@faflec et al., did we ever hear which element tends to have the best melee-focused buffs?
By that I mean stuff that does some or all of the following things that would be incredibly useful for melee fighters:
- Buff Athletics
- Buff Alertness
- Buff Taijutsu or Melee Weapons
- Move quickly through zones to enter melee-range
I know Jiraiya mentioned that the Turtles use some kind of lightning-based superspeed buff and we traded the Pangolin's for another lighting-element buff that did something similar (though much less so in FtD). We've also seen another physical enhancement jutsu in the Lightning section of the Leaf Private Library, though admittedly that's much weaker.
Aside from that, Fire Element has Akane's Flame Aura (which boosts Athletics, not just Taijutsu) and to a lesser extent Basan's Glide and the Fireball Substitution jutsu. Those are apparently the higher end of fire element melee buffs, though, so we're going to have to turn to the other elements for stronger stuff.
Wind Element has some good movement jutsu, though I can't remember if they were the best or second best to Lightning in that regard.
Water Element has at least one good attack buff in Hokai's Mantle, and apparently Jin's family techniques enhance Taijutsu directly. Surging Seas works as a mobility, but that's really a good technique that has mobility options. Something specialized in mobility specifically would perform at a much higher level.
Earth… Earth has HLaM that you could use as a movement technique. Not particularly good at the task though.
Finally, there's that "speed enhancer" dog jutsu that Cantahapuyu adapted for Kakashi. It seemed pretty good, apparently letting him keep up with a dog pack despite being a "so slow" human. No idea what element that is, or if it's even elemental at all.
They also have a scent enhancing jutsu that aides in detecting enemies before they notice you, but we're well coveted on that front with Chakdar. Still, might boost Alertness.
Am I missing anything? Right now it looks like the best melee-buffs are all Lightning and, to a lesser extent, Wind. And like the best stuff all comes from the Seventh Path, though that may be a sample bias from our main source of techniques on the human path being specialized in an element that isn't well suited for this kind of buffs.
