Samurai 5.0 changes, feedback/suggestions

[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.