Kensei buffs | Forums

[jeppy83]

Holy crap.. man the changes have only been out for just over 24hrs and so many people are whining and complaining. I bet you some u guys hasn't even tried the new changes. All your complaints are not valid until you play the kensei for at least a week to see if they are effective or not. This forum is full of whiney little girls omg lol.

[CaptainPwnet]

Don't buy into this people, while the changes are welcome and nice. They really make almost 0 difference in higher lvl play. Low-mid lvl play though yeah I can see these changes causing some salt, but his side lights still too slow, and his mixup on his finisher is still easily reactable no matter what he chooses to do. His zone is still useless in all respects whether for fighting player or clearing minions. Not to mention his swift strike is still GB punished on block? The only time this move is useful is punishing shield bash now, it's not fast enough to punish anything else and heavies will always be feinted so they can block the swift strike, even if swift strike is no longer punishable on block it would still be super easy to parry. Get it? Swift strike is still almost useless against skilled players so making it chain into finisher is a non issue almost. The helm splitter chain to finisher is good stuff, but again against skilled players the finisher mixup is not very useful.

Again, don't be fooled too hard here people, it's a buff and obviously a step in the right direction but this will make almost no difference for kensei's against skill players. But at least they are much more useful than the pointless zerker "buff" lol.

Most of the buffs are pretty much just a bandaid that ubi is fooling themselves with because the main problem that needs to be addressed lies within the core mechanics of the game. Defense is too strong and creates an unhealthy meta game atmosphere, parry in particular is way too strong. Also combo chains are largely useless as lights do not chain on block.

[Kitsune..]

Defense is too strong and creates an unhealthy meta game atmosphere

This^
I would really like to see some changes in this direction before classes balance attempts of any kind.

[IamheiN]

Sadly Kensei is still bad on high level play because he still lacks an opener, they buffed him in the wrong way. He's stronger against bad players, the 1v1 remains pretty much the same, but anyone with the block locked at top is a pain in the 4ss and u need to wait for parries and opponents fails, the new tools don't work at high level because they are heavily punishable as they were before (sidestep is easy parry and guardbreak for the opponent, helm splitter is not fast enough and is a top attack so they will block/parry all of them).

He's now stronger in group battles and ganking because you can helm splitter > unblockable & feint in a gank or sidestep > unblockable in 1v2/3/4 scenarios, but in duels against top players you need to work so much harder than any other classes to get a win as always.

What Kensei needs is a way to open a turtle player, right now we have nothing to do against someone playing defensive.

[x_Senduko_x]

Sadly Kensei is still bad on high level play because he still lacks an opener, they buffed him in the wrong way. He's stronger against bad players, the 1v1 remains pretty much the same, but anyone with the block locked at top is a pain in the 4ss and u need to wait for parries and opponents fails, the new tools don't work at high level because they are heavily punishable as they were before (sidestep is easy parry and guardbreak for the opponent, helm splitter is not fast enough and is a top attack so they will block/parry all of them).

He's now stronger in group battles and ganking because you can helm splitter > unblockable & feint in a gank or sidestep > unblockable in 1v2/3/4 scenarios, but in duels against top players you need to work so much harder than any other classes to get a win as always.

!What Kensei needs is a way to open a turtle player, right now we have nothing to do against someone playing defensive.!

The last part is exactly the biggest issuse and so easy to fix. Save sidestep attack on block and helmsplitter chain goes on even it is Blocked and the kensei is fine .

[DrExtrem]

But not being able to open a turtle, is a general problem.

Except you have really fast attacks or uninterruptable crowd control.

[Brologna_Xeno]

Side Light attacks

Side Light Attack opener startup decreased from 700ms to 600ms.

Developer comments: Kensei’s initiation is currently based around the Top Heavy Feint into Top Light. By speeding up Kensei’s Side Light openers we want to provide more initiation options from idle.

I love how they go the extra mile in the comment to mention a hard feint top heavy to light is considered 'the opener' for Kensei. o rly

[Kitsune..]

They should've probably mentioned this somwhere...
The superior block timings for our front dash are different now. You should start dashing later, also timing for Helm Splitter with superior block is much more strict than for Grasping Pounce. It's still consistent for blocking heavies though I really doubt it's possible to block fast attacks (like valk's lights) this way because the dash speed is too low Didn't test the side dashes, seem to be the same way as before.
I wonder is it working as intended or is it bugged

[Chucky_Jones]

They should've probably mentioned this somwhere...
The superior block timings for our front dash are different now. You should start dashing later, also timing for Helm Splitter with superior block is much more strict than for Grasping Pounce. It's still consistent for blocking heavies though I really doubt it's possible to block fast attacks (like valk's lights) this way because the dash speed is too low Didn't test the side dashes, seem to be the same way as before.
I wonder is it working as intended or is it bugged

I noticed the timing change too. I used to be able to feint upper attack against wardens to bait the crushing counter which is a light that can't be canceled. I would then deflect the light and get free gb. That hasn't been working anymore and I assumed I was just messing the timing up.

[Kitsune..]

Kensei
-Superior Block timings on dodge forward, left, right now ends 500ms into the Dodge (from 1000ms)
-Regular defense on dodge forward, left and right added on last 500ms.
-Superior Block replaced by regular defense on back dodge.
Developer comments:
Kensei’s Superior Block on Dodge was too safe as it was available during the entire duration of the Dodge, and in all dodge directions. Reducing Superior Block timings on Dodge forward, left and right makes this more challenging in terms of timing and makes the move more coherent in terms of momentum as you can Superior Block only in the early portion of your Dodge. Getting rid of Superior Block on back dodge follows the same logic of risk management. Back dodge is already pretty safe so having Superior Block on top of it felt too safe. Note that Kensei still has regular defense on Dodges when Superior Block isn’t available.

They actually did mention superior block changes. My bad, and many thanks to The.Alchemist.