SAM Stats

[Bourne_Endeavor]

People who avoid skill speed on Samurai don't understand the job at a fundamental level. You want to hit one of 2 skill speed values for lining up certain off-globals, but also because unlike other jobs, literally every aspect of a samurai's kit is gated by the frequency of their global cooldown.

With that on the table, ideally you want to hit either 1050 or 1400 skill speed. Anything in between is fine as far as damage goes, but these values allow Hagakure and Meikyo Shisui to line up very nicely with the optimal rotation.

In regards to Direct Hit and Crit, I could go into tons of numbers but to keep it simple, if the combined total of your Direct Hit and Critical hit are GREATER THAN 3000, Crit is of a higher stat weight than Direct Hit. If the combined total is LESS THAN 3000, Direct Hit is higher.

Take all this into consideration when figuring out your melds.

This... isn't true at all. The Direct Hit and Crit combination threshold was 3,500 not 3,000. Many higher end raiders have between hovering around the 900-1010 range, though there are multiple BiS sets for Samurai with regards to Skill Speed. Regardless, it's Crit that has been more commonly ignored in favour of a Direct it/Determination build with moderate Skill Speed. Even that, however, is up for player preference.

This is the build I'll likely settle on: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/130DQ

[Siuxter]

900 SkS

https://www.fflogs.com/reports/Ybdrh...pe=damage-done
https://www.fflogs.com/reports/CQRZA...pe=damage-done

Pretty sure I understand the job at a fundamental level

would you mind sharing your BiS?

[MajisTek]

I have 810 Skill Speed, it works fine as far as numbers. I also have 2007 DH/1663 Crit (w/ Food). Numbers are good

[LunarEmerald]

I feel that crit is more important than people realize because samurai's dps is quite front loaded with midare. Critting midares makes a huge difference.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I feel that crit is more important than people realize because samurai's dps is quite front loaded with midare. Critting midares makes a huge difference.

Midare is neither your strongest ability nor one you want to rely on. Shinten will actually deal more damage due to its extremely fast recast hence why you always convert two or three Sen when Hagakure comes off cooldown. That doesn't make Crit builds bad by any stretch, they just aren't nearly as reliable this tier. Basically, it comes down to player choice. Do you want consistent, sustainable damage or do you want a small chance of huge damage spikes but less sustainable highs?

And I do want to emphasis that. Rose's Crit build is just as good as Dervy's DH/Det. Samurai is probably one of the more flexible jobs when it comes to stats.

[Gallus]

Direct Hit is king. After that it's arguable. Det or SkS? A bit more of flat damage. Crit? Your dps will slightly fluctuate more. Crit just doesn't combine well with SkS or Det, if you go Crit, you should stack it as much as possible (after DH that is). That's the only thing you should take into account.

What "pisses me off" are these people that come with their absolutist judgments such as "people who avoid SkS have no idea". You go DH, and then, the whole thing hardly matters.

Having a certain amount of SkS so that your hagakure and meikyo line up in whatever moment you want is nice and all, but is not required for anything. You can do Meikyo with zero letters or with one letter. Hagakure isn't a big deal either because the dps gain isn't that big, you aren't missing out on a lot of DPS (in fact, if Midare crits, hagakure is a dps loss, so in crit builds go figure if delaying hagakure a few seconds will hurt much).

[Azerhan]

I use the SkS built of the Sam, I'm bored of the Crit/DH built that most of dps jobs have.

And I feel the Sam funnier with SkS, and it works fine.