February 2025 Class Feedback for Awakening Kunoichi:

 

For the past 2 years, since the January 2nd, 2023 patch, awakening kunoichi has received numerous changes intended to be buffs by the Pearl Abyss development team. Some of these changes have been a great success for the class, while others have missed the mark and need revision. I, along with many kunoichi all over the world, sometimes feel that the developers do not understand some of the true issues the class faces. It feels as if a lot of the changes the developer’s have made to the class over the years are random and in places they did not need to be. 

 

The running theme in the Awakening Kunoichi community is that the class from 2 years ago would absolutely outperform and bully the class we have now and we would like to see the development team address some of the failed experiments the class has received over the years.

 

Lunar Dash, changed November 8th, 2024:

 

The most recent peculiar change to awakening kunoichi is how the skill Lunar Dash works. For the past 7 years of the game’s existence, it felt like a fast, fluid dash in PvP, while also maintaining being a decent filler skill in PvE through holding the W+RMB input and completing the animation. Now it only feels sluggish. Low damage, low utility in PvE, and lacking in any outplay potential in PvP through follow-ups that used to exist such as grabbing the opponent.

          - Proposed Solution: Revert Lunar Dash W+RMB animation to be able to cancel before the final hit of the skill. 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 an exciting addition and experiment to the class 1½  years ago now. Despite being a pet damage scaling skill, Awakening kunoichi across the globe would not have complained about the addition of this skill if it did not remove a beloved and core pvp skill, Flow: Wrath. 

The new skill, pinwheel fury does not fill a similar role at all with what it replaced.

     - The animation time of Pinwheel Fury is much longer.

     - The skill does not benefit from Down Smash, Back Attack, Crit Damage.

     - Pet scaling skills do not benefit, or see greatly reduced benefit from any AP from buffs or gear the character has.

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.

 

The skill above was given to Kunoichi as a replacement for Flow: Wrath. A skill awakening kuno had used since the pirate island era of bdo in 2018 or even earlier. Flow: Wrath was a very, very 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.

 

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.

          - 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. Make Pinwheel Fury work from hotbar only, or find a new method of input for the skill.

 

Moonstorm, 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. Moonstorm is our small AoE, only -DP skill in the kit that is used at the very beginning of combos in both PvP and PvE to debuff the opponents. In PvP, a downsmash is very valuable at the end of combos to try and extend damage on the target. However, when using a downsmash too early, it can ruin your chances at killing the target as it will use up the CC cap on the target that is available. 

 

To be clear, Kunoichi players love to use Moonstorm as their - DP skill, please do not remove this portion. The AoE on the skill is quite low however and it would be nice to see it increased. It does not even hit the 4 target dummies that are stacked together in the battle arena.

          - Proposed Solution: Remove the down smash portion on Moonstorm. It serves only as a detrimental effect to our PvP combos. It would be nice to increase the AoE on this skill for PvE as it is quite small and our only method of debuffing monsters.

 

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. I remember long ago, it was a skill awakening kunoichi players did not even level up because we needed the skill points in other more useful skills. It then became an excellent skill midway through 2022 that reworked it to be a nice movement skill with forward guard, something the class sorely lacks outside of core skills. This was a fantastic change to the skill and made it instantly loved by most of the community. It served as a good way to navigate the battlefield in PvP, despite having the risk factor of being forward guard. 

 

The most recent rework to the skill came at the start of 2023. The skill that had finally hit the mark with adventurers and was loved by many was taken away and replaced. It no longer was a movement skill, and no longer had forward guard. It became purely a PvE damaging skill that needed several damage buffs to make it even worthwhile to press. A huge loss for the community and one we wish to see back.

          - Proposed Solution: Remove the float from the current Sah Spree of Sonan. Add Forward Guard and movement back to the skill. 

 

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Now that we have addressed some of the negatives with Awakening Kunoichi’s patch history I would like to bring some more buffs and changes to the table for the development team to review.

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. The skill pre reboot 2020 was a very valuable super armor cc ability that acted as a “net” in group play. Now it is almost never pressed in a PvP environment as it doesn't do enough damage to warrant it’s risks. 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, or drastically increase the damage in both PvE and PvP to make it worthwhile to use.

 

Delighted Blast:

 

Delighted Blast remains one of, if not our best cc’s as an awakening kunoichi. It recently got a down atk modifier buff moved to it, which was a fantastic change. The scrapped patch from a few months ago was going to address it’s extremely short super armor portion when you select it as a core skill, as it at times felt like there was a gap when using the skill in conjunction with others. It’s AoE is also rather small for both PvE and PvP environments and feels like a single target skill even when you include the explosion portion of it.

          - Proposed Solution: Slightly longer super armor when selecting it as a core skill. Larger initial AoE on first hits and/or Damage.

