Yes, it's another post about disliking 6.1 Sam changes.

I've literally never posted on these forums before but the changes made to the class I main has prompted me to change that. Obligatory fluff in the intro: Sam main, few thousand hours in the game, cleared a handful of ex and savage fights, this game means so much to me I play it almost everyday blah blah etc. I'll most likely be regurgitating points made by others already but I want to make sure that the devs know that many, many sam mains are unhappy.

To the main gripe: removing Kaiten has made the class feel substantially worse, even if the overall damage output is the same. What drew me to the class initially and what I enjoy the most about the class is how busy and how often you can double weave on Sam. The current rotation feels empty and dumping kenki into Shinten isn't engaging. As is, Samurai also doesn't have any incentive to manage their kenki while solo or in a group without the lauded 2 min party buff.

I don't buy the "action bloat" justification for making this change either. Other actions such as Shoha II, Ishikoten/Ogi, and Guren/Senei seem like much more obvious candidates for trimming down unneeded actions, by making upgrading their single target counterparts into the AOE button with 50% fall off, like so many other actions introduced in EW or replacing Ishikoten with Ogi after its use.

Additional gripe: lowering the potency but adding the guaranteed crit to Iaijutsus and Ogi may kept sam on the same level of damage output as before, but feels much, much worse and unrewarding. The big, bold crit numbers feel completely hollow, when a tank could achieve the same types of numbers on some of their buttons (~24k Inner Chaos ~25k Midare as seen in another post on here). Without Kaiten being used before Midare or Higanbana, the Iaijutsu feels like the 4th button in your 1-2-3 combo that is just awkward to use.

Last, minor gripe: our basic AOE combo starter being a cirlce? Good change. Tenka Goken being a cirlce? Not a good change. Even though, it does make it a bit more awkward during mob pulls or add phase, I think that the animation and the fact you have to pay more attention to line up your big AOE gives more identity to Sam. Additionally, it pairs well with the shape of the current Guren. Fuko being a cirlce makes a lot of sense since we're using that to start our AOE combo into other circular AOEs. Tenka Goken should feel different and special.

So please, dev team, revert these changes.

P.s. if you're into the whole "one action turns into another" thing, could you bring back Hissatsu: Seigan but just change it so that it's just what Third Eye turns into to save space? I fucking love weaving ogcds.