Samurai Polearm Questions

mkay so i am making this build STRICTLY for greater colibri meripo's

I am going to list the gear i have, and you guys can help me decide what to use... (i am going to be using crab sushi or whatever, cheap cheap cheap) BY NO MEANS IS THIS MEANT TO BE A PERFECT BUILD! i want to make the best setup WITH THE GEAR I HAVE. thanks ^^, tp and ws needed

Weapon
-Tomoe

Sub
-Pole Grip
-Platinum grip +1

Head
-W turban
-Hissho Hachimaki
-Gnadbhod's helm
-Optical hat

Body
-Nuevo Coselete (acc+10 double attack+2)
-Askar Korazin
-Haubergeon NQ
-Kirin's Osode

Hands
-Bandomusha kote
-Enkidu's mittens
-Askar hands
-Noritsune Kote (i COULD buy this but might not bother..)
-Dusk gloves?

Legs
-Byakko's Haidate
-Shura Haidate
-Enkidu's Subligar

Feet
-Hachiman sune-ate augmented with DEX+3
-Rutter sabatons
-Saotome sune-ate


The rings i pretty much have set, ive been augmenting the crap out of spinel rings to get acc+5 or more, and i am currently in the process of Completing CoP.

Rings
-Iota ring
-Spinel ring augmented with STR+1
-Ecphoria ring
-Ruby rings

As far as earrings i only have Bushinomimi and Minuet earring
i could replace with fowling earring and that new earring with acc+2 chr+1 that drops from some tonberry

Waist
-Warwolf belt with att+4 augmented
-Virtuoso (can camp, no biggie)

But just to refresh

I am looking for gear relatively close to what i have listed here, what to use and when. I have the basic idea of Acc and haste for tp, str, dex, and acc for ws, however I am just here to debate about the use of the pieces i have. like i said i WILL be completing CoP within the next two months so Rajas and Brutal are on the way.

I'd say...

TP:

Head: W Turban
Body: N Corselete
Legs: B Haidate
Hands: Askar/Dusk
Feet: Hachiman
Rings: Iota/Ecphoria
Earrings: Bushi/Fowling

WS:

Head: Gnadbhod's helm
Body: N Corselete
Hands: Enkidu's
Legs: B Haidate(only for Penta)
Feet: Hachiman
Rings: Iota/Spinel+1str(use Rajas when you get it)
Earrings: Bushi/Fowling


That and normal stuff like Swift Belt, Forager's/Cuch Mantle, Chiv Chain/PCC/Love Torque(or Gorgets for WS) and you'll have a solid Colibri build. Also, always use Pole Grip.

yeah im working on Vbelt actually, me and my bro are duoing him every now and then

i also have a foragers

Anyways keep the suggestions coming! i like hearing them and ill try it out and see what does better

i dont have a parser, nor do i know where to get one XD
downloaded one about a month or two ago and it doesnt record anything


I also forgot to mention my race is mithra

OK,

You will be eating crab sushi to make this work, most people quote a couple stacks an hour depending on the other DDs you have. Because of this, you only need to aim for 410/1.13 = 362 to cap accuracy. This shouldn't be too hard, and should be easy if you have pole merits.

The second thing to consider is your x hit build. Typically SAMs aim for 6 with GKT and 5 with a polearm. But both of those rely heavily on rajas (and to a point rose)

Now with a Tomoe, a SAM with full merits has a natural 6hit. To get to a true 5 hit need 54 sTP (19 from gear). Normally Rose + Rajas + brutal covers the main of the requirements (10sTP) and then you have some choices about how to finish the build (some Hachiman gear). Obviously you are down 5 sTP on the normal approach.

I would strongly recommend redoing your ACP body with Acc and sTP (to make and Usukane body -2). This would be a big improvement for your SAM, although loses some usefulness once you get rajas, but it is the best TP body for PoleSAM who needs sTP... until usukane body.

Assuming you redo your ACP, this will (nearly) cover the lack of rajas allowing you to go back to the fairly standard build.

