Hello again my fellow Samurai!

[Kuura]

It's been a while, but I'm back. and Ready to get back into the Samurai roll of things. Currently I am Sam48 I have war37 and Thf32. Well I'll lvl my thf first. THEN onto samurai.

Fortunatly I allready have all my coffer keys for my AF ^^

[Mog]

{Congratulations!}

I just picked up samurai myself and I'd just like to say that I LOVE this job. I have it at level 23, currently staticing with a brd and a rdm, and I plan on making sam my very first 75 melee job ^^ Do you have any advice for a lowbie like me? :D

[Jarre]

Mog, I am a newbie to sam myself, currently at lvl 18, I was told by a Lvl 75 LS sam to level both Great Katana and Polearm, both apparently have merits later on.

[tdh]

At the lower levels, I found Archery to be great for building TP. Tack on some pretty cheap RngAcc items, back up a bit, and fire a few arrows a fight, and you'll have TP before you know it. Doing this in Kor-[TAB] was great damage and great TP build.

My SAM's Lv.45 now, and when I took up SAM, my DRG was already in the mid to late 20's, so I didn't bother with Polearm at all. But I really don't see any advantage of Polearm over Great Katana in those levels. Both have WSs that open and close Distortion, can do similar damage, both multi-hits, so I'd just stick with GKT honestly.

Another suggestion is to find a THF once you hit Lv.30. EXP becomes a breeze in some points due to the great Skillchain. I've staticed my SAM with a friend of mine's THF from Lv.30 to Lv.45, and partied are a breeze if you can find a tank! /sigh

[Mog]

At the lower levels, I found Archery to be great for building TP. Tack on some pretty cheap RngAcc items, back up a bit, and fire a few arrows a fight, and you'll have TP before you know it. Doing this in Kor-[TAB] was great damage and great TP build.

Another suggestion is to find a THF once you hit Lv.30. EXP becomes a breeze in some points due to the great Skillchain. I've staticed my SAM with a friend of mine's THF from Lv.30 to Lv.45, and partied are a breeze if you can find a tank! /sigh

Yeah, currently, I keep my bows and arrows up to date and I'm leveling archery with my samurai. It's nice to have tp fast. :D

Moreover, I sub thf for added dexterity. I better question I have is: is there any reason at all I would sub war? Would thief be sufficient enough to level sam, or am I ever gonna be required to voke off somebody? /panic

[raidenn]

I prefer /war actually. Double attack, Berserk, Warcry all helps. Yes you will be needed to provoke mobs off your healer from time to time.

The only reason I see for /thf is only for WS.

[Zempten]

Right now I'm a 24 SAM and I just prefer the /RNG for the accuracy bonus. Is that wrong? I know about WAR and THF, but I really don't see those SJs applying till around 30.

I wanna try eatting those rice balls too but can't find any on the AH ; ;

[Aeolus]

I'd say to you mog my good sir do not try camping the lv50 jse legs (StoreTP+6) because I have been here for 4-5hours and still no freaking pop! Its 4:30am atm and Im not sleeping till it pops. Damn my stubborness...they are only 300k.

[raidenn]

Right now I'm a 24 SAM and I just prefer the /RNG for the accuracy bonus. Is that wrong? I know about WAR and THF, but I really don't see those SJs applying till around 30.
I wanna try eatting those rice balls too but can't find any on the AH ; ;

Do you get a lot of invites as sam/rng ? /war adds str I think.
Riceballs are bought from the tenshodo.

[raidenn]

I'd say to you mog my good sir do not try camping the lv50 jse legs (StoreTP+6) because I have been here for 4-5hours and still no freaking pop! Its 4:30am atm and Im not sleeping till it pops. Damn my stubborness...they are only 300k.
The bugbear? Are you killing the placeholders?

[Aeolus]

Bugbear Strongman yea, Ive been killing all 3 Bugbears and just killing the PH for a while and still no spawn. Im going to bed next time phs spawn and continuing in the morning. *sigh* Stayed up so late I wont be able to get up for the 2 important shadows in 4-5hours which I have been killing the last 3days. Stupid NM.

[Zempten]

The point of getting invites is not a problem when you start your own PT.

Also the lost of STR from /WAR at the lower lvl is what? 2 or 3 STR? Where instead I could gain the Accuracy Bonus from /RNG and eat the rice dumplings for more atk and a bit of accuracy. I'm fairly sure it's a wrothwhile trade, but I was wondering on others opinion. Also I noticed that I'm hitting for around 60s with my bow as opposed to swining my katana for the 40s, but now that I got Hasso I'm not sure which is better.

Another thing that is interesting is that I can get TP with my GK, SC with person A, use Sharpshot, gain TP vai the bow, and then SC with person B. It's kinda of neat I think ^ ^ It's sorta of likea ghetto meditate lol

[tdh]

Moreover, I sub thf for added dexterity. I better question I have is: is there any reason at all I would sub war? Would thief be sufficient enough to level sam, or am I ever gonna be required to voke off somebody? /panicHonestly, that added DEX isn't going to make or break you. And the difference from /THF and /WAR is probably 2 or 3 DEX, so it's not something that could be noticable.

