User:Gregedor/GuideArmor

Armor
 This is where the real art of choosing your setup begins. Your weapon is an enabler, at endgame each one has it's place. Your armor though is interchangeable while you're in combat and you may end up having many many gear swaps on your macro page. Each build will have a different subjob in mind, different enemy you're facing, the food you're eating or even something as basic as being in a different position relative to the mob. 

Store TP
 At the core of Samurai is the ability to do rapid weaponskills. That should always be at the core of your gear setup. Contrary to what a lot of Samurai tell you, you don't want to just stack Store TP because you can. Nor do you want to have too little in favor of another stat like STR. Getting to weaponskills fast allows for more skillchains and more damage. Remember samurai damage is often 50% or more from weaponskills and anything you can do to add to that will improve your play.

Now, how Store TP works is it adds a % boost in TP return per hit on a mob. Pretty easy to calculate too, take base weapon return and multiply it by 1.XX where XX is the amount of Store TP you have. Samurai start with +10 and grow to having +25 at 75 just from job traits. You can then get another +10 from merits for a total of +35 with no gear on. This means a Hagun which grants you 11.5 base would give you 15.53 with +35 Store TP.

About here is where you should ask, so what? Well the so what is how many hits does it take you to do another weaponskill? Before level 50 you can't really affect this because you have no Store TP gear available to you. After level 50 you can think about different setups to optimize your TP gain.

Taking my +35 Store TP example, at 15.53 return, 100 TP takes you (100/15.53) 6.44 hits. Well you can't do a fraction of a hit, so it takes you 7 hits. Basically anything in excess of the minimum needed for 7 hits is a waste. This is where many Samurai make an error. They will either end up a few shy or many many over the number they want. So how much do I really need for a "7 hit build" on a Hagun? Well 100/7=14.29, meaning you need to get that much per hit. Since the base TP rate is 11.5, simply divide this into 14.29. You should get 1.243. Drop the 1 since that's the base rate, and you need 25 Store TP to get your 7 hit build (since you can't get 24.3 Store TP). A level 75 samurai has that much from his job traits without merits so you don't need any additional gear.

My same example works for all 450 delay weapons since Hagun is a 450 delay weapon. Here's a guide to help show the amount you need for different builds with 450 delay weapons:

9 hits - 0 Store TP

8 hits - 9 Store TP

7 hits - 25 Store TP

6 hits - 45 Store TP

5 hits - 74 Store TP

Odds are you'll never see a reasonable 5 hit build with a 450 weapon, and as a Samurai you can't do a 9 hit build past level 10. The key to remember though is that you gain nothing for extra Store TP. If you have 35 Store TP you're still taking 7 hits to get to 100% so you might as well shed some for more of another stat. Also, keep in mind that this applies to your weaponskills as well. If you take off all your Store TP on a weaponskill, then you'll need additional on your melee hits to catch up and keep your desired build.

For those at 75 with the +10 Store TP merits it should be easy to obtain the 6 hit build. I would never really sacrifice this during most situations you encounter. Some Samurai I have conversations with seem to believe having that 3% extra haste gear is more important than moving from a 7 hit to a 6 hit build. Dropping that one hit (assuming you're using your weaponskills always at 100% TP) means you're getting 15% more weaponskills. Furthermore, a weaponskill inflicts far more damage than a melee hit, so while he's gaining 3% more melee hits (and 3% more weaponskills), you're gaining 15% more weaponskills. The damage output is clearly in your favor.

For myself, I'm at max Store TP merits and therefore have +35 natural Store TP. Adding in my gear I have a total of +47 Store TP on melee hits and +42 Store TP on weaponskills. Since 45 is the 6 hit build level, this required some thinking on my part. Basically calculate the weaponskill's TP return separate and add to it the 5 melee hits following. What you come up with is 16.33 from the weaponskill and 16.9 for each melee hit, five melee hits giving a total of 84.5 TP. Well a weaponskill and 5 hits adds up to 100.8 TP! So by keeping 2 extra Store TP over the 6 hit level on my melee hits, I can safely drop it for weaponskills and still have my 6 hits to 100 TP. Like I said earlier though, you'll find a lot of Samurai having around +40 or maybe even +42 StoreTP and it's just wasteful because they're still stuck in the 7 hit range. The difference from 7 hits to 6 hits for TP might seem small, but the results are huge. 

