Samurai changes are unacceptable in the current iteration

[xAFROx]

That's what they believed when they changed DRK into a brainless 1-2-3 OGC's infested spamfest. You guys are getting a decent taste of what we had to go through.

I already got a taste when I stopped playing DRK beyond looking fly in cutscenes thanks to the diet-WAR treatment. I don't want to taste it again. SAM was in a pretty decent spot before this patch.

I want to know what the dev's intentions are supposed to be before I press further judgment, but so long as things remain as they are I stand with the majority on wanting SAM reverted. But I really really hope they eventually consider all the suggestions we've been making.

[Akava]

It has now been a full week since the changes. The short of it is, I still feel 6.1 SAM is a watered down version of 6.08 SAM.

Guaranteed crits on Midare and Ogi make both of these far less exciting. Instead of being blown away from Direct hit Crits, now its a small hype because really, its just a Direct Hit. That feeling of try-harding on a pull because I got an amazing opener is so much more tame than before and that's kind of depressing.

The Tenka Goken change is so bland. I've started watching Youtube while doing dungeons because why do I really need to pay attention? Its not like I need to focus on which target will allow me to hit the most enemies. QoL can and has been pushed too far. Even the slightest inconvenience must be improved.

The Kaiten change is still terrible. Now I'm spamming Shintens like there's no tomorrow. How is that better? How is any of this better?

All this patch did was flatten the high points of SAM with nothing given in return.

[Shin96]

I already got a taste when I stopped playing DRK beyond looking fly in cutscenes thanks to the diet-WAR treatment. I don't want to taste it again. SAM was in a pretty decent spot before this patch.

I want to know what the dev's intentions are supposed to be before I press further judgment, but so long as things remain as they are I stand with the majority on wanting SAM reverted. But I really really hope they eventually consider all the suggestions we've been making.

I agree with you man. It's beyond my comprehension why they would even do this. You guys need to continue to speak up because there was literally nothing wrong with Kaiten. It was iconic and should have never been removed.

[VincentH]

Indeed it has been a week, am i used to the new rotato? Yes. Do i like it? Hell no. And now that the housing drama is pretty much done i would really like a response from the devs addressing the 6.1 job changes. Not only for SAM but for all the others that feel their jobs changed for the worse.

[Roxus]

Hello all. A talking point that has picked up has been the Yukikaze/Hagakure rotation vs the normal rotation. Strictly speaking from the opener to 2 minutes, a normal rotation is about 541/GCD and the Yukikaze/Hagakure rotation is around 537/GCD~. Gap closes when you miss positionals approx 4 times to a .5 difference. If you miss a Midare or Kaeshi, the normal rotation becomes automatically worse at around 533.5/GCD~.

The other talking point is the increased hesitation to post due to uncertainty. As always, don't give up.

[Quor]

Hello all. A talking point that has picked up has been the Yukikaze/Hagakure rotation vs the normal rotation. Strictly speaking from the opener to 2 minutes, a normal rotation is about 541/GCD and the Yukikaze/Hagakure rotation is around 537/GCD~. Gap closes when you miss positionals approx 4 times to a .5 difference. If you miss a Midare or Kaeshi, the normal rotation becomes automatically worse at around 533.5/GCD~.

The other talking point is the increased hesitation to post due to uncertainty. As always, don't give up.

So if I'm reading this correctly, a Yuki combo spam with complement Hagakure usage into Shinten spam does nearly as much ppGCD as a standard Midare-focused combo? Missing positionals on Kasha and Gekko a total of four times narrows the gap to within .5 ppGCD? Effectively, SE has then made a Dragon Kick rotation for SAM. Is that correct?

Cause if so then that's fucking sad in a way words struggle to describe.

[Roxus]

So if I'm reading this correctly, a Yuki combo spam with complement Hagakure usage into Shinten spam does nearly as much ppGCD as a standard Midare-focused combo? Missing positionals on Kasha and Gekko a total of four times narrows the gap to within .5 ppGCD? Effectively, SE has then made a Dragon Kick rotation for SAM. Is that correct?

Cause if so then that's fucking sad in a way words struggle to describe.

That's correct. You don't completely ignore the rest of your kit, you just ignore it outside the 2 minutes as much as you can.

[Quor]

That's correct. You don't completely ignore the rest of your kit, you just ignore it outside the 2 minutes as much as you can.

Meaning you do two Midare's, two Kaeshi's and one Ogi+Kaeshi every two minutes, as well as (I assume) one Higanbana every minute, since that's still a clear ppGCD gain. Otherwise you're just mindlessly spamming Yuki, mindlessly eating Sen with Hagakure and then mindlessly spamming Shinten. I cannot fathom the thought process the job balance team went through to think that their decisions regarding SAM were going to amount to anything positive. I'm reminded of that time in SB when NIN's ended up using a GCD combo sequence that resulted in more damage than the devs were expecting because they apparently didn't consider that particular combo sequence in their balancing calculations. And here we are again.

[Ruminous]

It's why the question "do you play your own game?" gets asked. Because as much as people say yes they do, there are certain aspects that people don't touch when they play it. I'm no dev, but I don't play magical ranged much beyond getting it to cap and then forgetting it exists. Has to be the same way for anyone else who doesn't have a lot of free time to learn each and every intricate detail.

Of course, that's why you hire a team of playtesters and get them to play your changes. But why hire those people when you can shove them out the door for your playerbase to beta test for you? Works for Blizzard, and the toxicity you get from the playerbase is peanuts compared to what you save on hiring a dedicated team. At least by how anyone higher up would see it.

[Roxus]

I mean I don't know their situation and they may be rushed or something, but it's been pretty clear with all the problems aside job balance that the patch wasn't thoroughly tested in some areas. In ARR Ninja was balanced around their number crunching and players found out a better rotation, making them ridiculously stronger than the developers intended. A test server was brought up several times by the JP community too, I think it's overdue. I've been watching this game get stripped of anything remotely interesting in terms of job balance since feedback from the First coil of Bahamut. There's a lot to like about the game, but encounters aren't one of them aside aesthetics.