Samurai Buff Speculation

[Shurrikhan]

What I'd personally like to see:

• Kaiten CD reduced to 2 seconds.

  This will allow it to be used for Midare and then Higanbana with only 1 GCD between as per Meikyou Shisui, offering a bit of flexibility that would otherwise require a very late Hagakure to provide in order to salvage the Meikyou cast at its usual time.

• Animation locks for Hagakure, Meikyou Shisui, Kaiten, and Guren each decreased. They accept queues earlier and more quickly clip in response to them.
• Yaten made more responsive in its displacement as it applies to AoE and other positional checks.
• Shinten potency increased to 320, up from 300. (12.8 ppk)
• Kyuten potency increased to 165, up from 150. (Against 2 targets, superior to Shinten if neither or both of two targets are affected by Slashing Down; inferior if only the main target has Slashing Down.)
• Seigan potency increased to 220, up from 200. (14.67)
• Gyoten potency increased to 110, up from 100. (11)
• Yaten potency increased to 110, up from 100. (11)
• Merciful Eyes self-heal potency increased to 400, up from 200.
• Third Eye CD reduced to 12 seconds, down from 15.
• Yukikaze potency increased to 360, up from 340.
• Ageha now grants a minimum of 20 Kenki, up from 10. Upon killing blow Ageha still grants only 30 Kenki.

Edit: Bonuses reduced slightly. Can now only stand equal during perfect play with perfect BLM play at certain gear loadouts and surrounding compositions, however. Dependence on Seigan faintly reduced compared to suggested version, though Seigan remains as relatively rewarding as current, devalued only by Merciful Eyes now generating enough HP to visibly adjust your health bar.

Tentative:

• Hissatsu: Gyoten may now target allies. In doing so, it will instantly generate a physical damage shield on the allied target equal to 240 attack potency (twice its normal damage dealt).
• Third Eye now reduces damage to be taken by 10%, up from 5%. (Maybe increase duration to 4 seconds, up from 3, since some mechanics snapshot for buffs massively in advance, but still require the buff to be active when the damage is dealt.)
• *Merciful Eyes now heals for 800 potency, but costs 10 Kenki.

[Sylvain]

[INDENT]snip.

I think the 2sec reduction is sounds.

I would see some potency boost but not to all the skills you've listed. Unless you have some theorycraft to back up the net final result of all those potency buff, it seems to be a lot and would put SAM too far ahead other dps job and it seems SE doesn't want SAM and BLM to be too far ahead. Like we should be "first" but not by a lot (and definitely not enough to compensate the lack of raid buff).

Unless all these potency would result in a small gain of a few percent, BLM would need another buff to be on par with you and if anything i'm not expecting more than a few % dps buff to basically make SAM on par (if not 1 or 2% at most) higher than BLM.

Regarding the animation lock this is something most job would benefit from.
For instance, making Sharpcast and Swiftcast have shorter if any animation lock would help greatly in the long run.

[Shurrikhan]

I think the 2sec reduction is sounds.

I would see some potency boost but not to all the skills you've listed. Unless you have some theorycraft to back up the net final result of all those potency buff, it seems to be a lot and would put SAM too far ahead other dps job and it seems SE doesn't want SAM and BLM to be too far ahead. Like we should be "first" but not by a lot (and definitely not enough to compensate the lack of raid buff).

Unless all these potency would result in a small gain of a few percent, BLM would need another buff to be on par with you and if anything i'm not expecting more than a few % dps buff to basically make SAM on par (if not 1 or 2% at most) higher than BLM.

Regarding the animation lock this is something most job would benefit from.
For instance, making Sharpcast and Swiftcast have shorter if any animation lock would help greatly in the long run.

I'll double check the math shortly. I mainly wanted to illustrate the direction of change intended.

While I don't believe a given job should be capped by anything other than its effective in-composition 8-man food&pot rDPS, and thus find any mention of individual DPS irrelevant outside of how it may act as or in place of a certain form of utility (e.g. being able to solo-DPS an add down in time where such would be a massive boon for the party due to certain mechanics, or how split mechanics may push others' rDPS below their norms), I don't want to push SAM above BLM generally, even if uptime may later favor one or the other after the due adjustments. (That last bit cannot be fully helped without too great of detail in fight craftsmanship to be warranted given varying DPS levels over skill and gear.)

Edit: Yes, this should parse out higher than raid tools would leave one to believe necessary (though SAM is more vulnerable to desync than BLM, it's only other Tier1 competitor). Adjusting values now.

Also, yes, Sharpcast, Swiftcast, Surecast, and Aetherial Manipulation animation locks are areas I'd very much like to see addressed on BLM. Oddly enough, Triplecast has never felt nearly as restricting at my ping. Personally, I was under the opinion that the Fire IV buff may have even been too much following the SMN nerfs, and that BLM would have been better served by reducing the relative costs of movement and through further QoL adjustment. They just stand out more on SAM as a 2s GCD is a wholly viable build and the necessary double-weaves can then clip even at very low pings.