Um, sure? 55 mainly gets you the bloodthirsty trait that wrecks clones. You do need at least 50 to get access to the shark summon. But if you don't have either of those, it's sort of viable. Just not very combo effective.

Upgrade Kimimaro asap because he dies like crazy.

I don't think so. Poison can be healed through, it's not like ignition. I actually use a vampire team for Hanzo and that place spams poison for days that you can't cleanse on the hardest difficulties.

Shizune and Karin means you're using two healers as your offense which Midnight Blade can annihilate with his combo, which ends in ignition from Guy so it reduces your healing. There's not much threat in the meantime coming from healers and Sakura can clear high poison stacks.

Kankuro and Chiyo meanwhile just use puppets. Midnight Blade eats puppets for breakfast with bloodthirsty. This team is also extremely Taijutsu based which is the weakness of any puppet team, relentless damage buffed offense. Even if Kankuro and his clone were behind a tank I just walk right past that tank.

Sakura's the best. She has the correct chases and can on demand clear conditions. And she attacks unlike Kabuto.

You're doing it wrong.

The lineup, as evident by the screenshot, was for the lvl 55 range and features strong anti-clone powers. Again via the screenshot all of clones, Ignite and Hinata were present against my opponent. Yet I ended up with almost complete health from the stacking restores of Guy and Main as well as the condition clears of Sakura. Targeted burst is frequently directed at Sakura or Main yet they survive it and restore to full. Midnight Blade deals plenty of "area damage" with Lightning Armor and Bloodthirsty.

FYI, I even clear Survival perfectly without casualty on a daily basis using this team.
http://forum.naruto.oasgames.com/en/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=3154

This team remains viable in survival even at lvl 73. Targeted destruction rarely occurs turn 1. Either the Lightning Main has begun his armored rampage and started some combos that slay a character turn 1 or Sakura has cleansed off debuffs, allowing Guy to interrupt whatever jutsu the opposition drops (restoring his health in the process) while Lightning does his thing (getting full health yet again, condition immune). By turn 3 the team is still alive and Kimimaro is restoring himself to full health.

You're failing to understand how Timing works. You can't begin the turn with Ignition effects unless you're up against Playboy Sasuke or Itachi. As such, any damage taken the previous turn can be restored on the following. Sakura merely exists to ensure that's possible. If she dies turn 2 or 3, who cares? You've already unleashed at least two combos on the enemy team and defeated a ninja or two.

Not at all saying it's a pro build for late tier play when Lightning mains no longer are OP and condition immunity takes precedent. But it's a * good one early on and even better for survival. This post was last edited by Kyutaru at 2016-9-11 01:43

Exactly as I said, doing it wrong. Try not fighting people stronger than you are or learn when to use your cleanse. By the time people have Tobi, this team is already being swapped out for others OR you're in the mid-game and tanky enough to survive an ignite combo. You don't need to get rid of ignite, you need to restore your health next turn -- i.e. you don't start the next turn with Ignite. Guy being in the 3rd spot is due to Fire/Wind mains, Sasukes, and Kakashis almost always being spot 3-4 guys. Those are the ones you go after, the BACK ROW supports that have pathetic defense and will restore more of your health than some front row tank. You're not going to be interrupting Tobi even if you go before him so don't even try. You can however stop Dragon Flame Jutsu from going off.

You don't need the heal from Sakura, that's the point of a leech team. Likewise, if your ninjas are dying to a single combo turn 2 then you are failing at the stats game. If you're facing stronger opponents then why are you using this team in the first place? Taijutsu teams are not for control and counterplay, they're for aggressive rush and efficient moves. Like I already said, you're describing a meta that exists post level 60, not the one this team takes on.

By midgame this remains effective only in Survival and Ranked and considering the entire point of Survival is to crush those weaker than you without losing much health in the process I'm sure you can understand why. But by all means, don't check post dates before commenting... this team is over a month old and was the dominating presence in Battlefields because of the weak condition game, lack of gold summons, superiority of Lightning main damage, and stacking attack/leech buffs. It remains usable in Survival due to the ignorance of Artificial Intelligence.

If your whole rant was "This has a hard time against Fire mains!" then I could have ended with "Brilliant deduction, Sherlock" but it's kind of a recurring theme with Lightning already. Four out of five mains it doesn't have an issue with, counters other lightning mains with its leech, and still handles Fire mains if the stats are equivalent and it's not a bloody acupuncture combo with gold snakes.
This post was last edited by Kyutaru at 2016-9-11 02:16

Sharp spear is already what you're supposed to use. I don't know why you're using la giri.

The combo begins with any High Float which Kimimaro, Main, or Guy can cause. Which leads to Kimi chase, Sakura chase, Main sharp spear chase (paralysis), Shark summon, Guy chase (ignition). So a 6-hit combo with paralysis and ignition. Bloodthirsty is mainly for clones and to finish off low healths who survive the combo. Plus attacking more leeches more. Kimimaro blocks attacks often and by turn 3 when he's low on health his Bone Forest attack will heal him massively.

The main advantage of the team is the two stacking leech effects which makes any taijutsu-based damage restore health. It's less about max damage and more about whittling down the enemy one combo at a time. It does have two +30% dmg buffs to taijutsu though. This post was last edited by Kyutaru at 2016-9-20 07:09