Thread: Regarding the reaction to 6.1 SAM changes

Samurai main ever since I hit lv50 on my first job back in the second month of Stormblood, presently farming P4S with my static.

I very much laothe the removal of Hissatsu: Kaiten.
I've been practicing on striking dummies this morning of patch 6.1, and the lack of Kaiten feels awful. In spite of guaranteed critical hits, Midare Setsugekka, Ogi Namakiri, and their Kaeshi variants feel un-earned and powerless without Kaiten's satisfying wind-up animation and sound effect.
Moreover, lacking Kaiten's effect on the Kenki gauge causes the resource to feel rather pointless, and it feels awkward using Shinten (and ONLY Shinten) more frequently as a result.
Tenka Goken being a circle AoE rather than a cone is fine, but like with other Iajutsu actions, the lack of Kaiten makes it feel flaccid.

Hissatsu: Kaiten is to Samurai's Iajutsu as impact frames are to an explosive animation, as a moment's silence is to an epic orchestral drop. It's the key tension-builder that's been with me since I started the game in earnest, and it pains me to feel so dissatisfied with the job I've loved so dearly these many years because of Kaiten's absence.

I’ll start by disclosing that I don’t main Samurai, or play it to any meaningful extent, but I agree with many Samurai mains that these changes compromise the core aspect of the job and diminish the rewarding playstyle that it provided.

As a friend who does main samurai since the job was originally released put it, “imagine if they removed dragon kick, gave bootshine auto crit without it, but cut the potency of your chakra finishers to half and gave it to twin snakes and snap.” Basically, removing a cool ability that is a meaningful part of the job, and killing the impact felt by playing properly and building your resources. It’s like a story that doesn’t have any rising action, and the climax is something boring and predictable.

SE is removing the feel of playing a samurai from SAM, taking away the buildup, the oomph, and what’s left is a more generic and bland play-style. I don’t have to play the job to understand the outcry against these changes.

Please SE, look at the negative impact this has had on the enjoyment of your player base, and consider reverting these drastic changes. I want to keep playing an MMO in which each job has an least some semblance of unique identity. Otherwise, what’s the point of having different jobs to choose from?

Originally Posted by Awkward

It's mostly from people who meta bandwagon honestly, there are plenty of other jobs in much worse shape than SAM ever was who never complained to this alarming degree.

I’ve never once used SAM for EX/Savage , and have made myself perfectly clear how much I give less of a shat about meta and numbers and even still I think the sam changes are horrible.

How disingenuous to paint the whole issue as a “meta bandwagon” issue while jobs are shrinking across the board while people are so dead set on eachother to notice. Get over yourself and open your eyes

Originally Posted by Jirah

I’ve never once used SAM for EX/Savage , and have made myself perfectly clear how much I give less of a shat about meta and numbers and even still I think the sam changes are horrible.

This ^

Prior to 6.1 I mained samurai for 2 simple reasons:
- OGCD variety/frequency.
- Minimal emphasis on tracking cooldowns.

I don't care at all about the meta - what's important to me is that the gameplay be fast, fun, and not demand that I track cooldowns like a hawk - my attention should be on the fight, not my hotbars.

Dragoon is cooldown intensive.
Reaper isn't fast (Enshroud doesn't count).
Monk isn't fast (Greased Lightning doesn't make up for effectively 0 OGCDs).
Ninja is cooldown intensive.
Samurai is no longer fun.

I could switch to ranged physical or a caster, but the list would look similar - the only job that is anywhere close to samurai in terms of fast, fun, and not being cooldown intensive is dancer, which I do enjoy, just not nearly as much as I used to enjoy samurai.

Originally Posted by cjbeagle

This ^

Prior to 6.1 I mained samurai for 2 simple reasons:
- OGCD variety/frequency.
- Minimal emphasis on tracking cooldowns.

I don't care at all about the meta - what's important to me is that the gameplay be fast, fun, and not demand that I track cooldowns like a hawk - my attention should be on the fight, not my hotbars.

Dragoon is cooldown intensive.
Reaper isn't fast (Enshroud doesn't count).
Monk isn't fast (Greased Lightning doesn't make up for effectively 0 OGCDs).
Ninja is cooldown intensive.
Samurai is no longer fun.

I could switch to ranged physical or a caster, but the list would look similar - the only job that is anywhere close to samurai in terms of fast, fun, and not being cooldown intensive is dancer, which I do enjoy, just not nearly as much as I used to enjoy samurai.

This is very well said. Wholeheartedly agreed. +1

Originally Posted by cjbeagle

This ^

Prior to 6.1 I mained samurai for 2 simple reasons:
- OGCD variety/frequency.
- Minimal emphasis on tracking cooldowns.

I don't care at all about the meta - what's important to me is that the gameplay be fast, fun, and not demand that I track cooldowns like a hawk - my attention should be on the fight, not my hotbars.

Dragoon is cooldown intensive.
Reaper isn't fast (Enshroud doesn't count).
Monk isn't fast (Greased Lightning doesn't make up for effectively 0 OGCDs).
Ninja is cooldown intensive.
Samurai is no longer fun.

I could switch to ranged physical or a caster, but the list would look similar - the only job that is anywhere close to samurai in terms of fast, fun, and not being cooldown intensive is dancer, which I do enjoy, just not nearly as much as I used to enjoy samurai.

SE trying real hard to get me to unsub. If they dont address these changes fast ill prob go back to only subbing during a big expansion.

Originally Posted by WorldPeacElbow

SE trying real hard to get me to unsub. If they dont address these changes fast ill prob go back to only subbing during a big expansion.

Them gutting samurai severely undermined my will to engage in PVE content at all - the only thing that's really holding my interest this point is Crystalline Conflict, and ironically, so far my favorite job for that content has been monk, which happens to have an OGCD that buffs the next weaponskill by 50%.

I have to admit. It got me back into playing my SAM more. Its been one of my mains since SB. While I miss Kaiten and it's weird getting used to it, changes like the point blank AoEs made the job feel alot more fluid for me.

Main reason I'm here though, is with there being autocrits on most of the main damage spikes, could that mean we might get more damage output benefit from stacking DH?

Originally Posted by Avarant

I have to admit. It got me back into playing my SAM more. Its been one of my mains since SB. While I miss Kaiten and it's weird getting used to it, changes like the point blank AoEs made the job feel alot more fluid for me.

Before the changes when it was a bit more difficult? I spammed dungeons purely because I wanted to not even cause I needed to. Now? It's made so braindead ontop of not having Kaiten that I have not touched a single Dungeon since the update. Tenka Goken change from Cone to Circular plus Kaiten removal made me quit Dungeons all together. I hate our AoE rotation now. A summary made by " cjbeagle " explains it pretty well.

6.0 pre-Fuko: ▲ O ▲ O [Kaiten]▲

6.0 post-Fuko: O O O O [Kaiten]▲

6.1 Kaiten Removal: O O O O O

^ it has become bland, boring, not engaging, requires less positional awareness, animation looks lazy and utterly braindead.