Samurai and It's spear

[raexn]

I had no idea you could use WS of your subs.

I've got a war/mnk and you're saying i can use "combo" or is this just basically with advanced jobs?

reaaaally curious about this.

[Khaunshar]

here we go:

You get all weaponskills your Main Job has access to.

You get MOST weaponskills your Sub Job has access to.(more later)

Unless you are ranger, main or sub, you never get shooting weapon skills.

The second part seems to cause confusion, so here we go:
Some weaponskills are considered exclusive, some are semi-exclusive, some are common. Example would be Red Lotus Blade. Its a semi-exclusive skill for DRK/PAL/WAR, meaning: if you main or sub one of these, you can use it. If you just use swords, but dont have these classes, you can't use it. You can ONLY use weaponskills of a class you CURRENTLY use as main or sub.

Some weaponskills, mostly high level ones and archery, are exclusive..... that means you only get them if your MAIN job is the right class. Sub won't matter.

For Samurai/Ranger, you get the archery skills up to Sidewinder, the rest is Ranger main only.

For Samurai/something else you get NO archery skills.

For Ranger/Samurai you get ALL archery skills.

[Weezingpipes]

So I grouped with a Samurai using a spear at 54 and spamming Pentathrust. I wasn't sure about the damage, considering he never got agro, could it be that good? And sure enough, it wasn't. Turned on others hits, he was barely hitting higher than the PLD did (usually between 20 and 50 damage per hit), and most of his Pentathrusts were between 7-150 damage, usually in the 80-90 damage or so range. I had to wonder, did he even look at his damage? Sure he Pentathrusted about 4-5 times a fight, the damage was still complete shit. I looked at the spears Samurai are able to use. Quite frankly, they suck and aren't as good as DRG specific lances. Basically the skill differences makes you miss a lot compared to GK, the damage is terrible, so if you are in a stupid party who thinks you are adding a lot spamming Penta Thrust, then spears all the way for you.

Also one thing people don't consider : Polearms have terrible flexibility in skillchains compared to other jobs. Great Katana WS can do a lot more with other jobs than Polearms ever will. So me as a DRG + this Samurai could do...nothing. We could do Transfixion or Compression, and thats about it. Well we could if he did ANYTHING but Penta Thrust. Also Samurai will never have access to any WS past Vorpal Thrust (which is pretty bad) unless they sub DRG - if you are a Samurai subbing DRG or well anyone for that matter, you have another set of problems entirely.

In short, use a Spear as a Samurai if you are soloing. I'm sure farming monsters 30 levels under you, the Penta Thrust damage is fine. Using it in parties is a waste of your parties' time.

[TMPikachu]

what monster were you fighting? The monster's type can affect damage from different types of weapons (the types I think are blunt/slash/pierce/ranged)

and was the guy's spear lvl maxed out?
what other weapons/classes was the spear samurai competing against?

[Weezingpipes]

Wasn't anything with higher defense against Polearm weapons, I was landing Pentathrusts in the 300-500ish range usually. The guys spear was capped for his level. It just wasn't good ; ;

[krycis]

I leveled spear along with sword, axe and great axe with my warrior up to 32 and thought I'd get a new spear for Samurai. I went scrolling through the list and what do ya know? Weezing brushed on it, but there are ZERO spears that are even close to the DPS of great katanas in the 30s and 40s. There are some lances down the road that samurai can use, but in general they're not as good as the equivalent g.kat. Right now, at 38, the best polearm I can equip is a Halberd, while I could be using my Hosodachi with it's refreshing stats: 51 damage, 428 delay; It's faster than the dragoon's lance and just as damaging. Meanwhile, the only spear I can equip is the lv36 Halberd at a whopping 42 damage and a 396 delay.

Tell me that the 30 delay is going to make up for 9 less damage, just tell me. As for TP, if I'm in a group and chaining with the rest of them, most of the time I'm doing two chains: one with the tank and the other with the sub-tank or damage dealer. Most of the time I've got TP parity...meaning, I'll have enough TP to chain when either person hits 100%. I'm fine with TP. Of course this could all change when Penta opens up, but Im sure that I'll have enough TP to keep up with dragoons and their Pentas....so I can chain Jinpu from it, or Enpi to it as often as I want.

Naturally the argument comes in that DRG/SAMs will have TP coming out their ears and the SAMs will be left behind...I'll tell you in 10 levels how that fares.

[Weezingpipes]

^ I think he gets it!

Anyway I don't think Samurai will be left in the dust even post 60 by a DRG/SAM, the skillchain versatility is still better 60+. Polearms just can't do that many chains compared to GK.

[krycis]

Unless all you're going to do is chain out of, or into, Lightning or Light pools (or darkness for Penta). =)