is it just me or is SAM a little too overcomplicated

[GruntCandy]

From what I understand, you're primarily juggling a couple of combos, so it shouldn't be too far off from say... Dragoon or Nin.

I won't play for a minute though - SAM skill names look like a pain to memorize with no means of connecting the term to the skill. Bio, Aero, etc... are easy enough to understand, but I'm not nearly fluent enough in (Sword? Samurai?) terms to be able to predict or anticipate what skills do from their names or icons.

[Zojha]

[...] but I'm not nearly fluent enough in (Sword? Samurai?) terms to be able to predict or anticipate what skills do from their names or icons.

Heh, it wouldn't help you that much either. I know Yukikaze should mean something along the lines of Icy Wind, but it's really just a generic combo skill that doesn't have much to do with ice (except for the animation!). Kasha... all I remember is some mythological fiery chariot that devours corpses (sometimes also depicted as cat?). Gekko seems to simply mean moonlight? Hakaze is a breeze or sth.

Even looking the terms up isn't gonna help you understand it, you just have to learn it by heart. On the bright side: All Hissatsu-labeled skills interact with the kinky gauge, so at least there's some consistency to remember!

[Allyrion]

Snip.

As you're saying, the skills are not named after sword forms but more romantic language. Some traditional koryu have names like these for techniques but it's not like it would help you with these techniques. It would be more helpful to know Japanese in general than memorized sword terms for this ability set.

But the animation is everything basically. Why wouldn't it be? Aero means wind but it didn't need to be a dot. The names match the animations like Midare Setsugekka is literally a combination of the 3 Sen. Names usually match the aesthetic rather than the game mechanic.


I do think people are more struggling with the terminology than the Job mechanics themselves. Not that it's a simple job, there's clearly a lot of possible min-maxing available. But the basic 50 combo system isn't rocket science, more like basic buff upkeep combos with Iaijutsu to mix it up as a finisher. Kinki adds more depth but they all seem to have their time and place so it's not overwhelming.

Maybe a bigger part is that you can see all the future skills all at once now and we're starting at a later level than we're used to (bar 51-60 POTD grinding).

[Selova]

As you're saying, the skills are not named after sword forms but more romantic language. Some traditional koryu have names like these for techniques but it's not like it would help you with these techniques. It would be more helpful to know Japanese in general than memorized sword terms for this ability set.

But the animation is everything basically. Why wouldn't it be? Aero means wind but it didn't need to be a dot. The names match the animations like Midare Setsugekka is literally a combination of the 3 Sen. Names usually match the aesthetic rather than the game mechanic.

It's not really that complicated, It will be easier for you to just study the icons of the abilities and what icon corresponds to what effect rather than trying to memorize all of the Japanese names of the abilities.You have your 2 personal buffs Shifu & Jinpu, and your 3 Sen generating abilities that you use iajustu to consume. Just focus on reading the tooltips and the icons and you'll have it in no time.A small tip, the color of the icons that generate the 3 Sens are the same color as the 3 Sens on your Sen gauge, this makes it incredibly easy to be able to know what ability generates what Sen. Good luck and have fun.

[Allyrion]

It's not really that complicated, It will be easier for you to just study the icons of the abilities and what icon corresponds to what effect rather than trying to memorize all of the Japanese names of the abilities.You have your 2 personal buffs Shifu & Jinpu, and your 3 Sen generating abilities that you use iajustu to consume. Just focus on reading the tooltips and the icons and you'll have it in no time.A small tip, the color of the icons that generate the 3 Sens are the same color as the 3 Sens on your Sen gauge, this makes it incredibly easy to be able to know what ability generates what Sen. Good luck and have fun.

I'm just replying to that line of thought that if you know Japanese sword terminology, you might be better off. It's not true. People will remember things mostly by icons and animations as they always would. Most never even care about the actual name or its meaning, confusion in pronunciation is probably the only part that makes it blurry for some. A lot of people like to have a name to things and it solidifies in their mind, if they're not sure on how it say it, it takes more time to place in the rotation.

I'm not saying people should learn Japanese to play a Job, but we are talking about why it has been a pain for some and in what cases it would be easier. I speak Japanese, so the names aren't stranger than the English ones to me, but the RDM abilities are a little harder to grasp till I get more acquainted.

[hotaruchan]

From what I understand, you're primarily juggling a couple of combos, so it shouldn't be too far off from say... Dragoon or Nin.

I won't play for a minute though - SAM skill names look like a pain to memorize with no means of connecting the term to the skill. Bio, Aero, etc... are easy enough to understand, but I'm not nearly fluent enough in (Sword? Samurai?) terms to be able to predict or anticipate what skills do from their names or icons.

the Sam ws Names are 99% weapon skills from the FF 11 samurai some of which bear vague resemblance to what those weapon skills did