Samurai: Ultimate Guide by Gregedor
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 | Samurai: Ultimate Guide
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About the Author
I have been playing Samurai now for over three years. I first flagged the job in Nov 2004 and made it my first 75 job and it is definitely my main job. You can visit my user page to check out some of my noteworthy gear and accomplishments. I keep my user page fairly up to date. If you're on Quetzalcoatl server then feel free to drop me a line with suggestions or questions about anything Samurai related. If you're not on my server, leave something on the discussion board here and I'll get to it when next I check the page.
My page:User:Gregedor
About this Guide
I've used several guides along my path to 75 Samurai, but none of them seemed complete to me and none of them were updated regularly to reflect the changes in the game. I stopped using guides around level 70 and set out on my own for that reason. While it's not uncharted territory in the least, it is by and large just passed through friends, forums and blogs. The main focus for this guide will be on endgame concepts and setups and it will grow from there. So I set out on this on-going project to create the Ultimate Samurai Guide.
Obviously there are going to be people that disagree with me throughout the course of this guide. I encourage constructive comments on the discussion pages, but please respect my writing and do not alter this page without consulting me.
Updated as of 0800 EST, 11 May 2008.
Support Jobs
 Warrior
Tried and true, you can't go wrong with this support job. I use it probably 80% of the time. Has very high strength compared to other support jobs.
 Thief
Puts you at 5 STR lower (on 75 Hume) than a warrior subjob. Benefit here is the hate transference and the ability to do high, quick damage on HNMs/gods/etc. Awesome skillchain closer. This used to be used in mid-level parties to help control enmity and increase the skillchain damage. These days you probably won't use /THF in most parties and at 75 it's rarely heard of for merits.
 Ninja
I swear if one more merit party asks me to sub ninja... No really, since the addition of Seigan there isn't much need for this. Heck most of your party is going to be WAR/SAM or DRK/SAM or seemingly something /SAM these days. They don't have shadows so why do I get forced /NIN? Anyways, fumbling around with removing hasso, casting, putting seigan up, more gear swaps, cast again etc. is daunting at first. If you're not used to /NIN it's better to /THF and hand enmity to someone with a real need for /NIN. Ninja subjob adds nothing for damage, /THF at least gives something.
 Ranger
I actually used Ranger a lot in the lower levels. Sharpshot can allow you to gain TP rapidly by spamming a few arrows, and bow WS are on par or better than GKT early on. The subjob kind of loses it's usefulness in the middle though, then roars back at 75 with the addition of god gears, merits, and weak to piercing merit camps. With the most recent updates, it's now possible to max your Great Katana AND Archery merits. Before you had to be 4 in one and 8 in the other. This is a huge bonus to all those doing SAM/RNG. Also, I should mention that SAM/RNG is tons of fun.
 DragoonThis subjob is mostly for fun. If you have it for lower levels it's a great choice, but by the end of the game it does not beat /WAR even with the 5% haste earring. /WAR just adds far too much atk/str/double attack. Several people now have pointed me to an article that argues in favor of /DRG over /WAR, but the article itself did not copy the parse numbers correctly, shortchanged the /WAR accuracy, used the relic GKT which has latent effects making Jumps far more powerful than anyone using Hagun, and finally it ignored the almost 4% difference in critical hits between the two subjobs. In short, adjusting all those numbers to the correct values makes /WAR better even with a relic weapon. Often times I see /DRG used when people don't want /WAR because it means taking it on the chin, but don't want to do /THF because it's fairly lackluster in parties. /DRG gives a way out with more damage than /THF but less than /WAR, High Jump will also help shed a tad bit of hate. Benefits are:
 Monk
Monk?!? Gregedor you're off the deep end now. Actually I'm not. At lowbie levels (like 1-20) this isn't a bad option. Being able to Boost every 15 seconds ups your damage quite a bit at these levels. I used it quite often on new jobs, though I didn't have it for my Samurai. Some of the job abilities and traits make is seem like it'd be interesteing to play around with at level 75 as well, but you won't be bringing it to parties.
 Dancer
Dancer? Yep. If you think about it though, Samurai is a job based on gaining TP rapidly and Dancer is a job that converts TP into abilities. It seems like a perfect marriage. Very useful for solo work, Campaign, Assault, areas that don't require heavy healing really. The only downfall is the level cap that you have to deal with when taking DNC as a subjob. Only abilities up to level 37 count and that excludes a large portion of the nifty tricks. Still, let's take a look at it.
