A Nobody's Thoughts on Samurai's 6.1 Iteration

[UnseveredRevna]

I can appreciate that the devs had good intentions and wanted to make SAM "consistently strong," but all these changes have done is make me feel "consistently disappointed." Before the patch went live I was ambivalent to the changes; I wasn't happy to lose Kaiten, but I assumed that the Iaijutsus would have their potencies raised by 15, maybe 25% and the autocrit would preserve Samurai's sensation of 'big hit go boom.' The equalization of their damage between Midare/Namikiri and their combo pieces has swung too far in my opinion; this perceived weakness is so pronounced that the new potency for Namikiri will make it hit for less than a crit Midare would have in 6.0. After going from 5-60k Midares and chasing 88 to 100k Namikiris, seeing Namikiri hit for only 35k at peak feels absolutely awful, and I am left feeling like I have disincentive to even try to play my job well after all the literal years I spent learning how to play it and get the burst under buffs.

My personal wishes/feedback:

1. Bring Kaiten back or not, it isn't as integral to me as I believe it is to others. I preferred having it, but if the removal of Kaiten was truly to make space for future changes, I can accept that.
2. Reshift the potencies again. I would much rather have lower GCD potencies but keep the impact of the burst hits. Surely it is possible to keep SAM's overall DPS in the same ballpark but have it from our now guaranteed crits.
3. My preferred solution to meet both worlds would have been to remove the potency buff from Kaiten, slightly enhance the base potencies of all Iaijutsu (not nerf them as 6.1 has done), and have Kaiten's effect be guaranteeing the crit. This would serve the purpose of insuring SAM's damage output as the devs seem to intend while also preserving Kaiten's role in the SAM rotation and its impact on the 'feel' of our Iaijutsu.
4. Let Tenka Goken have the same crit privilege please. Nerfing Tsubame Tenka's potency just feels bad and feels like kicking SAM while it's down.

I'll probably tough it out and stay on SAM for one more week to finish up my raid team's farming of P4S. But my weapon coffers will not be going to SAM, but rather Reaper, the only job that has any trace of the things I liked about Samurai (active meter management, thrilling presentation, and clearly defined filler and burst phases), and I don't see myself staying on this class for the entirety of 6.1 if it is going to stay in this state. SAM was a lot of "firsts" for me in FFXIV - my first job to beat Extreme trials, Savages and Ultimates with, my first job I felt like I was legitimately good at, the first job I did an EX trial for a glam weapon for, and it is the job I associate with my WoL in their MSQ role. It greatly saddens me that all of the great content 6.1 has added will not be on that list.

Thank you for reading.