Samurai's new FUKO skill is problematic, and here's why.

[StarryEspresso]

Overview
So at level 86, the conal AOE Fuga upgrades from having 90 potency damage and generating 50 kenki gauge, to 100 potency (+10/+11.1%) damage and 100 kenki (+50/+100%). But that's not the only alteration, the classic conal AOE has transformed into a circular AOE; this has the exact same range as other 'common' circular AOEs with FFXIV jobs such as Mythril Tempest / Unleash / Art of War / Spinning Scythe / Fated Circle (and so on), similarly, Fuga's conal AOE shares the exact telegraph as other conal AOEs such as Overpower (excluding ranged physical jobs).

Some prefer circular AOEs, some prefer conal AOEs, and many prefer each of them in specific situations only where the type may be suited for the occasion. Though it's common knowledge by now to know the benefits and disadvantages of each type of AOE; here's a short recap:


Conal AOE

Advantages:

• Range is about 37.5% further in reach than circular AOE (5 yalms vs 8 yalms).
• At the end of its range, the width of the attack widens (hence the conal shape).
• If positioned well, it can hit multiple enemies at the end of its range from ranged distance, which may particularly be useful for dungeon mobs or fates.

Disadvantages:

• It's conal, so unlike circular AOEs you're not attacking at your flank and rear areas.
• Positioning really matters for how the cone is angled, and this can be difficult to plan sometimes e.g. if a target is not in line with to fit the full conal telegraph.

Circular AOE:

Advantages:

• The attack covers all areas around the player including the front, flanks and rear.
• Can be much easier to position in between enemies to hit them all without overthinking it.

Disadvantages:

• The range is not as distant as conal AOEs, which can sometimes make it difficult for reaching all enemies (especially large dispersed ones).

Below is a rough in-game dummy range test and diagram illustrating the range needed to be able to hit the dummies on the left with each AOE type on the left, and a rough reach difference between circular and conal AOEs from the same origin point of attack:


In general, there aren't many conal AOE attacks for most jobs besides perhaps Samurai and Warrior. Machinist and Bard do have conal AOEs but they're not comparable in this situation since the range is much higher (given that they're ranged physical jobs of course it is 12 yalms which is a +50% increase to the melee conal AOE).

[StarryEspresso]

It could be said that given the amount of circular AOEs there are belonging to most jobs, it could probably be acceptable if the developers decided to one-day standardise all the conal AOEs into just circular versions for consistency sake, (despite the fact that it would definitely upset some players that had gotten used to or enjoyed conal AOEs), but this is perhaps another specification in the topic to be discussed separately. I'd like to just discuss why I think in this particular situation it was a bad idea to change Samurai's Fuga conal telegraph into Fuko's circular telegraph, and there are really just two major points:

1. Lack of consistency across synced/unsynced.
Although many players will aim to optimally play or raid with their Samurais at level 90 content, majority of the content is synced below 90, which means below level 86 Fuko will revert back to Fuga, thus reverting from circular AOE back to conal AOE. Not everyone will find this transition to be an issue between synced and relevant content, but without a doubt many players may or will mistakenly either assume the AOE opener will reach further enemies as a conal telemetry when in fact it would be a circular AOE that would've hit barely anything, or they would assume their circular AOE will hit all the targets they're standing in between only to realise pitifully and prompty after that it's a cone again and it only hit one enemy (or two if lucky).

If the change had been permanent that might've added some consistency, but unfortunately that's not the case.

2. Clunky movement transition through the AOE rotation.
Before Fuko is unlocked - with Fuga; the conal AOE, the AOE rotation (for 2+ targets) flows like this (barring meikyo, kaiten or tsubame usage):


(From a distance) Fuga > (move in) Oka > (move back) Fuga > (move in) Mangetsu > (move back) Tenka Goken > (stay) Fuga

I'd like to focus on the final part of the rotation. Here you can notice that after Tenka Goken (cast), you have no movement requirement, you can simply continue onto your next Fuga which is also a conal AOE, meaning that when you set off your Tenka Goken you were most likely standing at the correct angle to aim your next Fuga, and with there being a cast (which would immobilise you from moving until the cast had finished) it makes the transition simple and easy since no movement after the cast is required.

Now here's the level 86+ AOE rotation:


(Between enemies) Fuko > (stay) Oka > (stay) Fuko > (stay) Mangetsu > (move back) Tenka Goken) > (move in again) Fuko.

