SAM -physical damage taken build

To start off, here is a potential equipment setup:

MAIN: Earth Staff (-20%) or Terra's Staff (-20%)
HEAD: Arhat's Jinpachi+1 (-6%)
BODY: Arhat's Gi+1 (-9%)
HANDS: Darksteel Mittens+1 (-2%)
LEGS: Gavial Cuisses+1 (-4%)
FEET: Gavial Greaves+1 (-3%)
RING: Jelly Ring (-5%)
RING: Defending Ring (-10%)
*note: I do realize that the advertised damage reduction percentages are not the actual damage reduction you received in the game. However, for sake of simplicity, I am using those "rounded" numbers. I may explain this in a later post, but for now, you will have to take this on my word unless you decide to go research or do your own testing.

As it stands, there are two things wrong with this. First, the total damage reduction is 59%, which is over the 50% cap. Second, while the defending ring is really nice, it is unrealistic to obtain, due to the rarity. Considering those two things, we can leave out the ring and then our total reduction is -49%. This is pretty significant, as we can do a few things to this setup. First, we can add even more enmity past the +6 enmity on the minimal set for better hate. Samurai has a decent access to enmity gear (especially the Arhat's set). However, with the Earth Staff, most likely some additional hate planting will be necessary. Second, we can also add more defense gear with the slots left over. Then we have more damage mitigation through job abilities, such as Defender and Seigan+Third Eye. While I do not think this will enable many Samurai to safely tank every single HNM out there, I think it would be enough to allow for them to tank the majority of Sky HNMs as well as other smaller HNM.

Obtaining the gear set
Surprisingly, this is a relatively cheap set. As of this writing date, here are the pricing on Titan server:
Earth Staff (30,000g) or Terra's Staff (590,000g)
Arhat's Jinpachi+1 (250,000g)
Arhat's Gi+1 (500,000g)
Darksteel Mittens+1 (200,000g) (approx)
Gavial Cuisses+1 (see below)
Gavial Greaves+1 (see below)
Jelly Ring (rare/ex)
Defending Ring (rare/ex)

On Titan server, I'm not even sure if the HQ of Gavial Cuisses and Gavial Greaves still exists. However, each synth costs about 10,000g so synthing 100 of each in hope of getting HQ is not unrealistic nor expensive. Excluding the cost of the Gavial Cuisses/Greaves and using Terra Staff, the total cost is still below 1 million gil. This is an easy and "cheap" set to obtain with the exception of the Defending Ring which can be omitted.


Progress
Currently, this is not high on my priority so I only have the Jelly Ring and Earth Staff. However, I may attempt to farm and buy the pieces (except Gavial Cuisses/Greaves) over the course of the next 2 months. Once I obtain the full set or almost all of it, I'd like to attempt tanking a variety of HNMs, especially Faust (which is traditionally tanked by paladins, but I have seen warriors and ninjas tank it on several occasions). Perhaps if I have the time, I may do comparisons with paladins on the damage taken overall. I do have high hopes for this setup like the parry build, and would like the actual proof to back it up.