Studying The Blade- The SAM DPS Guide

[Phireblast]

Not sure why, but sometimes I have situations where I would end up clipping Higanbana at 10s+ or so. Sen management is a bit weird to me still.

[Clover210]

I can't seem to figure out the most optimal AoE opener. Really appreciated if someone would like to post theirs

[Allyrion]

I can't seem to figure out the most optimal AoE opener. Really appreciated if someone would like to post theirs

Most of the info compiled from discussion of the rotation is on the first post. Just follow the guide.

[Nominous]

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ntial_scaling/

Interesting conversation going on about Stat Weights.

Seems a little less... certain than before, in my opinion. At least, that's what I'm getting from some of the replies.

[Victom]

I have a little trouble with the priorities in the rotation. is it now more important to NOT stack Sen and ignore the Buff u would gain if you were stacking it or gain the buff and stack it ? For example in a dungeon you go into the next bossfight with one or two or even three active Sen but you dont have any of the buffs (talking ofc about the +10% dmg etc.). Now if i have 1 Moon Sen should i just ignore the 10% damage buff for now and go on with the rotation or is it more important to reamply the missing buff but stacking a Sen for it ?

[Nominous]

I have a little trouble with the priorities in the rotation. is it now more important to NOT stack Sen and ignore the Buff u would gain if you were stacking it or gain the buff and stack it?

It gets weird if you have Sen in a dungeon before the boss is pulled. Once you get Hagakure, you can just use that to wipe your Sen clean before the pull. If you don't... It gets stickier.

Once your rotation starts, you want to avoid overlapping any Sen already gained. If you're doing your rotation perfectly, you never will. If you find yourself in an unfortunate situation where you don't have Hagakure, and you have no buffs (but you DO have the corresponding Sen), you have one of two options. Overlap Sen is option one. Or you do Hakaze>buff (insert Shifu or Jinpu)>Iaijutsu>ender. That way, you aren't overlapping Sen, because you're consuming it to cast an Iaijutsu first.

[shao32]

nice guide indeed, for my part im totally agreed with you opinion of hagakure, when i was leveling around 67 the rotation was perfect and easy to predict for any combat change, then when i get hagakure something in my brain do "click" and then find samurai was a damm mess, with time i adapt myself to hagakure but i still find it clunky in someway, i try to use 3 sen hagakure rotation but i find the numbers dance a lot, i will try next days and use hagaruke when i have it independing of the sens and lets see, but i wish the skill was 50 free kenki that dont expend the sen will make it more friendly to use.

[Janhyua]

How much crit and direct hit do I need to get the 4k result? I am having a hard time to even get 3.5k on Lakshim actual fight

[Raelcun]

Why does everyone seem to want to start with a shifu opener?

Opening with Yukikaze and then into buffed Higanbane after Jinpu applies a max damage higanbane faster and still stays most of a GCD ahead in the longrun over a shifu opener with http://ffxivrotations.com/sjm . Using an extra GCD to generate a sen for Higanbane with a Kasha combo just delays the entire rotation seemingly unnecessarily.

I also don't understand the insistence on using Hagakure and Meikyo very early for a faster Guren seeing as Guren should be lower priority than Kaiten on your two biggest hits. If you open with Yukikaze Higanbane into Kaiten Midare => Meikyo => Kaiten Midare, you can do another full Kaiten Midare combo before having to apply Higanbane again. Additionally, if you math out the kenki required for this opener, assuming no missed positionals, you can still throw out a Guren in the potion duration if you use it before the first Midare. After the third Midare you can still Hagakure for kenki as Higanbane will fall off otherwise.

The only upside I can see to using Meikyo and Hagakure early is more early shintens and a guren for early burst, but it seems to unnecessarily nerf the rotation that comes afterwards as it gets a rather significant drop in potency/sec if you math it out beyond the first 20-40 seconds.

[Allyrion]

Why does everyone seem to want to start with a shifu opener?

Opening with Yukikaze and then into buffed Higanbane after Jinpu applies a max damage higanbane faster and still stays most of a GCD ahead in the longrun over a shifu opener with http://ffxivrotations.com/sjm . Using an extra GCD to generate a sen for Higanbane with a Kasha combo just delays the entire rotation seemingly unnecessarily.

I also don't understand the insistence on using Hagakure and Meikyo very early for a faster Guren seeing as Guren should be lower priority than Kaiten on your two biggest hits. If you open with Yukikaze Higanbane into Kaiten Midare => Meikyo => Kaiten Midare, you can do another full Kaiten Midare combo before having to apply Higanbane again. Additionally, if you math out the kenki required for this opener, assuming no missed positionals, you can still throw out a Guren in the potion duration if you use it before the first Midare. After the third Midare you can still Hagakure for kenki as Higanbane will fall off otherwise.

The only upside I can see to using Meikyo and Hagakure early is more early shintens and a guren for early burst, but it seems to unnecessarily nerf the rotation that comes afterwards as it gets a rather significant drop in potency/sec if you math it out beyond the first 20-40 seconds.

I'm sure someone can give a deeper analysis of your opener, but it seems like you're delaying Guren fairly significantly. I'm not sure if it's worth it, but that link didn't show up to when you would actually use Guren to see.

Since Hissatsu: Guren is worth 16 potency per Kenki while Kaiten: Midare Setsugekka is worth 13.5, Guren takes priority over Midare. It actually seems like your rotation sacrifices sustained Kenki damage for burst with Midare in the opener.

Midare is always to first to get delayed since even though it 0.5 potency per Kenki more than Hissatsu: Shinten, it requires a GCD so it's worth less. Once Hagakure is up, Kaiten: Midare Setsugekka is basically spending 80 Kenki for 1080 potency. Counting the GCD it takes, Midare gets pushed down in priority to basically everything else that uses Sen or Kenki.

I believe the Shifu early usage is based on keeping the higher damage abilities within the burst window of external raid cds like Battle Litany or Trick Attack. That point is probably more debatable (using Yukikaze first), but supposed Shifu's buff is simply the most valuable for sustained damage.

I haven't mathed that part out to make too much of an argument for it. But I have seen multiple reports showing Shifu taking priority while delaying results in a dps loss even if there's no other slashing debuff source. Shifu's buff is strong, no doubt. By the time you finish your Gekko, it will have basically given you a free gcd.