"I dunno, I understand that /nin on SAM is a 20% drop off on dmg that most players accept but I still think I could close that gap further. I play as SAM/NIN most merit parties as a standard and typically rank 1st or second highest parse so I wouldnt go as far as to say a SAM isnt top merit potential.
Although I do understand that for other jobs such as WAR its a benefit regardless since yes you do get to use your dual weild axe's so /NIN yields a benefit to you. As far as im concerned since I go as SAM/NIN 9/10 merit parties im willing to go out and say I would still rank one of the top merit choices in your job setup although yes I would lose the 5% DA and berserk. Though im willing to try it sometime as SAM/NIN soboro with serious meats to see how far below I would be.
I guess call me a believer in a good player, merits, and a deep understanding of the utsu timers. Although do believe that I only say a VERY merited and geared SAM can pull off staying close to your parse. No disrespect to Phaust intended at all, I dont know his battle tactics or his exact play style on SAM but I do know my own.
Just my thoughts."
I'm in the same boat as you, and have been prior to all this update stuff. Have no problem topping the parse as /nin (And I don't have B haidates yet). Full merits make a difference. Yes you do lose double attack, zerk, etc but with /nin you do gain +10 acc, +10 str, +10 attk, +10% increase in attack speed 95% of the time, and most importantly, the ability to spam ws at free will with survivability. Using a Hagun, the more WS you do, the greater your TP bonus and damage will be.
I recently got invited to a merit party, I was sam/nin, the leader said "no /war? no thanks". Well I replied and asked him if they were killing mobs fast enough as I went and changed to /war. Arrive at camp, meditate, first WS, 2250 (while things were broken), third eye wears, mob is still at 20%, throw up defender, hit hit hit sponge sponge sponge, I then /p "This is why I sub nin". We were not killing fast enough, I found myself holding TP back waiting for mob HP to get low enough as to not get annihiliated. There are times as /nin where I'll go through 3 shadows, seigan and third eye, basically tank the whole time.
Side note, I tried a Michibisha and Claymore strap after 2h fixes with a 6 hit build in Dynamis and it rocked, topped the parse in both melee and ws damage, and pretty balanced damage wise, melee dmg was close to ws dmg. Crit hits ~ 18-19%. Don't think the parse picks up on crit hit ws'es. Curious to see how this compares to soboro, etc in merits.
