My thoughts on Kaiten.

[Twig]

The thing about Kaiten is not just that it's a core skill that boosts other skills, but rather what it provided in terms of class complexity. Kaiten cost 20 Kenki to boost any weaponskill, primarily Iaijutsu, by 50%. This is a MASSIVE reward for a very basic skill in meter management, because it is very easy to both save or accidentally waste the meter needed for Kaiten.

In the opener alone a Samurai will use 80 Kenki on Kaiten, which is obviously rewarding them by buffing Higanbana, Ogi Namikiri, and multiple uses of Midare Setsugekka. By removing Kaiten, Kenki is now ONLY spent on Senei/Guren and Shinten and seeing as Senei/Guren are on a 2 minute cooldown it becomes nothing but Shinten spam. This now mirrors the issue that the team fixed regarding Stormblood's iteration of Dark Knight in Dark Arts spamming.

I ran the numbers prepatch for the efficacy of Kaiten vs Shinten and here's what I have.

Shinten = 10.8 potency per Kenki
Ogi Namikiri = 22.5 potency per Kenki
Midare Setsugekka = 16.5 potency per Kenki
Higanbana = 26 potency per Kenki

The Higanbana number is not 100% accurate as it of course varies, but that is the ballpark I got based on my own GCD.

If the issue is crit variance, why not make it so Kaiten can provide the guaranteed critical hit? If the issue is bloat why not merge Shoha and Shoha 2 or Guren and Senei? There is never a good reason to use Shoha 2 or Guren outside of dungeons or very specific scenarios.

TL;DR Kaiten is not bloat and makes a SAM player learn meter management skills.