Category: 4.0 Stormblood

FFXIV Samurai (SAM) Basics Guide & FAQ – Shadowbringers Updated!

Shadowbringers Updated! A guide on the basics of Samurai! SAM unlocking & requirements, why play a Samurai, and other FAQ’s

DAWNTRAIL Guides! Dawntrail L90-100 Miner Leveling, Botanist Leveling
Dawntrail Normal Raid Guide (Quick, Spoiler Free)
See: Viper STARTER Guide / Rotation | Pictomancer Starter Guide / Rotation

 

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.

Go to top

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.

Go to top

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.

DISCLAIMER

DISCLAIMER: This is not meant to be a blurb that aligns with the current meta. That changes from patch to patch. Our goal here is to provide you with an idea of what the job is trying to be, getting cues from both the Developers’ concrete decisions on job design, as well as our own feedback.

Go to top

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).

Go to top

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.

Go to top

Related Samurai Guides – Read More!

Here are s a few useful links for you:

Go to top

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!
Go to top

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.

Join our IRL Cross-World Linkshells (socials lol): 

Contact us about anything and everything. Don't be shy! Love our guides and want to let us know? Got questions or corrections? Suggestions for improvement? TALK TO US! How, you say?

Comment below if it's about this guide. Message us on any of our socials above about anything.  We're organizing our email situation if you're into that.

Go to top

FFXIV 4.0 Omega: Deltascape (NORMAL) Quick Guide

A quick guide on this tiers normal difficulty raid

Hello there! This guide is a quick and simple rundown of the bosses you’ll be facing in the 4.0 raid Omega: Deltascape NORMAL. I repeat, THIS IS FOR NORMAL! But for the most part, I know why you’re here – you don’t wanna be the dreaded, “That Guy”.

Feel free to comment on anything I missed, or things I’m unclear about. Some of these ended way too quickly, or some obscure mechanics that are maybe “derpable” I didn’t / couldn’t take note of.

Minor spoilers for boss names. Although I highly doubt people reading this specific guide would really care about that.

“Behold! The son of our maker!” – Mahikotron 4.0

Omega 1N (Alte Roite?) “SKINNY DRAGON”

PREEMPTIVELY Stay away from fireballs, they eventually pulse for damage, it’s too fast to avoid.

Wind skills interact with the balls. Predict their movement.

Be wary of the Ice “floor is slippery” “shiva” effect. AKA Moving slides you across.

Twinbolt is a double tank buster. (Hits 1st and 2nd aggro?)

Nothing truly “wipe worthy” here, just the usual dodger mcdodge.

Omega 2N (Catastrophe) “EYEBALl”

Like Lakshmi Extreme you have a duty skill, “Levitate”. Levitate determines what mechanics you can deal with, or dodge.

Sinking black ground: levitate or die

Gravity Manipulation: A guy gets the “stack with me” arrows. Fly or stay on the ground depending on his state.

Yellow AoE: flying guys will be petrified

Blue AoE: ground guys will be petrified

How do I dodge the yellow / blue combo? There’s a safe spot somewhere (middle or sides, depending) or one will expire before the other.

Tentacles? Are a bit unclear to me. Just AVOID the ones with the lighted marker, they release a large AoE.

While there’s a lot of mechanics it’s super forgiving. The only way you’ll truly fail is a cascade of failed mechanics from majority of the raid.

 

Omega 3N (Halicarnassus) “jestergrill”

There’s a lot going on here. Quite fun. Lots of DODGING.

Ribbit makes you a frog. There is no telegraph, but its a large cone from where she is facing.

Queen’s Waltz (?): Stay on the light colored tiles.

Floor tiles with symbols: Stay on your respective symbol as tank healer or DPS. If it’s a frog symbol – PURPOSEFULLY GET HIT BY RIBBIT.

There’s a lot more “combinations” of mechanics you’ll see within the fight, but aside from the above mentioned skills, it’s just a lot of dodging.

Omega 4N (Exdeath) “2 Year Old’s diagram of knight”

***Apparently I’m blind and it’s all ELEMENT III – but you have to watch for clues as to which one is which. Please comment to clarify***

Thunder II : OUT. It’s a large circular AoE from him without a telegraph.

Thunder III: is a tank buster with a stacking vulnerability. Don’t have more than 3, I guess…

If you’re worried, just GET OUT WHEN ITS THUNDER!

Fire III: Take more damage the more actions you do until the debuff expire.

Blizzard III: MOVE AS THE CAST ENDS – you will get a vuln up if you do not. (As a reminder think of it like “you don’t wanna get too cold so you move”).

Fire II and Blizzard II are typical AoE dodge. Failing too many of these result in heavy vulnerability stacks.

