[Autumn]

To start off on the right foot, I don't exactly think that Kensei is in too weak of a spot at the current moment, but that is largely due to how good Duelist is as a base class in order to carry the sub-class itself. Currently I can just list Kensei as the duelist that uses katanas worse than Ghost would, except it has autohits (that are situationally worse than Ghost's.)

Kensei's unique identity currently is the katana skills that are unique to it, but the build path for basic attacking and autohitting are very different, while a basic attack build CAN autohit its typically not very worthwhile unless you're met with an opponent with so much crit evade you have no hope of dealing any additional damage. (Even then basic attack weapons boast on-hits in order to supplement this.)

I think that there are a few things to add to kensei that give incentive to play it in the way that seems to be intended, and changes to make to some currently less useful skills it has currently.

Here is what I currently dislike about Kensei:

-Very little to offer for reliable consistent AoE, its current AoE that isn't straight line based is currently on Toiken which can be unruly to aim and Rajinken which is based on a Kensei combo effect, which is harder to pull off multiple times in a fight.

-Lack of incentive to utilize both Kensei's autohits and basic attacks other than through Wazabane and wazabane only to trigger combo effects and minimize FP spent with sacred art.

-Feels like Duelist just with a bit of spice and extra stats, nothing like Ghost or Firebird in their identities, nothing screams "I"M A KENSEI" other than its autohits, which every class has.

Here I have listed a bunch of ideas I'd hope to have shared and possibly looked over and implemented in some fashion, I went over each of the skills and hopefully nailed down some ideas that might cover over some frustrations that at least I currently have about Kensei.


New Skill ideas:

Hissatsu - Sword Only Skill
4m (-1m Cost with Katana)
0 Round cooldown.
32/34/36/38/40 FP Cost (Sacred art applicable)
120/140/160/180/200% Scaled Weapon Attack

A technique that can only be used when a Kensei fully understands their opponent, requires all three of Kenki, Sakki and Touki to be active on one opponent in order to target them and delivers unto them a lethal blow, consuming the statuses upon use.

Inflicts a lingering damage status equal to Rank*12 LV for 3 rounds.

Jiten - Sword Only
4m (-1m Cost with Katana)
0 Round cooldown
14/16/18/20/22 FP Cost (Sacred art applicable)
100/105/110/115/120% Scaled Weapon Attack

Targets all enemies in a 3 range circle around the Kensei, delivering a spinning slash and damaging all enemies around you, enemies on the outer edge take 25% more damage.

Kensei Combo effect - Knocksback 3 tiles, doubled on the outer edge.

Blade Zenith - Equippable passive - MAIN CLASS ONLY
By fully utilizing a katana's potential you are able to reach heights of swordplay unique to any other form's, provides bonuses to Kensei skill and basic attacks for meeting certain requirements, either buff can only apply once per round.

-Landing a basic attack with a katana weapon causes your next Kensei skill (Except Hissastu) in the same round to inflict or power up a lingering damage debuff. for 2 rounds. (LV = Skill rank *4)
-Landing a Kensei Skill (Except Wazabane) will cause your next basic attack with a katana in the same round to gain +25% critical damage

Existing Skill changes:

Absolute Pace
-Absolute Pace now reduces enemy's hit equal to Touki's LV for the duration.

(This would give Absolute Pace a lot of utility to at least use, this was its use before the Kensei changes took place, otherwise it gets overlooked as no one will trigger it ever intentionally.)

Hidden Cut
-Triggers any lingering damage effect on targets, causing them to take damage equal to its LV

(Hidden cut deals very little damage even with Hisen, the true utility of it is the sheath sword part, but this would also bring a lot more flair to the skill, such as making existing cuts bleed out suddenly.)

Tekagen
Halves the Kensei's Evade/Damage/Phys.Def/Mag.Def, provides 10 HP/FP Regen per round.

(Modernizing this skill to not butcher stats, saving HP Lost from having STR weakened, allowing the Kensei to still make accurate hit/crit checks but for significantly less damage, giving the feel of holding back still.)

As usual thanks for reading and possible consideration, I'd like to hear feedback if any is to be had.

[Raigen.Convict]

I support 100% of this thread, yes please I've played my Kensei and felt the same exact way. Lingering damage is such a rare status and generally sounds really cool for Kensei to do this, so in case say, someone kites you. Having struck them is still a reward so you can close in while they still take damage.
(only stupid thing with this I can see is Kensei + Ghost stacking up claret call like no tomorrow thanks to lingering damage.)

[Fern]

I like most of these. Just an idea, but Hissatsu's animation could be the screen fading to black with a single slash animation before it turns back to normal. It could probably have the silhouette with the red screen from Soaring Spear too.

[Grandpa]

These all sound great to me, the only problem I have really is that Hissatsu would likely just be another skill abused by the whole "wazabane -> anything else" tactic.

Also, I think Absolute Pace should trigger on Evasion procs in addition to as it is now. I think reducing enemy hit is a bit iffy, given how bad Kensei was about that before.

[Autumn]

I will agree that currently Wazabane's only good use is keeping it solely at rank 1 to proc Kenki and sacred art for a reliably low FP cost, but at the very least it would require all 3 statuses to be active, so you'd need to land Toiken/Rajinken AND Kagekiri/Hirazuki in succession, each of these statuses last 3 rounds too so it might be hard to pull it off without a controlled method, so at minimum the cooldown on the skill would be at least 2 rounds, if not 3 rounds.

But perhaps the best method is actually giving it a hard cooldown as well, otherwise I think it'd be fine overall given its requirement on statuses that can be reliably purged, especially by BK.

[Lolzytripd]

I would like to argue the point of making sheathsword a minimum 1m skill with scaling effects based on how much momentum was used.
example
1m procs the hidden cuts
2m grants the bonuses on next turn
3m grants the quickdraw status
4m grants quickdraw to your flanks
5m+ grants quickdraw all sides.