TP in something like:
Tomoe
Pole grip
Turban
Peacock
Acc earring x2
ACP
Hachiman Kote
Woodsman/Ecp Ring
Foragers
Swift
Byakkos
Fuma

14 sTP

WS in something like:
Tomoe
Pole grip
Gnadbhod's helm -> Hissho Hachimaki (depending on buffs/merits)
Gorget -> Love torque -> K Beads
Acc earring x2
Hachiman Domaru
O.kote -> N.kote (depending on buffs/merits)
Flame ring + ECP ring
Foragers
Warwolf -> Virtuoso (depending on buffs/merits)
Byakkos
Hachiman Sune-ate

12 sTP

In no way ideal (rajas would make the sTP a lot easier), but that's a 5 hit polearm without rajas. You need to land 4+ hits on penta to make this work (I wanted to lower this, but its difficult).

Given race/merits I could work out the accuracy, but I am pretty sure that would be in the high 90% range with sushi.

Definately work on getting sea, the torques alone are worth it, then theres rajas, brutal earring, af+1 legs, etc.

Now I prefer using the plat+1 grip for both soloing and meripos, that random stun can really help and the acc helps a ton on penta. For events and other coordinated fights swap out the plat for anything else you prefer, the stun off the grip can screw up a stun order for mages.

I generally dont see a lot of stuns being cast on birds.

If you find you start missing a lot you can always swap in optical hat for both TP and for penta thrust. unless youve maxxed out your merits on polearm sam needs every bit of accuracy it can get, not to mention it helps penta thrust. I wouldnt bother with the noritsune, anything you need to seriously invest in just for a polearm meripo build at the end of the day just isnt worth it. Most of the time you'll be using GKT anyway. I also noticed you have an Osode, those also work really well for a WS build for penta thrust.

At the end of the day you also just need to sit back and realize its for a merit party against weak mobs. It doesnt govern wether or not youre a good sam nor does it measure your power. Brainless yet necessary activity, have some fun with it. Hell I capped throwing on birds just for a break in boredom. TBH I wouldnt even bother eating the crab sushi, you know just where its gonna go about 2 minutes into party and 1 ws into a brand new mob.

goddamn forgot to put kirin's osode in bodies

and forgot to mention warwolf belt with attack +4

lol editing first post

and THANK YOU
i loved that post

and yes i know this

but i have all this gear and not a goddamn clue as to what to use with it really

i know the general, but the hands bothered me

go use bando and get a nice attack boost? do i need enkidu for acc? or just go with askar hands, dex which is indirectly acc and haste? or if im going haste just use dusk? hopefully augment it and get acc +5 but im not made of money dammit!


i also got pissed cause i got into an extremely gay meripo today.. drks with clubs, and fulltiming gloom breastplate.. using clubs that werent kclubs mainhanding single hand axes..

drk drk drk sam war sch

if changing some gear around gets me some better exp ill be more than happy to spend an hour or two debating with people on ffxiah on how to make myself better


plus self improvement is always good :]

Arg, he was offering suggestions for the gear he already has^^ Redoing an ACP body just for a polearm build doesnt sound worth it. Then again making an ACP body just for SAM escapes me anyways since there are a lot of other options out there. Id weigh in first just how often you plan to be weilding your Tomoe, and if its more than merit parties just go and lvl DRG.

I only have two jobs 75, samurai and dancer

samurai has always been my main attraction and i plan to make it everything i can hah

i got the acc+10 da+2 augment on it as an accuracy alternative, and im quite fond of double attack

by getting the body on samurai i am not sacrificing as much because my dancer is really just a solo/fun job. I have etoile, cobra unit, scorp harness, raparee, and denali bodies. Can't say i use denali often but atleast it looks nice

Dawnn just keep a few things in mind:

your polearm caps significantly lower than your GKT, so ACC and dex will help.

Penta thrust modifiers are primarily STR and DEX, but ACC and ATT also effect it since its a multi hit. If your STR is rather low for a ws swap you can always go a cheap route and get some pallas, tho the -dex will hurt your accuracy (I managed to get lucky and get acc+3 on my alky's, so thats what I use 100% of the time for all ws) I did aug my dusk, but all I got was resist paralyze +2 on them.. so yea lol. Definately go with the warwolf aug for your ws. TP up in swift belt once you get it too.

