Samurai 5.0 changes, feedback/suggestions

[Sylvain]

I've been playing Samurai since 4.0, (played NIN in HW) and I've really loved how it plays. The only thing I can complain about it right now is that it doesn't do enough dps to compete w/ the other melee's utility. Other than that it's fun and satisfying to play!

I agree, we had a SAM in our static group and while she performed very well, had very decent parse etc etc, we all agreed, that was a tad bit too low compared to what others could do a bring. We had very high hope in 4.4 fr, but hey, it was better than nothing I guess

-Hagakure being replaced by a CD that gives you a flat 50 kenki at no cost. While this is a buff to our actual dps, hagakure was what made SAM's rotation interesting. It was perfect for managing sen. Coming back to the boss after downtime/starting a dungeon pull with 2 to 3 sen is really clunky.

I think the reasoning is that Shinten feels less impactful than Midare. Many new player playing SAM didn't understand the use of Hagakure because in their eyes, Shinten < Midare.
In other words, they don't see how strong the fact that it was an ogcd is. This lead to many SAM under performing (yes, I agree, they could read a guide).
From my experience with virtually everyone who attempted SAM casually (like, not as a main job), nearly everyone didn't get the point of that CD and were always "but isn't it better to do Midare?"

So this was done, I believe, to make SAM feel more... intuitive. Everyone starting the job understand the importance of keeping the buffs and DoT up, that positional = kenki = more damage (altough many don't even notice it). But there's one thing that elude most new SAM, and it was Hagakure.

So yes, it will make the rotation less interesting, and that's unfortunate. But I don't think it's a bad change, like increasing Astral/Umbral stance duration from 12s to 15s will make the rotation/management more simple for BLM, I welcome the change if that means more BLM not shying away.

-Seigan still exists. It's such a minor dps gain, and having to be damaged to use it is silly imo. I would rather it be removed.

Well this one is a tricky one. On one hand, you can't realistically make it hit too hard as it would mean SAM performe better in high damage situation.
Removing it would also make Third Eye only "combo" into Mercifull Eye which is fine for solo play but that's about it...
I don't know what they could do with it, buff it and it's broken (or worse, you need to take it into account into your dps rotation meaning that SAM underperform in easy fight), nerf it and it's not even useful.
Perhaps turning it more into a utility tool would be a great solution or giving more combo options.
Like making Merciful Eye an AoE with a 1min CD. I mean, that would have been quite useful on OS12 during HW or Bog... (it's not like Seigan was a game changer anyway)

-How shoha functions. The ability is super underwhelming especially for how cool the animation is. The amount of times you can get a full meditate off is pretty rare, and I don't like the idea of a skill that gets better if there's more downtime. There's a lot of suggestions on how to fix this skill in this thread: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...rai-Lv80-Skill.

One thing I want to suggest is having meditate being reworked. Instead of it being a channeled ability to use during downtime, it could just be a buff that works similarly. It could give kenki, and stacks that last until you use shoha, or just allow you to use it a flat potency. The amount of kenki you get per tick might need to be adjusted, but the ability would be more useful overall. Also the red glow could cover the katana after meditate is over, and would go away as you use shoha. That would be super satisfying as a level 80 skill.

I agree that it's a very underwhelming lv80 skill, as ... not usable in most fight.
Personally I think the best would simply be to tie it to the main rotation on top of its current effect. For instance, every time you complete a combo sequence you get a stack. (or whenever you use Laijutsu). Making it usable when there are no downtime.
And then on top of it you can use meditation during downtime.

[Gemina]

Many new player playing SAM didn't understand the use of Hagakure because in their eyes, Shinten < Midare.
In other words, they don't see how strong the fact that it was an ogcd is. This lead to many SAM under performing (yes, I agree, they could read a guide).
From my experience with virtually everyone who attempted SAM casually (like, not as a main job), nearly everyone didn't get the point of that CD and were always "but isn't it better to do Midare?"

