Samurai & you

[Akashimo]

Kind of bored, been soloing like a made man in quifim on my sam and so here I am >_>;;;, anyways, to you all, what you think/know/believe a Samurai, giving proper gear and skills is capable of? Do you believe its just DD, puller, back up tank or even a tank itself?

I myself, find that DDing is a bit belittling what Samurai can do.
One thing they are powerfull with their weaponskills and ability to gain it. Which with high amount in damage does result in good hate(if your the shield). Looking at JAs. With the Seigan to boost Third Eye it can be effective as blink tanking, assuming you're avoiding spell casting mobs. In the fishing role, eye, bow and arrow, some tp if it lands, third eye to be less like to get hit. Backup tank, same thing basicly. DDing, Hasso boost DoT and helps increase ws dmg from added STR.

Now here's what I think sam should be based on my observations(Tank/back up):
Looking at the the first AF their enmity, parrying and enhances rice ball effect. Pretty nice to hold and some effect tank with. Rice balls with roshi jinpachi or AF hands can give signifigant attack, def, boost, even double attack + or arcana killer. Go for Tonosama Rice balls with Roshi and af hands, thats 80+ attack and 60+ def and double attack +2. Add defender, good boost in defense, without loosing much attack as a trade off. Add in some evasion/parrying gear and you can really strech out third eye and seigan.

[Malacite]

Go for Tonosama Rice balls with Roshi and af hands, thats 80+ attack and 60+ def and double attack +2.

Good luck finding any on AH...

Samuari shouldn't ever main tank unless the PT is really desparate, in which case you're already in it deep.

You'd THINK with all that parry skill (if you somehow manage to cap it) we'd be ok tanks, but the truth is Seigan is just too random to rely upon. Sometimes I'll anticipate one attack, other times 6+ with several counter attacks. IMO we're probably the best SATA partners now next to DRG and WAR/NIN though.

[Tirrock]

I don't doubt that SE designed SAM with some tanking in mind. Some of their AF just screams "tank gear" to me.

However, I wouldn't use them as a tank in a standard exp party, except at lower levels maybe. (Anybody using some DEF food and has provoke can tank kazham mandragoras...) Like Malacite said, seigan seems too random for SAM to be the only tank of a party. With parry as their only other form of damage migration, they'll get roughed up. Two SAM taking turns tanking may be more viable though, so long as you get a pair that work together well and are pretty close to each other in hate.

The rice balls don't seem too good to me, honestly. The DEF may help if you're tanking (see above paragraph), but you're losing two powerful slots. O.kotes + <insert head gear choice here> + coruel sub gets you +75 ATK at cap, +20 attack from kotes, and whatever (large) bonus you can get from head gear, like +10 accuracy or +5% haste. The difference gets larger when you use better food too, especially if you have a bard in the group. (I seem to recall the riceball head gear being level 70ish, if it's lower, then you're not really losing much more than the +6(7) attack masks until 70.)

For pulling... My belief is that if you can use a ranged weapon that stacks higher than 12 (or has unlimited shots), you should consider yourself a potential puller over those that don't. Exception being to bards, at least the ones that don't mind pulling. (Which seems more or less mandatory for bards in most merit point parties, really.)

I'd rather have a SAM pull over the tank, since the tank can be resting up their HP/MP now in signet zones. Or in the case of NIN, it just sucks to run a monster back to camp and already have your shadows down before you damage it. SAM may be better pullers than THF/WAR in places where you're pulling things that run faster than players. That said though, I'd probably prefer to pull on my THF anyway, since I used to use sneak/trick right before pulling...

[Malacite]

The rice balls don't seem too good to me, honestly. The DEF may help if you're tanking (see above paragraph), but you're losing two powerful slots. O.kotes + <insert head gear choice here> + coruel sub gets you +75 ATK at cap, +20 attack from kotes, and whatever (large) bonus you can get from head gear, like +10 accuracy or +5% haste. The difference gets larger when you use better food too, especially if you have a bard in the group. (I seem to recall the riceball head gear being level 70ish, if it's lower, then you're not really losing much more than the +6(7) attack masks until 70.

