Tagrineth said:
If you're WS'ing 2x a fight without meditate... your fights are lasting way too long.
Actually, on my 50 sam I was alternating between 2-3 weaponskills a fight for most fights. I had Store TP +15, and double attack was a definite boost. Plus I would lag my meditate to get the most out of it, so I'd fire meditate off at 80% TP and then use my ws after the first tick. So by the time meditate was finished I would end up with at least 80% TP, not counting any melee hits along the way. I very rarely see any other samrai doing this until higher levels, but it lets you easily skillchain with 2 people during one fight.
This was also without eating sushi(I was stocked up on +acc gear), so with double attack it's possible to do 2+ ws's every fight. When I can get a Soboro Sukehiro, my TP will be through the roof; so I'll let you know how that works when I get one.
As far as stats go, skaw got it right; you want accuracy, attack and strength. All of the great katana weaponskills have a str modifier, so str will get the most out of your weaponskills, which are the hallmark of the samurai. At low levels, you're going to want accuracy because you won't hit very well, so I would stock up on +dex gear if you can get it. Once you can start wearing +accuracy gear, I would trade off the +dex for +str or +accuracy. If there's no +str or +accuracy gear for that slot, +attack will be the next best bet; it will help reach the maximum damage per hit you can get.
For subs, until 30 it doesn't really matter but /drg is good for any melee, then I would say /war all the way. Subbing thief is useless until 60, since you will most likely be the first provoke to open a distortion skillchain and 60 is when you start to replace thiefs. For /rng, I think it's stupid until 55 when you can use sidewinder. I know ranger gets a melee accuracy trait at 10, but every samurai I've seen that subs rng had a bunch of +accuracy gear and ate sushi, so they hit all the time for very little damage. Warrior is the msot desire sub job and provides the best benefits to your party, so I would say stick with that.