[Autumn]

Kensei autohits don't exactly feel very satisfying to use, it feels like they should be on the same level if not a little bit more useful than soldier autohits, could we perhaps discuss the idea of buffing these skills a fair bit?

Through scaling fixes or through some utility, or perhaps better interaction with sacred art, lets discuss.

Here's my idea, sacred art increases the scaling of a kensei skill by 35%, and turn the damage type into the element of the skill. (Hirazuki becomes fire damage, Toiken becomes wind damage, etc.)

Perhaps some visual FX tune ups to accompany sacred art, what do you think, feel free to suggest any other thoughts.

[Lolzytripd]

Kensei has way too many investment options, even if sacred as made be stronger to increase their autohit damage, the fact of is even then, a Kensei cannot afford Sheath sword/hidden cut investment, Blade barrier and deflect investment, absolute+required passive investment, and afford to even consider grabbing an offensive skill, unless it the airborne increased crit damage one.
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Theres a grand total of 99 spendable points in Kensei, If this suggestion were to go through, I'd also suggest cutting alot of kensei's slotted passives to one and done and investments.

[Snake]

I really hope this gets reviewed and accepted by Dev.

The only problem in Kensei skills right now is that they're not being used aside the Raijinken and Sharenzan combination. And Sacred Art could get something new running for it. And like Lolzy said, even if you Destiny Kensei, you'll have trouble picking up skills for it without losing one or another major benefit the class gives.

If this gets too annoying to implement, maybe just an increase on the Elemental ATK scalings. (Make Sacred Art use 200% of your Elemental ATK).

[Slydria]

Sacred Art aside, I think the Kensei Offensive Skills in general could use some bumping up and additional functions due to them being somewhat outdated compared to others and I find Kensei doesn't have as much synergy as other "combo" classes.

So here's what I'd like to suggest:

First, an overall damage scaling change from 75% WPN ATK at Rank 1 / 115% WPN ATK at Rank 5 -> 100% WPN ATK at Rank 1 / 120% WPN ATK at Rank 5.

This is mostly because Kensei skills are quite weak early on, so much so that I don't think it's worth getting any of them at a low Rank which would help cut down the SP costs of the class.


Secondly, some more specific changes to skills to help make them more interesting and introduce some more synergy with the other skills.


Kagekiri:
- Increased line width (like Peddling Wheel has)
- Applies a -DEF debuff for 3 Rounds (-Rank DEF, doubled for enemies in the direct path)

Kagekiri is a rather boring skill and suffers from being often disregarded due to it having only minor benefits over Sidecut, which is that you can adjust the line and that it's an autohit skill but it's typically better to just stick with Sidecut and spend the SP elsewhere.

To help it along, I think it should have a larger area of effect, as well as having the ability to reduce DEF so there's more instances where it can be useful, even if it's as an opening skill to reduce DEF and a new synergy (which I've listed below with Raijinken).

Hirazuki:
- Applies pierce Lingering Damage (Rank*5) for 3 Rounds.

Hirazuki isn't as bad off as Kagekiri in my opinion since it has some unique quirks to it like carrying enemies along it and dealing Pierce damage instead of Slash. Though it does seem to be lacking a little bit of punch after nerfs to former synergies (off-hand spear with a Hooked Spearhead comes to mind.)

I think just the bonus effect will do, as well as a new synergy (again with Raijinken listed below).

Toiken:
- Area of effect changing to an empty Circle shape.
- Area of effect becomes a full Circle while Airborne.

While the area of effect is certainly unique, often I find it just not useful, especially when in most cases I can use Crystal Rose instead to affect more enemies.

I think changing it to a Circle area makes it immediately more useful (while retaining the ability to scale the size). And with the new Airborne synergy, it'll become immensely more usable.

Raijinken:
- Can be used to target empty spaces, using it without targeting an enemy refunds 2 Momentum.
- Raijinken affects enemies previously struck by Kagekiri in the same round, damaging and sending them Airborne.
- Raijinken deals 25% additional damage if used on an enemy struck by Hirazuki in the same round.

I like Raijinken but frankly it doesn't offer as much utility as I'd like, only really mixing with Sharenzan. However with this change, I believe it would be a key skill to Kensei combos.

Being able to use it without targeting an enemy for reduced Momentum Cost allows the Kensei to become Airborne for 1M without use of an item or another class, allowing Kensei to use Wazabane to full effectiveness and the new Toiken synergy idea for a reliable Kensei based AoE attack, making this a great opening skill in general.

Furthermore, with the synergies between Kagekiri and Hirazuki, this also becomes a nice follow-up attack.

This might make it feel a little too necessary for combos but I think it would make Raijinken a very nice skill indeed.

Sharenzan:
- No other changes.

I think it just needs a damage bump up like the other skills do. It's already a nice skill that has clear synergy and uses.

Wazabane:
- Can target enemies from a distance (based on Rank) while you are Airborne, targeting a distant enemy moves you beside them before attacking.

While perhaps not as necessary, I think it would be a nice addition that adds another movement option for Kensei. This along with the change to Raijinken would make for more usage.

[Autumn]

I like the changes Sly has posted above, those sort of things would honestly make Kensei's skills an absolute dream to play out and roleplay as well, and is the very reason I opened this discussion.

[GSM]

Honestly, I never liked the autohits for Kensei, and these make me want to pick up my old Destiny Kensei main and try them if they're updated like this.

[Shujin]

How about we forget about the idea of Rank 5 offensive skills for Kenseis and just litterally drop the first 2 levels of it?
So it starts at rank 1 with 100% and gos up to rank 3 to 120%? Cause let´s face it, its far to Skillpoint consuming as a class, and the early levels are simply not worth it.

I mean sure we have this tradition of rank 5 offensive skills, but it might be a little outdated. It would cut down the overall skill point costs to grab stuff thats actually useful and don´t need to eat 5 points before they are.

Beside that, I like most of Slys idea, but Toiken. I don´t really want another circle attack simply because of Crystal rose fullfilling the role quite good already. I like it for it´s awkward range, if it was just slightly more flexible.
How about instead just allowing to move the whole hitbox one tile back and forth? that would make it already more useful, an additional airborne effect likea bigger range is welcome though, or some other little extra tweak. I kinda feel like it, since it´s one of the few elemental impact skills of Kensei, could get an effect based on your element. Frostbite/Burn/lingering/magnetize/Crit?

Kagekiri could instead also be a multihit, like the animation kinda suggests. Would give it a certain use against some special cases of multihit shields or stuff. (Armor ignoring so the damage won´t be killed to much)
You know? Like this:
https://youtu.be/kVySkomujKk?t=55s

[Neus]

I think making the start scaling a bit better is the way to go, rather than lowering the max level and having everyone be able to get everything.

[Autumn]

I think so as well, having active skills with a max of 3 ranks would be a bit less than standard of most classes anyways.

[Snake]

What they said.