Pipe Dreams: Gladiators, Paladins and Dark Knights

[SwordCoheir]

A little off topic but this bothered me. Samurai would never use an axe. it was considered a barbaric/uncivilized weapon. Samurai's were known for their sword play, but archery was the main focus. a skilled bowman was worth 3 or 4 skilled swordsman. Samurai typically trained in swordplay, archery, and mounted archery. Archery was a lot like golf in ancient japan. it's what you did when you were discussing politics.

Actually Samurai were notoriously skilled spear users as well, they were iconic with the great katana which is often used to depict Samurai in most modern settings.

TBH judging by Lancer's Job Abilities it seems they were pegged to be the next version of SAM which inherited many SAM like abilities from FFXI.

[Onisake]

Actually Samurai were notoriously skilled spear users as well, they were iconic with the great katana which is often used to depict Samurai in most modern settings.

TBH judging by Lancer's Job Abilities it seems they were pegged to be the next version of SAM which inherited many SAM like abilities from FFXI.

Nice to see another history buff.

It's true that the samurai were skilled spear users. and just before the Edo period ashigaru (spear foot) were the main force of an army. However they quickly fell to disuse because times were peaceful. at this point the katana became the weapon of choice, however briefly.

the bow was the weapon of choice for a much longer period. which is why i consider it to be a samurai's real weapon. but the reality of it is, it will depend on which era you go to.

I wouldn't mind seeing spear-based Samurai. but i think it might interfere with DRG too much. when people think Samurai (with a few rare exceptions) they think of a Katana.

when thinking of skilled bowman, the general thought is mongol mounted archers. for spearmen, it's the spartan hoplite.

using FFXI as a comparison, simply because samurai could use a variety of weapons, they had a very good spear rating (tied with war) but the second best archery score, behind RNG. beating out THF by a full 10 skill points.
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just because the abilities are simliar doesn't mean the classes will be similar. we can assume that sam will be a DD class in FFXIV. and traditionally it would make sense for it to have access to both lancer and arc skills. but it will likely use the katana as its main weapon. meaning it will either need to stem from GLA as the katana as a sword (not likely) or a new class will be introduced that uses a katana (more likely, because NIN could potentially spawn from it aswell)