is it just me or is SAM a little too overcomplicated

[SkyfangRauss]

i'm lookin at samurai's abilities, and trying to figure out how to stick them all on my bar.

gettin a headache just looking at the ability screen O.o

[Zojha]

Mhm... it doesn't seem overly complicated to me. You have 2 3-step combos and one 2-step. The rest is more or less Kenki/Sen management.

My main issue is trying to find the right place to put the DoT in the rotation. So far I'm going with Yukikaze for the first Sen, then the Gekko combo up to Jinpou(?) for the 10% damage boost and then release the Iaijutsu before I finish the combo. It's "probably" suboptimal, since it's based on gut feeling rather than cold harsh math, but egh <_<

[GruntCandy]

From what I understand, you're primarily juggling a couple of combos, so it shouldn't be too far off from say... Dragoon or Nin.

I won't play for a minute though - SAM skill names look like a pain to memorize with no means of connecting the term to the skill. Bio, Aero, etc... are easy enough to understand, but I'm not nearly fluent enough in (Sword? Samurai?) terms to be able to predict or anticipate what skills do from their names or icons.

[Zojha]

[...] but I'm not nearly fluent enough in (Sword? Samurai?) terms to be able to predict or anticipate what skills do from their names or icons.

Heh, it wouldn't help you that much either. I know Yukikaze should mean something along the lines of Icy Wind, but it's really just a generic combo skill that doesn't have much to do with ice (except for the animation!). Kasha... all I remember is some mythological fiery chariot that devours corpses (sometimes also depicted as cat?). Gekko seems to simply mean moonlight? Hakaze is a breeze or sth.

Even looking the terms up isn't gonna help you understand it, you just have to learn it by heart. On the bright side: All Hissatsu-labeled skills interact with the kinky gauge, so at least there's some consistency to remember!

[Kyouki]

I played around with sam a while today. Well i tried to lol. With every job i played so far i was able to put all the important skills from 1-6 + alt+ 1-6 and 4 thumb buttons on my mouse (+ shift+mouse button). But with sam i am really struggeling how to put these abilities in a proper order. For the first time ever i started to mouse-click on abilities O.o That will cost a lot of time when it comes to raid timers.

[Allyrion]

Snip.

As you're saying, the skills are not named after sword forms but more romantic language. Some traditional koryu have names like these for techniques but it's not like it would help you with these techniques. It would be more helpful to know Japanese in general than memorized sword terms for this ability set.

But the animation is everything basically. Why wouldn't it be? Aero means wind but it didn't need to be a dot. The names match the animations like Midare Setsugekka is literally a combination of the 3 Sen. Names usually match the aesthetic rather than the game mechanic.


I do think people are more struggling with the terminology than the Job mechanics themselves. Not that it's a simple job, there's clearly a lot of possible min-maxing available. But the basic 50 combo system isn't rocket science, more like basic buff upkeep combos with Iaijutsu to mix it up as a finisher. Kinki adds more depth but they all seem to have their time and place so it's not overwhelming.

Maybe a bigger part is that you can see all the future skills all at once now and we're starting at a later level than we're used to (bar 51-60 POTD grinding).

[Nastumi]

are you being serious ? Sam may need a bit of "get used to it", but to say it's over complicated...

As a reminder, or for people that never played it, that's how FF XI chart looked for weaponskills, and most people in raids had to know it, I even knew people that had it printed and posted behind their screen for quick reference :



So saying Sam is overcomplicated... nop, sorry, but it may be a bit more technical that pressing 1-x in succession

[Selova]

As you're saying, the skills are not named after sword forms but more romantic language. Some traditional koryu have names like these for techniques but it's not like it would help you with these techniques. It would be more helpful to know Japanese in general than memorized sword terms for this ability set.

But the animation is everything basically. Why wouldn't it be? Aero means wind but it didn't need to be a dot. The names match the animations like Midare Setsugekka is literally a combination of the 3 Sen. Names usually match the aesthetic rather than the game mechanic.

It's not really that complicated, It will be easier for you to just study the icons of the abilities and what icon corresponds to what effect rather than trying to memorize all of the Japanese names of the abilities.You have your 2 personal buffs Shifu & Jinpu, and your 3 Sen generating abilities that you use iajustu to consume. Just focus on reading the tooltips and the icons and you'll have it in no time.A small tip, the color of the icons that generate the 3 Sens are the same color as the 3 Sens on your Sen gauge, this makes it incredibly easy to be able to know what ability generates what Sen. Good luck and have fun.

[MOthe]

Just you. It is easy.

[SaitoHajime]

its as easy as mnk for me tbh