Deathmark/Showstep

[Egorh]

Ok, so I think the majority of us know that ninja is not in a very good spot. It requires a very specific play style and even then it is not that effective. A couple of weeks ago there was talk about giving Dreadknight shadowstep again. But I honestly don't see a need for the class to have a skill like shadowstep (this thread is not about Dreadknight changes). Ninja is a class that relies on backstab damage and often enough you don't get off as many as you need. I have said before that Ninja should be the class to receive shadowstep and other people have suggested this on threads/in offtopic chat. Instead of just giving Ninja shadowstep I think that we should change Deathmark to incorporate it.
Deathmark

• You mark you target for death for 15s leading you in their direction (your compass will point towards them as usual). If you are within 10 blocks of the target you can activate this skill again to teleport to their back. Your next hit will do a bonus 15% damage.
• Warmup:1.5s
• Cooldown: 30s-It will only go on cooldown after the 15s duration or after using the 2nd effect of the skill
• Take away the health cost

If we take this route with Ninja it will allow them to get off the extra couple backstabs they need in the middle of the fight. It also gives deathmark a more practical use in the middle of combat-before it would do two hearts of damage to you for 10% increased damage over the duration but the tradeoff was not good enough for a fight

@Balance Team

 

[Dsawemd]

There have been a number of ideas put forward to lower the skill cap for ninja.

The class is in a great place right now, if you are able to get behind someone or attack from Fade or Smoke. The Backstab passive needs a lower skill cap for Herocraft, that much is clear by this point.

Some ways we have seen suggested:
Toggle Smoke that drains stamina.
Tp-to-target skills (this thread original post is one)
Changing Backstab passive to be more friendly to positioning (ex: Each hit on a target from behind does 5% more damage, ramping up until you hit them from another side. The damage ramping applies to the first non-backside hit).

I think these are all viable directions.

On-Topic: I heistate to support this idea because adding a blink-to-target's-backside will be a very strong and divisive (hated/loved) skill for a strong melee class. It also lowers the skill cap of Backstab a bit too much for my preferences. I would like to see Ninja required to earn their positioning in teamfights, and then give them an easier time of using their Passive, rather than being able to Tp into a fight, burst someone with left click and passive, and backflip out.

I agree, it takes some really tricky ninja positioning to immediately utilize Backstab after Backflip or Grapple, but it takes no positioning skill to Blink-To-Target.

TOO LONG DIDNT READ:
My first suggestion: If we decide on a TP skill for ninja: This skill should not activate on a mouseover target. This skill should have to be aimed, and able to miss if Ninjas are granted another gap closer.

My second suggestion: A version of Flicker. Ninja's passive could proc off each instance.

 

[Egorh]

There have been a number of ideas put forward to lower the skill cap for ninja.

The class is in a great place right now, if you are able to get behind someone or attack from Fade or Smoke. The Backstab passive needs a lower skill cap for Herocraft, that much is clear by this point.

Some ways we have seen suggested:
Toggle Smoke that drains stamina.
Tp-to-target skills (this thread original post is one)
Changing Backstab passive to be more friendly to positioning (ex: Each hit on a target from behind does 5% more damage, ramping up until you hit them from another side. The damage ramping applies to the first non-backside hit).

I think these are all viable directions.

On-Topic: I heistate to support this idea because adding a blink-to-target's-backside will be a very strong and divisive (hated/loved) skill for a strong melee class. It also lowers the skill cap of Backstab a bit too much for my preferences. I would like to see Ninja required to earn their positioning in teamfights, and then give them an easier time of using their Passive, rather than being able to Tp into a fight, burst someone with left click and passive, and backflip out.

I agree, it takes some really tricky ninja positioning to immediately utilize Backstab after Backflip or Grapple, but it takes no positioning skill to Blink-To-Target.

TOO LONG DIDNT READ:
My first suggestion: If we decide on a TP skill for ninja: This skill should not activate on a mouseover target. This skill should have to be aimed, and able to miss if Ninjas are granted another gap closer.

My second suggestion: A version of Flicker. Ninja's passive could proc off each instance.

A skill shot for this skill would be very doable. If you have seen the new Throw Axe skill on test it is a decently fast projectile that does not go through players and can miss easily. Of course with this route it would need to be a new skill because it would take away the tracking portion of Deathmark

 

[Dsawemd]

. Of course with this route it would need to be a new skill because it would take away the tracking portion of Deathmark

I liked that this idea was an addition to death mark. If we wanted to keep that aspect, the active portion of the skill could function separate from the tracking aspect.

ALSO: I just realized this was in balance not Suggestions. This thread is definitely pushing the upper limits of the level of change that Balance Team usually recommends.

 

[Egorh]

I liked that this idea was an addition to death mark. If we wanted to keep that aspect, the active portion of the skill could function separate from the tracking aspect.

ALSO: I just realized this was in balance not Suggestions. This thread is definitely pushing the upper limits of the level of change that Balance Team usually recommends.

I put it in balance because I think we still need to address ninja somewhat better but I will move this to the suggestion thread