Phase 2

GIANT HEAD: get out of where it’s facing. It’s a pretty significant cone stemming from… well… where it’s facing.

Decisive Battle: “Star” (tentacles), ONE of the extreme edges is safe.

THERE IS A KNOCKBACK SKILL which I forget, so don’t stay too close to the edges.

Fire, Thunder and Blizzard continue in this phase.

Loot & Rewards

I’ll be posting a simplified loot list in terms of gear you can exchange – but for now…

It follows the usual token distribution:

Normal Difficulty Loot Distribution
1ChainPedalBolt
2LensPedalBolt
3LensSpringCrank
4ShaftSpringCrank
  • Limited to one per turn per week (No restriction after some patches).
  • A fourth piece of loot is also randomly chosen from the possible three.

Also, Exdeath has a chance (or is it sure?) to drop a minion, Wind-up Exdeath.

Welp, that’s about it. Hopefully I helped you out not to “be that guy”.

Don’t forget to like us on Facebook for more updates!

FFXIV Stormblood Dungeons & Primals (STORY) Quick Guides

If you searched for this, I have bad news for you.

Here’s a quick little guide regarding all the dungeons and trials you’ll be facing in the 4.0 Stormblood STORY. Not in-depth ’cause they don’t need to be! I nicknames since many like to identify bosses by appearance.

***Forgive me if I use humor***, it’s to keep me sane during this hectic time. And light spoiler alert on boss names.

Stormblood Story Dungeons & Trials – Navigation:
Story Dungeons: Sirensong | Shisui | Bardam’s | Doma | Abania | AMO
Story Primals: Susanoo | Lakshmi | Shinryu

The Sirensong Sea (Dungeon)

Sirensong Boss 1: “OCTOPUS” (Lugat)

If you’re new, the 4 yellows arrows means STACK TO SHARE THE DAMAGE. So help a brother out when he’s targeted by hugging him! For the love of god, don’t run from your team!

Sirensong Boss 2: “SLENDER MAN” (The Governor)

If tethered, move away, otherwise you get a huge magic vulnerability debuff. This is the only truly punishing mechanic in this entire dungeon, as a 5 stack vuln can be deadly.

Move away from the general area of the shadows.

Sirensong Final Boss: “SEASLUGMAID” (Lorelei)

Morbid Advance and Morbid Retreat force you to move a certain direction depending on where you’re facing. Retreat makes you go backwards, Advance – forward (YOU DON’T SAY!?)

“I’ve seen enough aNime to know what’s next”,
Mahiko “Taku” San

Shisui of the Violet Tides (Dungeon)

Not really a “side” since you need it for Aether Currents…

Shisui Boss 1: “SCORPY MCCLAW” (RNF)

Those guys who get “stunned”… you actually have to attack the “arm” or whatever it is. Some classes are AoE light so you may not notice it’s a new enemy on the list. Free your friends!

*real name forgotten*

Shisui Boss 2:  “TOO MANY DRINKS” (Ruby Princess)

Seduce: Hide behind the boxes before this skill comes off. AVOID BOXES IF YOU DON’T NEED TO BE THERE! You get “silenced” otherwise.

Lasers from the sky? Sprint! This appears to be only countered by Sprint. You can outheal it, sure… but ah…

Shisui Final Boss: “WHOA” (Shisui Yohi)

Sharks & Water Balls: kill ‘em fast.

Mad Stare: for new players, the LARGE EYE ICON means “Look away before this is finished casting”.

 

Susanoo (Story Mode Primal)

If this is your first time to the primal rodeo, they’re colorful fights! But avoid those colors…

Remember the Yellow Arrows? Stack with friends.

Susanoo “Sword” phase:

Whoever picks up the “item” blocks his attack. (I’ve never done it, but I presume:) You can’t take actions while doing so. Have your MAIN TANK pick up the sword since healers need to heal during this mini phase.

It’s a DPS race – you gotta kill the sword before it hits ya! That’s it!

Oh, in the final phase, Itachi absorbs Susanoo’s essence to create an armor of… wait a second…

Bardam’s Mettle (Story Dungeon)

Bardam Boss 1 “COW” (Galura)

RUN FAR if targeted by the “rush” skill.  Older players will mistake this for the “rush go near!”, as it looks almost the same.

I suppose it mirrors real life, in this regard. I would share the same reaction to a rushing cow.

Bardam Boss 2 “DODGE BALL” (Ben Stiller)

Dodge as hard as you can.

Gaze = Look away.

For new players, you may not be familiar with the “expanding cone” mechanic yet. Basically, the smaller sections danger zone will disappear as the larger one resolves. Walk INTO the smaller one after it bursts.

