Ninjala: Trick Ball - Team Battle | Ranked (Vanguard)

Описание: The sixth video on Ninjalas Ranked Mode, passing it over the second kit for the variant Yo-yo's, the Trick Ball

(Footage is pre-patch 1.2)

Battle Equipment:
Gum Weapon: Trick Ball (No skin)
Shinobi Card(s)

[Sudden Burst] - Total Cost: 14
Life Recovery
S-Energy Replenish

[Starting Dash] - Total Cost: 16
Movement Speed+
Damage Down

(Levels not available)

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Since patch 1.2 has gone live Ninjala itself hasn't really changed much. The Dragon Lord and Ninja Tornado have definitely had a noticeable and welcome shift in power since their damage increase, same for the Yo-yo Class with its ability nerf, however the actual state of play hasn't shifted too much.

As I mentioned in the update video this buff was a bit of a let down overall, however I'll use this description to better specify topics I didn't touch on in the video itself.

Firstly, by no means were the changes made in this patch bad ones. The Dragon Lord and Ninja Tornado previously required targets to be at around 50% of there max HP to get an IPPON in the first place, with the Dragon Lord being even more difficult, only locking onto a single target with a small AOE on impact. They were highly situational, especially with the current Gamemode Ninjala uses rushing situations and forcing use of these abilities for efficiency. The Gamemode in question being matches played over a set time instead of off an objective.

Because of this and the fact that Ninjutsu charge over time using them felt encouraged as not to miss out on at least gaining a second one, or possible third in the Dragon Lords case. However if you couldn't find a proper situation to use them one might end up running in, dealing damage but not actually KO'ing an opponent to get an IPPON, greatly diminishing their worth.

The Yo-yo Leap warp getting a damage decrease was also a plus since the weapon could kill at roughly 70%+ health, enough to KO off a single combo string in some cases. Also, the Yo-yo leap warp is an AOE move, and while its much harder to actually perform in crowds of opponents if one managed to get it through and use it the total damage spread let alone KO potential was quite high.

But among all of those welcome fixes there was still one worrying issue, that being the focus on both Drones and Players instead of Player versus Player. While yes, it is nice to have more options to use Specials on as not to waste them like mentioned earlier I have a feeling that Ninjala may face a bit of a Drone problem, I'll refer to the KO'ing of Drones as Eco from now on.

For starts, combat simply isn't reliable. Whether its the chance of activating a Parry or certain weapons having inconsistent combos (or simply lag itself) combat can often feel far less than worth either the time or effort, especially since failure leads to giving your opponents points. However when it comes to gaining points I've encountered that defeating drones feels more valuable than going after other players for points.

For example, if someone focuses on Eco for a game, and they know the optimal combos to take out drones with clear routes to the next one they can end up scoring nearly 10k+ by the end of the match, something I have rarely if yet to see any offensive Player in a solo queue do. It may be why the Eco is so important, killing drones is a role and often killing the drone killer is a roll, but should Eco take so much more presidency over the games actual combat, the thing advertised next to stealth in most of the promo content?

It had at first seemed like Drones were made for helping to upgrade weapons to their final states and in honesty its fine that they reward points, it's another aspect of the game, but it often feels as if they rule the points instead at least running even with IPPONS and KO's.

Maybe its just Ninjala's current state, combat once again can be so finicky that maybe Eco just stands out more because of it and hopefully after some updates and tweaks to the system everything will settle out. It's hard to tell personally. That's all I really wanted to mention on, I hope they keep the team mode in mind next update as only Battle Royale was commented on in terms of drones but nothing about teams.

Lastly, this was an early update, I'd imagine if they had any interest of remodeling the combat it might take a bit longer, the main issue is how long your remaining players are willing to wait compared to the time it takes to fix it, and this is again a hope. Maybe that's all it is, hopeful wishing, but I could see a really fun combat system in Ninjala as a sort of multiplayer arena fighter, but only time will tell.

(Hit text limit, had to cut some parts)

Thanks for reading, I had wanted to touch on this in the video but the editor isn't the best at dealing with text. I'll try to find another to use (again) so I can prevent from slogging on in the description about issues, video format is far more engaging anyway. Well that's it for now, take care of yourself

Until next time...