Feedback for Samurai, as requested

I never visit forums, I created an account solely due to how much the Samurai changes bothered me. Even my desire to play the game at all. Before the patch, I was playing every chance I got, doing the various roulette's multiple times a day just for the fun of it, and was very excited for Aglaia.
Throughout Endwalker, I had discussed with my friends how and why I felt Samurai was the most well designed class in the game, feeling nearly flawless. There are various bumps at certain level ranges, and there are certain designs I would prefer or alter for personal preferance, but I wouldn't have classified any of them as outright flaws.
After the changes in this patch, I do not enjoy the class, that I used to consider near perfect, at all. It feels gutted, empty, slow and disconnected

Kenki is a fundamentally important mechanic to the Samurai. It is the near entirety of our OGCDS, with there being only a two exceptions. Shoha, and Meikyo Shisui, which is only an exception due to the removal of Kaiten.
As of now, Kenki is a system that has no use, and could be scrapped entirely while having no effect on the class.
There are three uses of Kenki; Hissatsu: Kaiten, Hissatsu: Senei, and Hissatsu: Shinten.
And two have reduntant AoE variants; Hissatsu: Guren, and Hissatsu: Kyoten.

Shinten / Kyoten : Was always a redundant ability. It was introduced so Samurai had another ability to spend Kenki on when they had an excess of it. This was never necessary, as kaiten could have been used on a standard finisher (Gekko). This is what Warriors did with Berserk at low levels already. It was designed as a bandage for something that wasn't a problem in the first place, which is how it feels to use. When it is the primary usage of Kenki, it's just a 10s cd, with up to 4 charges

Senei : As of now, there is no reason, whatsoever, for Senei to be tied to Kenki. The 2m CD matching Ikishoten makes both cost and generation effects redundant.

Ikishoten : Currently it is an ability that grants one free use of Shinten as long as you have 50 Kenki or less. That is the only thing it does

Ogi Namikiri requires mentioning, as it is arbitrarily attatched to Ikishoten. There is no longer any reason for this to be attatched to Ikishoten, it is now just a 2m cd.

Kaiten : This ability was kenki. You built up both your combo petals, and kenki gauge at the same time, Kaiten was then used to enhance those finishing moves, excess could be used on lesser mechanics, but this is why the gauge exists at all.

This was made extra apparant in Endwalker, with the addition of Ogi: Namikiri. Introducing the idea that every major ability a Samurai does, not just Iaijutsu, should be tied to Kaiten.

Continued below.

This is where I get into Recommended changes to the class.

Instead of removing Kaiten as an ability, they should utilize it more. It should also be changed from a potency enhancer, to ensuring the next weaponskill is a Direct Critical Hit; basically a single charge of the Warrior's Berserk. It was never mandatory that it's effect increase potency directly.

Iaijutsu : Is a GCD casted weaponskill that utilizes Kaiten, no change
Shoha : Should be a GCD casted weaponskill requiring 2 charges, but can store up to 3 and utilizes Kaiten. Can only be used after a combo action Yukikaze, to prevent chains of Kaiten, now hits a primary target with a 60% dropoff to enemies nearby : Shoha 2 should be removed
Senei : Should be a GCD weaponskill with a 60s CD, but utilizes Kaiten. Can only be used after a combo action Getsu (or Ka), to prevent chains of Kaiten, with a 60% dropoff to enemies nearby
Guren: Should be a GCD weaponskill with a 60s CD, but utilizes Kaiten. Can only be used after a combo action Ka (or Getsu whichever the previous one isn't), to prevent chains of Kaiten, with 60% dropoff to enemies nearby
Namikiri : Is a GCD casted weaponskill with a 2m CD that utilizes Kaiten. Should only be usable after a combo action Iaijutsu or Tsubame-Gaeshi, Ikishoten should be removed
Combos like these would give the class a stronger feeling of expansion and continuation of their unique design.

This is why these abilities feel wrong now; both Iaijutsu and Namikiri were designed to be used in combination with Kaiten. Kaiten was removed, so they no longer have the ability that they were designed to work with. Shoha feels like a long build up for something you use in passing. Guren and Shoha 2 are redundant, this fixes that.
Kaiten should be used more, not less, and of course potency would need to be adjusted for the alteration from OGCD to GCD, but otherwise, changing Kaiten to a berserk charge mitigates damage variation, and makes damage more easily predictable, while keeping the spirit of the move.
Kenki Generation would also need to be adjusted accordingly, having enough excess to utilize on a single generic combo finisher, such as Gekko if performed properly. Both Hissatsu: Shinten, and Kyuten should then be removed, as the reason for their design has been accounted for, and fixed.
The problem with removing Kaiten, was that it's the heart of the class. Without it, it becomes empty. I truly hope they consider expanding on it, rather than removing it.

