User:Gregedor/GuideSampleGear

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!

Melee/TP Build
Well that's what I wear. There is enough Store TP to ensure that I keep a 6 hit TP build and enough accuracy to ensure I'm hitting. I have 15% haste gear in this configuration and 10% more for Hasso. Depending on what I'm fighting I switch out the swordbelt for a Life Belt. Improvements I'm working on are Swift Belt or Speed Belt for normal use and a Saotome Koshi-Ate to replace the life belt. I've started sea and currently I am top tier for a Justice Torque so I hope to have that soon. Also my Assault static is slowly transitioning to Nyzul Isle since we're Captain rank and I'll go for a Askar Zucchetto. Ace's Helm is better, but it's a pain in the butt, and doesn't look as good.

The only X factor to saying for certain this is the best build, is if someone has the entire Usukane Haramaki Set. Someone on Quetzalcoatl recently acquired a complete set. The haste boost is 5% making wearing the full set 13% haste and I currently have 15% haste. This is pretty close so the question is do the stats on that set make for better damage than on this loadout. My gut is saying no. However, when you add up all the stats (converting STR to Atk and DEX to Acc), my current build on those 5 pieces is 30 Atk, 40 Acc and 15% Haste. If I get Askar head that moves to 34 Atk, 44 Acc and 14% Haste. The full Usukane set is 33 Atk, 49 Acc, 13% Haste. It's all a very very fine balancing act to find the best and I think would have to come down to parsing.

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, Forager's Mantle, Ifrit's Bow, and Usukane Hizayoroi being the main improvements. The only trouble I have with getting a Forager's Mantle right now is that it's 800,000 gil for only 1 STR improvment. I also have to keep my Amemet around for SAM/RNG so I don't recoup any cost either. I'm not at the point that it's worth it for me.

SATA Gear
For Sneak Attack weaponskills, my setup is essentially the same. With the two-hand update and max GKT merits my SAM/WAR is accurate enough to not need much additional accuracy. For SATA you don't really need to worry at all about accuracy and attack to a lesser degree from STR because you get 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. 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.

Usukane Sune-Ate are listed here becasue they give decent stats for weaponskills, but they have 5 enmity. If the TA portion of your SATA is really needed, pop on more enmity and help that tank out. Improvements here are much the same as in the previous section. Forager's Mantle, Usukane Hizayoroi, Ifrit's Bow are all worth wearing.

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.

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, Peacock Charm, or Sniper's Collar. Also Buccaneer's Belt, Behemoth Rings, and a 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.

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.

Legs perhaps has the most diversity. Here you can use Dusk Trousers which have the most defense and HP. You could use Byakko's Haidate maintaining some haste and decent defense. Relic pants (Saotome Haidate} aren't a bad deal either with decent defense and some HP plus the improved Third Eye. Lastly there's Myochin Haidate +1 with good defense, VIT, some HP and 10 parrying skill.

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. SAM/WAR has also tanked Chariots in Salvage, but this is highly risky since Third Eye failing you here is a 250-350 damage shot to the face.