Bushido - The Way Of The Samurai (A Guide) V. 2.0

Should I be using Impulse Drive or Stardiver?

almost always impulse. can't think of a use for stardiver on sam anymore off the top of my head with nyame being a thing

The Critical Hit Evasion +5% is a small bonus for something like Xevioso. You can use it once here and there and then return to Impulse drive

Samurai is meh job for Xevioso anyway. Low attack, no party buffs, no good hybrid meva set, can't position for Overwhelm much. WAR+DNC all the way.

How does one play SAM in a seg run? Just spam Fudo? sub /drg?

Our groups Sam is /drk, fudo on slashing stuff, impulse on piercing stuff, hybrids where they can do the most damage (jinpu, kagero, koki).

When using Fudo, should I only WS at a certain tp and above? Same with Jinpu/Hybrid and Impulse Drive?

With /DRK, you don't need to wear the AF+3 hands when using Hasso and Last Resort, as they both will get you to the +25% job ability haste, so can wear Tatenashi or Mpaca hands during those 3 minutes. You lose the jumps, but so far, I think it is well worth the loss with the additional job traits you receive from drk alone. It's only recommended at lvl 55 subjob though.

Pros:
Desperate Blows III
Attack Bonus III (DRG sub gives I)
Resist Paralyze III
Smite III (DRG sub gives I)
Damage Limit+ III (SAM base gives II)
Weapon Bash (So we can ignore Blade Bash even more)

Cons:
Lose Jump, High Jump, and Super Jump
Lose Accuracy I (10 acc)
Lose ConserveTP I (15%)
Lose WS Damage Boost II (lvl 55 10%)

For any ws below, 1750 = Moonshade Earring +250TP | 1550 = Moonshade + Mpaca's Cap

For Fudo: If using Masamune, ws at 3k to get AM3, then try to hit at least 1750 or 1550, if you are feeling spammy, it doesn't really matter if you hit these numbers. SAM is stronk.

For Hybrid: 1750 or 1550 spam

For Impulse Drive: I have found 2100 to be a magic number.

Very helpful. Thank you

Sorry another question. How do you know when to use a hybrid WS in segment farm?

Struggling to see how the benefits of a Dark Knight Trait suddenly become much stronger than DRG now you are at 55 versus before.

For a class that heavily favours WSD, losing 10WSD that's a separate multiplier from other sources seems too much to lose for attack buffs in a scenario you are already most likely attack capped. Especially considering the WSD Trait gains even more value when using things like Jinpu and Impulse Drive which are multi hit weapons skills and it applies to all hits.

If you are running solo or with some ghetto comp that isn't bringing a COR/BRD then I can see where Dark Knight has a place.

Shameless plug cause I don't get anything for it anyways:
https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/56549/addon-sheolhelper
Know your weapon skills elements well (should know that Goten is Thunder, Koki is Light, Jinpu Aero etc.) and have the resistance table enabled, use when appropiate element shows green. If you don't care for anything else you can toggle to show just the resistances.
Also be wary of GK being slashing.

Are we sure that we’re attack cappped in Sheol C? None of the mobs are getting any sort of defense down on them and you don’t have a GEO…..

Should be ML30 SAM tonight so I’m going /DRK from now on for segments. Smite III and Last Resort should improve both WS damage and frequency significantly.

I think there’s a better case for /DRG when you need enmity shedding from Super Jump. Similar to /WAR giving you Defender when things try to pummel you.

From my experience of seeing SAMs in Sheol C, you should be close to cap with bis gear and Honormarch and 3 minuets, with lucky or XI Chaos roll. I'm not sure if you could use Mpaca legs R25 too tho (afaik they should be slightly better than Nyame for Fudo at attack cap with PDL). You can also use 4 minuets in theory if you take SCH inside and use Haste II from RDM before going in. Then you can use Embrava after Haste II wears off and when Embrava wears off, you can use Soul Voice Honormarch with Haste I. By capping magic haste like that, you have versatility to use 4 songs that you want, which can be 4x minuets.

Why would you use 4 minuets when Honor March gives better Atk+ then most minuets anyway...

HM+Minuetsx4

Like Bippin said, Honor March as 5th song was so obvious I haven't even mentioned it, sorry (well I did for 2nd part of the run)

Just to be clear then:
Haste2(pre buff)+Honor to cap haste - first ~10min
Embrava+Marcato Honor to cap haste - next ~7min
SV Honor + Haste to cap haste - last ~13min

That would be how you could keep 4 minuets whole run as other songs beside Honor and go SAM/drg.

As someone who mainly jumps into Sheol C shouts, I find that /drk gives me a certain level of versatility considering how not every party will be optimized in terms of buffs (and Last Resort can be a nice edge after an unfortunate dispel...). Personally, my favorite aspect of /drk is not having to full-time AF3 hands...

All that said, I’m currently ML29 so I’m excited to play around more and experiment with my options at ML30. ^^

I go for a full zanshin build so only use af+3 hands in DT sets >.> controversial

Curious about what you’re using.

I’m hoping Empy +3 will make Zanhasso builds the best TP set for SAM. Especially for glass cannon mode. At least it would give SAM a bit more uniqueness as a DD.

Here's some examples of sets where I try to maintain the tatenashi zanshin gear, and remove as much double attack as possible so zanshin proc's over that (I keep triple and quad attack). If I could get away with using the Incursion cape I would. (Takaha Mantle with max augments: Acc +15, Att +15 Store TP+13, Zanshin +5, Meditate +8, STR +5)

I do have an odyssey static so can rely on getting cured when taking damage, but for non NM mobs I can maintain the first glass cannon set an entire run.

I have other sets that use Wakido Kote +3 though. Generally more double attack focused, and also sets with capped DT - but this if more for odyssey Sheol C. I also prefer the cumulative combo of zanshin from all the pieces over using the zanshin double attack feet.

If anyone is interested to know. We generally have 2 SAM's using this set both hit 7m, with the COR hitting 4-5m and the BRD hitting 3-4m in a seg farm. One of the other players in my group hit 7.8m with this set last week where we had a pug DD and In was on PLD.

I've heard of people hitting 8m in a seg farm, but that tends to be soaking up damage from the other DD's or support that are lacking DPS?

Hmm good catch on Tahaka mantle. That extra 3 STP and +5 Zanshin would actually be ideal if you didn’t need the accuracy or PDT from Ambu cape.

Just to be these sets are with LR up? other wise AF+3 gloves are better.

Also Ryuo Sune-Ate +1

No this isn't with LR up. My experience and opinion is different; hence why I said controversial.

As for the Ryuo Sune-Ate - I still prefer Tatenashi for the triple attack.

Edit: I spent quite a long time using af hands and also ryuo feet. Not saying that this set is better or worse - I just changed to this and prefer it.

Ryuo don't have DA. It allows for a follow up attack with zanshin which is what you want


@AF3 I guess you are only giving up ~1.25 attack speed assuming capped magic haste.

Yeh I corrected myself - I meant I preferred the triple attack over ryuo's extra hit on zanshin.

In regards to the double attack; I meant my goal is to remove all possible double attack from the set so that doesn't proc over zanshin, unrelated to the Ryuo feet.

For a long time I went with the status quo "best in slot" build, and decided to try something else and ended up preferring it.

I'm getting Tatenashi almost equal to Ryuo in TP gain (Tatenashi is marginally behind assuming storetp+6 and marginally ahead with storeTP+8). So it's more subtle blow +8, HP+68, attack +33 vs accuracy+67, Evasion +23, Vit+15.

I would go with Tate myself.

When exactly should I be using hybrid ws on mobs in seg farm? When the mob is weak to that element?