Why does Phantom Kamaitachi feel like it should be an ability, not WS? (NIN)

[Truefaith87]

Pretty much title says it all. It fits oddly into a gap, takes a slot for a time, and feels kind of like it was just a cast-aside afterward. It would feel a lot more synergized if it were an ability, even though ninja already has an enormous amount of intra-weaving to do. IDK, maybe it's just me feeling this way.

[Elena_Farron]

I don't know the reason for this assumption except for maybe finding more things to weave inside trick attack? The skill is actually much better this way.
Bunshin itself already is an oGCD, and the only oGCD currently that gives Ninki is Mug and Meisui which generate quite a lot on their own.

Phantom is very strong right now as a GCD weaponskill because you are no longer required to use it under Bunshin stacks and it can be held for up to 45s and be used at any time that you might need it as a ranged attack.

-> Think of it like Reaper's Harvest Moon except you get to use it multiple times throughout a fight, which is really strong.

There are a lot of times in this savage tier, especially P4S, where I found use for Phantom Kamaitachi as a ranged GCD and it turned out to be one of the better changes with the 6.05 update.

The only problem left with Phantom is that because of the potency buff to Forked/Fleeting Raiju, it's potency is still a little low to sometimes justify using it inside trick windows at the higher end of optimization so I'd like to see that skill buffed. I think if you try some high end content you'll find a lot of uses for Phantom to keep uptime.

[Equitable_Remedy]

Why does Phantom Kamaitachi feel like it should be an ability, not WS?

I don't have a definitive answer, but I felt the same way when first getting to 90.

Part of it is that the animation looks like an ability - the casting animation is quite quick with the clone going off and doing the attack. It's the kind of animation that could be an oGCD. Another part of it for me is that I initially bound it to the key that had been Assassinate (RIP Assassinate), so my brain kept trying to use it like and oGCD, which felt horrible. Once I moved the keybind, it felt better.

I really like Phantom Kamaitachi, and I'd love to see it become an oGCD in the future.

[wereotter]

To be honest, this is a question I've asked myself about many skills this expansion on multiple jobs. They seem to really love the idea of putting everything on the global cooldown this expansion.