Question For Veteran Samurais

Polearm sam is far more effective on birds IMO, Sam is DRG w/o a wyvern and jumps.

Only time you should rly use /rng on sam is when it's something your ls doesn't want anyone melee'ing (and in most of those cases, they're doing it wrong).

If that situation occurs, you won't be spamming anything because you'll be shooting for TP not swinging, because you won't be close to the mob.

Stick w/ polearm for piercing dmg for your exp purposes. As a polearm age Sam, I didn't even bother to level archery. Have never needed it.

i am rng and sam leveled, endgame sam/rng CAN be nice... but you need hefty equipment to par. Actually SAM cant par on rng anymore period.

So Polearm sam for leveling forsure, Lesster colibri, Colibri, Greater Colibri, and... Coastal colibri!

another question, how is the OAT trial gkt? D: up to the krabkatoa shell part of it, just making sure its not a colossal waste of time

Uh it's like the top 3 (besides relics and what not)
It's VERY good, very very very good.
DOT is high as hell.
But......
You have the epeen people like "HAH I DID 3000 SC"
while they hit 50dmg and get TP once a blue moon.
(lols, very common)

thats what I thought, with all this new af3 it doesnt look hard to 5hit either lol

5hit, easy yes.
Keiten+1 (stp+10)
Af3+1 head (stp+5)
af3+1 legs (stp+5)
Thats just 3 peices, one of them being a pretty high dmg GK

edit: oh and 464dly GK's are the rage.

SAM/RNG has its uses. But they're sorta limited. Most things that a group could use a SAM/RNG for, a regular ol' RNG would do better.

That said, if you want to SAM/RNG, you have to be willing to commit the weapon proficiency merits (X8) to Archery. From everything I've read and heard about SAM/RNG, it's not practical without the extra skill/accuracy gained from merits. Also, you really have to be able and willing to go all-out on Ranged Accuracy equipment. Optical Hat, Peacock Charm, Kyudogi, Seiryu's Kote, AF2 belt, Dusk Trousers, Jaeger Mantle, Hollow/Beater's earrings, Dragon/Behemoth+1 rings, Hachiryu Sune-Ate.

Fortunately, a lot of these items (especially the Kyudogi and Hachiryu Sune-Ate) are not nearly as expensive as they used to be. But, it's still a heavy investment for an alternate subjob set-up that you probably won't get to use a whole lot.

Your call.

It never really did have much practical application.

It's a fun and unique subjob combination, and in certain circumstances, gives you greater flexibility. However, like I said, it's rare to find the situation where a RNG wouldn't be better, and you have to go all-out on ranged accuracy equipment on SAM, or you *will* miss Sidewinders more than you hit.

If you score a relic bow.... /rng is still worthless...

SAM needs it's own ranged weaponskills IMO, but that's because of it's actual background/history.

SAM/DRG with Wyvern earring = WIIIIIINNNN
If you get that @ 55~ you'll be a beast

I'd agree with Rino that leveling DRG subjob is much more important and viable that RNG subjob.

Ranger has spoiled me, and back in 2004 i was SAM/RNG a lot. But these days. Polearm :D

id be suprised if you could hit a mob in abbysea /rng unless you have some super gear and buffs.
im guessing here tho.

You sir, are a *** mong.

You're better off just spamming Yukikaze and Kasha against NQ warrior-type mobs with SAM/WAR, SAM/THF, or SAM/DRG.
The only time SAM/RNG is a boon is when you *really* need to keep your distance from the target, and you don't play RNG.
I'm not saying you won't do some damage with Sidewinders; you'll just do more damage with Great Katana weapon skills, over time, even with Soboro.

Yeah I concur. I've never understood sam/rng really. Too much hype, not enough reliable output I've always witnessed. The skill penalty is hard to make up for while staying at the solid level of output this job is expected to perform at. Stick with your main weapon (melee) and you won't go wrong ^^. :)

SAM/RNG also opens up SAM to a larger amount of WS, which can be useful when attempting to trigger !!s in Abyssea. /RNG offers SAM, presuming they bring a sound array of weapon types, the ability to cover most ws to trigger the NM weaknesses.

Yeah, I suppose that's true. Although a WAR with all its weapons capped would probably fill this niche role far better.

IMO, leveling SAM/RNG drops off in usefulness once you start getting access to the big 3.

That being said, SAM/RNG is still to date, the most fun I ever had leveling a job.

It was fully worth getting the gear, capping (and meriting) archery so when I had access to sidewinder, it was usable.

I'm sure getting the gear for it is a lot cheaper now than it was a few years ago when I did it.

I think Samurai should get it's own arrange of ranged weaponskills with out ranger.

yea right because your avrerage(not epeen) 75 sam can consistntly hit abbyssea mobs with archery >.>

ive seen average 75 rangers struggle at times

im not talking atama or any other ***...im talking about some one who is lvl 50+(OP) at the moment when hits 70+ and enters abbyssea might not have the be all and end all in sidewinder gear for sam.

NOBODY mentioned /rng with soboro? Wow...I'm shocked.. Read the thread..MIGHT have missed it..but it looks like nobody did... on birds soboro + sidewinder spam can be pretty mean. I personally don't like the soboro, but for /rng purposes, its pretty nice.

l2grammar

And my 85 SAM could. Not sure what kind of ***SAMs are on your server... On topic though; SAM/RNG is fun as hell, even more so if you have Yoichi... but... yeah.

SAM is better than a DRG with a polearm. Polearm Sam wipes the floor with DRG w/ very little effort. Its really sad when another job can take your A+ weapon and do it better than you, ***job is ***.

I'm not just saying DRG sucks cuz I dont like the job, My DRG is pretty amazing, just comes down to SAM being able to take its own weapon and embarrass it completely.