Samurai Gear Guide: By Ashmada

Samurai : a gear discussion 

0. Why this guide ?
- Because over and over again, I see Samurai making poor gear choices. - Because, although there are many gear guides around, most are based on opinions more than facts. In this guide, I will try to back up all my statements by maths (which I'll produce on the talk page if asked). Should I include my opinion, I'll mention it. - Because some guides have a very limited scope. - Because most guides tell you either to "use this" or "not use this", but with little detail. This does not mesh well with all the situational gear we have. - Because it's pretty fun for some of us, to look at gear stats and map out the possible uses :P.

1. Subjobs.
Although this is strictly a gear guide (your playstyle's entirely up to you), I need to have a quick word about subjobs, as some require SJ-specific gear. I'll be brief, and I won't include ability lists with comments about each ; I loathe those and you don't need my help to know, for instance, that /NIN is mainly about Utsusemi, not Stealth.

This section is, by nature, partly opinionated.

1.1 SAM/WAR.
An old staple, /WAR is useful from level 30 all the way to 75. At 75, /DRG should usually be used with GKs, /WAR with Polearms; although there are exceptions to that rule.

No SJ-specific gear.

1.2 SAM/DRG.
/DRG is useful from level 20 all the way to 75. At some levels it falls behind /WAR. As I said above, by the time you're 75 and meritted, this is the main GK sub.

SJ-specific gear : Wyvern Earring.

1.3 SAM/NIN.
This sub is frankly overused. It's very useful to absorbs nasty AoEs from some endgame NMs, but it's a common mistake to use it in : - EXP (/WAR or /DRG) - merits (/WAR, spam Penta) - Nyzul (/WAR, spam Penta, have a Fanatic's Drink for the boss) - The Puk ISNM (Utsusemi won't buy you much time against that many Puks : if you don't trust your BRD to be quick enough go /PLD for Sentinel; otherwise /WAR+Penta again)

SJ-specific gear : none.

1.4 SAM/THF.
Mostly obsolete, /THF is still used for some specific endgame fights, depending on LSes.

SJ-specific gear : none.

1.5 SAM/DNC.
Mainly a solo/Campaign sub, /DNC grants great survivability.

SJ-specific gear : Soboro grants more TP to cure with, better returns from Drain Samba. Also getting some VIT gear to macro for Curing Waltz can extend the mileage you get from them. Don't expect great returns, though.

1.6 SAM/RNG.
The core principle is using Soboro for quick TP gain and a high D bow+Sidewinder for strong weaponskills. The sub is mostly obsolete now because you can easily reproduce that with a 5-hit Polearm build, /WAR and Penta Thrust.

SJ-specific gear : Soboro, Shigeto Bow, tons of STR/Racc/Ratk gear for Sidewinder.

2. Lexicon.
Let's all speak the same language, these are a few common abbreviations I use:

- DoT : I use this exclusively to refer to the part of your damage that comes from TPing. WS and instant-effect JAs (Jumps, Chi Blast...) are not included. - WS frequency/WS freq : how often you can theoritically use a weaponskill. - WS damage/WS dmg : the damage your individual weaponskills do. - DPS : D/Dly*60. - Haidate : Byakko's Haidate. None other. - Abjuration gear : first letter of the abjuration+slot it goes in : Shura Haidate is Dlegs, Crimson Finger Gauntlets is Whands, Armada Hauberk is Ebody+1,... - Overal damage : self-explanatory, equal to DoT+WSfreq*WSdmg+JAfreq*JAdamage.

3.1. Great Katana.
Low-level Great Katana are dependent on availlability. Don't wait for a specific weapon to become availlable at low levels, it's not too bad to use the next best thing.

The "TP Gain" columns are the time it takes to generate 100 (or more) TP, in seconds, for that weapon. The first one without any Store TP gear (but with level-appropriate traits), the second one with traits+Rajas, the third one with sufficient Store TP to make a standard 450 Delay GK 6-hit build (not always resulting in a 6-hit!).

{|class="datatable sortable" width=100% ! width="4%"|Level ! width="20%"|Name ! width="4%"|Damage ! width="4%"|Delay ! width="4%"|DPS ! width="4%"|TP gain ! width="4%"|TP gain (Rajas) ! width="4%"|TP gain (6-hit) ! width="4%"|Wrank ! width="20%"|Notes
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * 1
 * Mumeito
 * 12
 * 420
 * 1.71
 * 70
 * N/A
 * N/A
 * 1
 * Not much choice but to use what's been given to you.