Easiest and hardest Stormblood DPS?

[Barghest1210]

It's less about managing Kenki (though you do have to do that as well through use of Hagakure and positionals)

What positionals?

[Leonus]

What positionals?

Gekko (rear) and kasha (flank) provide an extra 5 kenki. Though it does not directly impact the potency of the attack, it does impact kenki generated, when looked at as potency lost. 5 kenki is roughly equal to 60 potency.

Example, shinten cost 25 kenki for a 300 pot attack. 300/5=60.

Another, every time you overlap a Sen without spending it, you loose 240 potency. Midare = 720 pot, 720/3 (sen)=240.

When you do a fight, considering you have max uptime, you will/can use a certain number of kenki related abilities. Every time you miss a positional or don't hit the target, you effectively take away from that number. Granted, we have meditate, but it is better used for phase transitions.

So Nin during downtime can't generate nenki.
Sam doesn't generate kenki (barring meditate)
Mnk doesn't generate chakra (baring the chakra generating move)
Drg can't maintain BotD and eyes (stupid design choice. It needs to be changed.)

[Selova]

Snip

You switched from SAM to RDM for the challenge? Really? RDM is mind-numbingly easy. SAM isnt exactly hard but it's more complex than RDM. Anyone who thinks its,easy to play samurai at the highest level possible is delusional.

[Leonus]

Hagakure is essentially used on CD outside the opener (Momo's 3 Sen opener is really .... etc

Did they squash the Hagakure on CD vs only on 3 Sen debate? I do remember seeing that it wasn't a huge gain in dps either way. I use it on 3 Sen now, so I choose between Midare or Hagakure, not sure which one puts you ahead on GCDs though. I thought it was using it on 3 Sen which puts you ahead in GCDs since Midare costs a GCD to cast.

Also, combos being interrupted by Iajutsus would have been really, really stupid. No other melee combo chain is interrupted outside of their ranged attacks. Maybe monk with the chakra stacking gcd. It's good that it allows Sam to have flexibility with GCDs rather than being as rigid as it could have been designed.

[MidnightTundra]

Did they squash the Hagakure on CD vs only on 3 Sen debate? I do remember seeing that it wasn't a huge gain in dps either way. I use it on 3 Sen now, so I choose between Midare or Hagakure, not sure which one puts you ahead on GCDs though. I thought it was using it on 3 Sen which puts you ahead in GCDs since Midare costs a GCD to cast.

Also, combos being interrupted by Iajutsus would have been really, really stupid. No other melee combo chain is interrupted outside of their ranged attacks. Maybe monk with the chakra stacking gcd. It's good that it allows Sam to have flexibility with GCDs rather than being as rigid as it could have been designed.

Top JP SAM usually convert 3 Sen whilst top NA/EU SAM usually just blows it when its up (Probably due to Momo). I'm leaning more towards the JP method because its neater (?). There's not really much of a difference. No melee ranged attack should reset the combo tbh. Not sure why this is still a thing.

[Furious]

I disagree. SAM is a priority based job. You have to manage 2 self buffs, 1 debuff, 1 dot, 3 sens and the kenki gauge. Just this makes it the one job with the busiest resource management in the game. Higanbana dot must be up ideally always. Hagakure has priority over Midare, Guren should be used asap unless adds are going to spawn in the following 100 seconds, third eye must be used every time unavoidable damage is coming to proc seigan, which has priority over shinten. The combos are not interrupted by iai, meaning that there will be several instances where you have to use hagakure, meikyo and iai between your combos, some times all together while you dance around the boss to hit positionals. SAM is simply the melee with the most complex gameplay right now. You can perform decently even if you don't play optimally, but the difference between a good sam and a decent one is huge. I'm not saying that SAM is hard. No job in this game is hard. You have jobs that are more punishing than others, like MCH and SMN are very punishing if you mess something up or die (and I believe it's not fair and both should be fixed) and you have jobs that are frustrating like DRG and the lotd mechanic, but all the jobs have a very straightforward rotation right now. I find it hilarious though that a MNK is trying to suggest that MNK is harder while the current MNK is virtually the same, easy job it was in hw and is by far the easiest of the melee jobs.

The resources manage themselves. Their existence alone doesn't increase the difficulty. As long as you follow a very simple set of guidelines, you will come very close to the ceiling of the class.

Dont cap resources.
Keep up buffed higanbana.
Hagakure essentially on cooldown.
Guren essentially on cooldown.
Meikyo essentially on cooldown.
Buffed midare > seigen > shinten.


If you follow the above you will be very close to capping damage on samurai. Even if you don't do some of them, your damage will drop inconsequentially (I swear hagakure is just there to make the job look more complex, its impact on damage is so damn small for what it makes you do). There are variations on openers, but by and large the job runs itself.

[Lastelli]

The resources manage themselves. Their existence alone doesn't increase the difficulty. As long as you follow a very simple set of guidelines, you will come very close to the ceiling of the class.

Dont cap resources.
Keep up buffed higanbana.
Hagakure essentially on cooldown.
Guren essentially on cooldown.
Meikyo essentially on cooldown.
Buffed midare > seigen > shinten.

Indeed. And that is way more than any nin and mnk have to do. However it's pretty obvious that you have no knowledge of lvl 70 sam because "meikyo on cd" or "hagakure on cd" is not so straightforward as it sounds since these are not abilities that simply deal damage like mnk's and nin's ogcd abilities, but you need to constantly adjust your combo and iai usage to optimally use them on cd. Also you must proc seigan with third eye, meaning that you need to know exactly when the damage is coming.
Again, sam is not hard. But it's not braindead easy as mnk, nin, pld or rdm, just to name a few jobs.

[Ryaz]

The resources manage themselves. Their existence alone doesn't increase the difficulty. As long as you follow a very simple set of guidelines, you will come very close to the ceiling of the class.

Dont cap resources.
Keep up buffed higanbana.
Hagakure essentially on cooldown.
Guren essentially on cooldown.
Meikyo essentially on cooldown.
Buffed midare > seigen > shinten.


If you follow the above you will be very close to capping damage on samurai. Even if you don't do some of them, your damage will drop inconsequentially (I swear hagakure is just there to make the job look more complex, its impact on damage is so damn small for what it makes you do). There are variations on openers, but by and large the job runs itself.

I basically use Hagakure as a reset button when mechanics mess up my rotation. I feel that's mostly what it was designed for and not to give a big damage boost.

[Nora_of_Mira]

It's not hard, but mnk and Nin are not either. Drg is not hard, just extremely frustrating.

I very much agree with your post, but I want to call out OP on asking such a vague question in the first place. "easiest/difficult" doesn't mean anything.

what about "whats the easiest job to learn/maintain while not performing brain-dead DPS?"

or "whats the easiest job to optimize at lvl 70?"

or "whats the easiest in terms of timing buffs properly with maximum uptime (lining up your strongest buffs with the as many of your highest potency skills)?

those are all totally different questions and I've read several posts answering one or the other.

And yes, DRG is right at the top for being the most frustrating melee to maintain optimally atm, IMO.

[YiznoBergerFett]

And yes, DRG is right at the top for being the most frustrating melee to maintain optimally atm, IMO.

I partly think this is why we have high burst ( after a 60-90sec ramp up). when I look at my meters or logs I can tell that when i time the cooldowns well for a fight i do really well on dps, if i die, or screw up my timing my dps is in the gutter. it is frustating getting to 4 stacks and having mechanics happen and losing it all. such is life.