Seeking to scale up as a Samurai? Surmount your lack of schooling about the SAM job! Find basic information and FAQs in our Samurai Basics Guide. Read on if you’re expecting to learn about unlocking SAM, Samurai Job Identity, trait and skill list, crafters and gatherers related to SAM, and link to other important Samurai info!
Samurai is a Melee DPS job, and was released at 4.0 Stormblood alongside Red Mage. In their role as Melee DPS, SAM is preceded by Monk and Dragoon.
How to become a Samurai? Unlocking SAM:
Unlock and become a Samurai by doing the quest, “The Way of the Samurai”, which is found at Ul’dah – Steps of Nald (NPC: Ul’dahn Citizen). The only requirement is having a level 50 Disciple of War or Disciple of Magic leveled.
Unlike the Heavensward classes, I’m almost certain you can rush into using SAM once you have the level requirement – and is not gated behind unlocking Stormblood content.
Note that, upon completing the quest you MUST EQUIP the “Soul of the Samurai” to actually formally BECOME a SAM.
Rushing to or want to know how to unlock a certain class? Learn more:
FFXIV Job Unlock & Requirements Guide.
Samurai Playstyle & SAM Job Identity
If you’ve asked yourself, “Why play, try, or choose Samurai?” – here’s my attempt at selling you the SAM class.
The SAM playstyle is based on managing two resource types. Sen and Kenki. While easy to understand and pull off decently, there’s a ton of micro optimization you can pull here. Their GCD is faster than most classes, so that can be a good or bad thing for you!
Samurais in FFXIV are a “greedy” Melee DPS class, meaning they give little to no raid utility in exchange for a higher personal DPS. They’re reasonably mobile, having both a dash and a disengage.
Aesthetically and thematically, the FFXIV Samurai is the “lone swordsman with straw in their mouth” kind of Samurai. Their signature move, Midare Satsugekka, is your typical draw-slash “Iai” FFS. These guys are definitely based off “real world japan” and I know that’s something a lot of people resonate with.
What Crafters & Gatherers should Samurai level?
While it’s common in MMORPG’s to think you want to craft your own gear as you level up your SAM… I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT.
Leveling up your DoH and DoL jobs should be thought of as a different activity completely. To be honest, if you’re a newer player, simply ensure that you DO NOT OVERCAP Levequests (always have less than 100).
The only relation a combat job has to a crafter or gatherer class is “which classes do you need to repair your gear”? My advice, ultimately, is pretty much all or nothing – level up all DoH classes in tandem. As a separate project, level up all DoL classes in tandem (with the optional Fisher).
What’s the best race for Samurai?
Racial stats are (was?) a thing. However, I highly recommend not caring about it. The difference in performance between the “best” and “worst” race for you is not even 0.1%.
My advice? Pick for aesthetics. Will you stay the same job forever? If you change mains, will you race change? Ultimately, the difference is so microscopic that I cannot in good faith tell you that racial stats are an integral part of your character.
I won’t even link the Racial Stats Guide, as I haven’t checked up on this in a while – and I don’t want to cement the idea that the “best race” really matters.
Related Samurai Guides – Read More!
Here are s a few useful links for you:
- General Leveling Guide for ALL combat classes / jobs
- Adding new links as we update them!
Upcoming Odds and Ends
Here’s a few things we’ll be adding on here in the near future:
- Adding a “links to further resources”, we’re doing a site restructure so once those links are set, they’ll go in here.
- Human-readable, newbie-friendly skill and trait list.
> I used to have the in-game skill list here, but I found it useless as the in-game one is better… I’d rather have a new player friendly rundown. - More descriptive job identity? Pics?
> I dunno… pictures of the job gauges? A gif of some flashy skills? - Feel free to suggest anything else via comment or socials!
Summary & Outro
Well that’s about it for a really, really basic guide that hopefully points some lost souls in the right direction, or answers some of your questions regarding Samurai.
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