Noob SAM questions

[BerenTebogo]

Have not played SAM endgame in about 2 years and seems like everything has changed.

Meat or Sushi?

/WAR or /THF?

Is /RNG at all good anymore?

Hasso / Seigan / Overwhelm uses?

For reference I'm leveling it all the way from 0 again and have never been able to play with the new JA's at all, so talk to me like I'm a noob, it's ok :D

For subs and food choice I'm asking both XP and HNM / Sea

Thanks.

(And main question I'm asking for XP is...XP in haste+% TP and STR with sushi for WS or full ACC TP STR WS with meat)

[Resin]

I'll take a stab at this. ^^

Have not played SAM endgame in about 2 years and seems like everything has changed.

Meat or Sushi?

Meat is the way to go, for me. A+ skill, access to Bushinomimi, Justice torque, and merits all would make you very accurate about 98% of the time.

/WAR or /THF?

/THF for HNMs and /WAR for just about everything else (some situations call for different strategies, obviously). At 75 with a good Meat/Accuracy build, and with Brutal earring, /WAR just rocks. If you're talking about exping, then I'd say /WAR until Tachi:Gekko, and then /THF only occasionally. People seem to really be into the melee burn parties at lower levels, and /WAR shines there.

Is /RNG at all good anymore?

It is, actually. You obviously need the gear to back it up, but it can work on anything that's not terribly evasive. T-VT and lower I'd say, unless you really go nuts with merits and gear. On HNM, you're better off sticking with /WAR or /THF.

Hasso / Seigan / Overwhelm uses?

Overwhelm's great, especially if you're /WAR, since you'll be pulling hate a bit anyway. Also quite good for times when you're /THF and using TA+WS on the tank to boost damage even more. As far as Hasso and Seigan go, as far as I'm concerned, if you have hate, use Seigan + Third Eye. If not, use Hasso. It's that simple. :D The recast timers are short enough where I use Hasso, WS and pull hate, turn on Seigan + Third Eye until I don't have hate anymore, and then pop Hasso back on again. Oh, and Seigan + Third Eye OWNS in ballista.

For reference I'm leveling it all the way from 0 again and have never been able to play with the new JA's at all, so talk to me like I'm a noob, it's ok :D

For subs and food choice I'm asking both XP and HNM / Sea

Thanks.

(And main question I'm asking for XP is...XP in haste+% TP and STR with sushi for WS or full ACC TP STR WS with meat)

Lots of opinions around about haste setups and such, but my personal preference is to get a 6-hit build first, and then worry about haste. No reasonable amount of haste is going to do the same to your DoT as reducing your swings by one to get to 100TP.

Oh, and welcome back! :D

[BerenTebogo]

Thanks much ! That actually really helps a lot ^^

[Wolfknight]

I'm not 75 yet but know plenty of job and leveling since I done in past few months.
For exp /war or /rng(if soboro) post w/e lvl sidewinder is, or sometimes /thf post 60, for /war u want a 6-hit build then haste, HNM is /war or /thf depending on mob
1) due the changes in tp gain last year at 70+ you can get 6-hit build with only 21 store tp making it very useable and good(assuming your using 450 delay GKT)
2) Hasso is amazing for DDing(10% haste, 5~10str lvl based, 10acc)
3) seigan/third eye is good for solo/tanking(kinda well not tanking but good if u pull hate to stop mob from completely killing u)
4) Overwhelm is very good for /war or TA ws.
5) food really depends on the rest of your gear/merits and what your fighting.

[Resin]

Oops, yeah, a couple things I forgot to mention.

/RNG really only works well when you have a Soboro. A SAM/RNG works by building TP with GK, and then unloading with Sidewinder. I almost never use a regular ranged attack with /RNG. Just run in, swing a few times, run out, and WS. Rinse and repeat.

As far as food while exping, again, you shouldn't have too much trouble hitting stuff with meat if you have decent accuracy gear and your PT isn't over camping. The problem is that most people seem to love fighting stuff way above their level so you get 250+ exp per kill, sure, but the fights take forever and all the melee are hitting nothing.

[gandorf]

For food you should carry sushi and meat on you all the time.

[Judai]

don't listen to that guy^

The other guy said everything you need to know.

[Spieler]

When doing Fafnir or Ouryu I usualy just go /war on my sam. Our plds keep good hate so don't have to worry about TA'n them really. And with overwhelm + brutal earing have a good chance of doing decent damage. But really its all about just landing the ws for a skill chain so your blm's can nuke the hell out of faf/ouryu. For other hnm I still go /thf though.

[gandorf]

Hes lving from 1-75 an lower lvs you change camps. So you can go from bats to crabs an maybe you wont get to stop in a town for new food. You might have some acc issue on somethings. Thats why i say bring both might save you an extra trip.

