While many patches have brought a better balance to which of Final Fantasy XIV's DPS jobs stands out above the rest, some jobs succeed only in the right hands. The melee DPS Samurai, however, can succeed even in the hands of a novice and becomes an absolute powerhouse of a job when mastered.
Samurai has seen a few revisions since being introduced in the Stormblood expansion. The number of abilities available in the job's kit was condensed as of Endwalker, turning an already simple job to grasp even more so. The time it takes between picking up the katana-wielding DPS and meaningfully contributing to a party's damage output is short, but because of the flexibility of its overall rotation and the utilization of the job's entire kit, there's a high ceiling to mastering Samurai. This guide aims to hone your skills with the blade by explaining the job's level 90 rotation and providing some tips to improve.
For those who are leveling the job, check out the full Samurai job guide.
The basics of the Samurai job
Samurai's rotation follows three combos, and the finishing blows of each grant one of the three types of the job's gauge resource known as Sen. Two of the three combos grant a damage-increasing or cast time-decreasing buff through their secondary attacks. The final attack of each combo has positional requirements, meaning you're required to juggle choosing the correct combo to earn any missing Sen and gain any missing buffs while being mindful of your placement during encounters if you're aiming to be the most efficient Samurai you can. Any collected Sen are then spent using the Iajutsu ability, which results in a different effect based on the number of Sen collected on the job's Sen Gauge.
With two job gauge resources to manage, the Sen Gauge and the Kenki Gauge, it's the Samurai's responsibility to minimize wasting them by taking care not to use the same combo multiple times before a particular Sen is spent or generating Kenki that would otherwise go over the job gauge's cap.
Samurai's rotation is flexible. You have the freedom of choice as to which combo to follow when the Sen Gauge is empty and any buffs are active. However, peak optimization for Samurai won't be seen by players who know only how to play the job but instead by those with a strong knowledge of the encounters themselves. Knowing when to expect phase changes or periods of invulnerability means you can determine when to gather your job gauge's resources to come out swinging the moment their target is active.
Samurai's rotation
The foundation of your rotation as a Samurai is the six GCD attacks found in the combos that grant Sen, ending with the Gekko, Kasha and Yukikaze. You can only hold one type of Sen at any given time, meaning you'll need to work through each combo to gather the missing Sen you require. Each chain starts with Hakaze, which will proc three different abilities that follow each Sen's required combo. The three combos needed to earn each Sen are:
| Sen | Required Combo |
|---|---|
 Getsu | Gekko combo (Hakaze > Jinpu > Gekko) |
 Ka | Kasha combo (Hakaze > Shifu > Kasha) |
 Setsu | Yukikaze combo (Hakaze > Yukikaze) |
After the opening Hakaze attack, following either the Gekko or Kasha combos grant buffs through their secondary attacks, Jinpu and Shifu. Jinpu grants Fugetsu, increasing your damage dealt from all attacks by 13 percent for 40 seconds, while Shifu grants Fuka, decreasing your cast timers and auto-attack delay by 13 percent. The same buffs can be earned through Samurai's AOE equivalents, Mangetsu and Oka. Hitting harder while attacking faster means even more damage, so keeping these buffs active is a top priority.
With at least one Sen collected, the Iajutsu ability changes its name and effect depending on whether one, two or all three Sen are active on the Sen Gauge. The three attacks and effects of Iajutsu differ greatly, and which one you should choose is contextual to the fight itself.
- Higanbana (one Sen) – Higanbana should always be active on your target because of its minute-long damage-over-time (DoT) effect.
- Tenka Goken (two Sen) – Using Iajutsu with two Sen delivers a multi-target attack of 300 potency to all nearby enemies. With there being only two AOE combos that grant Sen, it's the natural choice for spending Sen against multiple enemies.
- Midare Setsugekka (three Sen) – The "grand finale" of building up all three Sen, Midare Setsugekka should be your goal in single-target situations after applying Higanbana. This attack always delivers a critical hit, and its damage increases while under the effect of any party buffs that raise your critical hit rate.
