Campaign Galore

Well, I've been doing a lot of campaign lately. Mostly to push for the last 2 merits I needed to get strength level 2. I decided to go out and get a few peices of equipment to go with a SAM/RNG setup again. Here's a peek at what it looks like.
I really don't have any body or leg armor that suites a SAM/RNG setup, so I went with Shinimusha for store TP. I was getting 24% TP return per bow shot easily with this setup. I really think a 4-hit TP build is doable with a few more tweaks here and there. Now normally I go to campaign as SAM/WAR and drain other mage's MP for cures because I end up tanking a majority of the time (probably something to do with all my +emnity on my AF+1). But as SAM/RNG I did about 500 damage per Sidewinders vs. my 200-300 damage Tachi: Kashas (I keep up Defender to help survive tanking as SAM/WAR). And since I use Soboro on SAM/RNG, I get in about 1-2 more Sidewinders per fight than my Tachi: Kashas with a non-Soboro great katana. Both subs are fun to play as, but man did I go through a lot of arrows as SAM/RNG.

Now for a little ranting. I've been told a lot lately that I should level DNC for SAM/DNC. Everyone says it's a great sub for soloing. Samuraisoldier is the only person I've really watched play it for more than 2 minutes. While I see the potential in better survivability and self-sufficiency, I honestly don't like it on completely different principles. Call me crazy, but I do have "some" role play guidelines (*GASP* yes, roleplaying in an RPG) I like to follow when playing as my samurai. I vision my samurai as the type of samurai you'd see in the movie "The Last Samurai", or "Seven Samurai". They are masters of the sword, bow, or whatever type weapon they are trained to use. No where do I see them dancing on the battlefield to fight against an opponent. Do samurai dance? Of course some of them may, but not doing some "jig" while fighting an opponent and swinging their katana. That just seems silly to me.

I like SAM/WAR the best because it fits the "up close" and "face-to-face" battle samurai that I like best. Is it the most practical for most instances in this game? No. SAM/THF seems to be the widely accepted "end game" sub for samurai. It works best for SATAing onto tanks and maximizing the potential damage with minimal curing needed for the samurai. SAM/NIN is good too, but with the introduction of Seigan a while ago, samurai have their own "physical damage shadows" that can sometimes replace (and in some instances exceed) utsusemi shadows. So now days I'll usually pick SAM/WAR over SAM/NIN. Also, SAM/RNG works because samurai have a pretty good bow skill, and spamming Sidewinder is pretty entertaining. However, SAM/RNG is not much different from playing as RNG, just with a samurai twist to it. That's why I find is somewhat appealing, but not as my primary choice of a sub job.

All in all, everyone picks their sub jobs for different reasons. I pick mine based on situation with some roleplaying influence. Some people pick their sub jobs just because it's the "best" sub to use. You play your game the way you want to, and I'll play it the way I want to. It's as simple as that. ^^