Ideas for Samurai

[Kenji_Shiratsuki]

I wanted to post a thread here with my ideas for what I think Samurai could and should be in FFXIV, as well as open discussion of my ideas and those of others to be posted.

I think, being that in FFXIV, Samurai was all about dem epic deeps on skillchains, and that they were the undisputed masters of self-skillchaining (you could do TWO level 2 skillchains at level ONE by popping their 2hr!), this system should be brought back as Samurai's gimmick.

How would the skillchains work? Simply put, you'd get a bunch of Great Katana Weaponskills that have attributes attached to them, just like in FFXI, and you would combine these attributes in order to cause a skillchain effect on the enemy. Now, some of these effects will be pure damage, while others may cause them to deal less damage, take more, or even give the Samurai a buff! Some of these weaponskills will have significant cooldowns or cost enough TP that it's hard to spam them.

I think they shouldn't just have a normal skill rotation because everyone else does! If this is going to be a Job with no class attached like the three new ones in Heavensward, I believe they can go without having a set rotation like Dragoons, Monks, and Ninjas do, in order to free them up to combine skills in the best manner for their situation. They would play like a ranged class, with no set chains of skills, but in melee range and able to chain skills in multiple ways to set off the skillchains.

What do you guys think? The weaponskills, chain effects, and their interactions can all be different from XI, and since this game doesn't have a heavy elemental influence, should be changed, but having the concept of the skillchain as Samurai's gimmick would make sense and solidly place them in the Melee DPS category with a unique utility for solo or party play.

[AldricBranchais]

Make it a MNK with a big sword and I'll be happy.

[Skeith-Adeline]

While this game shares obvious similarities with FF11, I say the further they keep the battle system away from each other the better lol.

[m3eansean]

This is not FFXI.

Skillchains don't exist in this game. It would be a DPS with GCD's and oGCD's woven into the rotation, like every DPS in this game. No one wants to go back to the days of auto-attacking a mob for 90 seconds to pull off a "skillchain".

You also insinuate above that ranged dps do not have a rotation/priority system. BLM would like to speak to you, so would the Bard and SMN.

[Zophar]

It needs gil toss. Because without gil toss, it's just not really samurai.

On a more serious note, I will never, ever agree that designing a FFXIV job after their FFXI counterpart is a good idea. Let's come up with something original please.

[HodgepodgeMcDodge]

This is not FFXI.

Skillchains don't exist in this game. It would be a DPS with GCD's and oGCD's woven into the rotation, like every DPS in this game. No one wants to go back to the days of auto-attacking a mob for 90 seconds to pull off a "skillchain".

You also insinuate above that ranged dps do not have a rotation/priority system. BLM would like to speak to you, so would the Bard and SMN.

I don't think he's saying you'd sit and AA until TP then WS.

I think what he's saying is GCD1 + GCD2 = Special Effect. Or you could do GCD2 + GCD5= other random effect. Basically, instead of having a 'set' combo rotation, every skill would be able to combo off of every other skill.

Of course, it won't take long for people to figure out which string will yield the maximum DPS, so the samurai will end up having a rotation, anyway.

[Kenji_Shiratsuki]

Exactly. Yeah, there will be a string that gives max DPS and people will find it, but being able to switch up you rotation at a moment's notice if you need to, and having the feel of freely linking these skills together is what I was going for with this idea. The satisfaction I got from linking two weaponskills together to create a skillchain was great in XI. In XIV it would be less special, because it would be happening CONSTANTLY, but it would still be satisfying. It's a different feel than the current DPS who have three skills intended to always be used in a specific order. With SAM, there would be no combo bonus, but instead the skillchain effect would be your bonus, and nearly half of your damage. In the end, it would just deal damage, apply DoTs, some debuffs, etc, just like every other DPS. That's what would make it fair. The difference is in how it achieves it's goal, and I think this would be a unique way to do it.

PS: Yes, I know ranged jobs have rotations, I meant combo bonuses, I worded that improperly.

[Asierid]

Depends.

If it is a tank, it will be a tank based around parry/counter attacks and evades. It's the only thing that would make sense when it comes to Samurai.

If it is a DPS (Which is more likely) I have a feeling it will just be another DRG minus jumps. Really isn't a way to go around that unless they do the whole Iaido skill thing from FFT and give them some range.

[Rhaja]

I'm just going to say that there's a decent chance that Samurai won't be using a Dai-Katana due to it being a weapon type of DRK. However, the use of a regular sized katana, or even the Katana/wakazashi combo would seem more likely.

I'm also more in favor of them being more proc based than rotation. I'm also really hoping they include Kiai's, either as a self or party buff, or just an awesome attack a la Fus Roh Dah.

[HeavensSword]

I'm just going to say that there's a decent chance that Samurai won't be using a Dai-Katana due to it being a weapon type of DRK. However, the use of a regular sized katana, or even the Katana/wakazashi combo would seem more likely.

I'm also more in favor of them being more proc based than rotation. I'm also really hoping they include Kiai's, either as a self or party buff, or just an awesome attack a la Fus Roh Dah.

Is there a source somewhere that says DRK will have Dai-Katana's? There is enough distinction between Great Sword and "Great Katana" that there wouldn't be an issue. FFXI did it. Also, all that really matters at the end of the day when it comes to weapons is that little string of text that will say either "Dark Knight Arm" or "Samurai Arm"; look at BLM and WHM staves and wands.