Is Onslaught a joke?

[Ogulbuk]

Onslaught is a resource based gap closer, like SAM's Gyoten. It has a cost to offset the negligible recast. The point is to increase uptime on demand, not potency. Part of the reason why you see no SAM complaints on this issue is because most melee dps would understand the value of sacrificing a small amount of potency in the short term to avoid missing a GCD ability.

If you reduced the cost by even 10, it would become more resource efficient than Fell Cleave. Even as it is, under Berserk + IR, there are certain GCDs under which Onslaught is more resource efficient (basically, if FC replaces any GCD other than HS in the window). The balance is fairly tight.

I dont know about SAM, but on war, wasting 20 BG on this "to not waste a cooldown" means you now got to go through a full combo rotation to recover. That is 3 GCDs to get back to the point you were in before.

Maybe if I just executed Maim and had the option to execute Storm Path, but the enemy ran away or something, THEN using that 20 may be a wash by Onslaught in, and get that 20 back, but this is already crazy situational, demanding positional changes in the field at the same time as you are in a very specific combo step.

If this must cost a resource, it should have higher potency. If there is worry about it being too much potency while in dps stance, then just make it something like 150 potency and have it ignore Defiance penalty.

Better: Keep the current cost, but when in Defiance it will cost no BG and grant 10 BG (if you stance dance, you automatically lose 5 BG.)

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

I dont know about SAM, but on war.

It's a similar cost at 10 Kenki. Using both the out/in dashes will cost you 20, which you'll not only need to land a full 3 step combo, you'll also have to make sure you get the positional on the 3rd or you'll need a fourth! At 10 for the dash in, you'll need one or two GCD to recover from the loss, depending on what step you're on in your combo, you're landing a positional, or stabbing with Yuki. Both dashes also only deal 100 damage, but they save time on movement if you need to either dodge an AoE or quickly get to an add to burst down.

[Ogulbuk]

It's a similar cost at 10 Kenki. Using both the out/in dashes will cost you 20, which you'll not only need to land a full 3 step combo, you'll also have to make sure you get the positional on the 3rd or you'll need a fourth! At 10 for the dash in, you'll need one or two GCD to recover from the loss, depending on what step you're on in your combo, you're landing a positional, or stabbing with Yuki. Both dashes also only deal 100 damage, but they save time on movement if you need to either dodge an AoE or quickly get to an add to burst down.

Does not sound like a very efficient use of their resource, then, but they may not have as much potency invested in their resource. War BG consumers are quite stronger than the third step of a combo, so using BG for other things is a big sacrifice.

Butcher's Block is 280.
Inner Beast (50 bg) is 350 and ignores stance damage penalty.
Fell Cleve (50bg) is 500

Delaying those by a full combo rotation to save a second of running is a big no-no in my book.

I'm just gazing at SAM combos. Their strongest 3rd step is 400 potency, none of their consumers is that strong, although they seem to be instant use abilities off GCD. Their faster combo builder is a 2 GCD, though, fastest War builder is 3 GCDs. All in all: seems its a way bigger cost for the War to waste it's resource on this than it's for SAM.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

I'm just gazing at SAM combos. Their strongest 3rd step is 400 potency, none of their consumers is that strong, although they seem to be instant use abilities off GCD. Their faster combo builder is a 2 GCD, though, fastest War builder is 3 GCDs. All in all: seems its a way bigger cost for the War to waste it's resource on this than it's for SAM.

As a general rule of thumb, 5 Kenki is equivalent to 60 potency of damage. Their biggest spenders are an 800 potency oGCD, a 50% buff to the next weaponskill used, and a 300 potency oGCD attack. Mismanagement of Kenki can result in a massive delay of a 1,080 pot Midare, 1,410 pot Higanbana, and in the worst case scenario, delaying an 800 pure potency attack by as much as 7 GCD. This doesn't factor in that most of your big GCD attacks, namely Iaijutsu, also don't generate kenki on their own, so delaying those with no Hagakure is also a DPS loss.

You also forget to mention that their fastest combo builder only builds up 15 kenki, rather than the 20 of the other, stronger combos, making it much weaker.

[Shippuu]

It's a similar cost at 10 Kenki. Using both the out/in dashes will cost you 20, which you'll not only need to land a full 3 step combo, you'll also have to make sure you get the positional on the 3rd or you'll need a fourth! At 10 for the dash in, you'll need one or two GCD to recover from the loss, depending on what step you're on in your combo, you're landing a positional, or stabbing with Yuki. Both dashes also only deal 100 damage, but they save time on movement if you need to either dodge an AoE or quickly get to an add to burst down.

It is not a similar cost at 10 Kenki because SAM has many ways to generate Kenki, as every single move that uses the GCD generates Kenki, on top of being able to convert Sen into Kenki, and build it without a target in combat with Meditate. You talk about 5 Kenki = 60 potency, so a SAM's Gyoten is indeed at a DPS loss of only 20 potency, compared to the WAR equivalent, where 10 Gauge = 100 Potency, as Fell Cleave is 500 potency for 50 gauge, so you're losing 100 potency. On top of this, your dash out, dash in example is incredibly flawed as such. Using simply Yaten and then Gyoten is 20 Kenki for 200 potency, at a 40 potency loss, but you completely ignore the fact Yaten enhances their ranged attack Enpi, boosting it to 300 potency, on top of Enpi generating 10 Kenki. So for 1 GCD, when properly using Yaten, Enpi, Gyoten, you've only spent 10 Kenki, and done a combined 500 potency of damage.

You're trying to compare SAM and WAR, which is fine because SAM basically has the same resource system (on top of also having WAR's old stack resource system in a slightly different way). But SAM's version of it is far, far better than what WAR got stuck with in every single way, and has virtually zero abilities that are as wasteful as WAR's Onslaught.