Lunatic Discuss:

 

Great AoE skill with decent damage in PvE. If you were going to have another candidate for a minus DP skill, I would argue this would be a pretty good one. In PvP, it’s damage is highly volatile due to it being one of the only skills in the kit without 100% crit rate. It would be a great change to have this skill feel more consistent.

          - Proposed Solution: 100% Crit Rate added to the skill to be more in line with the rest of the kit in PvP. Higher PvE damage, possibly -20 DP added to this skill since it’s AoE is already a good size.

 

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, it’s lack of air attack modifier makes it feel extremely weak even when cc’ing targets with it due to the animation being so long and sluggish.

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

 

 Other PvE Damage Increases the Kuno Community Would Like to See:

 

Awakening Kunoichi’s damage profile feels well spread out in PvE but overall lacks in raw numbers compared to the other top performing PvE classes. Some ideas for additional quick number buffs:

        - Lethal Spin Spree ~15% PvE damage

        - Wheel of Wrath ~20% PvE damage

        - Flow: Indignation ~20% PvE damage

        - Flow: Chakram Rise ~35% PvE damage

        - Moonstorm ~25% PvE damage

 

I would like to thank the development team for reading this and the kunoichi community for helping me build this post. I do hope the team takes some of these suggestions to heart as the kunoichi community is fiercely loyal to the class and would love to see it succeed. We feel like the development team has tried a couple different times to experiment with the class and that’s a good thing. But when certain changes do not work out, like some of the skills posted above, we would like to see the team revisit the class and listen to the dedicated players that have mained this class for years through all it’s ups and downs. Thank you.

100% Support, Awakening Kunoichi needs these flat PVE damage increases and hopefully ASAP 

Thank you for reaching out to the community, and putting together this well thought out feedback roundup.

now that kuno has recieved some changes we prob wont see more for another year or so at least thats the common trend

why is it awak kuno takes 14 skills to kill the mobs at gyfins  with 306 ap when mounted succ tamer can do it in 4 using the same gear? and when most other classes can do better than kuno most anywhere simply by mashing ones keyboard or rotating basicly 5 skills the entire time

Hello, after talking a bit with Ucazean I want to add a few pointers and problems. I agree with the points made by Ucazean and would like to see them implemented.

-The problem with collision on movement skills: Moonstorm and Flow: Indignation:

During PVP and PVE the mentioned skills require collision with a collidable enemy, else they simply glide through or past enemies. This can be a issue when dealing with the Orbs on Jigwi as you need to step back quite a bit in order for them to hit. Another issue is in PVP where sometimes the collsion simply doesn't work, people sit in non-collision super armors (for instance Valkyrie's Sancitas de Enslar) or the player isn't aiming well and glides past the enemy without hitting.

The solution: I would like there to be a change in the skill's AOE size where everything from around the starting point to the end point is hit. I am thinking it should work the way sorc's violation works, well more or less. The other option would be to make it easier to trigger collision with these skills but I am unsure how this would work.

-Oni Shadow is only applied to Pre-Awakening Stance

As the text implies, I would like Oni Shadow to work in both Awakening and Pre-Awakening Stances and be a viable alternative too Sinew Cut. As it is right now, Sinew Cut is the default option that you always take on awakening because of Oni Shadow's awkwardness.

-Chain Crash: Sah Chakram feels outdated because it's a hard animation lock that can only be canceld with Danse Macabre:

What I would like to see is to make the skill more interesting by allowing us to cancel it with Halo, Ghost Step, Half Moon Slash, walking and most other Skills in our Kit. This would make the skill a good filler skill for damage in pvp because the player can navigate around the weaknesses of its forward guard.

-Rework of Wheel of Wrath - Black Spirit Rage

Right now the skill is practicall unsuable in PVP. It's slow, doesn't deal much damage, has a small aoe size and worst off all: It's a float on the first hit of the ability that doesn't air attack and allows people to stand up and grab you before its animation ends. You would have to use Delighted Blast before Wheel of Wrath to avoid this and yet you still deal less damage than a fully cast Lethal Spin Spree and it's Flow: Indignation.

Proposed Solution: In order for this skill to become useful, two things need to happen. Firstly the skill needs to be sped up so floated enemies don't have the chance to stand up before the skill ends. Secondly: The skill needs an Air Attack modifier that is triggered by itself the way normal Wheel of Wrath has it.

-Revision of the Changes to Delighted Blast that were done in January 2023

I think this is the biggest problem the class has. The old skill was significantly better and none of the tools we got since then come close to the power this old skill had. In the past, the first CC was a float on the start of the animation that was significantly quicker than the projectile hitting and enemy of the current version. I also prefered the cc on the projectile's explosion over the current one because it would generally ignore resists since the explosion was a multi hit cc. The vacuum being much weaker is sad too, many other classes have more powerful vacuums with ccs at the end of them that end up bringing the class the occasional random cc. Awakening Kuno doesn't really get these anymore.

