It's been 34 days since 6.1 and SAM still feels like garbage to play

[Arycelle_Dania]

This pretty much sums up my emotions on the current state of SAM. I've retired from it and now running a dango stall in Higanshi.

[Quor]

you see a lone healer sipping tea in the corner. He looks over to you, and then to the empty seat next to him, and with a saddened but resolute touch he grabs his magic healing tome from the wooden furnishing and pats the chair; tired eye contact and a fake smile is how he beckons you to his side. No words are exchanged, but you know this abandoned scholar has been waiting there for quite some time...years even.

Level 90 SAM exclusive job quest called "Our (most recent) Answer." Quest box text of "The Healers were here long before you met."

[Engaru]

I'm still wondering who even asked for these changes.

[CelestiCer]

I'm still wondering who even asked for these changes.

Been wondering this for a while...

From a casual PoV? Players are met with the barrier of entry, bottom difficulty to clear any content before Extreme/Savage.
At this difficulty, players do not need to know the following...

• Knowing what each skill does
• Knowing proper rotations
• Knowing positional/rear/flank
• Knowing any form of damage uptime
• Knowing anything about mitigations
• Knowing anything about buff items
• Knowing anything about buffs in general
• Rarely deal with difficult heal/damage checks

Players can mess up multiple mechanics pressing buttons in random order, blinding everything and still clear everything at 1st encounter. MSQ/Hard-Bosses/Normal-Raids/New and Old Cape-Westwind/Beast-tribe/Fates etc.

Meaning " Anyone complaining about job difficulty or balance at this point, is actually pointless". So, who asked?...

At this point I believe someone from Square asked this, you know to simplify facets of the game making it more accessible to players who don't want to challenge themselves or playing jobs correctly or any content that's difficult... and baby them into it.

[D6Damager]

you see a lone healer sipping tea in the corner. He looks over to you, and then to the empty seat next to him, and with a saddened but resolute touch he grabs his magic healing tome from the wooden furnishing and pats the chair; tired eye contact and a fake smile is how he beckons you to his side. No words are exchanged, but you know this abandoned scholar has been waiting there for quite some time...years even.

Right in the feels Bro....

[KurenXIV]

Been wondering this for a while...

From a casual PoV? Players are met with the barrier of entry, bottom difficulty to clear any content before Extreme/Savage.
At this difficulty, players do not need to know the following...

• Knowing what each skill does
• Knowing proper rotations
• Knowing positional/rear/flank
• Knowing any form of damage uptime
• Knowing anything about mitigations
• Knowing anything about buff items
• Knowing anything about buffs in general
• Rarely deal with difficult heal/damage checks

Players can mess up multiple mechanics pressing buttons in random order, blinding everything and still clear everything at 1st encounter. MSQ/Hard-Bosses/Normal-Raids/New and Old Cape-Westwind/Beast-tribe/Fates etc.

Meaning " Anyone complaining about job difficulty or balance at this point, is actually pointless". So, who asked?...

At this point I believe someone from Square asked this, you know to simplify facets of the game making it more accessible to players who don't want to challenge themselves or playing jobs correctly or any content that's difficult... and baby them into it.

I don't think the changes and the introduction of a new Ultimate was a coincidence. Speaking with a FC member who actively works on the progging this sort of stuff they did mention how with SAM you could have wild variations of runs based on if you hit your big crits or not.

If I had to guess they likely saw the same in their tests, especially with the addition of Ogi Namikiri.

Now . . . Blizzard didn't get everything right but they did make a point to call out something after they changed their raids from having 40 to 20 players when going from Vanilla WoW to their first xpac Burning Crusade. Something like "we're making raiding more accessible because when only 1% of the player base is experiencing the content we're making, it isn't good design".

I'd say that notion of designing something around a small percentage of the player base applies here.

If the reason for the changes is because of SAM has a problematic design for one specific type of fight that most players do not do then SE has to rethink their design philosophy.

If this isn't the case then there literally was no reason for the SAM changes in a patch when it played just fine across all the content type form 6.0 - 6.08.

[Maxilor]

Day 34! Let's give it up for Day 34!

[Xenon_S]

I don't think the changes and the introduction of a new Ultimate was a coincidence. Speaking with a FC member who actively works on the progging this sort of stuff they did mention how with SAM you could have wild variations of runs based on if you hit your big crits or not.

Counterpoint: ninja exists, and flourishes in the ultimate environment far better than what 6.08 sam can.
Hyosho Ranryu is a 1300 Potency hit, always buffed 1.3x by Kassatsu, a further 1.1x used in trick
On 2 minutes, it gets an additional 1.05x from mug
And playing with other synergy jobs - 1.05x from drg tether, 1.05x from rdm embolden, 1.05x from dnc dance partner, 1.05x from tech finish
And with crit buff stacking of devilment, chain strat, battle litany

A direct crit hyosho hits upward of 100k+

Not to mention the sheer high frequency of subsequent hits means ninja can capitalize very well on the raid buffs.

So im left wondering, does the job balancing team even play the game, or even communicate between each other?

[KurenXIV]

So im left wondering, does the job balancing team even play the game, or even communicate between each other?

I think we all know the answer to that: no (sadlol)

[Gemina]

I've been playing my SAM more lately. I was going to set it aside for an indefinite amount of time, but couldn't help wanting to at least keep my edge sharp. Just some NM lv90 content, and the 24 man raid that way I had access to all my abilities. I am able to get some enjoyment out of it. Ogi is a very satisfactory skill to use, and so is Shoha II. Circle: Goken isn't too bad, and has had some niche situations where I favored it over the cone. It would be cool to be able to manipulate this telegraph as we see fit.

For the most part though, my opinions remain unchanged. The pruning of both Seigan and Kaiten just feel like big 'ol chunks have been bitten out of SAM, and the two-charge Meikyo and Tsubame systems - while I have made good use of them, don't make up for those losses. Kenki expenditure has little consequence now, only needing to be mindful of it when Senei is off CD. Kenki generation is very high at max level, leading to a lot of Shinten spam, and it isn't very fun.

Current SAM reminds me of when I would get so close to solving a puzzle, only to make a wrong move and mess the whole thing up. SE was so close with ShB. It had plenty of structure to continue to build on what was already making it good; then they decided to alter something, and the whole house of cards came crashing down. Now it feels like they have to build again.

That's ok. Let's go. Make SAM awesome again.