Kenki Management and button/ability bloat

With the Removal of Kaiten there is basically no Kenki Management anymore. Sure, if you played correctly before the patch, you didn’t really have to think about it a lot but right now you can basically press Shinten whenever you can and forget about the gauge altogether. This also feels more spammy and a lot less satisfying. Even if the total usage on Kenki spending abilities is a few casts lower per fight it doesn’t feel like that because you repeatedly press the same button.

If the target was to remove either button or ability bloat, there are bigger offenders like Shoha 1/2 or Ikishoten and Ogi that have already been discussed in large by the community. I also think that the argument that Kaiten is a useless necessity because you must press it before every Iaijustu just doesn’t hold any ground in a game that massively relies on Combo Actions.

If Kaiten is problematic or a hindrance for future updates to the job, then I am sure there are ways to combat this other than completely removing it (e. g. reducing the effect and adjusting potencies or changing the effect in other ways). If you are absolutely keen on removing Kaiten I would at least wish for three things: consider upping the frequency of Ogi Namikiri and its Kaeshi-counterpart to one minute and try to make all the Iaijutsu animations more flashy (I think the Ogi animations look really cool and are a great example) to make up for losing Kaiten. Very slightly reduce Shinten usage and up the potency to counteract, so each shinten feels more meaningful and deliberate.

Autocrit, Potencies and Party-Synergy

The fact that Samurai is a “selfish DPS” job and absolutely wants to capitalize on buffs from its party members makes Samurai one of the last jobs that should ever get a change like this. I understand that there might have been a big disparity between good and bad pulls because of crit RNG but I don’t think this makes or breaks a whole job to justify this change. It is good to have classes with different damage profiles, that’s what makes them special and appealing. I think in this regard the reduction to the Iaijutsu skills aswell as Ogi and its Kaeshi-counterparts went a little bit overboard. I would rather have some very big hitting skills instead a broad spread of potencies that don’t really fit with the aesthetics of the job. This again ties into the feel and identity of the job but if it would be one thing where I must make a compromise, this would be it.

Even if the Job is completely fine damage-wise after the patch, the Autocrit change could drastically change community perception and probably lead to people not wanting Samurais in their Party. If you feel like there seems to be a problem or limitation for the whole combat-system, then please bring a solution that targets the root of the cause and not it’s symptoms.