-Lack of a +20 DP Buff in the Kit

In the past, Kunoichi had a +20 DP Buff on Lunar Dash aswell as +15% Evasion Buff on Smokescreen and Sinew Cut. This allowed the class to get some the needed defense required to stay alive during our skills such as Lethal Spin Spree, Tendon Cutter, ... and not simply die in Super Armor. While the move of the Evasion Buff to Lunar Dash is nice for it's convenience I would like to see a reversion here too as it would improve the Assasin playstyle.

-General PVE Quality of Life

One of the biggest issues Kuno is facing in PvE are its Skill's small Areas of Effect. This is true for pretty much every skill. For example Sah Spree of Sonan, Wheel of Wrath, Halo and pretty much every other skill lacks depth, meaning the Kuno can't hit all targets whenever 2 mobs stand behind each other. Spots aren't like Hystria in 2018 anymore where players need to pull & group up mobs efficiently. Instead we need start dealing even damage the moment the mobs spawn to keep up with other classes. A simple DPS increase would just be bandaid that doesn't fix the fundamental problems the Kit has in PVE.

We struggle to effectively debuff all enemy Mobs with Moon Storm early on when mobs still group up and this slows down our PVE compared to other classes that have plenty of Debuffs or simply have larger Areas of Effect. The only satisfactiory skill in the Kit is Lunatic Discuss because of its large frontal cone. To give another example here: Hashashin's Serpent's Coil has a skill that works similar to Lethal Spin Spree, however it's AoE Radius is bigger making the skill significantly better.

Upvoted. As a kuno one-trick since its release I can agree with most of the points here. Especially the down smash on moon storm & the attack portion of the lunar dash skill should be optional as it was before (just by not holding RMB). This last is probably the most important change I'd like to see as I was horrified to find myself unable to cleanly animation cancel out of lunar dash, this really negatively affects the overall fluidity of awak kuno gameplay, where lunar dash is often used purely for its movement component, especially in PvP.

One point I don't see mentioned is the explosion of the delighted blast projectile. In the not too distant past this explosion would bypass forward guards of opponents by hitting them in the back, landing a cheeky cc. Now if this mechanic was removed because it was deemed unfair, I would understand, were it not for other classes (especially newer releases) being given endowed with this functionality after the fact. So I would request we have our OP explosion catch returned, or those of other classes removed.

The proposed pve damage increases are perhaps a bit optimistic. But if you don't ask, you don't get. While I can say with confidence that kuno is outmatched in pve damage by many classes I do not have the data to know if the numbers you suggest are reasonable. Perhaps someone who pays for garmoth(dot)com to see the global grinding class comparison stats would know whats reasonable.

I'm happy i'm not the only one feeling this way, thanks - Kuno since 2017

This post is really spot on with the Kuno changes. Having played Kuno since early 2017 it stinks to see her go through so many ups and downs throughout the years. PA for some reason can't just leave the good changes alone even though they were well received by the Kuno players! PA really needs to respect the playerbase sometimes because the devs always end up taking 2 steps back with every step forward.

The recent Sah Spree, Lunar Dash and Flow: Wrath changes were SO bad! i couldn't believe how clunky new Lunar felt! like i don't even know why they touched it all. Why would an assassin class get her MAIN movement skill nerfed like that? Please revert the changes.

Removing Wrath also made no real sense at all other than just to dumb the character down for really no reason. New pinwheel should be hotbarrable, not count as a summon, and bring old Wrath back for sure. I would honestly be okay with losing Pinwheel if Wrath was brought back and buffed accordingly.

2022 Sah Spree was so awesome to use. A fairly balanced skill, had collision, forward guard, no CC and a well rounded animation. i'd love to see it return to that. Having less forward guards in the game as a whole is not good, they're great in PvE and provide counterplay in PvP which is great.

Chain Crash, i feel the same way, i'm okay with the new animation/utility but the damage does need a buff in both pve/pvp and maybe bump the crit dmg to 10% if it's not gonna hit hard.

Moonstorm, nothing else to say, Ucazean nailed it.

Poor Wheel of Wrath, ever since it's original nerf in i believe 2018? during the first big class reworks it's been a really lackluster skill. As Uzac said, it's animation lock/length do not justify it's extremely low damage output. I'm okay with the animation because it does look awesome and most ultimates are generally longer animations but it definitely needs some adjustments.

I doubt you read most of these PA but seriously you gotta start listening to the class communities alot more. Most people aren't asking to be over the top broken and overpowered. They're asking for a well thought out process when it comes to class design and to truly understand the core designs you have had for these specs since 10 years ago. They made much more sense back then but the last year or 2 the mark has really been missed on most changes.