Bushido - The Way Of The Samurai (A Guide) V. 2.0

In terms of equality gearwise/buffs, you will not beat a War unless Mighty Strikes/Brazen Rush wears period. Looks like the secondary question was answered.

Delve II items only get half as many rank points from Airlixirs, so you need ~6 +2s to R15 them.

Against my better judgment, i'm going to try and gear sam from almost 0; this means no REMA, 0 JP
I've started 119'ing some of the armors, but I was hoping someone could provide some guidance as to what armors I should be looking at (besides the obvious valorous). I have a Tsuru from the delve days as well as norifusa nq (119 soboro). I could probably get the Escha/Reisenjima GK if I tried, whichever you guys think is better.

I know this sort of thing gets asked but the latest sets I've seen reposted assume either REMA or su3 access, neither of which I currently have.

Thanks in advance, guys.

If you can get an Umaru, I strongly recommend it. The power differential between Umaru and Tsuru is huge, even in Adoulin areas. I thought for a while that I would use Tsuru in Adoulin still, but having 350 save TP doesn't affect my hit builds (you need something like 130 worn STP to get a 3 hit) so I've just started using Umaru full time.

Here is what I would say is a decent starter SAM TP set.

ItemSet 353379

Notes:
270 TP/hit

Flamma Head/Feet +1 are relatively inexpensive purchases for gallantry.

Wakido hands are non negotiable really. Any SAM TP set has to have them. If you can do omen at all right now, (card campaign +) you should get the 7 cards for hands. that +3 Hasso will significanly enhance your TP experience. Body is decent as well, and has a bit of DT to help with survivability.

Ryuo Hakama is from abjurations Yilan. Its a pretty popular one to do for BLM staff, and Argosy abjuration. Path D gives an additional +4 STP and some PDT.

Smertrios: 20 DEX 20 acc/atk 10 STP (Until Gifts).

Steelflash/Bladeborn/Cibit are relatively easy delve items to get. If you've already done full clears I believe they are very cheap with plasm.

Lissome Necklace is from Warders in Escha Ru'aun and Petrov from Ruea.

And here is a decent starter set for WS (Fudo).

ItemSet 353380

Notes:
203 TP/WS

Valorous Mask imo is among the easiest to get so I've included it in the starter set. Goal is WSD >= 3% STR >=7 acc >= 20.

Smertrios: 20 STR, 20 acc/atk, 10% WSD

Ishvara is from a T1 NM in Escha Ru'aun

The Hizamaru set is decent until you can get Valorous replacements. The legs should be used until you get Wakido +3. Even the +1 is better than the +2 Wakido unless you need the STP.

Ryuo Domaru: Path A 10 STR/DEX 15 Acc

IMO, the 3 most important stats for WS are WSD > Acc > STR. If you are augmenting Valorous and you get decent WSD and acc, I wouldn't worry about a bad STR roll unless you are going for perfect.

Don't forget about Kasuga +1 body/legs. Good pieces until you can get Wakido +2 items.

Those pieces require you to do Vagary, but you do get free items if you have ROE set so it's a win all the way around.

Kasuga +1 body is what I used up until recently. I figured since this was a starter set and Vagary items suck to farm, I wouldn't include it. I like Kasuga Domaru +1 though, and if you have access to it you can use it instead of Wakido +2, with that and if you have gill for a moonbeam nodowa (NQ) you might have enough STP to get DA on smertrios instead of STP.

Lucky for me, I have some of those. And I actually +1'd body and hands last night, thank God
I'll definitely work on abj items and getting an Umaru. Is the bow necessary or are there alternatives? I'd imagine being able to swap ammos for ws would be useful if I had the choice.

Is ws cape a catch-all? Fudo/shoha etc, since they work on same mods? I'll be working on upgrading to kasuga legs soon.

Oh, right, what augs am I looking for on Umaru?

Thanks for all the info, friends.

Bow isn't necessary, and long term you'll want to free it up so you can use Knobkierrie for WS, but its good until you get that specific item. Ginsen is a decent replacement, as is seething +1 from unity.

Have ginsen, so I'll use that.

Edit —
So, follow-up on progress, I've gotten just about everything outside of abjurations and fotia (I don't have the base items, don't judge me). I'm using pole grip because last I checked, there were no duplus on AH, and I'm using kentarch+1/windbuffet+1 while I get a cheaper Ioskeha belt. I've upgraded wakido hands to +2 and body + legs will very likely will be done today if I can get into a decent card farm. I also managed to obtain valor hands and legs, though feet are in process still. Kasuga legs are 109 until I get a chance to do perfidien again. Same for body and plouton.

What are my next upgrades, you think? Should I stick to getting ryou pieces no matter what or could I get something better?

I'm in a weird spot where I can afford to do /some/ hard content but not others, depending on friends' schedules.

I feel like my SAM is still rather weak all things considered, but I'm not sure if it's due to 0 JP or if I'm just doing something terribly, terribly wrong. I can get item sets going if you need examples.

The below set is what i'm currently working with as far as tp set goes, i'm sure it could use some updating seeing how it's been a few months, but it works for now. Also nq legs and a decently augmented valorous body will work fine with this set up.

ItemSet 333205

Ryou Path D
Cape: STR +20, Acc +30, Attk +20, DA +10
Set Totals: STP +42, DA + 31, TA + 9, QA +7

I didn't feel like i really started to take off on sam until I got Valorous Hands/Feet. I got lucky and got both of those on the same day and I got decent WSD augments on them.

Honestly, +atk doesn't seem to do much for tachi: fudo. The WSD is honestly the most impactful stat for that WS.

