So this post is just going to be me going over my experiences playing the Kensei in the alpha. I tried all of the classes to get a feel for them but then switched exclusively to the Kensei, which I raised to Renown 2 Rank 12 on the Xbox One. First lets go over the Kensei's strengths.

  • Reach
  • Stun/Blind from Throw
  • Unblockable Third Heavy Combo from High
  • Simple Move Set


Reach is very deceptive as a strength as it was extremely useful in Dominion, but almost pointless in Duel. In dominion most engagements would begin with a charging attack or end with a running retreat. Both situations HUGELY benefited the Kensei's reach as opponents opened with attacks that were guaranteed to be interrupted and rarely gave themselves enough room to escape the last light tap. In duel though all the classes seemed to be able to close quite safely, and the Duel arenas were small enough to make constantly ceding ground to maintain reach a horrible idea. All in all reach seemed a niche advantage and thus fine. Great for poking out Orochi players who assumed their speed would get priority though.

The Stun/Blind on the Kensei was triggered directly by the throw, and was very useful as long as you didn't just go heavy high for the unblockable. The blind helped in securing a hit from guard break when there was nothing to push your enemy into for the stagger. Extra useful is really all there is to say here.

The unblockable third heavy high could be comboed into from any move string even throw. The problems with this move are it's far too predictable and parryable. Against new, distracted, or average players this move is one of the best in the game providing huge free damage. But against a skilled enemy it will never land as it must always be the third hit and it must be high. It is too inflexible and has too many counters. So another skill that is a slight boon in Dominion, but functionally non-existent in skilled duels.

The final strength I have listed is actually listed as a weakness in the class description, but I disagree. But having very few combo's or special exemptions from the base rules of combat you can more fully focus on your enemy. Instead of think about your next set up for combo you can just watch their set up. Further you have so few tricks you have to ensure the enemy can't dictate the engagement, but you have nothing distracting you from stopping that. This might be controversial, but I found the lack of complexity really benefited my response game.

The two weaknesses I even think are worth discussing are the Kensei's low health and his slow running speed. The Kensei shares the lowest health pool in the game with the Orochi and considering the strengths of the class I have no idea why. The only argument I could see for it is thematic one making the whole Samurai faction all fragile, but I see no balance trade off that makes the Kensei need low health. The running speed is only relevant in Dominion. If an engagement goes wrong retreat is very unlikely as any class can eventually run you down and thus you should just make a final stand. This disadvantage just forces you to start really looking before rushing to a point and I think it is just fine.

In conclusion I found the Kensei to be a perfectly fine class that might do with a health buff and perhaps the ability of the unblockable to be oriented left/right. My only real concern with the class is in comparison to many of the others which have very large general advantages compared to the Kensei's situational ones. I would love any correction comment or argument about anyone else experiences as well.