Samurai (again?)

[Ziggurat]

Sultan has some good advice. My Sam is now instant killing or tiger striking at 6x every battle, or at least the longer ones. Makes you appreciate what they can do. He has mmore kills than the Valk or Bard by about 100 or so. I'm not saying he's a killing machine like a fighter or even a rogue, but it sure is impressive to see those 6 strikes for 20-30 in a row! Bear in mind most Samurais never get developed right. And there is a mystery there.

Here are his current stats:

Using Bushido Blade and Wakasashi
"Zax", lev 13 Dracon
Str = 83
Int = 65
Pie = 35
Vit = 60
Dex = 73
Spd = 80
Sen = 51

Close combat = 73
Dual weap = 66
Crit = 63
Sword = 91

Still not impressive looking in numbers.

I think you need a certain lev of Str, Dex and Speed. I have no idea what is the magic combination that can make them so deadly.

[grimstyle]

[first post]

this makes me think too because, currently i am playing solo fairy/ninja

right now im three levels away from the 18th level of bishop, but this thread makes me think if i want to switch back to ninja and abuse the CoC or should i jus switch to samurai and work on the lightning strikes and all, because i like to gamble on all those chances of more critical strikes.

any advice, please?

thanks

[Scatter]

Well, not with a Faerie!!! Too much stuff you can't use that makes a Sam worth having. And, if you already have any Ninja levels they'll have been wasted as far as Caster level is concerned. In fact, for a Solo, i'd rather be a Ninja even if not a Faerie--Quicksand and Death Cloud power will start to go up again once you get to 5 Ninja levels, and for me those are very important to crank up as high as you can, so even with the Cane (which you can use only as a Ninja), you don't have to kill maybe half your opponents physically. Lightning Strikes don't add to your crit chance as much as the Ninja's Crit Bonus, anyway.

(Edit) PS-welcome aBoard!

[ 11-21-2003, 12:08 AM: Message edited by: Scatter ]

[dplax]

Welcome to the boards grimstyle!

If I were playing a character like your faerie I would definitely make them a ninja in one part for stealth, and the other part for the cane, and also a faerie cannot use too many samurai items.

[Hermit Boy]

Sultan and Ziggurat, thanks for the advice. That makes sense.

I will definately drop the second hand weapon. I only hit with it once per turn, and it usually does less than 5 damage anyway.

Then start pumping STR. He does have frequent Stamina problems so that will help a lot.

[DraconFighter]

Lightning Strikes/Critical Strikes

One reason I enjoy the Samurai is because there is so much mystery about them. For this discussion, I assume we are defining Lightning Strike as when you get a combat message that says "Lightning Strike," not just when you get multiple swings per attack.

On the VN Board some players kept track of Lightning Strike and tried to figure out what caused it. Their conclusion was LOW initiative. I've noticed this in my games as I get far more Lightning Strikes at the beginning of the game when iniative is low. I keep all of my characters in the white almost all the time. As soon as we get into the blue, we sell off stuff. I also equip my Samurai with light armor (featherweight, none of that heavy Samurai stuff) and don't notice many Lightning Strikes late in the game.

But I've given up trying to figure out Lighning Strike because it's the Critical Strikes I care about. If you are getting 15% criticals with Muramasa plus 4% from your 100 skill in Critical Strike, this should give you a critical kill almost every 5 hits of the sword! I don't think I get quite that many, but that is because there are so many other things at work.

So I would think the key to building an effective sword-wielding Samurai is to maximize your chances of criticals by increasing the number of hits with your swords. My goal is to get my Samurai up to 3 swings per attack and three attacks per round (the last attack is never more than one or two swings, though), so i can get 7-8 swings per round by the end game. I really should take the time to be more scientific about this, but I think I get the most swings per round when close combat and dexterity are both 100, speed and strength are high, and stamina is always kept high through frequent casting of Rest All. But I wonder about lots of other possibilities, too, like whether Strength or Senses has any direct affect on criticals. I seem to get criticals more often on low level enemies and after I cast Armormelt, so I believe that there is lots involved in this. Too much for my poor brain to think about on a Friday afternoon.

It does sound like a reasonable approach to use only one sword and not face the penalty for dual weapons in order to maximize your hits, but I have never tried this. Even if the Enchanted Wakizashi only gives a 1 in 20 chance of a critical (with bonus from critical strike skill), I want that chance. I don't mind building the dual weapon skill, especially since we get the 25% bonus in sword.

For development, I dump skill points into close combat, dual weapons, sword, and wizardry (and eventually snakespeed). I dump attribute points into Dexterity and Speed first, then Strength and Senses (Senses because she learns to use a crossbow on her own).

My Felpurr Samurai always trails my Dracon Fighter in kills, but that's because she is my Element Shield caster and serves to weaken enemies with spells that damage many before we move in for the kill.

From the time we get the Bushido Blade/Enchanted Wakizashi, I am very pleased with my Samurai. Up till then, she is a little slow, but what a fun character to play! Almost as much fun as the Bard!

[Ziggurat]

DraconFighter - if that theory is correct, I shouldn't boost senses or speed beyond current numbers if I want to max Tiger Strike. I think I'll work on strength and maybe dex for awhile and see if the frequency of TS changes. I think you need a certain amount of speed, the frequency seemed to pick up when I gave him an Amulet of Speed. I wonder if Snake Speed nullifies TS? Anyone get Tiger Strikes while having Snake Speed?

[Scatter]

Bumped for Mr Creosote, and to answer Ziggurat's hanging question, YES, you get LS's with Snakespeed. And no, high initiative doesn't slow them down; there must have been another factor involved with the char, like a change in weapon or load.

[babar]

My Felpurr Sam (max dex, spd) with 2 str ankhs had no problem getting lightning strikes in full sam armor, until the party started getting weighed down and encounter significally high (than themselves) monsters.

[Scatter]

Yah, and level mismatch reduces Crits, too. I always dress my Sams as light as i can and survive, which is always easier if you take the stealth-level. I don't make them carry much, either. If you geve more stuff to other chars and keep the party pack light, you can get a lot of stuff and still keep your Sam under 1/3.