Equipment Guidelines
 A Samurai should maintain several equipment builds. Really this is true of all melee, but for Samurai it's especially important. As discussed in the Store TP section above, you should have a desired TP build that gets you to 100% TP in 6 or 7 hits. Most of the time you want to be in this mode and sub in different gear for your weapon skills. There are times where TP build isn't necessarily as important. 

TP Build
 TP build is centered around, just that, to get TP as fast as possible. The best way to obtain this is to create a 6 hit build first. Easiest way is to get 10 Store TP from meriting so that you have 35 just standing around. If you aren't to that point yet, you can easily find 10 Store TP on the Hachiman or Shinimusha armor sets (Shinimusha Hara-Ate, Shinimusha Haidate). Now from the 35 Store TP point, it is easy to reach a 45 Store TP point. 10 Store TP can easily come from a Rajas Ring and Hachiman Sune-Ate. Now if you don't have access to these pieces you can easily add up the other gear to get your desired level of Store TP.

Now beyond getting that desired level of Store TP, what do you look for in the TP Build? It's not strength! You should be looking for accuracy and attack and maybe dexterity. On individual melee hits you get no real benefit for any other stats. One of the most important pieces is Haubergeon, you should not pass this up. Stop at 59 or 60 and get the money to buy one. Now when samurai hit 70 I've watched a lot of them sell it for Hachiman Domaru and wear that all the time (and it's not for Store TP because they still don't hit a 6 hit build and you get 7 hit build by default at 75). This just makes me sad. Nothing on that piece helps you hit the mob, hit the mob harder, or obtain more critical hits. Haubergeon does all three. If your 6 hit build includes the Hachiman Domaru...find another way to get your 6 Store TP because Haubergeon is probably the most important piece of equipment samurai can wear.

Ochiudo's Kote is another highly prized piece. I'm not saying you need to cough up all that money at level 34, but you should include this item in your long-term plans. +20 attack is about the largest boost to your melee hits you will find. Now if you need Hachiman Kote to hit your TP level, then I guess you have to pass on these, but if you don't have to use hachiman then get this item. Another good substitue is Saotome Kote with 10 attack.

Beyond this use your better judgement to find the amount of accuracy you need and put the rest on attack gear. I would shoot for enough accuracy to eat meats in xp parties, eating meat with many pieces of accuracy gear on will give you better damage than eating sushi with several attack pieces on. The exception to this is those Mamool parties. All the Mamool Ja camps feature such easy to hit mobs as THF and NIN...crap. Here I normally grab the sushi no matter what and perhaps drop a few accuracy pieces for more attack.

Meditate Gear
 Another thing I've watched occasionally is samurai storing their Myochin Kabuto with all their AF. This is just wrong! Unfortunately for samurai you can't store your AF (unless you have AF+1 helm). The reason being that your Myochin Kabuto stacks with the Saotome Kote. Use them together! This means that you will get anywhere from 140-180 TP on your meditate. Without one or the other you're going to get 120-140 TP. There's nothing more important to samurai than getting TP. Make a macro for these pieces and don't remove it. Simple macro is:

/equip Head "Myochin Kabuto"

/equip Hands "Saotome Kote"

/ja "Meditate" 

/wait 2.0 (1.0 isn't enough sometimes, especially in lag. Could do a fraction like 1.8)

/equip Head "Melee headpiece"

/equip Hands "Melee handpiece"

You could break this into just a /equip /equip /meditate and change gear back in your normal swap macros, but this is much faster and no chance to slip up. Don't melee in your AF helm. Please, please don't. I've seen it before so don't laugh. Even if you have the Myochin Kabuto +1 it's no better. They don't even add a melee stat! Be smart, keep these for meditate but don't wear them 24/7. For those worried about not having Saotome Kote, it's a very common drop from Dynamis - Bastok, just put in some time with a linkshell to get the piece. My linkshell will get anywhere from 2 to 6 of these (yes we got 6 once) in one run. Since we have 4 actual samurai and about 3 that play around with the job, and we do at least one Bastok a month, it shouldn't take long to get one.

