Samurai Guide by Falaras

= Why Samurai? =
Samurai is one of the most iconic jobs of 2007-era Final Fantasy XI. Samurai started off life in FFXI in the Rise of the Zilart expansion and was relatively weak at the time, mainly filling the role of skillchain maker only with very low damage output. However, beginning in 2006 and culminating in the infamous "2 handed buff" in late 2007, Samurai received a steady string of heavy buffs bringing it to the forefront of melee DPS jobs. By the end of ToAU Samurai had become a very strong job with unrivaled TP gain, very powerful weapon skills, adjustable weapon strategies to fit the needs of the event, and the best defensive ability of any melee, all while still retaining its crown of skillchain king. These continued buffs fostered an era meme that Square Enix loved Samurai so much they continued buffing them patch after patch, even when it was the best physical damage dealing job already.
Samurai shines at all melee-oriented events like EXP/Meriting, Dynamis, and Limbus, and unlike other melee DPS, Samurai is also quite good at non-melee friendly events such as ground HNMs because of their ability to gain TP without hitting the mob, allowing them to build skillchains to benefit Black Mages. There are very few events where having a Samurai is a detriment, which makes it an ideal first job or main job! It also is relatively easy to gear, mostly relying on items you can buy off the auction house or obtain from low level endgame like Sky. There will be some cost associated with gearing a Samurai due to the raw popularity of the job driving the prices of key items like Hagun, Fuma Kyahan, or Ochiudo's Kotes up, but once you have those pieces of gear it's relatively inexpensive compared to competitor jobs. 
= Abilities and Traits =
Meikyo Shisui (1) - Grants you 3000 TP, reduces cost of all weapon skills to 1000 TP. 2:00:00 recast, :30 duration.
Meikyo is a pretty great 2 hour ability, granting you 3000 TP on demand and making it so any weapon skill done while this ability is active only costs 1000 TP. It is important to note you do not gain TP while meleeing with Meikyo active, so you need to cancel the buff when you are done with your weaponskills. The optimal way to use Meikyo is to use the 2h, use one weapon skill, and then Meditate so you can start gaining TP, with this strategy you can easily get 4 weapon skills off during the ability window. The burst damage on this ability is insane once you start solo skillchaining, either with a 3 step Light or a 5 step Darkness. 
Warding Circle (5) - Grants you and your party a chance to intimidate Demon Family mobs. 10:00 recast, 1:00 duration.
Pretty mediocre ability that everyone forgets exists until one person has a light bulb moment and uses it when randomly fighting a demon. Really not much to say about it, could use it in places like Dynamis - Xarcabard but randomly intimidating demons isn't exactly the most useful thing.
Third Eye (15) - Grants a buff that will cause you to dodge the next attack directed at you. 1:00 recast, :30 duration.
Third Eye is a cheeky little defensive tool that ends up being a very useful ability. This can full absorb weapon skills (even multi hit ones), abilities like Eagle Eye shot, and auto attacks, it cannot absorb AoE abilities and will actually be stripped by them. One great way to use this ability is to absorb big weapon skills with it, like you can react to a Colibri using Pecking Flurry and negate hundreds of damage. You can also use this as an easy way to get Utsusemi back up, since Utsusemi: Ichi has such a long cast time and is interruptible, casting Third Eye first to guarantee it goes off is a great use. See Seigan for how it interacts with that ability. 
Hasso (25) - Grants Haste, Accuracy, and Strength when using 2 handed weapons. Increases casting time and recast of spells. 1:00 recast, 5:00 duration. Does not stack with Seigan.
This is a contender for the strongest ability Square Enix has ever put into the game. The numbers behind this are: 10% Job Ability Haste, 10 Accuracy, and a scaling amount of Strength depending on the level of your Samurai, the maximum amount being +10. If you look at the recast and duration, this ability can have 100% uptime and the only time you wouldn't want it on is when you are using its sister ability Seigan (or casting spells). Job Ability Haste is one of the rarest and most powerful stats in the game, as it isn't counting towards your other Haste sources like Equipment and Magical which you can and do easily cap in many situations. Haste gets better the more haste you have, so this ability both makes all your other haste better and is made better by those other sources of haste. The Accuracy and Strength also are just nice bonuses all around. It's hard to state just how powerful this ability is, in some situations this ability alone can increase your DPS by 40-50% or more. Please remember this significantly increases the cast time of spells, like Utsusemi, and in many situations you will want to click this buff off manually before you cast Utsusemi. 
Meditate (30) - Increases the Samurais TP by 200 every 3 seconds, 5-9 times. 3:00 recast.
