Studying The Blade- The SAM DPS Guide

[Hacchan]

Been messing and trying to switch from the 1 sen opener for savage but i can't seem to be able to output as much damage as the 1 sen opener.
For exemple v3s dummy i do 4.55-4.6 1 sen while 3 sen opener is slightly under it, in raid i top at average at 4.6 +- for 3S with nin+balance+war slash res and 4.7 with 1s opener...
Should i bump my sks for the 3s or should i keep as is and continue with the 1s
Im at 1482 crit / 1654 dh / 1037 sks.

[Allyrion]

Been messing and trying to switch from the 1 sen opener for savage but i can't seem to be able to output as much damage as the 1 sen opener.
For exemple v3s dummy i do 4.55-4.6 1 sen while 3 sen opener is slightly under it, in raid i top at average at 4.6 +- for 3S with nin+balance+war slash res and 4.7 with 1s opener...

Should i bump my sks for the 3s or should i keep as is and continue with the 1s
Im at 1482 crit / 1654 dh / 1037 sks.

The 1 Sen and 3 Sen opener has varying spikes of damage just due to the nature of the SAM rotation, then evens out by the end. There's a great graph in The Balance discord showing this.

At the 3 minute mark, the 3 Sen is at a lower point than the 1 Sen then spikes above it. You should notice Hagakure and Meikyo coming off CD a few seconds before 3 minutes.

But with your SkS and the 1 Sen, you should be experiencing Hagakure's CD coming up but you're full on Sen and have another finisher. How are you dealing with that? Do you Midare and delay using Hagakure? With the 3 Sen rotation you basically always have 3 Sen to consume as the Hagakure comes up without much exception.

[Hacchan]

So after doing some more testing, I've been seeing positive results by sacrificing even more direct hit for determination. So as of now I am prioritizing Crit > Det > DH.

I'd imagine we'd want DH to at least be a certain value, but I think stacking it at the expense of crit and maybe det is a detriment overall to DPS. As my DH lowers I'll see how it effects my DPS, there's only so much I can do with my current gear. But yeah, stacking crit has been the single best thing for my DPS so far.

Hmm it depend really.. Hard to explain how i handle it as i probably dont function to godtier lol but i just adapt on the fly and feeling.
At 1034 sks i usually do 2 midare instead of 1 before the 2nd hagakure, sounds weird but if i do not do like this i always end up with hagakure ready long before meikyo (and i tend to like having them in sync to double weave Shinten)
But aside that idk, i have most of the rotation working on feeling and muscle memory so i dont notice specific change/clipping that people could notice etc lol

i've lowered my SKS to 950+- and adjusted my deter up and it seemed to do fine, the only issue i have is i end up with hagakure out of cd before meikyo (at our 30-40s cd on guren, i'd have to count which hagakure it is) but my dps seems to be right on par/ slightly above what i had.

[Adriosh]

You're already naturally clipping 1 sen at that sksp amount

[Kanzer]

So after doing some more testing, I've been seeing positive results by sacrificing even more direct hit for determination. So as of now I am prioritizing Crit > Det > DH.

I'd imagine we'd want DH to at least be a certain value, but I think stacking it at the expense of crit and maybe det is a detriment overall to DPS. As my DH lowers I'll see how it effects my DPS, there's only so much I can do with my current gear. But yeah, stacking crit has been the single best thing for my DPS so far.

[Adriosh]

You shouldn't ever simply stack one stat you should keep them all relatively balanced while reaching a sksp tier you are happy with. All stats are too close at this moment to sacrifice one over the other.

[knotwrite]

Can someone explain why even the most top-tier SAMs aren't using Seigan very frequently? Even on fights like O3S where there is frequent, predictable AoE damage going out, they rarely use this ability more than 5 or 6 times per fight (many of them not using it at all). Some quick math says it's a more efficient use of kenki than Shinten (13.33 potency per kenki vs 12 ppk), and yet even the best in the world don't really bother taking advantage of that.

I always figured that exemplary usage Third Eye + Seigan would be one of the things that separated good SAMs from great ones, but should I really even bother having it on my bars?

[ShaolinMike]

Can someone explain why even the most top-tier SAMs aren't using Seigan very frequently? Even on fights like O3S where there is frequent, predictable AoE damage going out, they rarely use this ability more than 5 or 6 times per fight (many of them not using it at all). Some quick math says it's a more efficient use of kenki than Shinten (13.33 potency per kenki vs 12 ppk), and yet even the best in the world don't really bother taking advantage of that.

I always figured that exemplary usage Third Eye + Seigan would be one of the things that separated good SAMs from great ones, but should I really even bother having it on my bars?

It's definitely worth using, but I think it just gets lost when people are focusing on mechanics and their regular rotation.

[Nominous]

Can someone explain why even the most top-tier SAMs aren't using Seigan very frequently?

The highest my Seigan has ever contributed, was 1.5% or so of my total damage dealt over a Susano clear. You can get 4 max per minute, if everything lines up absolutely perfect. But it probably won't, and I think that's why some people don't bother with it too much right now. It's worth it to have on your bar, for sure, you just have to really have the fight down to a perfect math to get the full 4 per minute.

I think if the proc window for being hit was longer than 5 seconds, it might be a little more 'approachable'. Right now, your rotation just might not line up well enough to pop Third-Eye as an oGCD in preparation of incoming damage. Sometimes, you might be able to line up the 5 second window well enough, but you'd rather press Kaiten at that exact moment since it would line up with your rotation better. That's why I'm not using it right now, anyway.

[KeinaIridian]

So need some help with rotation issue I'm running into. How do you all deal with the first Meikyo Shisui and lining that up with the next hagakure? I always end up either ahead by to much when i get 3 sens leaving hagakure still ticking on CD or just going into a midare and than hagakure is on CD for the time it takes to get 3 new sen.