Weaponskill Gear
 Now where we went for all accuracy and attack on TP build gear we want to go for STR, STR and more STR on weaponskill gear. Yeah, attack is good too, but since the last 3 Great Katana weaponskills all have 75% STR modifier, adding 1 STR is worth (just eyeballing these numbers) about 4-5 attack. Keep this in mind when structuring your gear. If you have Ochiudo's Kote and Hachiman Kote go with Ochiudo's for weaponskills. If however you get something like Myochin Kote +1, then I'd say it's a toss up. Personally I went with the AF+1 over my O.kote.

For SAM/WAR, SAM/NIN and anything else not SAM/THF, keep accuracy in mind. Samurai weaponskills are one hit by and large (exceptions are Enpi and Jinpu). If you miss you do 0. It's not like Rampage where you can miss a few and still get some damage and the skillchain. Haubergeon for this reason is good to keep on even though Hachiman Domaru has more STR. The 4.5 more accuracy (2 raw and 2.5 from added DEX) and the additional attack go a long way. Similarly, I typically use a Potent Belt over Warwolf Belt. I sacrifice 2 STR but gain 8 accuracy and will rarely miss. The Shura gear is also great since it gives STR and accuracy on the head and legs pieces. Even on SAM/THF accuracy will come into play when you're splitting sneak attack and trick attack. For Trick Attacks you still want that healthy amount of accuracy so that you don't miss. Trick Attack adds no damage, but will keep you safe and the tank in control so make sure you land it. More on playing SAM/THF will be in the tactics section.

For a Sneak Attack weaponskill, don't worry about accuracy. You're achieving an automatic critical hit, so go for as much STR as you can pile on. One exception to this rule is the Brutal Earring. Keep this piece of gear on at all times. 5% Double Attack is going to get you TP faster and has a chance of activating even on weaponskills. When on SAM/WAR that gives you 15% Double Attack and makes for some nice weaponskills. On SAM/THF this can make for some extreme weaponskills. 1300 Tachi: Gekko on Kirin is definitely achievable (and has gotten me killed several times). Yes, 5% isn't a very high activation rate on SAM/THF and if you only do 10 WS it might never go off. Over time though it's 5% more damage and when it does land you'll know it, lol.

One item there is much contention over is to use a sea gorget or a sea torque. I personally do not own a Justice Torque. I do have the Snow Gorget and Light Gorget. So I have to compare my numbers to a friend's numbers and his gear isn't my gear, and it kind of doesn't work right. What I can say is that neither piece is wrong. The real contention is how much does the gorget actually add. We all know what the torque does, it's spelled out in the item description. Gauging the gorget has been done purely on damage parses. Endless tests on rabbits though (as I see far too often) is not the right answer. Murdering the poor bunnies that you have long since capped your attack on renders the torque useless while the gorget still adds damage. If and when I get both I'll test on some real targets. For now my money says that these are virtually the same. Don't melee in your gorget though, remember to take it off again! </P><BR>

The Haste Build
 Ok the haste build. I'm sure everyone has been expecting it, what job isn't on the Haste bandwagon. If you troll the internet though you'll find countless boards that feel haste is wasted on any job that doesn't dual wield. This is flat wrong. Hagun is a 450 delay weapon and if you throw up Hasso it falls to 405 and with 13% haste gear (as I currently have) it's 356. Telling me that doing the same damage and same TP in 356 delay that you do normally in 450 isn't worth it is just nonsense.

The key to the samurai haste build, as opposed to any other class, is you just can't wrecklessly throw on all the haste you want. Remember the 6 hit TP build will give you 15% more weaponskills and will always be worth more than the meager 2% or 3% haste you might gain from putting another piece in that slot. Build your haste gear around your TP build. For my TP build I only need 4 pieces with Store TP: Chivalrous Chain, Brutal Earring, Rajas Ring and Hachiman Sune-Ate. This leaves plenty of slots left for haste gear.

