Hello everyone, I'm an endgame Hayato player, and I would like to raise awareness about the state of Hayatos.
"I'm not going to come off as 'we desperately need help,' but a few tweaks would be much appreciated for the upcoming job balance in Savior." It would also be reassuring for the Hayato community since we're a JMS class. Most of the time, we don't know what will change with our class until a patch hits. Therefore, we are mostly looking for confirmation or an opportunity to voice our opinions and potentially make some changes.
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I have several talking points that I would like to bring up.
1.Hayato has not received any significant changes directly affecting them for a year and a half now. The last time we got a noteworthy change was in v227 of Maplestory X Bugcat CAPPO where we received buffs to Akatsuki Trace and Shinsoku, which altered how Hayatos were played after the patch. During this time, many Hayatos were satisfied and having a good time because we were finally in a decent spot in the meta. However, in Destiny, while other classes received buffs or quality of life changes, Hayatos remained the same, and we were just glad that we did not get nerfed. So comparatively, we are a bit weaker, but it is still okay. Another balance patch comes around in Ignition, and we got Goddess/Sakuno changes, which were pretty decent since we get to decide if we want to play 3-minute burst or 4-minute burst depending on party composition. But, here comes the problem; our burst damage is pretty lackluster in solo or party play. I was able to overlook this problem for a long time merely because I was an end-game player, and I was strong enough to do everything. This brings me to point 2.
2. I have done several BAs where I tested full rotation 3 mins 45 secs, 40 secs, and 15 sec ROR4 burst. Let's just say we don't excel in all three categories. We are just okay in full rotation and 40 secs in terms of damage, but given how Hayato operates in a boss fight, this is pretty realistic damage because of our stickiness and survivability. I am fine if these categories remain the same, but our burst is in a very bad spot at the moment. Let me try to explain it as best as I can.
https://imgur.com/a/aXIOW4i(don’t compare the dmg but look at the dmg contribution percentages.)
Assuming a perfect scenario where we have full energy to burst with, most of our damage in a 15 sec burst comes from:
Shinsoku (our main attacking skill) at 20%
Akatsuki Trace (procs from Shinsoku) at 8%,
and Phantom Blade (strong Hayato V skill that requires 200 energy) at 22%, which make up 50% of our BA so far.
Additionally, 14% comes from Battoujutsu Zankou (90 sec cd small burst,i-frame)
9% from Hitokiri Hundred Strikes (120 sec cd small burst that gives 15% dmg for 2 min)
10% from Sengoku Force (common V skill that summons + RNG buffs). The buffs actually play a significant part in our BA, so it sucks that they are RNG-based. I will talk more about it later.
4% comes from God of Blades (120 sec cd, 30 sec duration summon that regains 800 energy when popped),
And the remaining percentages are from Will node (3%),Seren node (3%), Weapon Aura (2.5%), Instant Slice (2.75%), and Falcon's Honor (1%).
Percentages alone don't tell the whole story. I have a Wind Archer friend who is also in the end game, and I would say that the class has a similar playstyle to Hayato before the Ignition buffs - good DPS but not so great burst, struggling to get out of P3 Lucid. However, after the Ignition patch, the switch flipped and my friend says that Wind Archer's burst feels amazing. His 15s ROR4 burst is almost twice as strong, while still having very strong DPS. Hayato’s burst is very lackluster and if you’re a Hayato main, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Hayato does significantly worse in bosses like Gloom, Slime, and Kalos. I'm not asking for Hayato to be on the same level as the top classes in the game, but it definitely needs some help.
