Time for my once-in-every-month-post (about lolSAM)

For today I'll discuss some of the things a Samurai can do. Some people may or may not have noticed the roles Samurais can play in this game. Let's explore these roles and the extent they can fill them.
Damage Dealer
This is probably the most common and most used of them all. Samurais are best at gaining TP fast and being able to put out fairly good WS numbers at a quick pace. It is this fact which is why many seek to design 5-hit and 6-hit builds over many others. For damage-to-TP given ratio, I would say SAM are high up (bested by gun/bow RNGs, BLMs). Other than those points, I don't think SAM are anything special as a damage dealer.
Tank
This is the second most underrated role (in my opinion). There are a handful of people who do use this to the full extent. A Samurai has access to Seigan, which can be fairly reliable if used correctly. That is also supported by access to a nice set of equipment that lowers damage. A competent and well-geared Samurai can be able to tank all sorts of things like lesser HNMs, Sky Gods, alternate versions of HNMs (like Nyzul and ZNM versions), and even chariots. In another post, I will discuss more about tanking these sorts of things. As a tank, a Samurai does not really need NIN sub or a WAR sub, as they can tank purely through damage and Seigan. The one benefit of a SAM over PLD/NIN or NIN tank is that any magical AoE (either spells or TP moves based on magic) will not wipe shadows, whereas utsusemi will be wiped. On some fights, this can be a very beneficial thing.
Hate Control
With a fairly potent and accurate WS, comes the hate control with a THF sub. Samurais can use trick attack to put a nice amount of damage onto a different target and be able to keep up with the 1-minute timer. If done from behind, a Samurai has Sneak Attack which will provide a large boost to the damage. If done from the front, a Samurai has Overwhelm which can provide up to an additional 19% damage bonus from merits.
Ranged Attacker
This is one that has been seen in less and less use over time. A SAM/RNG has access to Sidewinder (the most powerful Archery WS) coupled with a C+ skill in Archery. Samurais also have some decent bows (only 3-4 bows out of the top ones are RNG only), decent selection in gear for Ranged Accuracy, and a subpar selection for Ranged Attack. They even have the ability to wield Yoichinoyumi. The benefit from being a ranged attacker is being outside the range of most AoE attacks, as well as being able to continue to attack in a kited-fight. With current strategies (such as TP-burn Kirin), this is very rarely seen nowadays.
Healer
This is the most underrated role (in my opinion), though a very niche one as well. A SAM/DNC has Curing Waltz I&II, Divine Waltz, Healing Waltz, and Drain Samba I&II. These dances consume TP which is a Samurai's forte. The biggest pitfall of a Samurai healer is it cannot keep up with spike damage (like TP moves that land for 800+ ) or for high Damage over Time. A SAM/DNC can provide as a support healer or even main heal in some low-man situations.
Soloer
Not really a role, but a Samurai can basically couple as a Healer, a Tank, and a Damage Dealer to become somewhat of a soloer. They can solo a wide variety of NMs, or even some BCNMs like Operation Desert Storm. Or if they really wanted to, they can solo chain Ts and some VTs.


Versatility
The greatest asset to a Samurai is that with proper preparation, you can easily change roles. One can easily jump from being a damage dealer to a tank by simply swapping gears and putting up Seigan (as well as gain hate if necessary). Natively, a Samurai can be a damage dealer, tank, or ranged attacker as long as they have the suitable equipment for it. Very few jobs have such a luxury as a Samurai in that regard.



Progress Report

Finally finished with the last two merits. With parrying skill done, it frees up some time, some of which I can use to finish my work with parrying and -damage taken set. I have the materials for Gavial Greaves+1 but just never had my crafter do them yet. As far as parrying goes, I still have to get Tomoe, and upgrade the AF1 legs (been sitting on Apollyon piece for some time).


Today's Random Fact
You cannot use elemental WSes to skill up on a combat skill.

The end of this chapter

Ok, perhaps I've overdone that image a bit. But I finally hit a milestone (yesterday) after pursing this for ages. It has been a long, annoying, tedious journey. Unfortunately this is incomplete, as I still have more to go with parrying. I did finish 2 more merits:
Which means 2 more to go. I also have to finish my Samurai AF1 legs upgrade for another +5 parry skill and then finally get Tomoe for +4 parry skill over the Schiltron Spear.
So currently I have:

I also modified my previous parrying post slightly, to reflect some alternatives I've used, since I noticed some of them after going over my parrying screenshots. At least this is rapidly coming to an end. Then I could start doing some tests on parrying. However, preliminary observation shows parrying not to be too promising though.

RANDOM FACT OF THE DAY
Zanshin not only kicks in for evasion, but also can kick in on a parried, shield blocked, or guarded hit.

