best /sub for sam

[turnitup999]

im am goin to start lvling my sam any1 know what the best /sub for sam is ?

[Omni]

the very first sticky in the sam forum.
cmon now! :p

[turnitup999]

yes but that says /war but ingame there are loads of /thf so which is best ?

[Brayden]

Which is better? Coke or Pepsi? Easy: Coke. However, other people will tell you differently. This is because there really isnt a "best" sub. Find which you like and use that. Ive seen high lvl Sam's sub /rng and tear it up as well.

[Omni]

like battle angel said, there is no best.

if you are trying to find 1 way to play this game only youll be very disappointed.

but since my answer wasnt good enough for you, ill make it simple for you.

level both war and thf. you'll have both your bases covered there.
theres a time and place where 1 sub might be better than the other and vice versa. as a melee you want to be as flexible as possible cuz unlike mages, you are competing with mnk, drk, mnk, thf, drg, and war for physical dmg. 100 dmg from a war is the same as a 100 dmg from a sam, but if you can sub thf say in a situation to be a renkei closer when the war cant? all the better. if you are a renkei opener, subbing thf doesnt really do anything for you and war would be the better sub there. so as you can see there is no best sub.

[Siber]

If you're under 30, from 20-29 /drg is top-notch if no extra provoke is needed. After that, /war and /thf dominate. 1-19 should be /war since SAM can tank at these levels pretty easily if need be.

[Kagerou]

I don't like it when nins tank pre-37 (unless dual blink tank, then its awesome), I prefer plds and wars at Valk due to the quick +Def trait they get at 10 (+10DEF). Sam and Drg tanking didn't go too well for me at early lvls.

/war is nice and stable until 60, where you should be have the flexibility to sub either /thf and /war depending on the pt setup. /drg is actually nice as well due to the +accuracy trait. but in the n00b zone (Valk+Quifim), its safe to have /war for backup provoke.

[Pyroweaver]

Well SAM has the 2nd best archery abillitie. A RNG at higher lvls is a good choice, but at the beggining lvls WAR or DRG is best even at higher lvls DRG is umber. if you want to solo till 10 or 11 real easy go w/ WHM for the bit o healing granted you dont get much but itll help and less down time = more exp.

if you are going to use bows and be main puller rng is best if you are going to be a pure DD go for THF if you wanna be backup tank for 3-4hit go w/ WAR. i go w/ MNK for the extra HP but thats just cuz i dont like to flow with the the rest. really sam can be a great main for all or almost all melee/arch its just up to you.

[Kagerou]

/RNG was nerfed pretty badly due to the sweetspot implement I think.
Still nice for the accuracy trait though at low lvls.

[Siber]

Even if you are going to be main puller, dont' ever sub /rng in normal EXP parties. It won't be worth it until ~60, and at that point, you'll miss more Sidewinders than you'd like. At 70 with a Soboro Sukehiro, it becomes a pretty decent option from the looks of it with the WS Acc+ on Hachiman gear. Otherwise, don't.

1-11: Whatever you want. Sub /blm for all I care, just use a GK.
10(11)-19: /war for backup voke
20-29: /drg for jump and attack bonus, /war for tanking and backup voke. I say go /drg if you can
30-49: /war gets Berserk which rocks hard, Attack+25% for 3 minutes every 5. /thf gets Sneak attack, a gauranteed Critical Hit that works with Enpi (your bread and butter until atleast 60). /war wins it here for me
50-59: /war gets Double Attack, /thf gets Flee /war again
60-64: depends on the party. /thf gets TA and /war gets an Attack Bonus (only +10 I think). I'd suggest highly considering /thf unless you KNOW you're openning the skillchain. /rng is now useable since you have Barrage now to help out, but don't.
65-74: /thf because Gekko and Kasha are pretty much that hot. At 70, you get the Hachiman gear. This could make /rng a lot better if done correctly, but I suggest against it unless you've meritied Archery from RNG main or something. /nin at 74 as some parties may request it and on into 75. I have yet to need this, so can't tell you much about it other than it helps to negate Whirling Rage damage.
75: At 75 in merit parties, it's up to you. For me, /war has done really well, but I want to try out a 6-hits to 100%TP setup on /thf and see how it goes. I just wonder if you'll get TP too fast to make use of SA and TA at all times with proper use of meditate.

[DrkMateo]

/war and /thf are good for exp and general HNM situations and /nin for fighting weapons and the like.

Truth be told though, with their natural abilities I am firmly convinced that at 71+ with Kasha that Sam is the only job in the game that doesn't need a subjob.

[kenshin-san]

/THF is probably the best at higher levels. You'll use it to plant half of your hate to tanks with TA + WS with Jormy, Tiamat, etc. In my XP parties, if we don't have a THF I can usually open up with SATA on the Tank. When my parties have a THF I'll open up with SA + WS then the THF will close the renkei.

Ranger sub really has taken a hit compared to how it was before, so I suggest you sub WAR until 60.