Proper samurai. Doing it right?

[Inkompetent]

Because Nodachi & Long Hafted Blade are 16 STR requirement.  This is a lvl 30 build with only 15 STR.  At 31 you could have 16 STR and use them.  Samurai value speed and agility over brute force & endurance.

Actually the LHB only requires 15 Str. The nodachi however does indeed need 16.

[Phazey]

The only way i can make an horse archer / two hander hybrid work is with a level 31 build:

(click to show/hide)

Level 31 (8 892 403 xp)

    Strength: 18
    Agility: 18
    Hit points: 53

    Ironflesh: 0
    Power Strike: 6
    Shield: 0
    Athletics: 6
    Riding: 5
    Horse Archery: 3
    Power Draw: 6
    Power Throw: 0
    Weapon Master: 6

    One Handed: 1
    Two Handed: 86
    Polearm: 1
    Archery: 140
    Crossbow: 1
    Throwing: 1

How much WPF you put into archery and how much into two hander (or polearm, if you prefer that) is up to you.

Drawbacks:
Having 'only' Horse Archery 3 kinda sucks though, or so i heard. Most horse archers swear you need at least 4 to be able to hit things while riding at speed.
Also, you will be limited to 1 stack of arrows, which isn't a lot, especially for a horse archer.

On foot, you will be fast enough with athletics 6, but the WPF in two hander (or polearm) is quite low, so don't try to spam.

Besides those drawbacks, it might be a viable build. Who knows. Jack of all trades and master of none, eh?

[Inkompetent]

Besides those drawbacks, it might be a viable build. Who knows. Jack of all trades and master of none, eh?

Sums up the build pretty good. We don't really expect to be very good in anything either, but rather just have fun emptying a quiver of arrows into the enemies before getting into melee. When running out of arrows we can always either charge in on horseback, or dismount and fight on foot. Depends on if using katana or nodachi I suppose

Upside with the bow is that we as sword-infantry still can do something against enemy cavalry. Even horse archers. Doesn't take more than 3-4 arrows to down the lesser horses.

[Digglez]

Actually the LHB only requires 15 Str. The nodachi however does indeed need 16.

THey must have changed it recently.  I dont play my Samurai alt all that much

[Okkam]

THey must have changed it recently.  I dont play my Samurai alt all that much

yea, it was changed for 15 str requirement. But before (in january) it has only 10 str as requirement.

[oprah_winfrey]

Because Nodachi & Long Hafted Blade are 16 STR requirement.  This is a lvl 30 build with only 15 STR.  At 31 you could have 16 STR and use them.  Samurai value speed and agility over brute force & endurance.

LHB is only 15 strength requirement.

[Inkompetent]

Can gladly report that - even though we've not gotten decent riding skill yet - this build works really well. Light or ordinary Strange Armour (Heavy is too expensive due to yumi), katana, and yumi with bodkins or barbed arrows, is working really fantastically well.

As a note though: I can't seem to afford to play it at all. Playing with only strange armour, leather gloves, no helmet, and a katana, I can't afford to repair the items. <.<

[Torben]

you need to stack about about 30-40k,  than you will have enough to survive fail streaks

[Inkompetent]

Well, sold the horse that I had pre-purchased, and I could at least afford to repair the katana, and start collecting Light Strange armour. Was enough to give me a turn-around, and now I can even afford to use the bow

[Jdodds99]

I like this build I always wanted a good 2H build but this looks added awesome. If anyone knows a great pure 2H build then please link me.

[Inkompetent]

I can say that aside from the Yumi being a pretty bad bow it's a fun build.

For pure 2h I am however pondering the following (since I'm almost 31 now and can retire):

Strength: 18
Agility: 21
Skills to attributes: 8
Ironflesh: 3
Power Strike: 6
Athletics: 7
Weapon Master: 7
Two Handed: 163

That's a nodachi-build that I plan to run with a mix of light, normal, and heavy strange armour.


An alternative is:

Strength: 16
Agility: 24
Skills to attributes: 10
Power Strike: 5
Athletics: 8
Weapon Master: 8
Two Handed: 172

Has 8hp less, and lower power strike, but is even faster, I think. I'm not entirely sure how much strength affects being slowed down by equipment weight.

[Cup1d]

Yumi is not bad. You just need at least 150 wpf for 6PD bows. This make «true» samurai impossible with our soft level cap.

[Inkompetent]

But with 150 wpf in archery it's pretty much impossible to be half-decent with the katana, unless spending 16 hours a day in the game until 2013 to get to level 32+

Example level 31 build:

Strength: 18
Agility: 21
Skills to attributes: 6
Power Strike: 6
Athletics: 7
Power Draw: 6
Weapon Master: 7
Two Handed: 89
Archery: 150

[zagibu]

A proper samurai is a horse archer.

[Inkompetent]

The "most proper" build would be a horse-archer with polearms and 1h weapons for a yumi, yari (war spear or somesuch), and a wakizashi or shorter, but to make that work at anything below 35 isn't very doable, since the yari is supposed to be the primary weapon on foot

Edit: On the other hand a 2-slot polearm, yumi, and quiver already uses up all the slots. Still pretty much requires level 31 to be a half-decent build though. Pity samurai didn't use crossbows. Would be so much easier!