Meteor = hide behind the rock.

“Like love, It’s all about timing” –
Mahiko “Stunned” San

Bardam Boss 3 “BIRD” (Yolo)

Watch out for the boss diving from the side when dealing with adds. You have to visually see from the edge of the arena where the bird is coming from, and move away from its path!

I believe this is the first “visual queue” mechanic new players would face. Old players will suffer from from a plethora of nightmarish nostalgia with visual mechanics

The circular AoE’s in the final phase don’t follow you… Like many seem to think. They just serve as a way to effectively reduce the arena.

Doma Castle (Dungeon)

Doma Castle Boss 2 “ROBO A” (Magitek Rearguard)

Basic stuff… dodge.

Doma Boss 2 “ROBO 2” (Magitek Hexadrone)

Towers mean “STAND ON THIS OR ELSE BAD THINGS HAPPEN”.

When the arena is sectioned off in lasers STAY IN THE LARGEST PART, is it’s likely safest.

Yellow Arrows: Stack with friends

Doma Final Boss “CHAINSAW” (Hypertuned Grynewaht)

BOMB Mechanic: The further you are from the epicenter, the less damage you take. However, keep an eye on your debuff and MOVE AWAY. Once the debuff drops off, you will leave the “bomb” there.

Older players may refer to this as a “Stardust” mechanic.

“What’s next, a group dance!? ….oh” –
Mahiko “ollywood” San

Lakshmi (Story Mode Primal)

You can fall off. Just so you know.

Dodge like hell, don’t go too far so you can stack afterwards.

ONCE BLUE BALLS APPEAR = GET ONE USING THE SPECIAL SKILL. Otherwise you die. Each ball can only be used once.

Castrum Abania (Dungeon)

Abania Boss 1 “BUFFWHEEL” Magna roader

Use cannons to stop Wild Speed

Abania Boss 1 “DUDE” Number XXIV

2 of 3 immunities: Pay attention to his buff, and stand on the circle he ISN’T COUNTERING, or you’ll have a BAD TIME.

Abania Final Boss “ALIENS IV” Inferno

“Bomb” mechanic: move away from the source of the pulse.

Kefu Left Arm: This boss has very painful abilities that are obviously telegraphed. This should be a learning point for healers and tanks to practice mitigating these “tank busters”. Use defensive cooldowns, and precast healing.

Ala Mhigo (Dungeon)

Ala Mhigo  Boss 1 “SCORPY MCCLAW II” (Magitek Scorpion)

Nothing notable.

Ala Mhigo  Boss 2 “WTF IS THIS” (Aulus Mal Asina)

Walk back to your soul! AKA Trace the line back to your body.

Ala Mhigo Final Boss: “ZYG” (Zyg)

A bunch of stuff going on here… Nothing “too” threatening.

When he says “Kill” prepare for a pretty strong tank buster.

Spreading out is a good idea as he has a line skill which targets all players. Can be deadly if you 4 stack. (?)

Lots of AoE healing here, especially in the final phase post swords.

“I Haven’t raised this much since a4s pentacle” –
Mahiko “Salt” San

Shinryu (Story Mode Primal)

You can fall, careful.

Tidal wave: move towards the water at the edge so you don’t get knocked off.

Earth Breath: Drop them at the sides of Shinryu!

Many bombs: Move in between two of them. So basically stay directly N S E or W.

AKH MORN IS A SHARED TANK BUSTER! Tanks: Use a cooldown, don’t absorb it alone! Other party members get away as it will kill you quickly.

Hellfire, Judgment Bolt etc… are basic AoE Nukes.

Press the grey button to fill up the bar when you phase change.

SECOND PHASE

Tethered together by a red chain: BREAK IT BY MOVING AWAY FROM EACH OTHER!

Diamond Dust: DON’T MOVE OR YOU SLIDE OFF!

Aerial Blast: MOVE TOWARDS THE CYCLONE OR YOU FALL OFF!

Hellfire & Earthen Fury: Basic meganukes as far as I can tell.

Stormblood Story Dungeons & Trials – Navigation:
Story Dungeons: Sirensong | Shisui | Bardam’s | Doma | Abania | AMO
Story Primals: Susanoo | Lakshmi | Shinryu

“Hey Mahiko, damn this guide sucks!” Yes.

The story dungeons are super simple, and this literally serves as a guide to help those who are in need or confused for a quick fix. If you need a full page guide for a story dungeon, I’m sorry, but you’re likely “MadCuzBad”.

GL wrapping up the 4.0 Stormblood MSQ!!!!!

Don’t forget to like us on Facebook!