Samurai 2h Katana

[sabreblade]

From my recollection, a samurai's traditional weapon is a samurai sword. Why isn't encouraged in FF XI? Why focus more powerful skills for Samurai in the direction of the spear?

I hate spear...and I always thought Dragoons were the ones who used lances. However, from what I have read on these boards it seems that I will never be able to perform combos such as Penta-thrust using a less desirable samurai sword.

It frustrates me that I would probably end up gimping (not reaching full damage potential) of a samurai if I wanted to pursue this career path. I want to max my character to proportion where they will be considered a respectable and powerful character at end game. To me, endgame is the reward. Your character is defined and the chore of leveling is no more.

I enjoy roleplaying a character in MMORPGs, but since I played a gimped Paladin in a popular U.S. game called DAOC I found that it's not fun to play a character that isn't an uber template.

[Sirius Black]

SAMs are better with 2h Katanas than Spears, Spears are just popular right now because most of the 2h Katanas high WS aren't known yet. Right now spear has a 5 hit 2h doesn't that's pretty much it. At higher lvs 2h Katana will definatly rule the Spear. That's like saying Warriors are better with a Dagger than an AXE. It's just look at it this way:

Say you start as a WAR since you don't get SAM until lv 30 and you want to make a SAM/WAR. Well that WAR has been lving weapons for those 30 lvs and one of them is the spear. Now you reach lv 30 and switch to SAM. You can now use your Penta with you spear or start a lv 1 with the Katana. That's why it seems more popular right now. Trust me though, at high lvs (especially once someone reaches a multi-hit WS) Katana >>>>>>>> Spear.

Lastly, a lot of Sam's do use spears now En Hi is a very popular WS I hear, they just use Penta for Renkei.

[Dawn]

Actually, from a historical perspective, not all Samurai preferred swords.

Samurai were known to be experts in Yari (spears), Naginata (polearm, and most female samurai used Naginatas), Iron Club (I forget the traditional name of that), a variety of weapons. There were even Samurai who were mostly users of Dai-Kyu (great bow). Some stories tell of samurai volley firing Dai-Kyu with blunt arrows all at the same board on a ship, with the repeated hits springing the board and sinking the ship. Seems a bit far fetched to me, but the stories do exist.

Some samurai were only proficient in swords, but experts in their preferred weapon. Just that they all carried the swords because they were a sign of rank.

So spear... and polearms, seem suitable weapons to me. Personally I wish I could do a female samurai specializing (A weapon level) with the Naginata.

[Awntawn]

Spear is overrated for SAM, it just looks fun and exciting to be able to WS 3 times in a row every now and then, but in all honesty SAM actually does more damage w/ katana. You'll easily do twice as much damage per hit with katana than with lance, and will hit much more often. Also, the WS damage is much higher; people just use spear because it can still do similar damage and is a lot more fun.

[vagtark]

samurai use spear cuz of penta thrust. thats really about it. Samurais Penta Thrust isnt as strong as DRGs penta, but samurais can use penta Thrust a couple times in a row cuz of there mad TP gain, which DRGs cant.

Just use both spear and 2 hand Katana. For Renkeis sake

EDIT: listen to Awntawn, he knows more about this stuff 100 mores times than me

[struck]

Originally posted by Sirius Black

Say you start as a WAR since you don't get SAM until lv 30 and you want to make a SAM/WAR. Well that WAR has been lving weapons for those 30 lvs and one of them is the spear. Now you reach lv 30 and switch to SAM. You can now use your Penta with you spear or start a lv 1 with the Katana. That's why it seems more popular right now. Trust me though, at high lvs (especially once someone reaches a multi-hit WS) Katana >>>>>>>> Spear.

Assuming you've pre-trained spear up to 150 which is the level Penta Thrust is available. You will be unable to use Penta Thrust with Samurai until level 51-52(I forget). The fact of the matter is any good Samurai will have both weapons trained up. This will make you more versatile. I don't believe either one is better than the other. Penta Thrust misses a lot even with –½’†+33 like I have on my Dragoon. I can?ft speak for the 2h Katana skill that hits 5 times. I haven't seen it. But I?fll assume it will also miss a great deal.

I personally enjoy the katana?fs they look really nice. There are also cool looking spears. It's really up to what the situation calls for.

[Russta]

Originally posted by Dawn
Actually, from a historical perspective, not all Samurai preferred swords.

Samurai were known to be experts in Yari (spears), Naginata (polearm, and most female samurai used Naginatas), Iron Club (I forget the traditional name of that), a variety of weapons. There were even Samurai who were mostly users of Dai-Kyu (great bow). Some stories tell of samurai volley firing Dai-Kyu with blunt arrows all at the same board on a ship, with the repeated hits springing the board and sinking the ship. Seems a bit far fetched to me, but the stories do exist.

Some samurai were only proficient in swords, but experts in their preferred weapon. Just that they all carried the swords because they were a sign of rank.