Others
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Equipment
WeaponsSamurai are fairly versatile in their weapon choices. If you can do it, get all your available weapons capped and then you never have to worry. There are really only three primary weapons you will use and two you might consider for special situations
Primary Weapons:
Secondary Weapons:
Great KatanaThere are many Great Katanas to choose from out there, but in true Square-Enix style most of them are not even worth considering. Great Katanas that you want to consider and their purposes are outlined below.
Levels 1-39 There isn't much to think about for these opening levels. Especially if you will stop at 37 for a subjob. Just equip the best DPS great katana for your level. For 10-20 that's the Katayama, which is not too hard to obtain. Other than this one exceptional weapon, there aren't any that give bonuses worth worrying about.
Levels 40-49
Levels 50-59
Levels 60-69
Levels 70-75
PolearmsPolearm will never be your primary weapon and should be considered after getting what you need for Great Katanas. It does have it's uses though. On "too weak" mobs, it will out damage your Great Katana regularly. I use one while farming for that reason. In xp situations though, it's reserved for birds, flys and other mobs weak to piercing (i.e. Caedarva Mire and Lufaise Meadows merit parties). There are also some Limbus zones where mobs have differing weaknesses and immunities that having multiple weapon types is a must.
Levels 60-69
Levels 70-75
BowsHaving a bow is a must for the times you're asked to pull, for me that was 9/10 parties unfortunately. Keeping your skill capped is fairly easy that way. Bow is also slower than your normal weapons, most times, and can therefore return a large amount of TP. Landing hits while pulling or firing as a mob is approaching camp can really give a boost to your TP gain. In merit parties though there often isn't time for it. Also a bow is a must if you want to pursue SAM/RNG and have fun with all the Sidewinder spam. (And it is fun!) Levels 1-55
Level 55+
GripsI have a short discussion on the discussion page (imagine that), but decided it's about time to incorporate Grips into the main page. I put it in weapons because it resides in your Sub slot and because it's listed under Weapons in the auction house, but you can call it however you like it. Levels 30-59
Levels 60+
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ArmorThis is where the real art of choosing your setup begins. Your weapon is an enabler, at endgame each one has it's place. Your armor though is interchangeable while you're in combat and you may end up having many many gear swaps on your macro page. Each build will have a different subjob in mind, different enemy you're facing, the food you're eating or even something as basic as being in a different position relative to the mob.
Store TPAt the core of Samurai is the ability to do rapid weaponskills. That should always be at the core of your gear setup. Contrary to what a lot of Samurai tell you, you don't want to just stack Store TP because you can. Nor do you want to have too little in favor of another stat like STR. Getting to weaponskills fast allows for more skillchains and more damage. Remember samurai damage is often 50% or more from weaponskills and anything you can do to add to that will improve your play. Now, how Store TP works is it adds a % boost in TP return per hit on a mob. Pretty easy to calculate too, take base weapon return and multiply it by 1.XX where XX is the amount of Store TP you have. Samurai start with +10 and grow to having +25 at 75 just from job traits. You can then get another +10 from merits for a total of +35 with no gear on. This means a Hagun which grants you 11.5 base would give you 15.53 with +35 Store TP. About here is where you should ask, so what? Well the so what is how many hits does it take you to do another weaponskill? Before level 50 you can't really affect this because you have no Store TP gear available to you. After level 50 you can think about different setups to optimize your TP gain. Taking my +35 Store TP example, at 15.53 return, 100 TP takes you (100/15.53) 6.44 hits. Well you can't do a fraction of a hit, so it takes you 7 hits. Basically anything in excess of the minimum needed for 7 hits is a waste. This is where many Samurai make an error. They will either end up a few shy or many many over the number they want. So how much do I really need for a "7 hit build" on a Hagun? Well 100/7=14.29, meaning you need to get that much per hit. Since the base TP rate is 11.5, simply divide this into 14.29. You should get 1.243. Drop the 1 since that's the base rate, and you need 25 Store TP to get your 7 hit build (since you can't get 24.3 Store TP). A level 75 samurai has that much from his job traits without merits so you don't need any additional gear. My same example works for all 450 delay