Unbiased Balance Diagnosis | Forums

[Peligrad]

I agree with pretty much everything you said.

I especially agree that Orochi has the most powerful kit. Too powerful IMO. Some of the best offense. Some of the best defense. What is this classes weakness? There is none.

I played Conqueror exclusively in an alpha and beta event. I'll be playing something else on release unless they make conqueror legit upon release.
Conqueror is just trash once people figure out how to block the infinite light attack chain and deal with your charged heavy attacks, which is very easy once you are no longer a noob.
Which is sad since I really enjoy his unique flail combat style.
I think if they gave him a decent dodge attack he might be ok. But as it stands he's much too stationary and gets ripped up by the more mobile characters and defense gets harder and harder as players get more skilled and experienced.

[Waheed_Smoaker]

this was probably the end of day 2 or early day 3 in the closed beta but in pvp dominion mode ( I was around rep 2 level 10) I almost 1 shot a warden because I stacked attack super high from a level 9 blade piece I got. I was playing Nobushi and it was one of those running light attacks

[Sharrowyn]

Thank you very much for this post, it sums up my current understanding of the game pretty much perfectly.

For the Kensei section: (After about 40 hours of playing him as my go-to alt spread over 3 tests, I think I have a good grasp of the class)

The Kensei is pretty similar to the Conqueror in regards to its viability. Against newer players who are not able to parry or evade correctly, this class is ver strong; However, when playing against someone who is even moderately skilled, it is probably the most underwhelming class in the game for reasons I will go into in a bit.

It is a class with a very diverse basic kit, as it incorporates pretty much all basic attack skills from the other classes (e.g. side-evade into light from assassins). It also has very good range and gap-closers built into most attacks (e.g. when an enemy is rolling backwards you can do a triple light attack combo and hit him with the last 2 neatly into the back) . His kit is based around outplaying the enemy with "soft" and "hard" feints, being able to initiate combos with pretty much everything and generally using the full extent of your movement set. If it would actually be like this the class would be really interesting, but alas this is where the fun ends.

For the Kensei's attacks are very, very slow and extremely telegraphed without doing more damage than those of faster classes (and in several cases even less). This leads to him - possibly together with the raider - being by far the easiest class to parry. The (regular) light attacks are not quite as slow and the second in the chain is even very fast, but they are still only slightly faster than most classes' heavy attacks and thus very easy to block.
The assassin-like "dodge into light attack" called "Swiftstrike" (from the sides) and "Helmsplitter" (from the top) are reasonably fast, but still a good deal slower than those of actual assassins and therefore not suitable for regular offense. They also deal very little damage.
Even with this, the most problematic thing has to be the unblockable finisher, its only "special attack". Literally the only time you can use it (or the hyperarmour-heavies you can cancel it into) is once you parry an enemy and throw him into a wall, thus guaranteeing the hit - this is basically the only viable combo this guy has. If you don't do this it is not even worth bothering to try it. It is the easiest attack to parry in the whole game and the unblockable can even be interrupted by a light attack. Both the unblockable and the heavy alternatives you can cancel into can be easily evaded in all directions, because the Kensei has "good range" (sorry for the sarcasm, but it had to be said)., even though most of the time the animations shows the sword going clean through them (yay, these iframes are totally balanced).

All in all, the Kensei has an extensive, interesting and fun basic kit with good range; However, extreme lack of speed, exaggerated telegraphing, lack of meaningful special attacks or really meaningful versatility hold the Kensei back to the point of being unplayable against players who have played the game for more than 20 hours. Everthing he does can be done better and more easily by other classes.
He is very fun to play against light-attack spamming Orochis who are new to the game (aka half the playerbase right now) and pretty fun in general, just don't expect to win a lot once people get actually good at the game.

once of the glaring problems with the kensei IMO is that fact that as a VANGUARD class, they have 4 bars of hitppoints, where as other vanguards have 5.25 bars of hitpoints.

So the Kensai, starts combat with the lowest HP in the game, has slow attack spd, has very moderate damage output, and has his theoretical RANGE negated because of his slow, highly telegraphed moves.

How did this class every make it as is from alpha to release?

[Panty_Ninja]

once of the glaring problems with the kensei IMO is that fact that as a VANGUARD class, they have 4 bars of hitppoints, where as other vanguards have 5.25 bars of hitpoints.

So the Kensai, starts combat with the lowest HP in the game, has slow attack spd, has very moderate damage output, and has his theoretical RANGE negated because of his slow, highly telegraphed moves.

How did this class every make it as is from alpha to release?

I agree.
The Kensei has the same health as Orochi actually...
As mentioned: Very slow telegraphed moves that equate to moderate at best damage, and easy parries for the enemy, coupled with his low health he's severely lacking...
Kensei also has very slow sprint speed, which in dominion is brutal for him. As a vanguard he is in a very odd place, because he isn't mobile enough to run to other points effectively with his slow sprint speed, and also lacks the Heavy (tank class) Health Points to be efficient at holding objectives.

Furthermore, he has in my opinion: the worst Zone Attack in the game. It's very slow and only hits in front of him. Its awful at killing soldiers on B, and has no practical use in PvP. I know its Uninterruptible, but for 1/2 stamina cost combined with his already low health pool trading hits against enemy players is that last thing you want to do as a Kensei. So as a Vanguard killing soldiers on B (inefficiently, and slowly trudging to objectives (slow sprint speed). Hes Still a poor pick at holding points with (low health).

Additionally, he has poor choices for Feats in list. Particularly his tier 2 abilities: Inspire is the only valid choice, and its still fairly weak... Long cool down, only buffs ALLY damage(Not his own), and Soldiers???... because that's useful... Cold Stare isn't to bad, but with long cool down, and the problem that it debuffs the target. If that target dies, The efficiency of the debuff is now wasted, and back on lengthy cool down. Smoke bomb... Smoke bomb is just bad.. I wont explain to much in depth, but couple its near useless applications, with his already terrible sprint speed escape isn't likely., it's his worst feat pick..
All in all the Kensei is a very clumsy character right now. In the thick of combat under skilled hands, if your opponents don't just run away (see slow sprint speed) and manages to survive (see low health). Hes actually a well balanced, extremely fun, and satisfying character to play in fights. But with is current weakness's, set backs, and not being able to excel at any roll in Dominion mode. Hes just a bad pick compared to any other class that would do his job better.