Samurai 5.0 Changes

[Eliadil]

There is both great news and bad news with the Sam changes for 5.0

Double Midare can be quite satisfying, I mean... roughly 2400potency in a single GCD can be neat (I expect that the second Midare is meant to be channeled during the GCD of the first one, since it's an ability instead of a Weaponskill. If not it does loose some of its appeal). Single target Guren with 1250Potency is good too, gives us more choice without a huge change.

What does makes me... Curious, to say the least, is the removal of Hagakure (40sec cd) for another one that gives 50kenki and has a 60sec cooldown without the sen removal. Meikyo gets a 60sec cooldown too now, which makes everything line up in theory for raid burst... Or does it ?

I mean, did the old rotation lined up a Midare perfectly every 60 seconds ? I don't recall so. Furthermore, the fact that we're locked without the opportunity to remove extra-Sen does remove a lot of flexibility in the gameplay.

Will it feel really good to line up the whole burst in a trick attack window ? Hell yeah it will.

Will it be almost impossible to do every time if you don't have the exact amount of SkS ? I'm more than certain of it.

Or except if Meikyo's function now is only tied to making sure we get all our Sen at once just for this burst window ? Probably, given its new 60sec cooldown.

I don't really dislike most of the new stuff. Even the new 80 ability (while quite low in potency for what it requires -> A full Meditate) can be usefull sometimes.
Although I'm not sure I like losing a way to perfectly synchronise with your group's burst window even if it means more burst potential on paper.

Sam will not be bad, but it will surely be akward in a lot of group situations now where timing and the ability to sync with your group are really needed.

Also, yeah, 2 or 3 sen opener, even some 1 sen openers will be even more of a pain now because we'll have to use an empty Midare just to "reset" the Sen counter during the start of the fight... Except if they make Sen disappear if we're out of combat for too long. (Meditate could prevent Sen from disappearing, which would make such an amazing use of this ability too).

[Arkenne]

Hopes and wishes for Tsubame-Gaeshi

Sadly, despite being an Ability, Tsubame-Gaeshi cycles along the other Weaponskills.
I was also hopeful to be able to throw it back-to-back altho its true that with a mirrored 1.3s cast that would imply a GCD clipping. But nope, when you use a Weaponskill, Tsubame-Gaeshi cycles too, and when you use Tsubame-Gaeshi, all the Weaponskills cycle along.

I am not even sure you'll be able to comfortably use oGCDs after an Iaijutsu, because when it is true that the casting time will become 0.2 seconds faster, you are now a 2% faster as well... which is not necessarily a bad thing...