6.1 Samurai: the Kaiten removal was the right choice but it's not enough

[CapricaLangley]

They should remove combos too. I hate having to press Hakaze before every Shifu, Jinpu, and Yukikaze. If you use something every single time before a specific skill, it's better to just remove it.

I understand that this might seem like the perspective of a payer who just wants to over simplify the playstyle of a job, and I was sure that this would lead to sarcastic answers. But think about it: what was the raison d'etre behind Kaiten? Why was it designed and how was it used by the playerbase? It's not a combo action, it doesn't have direct damage, it's basically always used for buffing a single skill.

[YukiB]

I understand that this might seem like the perspective of a payer who just wants to over simplify the playstyle of a job, and I was sure that this would lead to sarcastic answers. But think about it: what was the raison d'etre behind Kaiten? Why was it designed and how was it used by the playerbase? It's not a combo action, it doesn't have direct damage, it's basically always used for buffing a single skill.

What makes you think I was sarcastic? Do you just not like my argument? It's your argument just applied to a different skill.

Hakaze only exists to allow us to use the rest of the combo. The combo only exists to allow us to use iaijutsu. None of that's necessary. They could even just let us use the iaijutsu. It's just damage at the end of the day.

Here, let's say the sen generators have to stay so we can access all the iaijutsu. That's fair. Shifu and Jinpu don't really need to exist, though. Just move their buffs to Kasha and Gekko. Now shuffle potencies around. Currently to execute a Midare Setsugekka we have to use these skills first with this much potency:

Hakaze x3: 600
Shifu: 280
Kasha: 380
Jinpu: 280
Gekko: 380
Yukikaze: 300
Midare Setsugekka: 600 (960 with 60% crit damage)

So that's 3180 potency over 9 GCDs with the guaranteed crit. That's about 353 potency per GCD. If we reduce that down to the only GCDs that really matter then we could give Kasha, Gekko, and Yukikaze 260 potency each and Midare 400 potency with a guaranteed crit, and it would come out to about the same average. There! I just consolidated the rotation into 4 GCDs. Doesn't it seem a lot better already?

But hey, we can go your route too and delete kenki. Each kenki is worth 10 potency and the Midare rotation generates 60 of it. That's effectively 3780 potency over 9 GCDs now. Now we're at exactly 420 potency per GCD. We can make Kasha, Gekko, and Yukikaze 300 potency each, and Midare 490 potency plus crit, and we don't even need kenki anymore. Look at all the action bloat we're addressing!

We can do the same with Shoha, Tsubame-gaeshi, Ogi Namikiri, Hissatsu: Senei, Meikyo Shisui, and Ikishoten if you want. At the end of the day they're all just numbers, and we press them at the same time in every fight. You can just add up the potencies and distribute them across Kasha, Gekko, Yukikaze, and Midare Setsugekka.

Oh, but then there's Higanbana, too. Well, we can just scrap that too, no one likes having to manage DoTs. Oh, but, the sen system seems kind of redundant now. We got rid of kenki for being redundant too, might as well scrap sen as well. But everyone likes pressing Midare, so we can just make that our GCD and average out all the potency into it. Wouldn't want to have to press any other buttons before it, right?

Do you see the problem with this reductionist, spreadsheet style of game development yet? Maybe not every skill has to have some deep meaning for its existence. Maybe they can just be fun.