SAMURAI SHOWDOWN

[AlphaFox]

Regardless we all know thavarian sets are going to make a huge comeback (as well as the samurai event gear) once either of these classes are released. Honestly didn't get to play as a dancer much in XI, my only real experience with them was from Tactics but what I played in XI I enjoyed.

[Noshpan]

I love all these people that are putting words into my, well, words and saying that I'm saying shit that I didn't fucking say. It's hilarious.

[Khalithar]

Even if you went with a mage tank, it complicates itemization.

This is patently untrue. In other games where they have tanks that wear leather or cloth, they simply have passive buffs (think shield oath/defiance/grit style) that bring their hp/armor levels up to par to the appropriate point and make certain defensive moves scale off their primary stats. They don't actually have to change itemization, at all. If you're worried about avoidance stats of which this game only has the one of (parry) then they can simply make the stat something like "mage armor: increases armor by X%, increases HP by Y%, and increases parry by Z% (based off intelligence)."

Edit: Found a good example of one of my favorite mage tanks, the Arbiter in Rift. I forget the exact level but shortly in the tree they get an ability called Arcane Ward that functions like the tank stances in this game, here's what it does, "enables Block. Causes Block to derive from the Mage's Intelligence. Increases Base Health by 25%, Resistances by 35%, and Armor by 150%. Increases threat generation by 300%. Reduces damage and healing done by 20%. " They could very easily add a buff like this without changing current itemization.

[charlemagne]

Don't laugh but my vision for SAM is kinda almost support.
What made me love SAM was the SAM in xi, and I know it was a dps but in some ways it could be considered partly support. You had to remember all the combinations of weapon skills you could do between the SAM and the other members of your party and what skill chains you could produce from them. Remembering that doing X w/skill so your drg/thf whatever could follow it up with w/skill Y to get extra dmg from skillchain Z was great fun. You had to remember the weaponskills of all the different classes and coordinate with the other people in your party to maximise damage. SAM was king of skill chaining.
Obvs we can't have that in ARR but we could have a dps that uses skills to weaken a mob to a particular attack. Imagine SAM uses skill A which weakens the mob for a few seconds to damage type B allowing your drg or to get extra dmg from his skill or your BLM to do more dmg or even to extend DoT times.

[abzoluut]

SAM as support would be disappointing. Especially in FFXIV since there is no real support.

From what I have seen/read: SAM was meant to be Heavensward's tank. Then they opted for DRK since they already introduced a job from the far east (NIN in 2.4). This is information given by Yoshi-P himself.

In a later interview he mentioned SAM would fit as a DPS because reasons. However, he did not say they're planning to make SAM a dps. If anything, the concept for SAM as tank is already there.

Let's just wait and embrace SAM when it is implemented dps or tank.

[Duelle]

Found a good example of one of my favorite mage tanks, the Arbiter in Rift. I forget the exact level but shortly in the tree they get an ability called Arcane Ward that functions like the tank stances in this game, here's what it does, "enables Block. Causes Block to derive from the Mage's Intelligence. Increases Base Health by 25%, Resistances by 35%, and Armor by 150%. Increases threat generation by 300%. Reduces damage and healing done by 20%. " They could very easily add a buff like this without changing current itemization.

This is basically how I think a caster tank would work here. Of course, we do have the issue of gear being too split up as is. You have fending, striking, maiming, scouting, healing and casting; it's not an easy division like Rift and WoW have (plate, mail, leather, cloth).

[Khalithar]

Snip

Factoring in the mage tank idea above, I feel that putting them on casting gear and making their tank stats scale on Int would be the best bet. Putting three classes on "of Casting" would even it out with what we have on "of Healing" and "of Fending."

[Rhaja]

Whatever SAM support/utility is, I seriously hope it's through Kiai's. Nothing like a party wide damage buff from a spiritually empowered roar.

[Khalithar]

Whatever SAM support/utility is, I seriously hope it's through Kiai's. Nothing like a party wide damage buff from a spiritually empowered roar.

If Sam was given party utility/support I wonder if they'd go the Final Fantasy Tactics route. In Tactics the samurai could draw out the spirits of various type of katanas to buff/debuff/deal damage.

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/S...aw_Out.2FIaido for reference

[Kazrah]

The only thing that I'd think would make Samurai interesting and/or unique as a DPS in this game is if the combos were just peppershot skills (~100 potency) with some debuffs and end with one massive strike (~400+ potency) that would work like fester on steroids. As a tank, well....let's face it, it's not gonna be a tank.

In all honesty though, I don't want to see Samurai in the game. At all. I think it's just an unoriginal, unimaginative Japanese stereotype that only seems to have any level of popularity because god forbid no one let FFXI have the gaming death it rightfully deserves. There are far better ideas (both for melee and tank roles) that can provide far more interesting gameplay without having to go the extra mile just to make a job like Samurai stand out and not make it feel like just another melee.

A better tank option would be something like Viking with a shield and hammer that focuses more on block strength and lightning attacks, especially since Mjolnir as a relic weapon would make it ideal. A caster tank would be feasible too with their "tank stance" adding something extra to compensate for whatever they'd miss on the itemization end. Even a tank based around feature transformation (body parts instead of full form) would be cooler and would certainly stand out, but that probably would require a lot more on the resource end.

As for better melee, beastmaster would be more fun since that could be reciprocal buffing (BST attacks buff pet, pet attacks buff master) and have abilities that can spawn more pets to them despite likely being a nightmare for both development and melee players possibly having needlessly obscured views. Blue mage could work too with beast attacks being picked up like how summoners pick up egis and make it look like the BLU is mimicking the motions of the attack to create the effect. Dancer would probably be more support-side, but would still be more interesting than Samurai.