Now, as I just finished typing that, I have to point out that when I was leveling DRK I was subing THF for the added DEX and tacking as much DEX as I could get my Elvaan Mitts on! All before the Sushi Age and no real way to know if it actually helped.

Now you can sub THF for SAM Lv.30+, but the problem is you're going to be spending a lot of time leveling with THFs. SA Enpi might not be able to turn the mob at that level. So if you build your own party, and don't included a THF I don't see why not, but having a THF is a lotta fun and a lotta EXP.

Right now I'm a 24 SAM and I just prefer the /RNG for the accuracy bonus. Is that wrong? I know about WAR and THF, but I really don't see those SJs applying till around 30.With the Acc Bonus, this is viable. RNG Acc Bonus kicks in at Lv.10 correct? So add on some of the limited Acc gear at that level, find some food that offers 5~10 RngAcc and you should do pretty well. Also have Sharpshoot for RngAtks, which is a great way to build TP at that level.

I would say SAMs should have RNG subjob later. Even if it's just to have Sidewinder for Brenner/Ballista. I think I may level my RNG this weekend and get it caught up some, then see about learning Sidewinder for my RDM to play with. ^^

[Lmnop]

I wonder how much R.acc Sharpshot adds and how it compares to the +10 acc of Hasso.

In Qufim I did sam/drg for attack+10 and Jump. Quite fun. I also had a macro to slap on all R.acc gear Sam equippable (not a lot at that level) and fire my bow, but I really only fired 1-3 times/fight (except in Korr-[tdh] parties, where I was bound so often that I found myself forced to). If I had RNG leveled, I would've liked to try that. Mobs aren't horrendously evasive at that level though, and acc+20 (Trait + Hasso) may be a bit of overkill. Meh, prolly not.

sam/thf 30-60, I feel, is a bit weak. First off, these are prime levels for thieves, and if Thieves can't have their day anywhere else, you owe it to them to see how incredible they are right around 35+ :P And that means voke and doing tachi: enpi >> VB with a great MB. It's insane how dead mobs are after these things hit. In addition, I feel that Berserk > SA'd first hit of Enpi. Honestly, 60+, I still feel /war is more potent, or at least continues to compete, but I'm not gonna go into that.

I did level as sam/war once with a sam/thf in CN. It was irritating. SC was obviously Enpi >> Enpi Distortion. He wasn't extremely communicative, and due to us being tied to his SA timer, we pretty much always had 200% tp when we would SC. It still doesn't make a lot of sense how that ended up, but it happened 90% of the time. While his damage output would've been higher with one SA'd WS and one w/out, he still got more out of SA'ing a 200% WS than I did just doing 200% Enpi unstacked. The end result? Me feeling like a lot of damage potential was consistently being wasted and whadya know? The parser says he outdamaged me by something like .8% :P Nothing huge, but I felt like I had the better DD potential, but since we were fighting on his terms instead of mine, he came out ahead.

[Mog]

Honestly, that added DEX isn't going to make or break you. And the difference from /THF and /WAR is probably 2 or 3 DEX, so it's not something that could be noticable.

Now, as I just finished typing that, I have to point out that when I was leveling DRK I was subing THF for the added DEX and tacking as much DEX as I could get my Elvaan Mitts on! All before the Sushi Age and no real way to know if it actually helped.


Yeah, I realize this now. I'm in the process of leveling warrior to 30 or so, so I can sub that until I hit 60 Samurai. I'm chock-full of dexterity already with the gear I've got (leaping boots, spike necklace, etc) and the fact that I'm tarutaru. And from what you guys are saying, added attack, berserk and provoke all help out.

So I guess when I hit 60 SAM, then I'll sub thief for sneak attack, trick attack for more hate control.

[Zempten]

I don't see how having too much accuracy ever hurts as long as I can find atk to fit into the equation. Honestly, I still think shooting arrows is doing better DMG for me then swinging my GK around. 62-63 regular hits 77-80 on criticals. Also I don't have to worry about stupid mandy's countering my attacks. However it's annoying when I pull hate. However, I think Tach: Enpi is better then Piercing Arrow in terms of dmg as it's often anywehre from 70-120 and Piercing Arrow seems to stay around the 70s.

I really don't see why NIN or PLD have trouble holding hate at around lvl 60, PLDs defeintly shouldn't have ANY problems. NINs on the other hand I can understand - but from what I've seen so far a NIN can hold his own if he has proper food and enmity food and times his provokes/elemental nukes correctly. I'll agree that playing it this way is expensive, but as players we always seek to reach the full potential of our job - otherwise .. . it's kinda pointless.

