Return. Again, this is just opinion... and again, apologies for the bad formatting. It was copypasted into the forum.

This particular post refers to characters obtained in the early game.

Shikamaru Nara (The Lazy Guy)

How to get: Level 20 Elite Instance

• + He can cause Immobile, which is one of the more powerful Debuffs

• + He has a chase that can cause Immobile.

• + Solid starter utility character

• + If performed well, his Mystery can be very effective.

• - He has low damage, and is kinda squishy.

• - He is kind of hard to use.

  - His Immobile chase doesn’t cause any effects, so it can’t be comboed off of
  

My rating: 5.5/10

Shikamaru is a solid character, but you have to make a team that fits him and his abilities in order to be strong with him. Because of this, using him in a team that doesn’t fit him makes it a lot tougher for you to play the game. However, when paired with Ino he can be a very potent force.

Ino Yamanaka (*insert some witty comment about flowers here*)

How to get: Level 20 Elite Instance

• + She can cause Chaos, which is, in my opinion, the BEST debuff in the game.

• + When fully upgraded, her heals remove Debuffs.

• + She can dodge attacks, which raises her survivability

• - She can only chase opponents who are Asleep or Immobile, which means you need to have teammates that can cause Sleep and Immobile.

• - Her healing isn’t the best

• - No other useful chases

• - Pitiful damage - deals practically nonexistent damage

My rating: 6/10

To use Ino, it is absolutely necessary to use another debuff-making character like Shikamaru or Tayuya. If you can make a good team with her it’ll do pretty well, but otherwise she’s not that useful. I've heard that in higher level Ninja Exams she has some nice uses though.

Choji Akimichi (Big Eater)

How to get: Level 20 Elite Instance

• + He heals a bit every turn

• + He gets stronger whenever he heals, so in the fifth or sixth round he’ll be a powerhouse who deals a lot of damage. In theory.

• + When upgraded, his Standard Attack hits three enemies in the front row, allowing him to easily wipe out things like Naruto clones

• - His Mystery has a high cooldown and is weak

• - He doesn’t have enough Health and Defense to be a true tank, but his damage is bad.

My rating: 2/10

Choji’s problem is his lack of niche. You can’t use him as a tank because he’s kind of squishy, but you can’t use him to deal damage because his damage is poor. So there’s no place to really use him right now. Plus, in the early game you will quickly get Hinata, who is a much better tank.

Kiba Inuzuka (The Furry)

How to get: Level 20 Elite Instance

• + He summons Akamaru to his side

• + Both him and Akamaru are nicely tanky and can protect those behind him.

• + When Akamaru is alive, his Mystery does moderate AOE damage

• - After Akamaru dies, his Mystery is heavily weakened and is expensive for its low damage

• - His damage is bad

• - His mystery is non-prompt, which means that he can’t use his Mystery and a Standard attack in the same turn. If he activates a Mystery, then he won’t do a Standard attack that turn.

My rating: 4/10

Okay, so Kiba’s very very useful at level 20 (especially against Zabuza if you get stuck on that Battle on the Bridge), but around level 30 or 40 you should replace him. He needs Akamaru to be useful in a team, but Akamaru is often killed pretty fast.

Hinata Hyuga (Nardo's Waifu)

How to get: Level 20 Elite Instances

• + Her mystery basically makes your team immune to Standard attacks for 1 turn

• + When fully upgraded, she is very hard to kill and is pretty tanky.

• + Her Chase causes Acupuncture

• - Her damage is bad.

• - Her Mystery has a high cooldown.

My rating: 8.5/10

Okay, Hinata is one of the BEST low level characters. Some people still use her even in high level teams. She has the amazing ability to make your team immune to most Standard attacks every couple turns, which allows her to protect her team and prevent a huge amount of damage. Keep her. Use her. Upgrade her. She’s really good in the long run.

(Of course, unless you're a newbie you probably already knew that xD)

Shino Aburame (The Bug Guy)

How to get: Level 20 Elite Instances

• + Can steal Chakra with his Mystery

• + Can stop opponent’s Mystery with his Standard Attack. This sounds more useful than it actually is though.

• + Creates an Insect Clone, which is somewhat tanky

• + Is kinda tanky himself

• - He has no chases.

• - Some of his Passive abilities aren’t that useful, like the Chakra stealing one.

• - He’s supposed to get stronger when the enemy has no Chakra, but I’ve never seen this happen. I think it’s a glitch.

My rating: 1/10

He’s a kinda tanky character, and he can kinda disrupt people. But why would you use him, when you have Hinata, who is a much better tank?

