So yesterday I found out about the devs taking out Kaiten. I'm the worst when it comes to keeping updated in the game but this was my first ever blind patch since I started the game last year (still miss my little sprout icon).

I'm a tank main (PLD for life), so my rotation is more of a 1-2-3 situation. I had decided to try SAM after hearing how fun it was to play and it was a more complex job. My tank rotation is already simple enough, and at least in this patch they made my magic rotation better but the SAM changes... Not a fan.

So I'm a more casual player so I can't give any opinion on how some of the SAM changes effects gameplay in Savages/Ultimates, but losing Kaiten felt like losing an important part of what made SAM fun for to me play. While I loved the animation (always felt so cool using it), learning to optimize the use of Kaiten to try to get my crits made learning the class fun. Weaving moves around my kenki consumption made me love a more complicated rotation.

I played the day the patch 6.1 came out and playing without Kaiten felt like I was missing something. The auto crits are nice sure, but the potency loss for a lot of my high damage skills because of auto crits made getting those criticals seem less worthwhile. My kenki feels like a waste since I can build it so fast, but can't spend it on more than a couple of moves.
As for other changes I'm kinda split on them. The 'Third Eye' is alright I guess but 3 to 4 sec's is still not enough time to properly shield (but I guess that's just the PLD in me talking). Taking SAM's cone aoe away is more of a preference thing the way I see it. I liked it because it made hitting mob packs interesting (I already spin like a Beyblade with my circle PLD aoe) but I can see why they changed it.

Overall, as someone who likes to give things a try before I give my opinion, I find that the removal of Kaiten was a big mistake. Having guaranteed crits in the absence of Kaiten isn't worh it overall. SAM just doesn't feel the same.

If they wanted to make the job less busy, taking away Kaiten wasn't it. Please bring it back.