chi wave was meant to be an oh Crap i linked and im gonna die, Wave > run like hell, or a "crap i cant get utsusmei ichi up"
also with Restricted stance, it would be probably one of the best damage mitigating abilities in the game once your skill was capped, it would be far more viable to use then counterstance should you ever draw the attention of anything over VT, counterstance would still be the way to go for anything lower level tho.