(To be honest I really like Shino as a character in the anime, and it really *s that he *s in the game)

Haku (The OG Trap)

How to get: Finish Plot Instance chapter 2

• + Has a AOE Mystery with nice damage

• + Deals 30% more damage to all opponents.

• + Can create Barriers, allowing him to buff his allies if they are the Water element.

• - He cannot kill opponents.

• - His chase is repulse to low float, which is one of the most awkward chases in the game.

• - He is squishy and needs to be protected.

• - His Acupuncture skill isn’t very useful.

My rating: 5/10

Haku will probably be your first Barrier-creating character, and he's kinda solid just thanks to his damage output. If you're not Water main, ditch him once you get a barrier unit of your element; however, for Water Mains he's a solid character for things like Nine Tails... that is, until you get someone like Mei or Darui.

Rock Lee (The Bruce Lee Noises Guy)

How to get: Elite Instance level 30

• + His Mystery allows him to attack twice per round. It has no cost when he’s upgraded.

• + He has great damage and will cause lots of critical hits

• + His chase causes Ignite.

• - He can be easily countered by Hinata, who is probably quite common.

• - He is very squishy.

  - Doesn't have a unique ability - other characters have passives that give them two attacks, so why does his MYSTERY do that?

My rating: 5/10

Rock Lee is a lot of fun to play, but after a while a lot of people start using Hinata. Since Hinata pretty much makes Rock Lee useless in a fight, it can be hard to use him. Additionally, there are a lot of other characters who attack twice per round every time (like Sakon/Ukon, or Suigetsu), which makes him easily replaceable.

Sometime later, however, Rock Lee will get a Skill Breakthrough that allows his Mystery to make him attack a whopping FOUR times in one round. That’s frickin’ huge… so when that comes out, Rock Lee will definitely be better.

Neji Hyuga (Tryhard Perfectionist... then came Character Development)

How to get: Elite Instance level 30

• + His Mystery causes Acupuncture, making him a nice utility character

• + He is somewhat tanky.

• + At the first turn, he has a high chance to dodge attacks if he’s in the front row.

• + He has the Taunt ability in the front row, so if you put him in the front, the opponents must attack him instead of the other characters.

• - His Taunt ability only lasts for 1 turn

• - He isn’t as tanky as Hinata.

My rating: 6.5/10

Neji is a great early to midgame utility character. Acupuncture is one of the most useful debuffs in the game if it’s used well, and because of this Neji is a good choice for the trickier early game instances like The Inherited Will or Maiden's Genjutsu. He is a solid tank, but he sacrifices a bit of health for acupuncture compared to Hinata.

Additionally, he becomes less useful around level 65 as you get access to better characters with acupuncture.

Tenten (No comment)

How to get: Elite Instance level 30

• + Her Mystery deals heavy AOE damage

• + She can improve her entire team’s Critical Hit Rate for a short time.

• + She can cause High Combo with her mystery.

• - Her Mystery has a high Battlefield cooldown so you can’t use it until Round 3

• - Her damage is okay, but many other characters deal more damage than her.

My rating: 5/10

Tenten is useful in certain situations, like in Nine Tails Invasion. But I wouldn’t recommend using her in your main team since she isn’t the best in general and is kinda outclassed by other characters.

Temari (The Fangirl)

How to obtain: Log in for two days

• + She has a cheap AoE mystery.

• + Her chase is Low Float to High Float, making her one of the few low level characters that chase Low Float.

• + She can provide extra chakra at round 1 thanks to her passive “Courage”.

• - Since “Courage” only applies to round 1, it is useless for the rest of the match.

• - She is kind of squishy, though not as much as Sasuke.

• - Overall, she deals low damage.

My rating: 2.5/10

Temari is completely out-classed by Wind Blade Asuma. He can do everything she can, except better. That said, she can kinda be a stand in for Wind Blade until you get him...

Kankuro (Master of Puppets, pulling the strings...)

How to get: Complete Chapter 2 of Plot Instance

• + He will always start a combo with his Standard if his puppet is alive.

• + When fully upgraded, he will deal heavy damage, start a combo, and provide a debuff (poison? I can't remember xD) the entire enemy team.

• + He can cause a lot of Poisoning.

• - His puppet is very squishy

• - He’s very reliant on his puppet being alive. If it’s dead, he can’t do much to help the team.

My rating: 4/10

Kankuro is an okay choice if you don’t want to use Naruto. He’s kind of a tank and kind of a damage dealer, though not the best at either. His only problem is that he NEEDS his puppet to be alive if he is going to contribute to the team at all. Without it, he's kinda screwed.

Usable in early-game, though around level 40-50 I'd recommend getting rid of him.

Again... thoughts?