So hows SAM doing? Still fun?

[Vulkiel]

Just came back from a year's hiatus, and the first thing I've noticed is how MNK and BLM are now the most OP thing since...well, original BLM. Before i only seriously played Scholar and a bit of Warrior, so i thought i'd give a DPS a proper try.

I'm thinking SAM, but all i've heard so far are differing opinions about how Shadowbringers neutered it and that the level 80 skill is garbage, or its as OP and fun as it was back in Stormblood.

What do you guys think? I'm generally looking to play this one somewhat seriously.

[Pepsi_Plunge]

It still plays nearly "the same" but I found it lacking. While they are still powerhouses in the personal dmg-department, ranked by rDPS Monks and Dragoons do more DMG now.

But if the job is fun for you just play it. There is nothing really wrong with it.

[Naryoril]

If you found it fun before, you'll still find it fun, since not much has changed. Yes, the lvl 80 skill garbage and only situational, it's not what you are looking for in your final and thus supposedly ultimate, skill. In the last live letter they said they plan to do changes in 5.1 (they didn't make it for 5.05) to make it less situational. You need to charge it up using meditation, the skill that gives you kenki but automatically stops if you do ANYTHING (even turning). They said they want to add other ways to charge up the skill.

[HumanNinjaToo]

I am only level 55 on SAM, but this being the first melee DPS that I've gotten into, I absolutely love it. Super fun job IMO. And that's what I'm looking for in a job, how much fun I have playing it. To me, SAM seems to have it all: high dmg single target, aoe, gap closer, range skill, self-sustain. It reminds me of my ESO build that revolved around high dmg and self-sustain, which allowed me to solo A LOT of ESO group content. And while I realize these games are highly different when it comes to group content, I still love what SAM brings to the table. I don't see how someone could not have fun playing this job.

[Vulkiel]

I should point out I never played SAM before now, I'm only going by what other people have said about it.

I'm wondering if the damage it does over most DPS is worth the complete lack of support it provides.

[Kabooa]

Tsubame Gaeshi is kind of boring, but it's basically the same job from Stormblood. Hagakure just needs a meaningful boon for the Sen reset and it'll be solid. (Cough, Meditate)

[armandojc3]

Stormblood samurai pretty much.

[Shurrikhan]

Stormblood samurai pretty much.

How? SB SAM had incredibly tight windows when playing at minimum SkS, and even could make use of Yaten-Enpi in SkS-priority builds to perfect their Hagakure timings, with a 3-2-3 repeating Sen count on said Hagakure. What took at least upper-mid SkS for rotational variance before is now available to all as baseline rotational leeway, and then made even more lax via the 13% attack speed at level 78. Add the lack of Hagakure to that and ShB SAM just doesn't have that level of complexity or urgency.

On topic: If you liked spamming Midare before, you'll still definitely like ShB SAM. Otherwise, try it out for yourself because you won't fully know until level 78.

[wereotter]

My opinion, the job is less enjoyable than it was in Stormblood.

It's almost like if you look at Samurai, Dark Knight, and Warrior they looked at them and thought "oooh you like this one big move we gave you? What if you did it like 14 times in a row??"

So they took away Hagakure (and reintroduced it in a much weakened state) to replace it with being able to do two midares back to back sometimes. The job is a lot slower and less engaging than it used to be, and I lost all interest in playing it at all before I even got it to level 80, but finished leveling it anyway to get the extra striking gear out of my armory chest.

[Naryoril]

So they took away Hagakure (and reintroduced it in a much weakened state) to replace it with being able to do two midares back to back sometimes.

No, they replaced it with Ikishoden, a flat 50 kenki buff. Yes it generates less kenki (50 instead of 60) and on a longer cooldown (60 instead of 40) and leads to more midares (due to not spending sen to get that kenki), but Tsubame-Gaeshi has absolutely nothing to do with it.