Samurai can repeat any of the previously used Iajutsu's effects with the ability Tsubame-gaeshi. After using Higanbana, Tenka Goken, or Midare Setsugekka, Tsubame-gaeshi will proc as a new ability, becoming Kaeshi: Higanbana, Kaeshi: Goken or Kaeshi: Setsugekka and allowing you to deliver a one-two punch with a 60-second cooldown. You can hold up to two charges of the ability, but it reverts to its base Tsubame-gaeshi after its initial use, requiring another use of Iajutsu to determine the second charge's effect. While it may seem tempting to add more power to your DoT effect, Kaeshi: Higanbana can't stack with its Iajutsu equivalent to increase its potency or duration and will only result in wasting Tsubame-gaeshi and any potential damage if the effect was already applied. Instead, Kaeshi: Setsugekka should be prioritized for single-target encounters and Kaeshi: Goken for multiple targets.
The ability Meikyo Shisui allows you to manipulate your Sen by gaining the full effects of weaponskills without meeting their combo requirements. Since the job gauge resource is only granted by successfully chaining Gekko, Kasha and Yukikaze at the end of their three combos, using Meikyo Shisui allows you to skip the combos entirely and quickly gather all three Sen in three or fewer GCDs. Using the same logic, Meikyo Shisui can also aid in quickly refreshing or applying buffs by skipping the prerequisite of using Hakaze before Jinpu or Shifu. A level 90 Samurai has two charges of the ability, giving them some breathing room and versatility in quickly getting off attacks or maintaining their buffs.
Kenki and the Kenki Gauge
Kenki is earned by using the previously mentioned GCD attacks found in the job's core combos and is tracked by a secondary job gauge known as the Kenki Gauge. Kenki is spent on powerful oGCD attacks to incorporate and weave between your combos for a barrage of heavy damage during the rotation's burst phases. You could also spend Kenki on abilities like Hissatsu: Gyoten and Hissatsu: Yaten to close the distance to your target or escape any AOE attacks, though they should be used sparingly and situationally.
As with most job resources and abilities in Final Fantasy XIV, you'll want to spend Kenki as needed before your bursts to avoid overcapping. You can typically avoid going over the job gauge's limit by weaving the ability Hissatsu: Shinten between your GCDs to spend 10 Kenki. Remember that your aim is to gather enough Kenki to unleash several of your hardest-hitting abilities during your burst, so using Kenki on an ability with a longer cooldown timer means you'll be missing out on damage you could have dealt during the party's buff window.
Cooldown and burst phases
After executing the job's opener detailed further in the guide, you'll weave back and forth between your "cooldown" and burst phases. Overall, your rotation will start with the opener before moving to the cooldown phase, followed by the burst phase before another cooldown. The cooldown phase consists of performing the three core GCD combos to gather Sen and Kenki to execute Midare Setsugekka while avoiding overcapping either resource and waiting on abilities to resolve their cooldowns. Since certain abilities' cooldowns make them unavailable during each of your bursts, you can view your bursts as "odd-minute" and "even-minute" variations.
Your cooldown phase should resemble the following:
- Hakaze
- Yukikaze (Setsu earned)
- Hakaze
- Jinpu
- Gekko (Getsu earned)
- Hakaze
- Shifu
- Kasha (Ka earned)
- Midare Setsugekka (Sen spent)
- Hakaze
- Yukikaze (Setsu earned)
- Hakaze
- Jinpu
- Gekko (Getsu earned)
- Hakaze
- Shifu
- Kasha (Ka earned)
You'll gather three Sen to perform a Midare Setsugekka before repeating the motions to enough for another, using Hissatsu: Shinten or Shoha to avoid going over 100 Kenki. To better align your rotation with the use of Midare Setsugekka and its Tsubame-gaeshi follow-up with party buffs, you may need to perform "fillers" to upkeep your damage per second while not going over the resource cap the Sen Gauge. Using the ability Hagakure will convert any collected Sen to Kenki, meaning you could "burn" two or three GCDs toward converting a Sen before regaining it by performing its required combo again.