Ok the easiest two to realize are the Walahra Turban and Byakko's Haidate. I've been told time and time again that I shouldn't wear Byakko's Haidate on samurai. 15 Dexterity and 5% haste is the absolute best piece you can put in that slot for your TP build. The best! These two pieces alone already grant 10% haste. I honestly wouldn't worry about a haste build until you get these two pieces since they give you the largest bonuses.

From here you have a choice. Either put haste in the hands slot and keep Store TP in the feet slot, or put haste in the feet slot and Store TP in the hands slot. To me, this isn't a debate, but some samurai think it is. The haste pieces in question are Dusk Gloves and Fuma Sune-Ate (or Dusk Ledelsens). Both give 3% haste, but dusk gloves actually give you some attack! Remember my TP Build discussion earlier? If it's not accuracy or attack (or DEX to a lesser degree) it doesn't matter for melee hits. Agility has no place on your samurai for meleeing. My opinion then is keep the Hachiman Sune-ate and get the Dusk Gloves. What of Ochiudo's Kote and keeping Hachiman Sune-Ate? Well then you're back to a 7 hit build. What of Hachiman Kote and Dusk Ledelsens then? You get more haste and attack from the Dusk Gloves so why would you reverse the two? The only time is a non-450 GKT (i.e. relic which is 437) because then you need more than the +5 Store TP from Hachiman Sune-ate.

The only real slot left then is belt to get more haste: Swift Belt or Speed Belt. When all said and done you should have around 17-19% haste on. Couple this with hasso and your attacks are hasted 27-29%. But notice, you still kept the 6 hit build! You can still get 2% more haste with the new Usukane Sune-Ate and retain all your TP gain AND gain attack and accuracy. Holy cow!! It won't be easy to get though, I'm now 2/3 on the pieces after 6 months of Salvage.

There, when all is said and done you can get 6 hit build AND 21% haste (31% after hasso). This takes a 450 delay Hagun down to 326. Slap on the haste spell and double march and you're talking a 225 delay Great Katana. You can spin that two-hander faster than PLD do a Company Sword, lol. That would be wonderful to see. I'm getting close, still need a belt and the Usukane feet to top me off.</P><BR>

SAM/RNG
 SAM/RNG is a different beast from anything else. Here you have to have both a good melee setup, a good WS setup and a good ranged setup. For TP building/meleeing it is the exact same as you would do with any other subjob. Perhaps you can get away with a few less accuracy due to being /RNG. For WS (if you need to use a GKT WS instead of bow) it's the same setup as being /WAR. So for this section I'm only going to talk about your ranged gear.

Ok at low levels you can get by with some ranged accuracy rings and a good bow, Beater's Earring for good measure. The difference in skill levels between your C+ bow and a Ranger's A- skill isn't that significant yet. At the merit level, however, you need some serious help. I wouldn't even consider using SAM/RNG at 75 unless you have at least a few of the following key pieces:

Armor:
 * Optical Hat
 * Seiryu's Kote
 * Hachiman Domaru / Kirin's Osode
 * Dusk Trousers
 * Amemet Mantle +1
 * Merman's Ring / Behemoth Ring
 * Peacock Charm / Light Gorget

Weapons:


 * Shigeto Bow
 * Soboro Sukehiro

Wow! That's some serious accuracy gear! You'll need every bit of it. Samurai archery skill caps at 230, 246 with max merits. A level 75 ranger is at 269 skill, 285 with merits and instead of the 22 accuracy boost you get from /RNG, the full RNG gets 44 accuracy! So...naked samurai is roughly 268+AGI/2... naked RNG is 329+AGI/2... hmm I think we have some work to do.

