Awakening Kunoichi Feedback Post 25/4/2025

To preface, I have been maining awakening kunoichi since 2018. I’ve seen both the good days and the bad days. After the 2022 rework, the class performed well and was even more fun to play; but as time passed there have been changes that many people don’t understand why or how they happened. Don’t get me wrong, there were changes that were good and beneficial for the class, but we are here to discuss the bad ones.

These changes I am about to go through made the class less fun or outright worse off in some cases. I have gathered information and opinions from fellow awakening kunoichi players from different regions EU/NA, Mena, Asia, Russia.

We collectively feel that the developers do not understand what makes or breaks a class, and would like to point them in the right direction. 

Kunoichi is supposed to be an assassin class, yet it plays more like a bruiser without the stats to back it up.

We want to make the class fun and playable again, and none of us want the class to be broken so the changes we suggest are reasonable and logical.

Lunar Dash, changed November 8th, 2024:

 This change was the most important change of kunoichi. 

PA decided to animation lock the end of Lunar Dash, this change made the class super slow and bad.

Before, we were able to use this skill to:: 

- swap from pre awakening to awakening

- setup a grab with it

- go behind enemy frontal guard and punish them with lunatic discuss or delighted blast.

Since they animation locked the end of the skill, any time you attempt trying to do any of the listed above, you get punished for it.

We cannot stress enough how BAD this change made the class in both performance and fun.

Proposed Solution: Revert Lunar Dash W+RMB animation to be able to cancel before the final hit of the skill like it used to be. Keep the removal of W+E input for the new skill, Penumbral Blade.

Flow: Pinwheel Fury and it’s predecessor, Flow: Wrath, changed July 7th, 2023:

 Pinwheel Fury was a strange addition to Kunoichi, and almost feels like it was just a failed experiment.

After the patch that changed slows across all character skills, the skill lacks identity on what it is supposed to do. It has no CC, no down smash, very minimal slow, and lengthy animation for the damage it does, making it feel like a PvE only skill.

Pinwheel Fury isn’t all bad, and was a great addition to her famously lower aoe PvE damage output. Kunoichi would have rejoiced for the skill if not for the loss of Flow: Wrath.

Flow: Wrath was a fast, protected damage skill with a down smash attached. It flowed smoothly from Lethal Spin Spree and eventually flowed even further into Flow: Indignation. This made the class feel quick, fun, and satisfying to play. Your role as a quick assassin felt much more defined with the old skill rather than this new, sluggish and slow Pinwheel Fury skill.

- Proposed Solution: Return Flow: Wrath to kunoichi. It was an iconic skill that was patched over time to feel very fun, fluid, and core to her gameplay. Remove Pinwheel Fury activation with LMB after Flow: Indignation.

Moon Storm, added a down smash modifier July 7th, 2023:

This is one of the stranger changes that make kunoichi players confused on what the development team is trying to accomplish with this class

Moon Storm is our small AoE, -DP skill in the kit that is used at the very beginning of combos in both PvP and PvE to debuff the opponents.

However PA decided to add Down Smash to Moon Storm which completely ruins it in terms of group fight protected Damage combo. They moved the down smash from previously mentioned Flow: Wrath to Moon Storm. 

- Proposed Solution: Remove the down smash from Moon Storm, or Move the Down Smash from Moon Storm to Flow: Wrath.

                                  Small increase of AoE size for PvE would be a nice addition to it.

Sah Spree of Sonan, changed January 2nd, 2023:

 Sah Spree of Sonan has seen numerous entire reworks over the years since the game’s inception.

After rework PA finally found a way to make it the most fun and useful skill in Awakening Kunoichi kit, and was instantly loved by the community and essential to Kunoichi's core gameplay.

PA made the skill frontal guard movement, which was fantastic but punishable. It was used in many situations, manouver around the map, position yourself, finally a way to not get blasted instantly by ranged classes while trying to catch up, flowed smoothly into follow up skills.

However, January 2nd, 2023 PA decided to rework Sonan again, even though The skill was finally in a good state, useable and loved by many.

Sah Spree of Sonan became a PvE damaging skill that needed several buffs to make it even worthwhile to press.

In terms of PvP the skill became useless. It is no longer a movement ability, no longer frontal guard, you can make the skill frontal guard via Core skill, but why would anybody pick this skill over Wheel of Wrath? It doesn't deal more damage nor is it faster than Wheel of Wrath.

Sah Spree currently has a couple of bugs when choosing as the core skill. First, if you delay the third hit of the skill, you lose forward guard entirely. Second, there are also many cases where the skill loses its forward guard when rapidly being attacked by multiple enemies. Example:

Sah 3rd hit

- Proposed Solution: Remove the float from the current Sah Spree of Sonan. Add Forward Guard and movement back to the skill like it was and loved by the community.