The first burst phase after your opener will be the "odd-minute" phase. Not all of your abilities will be present here since they were used during the opener and have a 120-second cooldown period. In the burst phase, you'll capitalize on the three Sen you gathered during the cooldown and use Meikyo Shisui to quickly reapply the DoT effect Higanbana provides before unleashing yet another Midare Setsugekka.
- Midare Setsugekka (Sen spent)
- Kaeshi: Setsugekka
- Meikyo Shisui
- Gekko (Getsu earned)
- Higanbana (Sen spent)
- Gekko (Getsu earned)
- Kasha (Ka earned)
- Hakaze
- Yukikaze (Setsu earned)
- Midare Setsugekka (Sen spent)
After the odd-minute burst resolves and you've gone through your cooldown phase yet again, you'll then move on to the even-minute burst. Following the same concept as its odd-minute counterpart, you'll begin with a Midare Setsugekka that you've built during your cooldown. Since you have more abilities off cooldown at this point, they'll be incorporated into the even-minute burst to pack even more of a punch. Your even-minute burst should look like:
- Midare Setsugekka (Sen spent)
- Hissatsu: Senei
- Kaeshi: Setsugekka
- Meikyo Shisui
- Gekko (Getsu earned)
- Higanbana (Sen spent)
- Ogi Namikiri
- Kaeshi: Namikiri
- Kasha (Ka earned)
- Gekko (Getsu earned)
- Hakaze
- Yukikaze (Setsu earned)
- Midare Setsugekka (Sen spent)
While your rotation should look similar, not every encounter plays the same. Use tools in your kit like Meikyo Shisui, Hagakure, and Third Eye to manage your buffs, Sen, and Kenki as needed while ensuring everything is set in place for your monstrous bursts. You'll need to learn to adapt to content to perform well as a Samurai.
Samurai opener
Samura'is opener starts with a Meikyo Shisui to quickly gain Sen for a Midare Setsugekka while preparing another heavy attack to follow shortly after. A second Meikyo Shisui is used to apply Higanbana before unleashing powerful GCD and oGCD attacks and building toward the final Midare Setsugekka of the opener. Once the opener resolves, you'll move to the cooldown phase and rotate between odd and even-minute burst phases before looping back to your cooldown.
- Meikyo Shisui (-9 seconds)
- True North (-5 seconds)
- Gekko
- Pot
- Kasha
- Ikishoten
- Yukikaze
- Midare Setsugekka
- Hissatsu: Senei
- Kaeshi: Setsugekka
- Meikyo Shisui
- Gekko
- Hissatsu: Shinten
- Higanbana
- Hissatsu: Shinten
- Ogi Namikiri
- Shoha
- Kaeshi: Namakiri
- Kasha
- Hissatsu: Shinten
- Gekko
- Hissatsu: Gyoten
- Hakaze
- Yukikaze
- Hissatsu: Shinten
- Midare Setsugekka
- Kaeshi: Setsugekka
Samurai tips
- Avoid using Hissatsu: Gyoten and Hissatsu: Yaten to maneuver around obstacles and mechanics. Using the abilities to dash out of harm's way, hit the target with an Enpi and move back in can push back your GCDs, ruining your uptime and possibly misaligning your rotation. Only use the two abilities situationally or if you'd gain a GCD that you wouldn't have gotten without using them.
- Meikyo Shisui doesn't consider Iajutsu or its effects as a weaponskill, meaning you can avoid overcapping Sen earned from Meikyo by spending it before earning it back. For example, if the Samurai had only Getsu on their Sen Gauge, they could use Meikyo Shisui to gather Ka and Setsu, expend the three Sen on Midare Setsugekka, and use the third and final strike to gain another Getsu to apply Higanbana.
- Learn from your fights. Samurai is a flexible job, and capitalizing on your knowledge of any upcoming mechanics can save you from the heartbreak of wasting your resources after the boss becomes untargetable.
