Drk/sam?

[Mitsurugi]

Hello there.

After having a discussion with my LinkShell, and watching too much damn samurai anime, I was thinking about the different viable combinations that can go with a DRK. I was just curious, would DRK/SAM be a viablo combination? I realize that after the Guillotine TP nerf, that wouldn't really be that great of an endgame combo, but taking into account the damage bonuses that a DRK/SAM and SAM/DRK would recieve would really benefit each other.

Can you guys help me out?

And a note, I realize that SAM/WAR and DRK/WAR are better combos, but I want to try something different then the usual. It won't be the end all, be all combo, and probably won't get a lot of pt invites, but I'm willing to try something out. Hopefully, in the future, someone will create a combo that will generate the pros and cons of having certain main jobs with certain subjobs.

[fuz]

Aside from situations like balista where /sam is decent (it's hard to get TP from regular hits, WS matter a lot, and you can't SA+WS), no--sam sub isn't viable.

/war hits a lot harder with berserk, gains TP fast with double attack post lvl50, and can backup tank.

/thf past lvl 66 will simply do so much more damage on the lvl 225 WS that it doesn't matter how much TP you get with /sam.

/sam only gets 1 TP bonus until lvl 60, where you get the second and meditate which only works every 3 min. (Not quite fast enough for quick chains) With no attack or melee boost, no WS damage boost, no backup tanking ability, and only some TP bonuses to offset the disadvantages, /sam sucks in pretty much any exp PT encounter. At every level you compare at /war gives more, /thf too in certain places.

/sam isn't the worst you can do, but it's generally not the best either. Try it out if you'd like, but I'd suggest keeping war sub fully leveled, and keep a message it in your search comments that you can switch to it.

Honestly if you like fast tp, there is no substitute for sam as a main job.

[Kosy]

Several things you need to know. In this game, a subjob of anything is automatically gimped. I don't have to list you the reasons why.

Secondly, you lose Store TP's effectiveness as well as Meditate's performance from a subjob of SAM. Since the TP gained from WS has been reduced to nothing, you can't get any sort of advantage from subbing SAM. Back in the days, DRK/SAM and DRG/SAM was so ridiculously strong (Pentathrust -> 60% TP return, Meditate -> Use Pentathrust again; Guillotine -> 50% TP return, Meditate -> Use Guillotine again) that PTs would favor spamming WS over actually trying to skillchain and have BLMs MB on it.

If being a TP whore is what you want to be, then become a SAM instead (since you also mentioned that anime like Samurai Champloon is making you all hot and bothered for this job class) If all you want is solid performance and consistent TP gain on DRK, then sub the appropriate jobs (Preferably WAR)

[Mitsurugi]

Alright, thanks for clearing that up for me. I'd probably be better off leveling each job seperately, and perhaps one day, if I ever get them to 75, I can try them out then since I won't be pissing off any parties with it.

Don't get me wrong, but I guess I like going for the obscure job combinations. I know it sounds like being different for different's sake, but hey, there's gotta be some people who try to make the experience in FFXI more interesting.

But once again, thank you for the help.

[Kosy]

Originally posted by Mitsurugi
Alright, thanks for clearing that up for me. I'd probably be better off leveling each job seperately, and perhaps one day, if I ever get them to 75, I can try them out then since I won't be pissing off any parties with it.

Yah, see, that's the problem. Everyone is out for the 10k exp/hr (It's an exaggeration, I know, but then some player's expectations are also inflated) Because of that, there's so much pressure on each individual to not appear as "gimped" as the next player. This does not exclude anyone. Even RNGs feel this (They being compared to another RNG's Sidewinder, for example) Because of this internal competition, many parties lose sight on what they're suppose to achieve and that is party harmony.

I can see that DRK/SAM isn't a bad idea. It's just that there's a lot of things that happened in the past three years that made it less likely the "ideal" job combination. However, in Ballista, you can throw all notions of "ideal" out the window, because crafty and creative players can put oddball combos to work and pawn everyone on the battlefield.

I think you can just chalk it to peer pressure and situational needs that sort of dictate job combination and choices.

However, once again, I need to emphasize that if you really REALLY want to see how a main SAM job works, you should level one to post 60. You might not even come back to play DRK when you do. :spin:

[kumaeru]

At the current point, Drk/Sam is situational.

Some fights such as maybe, Cassie, or even Fafnir Sam sub would prove useful. However Fafnir, is probably best to do War sub for claim of course.

Also in exp PT's, Sam sub is most desirable when you are lvl 75 doing Merits. Just Chain 6-8's with a Rng or 2 with Guillotine.

[Awntawn]

Originally posted by kumaeru
However Fafnir, is probably best to do War sub for claim of course.

If you're good enough to win pulls with weapon bash, I suppose any sub is fine :3

[LordBiGGs]

just a little note, one of my best pt's had a drk/sam. he had war and thf subs lvl'd and used different ones depending on the situation. our pt had an rng so the drk subbed sam to get tp faster and keep up with rng tp gain. i wouldnt say its not viable and could definitely be a good thing to throw in a search comment. you probably wont use it too often, but if you have sam, thf and war subs in your search comment, it would be good, definitely cant hurt.

[Kosy]

Originally posted by LordBiGGs
just a little note, one of my best pt's had a drk/sam. he had war and thf subs lvl'd and used different ones depending on the situation. our pt had an rng so the drk subbed sam to get tp faster and keep up with rng tp gain. i wouldnt say its not viable and could definitely be a good thing to throw in a search comment. you probably wont use it too often, but if you have sam, thf and war subs in your search comment, it would be good, definitely cant hurt.

Nuuuuuuuuuu .... X_x

So what you're saying is I have to have SAM as an option now. Oh great, I can forget about getting to 75 DRK for a long time now. *cries*

DRK (<- WAR THF NIN RDM and now add SAM) So what's next, RNG, DRG, MNK ... anything else? ;3