The Samurai is one of the new jobs coming to Final Fantasy XIV when its Stormblood expansion launches on June 20th. Along with a whole game’s worth of story content, a level cap raise, new dungeons, the new Red Mage job, swimming, new raid, and so much more – the Samurai is eagerly anticipated as one of the most wanted parts of the Stormblood expansion. Today, we’re taking a look at the lore behind the job, its function in a fight, and more.
THE STORY OF THE SAMURAI:
Far across the rolling waves, towards the rising sun, there lies the island nation of Hingashi.
In the distant past, the realm's great lords vied for supremacy over its sea-girt confines in a long and bloody conflict. And taking to battle in their lieges' names were noble swordsmen whose art was forged in the crucible of war: the samurai.
Eventually, the nation was unified under one banner, and these warriors came to wield their katana not upon fields as part of an army, but upon streets as protectors of the peace.
But as a neglected blade grows dull with rust, so too do men forget their purpose. Amidst waning memories of the old ways, a determined few hold fast to their convictions, hands by katana grips, awaiting the moment for steel to sing.
ON THE BATTLEFIELD:
The Samurai is a melee focused job, its primary stat being STR. He’s known as “The Protector of the Peace”, and focuses on big hits over tons of smaller ones like say, the Monk. The main mechanic of the Samurai is to build up energy through his more straightforward attacks, and then unleashing said energy with large finishers for incredibly high damage numbers. As seen in the above trailer, the Samurai draws a lot of inspiration from Final Fantasy X’s Auron, the most bad-ass Samurai the FF series has ever seen. Expect lots of cosplayers of Auron to be jumping with joy in late june.
BEGIN LIFE AT LEVEL 50:
The Samurai tries something new with FFXIV, beginning his life at level 50. In order to play the Samurai, you’ll need to have at least played through the FFXIV 2.0 story (as well as the Red Mage). The Praetorium story is what leads up to the 2.0 regions of the game, and it’s here that the Red Mage and Samurai guild masters can be found and used to play the jobs. Luckily, the recently announced Jump Potions will let lower level players skip ahead to this point of the story, should they so desire and should they have the extra money to spend. Jump potions are akin to “Instant Level” potions found in other MMORPGs.
Stormblood, Final Fantasy XIV’s second expansion, launches on June 20th, with pre-order folks receiving a few days’ head start for their patronage. Be sure to check out the expansion at its official website here, and get in on the action.
