’s Cleave debuff) and Barb’s Cleave
then Barb/Corsair/Shinobi would work
but it looks like IMC just gives a flying ■■■■ about people that want to make strong sword based boss killer/nuke Shinobi builds and they just support Spear/Pierce Shinobi even more
Epee Stance is basically a buff so I don’t think it should be too much of an issue unless it has a short duration/long cooldown. Prep has to be right before Kunai btw.
Spear-nobi-Dragoon2 with Hop2 will probably be 1) Bunshin > 2) Serpentine > 3) Spear Lunge > 4) Kunai, which is just 1 less step than Fencer-nobi, 2 if you have to use Epee right before the combo. Then if you include Gae Bulg, it will be roughly the same amount of set-up as well.