[tdh]

Yeah, I realize this now. I'm in the process of leveling warrior to 30 or so, so I can sub that until I hit 60 Samurai. I'm chock-full of dexterity already with the gear I've got (leaping boots, spike necklace, etc) and the fact that I'm tarutaru. And from what you guys are saying, added attack, berserk and provoke all help out.

So I guess when I hit 60 SAM, then I'll sub thief for sneak attack, trick attack for more hate control.If you're fortunate to have a reason to sub THF pre-Lv.60, go for it. I've seen some pretty decent SA Jinpus in the past, but you don't get to use it very often. (I always though Jinpu didn't stack with SA since it says it's an Elemental WS, but it does seem to benefit.)

Once you hit Lv.60, you finally have TA, and a pretty decent 1 hit WS. Yukikaze can put up some big numbers with out SA, so adding that to it should allow you to show off.

I finally logged in tonight after like 4 months away, and I can't even level SAM. I loaned all my gear to a friend, and I haven't seen him yet. lol Acc rings, STR rings, Jujitsu Gi, Woodsman Rings, the whole 9. I have my AF1, and the Lv.25 Atk+4 boots. lol

[IfritnoItazura]

The best way to play a full-out DD SAM/RNG Lv.20 to 29 is to use it like a RNG everytime Sharpshot is up:

1. Get far away.
2. Activate Sharpshot.
3. Macro to full range accuracy gear.
4. Keep shooting arrows until Sharpshot wears off.

I was doing 40%-50% of most of my parties' damage output in Qufim and Yuhtunga Jungle that way. Not to say Accuracy Bonus isn't nice, but if you're not exploiting Sharpshot, you're not using /RNG to its fullest.

Of course, if your tank sucks, just activating Sharpshot will make the monster run to you, ruining the whole purpose of it. I recommend switching to /DRG for Attack Bounus and Jump (for SAM20-29), if you have reason to suspect you may not have a good tank in your party.

[Malacite]

Polearm can be handy for skillchain purposes later on from what I hear.

As previously stated though, keep archery levelled. Pick up a power bow +1 and you'll destroy mobs (especially flies and bats) while you're in the dunes. Not so hot on crabs and pugs though.


Also, some SAM like to use polearm in garlaige. This is because (as previously mentioned) Bats are fliers, and have a 20% weakness to piercing. The lance belt is a cheap piece of equipment that will give you +5 skill if you sub DRG, and while you'll be restricted to opening distortion (I say restricted because Tachi Enpi both opens and closes it) the extra damage per swing along with jump for an extra hit every 90 seconds may well be worth it. I'm not sure how a berserked GKT would fare on bats vs SAM/DRG. Switch back to GKT for the beetles ~.^

Oh yeah, and Sub RNG from 20-29 if you can for the passive +10 accuracy bonus and access to bow weapon skills :3

[Lmnop]

up 'til 30, I'd sub WAR on the premise that I don't trust any tank in a pick up, whatsoever. >.> It's hard for me to relinquish provoke... only reason I was able to convince myself to do sam/drg was because the PLD was a good friend of mine (who I already knew is a damn good player).

Polearm is like C rank, and pretty much all of it's SC slots, GK gets too. The only exception I can think of is that Penta Thrust can close Gravitation, which I believe no GK WS possesses that attribute. Jinpu can open it though :O and when's the last time you were in a party where someone said "Gosh, wouldn't it be nice if we could make a Gravitation SC?"

It is very true that Polearm does higher damage to flying mobs, so I'd suggest the investment for leveling off of bats/flys/etc. However, if you already have capped Archery and a good equip swap for shooting (including good bow+arrow), you should have some pretty darn good results against flyers regardless. GC is a prime example. Instead of swapping weapons and losing tps and whatnot, you can simply use GK and normal equip set for Beetles and use archery against bats. Regardless, in this situation I'd still (and did) sub WAR and stick with Enpi. Berserk ups Ranged attacks too, yo. Also, GC levels are pretty decent for Tentacle Sushi (pretty high acc% bonus, though low cap) as it adds to R.acc as well. didn't matter if I ate sushi or rice dumplings, my acc seemed to stay almost exactly the same, said the parser. I think that's just my strange luck though. However, it was much easier to land ranged attacks on sushi. Didn't even need a parser for that.

[Celeal]

SAM/THF from level 30 ~ 59 has its usefulness too, depends on the SC partners. For example, DRG + SAM/THF, DRK (Power Slash, Vorpal Scrythe) + SAM/THF, RNG (pre sidewinder level) + SAM/THF, WAR/THF (G.Axe) + SAM/THF...

IMHO, SAM/THF at level 30 ~ 59 playstyle is like a WAR/THF at level 30 ~ 59 or THF at level 15 ~ 29. As long as the time of pulling (between battles) plus the actual combat time is over a minute, SAM/THF is fine. However, I would agree that SAM/THF requires more attention, timing and party cooperation compare to SAM/WAR.