Actually, you only need them equipped at the time of consumption I've been told. After that, you can swap out back to your normal gear. The problem is actually getting your hands on some. Shogun is insanely hard to find but it's the best food a SAM to get.

http://ffxi.somepage.com/itemdb/5547

Description: This tonosama rice ball has been made to perfection.
Slot: Inventory
Type: Food
Jobs: All
Races: All
Food Duration: 60 minutes
Stackable: 12
Auction House Category:
Food / Meals / Breads & Rice
Comments for Shogun Rice Ball: A character recieves the extra stats listed below when this food is eaten, if either the Myochin Kote or Roshi Jinpachi is worn. If both items are worn when the food is eaten, the affects of the extra stats are doubled.
Effects for Shogun Rice Ball:

* HP +20
* Dexterity +4
* Vitality +4
* Charisma +4

Restricted to: Item equipped: Myochin Kote
Effects:

* Attack +50
* Defense +30
* Double Attack +5

So with both equipped that's 100 Attack, 60 Def and a whopping +10 to Double Attack.

[raidenn]

I make salmon riceballs and no one buys them at all.
Dont you wish they at least would have some accuracy?

[Akashimo]

Actually I have tested just using the Roshi Jinpachi, the effects only work while its equip reguardless it was on or not at time of consumption.

[Malacite]

Really? damn >_ > well that blows chunks

[DakAttack]

Sam/Rng makes for a great DD against Ouryu. Instead of chasing him around while kiting they can just stand in the middle.

[Malacite]

Who kites Ouryu? (how did that even come up?)

While on the subject, my PT just straight up tanked him and we zerged his ass, with myself (WAR/NIN at the time) making Detonation with the MNK and magic bursting Aerial Blast ^^

He was a sissy

[luisa]

Well im at 59 sam and i subbed rng, whent up agaisnt puks and ws avrge about 450, but thats when i could hit the freaking bird, found out later on that puks have shadows and on top of that, they blinded me too much specially when i was using sidewinder, on the other hand, we went to caedarva mire, or something like that , and i was the beast of the pt, rarely missed any of the sidewinders and never missd a reg rng att, my dmg was 700+ n thats only on 100% tp, not only that i was finishing the sc giving out 360 per sc, it was very fun and cant wait to see what i can do as 60 sam, only one prob, this pt showed me the 1 n only reason why sam dont try to sub rng, too much hate, i died alot and was the only one to die in the pt, too much hate that not even a thf sata could of gotten it out of me, but ill keep studying and try to find ways and techniques in order to survive sam/rng, when i master it, if i even do, ill post it inn with advice and tips, oh and one more thing, i notice how diff types of mog are affected by the way i choosed to play , so what subbing rng may work for some mog, will prob not work on other, so subbing thf or war might prob work better on puks, oh i did do sidewinder on a uttercop, and i hit it for 560 on 100% tp, as soon as i hit it i ran and zoned, lol, ill go and research what mogs are affected by what sub is chosen and post it later,

[IfritnoItazura]

Where is the option that says "Meh. This is a silly poll; we all know that SAM isn't a great main tank, but an excellent backup tank. It's a decent option for Fisherman, and a terrific DD, to boot!"

>_>

p.s. SAM is a very lousy tank at low levels; I've never seen one who can keep the mob in place from Valkurm Dunes to the jungles. Try this; have the THF SA + Fast Blade or WHM use a DS+Curaga in battle--what is a SAM supposed to do if it's 25seconds to next provoke? Warding Circle? XD

[Tirrock]

If they're doing crazy things like divine seal curaga at low levels when most of the tanking jobs have very limited hate tools... I feel that they deserve to tank so they learn how to control their hate better.

Nothing teaches like a dirt nap.