weapons since Hagun is a 450 delay weapon. Here's a guide to help show the amount you need for different builds with 450 delay weapons: 9 hits - 0 Store TP Odds are you'll never see a reasonable 5 hit build with a 450 weapon, and as a Samurai you can't do a 9 hit build past level 10. The key to remember though is that you gain nothing for extra Store TP. If you have 35 Store TP you're still taking 7 hits to get to 100% so you might as well shed some for more of another stat. Also, keep in mind that this applies to your weaponskills as well. If you take off all your Store TP on a weaponskill, then you'll need additional on your melee hits to catch up and keep your desired build. For those at 75 with the +10 Store TP merits it should be easy to obtain the 6 hit build. I would never really sacrifice this during most situations you encounter. Some Samurai I have conversations with seem to believe having that 3% extra haste gear is more important than moving from a 7 hit to a 6 hit build. Dropping that one hit (assuming you're using your weaponskills always at 100% TP) means you're getting 15% more weaponskills. Furthermore, a weaponskill inflicts far more damage than a melee hit, so while he's gaining 3% more melee hits (and 3% more weaponskills), you're gaining 15% more weaponskills. The damage output is clearly in your favor. For myself, I'm at max Store TP merits and therefore have +35 natural Store TP. Adding in my gear I have a total of +47 Store TP on melee hits and +42 Store TP on weaponskills. Since 45 is the 6 hit build level, this required some thinking on my part. Basically calculate the weaponskill's TP return separate and add to it the 5 melee hits following. What you come up with is 16.3 from the weaponskill and 16.9 for each melee hit, five melee hits giving a total of 84.5 TP. Well a weaponskill and 5 hits adds up to 100.8 TP! So by keeping 2 extra Store TP over the 6 hit level on my melee hits, I can safely drop it for weaponskills and still have my 6 hits to 100 TP. Like I said earlier though, you'll find a lot of Samurai having around +40 or maybe even +42 StoreTP and it's just wasteful because they're still stuck in the 7 hit range. The difference from 7 hits to 6 hits for TP might seem small, but the results are huge. Equipment GuidelinesA Samurai should maintain several equipment builds. Really this is true of all melee, but for Samurai it's especially important. As discussed in the Store TP section above, you should have a desired TP build that gets you to 100% TP in 6 or 7 hits. Most of the time you want to be in this mode and sub in different gear for your weapon skills. There are times where TP build isn't necessarily as important.
TP BuildTP build is centered around, just that, to get TP as fast as possible. The best way to obtain this is to create a 6 hit build first. Easiest way is to get 10 Store TP from meriting so that you have 35 just standing around. If you aren't to that point yet, you can easily find 10 Store TP on the Hachiman or Shinimusha armor sets (Shinimusha Hara-Ate, Shinimusha Haidate). Now from the 35 Store TP point, it is easy to reach a 45 Store TP point. 10 Store TP can easily come from a Rajas Ring and Hachiman Sune-Ate. Now if you don't have access to these pieces you can easily add up the other gear to get your desired level of Store TP. Now beyond getting that desired level of Store TP, what do you look for in the TP Build? It's not usually base stat bonuses like STR and DEX. You should still be looking for accuracy and attack but now if you can get the equivalent DEX or STR (1 DEX/STR = 3/4 Acc/Atk) then go with the base stats since they have other perks. On individual melee hits you get no real benefit for any other stats. One of the most important pieces is Haubergeon, you should not pass this up. Stop at 59 or 60 and get the money to buy one. Now when samurai hit 70 I've watched a lot of them sell it for Hachiman Domaru and wear that all the time (and it's not for Store TP because they still don't hit a 6 hit build and you get 7 hit build by default at 75). Most of the time people do it just to recoup some money, this makes me sad. Nothing on that Hachiman Domaru would make you throw away Haubergeon. If your 6 hit build includes the Hachiman Domaru...find another way to get your 6 Store TP because Haubergeon is probably the most important piece of equipment Samurai can wear. Ochiudo's Kote is another highly prized piece. I'm not saying you need to cough up all that money at level 34, but you should include this item in your long-term plans. +20 attack is about the largest boost to your melee hits you will find. Now if you need Hachiman Kote to hit your TP level, then I guess you have to pass on these, but if you don't have to use hachiman then get this item. Another good substitue is Saotome Kote with 10 attack. One item that got a whole lot better with the two-hand weapon update is Byakko's Haidate. This