[Inconspicuous Kitty]

Kensei is a good class. It has a lot of damage output, a lot of ways to deal it, and is definitely not short on defenses, coming with things like Sheathe Sword and Hidden cut, reflect bullet.

Two of it's best skills are in the Absolute series. One of them is very sad and lonely, because nobody ever picks it.
I'm of course, talking about Absolute Pace.

Absolute Death is a godsend in the damage category. 25% can add up. Pick opponent, and with a solid enough build, your 120 damage strikes can hit 170, 200 to 250, etc.

Absolute Fear would be it's defensive thing as far as absolute's go. It inflicts fear, making it easier to dodge things, Hesitation, for when the dodge decides to give up, and silence, shutting down mages without any way to counter it, ignoring status infliction.

Then there's absolute pace. It's not point and click for a silent effect like the other two. Well, it is - but it's situational, because you have to dodge something first. The biggest issue with this is just that it's situational. The Kensei is supposed to keep up with the flow of battle - but with this skill, you're actually losing the flow of battle by using momentum to apply it, and in PVP, where many of the Balance Fu discussion comes from, anyone can simply pop an autohit, because I do not believe it triggers evasion. With the up-and-coming global evasion update in mind, this can be remedied. Even were it not the case, it's effect is mediocre at best, for a few reasons.

1. 50% scaled strength is not much. At 60 scaled strength, that's an additional 30 flat damage.
2. Absolute Death does it's job, but better, and non situationally.
3. What with numerous katana's being majors in skill, Kensei's don't have to build STR, but often go for SKI instead. This is just a statistic, and less a reason, but still!


Fortunately, it's just a weak skill. We can keep it with some simple buffs. I propose one or more of the following, perhaps not all, but they're ideas to keep in mind, and can be combined as Dev sees fit for the sake of balance.

1. Buff the 50% scaled STR to 100% scaled STR.
2. Switch the bonus from STR to a simple bonus from scaled weapon attack.
3. Make the skill capable of triggering on evasion.
4. Make the skill capable of triggering on successful parries.
5. Perhaps make Absolute Pace have one, or no momentum cost; potentially with an FP increase.
6. Battle Pace does not disappear per the skill used immediately after it.
7. No requirement of dodge in the first place. I frankly don't like this one, but it's an option.

With these more solid suggestions put up, I'm going to delve into the fact that it's called 'Absolute Pace' and not 'Absolute Coolness' (seriously the effect on Kagekiri looks amazing!!)
Basically, I'm suggesting it have a utility use instead. The Kensei is to keep up with his opponents. Therefore to spark discussion!

1. Triggering Absolute pace will instead give the Kensei momentum per turn with Battle Flow.
2. Triggering Absolute pace will make the next Kensei skill cost no momentum.
3. Triggering Absolute pace will make the Kensei's movement free once per turn.
4. Triggering Absolute pace will pull a Geist, and cause the Kensei to dash towards their opponent immediately. Perhaps, while Battle Flow is active, the Kensei will also dash to the opponent at the start of each of their own turns. This will fit the idea of it being a 'pace' quite nicely. In this one, it would be a double edged sword, as they may potentially dash through cinders, so to circumvent this, the Kensei may battle pace themselves for no momentum for free to cancel battle flow.

*HEAVY BREATH*
I think I'm done. These are all to spark discussion, my own ideas. I went crazy, I know, but the jist of the this post is this:
Dev pls buff Absolute Pace, it's lonely
*flees*
(i promise I'll never do this length of post again, i just feel like Absolute Pace has so much friggin potential)

[Skullcatrons]

TLR

[Inconspicuous Kitty]

TL;DR Kensei's Absolute Pace needs a buff you memelord.

[Skullcatrons]

I feel the love.

[Trexmaster]

I'd say swapping the damage bonus from STR to SWA would be sufficient. Hidden Cut received the same change for similar reasons, if I recall.

[Inconspicuous Kitty]

It did, but if we're to consider around 120 SWA the norm, at 50% SWA, you're getting a single bonus of 60 damage on the Kensei skill, as opposed to Absolute Death being able to pop on an additional 30, but for around three rounds at a potential 270 bonus damage total, crits providing, due to three shots of three momentum attacks. I don't believe a simple change to SWA is sufficient to make it in line with the 'Absolute Pace' aspect.

I believe the trigger should be looked at as well; the scaling increased; but as it stands, it's a weak skill that is difficult to trigger, as well. I imagine simply adding 'Evasion' procs to start it off would be a good start alongside changing it to SWA.

[Autumn]

Absolute pace can be absurdly strong if allowed to trigger with evasion, especially with a possibly upcoming system, Kensei are able to make people miss their attacks on them quite competently with the use of fear so I'd argue that triggering absolute pace isn't the issue here, if I recall, battle flow is consumed on the next use of a kensei skill so maybe just making it 100% of your SWA would make it good.

[Inconspicuous Kitty]

It does not trigger on evasion, if I recall. A change as simple as allowing it to would probably solve the issue of this skill, alongside the damage buff; at least, for starters, anyway. It is worth mentioning that battle pace is consumed upon use, so it's a one trick pony in that regard.

[Trexmaster]

Pace also boosts your hit due to it doubling the effects Touki, so it's not entirely useless compared to the other Absolutes since it has its own role aside from damage. Though it's hard to see what role it's trying to fill while requiring a dodge to grant its buff and giving the user a hit bonus while it's up.

While +15 hit isn't amazing this is on top of it giving you additional damage if it procs.

With that in mind I'm wary of giving it too much extra, though it does require investment in the Kensei skills to get the damage bonus in the first place.

I think the Geist-esque idea might be neat--on miss with Pace up, a dash toward the target, perhaps also triggering a quick-draw-esque free attack without the damage penalty of Riposte if you land in range (or if you didn't have to move in the first place).

Otherwise it's just a matter of sorting out what Pace is really meant to be doing. The bonus is weak comparatively these days for what's required to get it, but the hit bonus stops it from being entirely irrelevant.

[NyanWan]

I was planning to post on this a lot sooner, but things popped up. An idea is popping up on my head right now is in regards to a change that might allow Kensei to take use of Absolute Pace.

Absolute Pace in and out of itself seems to be skill-based. The whole "being able to suit the flow to your needs" is an aspect that requires a lot of proper training and "skill." So instead, change 50% scaled str to 35% Scaled Ski. However, why is it lower? Because Absolute Pace is also a one off thing, which does not mesh with the ability of Kensei to combo efficiently and effectively.

To add to this, comes the following proposal: Absolute Pace gains a similar effect to attrait, which gives the following +35% Scaled Ski bonus to Kensei offensives. Battle Pace can go up to 4 rounds depending on rank, and this duration is reduced by 1 per offensive kensei skill used, after the skill resolves.

Another idea to brainstorm is to instead focus less on damage and more on momentum. I don't know how to work with this, but it'd probably be similar to the point of geist listed above.

Anything else is beyond me. Just thought this might give some more ideas to an already packed topic. TY