Samurai (Final Fantasy XI)



In Final Fantasy XI, Samurai appear as one of the advanced jobs available to players who have reached level 30. The quest involved in becoming a samurai starts in the pirate city, Norg. Ultimately, characters must travel to The Sanctuary of Zi'Tah to fight a treant and then return to norg to claim his prize - a Katana. Gilgamesh also appears and gives the player the right to level up as a samurai.

Samurai in Final Fantasy XI are significantly different than their previous incarnations. They are described as demon killers and they have abilities like Warding Circle that help raise party members resistances to demons.

The real boon of the Samurai, though, is his weapon, the Great Katana, his Store TP ability that allows him to accumulate TP faster than other melee classes and his Meditate ability that will almost instantly give him 100% TP. TP in Final Fantasy XI is used to do Weapon skills and when weapon skills are done in a particular order they will make a Skillchain causing massive damage. Great Katanas are also notable in the game as being easy to make skill chains with, so the samurai can be a major force multiplier and a party player.

Samurai Abilities
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Job Abilities

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Job Traits

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Changing Role of Samurai
Originally it is thought that Square-Enix designed Samurai to be a tank who avoided damage primarily by use of parries. Parrying in Final Fantasy XI does negate all damage, but the skill extremely hard to get to a high enough level that this would be a viable option. Evidence of this theory is obvious in many of the samurai specific armors having abilities and statistics that would benefit most a tank. Samurai are now used almost exclusively as damage dealers in the game.

Strengths

 * Samurai are ideal for many First Provoke situations with Seigan and Third Eye.
 * Samurai do decent direct damage when equipped properly.
 * Original statistics that make Samurai a parrying tank still exist, should a player have the opportunity to actually level their parrying skill that high.

Weaknesses

 * Samurai is very gear dependant and the gear that makes them good at direct damage is generally expensive.
 * Samurai are not as sought out as Warriors or Ninjas.

Warrior
Warrior is one of the most common subjobs for all Samurai. This is due to high physical statistics, notably strength, and other abilities like Berserk and Double Attack that add significantly to damage over time. The majority of samurai will probably pick warrior as a subjob up to level 60. Beyond level 60, there are still many SAM/WARs due to other abilities, like Warcry but there are other subjobs that become more competitive at that point.

Thief
Thief is a common subjob after level 60 particularly because of the combination of Sneak Attack and Trick Attack. This subjob will have significantly lower damage over time because of reduced strength and lack of attack boosting abilities; however, weapon skills will be enhanced when used with sneak attack/trick attack helping the Samurai to become a good spike damage dealer.

Ranger
Ranger offers a very different playing experience for Samurai and the subjob can be beneficial in many ways. First, Rangers gain an accuracy bonus which will help the Samurai hit more often both with ranged and melee attacks. Also, Samurai have the second best ranged characteristics among bow users so they are capable of doing decent damage just as a ranged combatant. With the Samurai's Store TP ability, high delay bows can allow a samurai to do a weaponskill after an amazingly low 5 successful hits. Barrage also helps the samurai gain TP quickly by allowing them to land multiple hits simultaneously. Couple this with Meditate and ranged samurai can really pour on weapon skills. The only disadvantage to this otherwise high damage-over-time setup is that it is more costly in terms of gil.

Ninja
Ninja is sometimes used by Samurai at high level for no other reason than so that they do not have to be healed so often after doing high damage weapon skills. Ninja can also aid the soloing ability of a Samurai. With the combination of Utsusemi: Ichi, Ni, and Seigan, a Samurai can avoid damage for a very long time while still dealing out a decent amount. For some Notorious Monsters, as well as for BCNMs such as those with the avatars, Samurai/Ninja can hold its own with the more traditional tank jobs. It can be considered the spiritual successor to the "Parry" tank that Samurai was once designed to be.