Sam Merit Options

would anyone mind sharing some merit options?

Like what to merit? Or where to Merit? or How to merit..?

5/5 Store TP 1st
5/5 Meditate

5/5 Overwhelm
the next part is a little and you can tinker with it to fit your play style..
1/5 Shik if you like give TP
Iko merits are iffy at best but I guess you can put them here..
So that leaves blade bash which is wickedly useful..so lots of ppl do 5/5.

I personally did 5/5 meditate (I think thats a must) 5/5 Zanshin, 1/5 shikkikoyo 4/5 ikishoten.. I think the zanshin bonuses help with mobs with insanely high acc and the TP bonus from ikishoten is very noticeable and I personally like it..most don't like the build I use for sam, but its my play style and I happen to like the dmg I do on sam, as do others I've played with

Pizza says hi.

5/5 STP
5/5 Meditate or Third Eye, your choice

5/5 Overwhelm
1/5 Shiki is good to have to pass TP around before events
4/5 BB to round it out

I know that ppl say to "Play how you want"...but this is about as wrong as a sam can be..this is a list of what not to cap for merits. Which I guess was actually helpful.

Edit: fine fine not all of it but most of it..

5/5 Meditate
5/5 Store TP

for tier 1 if you do anything different you're doing it more wrong than you know.

5/5 Overwhelm no matter what.
1/5 Shiki
4/5 Blade Bash
0/5 Ishi (useless imo)

for teir 2 you can mix up the last 3 after overwhelm as you see fit... it makes no huge impact but to me that stun can be critical.

5/5 Third Eye Recast
5/5 Warding Circle Recast

5/5 Ikishoten
5/5 Shikikoyo


Allow me to explain: I can be right at being wrong also. I r do good dmg though. Ask my LS I totally pwn Serket.

On a serious note:

5/5 medi
5/5 stp

5/5 overw
5/5 ikish

get shiki 4/5 blade 1/5
or blade 1/5 shiki 4/5
if you are doing long duration fights with your LS

ftfy

lol gee thx....thats the problem with cookie cutter molds people seem to make themselves for DD's..ANYTHING outside of said norm is "absolute garbage", but I happen to like my build

What about when those mobs with insanely high (it's not accuracy btw) evasion get slapped with double mads on a zerg and feint? Where's is your God Zanshin now?

I understand you're point but by not meriting storeTP you just screwed yourself out of xHit builds which is where SAM actually excels. :\

Instead of focusing on an xHit build combined with food you merited zanshin 5/5 with expectation to miss.

Miss = no thanks :\

I have a 6 hit with the current GK I use though...

edit: and its not like I'm PLANNING to miss...its the failsafe for when it happens since even with capped acc you won't hit 100%

>_> does it involve an askar body and/or hachiman?

no it doesn't clin, i use hauby for body for TPing and WSing (no osode or noct mail :( )

usukane feet?

Just because you like it doesn't make it good or even decent. It is, mathematically speaking, terrible. You should never have low enough acc that it even becomes remotely worthwhile, and even then... you're making sacrifices in raw damage for a questionable sidegrade in a situation that shouldn't exist.

And im not 100% on this but without store TP 5/5 i don't think you can reach a 5 hit build on polearm. And even if you could i think you sacrifice things too badly.

Enlighten me please as to show me/us what your TP build is...please

I'm not gonna turn this into a flame thread lol...I PMed it to Clin, because he brought up the X hit build first (Edited)

It's not hard to get a 6 hit build without storeTp merits but how much haste do you have in that Build?

You are "most" likely using 1 of 2 things..

Using lots of Hachiman gear to achieve 6 hit sacraficing haste to maintain 6 hit.

The only other thing I can think of is that you are using some Haste mixed with maybe a Rindomaru?

Mind posting your TP gears? Oh and since you love your damage so much wanna post your WS gears while your at it..im always looking for ways to improve.

That sorta seems to me like you're expecting to be wrong, but denouncing everyone else anyway without putting up. /shrug, honestly I'm curious as to how you're getting a 6-hit without an sTP body with no merits.

Edit: I'm not saying you can't, just this morning I checked someone with sTP pieces that surprised me. But they had +12 and none of the usual suspects, so I'm still just wondering how you bypass 5 merits in a Hauby.

Meditate/Overwhelm/STP should be capped. Without those your DPS falls incredibly. Zanshin (and Iki relatively) become less useful since you should be gearing to have high accuracy. So they'd seldom proc, no sense wasting merits for something you'd only maybe utilise. Blade Bash is useful if you solo/campaign/ballista a lot and for the odd required stun. I never bothered with Shiki, I found most my DDs subbing /SAM anyway, only really useful for TPing a tank or something before KSNM/Limbus.

The PM


Ok check it out, i understand the concern for flame... and yeah many many people will troll the hell out of you or flame.

But to put things simply you're doing this way too wrong and i'll explain in full detail why.




Now let me explain those 2 real quick... you only have 4% haste gear total for you're TP set. And the Shogun rice balls don't even give store TP+...

it just gives you:
HP +20
Dexterity +4
Vitality +4
Charisma +4
Attack +50
Defense +30
Double Attack +5

So according to the data provided you are BARELY off from a 6 hit... if i put store TP to 5/5 on the program then it shows a 6 hit... right now you have a 7 hit even with shogun riceballs.

You also only show 87% accuracy and seeing that the riceballs don't help you there EITHER......... yeah.

You're biggest problem with that set:

4% haste, 87%~ accuracy, and 7 hit build.

To be truly efficient on samurai you want to aim for around 18%+ haste, 95% capped accuracy, with a 6 hit build on great katana.

Again please understand i'm not trolling or flaming you... i'm trying to actually explain where this is going wrong and what improvements you should make.

Right off the bat if you had 5/5 store TP you'd have a perfect 6 hit build... but still flaws out with only 4% haste and 87% accuracy.

Also if i did anything wrong in FFXCalc anyone catchs just let me know and ill fix it rq... i have a habbit of forgetting ***lol.

This is my personal TP ideal set for gkatana. It isn't perfect either but what i can tell you it offers:

22% haste, 95% accuracy with marinara pizza+1, and perfect 6 hit.

And marinara pizza+1 offers the following:
HP +25
Attack +21% (55 cap)
Accuracy +11%

vs

HP +20
Dexterity +4
Vitality +4
Charisma +4
Additional Food Effects
with Myochin Kote or Roshi Jinpachi:
(Wearing both doubles the effect below)
Attack +50
Defense +30
Double Attack +5

does that program account for the STP on the rindo?

btw could care less who flames me for it lol seriously

And again not to beat a dead horse but you wont reach a 5 hit polearm build without 5/5 store TP as well... which is equally important in given scenarios.

I have to head out to navy PT like... NOW (almost going to be late) but i wanted to at least maybe save the soul of one samurai in the future...

good luck Ifrit.Eikechi and don't get discouraged... just do a little research and test things properly.

Yeah i put 7 in the weapon box. And 0 for store TP merits... but if i changed it to 5/5 store TP it went right to 6 hit barely.

You are BARELY off but its still a 7 hit it seems :(