My Vision for the Perfect Samurai
for me, The Samurai is the embodiment of the Fantasy of a Swordmaster, who becomes one with the Battlefield by having total control about what they can achieve while showcasing a Masterful display of the Way of the Sword.
In Gameplay the Samurai's Kit is about Discovery and Mastery (or at least it supposed/used to be). What do I mean with this? The Samurai should have the option to decide what to do, not just to attack or not but also what to hit or not. Practicly, you're in an Single Target Situation, you do the Single Target Skill and when you're in an AoE Situation, you use the AoE Skill.
Endwalker Launch Samurai perfectly depicted that Fantasy of Discovery and Mastery
mastering Shinten and Kyuten,
Sen'ei and Guren,
aswell as Shoha and Mumyo Shoha
and discovering Ogi Namikiri as Double Slice Buster Conal Attack.
Dawntrail ruined that. Shoha is Geirskogul Now with no nuance or option and Ogi Namikiri is still old Ogi Namikiri with no Single Target Counterpart.. which could've been Cloud's Cross Slash btw! but no.
and how does Kaiten play in all of this? well Kaiten is the Mastery over all Weaponskills of the Samurai, especially Iaijutsu.
My Vision for the Perfect Samurai, Part 2
Now with my Point of View of how the Samurai of FFXIV should work, what would my Dawntrail Samurai look like?
First off Kaiten would've returned at lvl52 and would've gotten the Tendo Buff on lvl100 instead of Meikyo Shisui.
Cone Tenka Goken would've returned.
Mumyo Shoha would've returned and the First Shoha would've gotten an Ranged Attack Perk, because even though I hate Line AoE Shoha, I love the Animation turning Shoha into a Ranged Attack is the Best of Both Worlds because that way we can keep the cool animation while being true to Shoha's Original Design. +Come on! charging up targetted Shockwave directly to display Sword Mastery is just amazing! Compared to Geirskogul on Samurai.
Ikishoten would've turned Shinten into Sen'ei and Kyuten into Guren
Ogi Namikiri would've shared it's Cool Down with a Single Target Alternative, mastering the Ogi Technique.
about Zanshin.. honestly idk, I would categorize Zanshin as Discovery Skill, means 8.0 would add an Single Target Variant and we're good. Though! I would remove the Kenki Cost of Zanshin since Zanshin already requires Zanshin Ready to work, so it eating up Ikishoten's Kenki boost is redundant.