might take longer to get, but instead of the old rules giving you 7 accuracy out of the piece, the 15 DEX is also 15 accuracy making it the largest single boost to accuracy outside of Haubergeon +1. As a added boon you have the 5% haste. So while before you could consider Shura Haidate, Myochin Haidate +1, now the clear leader is Byakko's Haidate. Beyond this use your better judgement to find the amount of accuracy you need and put the rest on attack gear. I would shoot for enough accuracy to eat meats in xp parties, eating meat with many pieces of accuracy gear on will give you better damage than eating sushi with several attack pieces on. This is because you have many many pieces with 10 accuracy and can easily reach the accuracy mark of sushi. If you eat 90 attack meat though you're going to be hard pressed to replace all of that. The exception to this might be Mamool parties. All the Mamool Ja camps feature such easy to hit mobs as THF and NIN...crap. Here I would say newer SAMs or less merited ones stick to sushi, but those that have max GKT merits, good accuracy gear, etc. go with meat. Meditate GearAnother thing I've watched occasionally is samurai storing their Myochin Kabuto with all their AF. This is just wrong! Unfortunately for samurai you can't store your AF (unless you have AF+1 helm). The reason being that your Myochin Kabuto stacks with the Saotome Kote. Use them together! This means that you will get anywhere from 140-180 TP on your meditate. Without one or the other you're going to get 120-140 TP. There's nothing more important to samurai than getting TP. Make a macro for these pieces and don't remove it. Simple macro is: /equip Head "Myochin Kabuto" You could break this into just a /equip /equip /meditate and change gear back in your normal swap macros, but this is much faster and no chance to slip up. Don't melee in your AF helm. Please, please don't. I've seen it before so don't laugh. Even if you have the Myochin Kabuto +1 is not much better. The 5 STR isn't going to trump other pieces with 10 accuracy or 5% haste. Be smart, keep these for meditate but don't wear them 24/7. For those worried about not having Saotome Kote, it's a very common drop from Dynamis - Bastok, just put in some time with a linkshell to get the piece. My linkshell will get anywhere from 2 to 6 of these (yes we got 6 once) in one run. Since we do at least one Bastok a month, it doesn't take long to get one. Weaponskill GearNow where we went for all accuracy and attack on TP build gear we want to go for STR, STR and more STR on weaponskill gear. Yeah, attack is good too, but since the last 3 Great Katana weaponskills all have 75% STR modifier, adding 1 STR is worth (just eyeballing these numbers) about 4-5 attack. Keep this in mind when structuring your gear. If you have Ochiudo's Kote and Hachiman Kote go with Ochiudo's for weaponskills. If however you get something like Myochin Kote +1, then I'd say it's a toss up. Personally I went with the AF+1 over my O.kote. For SAM/WAR, SAM/NIN and anything else not SAM/THF, keep accuracy in mind. Samurai weaponskills are one hit by and large (only exceptions are Enpi and Jinpu). If you miss you do 0. It's not like Rampage where you can miss a few and still get some damage and the skillchain. Haubergeon for this reason is good to keep on even though Hachiman Domaru has more STR. The 5.5 more accuracy (2 raw and 3.5 from the added DEX) and the additional 8 attack go a long way. Similarly, I sometimes use a Potent Belt over Warwolf Belt. I sacrifice 2 STR but gain 4.5 accuracy and no enmity. The Shura gear is also great since it gives STR and accuracy on the head and legs pieces. Even on SAM/THF accuracy will come into play if you are splitting up sneak attack and trick attack. For Trick Attacks you want that healthy amount of accuracy so that you don't miss. Trick Attack adds no damage, but will keep you safe and the tank in control so make sure you land it. More on playing SAM/THF will be in the tactics section. For a Sneak Attack weaponskill, don't worry about accuracy. You're achieving an automatic critical hit, so go for as much STR as you can pile on. One exception to this rule is the Brutal Earring. Keep this piece of gear on at all times. 5% Double Attack is going to get you TP faster and has a chance of activating even on weaponskills. When on SAM/WAR that gives you 15% Double Attack and makes for some nice weaponskills. On SAM/THF this can make for some extreme weaponskills. 