Do not fear though! Samurai have higher STR, better access to STR gear and one awesome bow (Shigeto Bow). Yeah it's not a Eurytos' Bow but it's good. You certainly cannot go wrong with just stacking on more and more accuracy though. Only in Cadaerva Mire can you reach the point that you don't want to be eating sushis, otherwise put your meats away and bring on the fish. Since that's the case, tone down the accuracy in some key locations to maximize your damage on those Sidewinders. Where? Well the back piece is the first obvious one. Amemet Mantle +1 nets you 15 attack and 2 STR for starters. Now, if you decided to get a Jaeger Mantle (+20 ranged accuracy, -10 ranged attack) that is going to hurt your damage, but effectively combines two accuracy pieces into one slot so that you can potentially gain some more STR/AGI/attack elsewhere. I don't have one yet, but this can be a good alternative approach. Generally though you're not getting accuracy here so get the Amemet Mantle and up your damage.

Your body is another normal spot. You can either go with Hachiman Domaru which is 8 STR and 8 accuracy. Yes, it's weaponskill accuracy, but for now let's only focus on those Sidewinders. Your other option here is Kirin's Osode which will give you 10 STR and 10 AGI and be a huge damage boost. The AGI also gives roughly 5 ranged accuracy and makes this essentially only 3 less accuracy than Hachiman.

The feet slot is a good place to gain damage as well. There are no real good accuracy pieces here. Either go with cheaper Hachiman Sune-Ate which nets 2 STR and 2 accuracy or if you're Hume, Marine M Boots give you 3 STR and 2 AGI and are really the best option. Tarutaru samurai can enjoy Creek M Clomps for 4 STR. Your normal Rutter Sabatons you're using for melee WS are 3 STR and a decent alternative as well.

Rings give you a bit of flexibility as well. You can have 2xSTR rings or 2xAccuracy rings or one of each, which is what I prefer most times. Rajas Ring is nice to have here since the additional Store TP nets me 22 TP returned, which is no slouch. This is especially key on Barrage, which I'll get to later.

Everywhere else it's best to grab the most accuracy you can. You have no excuse for not having certain items. Things like your Shigeto Bow, Beater's Earring, Merman's Rings, Optical Hat, Seiryu's Kote you have no business trying to merit as SAM/RNG without. No really, if you don't have at least those pieces you're going to miss so much to make it not worth being SAM/RNG. Just go back to being SAM/WAR and hold off until you have the gear to make it work. Parties should not be willing to take a SAM/RNG that doesn't have the gear to make it happen. Wiff-fests went out the door back at level 55. What parties don't normally know, is that properly geared and in the proper camps you will exceed your SAM/WAR damage.

Ok earlier I said I'd talk about Barrage, well here we are! For RNG, Barrage is normally a significant amount of damage, sometimes even equal to a Sidwinder. I have found for SAM this isn't the case. Pile on that accuracy gear, all of it. STR and AGI will still modify your damage, but it's more important that you get all 4 hits to land than to squeeze a bit more out of 2 or 3 landing. Where you'll notice this most is your TP. If you do a sidewinder for around 20 TP and then land all 4 barrage shots you can easily be at 100 TP again and ready for more sidewinder. Since this is the case, keep some of that Store TP gear on. Key items for that are Rajas Ring and Hachiman Sune-Ate. Everywhere else you can get accuracy gear. Body you might be tempted to have on that Hachiman Domaru, which is certainly not wrong, but the 8 accuracy doesn't count on regular arrow shots, only on sidewinder. Kirin's Osode is the better choice here, or Kyudogi if you can afford it.

One slot I haven't mentioned that is getting some attention recently is the Waist. Your Warwolf Belt is always an option, but the enmity is going to get you killed (kinda like it does on SAM/WAR). Royal Knight's Belt +1 is always a good option. It has 2 STR, 2 AGI and the attack...never really matters now since you're always in ToAU areas for merits. CoP Dynamis gives the Saotome Koshi-Ate which is a great accuracy option and Assault has the Precise Belt as a buyable reward. The just released Einherjar has the cream of the crop though. 15,000 points (a long time unfortunately) nets you Buccaneer's Belt. It has STR, it has accuracy...it even gives enmity down! Don't even think of something else if you have this.

