Re: Ninja Blade Serial Number Activation
Lorean Hoefert
Ninja Blade is a pretty middle-of-the road set for ST damage and below-average AoE (while definitely not the worst the ones below it are things like Dark Melee and Energy Melee - real stinkers). Its advantages are that you can spike your melee/lethal defense as high as you want on demand and that its attacks can take some good damage procs (-def & knockback = achilles heel -res, touch of lady grey +neg energy, force feedback).
Radiation Armor is a resist based set with some very strong clickies to keep you going. Usually the resists and heals are sturdy enough on their own but if you get into trouble then you can lean on Divine Avalanche to buy time until the next Radiation Therapy or Particle Shielding. Rad Therapy and Ground Zero can both do tons of AoE damage if you stuff them with damage procs. Maybe Force Feedback in Soaring Dragon and Golden Dragonfly.
I did make an example build for a low budget build for Nin/Nin in my guide. I think you could look there for a generell idea how to make a viable build with that power combination. I think a lot of that build can be transfered to a /Super Reflex Stalker. So looking at you budget and high perfamnce viability i would suggest /Nin or /SR because they are cheap to build. And i think that generell speaking ALL Secondaries are viable.
Have to take dispute with this being a DM stalker. With the buff to shadow maul, DM's aoe is not much different than ninja blade/broadsword now, they both have one wide cone. Only real advantage is golden dragonfly's absolutely tiny cone, which in my experience isn't something you can ever count on. Could even argue that shadow maul is better than NB or BS's one wide cone as shadow maul is harder hitting and a longer recharge, so it crits harder and is more procable. Shadow maul also has a 10 target cap instead of only 5.
Typically most Ninja blade builds lean on divine avalanche for the melee def while you stack ranged def from sets which means you can stack the damage bonuses and sometimes S/L resists and even recharge bonuses.
Partly interesting about the list is how do you define damage as some lean more ST vs. AoE or vice versa. Elec might be middle ground, but it is incredibly popular for a reason. My generic rule is if AS replaces a ST attack, it is good for stalkers. Also, damage types are important. Dark gains the benefit of being the least resisted damage in the game.
I would say this isn't a bad versus good list but as a general guideline as I think some in the AoE loss list can still be good as a Stalker. Kin, Rad, and Spines feel a bit better off in the loss column. BS hits like a truck from Hide. Even the so called bad ones I could easily see playing but on other ATs as I already have a level 50 Claws, level 42 and 39 Rads, and a level 29 Staff. Oddly enough I've played more sets from the bad lists than I have from the good list across all ATs and that's with adding in a recent Savage Stalker.
I don't have much experience with Stalker secondaries, but /ea is really good although I do see where /rad's ability to generate more AoE damage would be a good thing. /bio would also increase overall damage. Sadly /shield isn't an option as that's a quick fix for lack of AoE and damage in general.
Edit: One thing to note as showing how a "bad" set could be good. As mentioned before BS hits hard as hell from Hide. With ATO procs refreshing BU and flipping Hide back on, that burst damage will happen all the more often.
Pros: 0.67 sec Assassin's Strike, entire attack chain by level 8, burst is a guaranteed crit unlike every other AoE (but still not great), Concentrated Strike free build ups are 'fun', utility ranged attack
I've been a tint ninja for many years, and thought up until this point I'd found my counterpart in blades...
Happy to say I was wrong. These super thin carbon blades are Incredible, and paired with a holder that glides over film, it's the perfect combo for unparalleled precision! Well done Tint Studio for facilitating this combination, I encourage everyone to try it out, 100% game changer!
Even when a game is as gleefully stupid as possible, developers are sometimes smart enough to leave room for the player to make it even more so. It's almost inspiring. Case in point: Ninja Blade. The game opens with a unit of ninjas, one of which is you, being dropped from a transport plane into a city that's been infected by Alpha Worms from Space. Or something. None of the ninjas have parachutes. On the way down - slashing enemy flying things who have the misfortune to be passing by - you proceed to land by crashing through the side of a skyscraper and slow the impact by doing a forward roll. That's as sane as it gets. By the end of the level, you've kicked an enormous demolition ball into the boss' equally enormous tendril-covered face.