Meditate is the signature ability of Samurai and is built into the job identity of Samurai being a master skillchainer and TP gainer. Base meditate will grant you a total of 1000 TP over 15 seconds. Meditate with the AF helm or Relics Hands on will grant you a total of 1200-1400 TP over a maximum 21 seconds. Meditate with the AF Helm and Relic Hands on will grant you a total of 1400-1800 TP over a maximum of 27 seconds. This ability allows for some serious TP generation and is exceptionally useful for building TP when there is no mob around to hit. Meditate is one of the reasons that Samurai is so very good at end game, no other job can build TP while walking between camps in Dynamis, before a Kirin fight, or without even being in the main party when fighting Tiamat. If you have enough haste or luck, this ability also can allow you to self skillchain. Also when meditating, you can more reliably pull off solo skillchains by using the ability right before you are about to swing, and timing your WSes around the meditate tic timer to gain TP as fast as possible on your closing skillchain WS.
Seigan (35) - Augments Third Eye when using 2 handed weapons. 1:00 recast, 5:00 duration. Does not stack with Hasso. Increase casting time.
Seigan as an ability does absolutely nothing, but it is paired with Third Eye to create an exceptionally powerful defensive tool that is one of the main reasons that Samurai stands as the tankiest DPS job. While Seigan is active, Third Eyes recast is shortened to 30 seconds and will now absorb more than one attack. The amount of attacks absorbed is random, but the longer Third Eye has been up the lower chance it will stay on after absorbing an attack. This makes Seigan+Third Eye strong defensively, but inconsistent compared to other defensive tools like Utsusemi. Third Eye also has the chance to counter mob attacks with Seigan up. Please remember this significantly increases the cast time of spells, like Utsusemi, and in many situations you will want to click this buff off manually before you cast Utsusemi. 
Sekkanoki (60) - Limits the cost of the next WS to 1000 TP, 5:00 recast. 
Sekkanoki is the new addition to Samurai on Eden, generally you use it by saving your TP to 2000+ then activate Sekkanoki to do two quick weaponskills for a skillchain. Popular skillchains for this are Rana>Gekko for Darkness or Yuki>Gekko for Fragmentation. The weaponskill you do under Sekkanoki's buff (the first WS) has some odd properties, it will not gain any TP bonus from any equipment/ability including Hagun, it also will activate items like Hachiman Jinpachi +1 which takes this item from pretty useless to a really fun niche item. This ability shines in short content like BCNMs, ENM, KSNMs where you can meditate to 2000+ TP before even starting the fight and burst out a giant skillchain to open, it's also useful for making skillchains for your Black Mages on end game content. 
Store TP (Level 10-30-50-70) - Grants additional Store TP, up to 25 at 75. 
When doing your Store TP calculations, make sure to remember Samurais gets +25 from traits, and can have an additional +10 from merits for a total of +35 before equipping a single piece of gear. This makes 6 hitting relatively easy on Samurai with a Great Katana, and 5 hitting even possible with Polearm after gear is added.
Zanshin
(20) - When an attack is missed, grants a chance to automatically attack again.
It is believed that Zanshin has a 45% activation rate, and can activate not only on misses, but shadows, counters, guards, and even a scenario where 0 damage is dealt. The extra Zanshin attack also has +34 bonus accuracy applied to it. This is an interesting ability to talk about, it makes having lower accuracy on Samurai a lot less punishing than most jobs, although you really don't want to be sitting at low accuracy still. This also artificially inflates Samurai's accuracy percentage as the hard cap of 95% hit rate can be broken by Zanshin procs. 
= Merits =
Category 1: Category 1 only really has two things worth meriting and both are exceptionally important.
Meditate Recast: Meditate's TP generation is a defining ability for Samurai, with 5 merits you can lower the recast down to 2:30 seconds. 
Store TP: Each Store TP upgrade gives +2 Store TP, for a total of +10 Store TP at 5 merits. This is a crucial merit for any Samurai to max as fast as possible because it is very necessary for most popular 6 hit builds. 10 Store TP is a lot and if you need to make this up in gear it usually is taking 1-2 very important slots away from better stats. 
Category 2: This is much more flexible than Category 1, all 4 merits have some.....merit.
Shikikoyo: Shikikoyo allows for you to give a party member all of your TP over 1000 on a base 15 minute cool down. This can be used to funnel TP to party members to make skillchains or to build up the parties TP reserves before a mob is engaged. I think this is a fantastic 1 point merit that has a lot of utility for linkshell events and is great if you are coordinated and on the same page as your other damage dealers as far as building skillchains. 
Blade Bash: Blade Bash allows you to stun a mob and sometimes also apply a Plague effect. This can be a serious life saver pretty much anywhere. Mob casting Blizzaga XIV on you? Bash it. Ninja mob in dynamis not dead and below 20%? Better bash that thing. It's a fantastic merit I would recommend everyone have a point in at least. Lowering the recast with extra merits is pretty nice too, this thing just comes in handy in so many situations.
