Eyyo! I have fumbled around on Kensei a lot recently and whenever I want to come up with something a little more unique I am always hit in the face with Kensei's lack of... Alot. Outside of solid damage it doesn't really do anything well on its own, and needs alot of crutches in other classes (rouge promos primarly) when it comes to dodging. I think that kinda goes against the class fantasy
For example a Destiny Kensei, is realistically only really playable as a Tank, it has no way of actually playing Dodge, because it will never reach buffcap or even get close to it. And even buffcap Evade with fear is hardly a sure way to survive.
While Kensei DOES have pseudo-dodge buffs, or rather debuff, in Kenki (-10/15 hit which is not even effected by buff cap cause debuff) and fear, it has no real buff for evade outside of Absolute pace which gives +10 Evade.
So even if I was absolutely trying my best, and forfeit twohand, which Kenseis REALLY want to use, and use two katanas with Sarasha gi I end up having only:
+10 evade Absolute Pace
+12 Sarasha
maybe -15 hit on enemies that you hit before.
Theoretical +37 evade but realistically +22 evade. More realistcally cause you want to DPS when you already go evade +10. Its other promotions don't really help much in that regard either. We could add Miragewalk to it for a 1 attack buff but still be a good deal off, but everyone knows 1 attack buffs are horrible, and even worse in teamfights. But I am calculating with it for my proposition. Disengage also falls into this category albeit having at least some niche use cases.
Kensei also lacks at the moment real MCing reasons (over Ghost). So I wanted to suggest two things. The first one is pretty straight forward:
1.)Let Katana Master also buff the 3-stances level by 5? This would make absolute pace go to 15 evade, the other stance gain 5swa and 5 crit, thats not too bad I would claim.
The second Suggestion I feel like I need to elaborate a little more. I could simply suggest a Mainclass Skill that just buffs evade for couple of rounds. But that would be boring and in my opinion? If you want to play Kensei you want to play fast flashy combat, and not join everyone else in the Boring buff up game, which would throw you out of your game in mild annoyance.
Furthermore I think that Kensei has a weird way of playing Sheath sword builds. It relies WAY too much on you either being a bunny-girl for their Instinct effect to be effective or on Soldier's Watchful Eye.
I am not a huge fan of locking its effectiveness behind a single race, nor do I think we should limit the Options to one other class to be effective with it. So thats where my Suggestion comes in.
I would take a page from Verglas for this, and its stances. Give it a MC-only Passive Skill, that progressively boosts your Evade, and once upon reaching its cap, it gives you a pseudo Bunny-instinct. Something Like:
2.)
Battle Awareness (call it what you want,I don't care)
Passive
1 Rank Main Class Only
A Master Kensei has forged their skills over thousands of battles and learned to blend in offense with defense by studying their opponents.
If Kensei is your Mainclass, you gain the permanent effect of "Battle awareness" which increases your evade by Level. Each time the Kensei triggers a Kensei Combo Skill or Lands a Critical hit the level is increased by 5 capped at Kensei Level-5(or 30, I don't care. just wanted to give Destiny a little edge)
At level 30(or higher) the Kensei also begins to react to attacks with "Heightend Reflexes". Before an attack there is a 15+cel% chance, that the Kensei turns to face the attacker. (realistically that's probably around 75% trigger chance, which I think is fair)
Yeah something like that. This is just an Example, but I really think this would open SO many more ways to play Dodge Kensei in a fun way and keep its Class Fantasy of "flashy swordman always ready for battle". What the direct conditions and strength of the skills are, is whatever to me. But I think this would remove alot of Kensei problems with their Class variety and creativity as it no longer relies on other classes as crutches and functions on its own, even if only as MC. with a cap of level 30+battle flows +10(or 15 if katana master buffs it) , we still only reach +40 evade, but I think thats alright, since hit debuffs and mirage-walk exists.
For example a Destiny Kensei, is realistically only really playable as a Tank, it has no way of actually playing Dodge, because it will never reach buffcap or even get close to it. And even buffcap Evade with fear is hardly a sure way to survive.
While Kensei DOES have pseudo-dodge buffs, or rather debuff, in Kenki (-10/15 hit which is not even effected by buff cap cause debuff) and fear, it has no real buff for evade outside of Absolute pace which gives +10 Evade.
So even if I was absolutely trying my best, and forfeit twohand, which Kenseis REALLY want to use, and use two katanas with Sarasha gi I end up having only:
+10 evade Absolute Pace
+12 Sarasha
maybe -15 hit on enemies that you hit before.
Theoretical +37 evade but realistically +22 evade. More realistcally cause you want to DPS when you already go evade +10. Its other promotions don't really help much in that regard either. We could add Miragewalk to it for a 1 attack buff but still be a good deal off, but everyone knows 1 attack buffs are horrible, and even worse in teamfights. But I am calculating with it for my proposition. Disengage also falls into this category albeit having at least some niche use cases.
Kensei also lacks at the moment real MCing reasons (over Ghost). So I wanted to suggest two things. The first one is pretty straight forward:
1.)Let Katana Master also buff the 3-stances level by 5? This would make absolute pace go to 15 evade, the other stance gain 5swa and 5 crit, thats not too bad I would claim.
The second Suggestion I feel like I need to elaborate a little more. I could simply suggest a Mainclass Skill that just buffs evade for couple of rounds. But that would be boring and in my opinion? If you want to play Kensei you want to play fast flashy combat, and not join everyone else in the Boring buff up game, which would throw you out of your game in mild annoyance.
Furthermore I think that Kensei has a weird way of playing Sheath sword builds. It relies WAY too much on you either being a bunny-girl for their Instinct effect to be effective or on Soldier's Watchful Eye.
I am not a huge fan of locking its effectiveness behind a single race, nor do I think we should limit the Options to one other class to be effective with it. So thats where my Suggestion comes in.
I would take a page from Verglas for this, and its stances. Give it a MC-only Passive Skill, that progressively boosts your Evade, and once upon reaching its cap, it gives you a pseudo Bunny-instinct. Something Like:
2.)
Battle Awareness (call it what you want,I don't care)
Passive
1 Rank Main Class Only
A Master Kensei has forged their skills over thousands of battles and learned to blend in offense with defense by studying their opponents.
If Kensei is your Mainclass, you gain the permanent effect of "Battle awareness" which increases your evade by Level. Each time the Kensei triggers a Kensei Combo Skill or Lands a Critical hit the level is increased by 5 capped at Kensei Level-5(or 30, I don't care. just wanted to give Destiny a little edge)
At level 30(or higher) the Kensei also begins to react to attacks with "Heightend Reflexes". Before an attack there is a 15+cel% chance, that the Kensei turns to face the attacker. (realistically that's probably around 75% trigger chance, which I think is fair)
Yeah something like that. This is just an Example, but I really think this would open SO many more ways to play Dodge Kensei in a fun way and keep its Class Fantasy of "flashy swordman always ready for battle". What the direct conditions and strength of the skills are, is whatever to me. But I think this would remove alot of Kensei problems with their Class variety and creativity as it no longer relies on other classes as crutches and functions on its own, even if only as MC. with a cap of level 30+battle flows +10(or 15 if katana master buffs it) , we still only reach +40 evade, but I think thats alright, since hit debuffs and mirage-walk exists.