If you haven't caught on by now, SAM/RNG boils down to your gear. If you cannot hit about +60 ranged accuracy in your gear, I wouldn't come SAM/RNG. If you do surpass this mark, and eat sushi, your archery will be on par with your Great Katana accuracy. This is becuase on your GKT setups you've usually traded a lot of that accuracy for haste or attack gear. Another key enabler is the Soboro Sukehiro. It makes a VAST difference in the performance of SAM/RNG.

If the situation arises that you have to act like a full RNG (i.e. no meleeing) there's a few pieces left. You can either do Fire Staff and still use Hasso, or you can go with Trailer's Kukri and a Tatami Shield. The times you need this are limited indeed, but some examples might be kited mobs, or mobs that spam AoE such as Faust. Treat the rest of your gear like it's barrage time, and pile on the accuracy and/or ranged attack. There is no reason you can't get enough accuracy to make it viable, and while your sidewinder is weaker you'll do more of them than a normal RNG.</P><BR>

Sample Loadouts
 Wow, I've gotten a lot of feedback lately. Some of which are from SAMs who I respect very much. I was surprised they were learning from me. =P Anyways, this section appears to be highly anticipated. What does the Gregedor use? What is the best possible? Hopefully I can fill that in in this section. If you'd rather journey on your own using the guidelines I posted above, then skip this section. Otherwise...enjoy!</P><BR>

Melee/TP Build
 Well that's what I wear. There is just enough Store TP to ensure that I keep a 6 hit TP build and enough accuracy to ensure I'm hitting. I have 13% haste gear in this configuration and 10% more for Hasso. Depending on what I'm fighting I switch out the life belt for a Swordbelt +1. Improvements I'm working on are Swift Belt or Speed Belt and Usukane Sune-Ate. Down the road I plan on getting a sea linkshell to get a Justice Torque.

In the end what that does is boost you to 19 or 21% haste, 304 Great Katana skill and enough Store TP for a 6 hit build. At the moment, I can't think of a better setup to go with for TP build, other than +1 items. I'm right on the cusp of the Usukane Sune-Ate, I've done the boss I need 11 times now so he's got to drop the piece at some point. I think that will make the largest performance leap of all the items I'm missing. The only X factor to saying for certain that's the best build, is if someone has the entire Usukane Haramaki Set. Since nobody does, we don't know the haste boost on the set. If it is a large enough boost it might be worth considering wearing the whole set. Somehow I doubt that will be the case, since it would have to be about 10% to tempt me. Closest I've seen on my server is someone with two pieces. However, it's a lot of luck since my LS is getting about a 7% drop rate on the level 35 pieces and there is no telling what zone bosses are going to drop as shown by my 0/11 on the 25 Usukane feet. So while the guy with two pieces is obviously fairly wealthy and dedicated, it's almost random as to when the items will come.</P><BR>

Weaponskill Gear
 So for weaponskills I get rid of all the haste gear and even some Store TP. The key on losing the Store TP, as I mentioned earlier, is that you have enough in your normal melee setup to compenstate for 1 of your 6 hits generating a point or two less TP. Losing the haste is of no consequence on a weaponskill. However, putting it back on quickly is important so that your next swing isn't burdened by being slower.

There's more STR gear I could get, but this setup has 0 enmity and still maintains good accuracy. The enmity is important actually, especially if you have enmity+ merits from being another job. Accuracy is also good, especially if you aren't eating sushi. As I said earlier Samurai weaponskills are basically single hit and prone to missing.

Improvements here would be Forager's Mantle, Ifrit's Bow, and Usukane Hizayoroi. Now if you go with the Usukane though, you're giving up the accuracy on Shura so I'm not so sure I'd do that on a regular basis. I would have to factor in what I'm fighting, my food, which belt I put on, etc. </P><BR>

SATA Gear
 For Sneak Attack weaponskills you don't need to worry about accuracy. You don't really need to worry about attack as much either since you are getting a free critical hit. Some might be asking, why the Brutal Earring? Well it is true that it only activates 5% of the time. Over time though that means you essentially gained around 2.5% damage. This is more than you get out of having a Triumph Earring equipped full time. Fenrir's Earring might be something worth considering, but only during the day time so you have to concious of the clock and adjust your gear accordingly.