Ikishoten: Ikishoten adds a 30 more TP (And some bonus for Store TP traits) on any Zanshin attack you land. This is an interesting merit, there are people that actually have figured out ways to play around Ikishoten's bonus TP, but the chance that Zanshin even procs if you are at capped hit rate is less than 2.5% of the time. There may be room for this in a Samurai's arsenal, but it is going to be extremely high level game play for very low potential rewards. 
Overwhelm: The king of Samurai merits and proof that Square Enix loves this job. Overwhelm gives a flat percentage damage increase to any weapon skill you perform in front of the mob. The first three merits into Overwhelm give 5% each, and the next two merits give 2% each, for a total of 19% weapon skill damage. The "downside" to this merit is you need to be in front of the mob, which means you will constantly have to reposition before weaponskilling. Landing Overwhelm on every WS is probably the number one difference between good and bad Samurais. 
Meriting Priority Order: 
This is simply my opinion and honestly the order in which you merit things can change depending on the player so take this with a grain of salt. I would do:
Overwhelm 5/5 > Store TP 5/5 > Meditate 5/5 > Combat Skill Merits 8/8 > Blade Bash 1/5 > Shikikoyo 1/5 > Crit 4/4 > STR 5/5 > HP 8/8 > Category 2 of choice. 
Overwhelm and Store TP are just mandatory to have on Samurai, while Meditate and Combat Skill Merits are huge DPS increases over time. After that you start to get into situational merits that don't feel quite as important.
Combat Skill merits will obviously depend on the player and what other jobs they care about. Samurai can make use of Great Katana, Polearm, and Archery but at the end of the day you can only have a total of 20 Combat Skill merits so you need to make decisions about which to take. Great Katana obviously will have the most application to Samurai as a whole, but remember that half or more of a Samurai's great katana damage comes from weapon skills that don't really care about Attack or Accuracy. Polearm and Bow on the other hand are lower skill, so you will likely need the accuracy, and use weapon skills that are the most attack hungry weapon skills in the game. 
= Sub Jobs =
 
Warrior is the premiere sub job for Samurai if you want to do damage, it's the one you will want to use the most and likely is the one you will use the most. Berserk is the hallmark ability of /WAR, it gives a +25% attack increase and a -25% defense decrease, this is a massive amount of attack and will increase your damage significantly. This doesn't synergize well with Tachi: Gekko, given that Gekko is generally always attack capped, but does hugely benefit Penta Thrust due to its negative attack modifier. Even without benefiting Gekko, Berserk adds so much damage to your auto attacks it's still insanely good. Double Attack is the next best thing, a raw +10% passive increase in swings that can also proc on WSes (twice on Penta Thrust!). Warcry is a decent on-demand attack boost for the entire party, giving around 5% attack. I would definitely recommend you make sure to time this ability correctly, as a Warrior's Warcry is significantly stronger and your Warcry does overwrite it. Provoke is the last thing Warrior sub provides, which generates 1800 Volatile Enmity allowing you to gain the mobs attention and position it for party play. Warrior sub is great for most events unless you need the defensive tools that Ninja sub provides or are playing a very specific Dragoon sub style. 
 
Ninja acts as a foil to Warrior sub, focusing on the defense aspect of the game as opposed to offense. /NIN offers Utsusemi: Ichi and Utsusemi: Ni, casted buffs that negate incoming non-AoE (and some Aoe) hits. This nearly completely nullifies damage taken via auto attacks, is great for hiding from dangerous TP moves, and can absorb high damage nukes as well. The only things that pierces Utsusemi are AoE nukes and certain AoE weaponskills. With Third Eye you can also more reliably get Utsusemi up after it goes off, and with a mixture of Utsusemi, Seigan, Third Eye, PDT, and MDT gear, Samurai becomes by far the most durable DPS job. You will be asked to use this sub very often, so make sure you have it available. 
 
Thief is a well known sub from 2004 era FFXI that centers around high-damage single WSes and enmity management. Sneak Attack forces any WS to critically hit, including Samurai WSes which usually do not have the ability to crit on their own. Trick Attack allows you to funnel the enmity of a WS onto the person in front of you, usually a tank, allowing you to not pull hate and to give hate to your frontline. Overall this sub has lost a lot in its transition to Eden, people just don't play that style anymore, instead opting to forego tanks entirely and use a Sam/nin or Sam/war as both DPS and Tank. I've only used this sub on Eden a couple times, usually on very high level mobs where I would have been better off playing an entirely different job. 
= Weapon skills =
	Tachi: Gekko - The bread and butter weapon skill for Samurai, your highest damage Great Katana weapon skill barring relic. Due to the Attack/Accuracy bonuses, the only thing worth stacking for this weapon skill is Strength and the rare Double Attack/TP Bonus.
* 75% STR Modifier.
* 1.5625/1.875/2.5 FTP.
