Taru Samurai, making it work

[luq]

Well I am bound and determined to make my Taru a Samurai. I'm still trying to figure out a way to make it work. At first I was going to do Sam/War, but then I did not enjoy my time from level 13-18. Tarus just plain make crappy tanks. I even bought all kinds of accessories and food to make me tougher, and it just wasn't working out very well.

So I decided to go for Sam/Thf when I enabled my sub job. I had though that the high dexterity from thief would help me hit more often, and sneak attack would be nice. Of course Steal and Treasure Hunter are good too. But now I'm seeing posts (by Awntawn and Struck I think) saying that Sam/Thf is pretty bad.

So how can I make a Taru Samurai work? I've also though about Sam/Blm so I can magic burst on all these renkeis I'd be throwing out. But universally everyone thinks mixing melee and magic stinks. Please, I must be a Taru Samurai! Help!

[Greywen]

Im a taru war, couple hundred xp from 25, your right we cant tank well realy but theres such an abundance of wars it doesnt matter, we still deal good damage so with an elvaan/galk warr tanking we make great secondary damage dealers and back up vokers I never have much trouble getting groups I just find that making groups is better, I too plan on being a taru sam but I dont realy wanna level past 30 with the war (until i need to cap it as sub) so Im more concerned about finding a nice JP or importer to help me do the quest. Ive actualy seen a couple taru sams on midgardsmors one was like l60 other was 50 somethin let me dig up a SS (He had a battlefork equiped not GK)

[Fievel]

I was the first Taru Sam. on my server, and I sub thf. and i can honestly say it does not suck. I hit just as hard as the other sam. on my servers even when they're one lvl higher. Theif Sub will make you hit a lot more thanks to the Dex bonus. All you really need to do is keep ur gear up to date and you'll be fine. Mithkabobs will help you out a lot also. The other human samurais were confused cuz i was hitting harder than them . But if you wanna be a taru sam/thf then go for it cuz its working really well for me

[luq]

Thanks Fievel, that's very encouraging. I'm definitely gonna stick with it. Level 19thf/war now and rising.

[Greywen]

Of corse your not gonna notice a difference at that level gear matters more than sub you cant sit there and say since its equal at 20 it will be in the end, fact is thief doesnt offer anything worthwhile except treasure hunter and steal (once the level cap gets to 110+ itll be another story) its just like subbing monk people will do it but warrior will always perform better. Now im sure someone will reply with you can sub whatever you want etc fact is you can but doing that wont get you groups once you raise higfher in levels people dont just look at your main they look at your sub, a sam/war will be taken over any other sub unless its a group hunting for an item then theyll take the sam/thf if they cant find a thf.

[luq]

Greywen aren't you forgetting sneak attack?

[Greywen]

When subbing theif theres little point in mentioning sneak attack especialy with the change to it next patch being rear only. Sneak when subbed is just a normal critical attack not a very high damage attack.

[luq]

Ah, thanks for the info Greywen.

[Mangotaru]

Okay, it's been 4 months now since most of the 'can taru be a sam' posts. Back then most of the answers people gave were conjecture, but seeing as how the game's been out in America for 6 months, there should be more info.

At the moment, I'm trying to level Samurai as a Taru but, based on my understanding of the Samurai job, I'm a bit confused as to what to expect. The idea of a Samurai, as I see it, is not continuous high damage output like a DRK, but to do damage through weapon skills and creating skillchains. However, Taru are lacking in strength, vitality and hit points when compared to other races, as for dex they seem to run about equal with Humes. Again, the way I understand it, the highest priority is increased accuracy, since the Great Katana is a slow weapon, therefor you should be hoarding dex and accuracy items the same way DRK does....

But, here's where I have some trouble. Taru are lacking in Strength, they fall quite far behind eventually. Should I just ignore this and go with dex rings and accessories? Or should I try to get +str rings and accessories, forsaking some slots where I could put dex? Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks in advance.

Mangotaru on Midgardsormr