Studying The Blade- The SAM DPS Guide

[DarioGlenn]

So I was just in a Susano ex party with another SAM, and his damage came as a bit of shock to me. I'm used to doing around 4200DPS with little to no melds and full blue gear + Susano weapon, but he just blew everything out of the water, reaching 4800 overall and 5100+ on specific phases like the sword.

He made what i call the risky build. Instead of abusing Hagakure + 3 sen (which gives you more DPS overall simple because you do not have cast time using shinten later) he chose to bet for the crit setsugekka which, if crits, gives you more dmg than the shinten you would use by sacrificing all 3 sen for shintens.

I myself am considering to have 2 builds accordingly to my party composition, since brd and drg can give you lots of crit buffs now, it may be very viable to have a full crit build. I already tested full determination meld build and it works pretty well regardless your party composition.

[SuJung]

Im sorry to bother people but i have a stupid question...

at the end of your rotation you write "So on and so forth" ummm... what does that mean? because when i start from the beginning some skills are still on cooldown.

[Jarinolde]

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...rect_hit_data/

Specifically going to quote this person

Direct hit is, based on these numbers, ROUGHLY 150 points to 1% damage increase. Crit, bases on another post is ROUGHLY 166 points to 1% damage. Determination, again from here, is roughly 170-190 points per 1% damage.

And also this person

They're really close in the current stat ranges, but direct hit is better until you can get 2722 crit.

So it seems for SAM, Hit > Crit > Det/SkS is the stat priority for now.

[Nominous]

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...rect_hit_data/

Specifically going to quote this person



And also this person



So it seems for SAM, Hit > Crit > Det/SkS is the stat priority for now.

Yo thanks. I was checkin' this earlier. Updated the front page, quoting you for reference! Appreciate it.

[Uriel_Kross]

What about open with Enpi when you are running toward the boss after the tank? That would give you extra Kenki?

I generally do this as it allows me to pop higanbana sooner but I don't believe this counts as part of your opener.

[Jarinolde]

Enpi in the opener is only as a safeguard against missing positionals. If you know you'll hit all of them in your opener on a boss, then there is no need to do Enpi.

EDIT: I took some time to redo melds on my gear, and with it calculated what I would reasonably get for max crit if I melded that over hit. It was roughly 1660. If we see a similar stat cap increase from HW (87% from i180 to i270) We can expect at the earliest to be able to hit 2722 crit during the 2nd raid tier, with full savage/upgraded tome gear with meld priority to crit over hit.

[Leonus]

Also check this out.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme..._for_40_chart/

[Clover210]

Also check this out.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme..._for_40_chart/

So according to that chart, since I have over 940 skillspeed I should use the 2 sen opener over the 1 sen opener? And use the 3 sen opener in specific short phases?

[Jarinolde]

Also check this out.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme..._for_40_chart/

Just a quick note, he mentions 1 sen opener is worse if your SkS is >=940 and you have a SCH, or an AST giving you arrow, but I've had no runs that would give credence to such a claim. Also he notes that 3 sen opener is the best when a NIN is in the party, but this is flat out false. I believe for NIN, they themselves benefit best from TA happening at the 5th GCD, and the 1 sen opener is actually the best opener with a 5th GCD TA.