[KhalidtheGrey]

I've been thinking (ah crap, not again), and I have an idea for Sheath Sword and Hidden Cut. They are as follows.

Sheath Sword: Put your sword in your sheath after facing target direction. If the Sword you are using is a Katana type, you also prepare a Quick Draw attack. When an enemy you are facing within 1 range attacks you, you will instantly preform a basic attack on them first with a ((rank*2)*consumed momentum) bonus to hit.
Cost: Remaining Momentum, 10 FP

Hidden Cut (Passive, requires Sheath Sword): Dealing damage with a katana-type weapon or Kensei offensive skills applied Hidden Cut with a level equal to 35% of the damage dealt. Hidden Cut lasts 2 rounds. Using Sheath Sword consumes Hidden Cut to apply this damage as unresistable pierce physical damage.

I'd like to stress that the 35% value is just a starting point and I am fully open to this value getting changed to better balance the skill. Same can be said for Sheath Sword, but that one I find to be far more comfortable in the numbers department. I would like to note however that I purposefully left out the Sacred Art proc for Quick Draw as I am not sure that should stay or not.

[Lolzytripd]

why do these need changing?

[KhalidtheGrey]

Well, I've never heard a positive opinion on hidden cut, not to mention using Hidden Cut is pointless when you can A) Hit twice for full damage instead of once for full and again for partial. Or B) Combo two offensive skills for full damage (Absolute Pace and Sacred Art Aside) instead of hitting for one skill then proc'ing Hidden Cut. I only know of one circumstance where Hidden Cut is actually a good idea, maybe, and that's for Snake Dance. Which you can burn off with a Crystal Rose for 3M. Because you're a Kensei and you always have Crystal Rose.

And Sheath Sword's minimum 3M makes it kinda pointless more often than not beyond mind games. I've never known a situation where Sheath Sword is actually preferable over other options unless you, some how, cannot hit anything otherwise.

[Ranylyn]

There's numerous uses for the skill. It's not something to use every turn, definitely, but with smart, tactical use, it's a godsend as is, and I feel that lowering the Momentum would just make it something people use every turn and push it over the top.

For example, say you Sidecut through a physically-oriented enemy, ending adjecent to them, and then use Repel on them. The Repel crits, pushing the enemy to a comfortable distance. At this point, you have a few options: You can Crystal Rose, Couloir, Cyclone Spear, Kazekiri or Hirakuzi away the last of your momentum for a solid hit, or use something from your subclass... or use Sheath Sword. "But why the hell would you even use Sheath Sword!? Hidden Cut sucks!" It does, but you're completely overlooking the other, and far more important, facet of the skill:

Sheath Sword provides a guaranteed counterattack that can trigger at the same time as Riposte. If the momentum cost was lowered, they'd effectively have a 1M attack they can use once per turn, and hidden cut pushes it ever so slightly over the top with free damage as is. If you personally can't work it into your strategy, then don't use it. It doesn't need to become ludicrously unbalanced simply to make it more appealing.

[Detective100]

While sheath sword does provide an "almost" guaranteed counterattack against people, it is important to remember that it is only useful from the front, unlike riposte that can counterattack to the sides too.

Say we'll take your example for repel and it crits, it is a 3 square push.

The enemy already needs to move towards you one way or the other (assuming it is a close-range fighter of course), and all he has to do is to is to move 5 squares to reach your side to attack.

That said... Using sheath while infront of someone can help in trying to deter people from attacking you from the front, forcing them to use a skill that allows them to attack from somewhere else, or moving around you to attack.

P.S: Can someone remind me if sheath sword works against auto-hits? I don't remember. :oops:

[Autumn]

It does not work vs autohits, with so many of those in the game now it's rather easy to get around sheath sword, it does serve it's purpose as deterring people to attack you from the front for 3m, I think it's rather fine and it has nice synergy with watchful eye.

[Detective100]

Well... So long as it'll work against auto-hits as well, I'll feel fine with it - I may still won't use it, but that still doesn't mean that people who use it would just get attacked by things like turnover and get knocked around for nothing in return.

[Shujin]

I still feel that Hidden Cut could need a little boost, considering that it´s really far to easy to get around Sheath sword. I mean you can just chaser in their face and don´t even care.

So either make Sheath sword also work for Autohits.
Or Maybe give Hidden Cut a Lingering Damage effect?

[Ranylyn]

If it did work against autohits, it'd simply be too good. Do consider how common Soldier/Duelist has always been. Consider all the possibility for defensive options, like Blade/Bullet barrier, Eviter, Stalemate, Snake Dancer, etc. Making it work against autohits would basically give them an instant win button against many melee attackers, as they can use a move like Kazekiri to end their turn farther away and waste their opponent's momentum moving back to them, only to stay facing them regardless.

As it stands, it's fine as is. It's not wtfmazing but it's far from useless. Not every build wants it, but it can be very useful on builds that do.

[Joseph Jostar]

Overall this seems like a nice buff to Hidden Cut in my opinion. It seems like a bit too much to be able to prepare a Quickdraw for as few as 1M however. If there were a minimum M cost to prepare a Quickdraw (ie, it wouldn't prepare a quick draw if you sheathed sword with 1M or 2M left) this would turn Hidden Cut into something worth using (with a little tweaking, probably lowering a bit, of the damage values, anyway) for solid bonus damage on Kensei.