Which is all mental enough. But then you finish the level, and realise it includes a costume editor. So now, when the high-octane straight-faced lunacy kicks off again, it's starring a fluorescent pink ninja. It only gets worse as you unlock other outfits. I went out the room when a friend was playing and he edited the ninja so he was rocking a scarlet leopard-skin with pink love-hearts all over his sleeves.
There are two sorts of ninjas. There's the sort who are big on hiding and the sort who really aren't. Ninja Blade is the latter. He thinks hiding is what animals are covered in. He's an expert in three weapons - the ancient ninja blades, mystical shuriken and the M60 machinegun. He is, to stress the point, mental. Lunacy is the primary constant. At Ninja Blade's best, it's hilarious, destructive and joyous. Even at its worst, it's often bad in a way that makes you wonder at the sanity of the developer for making whatever decision you're contemplating.
It is... well, let's go with "action game". Action-adventure would probably be the box to tick, but that doesn't quite grasp the entirety of its mood-swing game design. I'd say God of War, if I were to choose a single game, but while it's got all that increasing-combo quick-time event finishing move boss-fighting malarkey, its so fond of the wall-running that it pushes the platforming elements into something that even looks a little like Prince of Persia. And then it's got extended on-rails shooter sections where you're mowing down enemies while your truck or chopper trundles along. And the typically elaborate boss fights. And the quick-time events.
Ninja Blade likes its quick-time events. It's got more than I've seen since Fahrenheit, but they're integrated in a far less painful way. But still incredibly odd. Put it this way. It's like you're typing a paragraph in a review and you make some kind of mistkktsim fo dink emos ekam uoy dna wiever a ni hpargarap a ginpyt er'uoy ekil s'ti os. So it's like you're typing a paragraph in a review and you make some kind of mistake and then it rewinds and you try again with no further conseqeeqesnoc rehtruf on htiw niaga yrt uoy dna sdniwer ti neht dna ekatsim fo dink emos ekam uoy dna wiever a ni hpargarap a ginpyt er'uoy ekil s'ti os. So it's like you're typing a paragraph in a review and you make some kind of mistake and then it rewinds and lets you try again with no further consequences.
That's annoying and strange. As just demonstrated. But oddly, less annoying than the alternative of having to do the whole sequence again. While I suspect this is a total dead-end in game design, this compromise - the QTEs are set to be pretty damn easy on normal difficulty - does allow a developer to keep a tiny fraction interaction in events most games of the type would have as a cut-scene. The normal complaint in a game that runs an awesome video of your character taking down a baddy is, "Well, great - why can't I do it?" Ninja Blade's extended sequences of Dragons Lair-style action at least keep you slightly involved as the protagonist. Given the choice, I'll take this.
Currently my situation is I'm using a Nikon D5200 plus a BMPCC that has just arrived with future upgrading plans of maybe perhaps getting a Panasonic GH4 in a few months from now. (slim possibility it might be instead a Sony A7S, or even a Samsung NX1. Could even be something that hasn't be released yet! I'm in no rush, I'll wait and see) So whatever I'm picking should be suited for what I've got now (& in the near future).
I'm leaning towards getting the Atomos Ninja Blade (it is worth it over the cheaper Ninja 2???), for a few reasons (let me know if they're good reasons or not! I'm just presuming here): a) I'm thinking using SSDs could be better than SD cards in the BMPCC (though not being able to record CinemaDNG raw to SSD is a pity)b) having the ability to tag good/bad takes on set with AtomosOS seems like it could be a big time saver when doing rush edits. c) no time recording limit with the Nikon D5200 (if I got just a monitor, I expect I'd then get a Blackmagic Design: HyperDeck Shuttle as well. Well, or maybe maybe wait a few months to see if NikonHacker removes the recording time limit on the D5200)
b1e95dc632