EXPing with Soboro Sukehiro

[Malinn]

Hmmm... *lost in thought*

Oh, hi. Recently I got a Soboro for my 66 SAM, and I've enjoyed the hell out of it. However, I've been wondering how to get the most out of it. Will I be able to EXP with it until 72 (Hagun)? I'm a mithra, so take that into consideration

My current gear setup goes like this
Soboro
Lightning bow (with arrows)
Walkure Mask (swap for Myochin Helm)
Haubergeon
O. Kotes (Swap for Enky braclets for WS)
Snipers x 2 (Switch to Sun rings for WS)
Royal Grd Collar (Swap for Spike Necklace for WS)
Myochin Pants
Savage Gaiters
Life belt (swap for vanguard belt for WS)
Diabolos Earring
Minuet Earring

I emphasize STR alot since I lack it as a Mithra. I have WAR and THF fully leveled already, but my RNG is only 13, and my archery is a bit underleveled. I figure SAM/WAR is best for double attack and making up for the low attack of Soboro.

What should I change to max the benefit that soboro gives me? Should I just exp with another weapon for now?

[ClydeArrowny]

Well, I'm not a sam, but an Idea I have been toying around with is this. Use soboro for general tp gain/WS spam, and when meditate is up, swap to your best WS dmg katana, and get off 2 ws with that. Switch back to soboro for tp gain, etc. May not be great, but it sounds good in theory.

[Malinn]

That doesnt work sadly, because switching weapons or bows resets your TP to Zero.

[Armando]

You could do a WS with Soboro, switch weapons + Meditate, then a WS with your high-DMG katana, and switch back. You'll lose an attack round or two (if your next attack round was right after the WS) worth of TP, but with a Soboro I suppose it's not a big deal.

Your equipment looks good, though, but shouldn't you switch to Spike Earrings too for WS?

[ClydeArrowny]

That doesnt work sadly, because switching weapons or bows resets your TP to Zero.

Yes I realize that. What I mean is, when meditate is up, rather than use it and get off 2 weak WSs with soboro, you can switch to a higher DMG gkt and get off 2 WS with that, then after your second WS, switch back to soboro for tp spam.

[Mobius the Ronin's Muse]

Malinn, what you have should work fine. I say should, because I haven't had the sheer unadulterated pleasure of using a soboro myself yet and I am sadly an elvaan. It will work so fine in fact that I'd say in certain situations you will still use the soboro 72+ when you have your hagun.

/rng isn't a requisite when using a soboro, it's just that people prefer to use a soboro when they are /rng to make up for the loss of double attack.

I would advise against switching weaps when medi is ready because the most effective way to use it is gain 80% medi, ws, ws again at 100 and if you're using your af helm for medi you'll be at 50% again (give or take) before medi stops.

Hope that clears it up for you

[Obakeken]

Soboro, just like subjobs, is situational. If the monsters you're fighting don't have any particularly nasty TP moves, go for it.

Ranger sub is highly recommended mainly because you're able to bypass the low damage of the soboro since you'll be doing all your weapon skills on the bow. Honestly, I'd recommend leveling ranger. SAM/RNG is extremely useful for missions (ones where a huge amount of damage in a short amount of time is needed, such as the Snoll Tzar and Tenzen CoP battles) and is a damage monster in exp parties where monster TP isn't a big problem. The only limit to a SAM/RNG's damage in an exp party is hate.

Warrior sub with soboro is almost as fun as ranger sub in exp parties. Unless I missed a memo, double attack doesn't stack with soboro (i.e. no one's seen a 4 hit attack round yet), but it can activate on those times when soboro only single hits, making them rarer.

Don't ever use soboro with a thief sub. Ever. It's a complete mismatch for the style SAM/THF is played (spike damage, which depends on weapon damage, which soboro is sorely lacking). Even if that wasn't an issue, sneak/trick attack has a one minute timer.

To Clyde: Your intentions are good, but it just wouldn't work. Not only does switching weapons reset TP, it resets delay too. So that's precious seconds wasted that could be used getting TP. When meditate it up, it's better just to keep soboro equipped and do a solo skillchain. If you switch weapons, it'd be near impossible to to close the skillchain given the much slower TP gain on the higher damage weapon, and only meditate ticks to see you through. The damage from the skillchain itself will usually make up the difference between a soboro weapon skill and a higher-damage-weapon weapon skill.

Wow, didn't mean to write this much. Anyway, to your original question, soboro will last you to 75, don't worry about trying to use it every chance you get because you're worried you'll level past its 'usefulness'. Just use it when the situation is right (i.e. NOT in Bibiki against gobs [although it might be fun to see if TP gain is fast enough to hobaku stun all the bombs]).

[TenchiHawkwing]

Aye, the way to bring out the true potential of the Soboro Sukehiro is to sub RNG, though SAM/WARs wielding them can do pretty good dmg as well as have a good time.

[tdh]

SAM70 in my LS and I have talked about it. We wondered would /WAR and this Great Katana do decent enough DoT Vs. the amount of TP we'd be feeding to the mob. My SAM is only Lv.35, and I'm just too damn busy to level SAM like I want to. (DRK54 Static, WAR50 Static, RDM72 static) But we both want one for missions. Where something like this might just come in handy.

I'm curious how this would work with Zanshin. lol Go all out Atk, and let the double/triple attack and Zanshin be all it can be.

[Minaku]

I disagree that Soboro doesn't go with /THF sub. I was SAM/THF with Soboro for a good portion of the 60's. I'd start the fight with a TA + WS on the tank, then do an SA+WS for the skillchain. When the tank had tp, he'd SC with the initial WS. It didn't pin down the hate of an SATA skillchain, but did the job just fine for us. As for /WAR, Double Attack is highly redundant for Soboro, although I won't deny Berserk is good.

[Akai]

my brother usually uses sam/rng with soboro, and i see him fire off 5ish sidewinders per battle, and it rocks @_@ and about the dmg, it looks like its about half the dmg, so DOT isnt really a problem, cause you attack 1-3 times. its usually used for TP gain and such.

ive also seen him TP burn with /war and it still rocks o.o also its good for lvl cap areas :p

[Itatchi]

I don't have one, but everytime I see a thread for this sword, I want one