6.1 Samurai thoughts after getting to try them out in-game (please revert asap)

[Grimoire-M]

The stupid part is removing Shinten instead would have reduced a similar amount of APM and made your rotation MORE interesting overall, not less. The only weaponskill that loses to Kyuten is Hakaze, and that’s because there are very niche situations where you can justify spending the extra 5 Kenki to completely avoid overcap in your sequencing. You are generally rewarded for stockpiling Kenki for higher potency weaponskills, so Kaiten generally plays out more like Life Surge, but much, much more frequent, making it more intricate when there’s downtime and Third Eye interactions to account for.

[YukiB]

The stupid part is removing Shinten instead would have reduced a similar amount of APM and made your rotation MORE interesting overall, not less. The only weaponskill that loses to Kyuten is Hakaze, and that’s because there are very niche situations where you can justify spending the extra 5 Kenki to completely avoid overcap in your sequencing. You are generally rewarded for stockpiling Kenki for higher potency weaponskills, so Kaiten generally plays out more like Life Surge, but much, much more frequent, making it more intricate when there’s downtime and Third Eye interactions to account for.

Replacing Shinten with Kaiten wouldn't reduce APM at all. It would increase it because Kaiten costs less. And I don't know if I'd like it much more than Shinten spam. Outside of the opener it would just amount to using Kaiten on Gekko and Kasha, since every combo generates exactly 20 kenki. The only other consideration would be around Meikyo usage, in which case you just wouldn't Kaiten any of those and instead pool the kenki for use in the 2 minute burst window.

The baseless comparisons to Dark Arts would have newfound legitimacy. Likewise for arguments like "Kaiten is nothing but a +potency button." Everything from its effect to its animation feels designed around use with iaijutsu, and I'm happy for that to be its niche.

Kenki is only remotely interesting because there's more than one spender to think about. There are better options to reduce button bloat than outright removing one or the other.

[Sonsurai]

I only recently started playing SAM (level 65), but even I can tell that this is not a good change at all. When I started to really get into the SAM rotation I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, and now without Kaiten it just feels... off.

Please revert this, the majority of people are clearly against this change.

[WinglessEvilAngel]

Kaiten's removal Just feels terrible and completely throws off the bar management in your kit. The removal of Kaiten also makes the rotation feel boring and way to simplified.

[TofuPenguin]

Might as well jump on the bandwagon.

I realllyyyyy miss Kaiten. It was the one animation I just loved seeing from this job. I feel empty without it.
Shinten spam feels cheap and boring.
Also, I feel like my crits are wet noodles now. Job just feels weird. Considering changing jobs at this point.