Heya,
This is a healing Sampire template that I'm considering trying with some slight mods to add Ninjitsu for Mirror Images.
120 Swords (100 real, 20 gear)
120 Tact (100 real, 20 gear)
120 Parry (110 real, 10 gear)
120 Bushido (110 real, 10 gear)
100 Necromancy (100 real)
100 Healing (100 real)
100 Anatomy (100 real)
It's a solid template that is extremely survivable already vs most monsters, especially champ spawn clearing with a good mana leech/area damage slayer weapon. It's solid against bosses too, but as you know they can hit for a metric ton sometimes so 150 life becomes 20 life in the blink of an eye sometimes. note: travel is from runebooks, you never fizzle a runebook recall with scrolls despite having no magery. Also, no chiv, EoO gives no bonus since the gear/skills already hit the 300% cap with the appropriate slayer. Likewise no need of consecrate weapon due to the right slayers being used which is great since there is no -20% defense penalty either. Vamp form negates most poison so in the end Chivalry was ditched and not missed at all. All skills have a minimum of 100 real skills because of how the mechanics work in giving the slight bonus for having 100+, they don't count gear. Also no real skill is 120 real which makes swapping skills with soulstones between characters easy.
About mirror images, they randomly absorb incoming damage sometimes, even vs bosses. 20 skill is the minimum Ninjitsu skill needed to cast mirror images and at 40 there is no fizzle. My question is will those mirror images carry their weight? I'd have to shoehorn more skill onto the already intense gear and perhaps drop healing a little for the rest to get mirror images. I might shave off dex from the ring since I hit 1.25 speed even without it and have 150 dex on the template. Healing speed works on 20 dex increments so removing 8 wouldn't change heal speed. I'd end up with 35 Ninjitsu with 80 healing + a ring change. I typically swap out anat for resist where resist is needed but that's needed in surprisingly few places.
Here's a video of mirror images working on a champ boss, the guy has Chiv but I hit the same boss for the same amount without it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb8HQAHUGVk Thoughts? You can see several mirror images biting the dust in the vid.
With only 40 Ninjitsu the damage won't be reflected often (90% at 120 skill, not sure about 40 skill). Also, only useful for physical damage, the rest doesn't transfer. 100 Anat gives a big damage boost and healing works with it to give massive healing when you miss or are running away. I really don't want to spend a ton to change the gear only to find out 40 ninjitsu isn't worth it, Sampy gear has already cost me more than I care to admit!
Also, I consider healing and anat a good idea while building a sampire until you are at least GM everything AND fully geared. After that it's a bit expensive skill wise since it becomes less and less useful when you do more damage and leech more life. I already swap healing for resist on occasion(doom), would swapping healing and anat for resist and ninjitsu be worthwhile? Besides the mirror images I just don't see much benefit to Ninjitsu on a sampire. I also don't know if the mechanics would check for a mirror image deflection BEFORE or AFTER a check to see if I counter attack. I run with ZERO DCI(don't need 20% to counter Chiv effects if you don't have Chiv!) to get more counter attacks since DCI block checks happen before a counter attack check in the damage calculations. Counter attack is a huge damage bonus that doesn't count against the swing timer, which means more life/mana on a sampire, but if deflect check happens first I lose out on that regen... food for thought.
Hmmmm - Ninjitsu focus attack, forgot about it...
Provides a Damage Increase and an increased chance for 'Hit' properties (Hit Lower Defense, Hit Mana Leech, Hit Harm, etc.) on your weapon to trigger for a single attack. These bonuses are increased by your Ninjitsu skill.
Thinking out loud, err in writing here, Double Strike or Armor Ignore use up more mana, especially with the 3 second mana penalty on AI, how does a focus attack compare? More leech from the weapon, with some added DI, sounds good but how does it compare? Haven't tried it yet.
On stratics someone said that HML(and all hit spells) double the chance at 120 ninjitsu skill. That would put HML at 100% on your weapon for one hit. If the weapon has 62% HML and you toggle focus attack is that enough to hit 100% from just 100 ninjitsu skill? Somehow I don't see Focus Attack quite comparing to double hit or armor ignore or it would be used more, right?