* Gains a +100% Attack Bonus and also a +100 Accuracy Bonus that all 1 hit weapon skills get.
	Yachi: Yukikaze - Situationally useful weapon skill for building skill chains, the weakest of the trio of Yuki/Gekko/Kasha.
* 75% STR Modifier.
* 1.5625/1.875/2.5 FTP.
* Gains a +33% Attack Bonus and also a +100 Accuracy Bonus that all 1 hit weapon skills get.
	Tachi: Kasha - Situationally useful weapon skill for building skill chains, mainly Light.
* 75% STR Modifier.
* 1.5625/1.875/2.5 FTP.
* Gains a +50% Attack Bonus and also a +100 Accuracy Bonus that all 1 hit weapon skills get.
	Tachi: Kaiten - Insanely powerful weapon skill that is only obtainable with a relic weapon, this weapon has very high FTP and unlike all the other Great Katana weapon skills can benefit from Attack buffs like Chaos Roll/Berserk/Food. In theory the strongest weapon skill Samurai gets unless the mob has very high defense.
* 60% STR Modifier.
* 3.0 FTP at all levels of TP.
* No attack bonus and still has the +100 Accuracy Bonus that all 1 hit weapon skills get.
	Penta Thrust (Polearm) - Penta Thrust is a powerful tool in a Samurai's arsenal as a weapon skills that scales well with buffs and a piercing damage option. This weapon skill is balanced around the fact it has a negative attack modifier, which means it takes more Attack to cap than a normal WS. When you start piling on the Attack buffs or the mob has low defense, this WS is quite simply beastly. Good for piercing weak mobs and high buff situations.
* 5 Hits.
* 20% STR & 20% DEX Modifier.
* 1.0 FTP at all levels of TP.
* Has an Attack penalty of 12.5%, meaning it needs significantly more Attack to cap than most weapon skills.
	Tachi: Rana - This is Samurai's unlockable Nyzul Isle weaponskill and is also tied to the unreleased mythic weapon. This weaponskill is generally a skillchain maker, allowing for you to open darkness for other jobs or even for yourself with self skillchaining. It's not actually a bad weaponskill, but lacks much practical application because it doesn't get any of the Attack or Accuracy bonuses that the other Great Katana WSes benefit so heavily from. 
* 3 Hits.
* 35% STR Modifier.
* 1.0 FTP at all levels of TP.
* Accuracy varies with TP (Meaning that Hagun is essentially+25 accuracy to Rana)
	Tachi: Jinpu - Jinpu is a hybrid weaponskill which means it hits on both the physical and the magical defenses of a monster. Jinpu loves Magic Attack Bonus items as well as Attack items and has a decent STR modifier to boot. This weaponskill does very well against fodder mobs, similar to Penta Thrust or Rana, and it also is great against mobs that take increased magical damage like Wamouraprinces when stretched or Qutrubs. 
* 2 Hits.
* 30% STR Modifier.
* 1.0/??/?? FTP modifier.
* Hybrid Weaponskill.
= Skillchains to know =
* Rana > Gekko = Darkness
* Yukikaze > Gekko = Fragmentation
* Yukikaze > Gekko > Kasha = Light
* Yukikaze > Kasha > Yukikaze > Kasha > Gekko = Darkness
= Store TP =
One of the most important parts of excelling at Samurai is in gear planning and knowing how much Store TP you need to lower your hits to weaponskill. This is typically called an "X-hit", with X standing for the amount of hits necessary to WS again, so a Great Katana usually would have a "6-Hit Build" with enough Store TP to WS every 6 hits (This includes WS as a hit, so 5 Melee+1 WS). In order to figure this out you can use a wiki and math, or just use a Store TP Calculator like this one built by Zajin. I'll run through an example of a 6-hit Great Katana build:
With a 450 delay Great Katana you would need to have 46 Total Store TP to achieve 167 TP a hit, which equals 1002 TP in 6 hits. Just for being a 75 Samurai you have passive Store TP(STP)+25. You can also should merit Store TP for an additional STP+10, so you passively have STP+35. This means you need to equip gear equalling out to 11 Store TP in order to achieve this build, you could equip a Rajas Ring (5)+Brutal Earring(1)+Hachiman Kote(8) to equal 14 STP. You could also use Carbonara (6) + Rajas (5) + Brutal (1) and keep your hand slot open for Dusk Gloves. There's many different ways to do Store TP, and this is just a basic way without even talking about changing your WS gear to have more or less STP to perfect your 6 hit. 
If you are going to use a Polearm you should aim for a 5-hit build, as Polearm's huge delay lets you do some sick STP builds. I'd recommend gearing with the assumption of landing 3 hits on your Penta Thrusts because it's unlikely you will land all 5 hits every time. There are example 5-hit Polearm builds (and 6-hit Great Katana builds) that factor in this assumption in the gear sets posted at the end of this guide. 