So spear... and polearms, seem suitable weapons to me. Personally I wish I could do a female samurai specializing (A weapon level) with the Naginata.

Thanks for posting that, was quite an interesting read. I had always wondered why they made SAM's so good with Spear and Bow.

[Asurasan]

Iron Club = Tetsubo

[RevolutionOmni]

At www.shadow-dragons.com it shows that Sam can't use 1hK, Y is that? I think it would be cool to c Sams with two 1hKs! :thumbsup:

[struck]

One hand Katana is for Ninja's only. Gotta give ninjas something to use. On the flip side there are actually a few two hand katanas ninja's can use.

[lfgs19]

I give you a link of a galka in Samurai AF with two 1H Katanas, that i took a picture.

[Dawn]

Keep in mind that this game isn't about historical accuracy. It's a fantasy world and the classes that develop may resemble things we are familiar with, but that is about it.

Historically, no ninja would carry two swords. It was a death sentence for someone of lower than Samurai rank to be caught wearing two swords.

That was why Samurai who preferred other weapons wore the Daisho (long-short). It was a mark of position. And most did fight Daisho, being a Katana (longsword) and a Wakizashi (shortsword).

So if this were based on historical accuracy, Samurai would dual wield and have access to most other weapons in the game.

And Ninja would be a secret class. Part of it's job would be to pretending to be it's subclass, none would run around saying, "I'm a ninja."

Historically the Ninja functioned more as scouts and spies than anything else. The great warlords used Ninjas to learn enemy plans and locate enemy positions. And mostly, despite all the movies with Ninjato, they carried Wakazashis (shortswords) or Tantos (knives) as weapons because they were more easily concealed.

Most of the Hollywood ninja toys were never used, because they would be found in a search. A ninja's real weapons were their wits and ability to blend in anywhere.

The samurai also used the martial arts as well, but mostly as a backup. The style used by them was Ju-Jitsu. Which translated roughly means, "Whatever works". (I used to study Jo-Ryu Ju-Jitsu, a modernized version.)

My wife studied Ninjutsu in Stockholm. She adored it because of a lot of health and balance type skills it taught, but quit because of a lot of the guys studying it with the "I'm mean, I'm bad, I'm a ninja" type attitude.

Oh, the term Dragoon was applied to mounted infantry. Soldiers that would ride to battle, but dismount to fight. As opposed to cavalry that would fight mounted.

[l0rdza0n]

Originally posted by lfgs19
I give you a link of a galka in Samurai AF with two 1H Katanas, that i took a picture.

well? well??? where's it at? :spin:

[Tigre]

Wait, one thing I have been unable to find out are if there are job-specific weapons. I mean, I understand that certain weapons probably are, but what about classes of weapons. Can Warriors not use Katanas? They can use Spears right, so why not Katana's then? In that case, wouldn't it make sense to use Katana while you build up warrior so that when you switch over you are more skilled with it?

[davidmmmm9]

there are many jobs that can't use certain weapons.
Only samurai and ninjas can use 2h katanas, ninjas can only use some of the quicker ones with less damage, samurai's can use all of the 2h katanas.
Only ninjas can use the 1h katanas.
And even if war could use katana, there isn't a point in leveling it before samurai if it's going to be your main weapon because you would be leveling it the same time you're leveling samurai. For your level there is a cap on the skill of your weapon, so having it maxed as soon as you level wont make much of a difference.

[Arkos Sudoma]

One of the historical reasons would be because a Katana cuts alot differently then a standard broad or bastardsword. It uses a downward motion to slice instead of a straight swing and cleave. Think of the Katana as a giant razor blade. A warrior wouldn't be use to fighting with a weapon like that.

[Tigre]

If your weapon skill is capped per level, what weapon would you suggest that I use until I get 10 lvl 30 as warrior? Is using a spear a bad idea if I want to possibly switch over to dragoon at some points? From those of you who have leveled their characters through warrior, what weapon did you use until you made the switch?

[Fadedsoul]

samurai should really stick to great katana ^^;

Polearm is a pretty useless skill if you can't use lances. The speed may be good but the damage will suck. hail to the weak penta thrust! Spears are weak. I've seen samurai do nicer damage with Great katana. just my experience though.

[kaishakunin]

Damn, Dawn -- you beat me to all that ..
I'm a history buff too..
The only books I read is.. samurai and Japanese history.. I just don't like reading that much -- but I would for those topics..

Yah, I always thought it was weird that "NINJA" get to have 2 swords..
It's supposed to be the samurai!

[kaishakunin]

Damn, Dawn -- you beat me to all that ..
I'm a history buff too..
Right on, dawn! right on :thumbsup:
The only books I read is.. samurai and Japanese history.. I just don't like reading that much -- but I would for those topics..

Yah, I always thought it was weird that "NINJA" get to have 2 swords..
It's supposed to be the samurai!