Samurai SJ

[Hitoshura]

I really want to level SAM now that I am back and I have heard all the great things about it. I did a /sea all SAM to see if the ideal SJ was still THF back when I was playing and I have come to find most of Asura's 75 SAM's either have /NIN or /WAR. Is not having THF sub the right way to go then?

[Ryko]

/war for basically anything but khim tia and cerb I suppose, dunno too much about cerb.

[Wolfknight]

/war pwns for most anything besides what listed for /thf or meriting; /thf for stuff like some gods, some jailers, tiamat, cerb, khim and proto fights.

[TB]

/WAR for everything but Khim and grand Wyrms.

[Keston]

I've developed a preference for /DRG personally (i like how it plays). I use /THF for certain LS HNM tho.

[Niiro]

I use /DRG for fun with soboro and whenever I'm in a situation where Berserk will do more harm than good (usually little things like assaults and city dynamis and sometimes limbus).

Anything serious /WAR all the way.

Grand Wyrms (ie: not faf) /THF, usually Kirin /THF too as I find I do more damage standing than face down on the floor, Cerb I've always done /WAR, works out ok if I behave myself and don't totally spam, but he's not that hard anyway.

Exp can be anything, depends on the setup.

I /WAR for exp almost always but I prefer it with a RDM WHM in the backline, liberal use of Seigan and other DDs that don't suck and you won't be an MP hog.

If it's up to me I always choose /WAR, with Pole Strap and Brutal a 17% DA rate is delicious and Berserk is great to have in any situation. It gives the most raw power than any other sub.

Basically:
No BS pure damage: /WAR
Delicate hate situation: /THF
Screwing around/Having fun in a fairly non-dangerous situation but you don't wanna be a total MP sponge: /DRG

/NIN is reserved for very specific solo/duo situations but any time I feel I'd need /NIN on SAM I'd usually just rather go NIN main.

[Yutuyu]

I think most samurai drastically underestimate the usefulness of subbing NIN on SAM.

Yes, it doesn't add anything to your damage, but it does allow you to keep Hasso up more often and decreases the amount of MP you sponge, which is very important when you pull hate almost nonstop. Seigan is simply not enough and is often too slow to use before a mob gets a hit in. It also is wiped by physical AOE/Cones without blocking them and has no effect on magic. In addition, together they give you double the defensive power.

You can't use berserk anyway without leeching a ton of MP, so the only real benefit to /war for a SAM is a couple extra points of STR and Double Attack.

[Falaras]

/nin and /war, /thf for Grand Wyrms, /nin for Tanking, /war for obviously DD. I don't do HNMs so I never touch /thf.

[Shoju]

Sky, Sea (most), some hnms, grand wyrms: /thf

dynmais, low man things, tanking, solo: /nin, /war (only if healing is sufficient)

exp (pending on set up): /war, /nin, /rng

kited mobs: /thf (if you dont mind /following the mob, i personally hate it) or /rng (prefered if i have to be sam)

limbus (pending on which section and boss): /thf (prefered for bosses imo), /nin, /war

i think that covers everything

[OctavoGilgamesh]

You can't use berserk anyway without leeching a ton of MP, so the only real benefit to /war for a SAM is a couple extra points of STR and Double Attack.

If your getting hit while third eye is down, your an mp sponge anyways, regardless of berserk. Might as well do more damage while getting raped.

I just don't see /nin being that good. Maybe if hasso had a 5sec resuse timer on it so you could switch it back on right away. The 6 shadows doesn't seem like that much help if you don't switch off hasso or seigan to cast because of the extra long recast.

[Tiernin]

fuck /nin for exp. I subbed that like once for nyv isle and don't thing I cast Ni once. Berserk, DA, warcry, att bonus > uts: Ni

[Clynt]

Why /THF for Khim? When we fight it SAM's go /war and do 1200-1700 ws', but I'm not a SAM so I dunno.

[Royal]

I love /WAR. I'm 75 and I've never touched /THF at all.

[Vedder]

I see more and more people subbing going /NIN on Samurai for XP lately... it really saddens me.

Yeah, sure... damage mitigation, but still, it's total weaksauce. Just be smart and any other generally accepted sub will be better.

[Delekii]

I see more and more people subbing going /NIN on Samurai for XP lately... it really saddens me.

Yeah, sure... damage mitigation, but still, it's total weaksauce. Just be smart and any other generally accepted sub will be better.

SAM/WAR in merits is a fucking MP expensive whore, and while that is ok for when you know the RDM, doing it in a pickup party is a recipee for losing xp rather than gaining it..

[SamanosukeShiva]

that's just mean the the DDs are gimp, good PT with 3DD (full merit/good equipped) can pretty much kill a mob in 5 secs, esp. on collibri camps.

[Resin]

fuck /nin for exp. I subbed that like once for nyv isle and don't thing I cast Ni once. Berserk, DA, warcry, att bonus > uts: Ni

You just don't pull enough hate, then.

Maybe, but on Mamools, if I don't sub /nin I'm a HUGE MP sponge. WARs, Monks, other SAMs; it doesn't matter. If I'm /NIN using Soboro and WSing every 100TP, I'm pulling hate.

Don't get me wrong--I love /WAR to death, and will advocate it to hell and back, but on Mamools, /NIN saves my ass and the mages' MP pools. Can't speak to Colibri as I seem to be on NIN when meriting on them, but it might be better since Pecking Flurry can be absorbed by one Third Eye shadow.

[Judai]

/war for 90% of game. merits, dyna, ein, limbus, blablabla.

/thf for khim, wyrms, cerb, low man shit. (TA w/ Overwhelm is better then subbing shitty /nin and gimping yourself and pulling hate and trying to tank.)

/nin for shit you are forced to tank for w/e reason. solid for lower level xp pts low on healers. otherwise /nin is the shittiest sub ever for sam.

/drg, /rng for goofing off.

[Falaras]

Ninja SJ is a bit excessive for merits, but I'm the main tank in Salvage and in our T10 AP runs, so it is quite important for me. Its all situational.
Also I wouldn't use /thf for Gods, that shit is worthless.

[Delekii]

that's just mean the the DDs are gimp, good PT with 3DD (full merit/good equipped) can pretty much kill a mob in 5 secs, esp. on collibri camps.

which just means you move on to getting hit by the next mob more quickly.