= Weapons =
Amanomurakumo  - Samurai's big daddy king of all weapons, the Amano. This is nothing short of a game altering weapon for a Samurai. The most important thing this weapon does is give you access to a new weaponskill: Tachi Kaiten, to understand what this weaponskill does, please refer to the weaponskill portion of the guide. Outside of the new WS, Amano provides a huge +20 accuracy, a chance to hit the mob for 2.5x normal damage, and a low chance to lower the mob's attack. This weapon is a little different than other Samurai Great Katanas because it has lower delay, plus after you Kaiten it grants you an Aftermath with additional Store TP, rendering most Store TP advice not applicable to the weapon. The high base damage, faster swing speed, and 2.5x damage proc make this actually a powerful auto attacking weapon and swings Samurai's damage spread closer to a 50/50 split between melee and weapon skills.
Hagun - The most iconic and important weapon for 75-era Samurai! Hagun's a pretty simple weapon at heart, the damage is okay, the delay is completely normal, but it has this "TP Bonus" on it. TP Bonus is essentially treating your weapon skills like you have +1000 TP when you use them, i.e. if you weaponskill directly at 1000 TP, it will do the damage of a weaponskill at 2000 TP. This ends up being a huge damage increase for Tachi: Gekko/Kasha/Yukikaze and makes Hagun your go-to weapon at 75 unless you have a relic. The only time this weapon is not very useful is when you are weaponskilling strictly at 3000 TP, as the TP bonus does not allow you to go above 3000 TP and you would be better off with a higher base damage Great Katana.
Leviathan's Couse - This is the best Polearm samurai can get likely forever on Eden, with stats that beat out even Tomoe. It has the highest base damage of any Polearm Samurai can get at level 75 as well as a pretty decent chunk of attack for the attack hungry Penta Thrust. You do need to plan a little differently to offset the STP+1 Engetsuto has, but the upside is worth it. The main issue with this item is that extreme rarity, Waking the Beast is a huge pain in the butt to run and the drop rate is not good at all. It's a great item, but is a relatively small upgrade over other much easier to get options. The latent effect is activated when a Leviathan is out in your party, which is unlikely to ever happen so it doesn't really matter. 
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Tomoe - When people thinking Samurai meriting weapons of era, this is the first thing that will come to mind. This polearm has a great mix of stats with the Acc/Atk+5, allowing for you to usually swap at least 1 accuracy item for a more offensive option. I'd still rate Leviathan's Couse as a better weapon, but Tomoe is so easy to get and really close in power that I'd recommend just getting this instead of spending time gunning for the Couse. 
Engetsuto - This is Samurai's most common polearm, it's buyable from the AH and is relatively inexpensive while still being exceptionally strong. The NQ actually outperforms the HQ because it requires significantly more TP to 5 hit with the +1 because of the lower delay. Overall a great polearm for use in merit parties, piercing damage limbus floors, or just situations where your fighting very weak mobs. This Polearm is replaced by Leviathan's Couse or Tomoe. 
= Gear Sets =
I'll preface this by saying Samurai gear sets can get a little confusing specifically because of Store TP. If you are mix and matching any of these sets, please verify that they hit your necessary Store TP values with a calculator like this. 6 Hitting (or 5 hitting depending on your weapon) is one of the most important things you can do to increase your DPS, so please verify you are doing this. 
Hagun TP (Salvage) https://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/392768
	Stat Priorities: TP (Until 6 hit) > Haste (Until 25%) > Accuracy (Until Capped) > Attack > Strength.
401 Accuracy (Max Merits, Hume DEX, Hasso) which is around where I aim to be for many events. This set 6 hits without needing to do anything fancy in your WS gear. The first set pictured is a higher accuracy/attack set while the second set pictured has 1% more haste. Personally I think as long as you can use the accuracy, the first set is better, but both have merit.
Hagun TP (No Salvage) https://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/378264
	Stat Priorities: TP (Until 6 hit) > Haste (Until 25%) > Accuracy (Until Capped) > Attack > Strength.
398 Accuracy (Max Merits, Hume DEX, Hasso), so if you're doing content that needs more accuracy you could easily slot in an Aces Helm to that 405 mark for meriting or merit level mobs. This is the set I would recommend using before you get access to Usukane gear as it's a very approachable and flexible set. Hachiman Kote give you more than enough STP to not have to worry about STP in your WS set, even the NQ.