[Martinius]

anytime you're subbing thf in a situation where you're using SA and not just TA + ws onto tanks, eat meat.

from 1-10 doesnt really matter what you eat
10-50s, rice dumpling ftw, provided you're not overcamping. might need sushi for the first few levels in garlaige.
50s on, if theyr'e evasive, sushi(sole), if they're not, mithkabobs or coeurl subs.

endgame, if you're in ToAU, there's very few camps i can think of(mamook for one, north thickets) where you might need sushi. otherwise, meat all the way. my personal preference, if you've got a pt that you know will go a long time, is hedgehog pie, simply because 5 acc in addition to the str and attack is just made of win.

in sea, any mobs you'd be xping off of, meat is generally ok unless you pull an aern that turns into a thf, in which case, you're either screwed or your brd sings madrigal for the 15 seconds its alive.

overwhelm is made of win and covered in awesome sauce. that plus hasso is really very nice for damage. one fafnir, i'd been at the behemoth camp(where i eat meat) and they asked me to switch camps, and ran all the way down to fafnir, engaged the mob and realized i had no sushi on me. entire fight, i only missed one ws with attack food on, and that was because it winged. that 10 acc from hasso is supersweet.

/rng is a ton of fun, as has been said, on T-VT stuff. tried it in mamook, and wanted to pull my hair out. but in city dynamis, and places like south thickets and mire, it's made of win, and the most fun i have playing samurai in exp. the only downside? you'll have seigan up most of the time lol. oh, and you need a soboro

i did samurai from 1-75 subbing warrior, with the exception of 66-69, my static exped in north al'taieu(which was awesome xp, i dont know why more ppl dont exp there), and i subbed thf because the skillchain(gasp, a skillchain) was shark bite > gekko for distortion. so our thf would SATA onto the brd(who was awesome and crazy) and then i'd close the skillchain back onto the tank. but overall, the speed with which samurais gain tp, double attack and berserk will outweigh SATA.

[Judai]

Hes lving from 1-75 an lower lvs you change camps. So you can go from bats to crabs an maybe you wont get to stop in a town for new food. You might have some acc issue on somethings. Thats why i say bring both might save you an extra trip.

orly?

Have not played SAM endgame in about 2 years and seems like everything has changed.

Maybe I just can't read..

btw, I don't have Justice Torque or Bushi and I still eat meat. Only 2GK merits, 6 Hit set-up, Acc and Haste for TP. Obviously just enough Acc to hit WS reliably and STRSTRSTR. No Acc if /thf for SA.

[gandorf]

For reference I'm leveling it all the way from 0 again and have never been able to play with the new JA's at all, so talk to me like I'm a noob, it's ok Very Happy

I think he meant lv 1.

[BerenTebogo]

Thanks much to everyone who responded, and to the comment about Hedgehog Pie: Yes, I agree that's personally my favorite XP food (for NIN)


Regarding the confusion, SAM was my first main at the release of RoZ and I ended up quitting and deleting my content ID, after getting SAM to 75 of course. I quit right around the introduction of Hachiman and Zanshin so looking at the job now in my opinion they have completely changed it and I want to level it up again.

Hope that clears things up, I appreciate all the input, but one question:

Rice dumplings? I used those ages ago for RNG in garlaige and etc, why for SAM? Am I missing something?

[Martinius]

basically rice dumplings are baby hedgehog pies.

the reason i recommend them at low levels is because they have only slightly less attack than a mithkabob, but with +5 acc on them. this makes them much more appealing at the lower levels than sushi, because sushi works on a % of acc, and when you have basically your combat skill and whatever your dex is as your acc that it's working off of, they're a waste. however, a flat 5 acc is very nice at low levels. it's like being able to slap on a sniper's ring at level 10.

[BerenTebogo]

Makes sense, thanks :D

[Martinius]

glad to help

one last thing... meleeing in hachiman body makes the baby jesus cry.

hachiman is very effective sometimes. i use the feet for ws at all times(never bothered getting rutters), i use the legs and body for ws when /rng. but hauby(+1) is better for ws /war, and osode is better for ws /thf. if you are completely starting from scratch tho, body is great for 8 str when subbing thf for ws.

[BerenTebogo]

Someone in my LS who I will not name (for despite this act, they are a terribly nice person) melees full time in Hachiman.

It...it hurts...

I'm only starting from scratch on SAM terms, I have my Haub +1 from my NIN and lolDD PLD but yes back in the day Haub + SAM/WAR was fantastic (especially before any of the tank adjustments and you could make any tank PLD or otherwise want to cry if you /war)

And as for feet:

I'm hume :D Marine M Boots for WS ftw. :D

Edit:

Next response will be slow, taking fiancee out for ice cream in 20 degree weather.

[sephir]

in EXP sub war when your with a PLD, sub thf when your with a nin. on HNM it really depends on what your fighting. You can use Meat on alot of things just because you will usually TP on other mobs in the area, or will likely have enough accuracy in gear to hit reliably.

Hasso and Seigan also add a new element to Samurai, Hasso will help ALOT at any lvl and Seigan is amazing for those times that you pull hate.

Soboro is an amazing weapon for sam/rng or even sam/war until you can use Sidewinder. unfortunatly unless you have a really amazing NIN or unless you want to tank most of the fight save it for when you habve a PLD.

[SamanosukeShiva]

SAM/RNG also works great for jailer of temp, can do both slashing and piercing dmg.

though u'll die quicker

*shake fist* damn hate resetting move

[Eaglestrike]

SAM/RNG also works great for jailer of temp, can do both slashing and piercing dmg.

though u'll die quicker

*shake fist* damn hate resetting move

More like instantly. If you like keeping EXP, don't listen to anything Samanosuke says.