SAM Stats

Hello everyone and fellow Samurai. I love the class but there has been debate as to which stats in what order are most important. I've looked and I find complicated mathematical formulations (I wish I was kidding) on stats that don't really answer my questions. I'll admit, I suck at math and don't really comprehend the complicated stuff. Maybe I'm not looking in the right place? I dunno. Anywho, I was wondering if there is a consensus among players as to which stats to prioritize over what other stats. I feel fairly confident that Strength, Direct Hit and Crit are important but which is better to take first? How about other stats like Determination? Skill Speed? I'd like to know so I can play as optimally as possible and contribute as much as I can. I like to feel like I can be the best I can and not like I'm a lead weight for the party. Thanks for any and all answers.

You cannot meld strength into sam gear because strength is already capped.
Best substat right now for sam is direct hit. The second one isn't so clear, some people meld crit, others meld det. People generally avoid skill speed though.

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Originally Posted by Gallus

You cannot meld strength into sam gear because strength is already capped.
Best substat right now for sam is direct hit. The second one isn't so clear, some people meld crit, others meld det. People generally avoid skill speed though.

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Ah ok. That might explain why I can't seem to find a concrete answer. So let me ask, at 70, is there an expected amount of crit? I read somewhere that SAM's are expected to have 1800ish crit for current endgame content. Again, can't find anything concrete.

People who avoid skill speed on Samurai don't understand the job at a fundamental level. You want to hit one of 2 skill speed values for lining up certain off-globals, but also because unlike other jobs, literally every aspect of a samurai's kit is gated by the frequency of their global cooldown.

With that on the table, ideally you want to hit either 1050 or 1400 skill speed. Anything in between is fine as far as damage goes, but these values allow Hagakure and Meikyo Shisui to line up very nicely with the optimal rotation.

In regards to Direct Hit and Crit, I could go into tons of numbers but to keep it simple, if the combined total of your Direct Hit and Critical hit are GREATER THAN 3000, Crit is of a higher stat weight than Direct Hit. If the combined total is LESS THAN 3000, Direct Hit is higher.

Take all this into consideration when figuring out your melds.

As a neat little aside, if your Skill Speed on it's own exceeds 3600, it's the highest stat weight, but since that value cannot be reached at the current maximum ilvl, this is more something to be considered down the line. Skill Speed will likely be the top stat weight towards the end of stormblood.

Thank you FoodAspectedPrimal, that was very helpful and exactly the type of info I was looking for.

If people think they should avoid Skill Speed their doing it wrong tbh. Direct Hit is king but Skill Speed is second in priority. a good soft cap to hit for SkS is about 1030 with midare timings and Hakagure. if your not going super try hard anything over 850 is fine with SkS and stacking a bit more crit in its place.

Had good dps with around 930 SkS but when I went to about 1030 it was fairly noticable with CD's lining up and more DPS

900 SkS

https://www.fflogs.com/reports/Ybdrh...pe=damage-done
https://www.fflogs.com/reports/CQRZA...pe=damage-done

Pretty sure I understand the job at a fundamental level

Can you get 1400 SS without melding?

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Originally Posted by FoodAspectedPrimal

People who avoid skill speed on Samurai don't understand the job at a fundamental level. You want to hit one of 2 skill speed values for lining up certain off-globals, but also because unlike other jobs, literally every aspect of a samurai's kit is gated by the frequency of their global cooldown.

With that on the table, ideally you want to hit either 1050 or 1400 skill speed. Anything in between is fine as far as damage goes, but these values allow Hagakure and Meikyo Shisui to line up very nicely with the optimal rotation.

In regards to Direct Hit and Crit, I could go into tons of numbers but to keep it simple, if the combined total of your Direct Hit and Critical hit are GREATER THAN 3000, Crit is of a higher stat weight than Direct Hit. If the combined total is LESS THAN 3000, Direct Hit is higher.

Take all this into consideration when figuring out your melds.

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Many of the top Samurai have nowhere near 1400 SS, let alone 1000. I doubt the statement you made about them not understanding their class. A more accurate statement would be to just focus on DH then Det, and let the other two stats fall into place, while at least maintaining 940-980 SS for triple sen (if that's the opener one prefers).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FoodAspectedPrimal

People who avoid skill speed on Samurai don't understand the job at a fundamental level. You want to hit one of 2 skill speed values for lining up certain off-globals, but also because unlike other jobs, literally every aspect of a samurai's kit is gated by the frequency of their global cooldown.

With that on the table, ideally you want to hit either 1050 or 1400 skill speed. Anything in between is fine as far as damage goes, but these values allow Hagakure and Meikyo Shisui to line up very nicely with the optimal rotation.

In regards to Direct Hit and Crit, I could go into tons of numbers but to keep it simple, if the combined total of your Direct Hit and Critical hit are GREATER THAN 3000, Crit is of a higher stat weight than Direct Hit. If the combined total is LESS THAN 3000, Direct Hit is higher.

Take all this into consideration when figuring out your melds.

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This... isn't true at all. The Direct Hit and Crit combination threshold was 3,500 not 3,000. Many higher end raiders have between hovering around the 900-1010 range, though there are multiple BiS sets for Samurai with regards to Skill Speed. Regardless, it's Crit that has been more commonly ignored in favour of a Direct it/Determination build with moderate Skill Speed. Even that, however, is up for player preference.

This is the build I'll likely settle on: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/130DQ

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Originally Posted by Gallus

900 SkS

https://www.fflogs.com/reports/Ybdrh...pe=damage-done
https://www.fflogs.com/reports/CQRZA...pe=damage-done

Pretty sure I understand the job at a fundamental level

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would you mind sharing your BiS? :o

I have 810 Skill Speed, it works fine as far as numbers. I also have 2007 DH/1663 Crit (w/ Food). Numbers are good :)

I feel that crit is more important than people realize because samurai's dps is quite front loaded with midare. Critting midares makes a huge difference.

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Originally Posted by LunarEmerald

I feel that crit is more important than people realize because samurai's dps is quite front loaded with midare. Critting midares makes a huge difference.

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Midare is neither your strongest ability nor one you want to rely on. Shinten will actually deal more damage due to its extremely fast recast hence why you always convert two or three Sen when Hagakure comes off cooldown. That doesn't make Crit builds bad by any stretch, they just aren't nearly as reliable this tier. Basically, it comes down to player choice. Do you want consistent, sustainable damage or do you want a small chance of huge damage spikes but less sustainable highs?

And I do want to emphasis that. Rose's Crit build is just as good as Dervy's DH/Det. Samurai is probably one of the more flexible jobs when it comes to stats.

Direct Hit is king. After that it's arguable. Det or SkS? A bit more of flat damage. Crit? Your dps will slightly fluctuate more. Crit just doesn't combine well with SkS or Det, if you go Crit, you should stack it as much as possible (after DH that is). That's the only thing you should take into account.

What "pisses me off" are these people that come with their absolutist judgments such as "people who avoid SkS have no idea". You go DH, and then, the whole thing hardly matters.

Having a certain amount of SkS so that your hagakure and meikyo line up in whatever moment you want is nice and all, but is not required for anything. You can do Meikyo with zero letters or with one letter. Hagakure isn't a big deal either because the dps gain isn't that big, you aren't missing out on a lot of DPS (in fact, if Midare crits, hagakure is a dps loss, so in crit builds go figure if delaying hagakure a few seconds will hurt much).

I use the SkS built of the Sam, I'm bored of the Crit/DH built that most of dps jobs have.

And I feel the Sam funnier with SkS, and it works fine.