Alternatives
 	Alternative 1 	Alt 2 	Alt 3
Weapon 	 	 	
Grip 	Mythril Grip +1 	Mythril Grip 	Claymore Grip
Ammo 	Tiphia Sting 	Lightning Bow +1 	Arco De Velocidad
Head 	Aces Helm 	Askar Zuchetto 	Optical Hat
Neck 	Justice Torque 	Chivalrous Chain 	Wivre Gorget +1
Ear1&2 	Hollow Earring 	Fowling Earring 	Diabolos's Earring
Ear1&2 	Merman's Earring 	Coral Earring 	Attilas Earring
Body 	Haubergeon 	Askar Korazin 	Shinimusha Hara-Ate
Hands 	Hachiman Kote 	Dusk Gloves +1 	Dusk Gloves
Ring1&2	Toreador's Ring 	Sniper's Ring 	Woodsman Ring
Ring1&2	Ulthalam's Ring 	Jaeger Ring 	Venerer's Ring
Back 	Forager's Mantle 	Amemet Mantle +1 	Amemet Mantle
Waist 	Swift Belt 	Life Belt 	Tilt Belt
Legs 	Usukane Hizaryoi 	Askar Dirs 	Shura Haidate
Feet 	Fuma Kyahan/Sune-ate	Enkidu's Leggings	Dusk Ledelsens
Hagun YGK https://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/378265
	Stat Priorities: Store TP (Until 6 hit) > Strength.
Because of how the 1 hit Samurai weapon skills function, there's no worries about Accuracy and generally no worries about Attack unless your fighting something very defensive. Since we TP in enough Store TP, we can ignore that stat in our WS set and focus on Strength alone.
Alternatives
 	Alternative 1 	Alt 2 	Alt 3
Ammo 	RSE Sachet (E/H) 	Arco De Velocidad 	Tiphia Sting
Head 	Shura Kabuto +1 	Wyvern Helm +1 	Shura Kabuto/Wyvern Helm
Neck 	Justice Torque 	Chivalrous Chain 	Spike Necklace
Ear1&2 	Triumph Earring 	Fowling Earring 	Minuet Earring
Body 	Hachiman Domaru +1 	Hachiman Domaru 	Askar Korazin
Hands 	Pallas's Bracelets 	Hachiman Kote +1 	Hachiman Kote
Ring1&2	Ruby Ring 	Victory Ring 	Sun Ring
Back 	Forager's Mantle 	Amemet Mantle +1 	Amemet Mantle
Waist 	Potent Belt 	Royal Knights Belt	Barbarian's Belt
Legs 	Shura Haidate +1 	Usukane Hizayoroi 	Myochin Haidate +1
Feet 	Hachiman Sune-Ate +1	Askar Gambieras 	Hachiman Sune-Ate
Tachi Rana https://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/383345
	Stat Priorities: Store TP (Until 6 hit) > Accuracy (Until Capped ) > Attack > Strength > Dexterity.
This set has 403 Accuracy (Max Merits, Hume DEX) with Hasso. There's a lot of flexibility in this set depending on your accuracy needs, items like Potent Belt, Toreadors Ring, Alky Bracelets, and more can make sense. It's worth mentioning that with a Hagun you get a bonus +25 Accuracy to Rana, but this does not work when using Sekkanonoki, because Rana is almost entirely used with Sekka I decided to make a set without Haguns TP bonus applying. If you are just using raw Tachi: Rana, you can shed a ton of accuracy in this set and run way more Strength/Attack.
Alternatives
 	Alternative 1 	Alt 2 	Alt 3
Ammo 	Tiphia's Sting 	RSE Sachet 	Arco De Velocidad
Head 	Shura Kabuto +1 	Shura Kabuto 	Saotome Kabuto +1
Neck 	Justice Torque 	Peacock Charm 	Chivalrous Chain
Ear1&2 	Hollow Earring 	Fowling Earring 	Diabolos's Earring
Ear1&2 	Merman's Earring 	Coral Earring 	Triumph Earring
Body 	Haubergeon 	Byrnie +1 	Kirin's Osode
Hands 	Alky Bracelets 	Ochiudo's Kote 	Enkidu's Mittens
Ring1&2	Toreador's Ring 	Sniper's Ring +1 	Ulthalam's Ring
Back 	Forager's Mantle 	Amemet Mantle +1 	Amemet Mantle
Waist 	Warwolf Belt 	Potent Belt 	Life Belt
Legs 	Usukane Haidate 	Shura Haidate +1 	Byakko's Haidate
Feet 	Hachiman Sune-Ate +1	Saotome Sune-Ate +1	Saotome Sune-Ate
Tachi Jinpu https://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/392943
	Stat Priorities: Accuracy (Until Capped) > Magic Attack > Attack > STR.
This WS isn't that different from Rana or Penta in that it loves Attack, needs Accuracy, and has some mild STR mods. That said it also can take advantage of Magic Attack Bonus, so a Novio Earring or a Moldavite Earring is pretty sick. Ugg Pendant maybe has a place, needs more testing.