Chain Crash: Sah Chakram:

This skill is cool visually, but lacks impact and damage in both PvE and PvP. The animation of the skill is too long compared to the damage it puts out.

In PvP, it’s not worth the risk of being forward guard even on grounded cc’d targets.

In PvE, despite offering a 5% crit damage buff, it feels like you might do more damage if you were just pressing other abilities instead.

It’s only saving grace is it’s AoE size, as it’s surprisingly quite high. All in all, it just doesn’t feel like a satisfying ability to press when you need damage.

- Proposed Solution: Speed up the animation of the skill, and drastically increase the damage in both PvE and PvP to make it worthwhile to use.

Skill Enhancement aka Rabam skills:

Kunoichi Rabams are an essential part of the kit in PvP. They provide quick movement, stealth, or protection that she needs to play around to succeed in combat.

Over the years these skills became a little bit outdated.

Ninjutsu: Oni Shadow:

 One of the most Iconic Rabams in terms of assassin gameplay. It offers a quick escape into invisibility, and can also be used for engaging enemies from stealth.

Cooldown of the skill is 30 seconds with 15 second concealment uptime which is completely fair to have this high cooldown.

When performing any kind of ability you become visible, but you can quickly go into stealth by using Ghost Step.

The main issue with this skill is that Ghost Step only puts you in stealth when you are in pre awakened form, as soon as you swap into awakening and try to Ghost Step the skill does not work.

- Proposed Solution: Make Oni Shadow work while in awakening state.

Ninjutsu: Sinew Cut:

A great skill to make your enemy confused. When used, your character dashes backwards with iframe leaving blades stiffening your opponent and makes you invisible.

Stiffening on the skill used to be Multi-hit stiffen, they removed it May 31, 2022. Now it’s a one hit stiffen.

The cooldown of the skill is 30 seconds which is a bit high in today’s Black Desert and makes the skill feel lackluster for what it does.

- Proposed Solution: Lower the cooldown, consider adding critical hit rate for PvE only.

Assassin's Trail:

Used to be one of the best Rabam skills. A backwards flip that made Kunoichi super fun, stylish and very useful, however the distance of the skill was changed.

Right now the skill is a hit or miss. The distance of the back flip is significantly shortened. It  provides a frontal guard, into an iframe, into no protection.

Cooldown of the skill is 20 seconds despite the nerf.

- Proposed Solution: Lower the cooldown, increase the backflip distance.

Ninjutsu: Heart Snatch:

Some players prefer this skill over Assassin's Trail since it provides greater movement.

When used, your character dashes backwards, the beginning of the animation is iframe, however its so short that you get ccd out of it most of the times, making it very unreliable and risky to press at times.

The cooldown of the skill is also high at 30 seconds, and despite the cooldown the skill damage is low and the iframe on it just miserable.

- Proposed Solution: Lower the cooldown, increase the damage or fix the iframe of the skill to match sinew cut.

Ninjutsu: Ankle Splitter:

Most underused Rabam skill. It’s an unprotected forward dash with a bound attached.

Honestly I cannot see any situation for this skill to be used. The damage is bad, it has a slow animation for being unprotected and a bound, cooldown is 15 seconds.

- Proposed Solution: Rework the skill, remove the bound, either make it a damage skill or movement skill like Shackle Target but forward dash instead of backwards dash.

Shackle Target:

All around beloved skill, it’s a backwards dash with a SA attached, and smoothly flows with other rabams.

Only complaint about the skill is the high cooldown 30 seconds, overall very good and a core to Kunoichi.

- Proposed Solution: Lower the cooldown

Potential bugs and QoL:

Penumbral Blade added November 8, 2024:

Overall movement and idea of the skill is great, many players like this new skill.

There are some issues with it, the skill feels sluggish and not polished, bugged even. It feels like it has different versions of the skill and every time you press W+E you don’t know what you are going to get. Example:

Fall Animation

Tp Bug

Fast Version

Slow Version

Danse Macabre:

While using Danse Macabre you have the option to press RMB to activate Flow: Indignation, however if you would like to use Danse Macabre into Wheel of Wrath, the game would prioritize Flow:Indignation first and then use Wheel of Wrath. Another issue is that Danse Macabre doesnt move with the camera. Example:

Macabre, Indignation priority

Macabre Camera turn

Absolute: Death's Descent aka grab:

Meanwhile performing a grab, the target is in mid air, if it gets hit by a cc, the target will be capped on the ground with a bound. PA tried to fix this issue previously but the bug still remains. Example:

Grab cc cap

Grab cc cap2

Hidden Dagger Jutsu:

Remove falling animation, improve teleport to target, lower cooldown since teleport is nerfed and fix bug where the character doesn't teleport to the target, Example:

Tp bug

Fall animation

Ninja Evasion:

PvE iframe skill, the issue with the skill is that in pre awakening form works way better than awakening form. In awakening form the skill is much slower and allows gaps. Make the animation speed the same as pre awakening form.

