Samurai needs damage buffs

[Garnix]

Most players play freestyle if that's the definition of it.
That's not only true for SAM.
Some players play complete freestyle.
Some players learn their openers and then play "freestyle".
A very minor percentage of the player base learn how to play correctly with raid buff windows and perfect alignment of their rotation and all that.
And there is a reason for that: it doesn't really matter.

[Caitlyn]

SE needs to buff SAM! Even a fisher can out-dps a SAM!

[Kolsykol]

Most players play freestyle if that's the definition of it.
That's not only true for SAM.
Some players play complete freestyle.
Some players learn their openers and then play "freestyle".
A very minor percentage of the player base learn how to play correctly with raid buff windows and perfect alignment of their rotation and all that.
And there is a reason for that: it doesn't really matter.

It does matter, just stop.
If you don't want to play properly then just accept that and be honest about it but don't spread misinformation and lie to yourself and others.

And to be more thread relevant, if people are not going to play it properly and how it was designed to be played then don't complain about the damage being low and ask for buffs.
It's like BLM '' freestyling '' by just spamming F4 and no Despair and throwing out random spells as filler in Ice phase and then complaining that the damage is low.

It's unreasonable to expect people to play with 100% perfect alignment at all times that's not what we're talking about here we're talking about people totally ignoring the base rotation that the Job was designed for.
And if this didn't matter then why would anyone even bother with it at all?
Guess I shouldn't use Twin Snakes on MNK then because I can still clear most/ all content without it amiright?

[ItMe]

Most players play freestyle if that's the definition of it.

Sauce?

/10

[Rilifane]

Most players play freestyle if that's the definition of it.
That's not only true for SAM.
Some players play complete freestyle.
Some players learn their openers and then play "freestyle".
A very minor percentage of the player base learn how to play correctly with raid buff windows and perfect alignment of their rotation and all that.
And there is a reason for that: it doesn't really matter.

No, being bad is not equal to freestyling.
Freestyle SAM is a term for people that know their rotation in general but misalign everything. Why do they misalign it?
Because it naturally misaligns. No matter which GCD you're playing on, SAM is naturally misaligned if you keep using combos, collecting stickers and consuming them with Higanbana/ Midare instead of using Hagakure.
But using Hagakure correctly to keep everything in alignment isn't something you can tell just by reading tooltips.
A NIN is naturally aligned because their skills have a 60s/ 120s cooldown without anything naturally messing it up. 3 Mudras per cycle, one for Suiton, up to two for TA. It's straightforward. Use TA, dump everything you have into it.
Freestyling on SAM usually hasn't anything to do with being bad, they generally try to keep their buffs up, keep Higanbana up, use damage buffs on Midare, dump Kenki as necessary and so on but still suffer a hefty dps loss by freestyling instead of playing a loop because without Hagakura, it's all misaligned sooner or later. Even if you play the basics perfectly (keep buffs up, keep dot up, use things on cooldown) you will suffer a noticable dps loss from natural misalignment. It doesn't need damage buffs, people that really want to do high dps should learn the loop, plain and simple.

Being bad is not using jumps on DRG when it's free damage and a no brainer to use on cooldown or not using your melee combo on RDM. That's not freestyling, that's being bad.

Can I clear content with only using Cure II and Medica II, not using any mitigation, playing my sub-50 Fire 1 spam rotation, never using jumps, not using TA etc? Obviously.
But I hope you're not encouraging it just because it's possible. Most of it is easy enough to do, why not do it is the far better question.
And if someone is making mistakes it's fine and just a matter of keep practicing it.