Kensei doesn't need a damage buff, what he needs is more combos. | Forums

[Nlight91]

Amen to that bro, I love kensei, but I've reach a game time, where I face 8 times out of ten turtles that don't parry a single time (a lot of warden and conqs), and are good at counter grabbing... it is long, boring and unintersting...

Good wardens are amongst the worse, cause they just keep their guard up, and either ZA on your left, or top light, and sometimes do their special top parry. They block the rest, or punish your feints with lights, and back to turtling when you feint into a swift strike or side GB.
So, in order to deal with such people (wardens or not), you turtle yourself, and wait an opportunity to swift strike, which does become then your only move cause the rest of the chain is either blocked/counters/counter-grabbed...

This is depressing, and certainly not a concern to kensei only. what is even more depressing is that turtling is quite easy and does not require that much skill, so why bother doing something else ? Turtling is the most viable option to win, and does not require much skill, this plystyle is only a logical approach to what the game offers. And this put in lights the currents flaws of it, flaws which can be adressed at devs level.

[GiganticKORAK]

Looking through Kensei threads, I feel like not many people talk about the dodge deflect property that Kensei has.
It doesn't solve Kensei's problem, but it adds safer block options for Kensei. Since parry is high risk if you were to mess up the timing.

So, Kensei has this special property that if your guard is on the direction of enemy's attack you can dash in any direction and the attack will bounce off, allowing you to get a GB, or side slashes/helm splitter in.

This dodge-block is safer than straight parry, because even if your timing is off, you won't get hit. However, it is countered by heavy feint -> GB. So if you make it too obvious, you will be in for punishment.

Let me give an example on how to use it.
If I feel that Warden is going to use his zone attack. I can leave my guard at left, and the second I see that red indicator, I can dash forward and block his zone attack and give him a GB. Granted, it is not easy to actually react to Warden's ZA speed, but if you are low on health and the Warden can't find a gap in your defense. You can pretty much guess what will come next. And this way, even if you fail to react, you will still be safe. Comparing to actually trying to parry the Warden ZA, this option is much safer and give off as much reward.


I like to use this against characters that have much different attack timing, such as warlord. Their heavies are extremely slow, but lights are very fast, making it easy to make mistake on parrying their attack. With the dodge-block, even if he throws a very slow heavy and I went for a light attack block, I wouldn't be punished. As my guard would still be up and block the heavy.

This doesn't help the turtle problem, unfortunately. But it is a good tool to add to Kensei's arsenal.

[Tomas_Jari]

"If I feel that Warden is going to use his zone attack. I can leave my guard at left, and the second I see that red indicator, I can dash forward and block his zone attack and give him a GB. Granted, it is not easy to actually react to Warden's ZA speed, but if you are low on health and the Warden can't find a gap in your defense. You can pretty much guess what will come next. And this way, even if you fail to react, you will still be safe. Comparing to actually trying to parry the Warden ZA, this option is much safer and give off as much reward."

Damn, I dont get it I will try to use it. Its all about dodgeing in the way of attack,right?

[DrinkinMyStella]

My main is kensai and i don't do high level duels anymore because of his flaws, my KD for duel is good but i still can't compete against high level assassins becasuse he is too slow. He shines in dominion, i'm max gear score and can take on most heroes easily especially when ganged up on. He definitely need a speed buff or another combo added to his move-set.

[GiganticKORAK]

"If I feel that Warden is going to use his zone attack. I can leave my guard at left, and the second I see that red indicator, I can dash forward and block his zone attack and give him a GB. Granted, it is not easy to actually react to Warden's ZA speed, but if you are low on health and the Warden can't find a gap in your defense. You can pretty much guess what will come next. And this way, even if you fail to react, you will still be safe. Comparing to actually trying to parry the Warden ZA, this option is much safer and give off as much reward."

Damn, I dont get it I will try to use it. Its all about dodgeing in the way of attack,right?

It is a bit different from deflect.
It works well for heavy attacks, and attacks that you know will come from a certain direction.

You match your defense to your opponent's attack direction, and then you dash in any direction, you will block the enemy attack while dashing. They will be stuck in block delay, while you are not.

So let's say if someone uses left heavy, you move your defense to left and dash forward. You will be able to block that left heavy, and land a GB on the enemy. Note that if you press the GB too early, you will actually get hit. So, make sure you block that attack before going for GB.

It doesn't really work for light attack, unless its from slow character like Kensei, Raider, etc.
Since light attacks are so fast, by the time you move your block to match the enemy attack, the attack is already blocked. You don't have time to actually dash forward. and this block-dodge tech won't work if you are not dashing.