Yeah, I have to disagree with tying so many skills to Kaiten. I love the ability, it's way better than Shinten, but I don't want to have to spam it as much as we spam Shinten now.

And I'd rather keep what oGCDs we have instead of turning them into GCDs. That's what they did with MNK oGCDs, and it's not fun. This would also give us too many high potency GCDs and not enough time to fit them all in buff windows. Just sounds like more change for change's sake, which is how we got into this mess in the first place.

Interesting ideas, but I'm gonna have to agree with YukiB here. They removed nearly all of MNK oGCDs, which in retrospect might not seem like a bad call since Greased Lightning makes their GCD roughly below 2.1s (don't quote me on that, I'm guessing since I'm only at 80)

But without oGCDs, there's no weaving. SAM already feels like a watered down MNK with Kaiten gone, so I don't think making all our best skills be tied to GCD is the right call. It might've worked for RPR, but that job didn't have an established identity other than whatever blueprint had been made from DRG.

Instead, I would propose they bring back the varied kenki costs to the abilities and change the way Ikishoten and Meditation works to make them all contribute to one another in some way shape or form.

WAR already has several skills that change based on a button press, so SAM could follow suit. They have the means to do so.

Ikishoten becomes Ogi Namikiri.
Ikishoten turns Shinten/Kyuten into Senei/Guren.
Third Eye becomes Merciful Eyes.
Third Eye turns Shinten into Seigan.

Meditation can have a unique button like Iaijutsu, changing based on how many stacks it has, thus allowing Shoha 1 and 2 to exist without losing space and making way for other abilities to be added to the resource based on stack number.

Kaiten can be a dh/crit buff on certain skills, that would be nice. I think it should have the added effect of altering our Sen finishers as well as the iai/ogi stuff, though.

That's just something that could be done as a start.

I have to agree with Yuki as well - a big part of what I love about samurai, or at least used to, is the variety and frequency of OGCDs - you lost me when you started talking about changing our OGCDs to be globals.

While we're proposing wish lists, here's what I'd like to see happen with samurai:

- Revert everything from 6.1 except Tenka Goken no longer needing a target (but still put it back to cone).

- Delete Shinten. // Helps with button bloat.

- Remove the cooldown from Senei, make it cost 40 kenki, and lower the potency from 800 to 400 (keeping the 1:10 kenki-to-potency ratio we currently have for ST). // Helps with APM bloat slightly.

- Delete Guren. // Helps with button bloat.

- Increase the cost of Kyuten to 40 kenki and increase its potency from 110 to 175 (176 would be keeping the 1:4.4 kenki-to-potency ratio we currently have for AOE). // Helps with APM bloat slightly.

- Make Ikishoten double the potency of the next Senei (400 -> 800, currently 800) or the next Kyuten (175 -> 350, Guren is currently 500 to first and 250 to the rest), make them cost no kenki, and only grant 25 kenki instead of 50. // Functionally maintains the current burst window.

- Make Ikishoten evolve into Ogi: Namikiri when used. // Helps with button bloat.

- Delete Fuko - leave Fuga as our AOE opener (cone). // More movement is more fun imo, but also, having a circular AOE combo starter to use immediately after a cone Tenka Goken means you're likely out of position since you can't move while casting.

- Remove the target requirement from Fuga. // QOL.

- Revert Third Eye functionality to Seigan days and reintroduce Seigan. // More OGCD variety and raises the skill ceiling.

- Third Eye evolves into Seigan when triggered. // Helps with button bloat (compared to Seigan days).

- Increase the cost of Yaten and Gyoten from 10 to 15. // Movement abilities shouldn't have the same kenki-to-potency ratio as normal spenders. Also a slightly higher cost will make kenki management a little more important.

- Remove the cooldowns from Yaten and Gyoten. // The increased kenki cost is prohibitive enough - no need to for a cooldown as well. Also raises the skill ceiling via situations where the lack of a cooldown could improve uptime if the player is managing kenki accordingly.