What should I be melding for BRD and SAM?

[ElazulHP]

I'm completely lost on what I should be melding for these two classes. All I know is my DPS is not where I want it but been holding off melding because I don't want to mess it up. Anyone got a resource they can share or know what I should be melding for these two classes? Thanks in advance!

[HyoMinPark]

I can't speak for SAM, but for BRD, like in HW, you still want to stack as much Crit as you can. Keeping D.Hit and Determination about the same would be a good idea, and prioritize Skill Speed last. Because of the nature of BRD's rotation and songs being so reliant on critical damage dealt by your DoTs, you can't go wrong with stacking Crit.

Sadly, there are no official, hard numbers for stat weights yet, but most theorycrafters are in agreement that BRD stat priority is Crit > D.Hit = Det > Skill speed.

There were a couple reddit posts talking in depth about the weight of D.Hit for Stormblood, but I'm on my phone at the moment and can't seem to find them. When I locate them, I'll try to edit it into this post for you to look at.

[Neela]

I know that our Static-Sam goes for ss 1300 (minimum) than all the way DH > DET > CRIT - dunno why crit last but he's always on top in our progress-parses (currently o3s) with around 4.2-4.5k overall with around ilvl 320-325. I think he's going for DET > Crit cause det is constant while crit is kinda rng but well just my guess so far. ^^

[Azerhan]

SS > 1200 is good, above can be better too, but don't make it too high, it will be useless.
DH > Very very important, more you have, better you are
DET > Like DH, but less important. If you have to meld your stuff, and you hesitate between these two stat, go for DH
CRIT > useless until you have a very huge amount of it, so for now, it's not a very good stat

[FoodAspectedPrimal]

on Bard, Crit is miles above any other substat. Stack it wherever you can. Skill Speed is only good if you can stack if above 3K, which is not possible if you are stacking Crit (at least not possible at the current range of ilvls). Direct Hit is your next best bet after Crit, with Determination following closely behind.

Samurai is a bit of a weird one. For reasons too complicated to explain here (but basically amounting to timing of Hagakure and Meikyo Shisui in an optimal rotation), you want to get your Skill Speed to either roughly 1050 or 1400. Consider these to be your skill speed "soft caps" and any amount you have not near these values is useless.
After the SkS consideration, you want to stack Direct Hit and Crit. If your combined total of Crit + Direct Hit is LESS THAN 3000, Direct Hit will have a higher stat weight. If your combined total is GREATER THAN 3K, Crit is of a higher value. This is due to Crit having an exponential growth and Direct Hit having a Linear growth.

[Eparsyl]

So I just came across this thread looking for help with my own SAM and for some reason I cant make my own thread yet. I have my combines CH+DH just over 3000, and Sksp 1033. but my dps is not as high as people are saying it should be. I need help

[NeoZanther]

Had been wondering about bard too. Knew Crit but I've been hearing a mix report on the rest of the stats. IMO, I've been sort of focusing on Direct Hit as well, though Determination is attractive for the consistent dps increase. I just feel a bit slow when I don't have Army going through (2.4 CD atm)

[Ariyn]

SAM - DH > Det > Crit > SkS. Some prefer to rank SkS higher but it normally results in loss of DPS. We can't attain the number needed to make SkS move up in priority yet.

Bard - Crit >> DH >= Det. Basically stack crit anywhere you can then build up DH and Det when able

[Azerhan]

In fact, you have two builds in SAM: Crit + DH, will result to a big dps in little fight, but your stat must be like: DH + CRIT >= 3000 and CRIT > DH, Det beside to ~1300 maybe more and SkS to 900, and use the 1 Sen opener.
The second one is SkS > above all, then DH, Det, Crit. 1600 SkS is possible if you've done all the Savage, and you have ~2.05 gcd, and ~1500 DH. The only fight were this build doesn't work well is... O4S!

But they are equivalent at the end. At least, if you want to play MNK after, the first one will be better. I prefer the SkS one, more in my playstyle.

[Tracewood]

Would it be fine if I melded VIT on Bard accessories if I'm around ilvl320 for raid progression?