It is not as useful as it sound to be, because if you can actually react an attack, readjust guard, and dash, you probably could have parried that attack to begin with.
However, it is safer, timing wise than parrying, and even if you mess up the timing, you probably won't get hit. Although, if the enemy feint into GB, you won't be able to get out.
So, use it as part of the mix-up and don't overuse it.

Oh! One more thing to add! This tech is good against long range characters like Nobushi, and another Kensei because if you actually dodge-block their attack, you will be close enough to GB. Parrying Nobushi won't lead into any GB since they will be out of reach.
So, if you are fighting against Nobushi, use this instead of parrying. You will get a better punish!

[guor6800]

"Kensei is soo good! he can faint! super for Mind games if you know how to play him!"
suuuure...
it's not like he is the only class who can faint?

for example..the peacekeeper who can start a hexe and then has a insane fast stab attack with bleed?
or the berserker who can start a swing, and dodge around to sweing the axe into your side? (justz on of many options)
or the raider who can start his unblockable, harder dodgeable zone attack all time + faint a heavy into a fast hit into the face with stun + can trows you of your legs or of a ledge or against a wall?

so that classes have no mind games at all?

I want to play kensei because I do Iaido (japanese way of the sword) myself...but wan't a clas less used as the orochi^^'
But yes...the Kensei seems to be easy guarded and his moves to easy to read.

and he takes suprisingly much damage by some classes like... nobushi...
i played kenasy against nobushi.. and recived more damage bi one stab combo after a kick, than the nobushi, after the used the same combo against her
but i may be wrong...since it feels all the time as if i die by like 3-5 hits after i hit him like 7-10 times just to half the hp of him -.-

so i though to rely on the fast second stab. ob that one gest guarded all the time too. and i don't know why..a lot of my sekond hits..if hard or light seem to be upward although i push the trigger left or right :/ can someone approve this problem?


actually i want to get a kensei high enough to get all traits. the unblockable buff seems to make him usable in non 1v1 or 2v2

Man i loved the character and played throughout both betas and after-launch. This is ******ed. He has by far the less means to be competetive. In high level matches you cant possibly get a second hit. Just hit and run to turtle.

[Zargorius]

Guys:

to feint
a deceptive or pretended blow, thrust, or other movement, especially in boxing or fencing.
"a brief feint at the opponent's face"
a mock attack or movement in warfare, made in order to distract or deceive an enemy.
synonyms: bluff, blind, ruse, deception, subterfuge, hoax, trick, ploy, device, wile, sham, pretence, artifice, cover, smokescreen, distraction, expedient, contrivance, machination; More

to faint
lose consciousness for a short time because of a temporarily insufficient supply of oxygen to the brain.
"I fainted from loss of blood"
synonyms: pass out, lose consciousness, fall unconscious, black out, collapse; More
archaic
grow weak or feeble; decline.
"the fires were fainting there"

So please, it's to feint not to faint

[Vilerin]

Looks like ubisoft heard this post and removed one of his useful moves

[Chucky_Jones]

I'm am a rep 3 kensei main and his biggest problems seem to be against assassins and turtles such as conqueror or warlord. It might help for him to get a better zone attack and have a way to punish dodged charges and headbutts such as a side dash into guard break combo. He could also have his light or heavy attacks be unparryable so even though he can't initiate attacks against turtles they couldn't just wait to parry the kensei. These changes kind of seem op though so I'm open to modification ideas.

[GiganticKORAK]

I'm am a rep 3 kensei main and his biggest problems seem to be against assassins and turtles such as conqueror or warlord. It might help for him to get a better zone attack and have a way to punish dodged charges and headbutts such as a side dash into guard break combo. He could also have his light or heavy attacks be unparryable so even though he can't initiate attacks against turtles they couldn't just wait to parry the kensei. These changes kind of seem op though so I'm open to modification ideas.

If I were to buff Kensei, I'd give him more tool to play with his opponent.
Side dodge GB would be a great tool for Kensei, but it honestly sounds quite broken. Many attack would miss Kensei and get an untech-able GB. Although, there are many more cheese tactic in the game than this ever would be. So I think it could work.

I'd also give Kensei unique ability to be able to feint his light attack. His lights are as slow as some character's heavy. Kensei being the -mind game- based character, I'd think this would help him greatly.

Although, I have no idea how to make Kensei better against turtles. Slow attacks are just too easy to block when you are fully concentrating on defense, doesn't matter how much feints are threw in.

Overall, I'd hope they buff Kensei's options rather than stats. The only stats buff I want is his stamina cost. Kensei needs that buff to make feints that can get through high level player's defense.