I'm not a new player playing SAM, but I am a new SAM. I literally got my SAM to 70 about a week before early access and got to play around with Hagakure before the change. I can't speak for all new SAMs, but I can say Shinten is godsend since SAM doesn't have a whole lot of offensive ogcds to weave between weaponskills. I don't run parsers or anything like that, but I could just feel my DPS suffering if I held onto Kenki for the sake of boosting Madare. So hopefully that let's you know that not all new SAMs see Madare as the end all be all of SAM. Especially after acquiring skills like Guren.

What I didn't like about Hagakure was that it ate whatever amount of Sen you had built up, where I would have preferred that the ability was proc based and available so long as you had a Sen to eat, and would only consume one. That was the update I was hoping for before all the information was released, and was perfectly fine if the amount of Kenki generated was reduced as a result of this change. Instead we get free 50 Kenki every 60 seconds. It's less than flattering and I feel it was a lazy change, but the gripes end there. What ultimately matters is I have plenty of opportunity to weave in Shinten between skills.

[Stormblessed9000]

I actually really like the changes for the most part. My two biggest problems with SB SAM was that runing out of TP when doing AoE was very easy and felt horrible, and that it sometimes felt like you barely got to use Iaijutsu on some fights due to downtime. I know Ikishoten is somewhat controversial, and I would like a sen wipe just for the utility, but in reality you had to use it as a DPS cooldown as part of your rotation rather than as a utility skill.

I don't run parsers or anything like that, but I could just feel my DPS suffering if I held onto Kenki for the sake of boosting Madare. So hopefully that let's you know that not all new SAMs see Madare as the end all be all of SAM. Especially after acquiring skills like Guren.

You should always hold kenki for booing Iaijutsu. A boosted Midare adds 400 potency for 20 kenki (20p/k) and a boosted Higanbana will give 475 potency for 20 kenki (23.75p/k). Shinten only adds 320 potency for 25 kenki (12.8p/k). The only Hissatsu that ever beats the appropriate Iaijutsu is Senei and Guren for single target and AoE respectively. This means that you should never use Shinten or Kyuten unless you know you'll have enough kenki to both boost every Iaijutsu and to use Senei/Guren on cooldown.

[Gemina]

I actually really like the changes for the most part. My two biggest problems with SB SAM was that runing out of TP when doing AoE was very easy and felt horrible, and that it sometimes felt like you barely got to use Iaijutsu on some fights due to downtime. I know Ikishoten is somewhat controversial, and I would like a sen wipe just for the utility, but in reality you had to use it as a DPS cooldown as part of your rotation rather than as a utility skill.



You should always hold kenki for booing Iaijutsu. A boosted Midare adds 400 potency for 20 kenki (20p/k) and a boosted Higanbana will give 475 potency for 20 kenki (23.75p/k). Shinten only adds 320 potency for 25 kenki (12.8p/k). The only Hissatsu that ever beats the appropriate Iaijutsu is Senei and Guren for single target and AoE respectively. This means that you should never use Shinten or Kyuten unless you know you'll have enough kenki to both boost every Iaijutsu and to use Senei/Guren on cooldown.

I should have been more clear. I didn't mean to not boost Midare, I just meant to not hold onto Shenten. The thing is though, you can use it pretty liberally but there are some windows where you shouldn't burn the 25 kenki so Midare's GCD lines up correctly. Post 62, you generate 20 kenki required pretty quickly assuming you're doing your positionals.

[Stormblessed9000]

I should have been more clear. I didn't mean to not boost Midare, I just meant to not hold onto Shenten. The thing is though, you can use it pretty liberally but there are some windows where you shouldn't burn the 25 kenki so Midare's GCD lines up correctly. Post 62, you generate 20 kenki required pretty quickly assuming you're doing your positionals.

Even then, holding off on using Shinten is only a DPS loss if you cap your kenki or if you finish the fight with unspent kenki. Ideally you actually want to hold as much as possible for when party buffs are up while not getting capped. It's also not a terrible idea to have enough saved to Yaten and Gyoten since any gained uptime is worth the small potency loss.