Samurai Subjobs

Samurai/Warrior

SAM/WAR is the most common combination when you're levelling Samurai up until 60. The Provoke ability of the Warrior is often used by the Samurai to take hate off the tank when he/she is in danger. The Berserk ability also gives Samurais that extra oomph with each hit, and with weapon skills. It's recommended that you use Berserk before you do a weapon skill, if it's available. At 50, when Double Attack becomes available, the Warrior sub becomes a way to boost TP quickly with Double Attack.

In parties after 30, when Thieves gain the ability to stack Sneak Attack and Trick Attack (SATA), Samurais are often used as the first provoker (first voke) in parties when a THF is present. The Samurai will provoke at the beginning of the fight so that the Thief can line up behind the main tank and use SATA to do high damage and pull hate onto the tank.

If there is a Thief in your party, expect to do a lot of weapon skills as a SATA partner, most commonly Tachi: Enpi » Viper Bite = Distortion. This provides an Ice or Water magic burst opportunity, and makes use of some of the strongest weapon skills.

At end-game, SAM/WAR again becomes a strong sub-job choice as merits and end-game gear can push this job to higher damage limits.

Samurai/Ninja

Samurais subbing Ninja don't have access to their full damage potential. Utsusemi abilities (shadows), however, give you the ability to take a lot more damage. Fighting solo, in small parties without a real tank or for HNM battles.

Linkshells may also ask you to sub Ninja in many other situation where it's important to conserve MP. Although they don't tank, Samurais pull hate quite a bit, usually just for a couple of hits. Shadows allow you to withstand this without losing too much HP, allowing healers to save their MP and not waste time healing you.

Thus, Ninja is an essential subjob for Samurai. (My real-life wife plays this game with me, and she's mainly on mage jobs, so she'll thank me for saying this:) Mages like melee that can take care of themselves. Obviously as a melee you want to do all of the damage you can, but it's also important to be a team player. In this game, most things are group-focused. If you're doing huge amounts of damage on a mob that you can't kill on your own, you'll end up tanking. Samurai is a lousy job for tanking, so you'll take damage. If you do, you require healing, and you quickly become an MP sponge. Mages don't like that, and since your job generally depends on them, it's best to stay on their good sides, OK?.

Samurai/Ninja also has the advantage of having two blink-like abilities. Utsusemi and Third Eye (with Seigan) do not stack, but they offer a backup when shadows run out. This also has the benefit of protecting the Samurai when suffering from Silence or Amnesia. It's important to note, though, that Seigan gives a 50% increase to all magic recast times, including Ninjitsu, and doubles casting time. As a result, it's better to use Seigan as a back-up in an emergency, rather than to rely on it.

In TP Burn parties, subbing NIN might be a good option if there's no clear tank in your party, or if you're among other Samurais. That way, you can do your weapon skills early on and stay alive while others follow through with their skills. Usually mobs are killed quite quickly in TP Burn parties so a tank isn't quite as important — but since most of the better Samurai gear sacrifices defensive traits, having shadows is not a bad idea. This kind of setup is more common for merit parties at 75.

Samurai/Thief

SAM/THF is not a very useful combination until you reach level 60. Before that, SAM/WAR is more common and provides more benefits. Get your thief up to 37 anyways, though, because once you turn 60, most parties will prefer that you sub Thief*.

The best thing about SAM/THF is Sneak Attack/Trick Attack (SATA). SATA should be used before weapon skills at least once per fight to maximize your damage. Add SATA to your macros as follows (substitute whatever WS you are using):

/p Using SATA and Tachi: Yukikaze Now!
/ja "Sneak Attack" <me>
/wait 1
/ja "Trick Attack" <me>
/wait 1
/ws "Tachi: Yukikaze" <t>


Samurais who are subbing Thief don't get quite as much benefit off of Trick Attack as a true Thief does (damage isn't multiplied, only hate is transferred), but it's still useful. I would recommend creating multiple macros for the Weapon Skills you are using &8212; one with SATA, one with Sneak Attack only (for when you don't want to transfer hate or don't have a SATA partner), and one without any SA or TA abilities at all (for use when SATA isn't up, or you want to save it).

If you have Thief subbed but aren't using SATA to control hate, you only need to use Sneak Attack when performing Weapon Skills. Sneak Attack will up your damage making your Weapon Skill critical, and will almost never miss. However, Trick Attack will do nothing except transfer hate to the person in front of you, if there is one. Don't waste time with TA if you aren't using it.

(*Ok, I originally wrote this way back, before TP-burn parties. EXP parties used to be highly dependant on SATA, with either a THF or a /THF job doing most of the damage this way. Nowadays, with less focus on weapon skills, and in Level Sync parties, it's less common that you'll be asked to sub Thief. Still, it's a good idea to know how to do this, because there are some instances in which it's still used. Some Sky god strategies, for instance, focus on spike damage with SATA.)

Subbing Thief has the added benefit of Treasure Hunter, which increases the drop rate of items. This is great for you when soloing or farming, and for both you and your party. The Steal ability of the Theif also helps you, especially when you can steal Silver and Gold Beastcoins from Goblins and other Beastmen. There's good Gil to be made in EXP parties in the later levels with this ability.

Samurai/Ranger

Samurai/Ranger is another option. Samurais have good Archery ratings, and with the potential damage of the Sidewinder weapon skills in high levels, coupled with the fast TP gain of a Samurai make SAM/RNG a solid choice.

Samurais using a Ranger sub often use the Soboro Sukehiro great katana. This GK ocassionally hits 2–3 times, which builds TP quickly. Although this great katana does less damage than some of the end-game weapons, most of the damage dealt by a SAM/RNG comes from Archery weapon skills anyways. The Soboro is a rare/exclusive level 50 GK that drops from the Unstable Cluster in Riverne - Site B01.

(This used to be better, before Square Enix changed how Ranged Attacks work. You used to be able to stand directly in front of the mob with your Soboro and fire weapon skills without moving. Now, you need to be standing back, out of melee range, in order to do the most damage with a ranged attack.)

Samurai/Dancer

Samurai's natural ability to earn TP and Dancer's ability to use it to heal yourself makes this a great combo for situations where you need to be self-sufficient. SAM/DNC is your best bet when doing Campaign, for example, where you can't rely on anyone else, unless you've gone with a party.

Leveling Dancer to 37 is worth it for Campaign alone, because you can earn a lot more EXP/Limit Points there if you stay alive — and as a Samurai, you definitely want to earn many merit points.

Samurai/White Mage

White Mage is not your everday subjob choice, but many endgame Linkshells will ask you to go SAM/WHM when fighting HNMs. In large groups where you're probably not pulling hate, but taking a lot of AoE damage, subbing White Mage lets you take care of yourself, since you're not a priority for the pure mages in your group. You also have the ability to cast Stoneskin on yourself, reducing the damage you take.

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