Samurai Merits

Introduction
While many guides talk about gear choices, subjobs, and ways to play the job, very few has given much thought into this particular subject. Samurais have some very good Merit options to choose from, and this guide will seek to give a comprehensive explanation of the Pros and Cons of each merit category available to Samurais, in the hopes that the reader can make an informed decision when selecting his or her own merits.

I will assume that you have a basic understanding of what Merits already are. If you do not, please, visit this page: Merit Points

General Merit Categories
HP/MP: Obviously, HP is the way to go if SAM is the only job you care about. But 80 HP isn't going to make a world of difference unless you are Tarutaru, and usually people have other jobs that will determine the HP/MP merit ratio that they want. Not too much to talk about here.

Attributes: For SAM, no other stat will matter here as much as STR. Some people may be tempted to go DEX, but 5 STR will help your Weaponskill damage much more than 5 DEX will help out your accuracy. In the long run, STR is the way to go here. However, save this category for later in your meriting career. It is not exactly a breeze to merit the 39 merits needed to cap it, there are other merits that you can obtain faster that will increase your performance by much much more.

Combat Skills: A total of 10 here can be applied to both the weapon skills section and defensive skills section.


 * Weapon Skills: Great Katana is a no-brainer here. As your main weapon of choice, the GK is a high delay weapon that you do not want to miss with. In addition, each additional skill in GK = 1 acc and 1 att, making full merits +16 acc and +16 att, highly valuable. Get 8/8 GK merits. As for the remaining merits, you may have to put them toward other jobs. However, if you want to put them toward Samurai, the choices are:


 * Polearm: The secondary weapon of choice for Samurais. While a Samurai with a good polearm build can put out very high damage, and sometimes better damage than Gk depending on mob weaknesses, the relatively low skill at which it is capped forces you to put some merits into the weapon in order for it to reach maximum effectiveness. Your polearm will never be as effective as your GK on T mobs and above without adding to it's skill through either merits or equipment.


 * Archery: For those who enjoy SAM/RNG or simply being able to use demon arrows to pull mobs, Archery merits are a wise choice. Basically, the same idea from the polearm section applies here. However, due to the even lower cap for archery on SAM, you will need to compensate with merits AND gear. For more information on Samurai Archery or using SAM/RNG, go here: Samurai: Ultimate Guide by Gregedor.


 * Defensive skills: