Quote Originally Posted by Arinym View Post
I'm in agreement with a lot of the posts here that these changes really took away a lot of enjoyment from Samurai. I've been playing with the new changes today and Samurai really lost a lot of its uniqueness. Personally, I don't feel just one of these changes is causing it; it's a combination of these changes put together making it just feel much less rewarding to play. To put it into one sentence, the damage got evened out across everything, and Samurai lost the whole "build-up for the big hits" feel--something that (IMO) other DPS classes lacked. This is what made Samurai unique for me, and gave it its identity of being bursty (or at least having light attacks building up into a big attack).

Changes I am really not enjoying:
Potency distributions: I think these changes are what impacted the overall feel the most, as stated above. Samurai lost its identity of being bursty.
Removing Kaiten: I feel like I'm just mashing Iaijutsu for it to cast ASAP, since there is no longer a required weave before it. Additionally, Kenki management is gone, as now there is only one thing to spend Kenki on--Shinten. (Yes, there's Senei, but you use it alongside Ikishoten, so it's very easy to always have enough Kenki for it.)
Tenka Goken / Kaeshi: Goken potencies: AoE damage output got nerfed, even with having more Kenki for Kyuten (25 Kenki cost), as its potency didn't change. Tenka Goken's potency can no longer be buffed +50% by Kaiten, and Kaeshi: Goken's potency was lowered to match Tenka Goken's.

Changes I am neutral to:
Tenka Goken / Kaeshi: Goken cone -> circle: I did enjoy having to move in and out while doing AoE attacks--move in for the GCDs, move out for Tenka. While there's less movement required, there's also less spamming tab to try to target the desired target.

Changes I am enjoying:
Third Eye: Even though it's just +1 second increase, it helps dramatically. This was a little awkward finding a place to weave it before incoming damage, but so far it has been more reliable and less awkward.
I agree with this, particularly the fact that the identity, the feel, of the job has been completely changed. Because of the potency changes, the auto-crit, and the removal of Kaiten, the 'holy moly big hit wow!' fun is gone, the resource management to have the chance for those huge hits in a window is gone, and the additional active cognitive load in the system is gone. The core of the job is gone and it's sad.