Samurai ability use

[Kyupi/Kij]

I'm new to playing this job (just hit 35, yay Seigan) and it doesn't feel like I'm getting full use out of my abilities. Do any experienced SAMs have some hints for getting the most out of using those stances and Meditate?

[Larrieux]

Well since I was 75 before these abilities were added, in short I will say this. Seigan is more of a defensive move, to be used in conjunction with third eye when your, tank sucks, you've pulled hate, or you like your mages enough to spare them the mp needed to heal you because you WS at start of fight.

Hasso is the offensive ability. Allowing you to hit harder, faster, etc. As a new samurai, using these skills together with Meditate maximizes your prowess in any party when used properly.

Example of use:

Pop Hasso when you engage the mob then use Meditate when you are at or approaching 70~80tp at 100TP let the mob have your first WS. A few swings later you should be ready to pop off another, BAM WS again. Mobs turns on you...pop Seigan, engage third eye. Get ready to pop third eye again, since you'll probably take a hit or two before its ready or mob is dead.

To be used when mob is at 40~30% hp remaining or less, especially if you tank isn't the best or your healer is watching tv and too busy to notice you're dying. This is just one example. I'm guessing you have Hasso at 35...honestly I don't know since at 75 I had them both and didn't care when I supposedly got them.

[Verve]

Best thing to do is create a macro for Seigan and Third Eye together so have a macro which reads:

/ja "Seigan" <me>
/wait 1
/ja "Third Eye" <me>

Should make things easier for you. As they both work toget

Seigan is mainly used when you have hate, all other times you should be hasso'D up.

10% haste + 10 Acc + around 5Str all the time is too good to turn down.

I tend to WS at will around 40% or lower so then you aren't taking hate for too long.

Just have fun with it and if you can, get your hands on some O.Kotes for maximum fun fun fun!

[Breemer]

If youre fairly well equipped hasso is suicide or at least turns you into an mp sponge, use it sparingly, meripo is a place you really notice this when you spam your ws at 100tp

[theo]

If your tank has solid hate you may as well go for Hasso, and only pop Seigan/Third Eye when the mob starts turning towards you. This will work a lot in lower levels because its common to have a THF in the party who can SATA the tank and Palidans can keep hate pretty well.

As you go up in level and TP burn becomes the norm you will want to use Hasso less and less. The temptation is to only use Seigan/Third Eye when the mob looks at you, but this doesn't tend to work very well in my experience. The problem is that the two JAs take a second to fire, especially dependent on macro lag, and in that brief time span you could end up eating a Pecking Furry to the face.

At 75 on SAM/WAR in merit parties, I generally only use Hasso when I am confident that the mob is going to be dead before it gets a chance to retaliate against me. For example, Its at 25% HP and I'm about to pop off a WS.

On HNM and such, as long as you have smart tanks, you can probably keep Hasso up most of the time.

For Meditate, it seems like everyone uses it slightly differently. I like to use mine as soon as its ready, but you also have to plan ahead to make sure your TP isn't wasted. Lets say you hit meditate, but just as you hit 100 another person in your party kills the mob. Well the meditate is still ticking and now you have 120, 140, etc. That is wasted TP. So I try to use Med only if I feel the mob will live long enough to get the full use out of it, otherwise I wait until the next one.

[Judai]

One suggestion; Seigan> Third Eye> THEN WEAPONSKILL. In exp, not a big deal but helps save MP, fighting something that could potentially own your face, fucking Third Eye before you pull hate. I also suggest that routine for SAMs leveling at lower levels where tanks can't hold hate as well.. Nothing worse then a retard SAM who thinks they have to Hasso for every WS and get owned in the face for 2-3s before they get Seigan/Third Eye up.

Just a pet peeve of mine~

[Amele]

but judai! think about the strength bonus! the poor strength bonus you're throwing away doing it that way ._.;

*ahems*

use hasso when you're not getting hit and aren't about to get, use seigan the rest of the time.


don't need to spam 3rd eye every 30 seconds while seigan is up, it's instant and uninterruptible. just put it up when you know you'll be getting hate or are expecting to get hate - you'll learn to judge it.


the only ability I use without fail as soon as the timer is up is meditate (and even then it can be worth waiting if there's nothing nearby to kill and you have some TP already) everything else you should judge how much pain it'll cause you vs. benefit (berserk, SA vs SATA, etc)