1300+ Tachi: Gekko on Kirin is definitely achievable (and has gotten me killed several times). Yes, 5% isn't a very high activation rate on SAM/THF and if you only do 10 WS it might never go off. Over time though it's more damage than your alternatives and when it does land you'll know it, lol. One item there is much contention over is to use a sea gorget or a sea torque. I recently got my Justice Torque and have tried to compare it to the Snow Gorget and Light Gorget. Neither piece is wrong, but the numbers aren't all that different. I think the real question is what mob you are fighting. I suppose I should do an hour with one and an hour with another at a merit camp, but either choice is good for weaponskills. If you don't have either, default to Chivalrous Chain. Don't melee in your sea gorget though, remember to take it off again! The Haste BuildOk the haste build. I'm sure everyone has been expecting it, what job isn't on the Haste bandwagon. If you troll the internet though you'll find countless boards that feel haste is wasted on any job that doesn't dual wield. You see it over and over in arguements about who should get Speed Belt, Byakko's Haidate and other coveted items. This is just flat wrong. Two handed weapon users argueable get more out of haste. Since all the haste boost are percentage based, your swing speed insreases far more then one hand users with each piece of haste.<br / Hagun is a 450 delay weapon and if you throw up Hasso it falls to 406 and with 15% haste gear (as I currently have) it's 342. Telling me that doing the same damage and same TP in 342 delay that you do normally in 450 isn't worth it is just nonsense. The key to the samurai haste build, as opposed to any other class, is you just can't wrecklessly throw on all the haste you want. Remember the 6 hit TP build will give you 15% more weaponskills and will always be worth more than the meager 2% or 3% haste you might gain from putting another piece in that slot. Build your haste gear around your TP build. For my TP build I only need 4 pieces with Store TP: Chivalrous Chain, Brutal Earring, Rajas Ring and Usukane Sune-Ate. This leaves plenty of slots left for haste gear. Ok the easiest two to realize are the Walahra Turban and Byakko's Haidate. These two pieces alone already grant 10% haste. I honestly wouldn't worry about a haste build until you get these two pieces since they give you the largest bonuses. From here you have a choice. Either put haste in the hands slot and keep Store TP in the feet slot, or put haste in the feet slot and Store TP in the hands slot. To me, this isn't a debate, but some Samurai say differently. The haste pieces in question are Dusk Gloves and Fuma Sune-Ate (or Dusk Ledelsens). Both give 3% haste, but dusk gloves actually give you some attack. Remember my TP Build discussion earlier? If it's not accuracy or attack it doesn't matter for melee hits. Agility has no place on your Samurai for meleeing. My opinion then is keep the Hachiman Sune-ate and get the Dusk Gloves. What of Ochiudo's Kote and keeping Hachiman Sune-Ate? That's also an acceptable option. What of Hachiman Kote and Dusk Ledelsens then? You get more haste and attack from the Dusk Gloves so why would you reverse the two? The only time is a non-450 GKT (i.e. relic which is 437) because then you need more than the +5 Store TP from Hachiman Sune-Ate. If you're lucky enough to have Usukane Sune-Ate like I do, then it's a no brainer. You're going to keep those on and find a good hand piece. They also have more Store TP than Hachiman Sune-Ate so if you had on Hachiman Kote because you needed the extra Store TP, you can probably now get rid of them. The only real slot left then is belt to get more haste: Swift Belt or Speed Belt. When all said and done you should have around 17-19% haste on. Couple this with hasso and your attacks are hasted 27-29%. But notice, you still kept the 6 hit build! With the new Usukane Sune-Ate you'll get 19% haste with Swift Belt and 21% with Speed Belt. There, now you have a 6 hit build AND 21% haste (31% after hasso). This takes a 450 delay Hagun down to 316. Slap on the haste spell and double march and you're talking a 158 delay Great Katana. You can spin that two-hander faster than most daggers, lol. It is pretty epic to watch. I'm getting close, still need a belt to top me off. This isn't the end of the discussion though. That Walahra Turban might be the fastest headpiece out there but it does absolutely nothing for your stats. There's at least three other options (Aces's, Askar, Usukane). There's also a real contender to the Byakko's Haidate now in the Usukane Hizayoroi. None of these trade offs compete in raw speed, but they add damage which in the end is the real goal right? Personally I have a spreadsheet I built to rack and stack various combinations and really your setup has to be evaluated as a whole in order to decide which is right for you. SAM/RNGSAM/RNG is a different beast from anything else. Here you have to have both a good melee setup, a good WS setup and a good ranged setup. For TP building/meleeing it is the exact same as you would do with any other subjob. Perhaps you can get away with a few less accuracy due to being /RNG. For WS (if you need to use a GKT WS instead of bow) it's the same setup as being /WAR. So for this section I'm only going to talk about your ranged gear. Ok at low levels you can get by with some ranged accuracy rings and a good bow, Beater's Earring for good measure. The difference in skill levels between your C+ bow and a Ranger's A- skill isn't that significant yet. At the merit level, however, you need some serious help. I wouldn't even consider using SAM/RNG at 75 unless you have at least a few of the following key pieces:
Wow! That's some serious accuracy gear! You'll need every bit of it. Samurai archery skill caps at 230, 246 with max merits. A level 75 ranger is at 269 skill, 285 with merits and instead of the 22 accuracy boost you get from /RNG, the full RNG gets 44 accuracy! So...naked samurai is roughly 263+AGI/2+Gear... naked RNG is 298+AGI/2+Gear... hmm I think we have some work to do. Do not fear though! Samurai have higher STR, better access to STR gear and one awesome bow (Shigeto Bow). Yeah it's not a Eurytos' Bow but it's good. You certainly cannot go wrong with just stacking on more and more accuracy though. Only in Cadaerva Mire can you reach the point that you don't want to be eating sushis, otherwise I'd put your meats away and bring on the fish. Since that's the case, tone down the accuracy in some key locations to maximize your damage on those Sidewinders. Where? Well the back piece is the first obvious one. Amemet Mantle +1 nets you 15 attack and 2 STR for starters. Now, if you decided to get a Jaeger Mantle (+20 ranged accuracy, -10 ranged attack) that is going to hurt your damage, but effectively combines two accuracy pieces into one slot so that you can potentially gain some more STR/AGI/attack elsewhere. I don't have one yet, but this can be a good alternative approach. Generally though you're not getting accuracy here so get the Amemet Mantle and up your damage. Your body is another normal spot. You can either go with Hachiman Domaru which is 8 STR and 8 accuracy. Yes, it's weaponskill accuracy, but for now let's only focus on those Sidewinders. Your other option here is Kirin's Osode which will give you 10 STR and 10 AGI and be a huge damage boost. The AGI also gives roughly 5 ranged accuracy and makes this essentially only 3 less accuracy than Hachiman. The feet slot is a good place to gain damage as well. There are no real good accuracy pieces here. Either go with cheaper Hachiman Sune-Ate which nets 2 STR and 2 accuracy or if you're Hume, Marine M Boots give you 3 STR and 2 AGI and are really the best option. Tarutaru samurai can enjoy Creek M Clomps for 4 STR. Your normal Rutter Sabatons you're using for melee WS are 3 STR and a decent alternative as well. Rings give you a bit of flexibility as well. You can have 2xSTR rings or 2xAccuracy rings or one of each, which is what I prefer most times. Rajas Ring is nice to have here since the additional Store TP nets me 22 TP returned, which is no slouch. This is especially key on Barrage, which I'll get to later. Everywhere else it's best to grab the most accuracy you can. You have no excuse for not having certain items. Things like your Shigeto Bow, Beater's Earring, Merman's Rings, Optical Hat, Seiryu's Kote you have no business trying to merit as SAM/RNG without. No really, if you don't have at least those pieces you're going to miss so much to make it not worth being SAM/RNG. Just go back to being SAM/WAR and hold off until you have the gear to make it work. Parties should not be willing to take a SAM/RNG that doesn't have the gear to make it happen. Wiff-fests went out the door back at level 55. What parties don't normally know, is that properly geared and in the proper camps you will exceed your SAM/WAR damage. Parties that don't accept your awesomely geared SAM/RNG should have a chance to see you in action first. Ok earlier I said I'd talk about Barrage, well here we are! For RNG, Barrage is normally a significant amount of damage, sometimes even equal to a Sidwinder. I have found for SAM this isn't the case. Pile on that accuracy gear, all of it. STR and AGI will still modify your damage, but it's more important that you get all 4 hits to land than to squeeze a bit more out of 2 or 3 landing. Where you'll notice this most is your TP. If you do a sidewinder for around 20 TP and then land all 4 barrage shots you can easily be at 100 TP again and ready for more sidewinder. Since this is the case, keep some of that Store TP gear on. Key items for that are Rajas Ring and Hachiman Sune-Ate. Everywhere else you can get accuracy gear. Body you might be tempted to have on that Hachiman Domaru, which is certainly not wrong, given the limited choices, but the 8 accuracy doesn't count on regular arrow shots, only on sidewinders. Kirin's Osode is the better choice here, or Kyudogi if you can afford it. One slot I haven't mentioned that is getting some attention recently is the Waist. Your Warwolf Belt is always an option, but the enmity is going to get you killed (kinda like it does on SAM/WAR). Royal Knight's Belt +1 is always a good option. It has 2 STR, 2 AGI and the attack...never really matters now since you're normally in ToAU areas for merits. CoP Dynamis gives the Saotome Koshi-Ate which is a great accuracy option and Assault has the Precise Belt as a buyable reward. The just released Einherjar has the cream of the crop though. 