Will they give back kaiten to the sam?

[Reese_Clairdale]

I think it's important to note for new players or those simply unfamiliar with SAM, that Kaiten was not some ultra mega hype skill, or the *entire* identity of SAM, the situation is more subtle and nuanced than that.

It was a skill that promoted conscious decision making and gauge management during combat. You had to always make sure you had enough Kenki to boost your Iaijutsu skills right before casting so they were dealing maximum potency, a small balancing act that prevented thoughtless spam of Shinten / Kyuten. Now, zero thought or planning is needed, whether or not this a good thing is ultimately up to the individual, but if you ask most long time SAM mains if this is destructive for the job's identity, they will invariably say "Yes." They took an aspect of the job away and gave nothing in return, therefore the job is less mentally stimulating as a result.

It also was not the only aspect of SAM affected - Tenka Goken now forces you to hard cast a pitifully small circular AoE inside of a pack of monsters. When it was a long range cone AoE before the patch, you could stay safely to the side of a pack and hit everything comfortably.

Iaijustu damage was also completely gutted and had its potency spread to lower level abilities in the overall kit, the skills now just feel like another step in a combo instead of a satisfying conclusion, especially with the removal of Kaiten, which put an extra highlight on those skills both in terms of visuals and damage.

Edit for additional thoughts: I also would like to prevent a situation where, if our prayers are answered and we manage to get 6.08 SAM back, we don't suddenly have a flood of players who picked up SAM after 6.1 that don't understand the original functions of the old skills making new threads here with titles such as "WTF is the point of this new skill!? All you do is press it before Midare!", "What was the hype over Kaiten about? Seems boring.", "Circle Tenka Goken was much better because you don't need a target.", etc.