SAMURAI SHOWDOWN

[DWolfwood]

What do you mean? This whole topic is all of us discussing what Samurai could be. You made it with that intention, so that's what I'm getting at.

All you said was:

Edit: Also, everyone seems to conveniently forget the series has already had a clothed Samurai without armor. Auron.

So, I just don't really know what you're getting at here. Are you saying that because Auron, a character that is an homage to Ronin, wears light armor, that we should get a light-armored Samurai? Like I said, no one has forgotten any of this. One could say that you've forgotten that he's not specifically a Samurai, but an homage, whereas Cyan is quite literally a samurai in FF6, but it just so happens that in that universe, he wears knight armor. Auron was a warrior monk if you really wanna get into it.

Samurai have inspired many ideas for FF over the years, and there's a big variation between the Ronin types and the armor-clad types. None of it is any reason why it shouldn't be DPS or Tank. Everyone is too caught up in the little things instead of just looking at whether this game can handle 2 Samurai. Are there any DPS who after getting a Ronin job, would be pissed if they announced a Shogun tank? "Why?" is my question.

Dark Knight and Dragoon don't even exist, so there's no reason Samurai in a fantasy MMO have to be anything. They could be as unrealistic as his team wants it to be. It's fun to discuss either way.

Just for the record, Dark Knights and Dragoons are fantasy interpretations of real life things. I'm not saying things have to be historically accurate, and I've never said that because that would be boring. What I've done is bring in factual evidence when people make false, outrageous claims about "real life."

All that said there is no, real, true "Samurai" nor is there a real, true, "Knight" as many-a-video and paper have explained.

Samurai and Knights were a definable thing. Yes, they all had armor. The thing is, they didn't wear this armor all the time. It was almost exclusively reserved for the battlefield in the case of samurai. Things do get more complicated when you realize that the samurai were real people and could fall on hard times if they or their lord lost a battle, and they could thus be forced to sell their armor sometimes to make ends meet if they were no longer formally a samurai. In samurai culture, the "soul" of the samurai was his sword and many would rather die than sell it, some however would rather live than keep it. Samurai and Knights who no longer served a lord would lose their status, but like we say in the US about Marines as an example, "once a marine, always a marine," one could argue that they were still Samurai and Knights in all but title.

As for correct representations, yes there are tons of ways to portray them. My question is, do you think that if we got a Shogun tank, would a Ronin DPS be too much, considering we'd have a Samurai tank and two eastern DPS already?

[MagiusNecros]

Not even nearly DRG-level thickness or coverage? It's a breastplate. Leather by appearance. We have Ninjas far better armored than that.

It's nice knowing you can compare gear that already exists to a class that currently doesn't. Point is Samurai do indeed wear some form of armor and usually more then a bathrobe.

[Aaliyahrose]

Based off of previous FF games however, Samurai didn't have as high an HP Pool as the WAR job, or the PLD job.

However, in FFX-2 the Samurai carried a Great Katana and I believe.

How can we put these Samurai abilities into FFXIV terms as an ability?

Reflex - Improve your evasion by remaining calm and exercising sound judgement.
Meditate - Calm your mind to streamline movement, resulting in shorter ability cooldown.
Tranquility - Focus your mind to recover the last 20 seconds of AP you have used.


Some Speculation...

Reflex - in FFXIV terms could be a stance based on the text, but it would not be for evasion.
Meditate - (I know MNK has meditation...) Could very well be a cooldown, increasing skill speed. (SAM is a mobile job)
Tranquility - In terms of AP, could translate into TP for this job.

*These could be stances? Or abilities or traits.*
(These are actual SAM job abilities from other FF games.)

[Uhm]

I don't want Samurai I want Shogun... and I want it as a TANK. DPS can have Samurai I don't care.

[Jhett_Magnum]

I feel like samurai is gonna be that charging heavy hitter DPS. I'm thinking along the lines of Jack from Type 0. Its attacks will be possible to charge by holding the skill down. Well some weapon skills will be chargeable. I also think Samurai will be more focused on crowd control. Something equivalent to SMN. Maybe primarily debuff and DOT based to fill in for the time while charging the attack. Also no flank/rear bonuses
I.e.
Shooting Star has a base potency of 290 has a 3 stage charge increasing potency by 200 for each stage.

Banishing Blade chargeable inflicts curse(lowers stats like virus)

Dragon Fang oGCD places 100 potency dot aoe to surounding targets for 18 sec enhanced 30s


Concentration/Focus chargeable attacks get a fourth stage.
Reflex- critical hit rate goes up.

[Aeliott]

I feel it's best suited to a medium-armored melee DPS (same as DRG). I see a lot of people taking things outside of the Final Fantasy context here...they, as far as I'm aware, universally use katanas in all other Final Fantasy games. They're not going to have bows, or some obscure Japanese weapon.

Also trying to imagine a Samurai in the existing shared tank gear is kinda...weird. Not that it couldn't happen because of that.

[Ciri_Wolf]

I really want Bushido to be some kind of mechanic in XIV's Samurai.

[Krissey]

Rather than have a Samurai I would rather have Red Mage, Blue Mage, Geomancer, and BeastMaster.

BeastMaster could be a melee DPS that also controls all varieties of monsters as pets from Behemoths to little birds and everything in between.
Geomancer could take the offensive spells of the Conjurer to the next level and play something akin to an Elemental Shaman from WoW - Earthquakes, Stone 4, Wind 4, Water attacks, etc...
Red Mage could be a true hybrid - much like tank stances. a "Ranged" magic stance or a "Melee" physical stance or something. Or perhaps they could do something truly unique and make it so they can use it all whenever.
Blue Mage of course would use interesting monster themed abilities - Thousand Needles for AOE etc.. Perhaps to spice things up they could play something like a Druid from WoW or Udyr from LoL taking on specific animal or monster traits...

[Aaliyahrose]

Rather than have a Samurai I would rather have Red Mage, Blue Mage, Geomancer, and BeastMaster.

But this Thread is about Samurai... feel free to start a thread of those other jobs somewhere else.

[Krissey]

But this Thread is about Samurai... feel free to start a thread of those other jobs somewhere else.

Well I've already said based on popular media most people probably think of Samurai as a DPS killing things with their katana over a tank absorbing damage and hits.