Thread: Samurai 5.1 thoughts?

I can't seem to find what the census is on this class now. I like that I can use Shoha far more often but I feel they took away some power from this class and gave it to DRG.

I'm progging Hades EX and I feel that despite my best efforts, popping potions and using good food I feel that I'm trailing behind somewhat. Maybe I'm comparing myself to people who do savage raids and have better gear. Granted, my ilvl is 462 and not one piece is below 460. Just don't have the time for savage anymore, EX trials are basically my only endgame now.

My opener I can manage to fit in three midares, shoha, and senei in a single STR infusement (or whatever they're called.) I might get lucky for a second shoha if I'm fast enough. Probably not the most optimal, but it works for me.

Before someone says "just go MNK", I'm a former MNK that switched because I just can't click with the constant changes, so what are your thoughts on the "improved" samurai?

How do you know if you are trailig behind? If you mean that your percentile is low then thats could be because you are undergeared.

SAM is extremely strong right now, hovering in the top 3 DPS for all savage encounters except E1S, but it's to be expected that SAM would be outperformed by classes with much stronger cleave there. If your concern is with your own DPS, there are up-to-date guides and resources you can use to help improve your gameplay. A 460 weapon will do you no favors if you are comparing yourself to people who are clearing savage, as even small differences in weapon damage translate to huge differences in DPS.

Tsubame-Gaeshi is sitll a very badly designed skill that forces SAM into a rigid rotation when most of its kit is not designed for it. The class is certainly stronger but I can't help but feel Tsubame Gaeshi is a mistake that won't be fixed until the next expansion.

Originally Posted by RadicalPesto

Tsubame-Gaeshi is sitll a very badly designed skill that forces SAM into a rigid rotation when most of its kit is not designed for it. The class is certainly stronger but I can't help but feel Tsubame Gaeshi is a mistake that won't be fixed until the next expansion.

I was quite surprised that they didn't reduce tsubames cd to 55 so it would become more flexible

This has been a much delved into topic of discussion on several forums and the general consensus for the most part is that SAM even with the most recent changes to shoha in 5.1 still feels very lack-luster in terms of dps. IMHO (and I cant stress the MY part of that enough) SAM dps is still no where near where it needs to be, now granted that the changes were a step in the right direction but the class itself is still not living up to its potential, the reasoning behind this is that for a class that brings nothing to the table but raw dps it should be towering over the other melee classes.
Its the same issue that the class had in the previous expansion where its more beneficial to recruit a dragoon, monk, nin or black mage to fill dps spots because not only is their dps miles above the samurai but they also bring party/raid utility/buffs with them which makes the sam class seem mediocre. Now, dont get me wrong I love my sam and dont intend to change just to play the flavor of the month but I do believe it needs to have a much stronger presence as a dps class if not in terms of having it do more damage at least give it a utility that makes it desirable for statics but again this is all just personal opinion.

Samurai brings more DPS than any other melee class on the game even if you account for those classes' buffs. It doesn't need even more DPS. Utility classes were overpowered compared to Selfish DPS last expansion, but the solution to that isn't to just buff selfish classes until utility jobs are useless. If you're using fflogs as a measure keep in mind the default statistics already account for synergy buffs in classes that have them, meaning their actual DPS is even lower but fflogs calculates the value of their buffs and adds it to their DPS.

Originally Posted by Eliadil

The issue with 5.X Samuraï isn't its damage tbh, but the rotation that feels way too weird because of Tsubame. Tbh, solving the rotation issue would solve every issue that Sam has right now, and would make the class feel more fluid, and you wouldn't be as penalized as you are right now for not using Tsubame perfectly on cd (because you didn't want to greed at a specific part of the fight, meaning you're drifting your entire rotation/burst. Again, you shouldn't be punished as much for doing a mechanic properly).

Atm it is way harder to play Sam at max efficiency than it was before, because the only thing you have to do is get a 100% uptime on every fight for that, which a lot of players do not want to do (you often don't want to risk dying and getting the dead debuff which would result in a greater dps loss) or simply cannot do because of high ping. And that is the huge design flaw of the current Sam.

I think you've hit the nail, what hurts me the most is not having much uptime. When doing Hades EX there are a few mechanics that you have to move away from your target (line aoe+meteor in phase 2, orbs, chandeliers, and doors in phase one... worse when the tank keeps moving the target around) sometimes shadow spread when you can't be too close to him or you get hit twice or are too far from a safe gap before the next SS goes off.