When it comes down to grinding out merits, sam will do well compared to other jobs just because of its versitility. Even GKT still manages to work well even though everyone cries for piercing damage on birds all day long. Just do what you feel comfortable doing for hours on end. if a ***ton of macro swaps is what keeps you focussed on boring *** bird meripos then proceed^^ I personally try not to over complicate it and avoid making the job more expensive than it already is.

I did also notice you had dnc at 75, I do too. Once my dnc was 75 when I got back into sam I noticed that I was playing sam more like DNC when soloing and I retired it. Now instead of meriting I go out in campaign as sam/dnc with a 6 hit 20% haste soboro build for TP and just go nuts. It beats the hell out of birds.. that is unless you need to cap skills. Plus you get to play however you like so screw everyone else who thinks they need a parser to have fun.

Hands for Penta are either O.kote/B.kote or N.kote/Usukane depending on acc.

For TP Dusk is first choice, but due to the sTP requirements you are probably going to be forced down the route of Hachiman, Askar doesn't really come into it (unless you are aiming for a Crit TP build... please don't).

Pole > Platinum+1 in terms of both TP gain and damage, especially when you consider you should have capped accuracy anyway.

Until Rajas, an ACP body with sTP would do your SAM a lot of good, as I imagine you struggle to get a 6hit with your GKT?

As for leveling DRG:
a) that's not what this thread is about, this is about optimising a Pole SAM
b) it has been proven that SAM can beat DRG at birds using a pole (assuming equal levels of gear/player skill; I'm not talking about a pro beating a gimp).

im not really planning on a shitton of macros

all i wanted was tp and ws lol

i guess i am going to focus a little harder on acc heh

and yeah i have +21 exactly on my samurai which makes it a bit difficult with hagun

if i gearswap, ws, and dont swap back soon enough before my next melee hit occurs, then i lose my 6 hit (which happens in higher lag situations)

but this is only temporary cause im working on my rajas

not only that but im working towards usukane feet, i already have the 35's and im gonna lol if i actually get a piece of usukane before a Rajas

...shame on me

When I say depends on acc, what I mean is, you need to work out your acc and see which item would be most appropriate.

If you are only using a Tomoe at birds then you just need to make sure both sets (TP and WS) have 410 accuracy when sushi is up. I am not suggesting dozens of TP/WS sets.

If you wanted to be clever, you could make a second set of macros for when hasso is up (10 acc), but it all depends how anal you want to get.

lol I wasnt derailing the thread, i was just saying that since its meripo only situation here, is it really worth going absolutely nuts for just to suffice a polearm setup? Im still sticking to my guns here and staying within the list he supplied us as well as the gear he has posted in his player profile... which is the ACTUAL topic of this thread. There are obvious optimal setups out there, but he wants one for his own gear.

Yes, a sam has a potential to beat out a drg in a meripo against birds, but that sam has to work his/her *** off swapping gear in and out like a madman, using /war and all its abilities to the max... with food, just to slightly break a cap drg doesnt really have to try for with birds. Ive done it, and its only fun the 1st few times before it becomes a stress grind just to keep up with it. Then again drg dont really need to try that hard, bird camps were pretty much designed with them in mind.

No need to get too far into depth with it Arg, considering you have neither sam nor drg leveled. And once you do so many meripos on birds it gets old anyway... so ask yourself when you hit 75 sam just how much gil you plan to sink into a highly situational setup. No accusations, just pointing out the obvious.

Sam also doesnt have nearly the polearm skill without merits to be naturally close to the cap, until you get a solid STP build stacking acc before ws makes perfect sense.. unless you are in denial snatch morsel could never happen to you after eating sushi lol. Just seems like a waste to me for the sake of merits. with GKT sam get a natural acc build for all ws to push the cap but its not true for polearm. 240 skill vs 276+ skill makes a big difference.

I've been using this setup:
8/8 polearm 4/5 STR 5/5 sTP
It really depends on what kind of 6-hit you want.
For a true 5-hit, u'd need 19 plus 5/5 sTP I think. I normally use that since birds like to steal your TP often.
TP:
Weapon:Engetsuto (+2)
sub:rose(+4)/mythril+1
askar head
spectacles
brutal (+1)/fowling
hauby+1
hachi kote
rajas (+5)/ultha
amemet+1
swift belt
byakko's
Fuma
Switch out myo kote/askar feet/life belt for WS.
What I found is that Hagun with my build would do more if I didn't get at least two atk buffs from either a COR or BRD even with crab sushi. I've debated this with my LS meticulously to be sure what I saw to be true.
Basically you need a lot of ACC/ATK to make polearm SAM work. Gear isn't the only thing you need to worry about. lol.