15,000 points (a long time unfortunately) nets you Buccaneer's Belt. It has STR, it has accuracy...it even gives enmity down! Don't even think of something else if you have this. Einherjar is tough though and at a pitiful 500-1000 points per win, not just a run but a win, it will take forever. If you haven't caught on by now, SAM/RNG boils down to your gear. If you cannot hit about +60 ranged accuracy in your gear, I wouldn't come SAM/RNG. If you do surpass this mark, and eat sushi, your archery will be on par with your Great Katana accuracy. This is becuase on your GKT setups you've usually traded a lot of that accuracy for haste or attack gear. Another key enabler is the Soboro Sukehiro. It makes a vast difference in the performance of SAM/RNG. If the situation arises that you have to act like a full RNG (i.e. no meleeing) there's a few pieces left. You can either do Fire Staff and still use Hasso, or you can go with Trailer's Kukri and a Tatami Shield. The times you need this are limited indeed, but some examples might be kited mobs, or mobs that spam AoE such as Faust. Treat the rest of your gear like it's barrage time, and pile on the accuracy and/or ranged attack. There is no reason you can't get enough accuracy to make it viable, and while your sidewinder is weaker you should do more of them than a normal RNG. |
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Sample LoadoutsWow, I've gotten a lot of feedback lately. Some of which are from SAMs who I respect very much. I was surprised they were learning from me. =P Anyways, this section appears to be highly anticipated. What does the Gregedor use? What is the best possible? Hopefully I can fill that in in this section. If you'd rather journey on your own using the guidelines I posted above, then skip this section. Otherwise...enjoy! Melee/TP Build
Well that's what I wear. There is enough Store TP to ensure that I keep a 6 hit TP build and enough accuracy to ensure I'm hitting. I have 15% haste gear in this configuration and 10% more for Hasso. Depending on what I'm fighting I switch out the Potent Belt for a Swordbelt +1 or a Life Belt. Improvements I'm working on are Swift Belt or Speed Belt for normal use and a Saotome Koshi-Ate to replace life belt. Also my Assault static is slowly transitioning to Nyzul Isle since we're Captain rank and I'll go for a Askar Zucchetto. Ace's Helm is better, but it's a pain in the butt, and doesn't look as good. =P Other improvements might be the full Usukane Haramaki Set. I have an excel spreadsheet that goes through the calculations for damage with different gear setups and accuracy rates. It's neck and neck with a few other variations I have in mind. Certainly anyone sporting a full set is worthy of some drool factor. With the latest update Black Tathlum has popped up and certainly replaces Tiphia Sting. There is also Smart Grenade out there for 4 attack instead of 2 attack/2 accuracy from the sting. I call that a toss up, some prefer one over the other. I think the main benefit of Smart Grenade is that you don't lose 25 HP. Weaponskill Gear
So for weaponskills I get rid of all the haste gear and even some Store TP. The key on losing the Store TP, as I mentioned earlier, is that you have enough in your normal melee setup to compenstate for 1 of your 6 hits generating a point or two less TP. Losing the haste is of no consequence on a weaponskill. However, putting it back on quickly is important so that your next swing isn't burdened by being slower. Depending on what I'm doing I'll use Warwolf Belt or Potent Belt, it really depends on what accuracy I need to achieve and if the 3 enmity is going to make a difference. There's more STR gear I could get, Forager's Mantle (or Cerberus Mantle +1), and Ifrit's Bow come to mind. The only trouble I have with getting a Forager's Mantle right now is that it's 700,000 gil for only 1 STR improvment. I also have to keep my Amemet around for SAM/RNG so I don't recoup any cost either. I'm not at the point that it's worth it for me. SATA Gear
For Sneak Attack weaponskills, my setup is essentially the same. With the two-hand update and max GKT merits my SAM/WAR is accurate enough to not need much additional accuracy. For SATA you don't really need to worry at all about accuracy, and to a lesser degree attack, because you get a free critical hit. Some might be asking, why the Brutal Earring? Well it is true that it only activates 5% of the time. Over time though that means you essentially have gained around 2.5% damage. This is more than you get out of having a Triumph Earring equipped. Fenrir's Earring might be something worth considering, but only during the day time so you have to concious of the clock and adjust your gear accordingly. Usukane Sune-Ate are listed here becasue they give decent stats for weaponskills, but they have 5 enmity. If the TA portion of your SATA is really needed, pop on more enmity and help that tank out. Improvements here are much the same as in the previous section. Forager's Mantle and Ifrit's Bow are both worth wearing. Sidewinder Gear