Alternatives
 	Alternative 1 	Alt 2 	Alt 3
Ammo 	Tiphia Sting 	RSE Sachet 	Arco de Velocidad
Head 	Shura Kabuto +1 	Shura Kabuto 	Saotome Kabuto +1
Neck 	Uggalepih Pendant	Justice Torque 	Peacock Charm
Ear1&2 	Moldative Earring	Bushinomimi 	Merman's Earring
Ear1&2 	Coral Earring 	Triumph Earring 	Hollow Earring
Body 	Haubergeon 	Byrnie +1 	Kirin's Osode
Hands 	Alky Bracelets 	Ochiudo's Kote 	Noritsune Kote
Ring1&2	Flame Ring 	Ulthalam's Ring 	Ruby Ring
Back 	Forager's Mantle 	Amemet Mantle +1 	Amemet Mantle
Waist 	Warwolf Belt 	Potent Belt 	Life Belt
Legs 	Usukane Haidate 	Shura Haidate +1 	Byakko's Haidate
Feet 	Rutter Sabatons 	Hachiman Sune-Ate +1	Saotome Sune-Ate +1
Polearm TP (Salvage) https://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/392457
	Stat Priorities: Store TP (Until 5 hit) > Haste (Until 25%) > Accuracy (Until Capped) > Attack > Strength.
This set would hit 385 Accuracy (Max merits, Hume DEX) with Hasso. Usukane has changed how we look at Polearm sets now, while this set does lose significant haste from the pre-salvage set it does allow us to switch to Meat and maintain a decent hit rate (around 85% on Greater Colibri). This set probably does not apply to Dynamis because you don't need much accuracy in that event now, it is likely the new best in slot Polearm set for Meriting, Limbus, Salvage, and Assaults.
Polearm TP (No Salvage) https://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/377918
	Stat Priorities: Store TP (Until 5 hit) > Haste (Until 25%) > Accuracy (Until Capped) > Attack > Strength.
This set would hit 406 Accuracy (Max merits, Hume DEX) with Hasso and Bream Sushi. If you are using this for Dynamis you don't really need to change the gear, just use Meat instead. This specific set needs a 4 hit Penta Thrust to connect which is tough consistency wise, you can WS in Hachiman Sune-Ate +1 if you want to spend the gil on them to make it need only a 3 hit penta thrust.
Alternatives
 	Alternative 1 	Alt 2 	Alt 3
Weapon 	Tomoe 	Engetsuto 	
Grip 	Mythril Grip +1 	Mythril Grip 	Claymore Grip
Ammo 	Lightning Bow +1	Ifrit's Bow 	Arco De Velocidad
Head 	Aces Helm 	Askar Zuchetto 	Optical Hat
Neck 	Peacock Charm 	Chivalrous Chain	Wivre Gorget +1
Ear1&2 	Hollow Earring 	Fowling Earring 	Diabolos's Earring
Ear1&2 	Merman's Earring	Coral Earring 	Attilas Earring
Body 	Askar Korazin 	Hachiman Domaru 	Haubergeon +1
Hands 	Dusk Gloves 	Hachiman Kote +1	Hachiman Kote
Ring1&2	Toreador's Ring 	Sniper's Ring 	Woodsman Ring
Ring1&2	Ulthatlam's Ring	Jarger Ring 	Venerer's Ring
Back 	Forager's Mantle	Amemet Mantle +1	Amemet Mantle
Waist 	Swift Belt 	Life Belt 	Tilt Belt
Legs 	Askar Dirs 	Shura Haidate 	Dusk Trousers
Feet 	Fuma Kyahan 	Dusk Ledelsens 	Hachiman Sune-Ate
Penta Thrust https://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/377923
	Stat Priorities: Store TP (Until 5 hit) > Accuracy (Until Capped) > Attack > Strength > Dexterity.
This set would hit 400 Accuracy (Hume DEX, Max Merits, Hasso) with no accuracy food. Swapping to meat from sushi really changes this build up, as we move to focusing nearly every slot on accuracy as a result. The Bandomusha Kote are probably too much attack to lose realistically, but most the other pieces aren't too bad of swaps.
Alternatives
 	Alternative 1 	Alt 2 	Alt 3
Grip 	Mythril Grip +1 	Mythril Grip 	Claymore Grip
Ammo 	Ifrit's Bow 	Arco De Velocidad 	RSE Sachet
Head 	Maat's Cap 	Optical Hat 	Shura Kabuto +1
Neck 	Shadow Gorget 	Peacock Charm 	Chivalrous Chain
Ear1&2 	Fowling Earring 	Diabolos's Earring	Merman's Earring
Body 	Haubergeon 	Usukane Haramaki 	Byrnie +1
Hands 	Ochiudo's Kote 	Usukane Gote 	Noritsune Kote
Ring1&2	Rajas Ring 	Ulthalam's Ring 	Sniper's Ring
Back 	Forager's Mantle 	Amemet Mantle +1 	Amemet Mantle
Waist 	Life Belt 	Potent Belt 	Warwolf Belt
Legs 	Shura Haidate +1 	Shura Haidate 	Hachiryu Haidate
Feet 	Saotome Sune-Ate +1	Rutter Sabatons 	Saotome Sune-Ate
Physical Damage Taken https://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/378283
	Stat Priorities: Damage Taken-% > Physical Damage Taken -% > Parry and other defensive stats.
