TGDB.net - Game news, cheats, solutions, walkthroughs, trainers, saved games and much more!

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

FFXI Samurai Guide
Version 0.90

o o
Prepare to pay for your crimes!> |/ \|
^ ^ < Sure-- let me introduce you to my
"insurance" company! HA!

__________________________________
Behold my comical talents! -Author

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Table of Contents
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


01. Introduction
02. Version History
03. The Role of a Samurai
04. The Quest of the Samurai
05. Choosing a Race
06. Job Traits
07. Job Abilities
08. Sub Jobs
09. Weapon Skills
10. Skillchains
11. Weapons
12. Armor
13. AF Equipment
14. Frequently Asked Questions
15. Contact Info
16. Special Thanks
17. Legal


__________________/___________________________________________________________
/01. / INTRODUCTION /
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>/___________________________________________________________/
/
First off, I'd like to note that I am not currently on-line with this game.
I'm in transitions, and I may not be on for as long as the PS2 release. Please
keep this in mind while reading this guide, because for the moment, as updates
are added to the game, I am missing them, and I try not to add information to
this FAQ until I have confirmed it myself. Please don't let that discourage
you from letting me know about anything that is inaccurate in this guide.

When I wrote this guide, I had no online access. This is my way of coping
with the withdrawal symptoms of not having FFXI. *convulses*
Thusly, the majority of this guide is written from memory. If you recognize
any errors please let me know. A lot of information will be added once I can
confirm it myself, but for now we're on the honor system.

Thanks to those of you who sent me confirmations and updates. As expected,
I'm finding several errors, so if you notice anything that needs to be
corrected, just let me know what it is. Most have you have been very helpful
(there's always the occassional whiner, but whatcha gonna do?). For those of
you who need to be told, opinions and complaints are worthless in my mailbox,
but information is very helpful. I think you can distinguish the difference.

To the rest of you, enjoy.

__________________/___________________________________________________________
/02. / VERSION HISTORY /
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>/___________________________________________________________/
/


Version 0.99- 01/30/2004 Almost there! Lots of corrections today and I
finished the Quest of the Samurai and the Weapons
sections. There's also new Special Thanks and some
Legal updates. Only the Armor section left to go!
Version 0.91- 01/08/2004 Fixed a lot of little errors- thanks to all of you
who submitted corrections.
Version 0.90- 01/06/2004 Added more Skillchain info, and the AF Equipment
section. Only three more sections to go!
Version 0.75- 01/05/2004 Added the Skillchains, Contact Info, and Legal
Sections. After changing locations, the transfer
turned out a lot of formatting errors, so many of
those were corrected, and I'm finally able to
distribute this guide.
Version 0.50- 01/04/2004 Added the Weapon Skills section and fixed some
errors.
Version 0.40- 01/03/2004 Added the Subjob section plus a few minor
corrections.
Version 0.25- 01/01/2004 Created this guide.

__________________/___________________________________________________________
/03. / THE ROLE OF A SAMURAI /
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>/___________________________________________________________/
/
In Final Fantasy XI, partying with other players is a big part of the
experience. When you're in a party, each character should have a role fitting
of their character's abilities. Your goal as a Samurai is essentially to do
damage. Most character classes will fall into one or two of the categories
below:

Attackers- Since your goal in a party is generally to kill enemies, and
gain experience, effective attackers are crucial to a party's success. The
role of an attacker is to do large amounts of damage.
Examples: Ranger, Black Mage, Dark Knight, Dragoon, Samurai, Monk, etc...

Tanks- The purpose of a tank is to be a shield for the party, a damage
sponge if you will. It is tremendously beneficial to a party to have
someone that can absorb most of the damage so that others can focus on
doing their role rather than surviving.
Examples: Paladin, Ninja, Warrior, (Monk at low levels)

Healers- Pretty self-explanatory. When you fight you get hurt. If you want
to keep fighting, you'll need to be healed.
Examples: White Mage, Red Mage, Bard

ENers- Enners (also called buffers, debuffers, enhancers, or enfeeblers) are
support characters who use their abilities to strengthen their party members
and/or weaken their enemies.
Examples: Bard, Red Mage, White Mage

Syn- Merchants (or synthesizers) are generally non-combat classes and for
the most part don't exist on FFXI. You can, however, relate this to the many
guilds of Vanadiel.

Please note that even though tanks will attack the enemy, not all attackers
are tanks. Tanks deliberately keep the damage on themselves. Attackers don't.
Yes, it is preferable in an emergency circumstance to have the attackers take
the damage before the enners and certainly the healers; however, this shouldn't
happen in the first place. If the party was properly constructed and everyone
does their job, it should never happen that an attacker has to tank. If it
does, then either be very skillful or target "even match" mobs, or you may
find that your experience chains are negated by a series of untimely deaths.

So as I said, your role as a samurai is as an attacker. The problem is
this-- Samurais are not by any means the best damage dealers. Above Samurais
in damage dealing are Rangers, Black Mages, Dark Knights, Dragoons, and
probably some other classes of which I'm not sure, so why be a samurai?
Well, if you're not particularly fond of Samurais then you should probably
choose another class in the first place. I know that for some people, being
an uber-character is the one and only way to have fun, and losing is incredibly
not fun. All I'm going to say on this is that if you want to be "the best"
attacker in all of Vanadiel, this is probably not the class for you. Samurai
is, however, a very fun class to play and definitely has its advantages. For
one, samurai is a very well-balanced class in terms of fighting with no big
weaknesses (such as the horrible defense of a Dark Knight/Black Mage, or the
high costs of ammunition for Rangers). Also, samurais collect TP like a sheet
of Bounty absorbs grape juice. This makes them the leaders in skillchains for
their party (it also makes Samurai a highly desirable sub-job). It also poses
a problem or two, because the truth of the matter is that although Samurais
are not by any means useless in a party, there aren't many good reasons to
have Samurai as your main job. This, of course, may change in upcoming
updates.

