I would say drop one of the combos, as many ninjas don't need it much.

Offensively, only ninja that have a CHANCE to cause a status effect (low float, high float, knockdown, repulse or something else) need it. Ninjas that are guranteed to cause it, such as kankuro(most of the time), naruto (if he actually attacks) and a number of others do not need him. Further more, ninjas that can't cause one EVER, such as most healers, baki and tayuya, don't need them (note if the char generate a clone however, you need to know if the clones can cause such a thing, as clone stat is based on summoner stat, so it's possible that you need the stat if the clone need it)

Defensively speaking, anything that can't suffer from those status or is unlikely to don't need them, this often times mean the healer that is tacked on the back, earth main, garra etc.

Now, not needing it for either offensive or defensive ONLY, such as garra or a frontline naruto, it's okish to not have it. But not needing it for either where both of the condition are meet, such as earth main in some config, healers most of the time, it is pretty much useless (note, there is the exception, for example, in case you fight kisame, as he can cause seal attack on your earth main, making you actually need it. But that's rare and in between. Furthermore, kisame combo is hard to stop)

That said, most teams will have 1-2 char that doesn't need combo at all.


As for stat/exp, there is a chart on the post, purple>orange>red in term of return on investment. Unfortunately, you can't very well have a storage locker where you can put them away at.... inventory so limited...

TL;DR:
red>orange>purple>blue>green ALWAYS
keep your orange + nin/atk pen and injury in inventory

Your exp/stat *ysis is wrong. Not in the numbers but in the method.
Specifically, you should not compare it by level, but by experience invested.
Take lv 11 purple, for example, it provides 239 nin for 8964 exp.
For less exp, you can have a lv 8 red, which is 387. Ergo you have more stat for the experience.

Instead, you should compare at exp benchmarks, for example:
100 invested
200 invested
400 invested
800 invested and so on. (since exp required grows more or less exponentially, power of 2 for a chart is a good way to go, 68256, which is the max for red, is only between 51200 and 102400 which is 10th and 11th step after all. Granted, if you just try a few numbers, you will see that higher color is better making a full chart moot)
And you c*e partial levels to give an exact comparison.
For example, take 800 invested on nin, this would be
green 7 + 60/320 = 43+1.125=44.125
blue 6 + 224/312 = 81+8.615=89.615
purple 5 + 296/360 = 125+15.622=140.622
orange 4 + 296/504 = 165+15.270=180.270
red 3 + 368/576 = 217+21.722=238.722

Clearly, for 800 experience invested, red is far better.
After all, experience is our limiting factor and comparing a lv x purple to a lv x red is moot, instead what matters is what stat you can get for a lv y red that you can get for the exp it took to get a lv x purple.

That said, your current chart does have its uses, in that it helps us determine what rune to level next.
Specifically, it goes like:
2 purple, 2 blue, 2 orange, 2 green, 3 purple, 2 red, 3 blue, 3 orange, 3 green, 4 purple, 4 blue, 3 red and so on. This helps us get the max stat out of all our runes for the same exp.

As for the useless stat, while injury is far too bothersome for me to test, I did do a limited test on the *ion and can confirm that it have no noticeable effect. That said, I expect them to have an effect eventually from a fix patch, because they SHOULD, so I'd keep the high colors in inventory all the same. I agree with OP, however, that they should not be used at the moment.

no kidding...


On a side note, does anyone know if you can crit heal? I'm just kinda curious (crit rune is useful regardless to reduce chance enemy crit you, but.... it would be an interesting bit to know...)