Meant to say this b/c i'd like some input about Hagun vs. Polearm too. >_< Felt in a way, it's rather relevent to getting to know why polearm works on birds a bit better. And I don't use same WS build for polearm as I do w/ GKT.

You know in all the meripos Ive done (and granted I dont use a parser anymore) I havnt really noticed a huge difference in damage against birds with Hagun vs. Polearm. If anything I notice I get a little more hate with Hagun, but thats probably because its more spike damage due to WS and SC. Penta > Penta doesnt have nearly the same effect.

This is my Polearm TP set:

STP+8 (+4 from STP Merits = +12)

And my WS set:

STP+13 (+4 from STP Merits = +17)


They're far from stellar, but I generally manage to land 3~5/5 hits regularly, in merit at least. I have 2 Polearm merits, but my skill is 6 under cap. (10 if you don't include those merits)

I've not run them through FFXI Calc in a while, so I forget the accuracy rating on them with/without food.

For penta:
Amemet Mantle +1
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Smilodon Mantle +1

(I'm not joking)

Smilodon is only for GKT on mid-weak mobs (on top end HNMs Amemet is still better than Smilodon)

he is using haube for ws so smilodon is not a bad choice, use a warwolf betl. relic boots r easy to get and artifact +1 hands r nice for penta

not sure why it repeated the Quote XD

XD

I thought that when I looked over my macros (I completely forgot what my Penta WS gear was >_> how bad is that? XD)

remind me to never merit with you lul, cuz gear swappin and (cheap) food on birds is nab, amirite?


@ OP, if your going for a sushi 5hit pole build, i recommend ditching the acc and go for atk->str->dex in ws setup.
since pole skill is very low for sam attack+ will do more for you than str+ will since its more than likely far from cap, also doesnt help ws mod for penta is only 20% str/dex.

P.S- please don't listen to the guy who doesn't eat food or use gear macro's or doesnt go /war, or doesn't even realize (ungimp) drg has more gear swap macros than sam does :D


~~~~~ using Tomoe,Pole Grip, and Black Tathlum in weapon,grip,ammo slots :D
input /equip ear1 "Brutal Earring"
input /equip ear2 "Minuet Earring"
input /equip Ring1 "Rajas Ring"
input /equip Ring2 "Flame Ring"
input /equip hands "Ochimusha kote"
input /equip head "Champion's galea"
input /equip body "Haubergeon +1"
input /equip legs "Byakko's Haidate"
input /equip feet "Rutter Sabatons"
input /equip back "Forager's Mantle"
input /equip waist "Warwolf Belt"
input /equip neck "shadow gorget"

this is my current 5hit sushi pole ws build atm, and i use it alot in ein,salvage,dyna,limbus, and lots of other "Situational" events :D

i do have a 5hit meat pole ws build, but thats another post lol.

Penta is a low mod (20%) multi hit WS; attack matters far more than STR if attack isn't capped. If attack is capped then Smilodon > Amemet, but only then.

In real terms you will never have capped attack with a pole arm (outside of zergs), but it is possible with Y/G/K (due to the hidden attack boost) on quite a few mobs.

He has a Amemet +1 so he isn't taking the cheap alternative, he is just swapping in to an inferior piece.

the only time you really use polearm on sam is in a merit party and limbus okay. If your in a brdx2 or brd+cor merit party you would be getting attack song/roll which would be plenty. In limbus depending on the Mob it is a good idea to stack attack for ws.

This is my WS with madrigal and spamming meat = 93% acc with 8/8 pole



This is my WS spamming crab sushi = 94% acc with 8/8 pole

* With an agressive WS set (+70 attack)
* Berserk
* Chaos Roll
* Double minuet
* Dia III
* Full pole merits
* Full STR merits
(Basically as well buffed as you can get outside of SV)

You are still over 50 attack short of capping attack on a Greater Colibri.

The expansion head piece with WS acc. +15 isnt a bad choice either, that is if you havent used it yet