I went over SAM/RNG gear pretty thoroughly earlier. It really stresses you out though trying to find the optimal balance between accuracy and damage. Just accept the fact that you will never do more damage than a ranger, but strive to do it more often. You can see some of my trade offs above, such as one ring is damage (and some important Store TP) and the other is accuracy. Improvements I would make here are fairly minimal. I'd get my own pair of Marine boots since I'm borrowing them at the moment. I'd work up the Einherjar points for a Buccaneer's Belt, that's a real no brainer. In the meantime my Dynamis LS has moved into dreamlands so I can get a Saotome Koshi-Ate to tide me over. You could get Behemoth Ring for one more accuracy, but that's hardly a world shattering improvement. Barrage Gear
For barrages I'm trying hard to hit all four arrows. The goal isn't so much damage as it is another method of getting TP. With Barrage on a five minute timer, which matches Sharpshot, I only use them in tandem to boost my accuracy further. Since I did change out my Rajas Ring with a Merman's Ring I had to put the Usukane Sune-Ate back on to keep enough Store TP to make me happy. In a perfect world, barrage would then give 84% TP returned. If you just used Sidewinder you have 20% already so it gives just enough for another weaponskill. Normally only 2-3 arrows land though so perhaps the 7 Store TP isn't as important to you. For me I have no other real feet pieces to be wearing right now except my borrowed Marine M Boots. Something that's rare, but worth considering is the Bowman's Ledelsens that give 4 ranged accuracy. Improvments to this setup would be Hope Torque, Peacock Charm, or Sniper's Collar. Also Buccaneer's Belt, Behemoth Rings, and a Kyudogi. Kyudogi only gets you two more accuracy over the Kirin's Osode, but it does give you a few more attack as well. It's the better piece, but for the price it's only a marginal improvement. Tanking Gear
The gear above would be for a straight-tanking situation. Samurai have a decent evasion skill though and with /NIN could always play it the other way with going heavy in evasion gear or even some parry gear. I can toss that setup in later. For straight tanking though you think like a Paladin except that you have very different gear access. Samurai's top end tanking gear ends up being the Kirin's Osode Set rather than any kind of abjuration or Salvage gear. As SAM/WAR you have provoke to help maintain some bit of control and hopefully you're still hitting the monster for decent damage on weaponskills. It really doesn't work for long durations though without a THF or /THF trick attacking you. Anyhow, with the setup above and a Protect V I'm hitting around 430 defense which is about 537 with defender on and even more with food. This is hardly slacking. True it might not be the 600 or so a Paladin is used to seeing, but if you've invested in this gear it's probably more than the warrior or ninja is going to have since they're focused into other aspects of their job. Now this isn't a complete story though. For the rings there are a multitude of things you can have here. I just showed Flame Ring because it has some defense and BQ ring because of the HP. You can always keep accuracy rings (Woodsman Rings though, don't give up defense with Snipers) or you can get Jelly Ring/Defending Ring to cut damage taken. There's more HP to get too with Bloodbead Ring. With the proper gear a Hume Samurai can hit around 1500 health and then boost it to 1600 or more with food. This is about as good as a Paladin and better than most Ninja I've seen. Which brings up another possibility entirely, you can wear Arhat's Gi +1 and take a 9% damage reduction that way rather than the 52 defense on Osode similar to how most ninja tank things. Personally I use tanking gear so infrequently, and normally only because I've pulled hate I don't want, that it's not worth investing a whole lot more into the gear. Legs perhaps has the most diversity. Here you can use Dusk Trousers which have the most defense and HP. You could use Byakko's Haidate maintaining some haste and decent defense. Lastly there's Myochin Haidate +1 with good defense, VIT, some HP and 10 parrying skill. For those that are adventurous though, I've heard of SAM/WAR tanking sky gods like Seiryu and Genbu. This is probably the limit though, I wouldn't think a Samurai wants to try and straight tank Fafnir or something. Oh, and Seigan is a must! That's |