This set can vary depending on how weird you want to get with it, things like Parrying Torque, Boxer's Mantle, and even some evasion earrings all could have a place in this set. Personally I don't really go that far and don't own/carry those items just becuase I don't see a huge value return.
Alternatives
 	Alternative 1 	Alt 2 	Alt 3
Head 	Arhat's Jinpachi 	Genbu's Kabuto 	
Body 	Arhat's Gi 	 	
Hands	Darksteel Mittens	Seiryu's Kote 	
Legs 	Gavial Cuisses +1	Hydra Cuisses 	Darksteel Subligar +1
Feet 	Gavial Greaves +1	Askar Gambieras	Darksteel Leggings +1
Magical Damage Taken https://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/378284
	Stat Priorities: Damage Taken -% (Until Cap) > Magic Damage Taken -% (Until Cap) > All Resist Above 1 > Magic Defense Bonus.
Layer this over your TP set when you expect to take heavy magic damage, this set is so useful if you time it correctly allowing you to live many things that would straight kill you.
MDT caps at 50%, with Shellra V you only need 23% in gear, with Shell IV you need 28%. There's a lot of ways to do this set, personally I aim to have 1 or more of every elemental resist because it opens up the ability for me to 1/8th and 1/16th resist spells which you don't have with 0 or negative resists.
Alternatives
 	Alternative 1 	Alt 2 	Alt 3
Head 	Gavial Mask +1 	Hydra Mask 	Coral Mask +1
Neck 	Jeweled Collar 	 	
Ear1&2 	Coral Earring 	 	
Body 	Gavial Mail +1 	Coral Scale Mail +1 	Hydra Mail
Hands 	Hydra Finger Gauntlets +1	Coral Finger Gauntlets +1	Gavial Finger Gauntlets
Ring1&2	Merman's Ring 	Coral Ring 	Unfettered Ring
Back 	Resentment Cape 	Lamia Mantle 	
Legs 	Coral Cuisses 	 	
Feet 	Coral Greaves +1 	Coral Greaves 	
Random Items to know about
Imperial Ring 	Best in slot ring for TP sets in Salvage and Assaults. Can be fit into an Ashitacast or Gearswap to detect if you are in those zones.
Vampire Earring 	A very good Weaponskill earring at night, with double the amount of STR as a Triumph/Bushinomimi.
Fenrir's Earring 	This is a straight upgrade over Merman's Earring in the daytime and makes a great piece for Penta Thrust.
Myochin Kabuto & Saotome Kote	You will always want to carry these and swap them in for Meditate, they provide massively increased TP gain from that ability.
Regen Items 	When you are standing around it's a good idea to have Regen items equipped in order to passively gain HP.
Berserker's Torque 	This item applies a Poison effect to you when equipped and you have your weapon drawn, very useful for waking up from being slept in Dynamis or Merit Parties, really underrated item.
Opo-Opo Necklace 	The inverse of Berserker's Torque, you gain TP while asleep. Much less useful but much easier to get.
Medicines 	A sign of a great player is an inventory full of medicines. Antidotes, Echo Drops, Eye Drops, Holy Water, Remedy, Panacea, Poison Potions, Icarus Wings, Reraisers, Potions, and Elixirs all can absolutely save your group when things go awry. You just have to remember to use them!
Wyvern Earring 	This earring makes Dragoon sub a thing, allowing you to gain a huge Haste+5% in the ear slot.
Hachiman Jinpachi +1 	This item is useful as a WS head when Sekkanonoki or Meikyo are up, as it for some reason works under those buffs.
= Food =
For tips on food I'd recommend looking at the food guide that Falzum and I put together here:
Food guide by Falzum and Falaras
= Looking Forward =
8/9/23: Salvage has finally released which was the patch that changed Samurai gearing forever. Following this there's really not much left for Samurai gear to release on Eden to be honest. We can look at some day getting Absolute Virtue for his Mars Ring and Ninurtas Sash, both will just hard replace Toreador's Ring and Speed Belt. Pandemonium Warden could also be released, giving us access to Nanatsusaya a great katana with 100% Zanshin rate. Time will tell if Nanatsusaya will have any impact on the meta, it was so rare in era there's not much info on it. Past that there's probably some small assault or einherjar pieces but overall we are pretty close to finished with new Samurai gear on Eden.
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