Target Chase:

Merge Target Chase with Brace, this would allow S+Q input to be freed up and to be used by a different ability.

Make Target Chase to be able to swap directions with A/D+W, instead of slow turns.

Consider increasing the sprint speed to 30-40%

Smoke Screen:

If the S+Q input freed up from previously mentioned Target Chase, Smoke screen could receive S+Q input, meaning it would be able to use from awakening form without the hotbar delay exactly how tendon cutter was changed.

Absolute: Tendon Cutter:

Slight AoE increase

Lethal Spin Spree: 

Give the option to use Ghost Step mid skill and be able to continue spin afterwards, this would allow reposition and less damage taken in SA combo which Kunoichi struggles with. Fix the issue when trying to use Danse Macabre after Lethal Spin Spree, it uses Flow:Indignation first. Example:

Spin into Macabre

Flow: Pinwheel Fury:

Fix the issue where the skill is prioritized, meanwhile trying to use a different skill like Half Moon Slash. Example:

Delighted into Half Moon

Chakram Rise into Half Moon

Lunatic into Half Moon

Lunar Dash into Half Moon

Delighted Blast:

Would like to suggest a small rework of the skill; Remove the ranged pet part of the skill, make it a no pet skill, remove vacuum, increase aoe size and adjust damage this would help us out the class in group fights, or give back old delighted without float so it doesn’t instantly cc cap, current delighted blast ranged pet cc feels bugged. Example:

Delighted Blast bug

Delighted Blast bug 2

Black Spirit’s Rage 100%, Wheel of Wrath:

This skill has been neglected for many years. So much so that the regular version of the skill sometimes out-damages the 100% BSR version. It’s slow, with a huge animation lag towards the end of the skill when it is already finished. In PvE it is barely worth pressing over absorbing your black spirit rage. Which just feels terrible as an “ultimate” ability. In PvP.

- Proposed Solution: Speed up the end of the animation, or the entire animation. Add air attack modifier for PvP, and slightly increase the damage for both PvE and PvP.

Black Spirit’s Rage 100%, Absolute: Flash Slash:

When Rework happened and Absolute and Prime Flash Slash were updated, you could jump once towards a direction holding down movement keys with Absolute: Flash Slash, and you could jump twice with Prime: Flash Slash. While using BSR with Prime Flash Slash you can jump Three times towards a direction holding down movement keys and the prime version is much faster then the Absolute version. This option is not provided for the Absolute version. Since Jump amount increases by One with ult for Succession, it would be a great improvement to see the same thing happen to the Absolute version. 

- Proposed Solution: Provide the ability to move directions two times with BSR Absolute: Flash Slash

Micro Gaps: Every kuno player has experienced this, the class has too many micro gaps between skills, it seems like we are super protected, but in reality we get ccd out of skills a lot specially in the beginning of the skills, we tried other classes and we didnt experience micro gaps as bad as on kuno. Most Noticeable skills: Half Moon Slash, Delighted into Moon Storm+Spin, Lunar Dash, Penumbral Blade, Danse Macabre. Hope this issue gets addressed.Example:

gaps

ccd in skills

Most of these changes are reversions. I would like to mention that we didn’t really talk about pre awakening skills much, the reason is simple, there are too many things that are outdated and would require another thread, so in general these suggestions are the ones that every player dislikes and wants the previous versions of the skills back and fix the issues of the class.

Would like to thank the developer team and PA in general, lately they have been doing some nice work towards a better game and experience for all players. Hopefully this thread reaches them and helps them see our point of view of the class. Special thanks for all the kunoichi players that helped me build this post with their opinions, ideas, clips and just their help in general.  See you all in-game, Nimy from EU.

Great post thanks for working with everyone to get this out. I hope the devs listen and work with us to make her the most fun class in the game again.

Thank you for the post, hopefully our class will be playable again

couldn't find the time to give my opinion on it but you did a very good job with putting this together. I have to agree with this 100% and just imagining how it would play with those changes... would be so much fun! Thx for this post!

Keep up the good work sir.

After trying again awak kuno i saw really fast how useless and clunky the class is especially when you played her years ago.

Meow

Not in favor of the smokescreen proposal but everything else looks good. Smokescreen should forever stay on spacebar and hotbar input.

pray they read this and fix the class

Del. Blast doesn't have any vacuum in my opinion. The old version, even though it was slower (and had vacuum) was much more useful. Especially at a time when grab skills weren't protected. The old version could also be used to break through the frontal guard (except for tank characters) and it worked like that for years. Then they "fixed" it... and we were immediately lighter by one of the signature skills.

Anyway, good job, I support it.