SAMURAI SHOWDOWN

[MagiusNecros]

The question I ask you is either as a Tank or DPS what can a Samurai offer to the table that is unique and fresh and not a slight alteration of other abilities in the game possessed by other classes?

Gonna ask this again. What can SAM offer that isn't already there. And simply won't be popular new job of expansion pack.

[Shurrikhan]

Gonna ask this again. What can SAM offer that isn't already there? And simply won't be popular new job of expansion pack.

Literally anything that isn't already there.

• Free-sequence ("open combo") weaponskills.
• Skill-altering oGCDs - Already present in NIN poison stances and DRG Life- and Power Surge, albeit minimally.
• Special/"named" Effects According to Sequence - already present in Mudra oGCDs, but now also through weaponskills, though perhaps still released through a CDed or resource-consuming oGCD, e.g. Twisting Dragon, Dragon Fang, (Battou), [Release], Ivy Cut -> <|Horizon's Divide|>
• Variable cleaves - Split damage, with bonus damage per mob to be hit, tapering off (perhaps while increasing TP costs up to double).
• Situational AoEs - Even "AoE" abilities may have additional, even single-target, uses.
• Stackable DoTs - Think "Ignite"... [a percentage of] the remaining potency from the last DoT is added to the new over the refreshed duration, while possibly retaining screenshotted additional effects and applying them to or stacking them with the new application's.
• Stackable Buffs - Already present in GL, but in this case aiming to achieve notable percentages of Haste or Crit, etc., for a specific rotational string.
• Sappable DoTs - DoT ticks are consumed by [certain] attacks, counting as increased damage on the attack itself.
• Mid-window Skills - After X seconds, deals a sappable DoT based on damage dealt over that duration, increasing vulnerability to your attacks until depleted. Releases, in themselves, function a lot like this.
• Specific Cooldown Manipulation - A stance that causes certain CDs to cool faster generally or from certain attacks or procs; using certain CDs affects others; direct synergy components between CDs.
• Potency as Mitigation - Attacking an enemy leaves diminishes its next attack against you by x damage or [modified] potency.
• Evasion or Deflection as tappable resource pools - a tactical, manipulable resource economy of parry and dodge.
• Mitigation as Damage Transfer - Continuing a portion or set potency of an enemy attack onto an enemy on the far side of you)
• Charge Systems - Carry three charges of a guaranteed parry skill, each with a 30-second cooldown. [Perhaps the more closely two charges are used to each other (within 15 seconds), the longer the latter charge's cooling takes.]
• Mixed Charge Systems - For instance, imagine if the above natural cooling supported only two charges, but another system was also consumable to power this ability when all charges are down, allowing potentially far more consecutive uses.
• Creating Resources through Weaponskills - Already present in Wrath/Abandon, but now more specific, e.g. <Blader> creates charges of [Steel Cage], consumable either for debilitation (unlocked via another Release) or mitigation (see above).
• Blink Strikes - Teleporting to the far, close, left, or right side of the enemy, or any mixture of the two, based on WASD/joystick commands mid-blink, during a specific attack.
• Ghosting - Enemies attacking you attack where you were for X seconds, or instead attack an afterimage or Decoy that you've left of yourself for up to X seconds or the unit's health. Possibly usable for dodging scripted cleaves.
• Weaponskill "Builds" - Each sequence of weaponskills builds a buff specific to that sequence, which in turn indirectly favors other sequences (perhaps even including the same sequence, to a specific/situational stacking point of that buff), allowing for macro-rotation.
• <I could do this all day...>