Getting parry to skill up

As I write this, I am trying to finish up the last of my parry skill ups. I currently sit at a base skill of 254, leaving me with 15 skills to go. This was a long journey up to this point and I would be lying if I said I didn't work hard on it. If you've read one of my earlier posts, then you know my final goal for this is to reach a total skill of 327 and see what happens (Yes, my original post was 323 but with the most recent patch, there is a polearm with +10 skill now and its better in all aspects).
Before I begin, lets go over the basics of combat skill levels. For any given mob, it'll have a limit to how much skill level it will give you. This cap is the same was your cap for that job regardless of any other factors. A level 70 mob will not cap at the same skill level for a 75 Samurai on both sword and great katana (by the way, this is 215 and 251 respectively). A fine point to note is that both weapon and defensive skills work the same. That is to say numerically they are indistinguishable. A lesser known point is that they also work similarly to skilling up crafting. With crafting, it is well-known that there are 4 ranges when comparing the difference in current level and cap of the synth you are working with. The 1st is the non-skill range, where your level is higher than the cap. The 2nd is where you have low rate of skill up, where your level is close to the cap but less than the cap. The 3rd is the ideal skill up zone, where your level is a few levels off but not too much of a difference. Then you have the critical break zone where you'll break a lot. With combat skilling, its no different. The ideal zone for combat skill leveling seems to be mobs that are T-VT to your skill level (roughly 2-7 levels above). This point is important to keep in mind when skilling up anything, crafting, weapons, parrying, guarding.
Now a quick recap on what I've said in my 2nd post of this blog. When it comes to skilling parrying (or guarding), it is important to consider the fact that evasion is considered before anything else. If you evade, the game won't check (or merely don't care, but from a player's perspective, both are the same) whether or not you had parried because it doesn't matter to it. Because of this heirachy, both parrying and guarding succumb to evasion, where evasion can end up 100+ levels ahead. If you get stuck in this situation (90% of people end up like this when they want to skill up parrying), it puts you in a bit of bind, as it means higher level mobs let you evade less but you almost never parry while lower level mobs you'll evade way too much and still never parry. This is the biggest problem in capping parrying.
When choosing a mob to skill off on, I think it is more important to choose one that has the proper level range first and foremost before you choose one based on sheer number of attacks (meaning don't do Phalanx II in Den of Rancor when you're only capped for a level 60). Some people seem to forget this and it drags their parrying longer. You parry less often with the lower level mobs but you'll have more skill ups overall, thus providing for a more quality session. Remember quality over quantity!

Now for the meat of this discussion...... I've tried all kinds of variation (as well as reading countless skill up threads) and this is what I found worked best for me. These are what I've done solo (usually SAM/PLD before WoTG, SAM/DNC after WoTG), as not everyone have access to a bored RDM or a 2nd character. The points I've made above are applied to these selections. I'll break it according to different skill ranges. Everything is referred to job levels (and A- rank skill levels in parenthesis) to make this apply to a broader set of players. If you have some extra help (for example RDM with Phalanx II), then you may want to try something different, such as the infamous Den of Rancor Pucks, as these camps are selected with a solo skiller in mind.
For level 55 or less (178 A- skill) : Use CoP level-capped zones according to your current levels. It forces your evasion down, giving you more chances to land parry without killing your actual parry rate. As an alternative, you could do the same as 55-65 though it'll be slower.
For level 55-65 (178-223 A- skill) : Grab as many Mourioche as you can handle in Boyahda Tree and face them all. You'll evade decently at this level range but to make up for that, you'll have much more raw hits on you. An alternative is the Gigas in Upper Delkfutt, which is nice since some of them are Monks and they drop pops for Alkys/Pallas.
For level 65-68 (223-235 A- skill) : Grab as many Flamingoes in sky as you can. I'm not sure why this really worked well for me but I was intrigued at Maiev's blog post and it seemed to work well. I guess maybe they're more accurate or something but I had some fairly good skill ups here. I also had some skill ups farming for Air Tanks (off Hobgoblin Blaggers) at this range.
For level 68-72 (235-254 A- skill) : Grab 2 (or more) Korrigans in Boyahda Tree. You can mix in Elder Goobbues but they kinda hurt. At this point you actually can start to get a bit of Exp/Merits while doing this solo. Your parrying is starting to catch up to your evasion so things are picking up. At the early levels, Steelshells also work though I would limit to korrigans/goobbues at the end of this range.
For level 71-75 (249-269 A- skill) : I have been getting fairly great results in Mamook, with Mamool Ja Frogman and Mamool Ja Diver. The location is at (F-6) on the first map, past the Poroggos. However, you'll need decent equipment paired with good subjob if you do this solo, as the tough Divers can hurt quite a bit. If you're a NIN, you could probably even chain to #2 or #3 solo here, but I've been only having luck to chain #1 on SAM/DNC.

When it comes to equipment, you'd usually want to stack +parrying equipment, and then defense (or -phys damage taken). It will not slow down the rate at which you get skill ups. The exception is where you have a lot of monsters (like I did for Mourioches), then it might be more beneficial to have a full defense set.

Now I need to get back to my skilling while I churn out the last 14 skills needed. If anyone have things they want to see tested with parrying, let me know. I have a few things of my own I'd like to test but if I find the time I can test other people's ideas/suggestions.

RANDOM FACTOID OF THE DAY:
If you have Third Eye up, a monster cannot counter you.