Improvements here are much the same as in the previous section. Forager's Mantle, Usukane Hizayoroi, Ifrit's Bow are all worth wearing. The loss of Shura Haidate's accuracy won't be a factor here.</P><BR>

Sidewinder Gear
 I went over SAM/RNG gear pretty thoroughly earlier. It really stresses you out though trying to find the optimal balance between accuracy and damage. Just accept the fact that you will never do more damage than a ranger, but strive to do it more often. You can see some of my trade offs above, such as one ring is damage (and some important Store TP) and the other is accuracy.

Improvements I would make here are fairly minimal. I'd get my own pair of Marine boots since I'm borrowing them at the moment. I'd join Einherjar and work up the points for a Buccaneer's Belt, that's a real no brainer. In the meantime my Dynamis LS has moved into dreamlands so I can get a Saotome Koshi-Ate to tide me over. You could get Behemoth Ring for one more accuracy, but that's hardly a world shattering improvement.</P><BR>

Barrage Gear
 For barrage's I'm trying hard to hit all four arrows. The goal isn't so much damage as it is another method of getting TP. With barrage on a five minute timer, which matches sharpshot, I only use them in tandem to boost my accuracy further. Since I did change out my Rajas Ring with a Merman's Ring I had to put the Hachiman Sune-Ate back on to keep enough Store TP to make me happy. In a perfect world, barrage would then give 84% TP returned. If you just used Sidewinder you have 20% already so it gives just enough for another weaponskill. Normally only 2-3 arrows land though so perhaps the 5 Store TP isn't as important to you. For me I have no other real feet pieces to be wearing right now except my borrowed Marine M Boots.

Improvments to this setup would be Hope Torque or Peacock Charm, Buccaneer's Belt, Behemoth Rings, Kyudogi. Kyudogi only gets you two more accuracy over the Kirin's Osode, but it does give you a few more attack as well. It's the better piece, but for the price it's only a marginal improvement.</P><BR>

Tanking Gear
 The gear above would be for a straight-tanking situation. Samurai have a decent evasion skill though and with /NIN could always play it the other way with going heavy in evasion gear or even some parry gear. I can toss that setup in later. For straight tanking though you think like a Paladin except that you have very different gear access. Samurai's top end tanking gear ends up being the Kirin's Osode Set rather than any kind of abjuration or Salvage gear.

As SAM/WAR you have provoke to help maintain some bit of control and hopefully you're still hitting the monster for decent damage on weaponskills. It really doesn't work for long durations though without a THF or /THF trick attacking you. Anyhow, with the setup above and a Protect V I'm hitting around 430 defense which is about 537 with defender on and even more with food. This is hardly slacking. True it might not be the 600 or so a Paladin is used to seeing, but if you've invested in this gear it's probably more than the warrior or ninja is going to have since they're focused into other aspects of their job.

Now this isn't a complete story though. For the rings there are a multitude of things you can have here. I just showed Flame Ring because it has some defense and BQ ring because of the HP. You can always keep accuracy rings (Woodsman Rings though, don't give up defense with Snipers) or you can get Jelly Ring/Defending Ring to cut damage taken. There's more HP to get too with Bloodbead Ring. With the proper gear a Hume Samurai can hit around 1500 health and then boost it to 1600 or more with food. This is about as good as a Paladin and better than most Ninja I've seen.

Which brings up another possibility entirely, you can wear Arhat's Gi +1 and take a 9% damage reduction that way rather than the 52 defense on Osode similar to how most ninja tank things. Personally I use tanking gear so infrequently, and normally only because I've pulled hate I don't want, that it's not worth investing a whole lot more into the gear.

For those that are adventurous though, I've heard of SAM/WAR tanking sky gods like Seiryu and Genbu. This is probably the limit though, I wouldn't think a Samurai wants to try and straight tank Fafnir or something. Oh, and Seigan is a must! That's what kinda of makes up for otherwise lackluster tanking abilities.</P><BR> <BR>