[FlareVyzar]

Are you okay? I never laughed so hard at a post like this. I hope that is a high effort bait lmao

[StarryEspresso]

Again, Tenka-goken is a cast, so (unless you're using tsubame which is only available every 1 minute (besides during the opener or re-opener)) you're not able to move back and forth between conal and circular AOE ranges to accomodate for the placement of the AOE as easily. Because Tenka Goken is a cast, you can't easily move forward again from conal AOE distance into the enemy group to resume your circular AOE combos unless you perfectly slidecast or have a tsubame in store without delaying the next Fuko GCD to get the best reach. Keep note that even with a slidecast, the slidecast window isn't very large and looking back at the diagram above comparing conal and circular AOE range and distance, the distance to travel will most likely be quite huge, huge enough to cause GCD delay.

There are definitely strong benefits to having Fuko such as the fact that for most part of the rotation preceding Tenka-goken there is barely any movement transition involved since Fuko and the combo GCDs (Oka and Mangetsu) are all circular AOEs, but moving between conal and circular AOE positioning with Fuga (even if it involves more movement compared to Fuko), these GCDs are not casts so there is enough time to move between positions for the next GCD, but the same unfortunately may not be said for the transition between Tenka Goken and Fuko, which provides a huge risk of GCD delay - a concept most players are encouraged to avoid to perform well in this game.

To finalise, many players may enjoy the changes Fuko brings to the AOE rotation, and some of course feel strongly opposed. Fuko definitely brings more damage over time due to the increase in kenki gain and the small potency increase, and some may regard that as the justification for all that went wrong with the telegraph change, but the inconsistency with syncing and the GCD delay risk may make it feel like it was one of the lesser useful or overlooked developer decisions made over job changes for this expansion. Also, considering the fact that this is one of the only abilities in the game that had its telegraph altered upon leveling up, I for one definitely disagree with this change, and do hope that the developers realise this and consider making some sort of alterations (although that is definitely a longshot).

Thank you for reading. This was written during the early days of Endwalker in patch 6.01.

[CelestiCer]

To finalise, many players may enjoy the changes Fuko brings to the AOE rotation, and some of course feel strongly opposed. / I for one definitely disagree with this change, and do hope that the developers realise this and consider making some sort of alterations (although that is definitely a longshot).

Thank you for reading. This was written during the early days of Endwalker in patch 6.01.

This was a very very interesting post, and well presented. I am pleasantly surprised to find this post.

While it might look questionable now, I would have been totally fine if Fuga was updated with Fuko kenki generation and potency if I were able to cast it without targeting anything over the current Circular Fuko. Then again I never had issue with the original Fuga. Maybe targeting things is easier with Keyboard Mouse or just it differs from player to player I have no idea, I never had any trouble with the original Fuga I genuinely loved that skill.

However... now in 6.1 we have Tenka Goken changed from Cone to Circular... similar to Fuga to Fuko and with Tenka Goken yeah now I am really just not liking Samurai AoE at all. And it is technically for the same reasons that you posted, just on a different skill and everything except Ogi Namikiri is turned Circular... I just don't like it, kicking the fun out of the interactions where it goes from almost dynamic positioning to get the most out of your skills turned into bland stale stand still. If I wanted to stand still and cast I'd play an actual caster...

[Kolsykol]

Not gonna lie I thought this was going to be a troll about how offensive Fuko is.
Now I can't stop imagining a generic clickbait Youtube thumbnail with the title lol.

[Noctisnine]

The only thing Samurai needs are buffs. The aoe rotation has never been better and more satisfying to play.

[Brownondorf]

Samurai is Godlike in AOE now and doesn't need any changes

[Xtro99]

The only thing Samurai needs are buffs. The aoe rotation has never been better and more satisfying to play.

FR, mechanically, SAM is leagues better than it was in SHB. The only problem I see is that SAMs damage is subpar compared to other melee jobs that do as much if not higher dmg AND have group utility, basically making SAM an irrelevant job.

[Shurrikhan]

FR, mechanically, SAM is leagues better than it was in SHB. The only problem I see is that SAMs damage is subpar compared to other melee jobs that do as much if not higher dmg AND have group utility, basically making SAM an irrelevant job.

SAM literally has the highest rDPS Ex1 parse in the game right now. There's just a huge difference between the best SAM player and those behind them at the moment. If Bagel were to give the Ex2 another parsed go with a good group (the current leads have no one under a 97th percentile, and only one person under 99th, instead of multiple below 30th), you'd likely see SAM neck and neck with or surpassing the current lead, a Monk.

Ideally, SAM should slightly surpass Monk, as the latter has Mantra (Brotherhood is already accounted for in rDPS; SAM already has a ~4% lead over RPR and ~6% lead over MNK for aDPS), but SAM is far from having been made "irrelevant"; its rDPS, even down at the 80th percentile, is barely over half a percent from Monk's, which is smaller than the typical difference between any two runs by the same player on the same job in the same party.