Edit:
Umaru Augs: DMG 20+, STR 12+, Acc 20+ at a minimum. WSD, DA, or STP for the special aug if you can get it. Mine is 28 DMG, 12 STR, 12 acc, 24 atk and =2 Zanshin

well, i started augmenting hands/umaru;
hands are crap, but umaru has literally all those requirements, but rng.acc instead of wsd/stp [sobs eternally]

golden kist is proving a pain in the ***

that said, made major progress in terms of gear (even if i'm still hitting fairly low)

got fotia neck+belt, ioskeha; af body/hands/legs +2; maxed out a tp cape and a ws cape; got relevant flamma/hiza pieces +1; got cessance ear so i can now use brutal+cessance > bladeborn+steelflash at least

to-do:
basically all the omen gear (ring(s)/ammo/grip, for starters)
capacity points out of the butt
valor boots
uhhhh
augment val. gloves?
dunno if i should bother with ryuo at this point

don't rly know what else since I can't even look into kendatsuba gear until i hit su3

Did 10x Neak w/ Doji and Masa

Samurai/Chaos Roll 11
BoG Frail/Fury/Torp

Doji: 5.7k dps
Masa: 5.2k dps

laff

Neak dies in like 30 seconds. DPS from scoreboard is highly volatile in extremely short fights like that. I assume you kept SB running for the duration of the 10 fights and looked at it at the end, but even then, the DPS you see is more influenced by pop/engage/reaction time. Hell, I bet if 1 weapon missed a Fudo in that short a fight/small of a sample size, it would sway the numbers in the other's favor.

tl;dr

The 2 weapons are extremely close. No one is saying make Masa over Dorji. Player input matters more than weapon choice.

Yeah, it mostly fluctuated between 5.1-5.5k, i was observing it mid fight. it's really annoying trying to get anything concrete in terms of parse data because anything that survives longer than 30 seconds is paired with dumbshit mechanics that make it hard to accurately parse

mostly i was just observing the fact that masa and doji are actually a lot closer than people claim. i suspect you need warcry and crystal blessing for masa to actually shine

Yeah, we're kind of back to eyeballing and individual experiences since the spreadsheets were proven inaccurate.

Hopefully Austar can release a simulation program for SAM so we have solid numbers to concretely say what's best when and where.

it's like third on my list. i have my war and dark ones already started i just have to make the gui and add some job abilities to those. i also need to think of a better way to handle zanshin for samurai. and meditate in general, but that's probably not even worth using except between fights anyway or when otherwise unable to auto attack

Good observations.

The proc rate consistency on DA/QA/TA of course can also make significant impact in the grey zone in the parse between the blades.

Like Ejinn said, sample size, player input, and mob output is important.

yeah you can see in my drg one how short fight times can lead to large variance in the dps, up to 25% at one point between the same weapon set and and conditions

I wish I had saved the wsavgs (so I'm going entirely off of memory here) but I remember my Fudo averages being within 500-1000 of each other. We already know that the melee/ws split for Doji/Masa are ~11.5/88.5 and 12.5/87.5 respectively so............. really there isn't that much difference. In a week or so I'll go out and do Neak solo DD so that it survives a little longer and try and get a more comprehensive parse like I did with MNK. Using data like WSAvg + white damage/ws dmg split should be more meaningful than a "DPS" value since it doesn't take into account engage times or anything.

if a hume wants to tell me their base stats and all the cumulative gifts (painful to add it on mobile) i could profit started on samurai this evening

I have something mostly functional, I just need all the cumulative gifts so I can add those, really painful to try to scroll over and add on mobile.

STR:107
DEX:104
VIT:102
AGI:101
INT:94
MND:94
CHR:98

Phys Def:70
Phys Atk:70
Phys Eva:36
Phys Acc:36
Mag Eva:36
Mag Acc:36
Zanshin:10
STP:8
Skillchain:8
Hasso and Seigan Effect:
Hasso: increases the maximum chance of Zanshin activating, even when a melee attack hits, by 10%.
Seigan: increases the maximum chance of Zanshin countering attacks by 10%.

uploading now, still several things I need to add, though. but otherwise it works. both the simulated average and the three minute runs all start at 3K TP, masamune will maintain AM3 but otherwise uses Fudo at 1K, every other weapon just uses Fudo at 1K. No Mythic added yet, but amano does have hidden damage accounted for.

valorous are all 10 str, 25 acc/atk, and 4 da or wsd

Mainly need someone to make sure all the stats add up.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7LcJujrpsg-TzBGZ3ZUWmhVQlk

Just run the .exe from the dist folder, leave weapon slot blank on ws tabs

Skillchains ARE NOT factored yet.

is there any way to add equipment to it? there are some crucial pieces missing (stp val greaves, windbuffet +1 come to mind immediately.)

does it already assume max potency for all buffs like sam roll?

yes all the rolls are +7, no crooked, though. as far as adding gear, you could edit the .py, it wouldn't do any good unless you can compile it yourself, but that isn't difficult. I can add anything gear-wise you'd need, though.

edit: actually, I didn't increase sam roll from job bonus, but I can do that. all are XI rolls with +7, though.

alright, really it's just those two missing, although replacing chirich +1 with ilabrat makes more sense since they've more or less got the same stats (+ more on ilabrat.)

it may be worth setting rolls to 11 as well since you need 66 stp in gear to get 3 hit w/ doji with a 7 which is hard to do without dumb swaps without the val greaves stp augment. although i suppose it won't matter if you add it in.


also i'm getting ~6500 for both doji/masa under capped conditions (+ sam/fighter) vs WoC. masa is winning out by like 20 dps which is essentially within standard deviation lol

edit:
may be worth it to add warcry, yaegasumi, boost-str as well