Samurai 5.0 changes, feedback/suggestions

[JakkuPM]

I've been playing Samurai since 4.0, (played NIN in HW) and I've really loved how it plays. The only thing I can complain about it right now is that it doesn't do enough dps to compete w/ the other melee's utility. Other than that it's fun and satisfying to play!

What I like:
-AOE combo finishers extending buffs, (no tp cost for gcds now) which is really nice QOL.
-Cast reduction for iaijutsu, might be able to weave something after casting.
-12% shifu & jinpu is nice.
-Senei: single target version of guren, animation's really cool too.
-Shoha's animation, it's sick.
-Double iaijutsu's kinda cool, wish it was a different animation for the second one.

What I don't like:
-Hagakure being replaced by a CD that gives you a flat 50 kenki at no cost. While this is a buff to our actual dps, hagakure was what made SAM's rotation interesting. It was perfect for managing sen. Coming back to the boss after downtime/starting a dungeon pull with 2 to 3 sen is really clunky.
-Seigan still exists. It's such a minor dps gain, and having to be damaged to use it is silly imo. I would rather it be removed.
-How shoha functions. The ability is super underwhelming especially for how cool the animation is. The amount of times you can get a full meditate off is pretty rare, and I don't like the idea of a skill that gets better if there's more downtime. There's a lot of suggestions on how to fix this skill in this thread: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...rai-Lv80-Skill.

One thing I want to suggest is having meditate being reworked. Instead of it being a channeled ability to use during downtime, it could just be a buff that works similarly. It could give kenki, and stacks that last until you use shoha, or just allow you to use it a flat potency. The amount of kenki you get per tick might need to be adjusted, but the ability would be more useful overall. Also the red glow could cover the katana after meditate is over, and would go away as you use shoha. That would be super satisfying as a level 80 skill.

[SwarleyMcSwarls]

I don't think we can safely say if it does or does not do enough damage yet. With that said, I mostly agree with what you are saying.

Shoha is total garbage and fairly unnecessary imo. If we can target something, we're gonna be hitting it unless mechanics force us not to. So having that as the big level 80 skill is just bad unless they are putting a lot more downtime into fights. Which doesn't feel good either.

I totally agree about seigan. It is a net dps gain, but the amount you get from correctly doing it is not noticeable at all. So it's mostly just wasted optimization potential. And speaking of optimization, I'm not really seeing anywhere to do some big brain optimizing on the job. About all that's gonna separate average samurai players from great ones will be how well players work with party buffs. But that's mostly how the job already functioned on its release. So I mostly would just like to see another way to get Shoha procs. Actually, they could knock out both my complaints and have using seigan give meditate procs for shoha. Just depends on what that would do to dps balancing. But something like that would be VERY welcome from me.

Actually, that'd be a lot of potency for getting hit. But I wouldn't mind them doubling down on optimization.

[Sigiria]

Shoha is one of these skill that are way too situational to feel very significant, the fact that the potency is basically nothing unless you charge more than 2 stacks mean the boss will have to be away for a while to use it. And based on most existing fight, the times this happen without having to deal with adds is like twice a fight.
Ok it's a dps gain, but it feels very underwhelming for a skill lvl80. What I'm wondering is if using meditation out of combat still precharge the stacks for shoha. Meaning you'd have 30s to use it in your opener. Still wouldn't be outstanding but at least you'd be using it consistently at the start of a fight.

[SwarleyMcSwarls]

I was hoping you could stack it pre-pull as well. But, as of the media build, it only gave you the stacks when you generated kenki on meditate. So no extra potency in your opener unless you are fishing for kenki with meditate after your first gcd.

[Narigo1]

Removing ageha was pretty unnecessary imo.

[Leonus]

I'm fine with Hagakure going away. I don't think starting a fight with 2-3 send is clunky either, I actually think it's pretty straight forward.

Shoha is meh, sigan is still there. It is what it is. I'm going to enjoy Sam more than I did. I'm hoping they change the encounters more... As the repetitiveness of them from ARR to Stormblood drove me away from the game. The only thing that kept me coming back from time to time in SB was the story.

[Burningskull]

Can we get Shoha and Senei's animations swapped? Shoha looks so much cooler than Senei and I'd like to be able to see it more than once a fight if that. I really dislike situational skills on a whole and would rather Shoha be changed mechanically somehow. If it can't or wont be changed then can we have the animations swapped?

[Arkdra]

Can we get Shoha and Senei's animations swapped? Shoha looks so much cooler than Senei and I'd like to be able to see it more than once a fight if that. I really dislike situational skills on a whole and would rather Shoha be changed mechanically somehow. If it can't or wont be changed then can we have the animations swapped?

Hard disagree, smacking someone with the scabard rules.

[Nora_of_Mira]

-How shoha functions. The ability is super underwhelming especially for how cool the animation is. The amount of times you can get a full meditate off is pretty rare, and I don't like the idea of a skill that gets better if there's more downtime. There's a lot of suggestions on how to fix this skill in this thread: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...rai-Lv80-Skill.

One thing I want to suggest is having meditate being reworked. Instead of it being a channeled ability to use during downtime, it could just be a buff that works similarly. It could give kenki, and stacks that last until you use shoha, or just allow you to use it a flat potency. The amount of kenki you get per tick might need to be adjusted, but the ability would be more useful overall. Also the red glow could cover the katana after meditate is over, and would go away as you use shoha. That would be super satisfying as a level 80 skill.

I'm pretty sure from the footage that your highest Meditate stack lasts for 30 seconds so you have some wiggle room as to when you use your Shoha. It goes w/o saying that dungeons will likely never see this ability used but we can't say what the 24mans/extremes/savage are going to throw at us in terms of down time. I actually like the ability as it means even if the boss jumps away for a few seconds you have a reason to meditate and get that Shoha off.