This lone sentence is just to reiterate that you should NOT think that
samurais are a weak class or not playable just because they don't do the most
damage.

__________________/___________________________________________________________
/04. / THE QUEST OF THE SAMURAI /
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>/___________________________________________________________/
/

Okay, did I say I'd have this up soon? Well, for me, three weeks is fairly
soon, okay?

The quest to become a Samurai is pretty hard, to say the least. Yes, there is
combat involved. Of course, Samurai is an advanced job, so you can't do the
quest until you've reached lvl 30. First, though, you'll need to go to Norg.
Your client is Jaucribaix. Once you're there, do the following:

1) Talk to Ranemaud to get the Sacred Sprig.
2) Talk to Aeka to get the Oriental Steel.
3) Go to Konschtat Highlands (D-8) and trade the Oriental Steel to the ???.
4) A Bomb named Forger will appear. Defeat it to get the Bomb Steel.
5) Go to the west of the Sanctuary of Zi'Tah and use an axe on the ??? of the
giant tree.
6) Defeat the Guardian Treant and inspect the ??? again. You'll recieve the
Sacred Branch.
7) Give the Bomb Steel and Sacred Branch to Jaucribaix. Return in 3 hours.
8) Congratulations! You'll recieve the Mumeito GK and can now be a Samurai!

If you want to solo this quest you'll need to be around Lvl. 55. The Guardian
Treant is one tough fella. You should be able to beat Forger some time before
that, but I don't see much reason to if you can't finish the whole quest. Of
course, you can always party up, or just get someone at a high level to do it
for you.

Also, keep the Mumeito, or you may find yourself dishing out some major cash
to get it back later on.

__________________/___________________________________________________________
/05. / CHOOSING A RACE /
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>/___________________________________________________________/
/

Any race will make a suitable Samurai. In the end it all comes down to your
personal preference. I recommend that you choose the race that you like the
most, because otherwise you might find that you don't enjoy the game as much
(or as long) when you get sick of looking at your character. Below I've listed
the stats for each race as a level 1 and level 70 samurai, which can be found
running rampant all across the internet, but just in case you wanted to choose
your race right at this moment based solely on the stats of a lvl 70 samurai,
I thought I should oblige you.

Level 1:

| Hume | Elvann | Tarutaru | Mithra | Galka |
| HP 31 | HP 33 | HP 27 | HP 28 | HP 36 |
| MP 0 | MP 0 | MP 0 | MP 0 | MP 0 |
| STR 7 | STR 8 | STR 6 | STR 7 | STR 8 |
| DEX 7 | DEX 7 | DEX 7 | DEX 9 | DEX 7 |
| VIT 7 | VIT 8 | VIT 7 | VIT 7 | VIT 9 |
| AGI 6 | AGI 5 | AGI 7 | AGI 7 | AGI 6 |
| INT 6 | INT 5 | INT 8 | INT 6 | INT 6 |
| MND 6 | MND 7 | MND 6 | MND 6 | MND 6 |
| CHR 6 | CHR 6 | CHR 6 | CHR 5 | CHR 5 |


Level 70:

| Hume | Elvann | Tarutaru | Mithra | Galka |
| HP 1157 | HP 1268 | HP 946 | HP 1157 | HP 1409 |
| MP 0 | MP 0 | MP 0 | MP 0 | MP 0 |
| STR 58 | STR 66 | STR 50 | STR 54 | STR 62 |
| DEX 58 | DEX 54 | DEX 58 | DEX 70 | DEX 58 |
| VIT 58 | VIT 62 | VIT 54 | VIT 54 | VIT 70 |
| AGI 50 | AGI 42 | AGI 54 | AGI 58 | AGI 46 |
| INT 54 | INT 46 | INT 66 | INT 54 | INT 50 |
| MND 54 | MND 62 | MND 50 | MND 50 | MND 54 |
| CHR 54 | CHR 54 | CHR 54 | CHR 46 | CHR 46 |

If you care to do the math, all of the stats (except for HP) will add up to
be the same. The only stats that don't matter for a Samurai are MP, INT, and
CHR, because MP and INT only matter for magic casters, and CHR only matters
for Bards and Beastmasters. The only reason these stats would matter would
be that you chose such a job as a sub-job, which as I discuss in a later
section is not a very good idea. What this all means is that "the best" race
is most likely the one with the fewest points in MP, INT, and CHR, and the
most points in HP, because these are the only things that vary. Mithra and
Galka each get 8 points added to their other stats because of their low CHR.
They both have average INT, but Galka's is lower. Galka also has quite a bit
higher HP than other races, so the bottom line is, in terms of numbers, Galka
is "the best" choice for a Samurai, followed by Elvaan, then Mithra, then
Hume, and lastly, Tarutaru. Of course, if you're like me and can't stand the
sight of a Galka, then by all means choose a more attractive race.

*Before I recieve a single e-mail on the matter, I want to explain that MND is
of a notably lesser importance to a Samurai than the other stats, as it only
aids us in magic defense and resistance to status ailments, so you might want
to consider that while choosing your race. Nonetheless, it's a stat that is not
in any way useless (well, unless you don't fight much of anything with magic or
status attacks). My point is that everyone has their beliefs about which stats