Samurai Discussion

[Allyrion]

I'm feeling squishy as fuck while leveling. Especially casters, is that just me?

I don't feel like this. Third Eye and Merciful Eyes are pretty weak, but they're up very often.
Second Wind is still the main melee go-to healc and I have max-potions from spamming Palace of the Dead.

Leg Sweep isn't bad for some breathing room but overall most things simply die before being a threat.
There's no reason to pull many mobs in the overworld and instances have a tank unless POTD.

POTD was no issue for me at all either and I usually end up tanking most of the time.
While leveling I've taken Bloodbath and it's really hard to die once that is up because our damage is so good already.

If anything I would say Samurai is more tanky than my previous main - MNK.
They have more tools that don't reduce damage (unlike Fist of Earth) and more burst healing from Bloodbath.

Well I have never bothered to run POTD, so I have been doing that today and my god is this a slog. I have not even leveled up once and i have ran floors 1-10 3 times this morning just to get the Aether levels up to 3. This is why I have given up leveling a new job every time and just go back to a Paladin. There really needs to be a less horrendous way to level up a new job.

Once you pass floor 50, it's basically a checkpoint. Resetting after allows you to start at Floor 1 or Floor 51, and 51-60 gives a lot more xp and you start off as level 60 (2 button spams make the lower floors really tedious).

I did it with 2 friends (separately) recently for their first times in POTD and they only needed to reset twice each to get enough to keep going. Both went all the way to 50 with just that and I don't think they were particularly lucky. Getting out of the first half is the most important thing to make POTD bearable.

Also, roulettes are still great (leveling roulette is the single most efficient exp reward). And if you really don't like POTD, fate farming is good xp. Leves aren't great but you can use them to break the monotony once in a while if you don't need them for crafting/gathering.