I think a good way to buff Hayato is to buff their V skills. Only 4% overall damage from God of Blades is straight up unacceptable. It's one of the worst V skill summons compared to Demon Slayer's Spirit of Rage or Ice/Lightning's Spirit of Snow. It's almost the same damage as Seren and Will node, which is ridiculous. Despite it giving 800 energy back which translates to Phantom Blade dmg, it doesn't really do much. Another Hayato V skill that could get buffed is Zankou. Zankou doesn't do quite enough compared to a similar skill like Buccaneer's Howling Fist (same CD as Zankou, i-frame) but does way more damage. I think a small tweak to Zankou will be fine, and a QoL change where it doesn't split damage among different monsters would be great. Other damage buffs would be welcomed, like a percentage increase on Shinsoku, Hundred Strike Hitokiri or FD increase like what other classes will be receiving in Savior, but I think buffing V skills is the way to go. When 3 out of 4 of our V skills don't do much damage, it's a bad feeling. It's especially bad when new players have to prioritize boosting Sengoku Force and Sakuno's Blessing (both common V skills for Sengoku class) over Instant Slice, Zankou, and God of Blades - it feels bad.
3. Some QoL improvements would be appreciated. Many classes have received QoL changes in recent job balancing patches, such as Aran's Adrenaline not dropping as quickly or Night Walker's Dominion being protected by buff freezers in the Destiny patch. In the Ignition patch, Adele's Storm and Kinesis' B.P.M (an aura-like skill) are both protected by freezers. What I'm trying to say is that we should also have something like that for Quick Draw (Hayato's bossing stance aura), Sengoku Force (summons during burst), and God of Blades (summon). All of this could be easily fixed by having freezers protect them.
Dropping Phantom Blades stacks also feels terrible. Currently, if you let Phantom Blades at 5 stacks timeout, all your stacks disappear, and you'll have to restack it with 1000 energy , which takes a lot of time during a boss fight to regain. If you don't have 5 stacks, you won't deal any damage, and that's how our class is balanced.It especially sucks at the moment in Kalos where you're focused on dodging and doing the mechanics for the boss, and you don't have much time to regain energy and upkeep the stacks, often leading to dropped stacks. It also sucks in bosses like Slime since during the test phase, there are no mobs/bosses to hit so our stacks drop as well. Doing boss mules and stressing about dropping stacks in between bosses or making sure your stack is at it’s full duration while entering a boss with a cutscene is always in the back of my head and it shouldn’t be that way. My suggestion is to have Phantom Blade drop one stack at a time, like from 5 to 4 to 3, and so on.
Another QoL improvement that would be helpful is if we could choose which summon we get from Sengoku Force. There are four different rolls: IED 22%, damage taken -17%, crit damage 17%, and 35 attack and magic attack. If there were a way for us to choose which stat we could get, like with dice, that would be great. It's frustrating not rolling 17% crit damage because that's a significant boost or when you want to focus on survival then you’ll choose -17% dmg taken.
Extras: Some issues I would like to add after finishing this post.
1. Too hard to find trio nodes for Hayato. Here’s a cross reference post on the topic about a year ago.
https://reddit.com/r/Maplestory/comments/qaw7ol/desperate_changes_hayato_needs/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
All the other points made in the post are good suggestions for QoL change except for #4 since that was done already. (It was a nice change)
2. Willow Dodge only works on mobs.
Not sure if it’s intended but not being able to utilize this skill in bosses feels like a waste. Here’s a BA with and without it.
https://imgur.com/a/eyW3C1Z (side note: God of Blades here did less than Will and Seren node.)
3. Our burst is backloaded.
With how Sakuno operates, we will always be our strongest the last 15 seconds of our burst since FD% ramps up over time. This leads to us often not getting our most optimal dmg with our party. Things don’t quite line up since the majority of the classes can just bind and burst.
4. Can’t cancel Sengoku Force.
Make it so we can right-click Sengoku Force on the top right like any other buffs in the game so it doesn’t accidentally break the loot room box in bosses like Lotus,Damien,Lucid,Will,Verus Hilla,Gloom,Darknell.
Thank you for reading all of this. I know it's a lot, but we're a passionate bunch for the class and just want it to receive the love it deserves.
