2 Duoers Need Advice

[Kiege]

I will start off by saying this, I know this game is based around grouping and we fully intend to and will group eventually. For now however my wife and I want to duo to get accustomed to jobs and avoid the stupidity you usually seem to find in lower level parties. Having said that...

We have currently gotten to 30, unlocked bst and dancer and have duo'd my bst/whm and her bst/dnc to 30. Now we are going to start unlocking other advanced jobs, doing rank missions, get the kazham pass, raise fame for quests (Utsusemi: Ichi) etc. What we cannot decide on though is what jobs duo well with one another.

The jobs we want most are Blu, Drk, Pup, Rng, Ninja, Drg. Pup and Ranger will come later because we know they are or atleast can be dreadfully expensive. What combinations duo well with the mobs listed? Currently we have (Me): 33Whm, 30Bst, 17Blm. (Her): 30 War, 20Mnk, 30Bst, 15 Dnc.

My thoughts are Blu/Nin and Dnc/Nin, Drg/Whm and Drg/Whm or Drg/Dnc and Drg/Dnc. I'm not really sure what would duo well with Drk...maybe just whm? Any thoughts/tips/advice are greatly appreciated and I thank any that resond in advance =)

[Malacite]

Re: 2 Duoers Need Advice

DRG is actually better off subbing BLU or WHM for soloing, depending if you need status removal magic. The reason is /BLU offers some nice spells (Sprout Smack, Wild Oats & Cocoon) for soloing but also enables you to use heal breath. Whenever you or a PT member's HP is 33% or lower (50% with AF Helm) your wyvern will ready heal breath when you cast a spell.

As for duoing with DRK, can't go wrong with a PLD buddy. PLD is about the only thing that will keep a mob off a DRK and even then.

[Kiege]

Re: 2 Duoers Need Advice

I never thought about /blu...that makes sense, plus you get added bonuses with each blu spell, or atleast some of them, so that would help out a good deal. Thank you very much =) As for the Pld and Drk...that would work for hate reasons but damage would be pitiful lol. Oh well, if she wants to play drk I suppose I have to do my part to help her out since she won't group yet.

[Nuriko]

Re: 2 Duoers Need Advice

If you want something interesting, try going /BST so long as your BST level is equal or greater than your "main" level. It was sort of fun messing with my LS, asking if I could solo T mobs as DRK20 or so, when I was actually CHAINING EM-T mobs...

[Aksannyi]

Re: 2 Duoers Need Advice

If she wants to play DRK, you could always try WHM or RDM, if you're up for it. RDM is probably better for this purpose because of Refresh and enfeebling (at mid-levels it's important), but my ex-husband and I used to duo on DRK and RDM fairly often, and it worked pretty well. If you're going for mobs that hit exceptionally hard this might not be as viable of an option, but we'd take on EP and DC mobs with ease, the occasional EM as well.

Really as long as you have a bit of healing support you should be able to duo just about any classes fairly well. Level Sync and Fields of Valor made duoing really easy, I was leveling my WHM mule with pretty much any of my low level DD jobs just for the hell of it. PLDs can be geared for DDing so even if you do decide on PLD and DRK, you should be able to put out some damage as well as take it.

[Kiege]

Re: 2 Duoers Need Advice

Very good points for both. I think I'm going to try RDM with her DRk. I like casting jobs but I like jobs that have a bit more utility than just Whm and Blm, though I know both can get more indepth if you try hard. For this instance though Refresh would work well for her and for myself. I'm going to avoid /bst because she wants a break from having to concentrate on making sure her pet is doing what she wants. She prefers WoW type games but since I refuse to go back to the mind numbingly boring, easy game, she followed me here so the leaste I can do is make it as fun for her as I can.

[Armando]

Re: 2 Duoers Need Advice

You'll get a lot of stupidity in higher level parties too, FYI. But don't let that stop you, duoing is a very interesting and fun experience that teaches you about your limits in ways that soloing or fighting ITs can't. It's an awkward, in-between territory that few people really experience.

Which jobs duo well is a very open-ended question though. It boils down to a balance of two factors: reducing downtime and reducing fight length. Downtime reduction boils down to a balance of another two factors: damage mitigation and HP/MP recovery. Because of this, it might be better to present some general strategies that do and don't work.

For starters, if both people are going to be meleeing and neither is using TP for /DNC, a Skillchain is a great way to shorten fights. Just don't fall into the trap of choosing weak, inferior Weapon Skills to get a Lv.2 Skillchain. While Lv.2 SCs do 60% of the closing WS's damage, Lv.1's aren't that far behind, doing 50%. Better to do two hard-hitting WS and a Lv.1 SC than two weak WS and a Lv.2 SC.

Two DD/NINs is a great way to have both defense and offense at the same time. For this strategy to work, though, both players need to have a way to trade hate back and forth. This can be achieved in many ways: DRK has very cheap enfeebles which get a reasonable amount of hate - Blind will do quite nicely. A well-timed Weapon Skill will also do the job (Skillchains are often not a good idea for this strategy, since one person will get much more hate than the other.) A Cure spell (that doesn't heal for 0 HP, of course) is also a good way to turn the mob. If one of the two DDs is a job that can recover HP (e.g. BLU, PLD, combat RDM) then with Sanction Refresh downtime should be minimal.

In contrast to that, one Melee/NIN and a dedicated mage is the worst of both worlds. A single person can't tank with Utsusemi: Ichi alone, so you don't have the near-perfect defense of two /NIN users. At the same time, your offense boils down to one person, yet that person will be constantly taking time out of combat to recast shadows.

For setups that don't make use of double /NIN, /BLU makes a terrific sub for the designated tank. Defense +50% is more than you'd ever need for a T mob (hell, it's more than what a tank needs for EXP mobs), is cheap, casts quickly and only needs to be reapplied every 2 minutes. This leaves the tank free to eat Marinara Pizza to cover both his Attack and Accuracy needs.

There are 4 basic partners for a Melee/BLU tank:
1) The all-out DD. This is a bit of a situational strategy; its effectiveness varies a lot with the jobs involved and the level both people are at. The idea is to kill the mob as quickly as possible; probably the best way to do this is having a powerful skillchain. However, care needs to be taken that the DD doesn't cause extra downtime by pulling hate and taking a lot of damage. Likewise, it's recommended that one of the two jobs can Cure in some way, or the tank won't last long before you need to stop and rest. Thus, this strategy is more suited to PLD/BLU/RDM tanks, or a BLU DD partner (hello Wild Carrot.)
2) A "dedicated" mage. That is, a mage that'll simply sit back, Cure/Enfeeble and recover HP. Since all the damage will come from the tank, this isn't a good idea when the tank is a melee job that doesn't focus on damage output (e.g. PLD) since you'll suffer from slow kill speed.
3) The combat mage. A compromise between 1 and 2, this setup moves the WHM or RDM to the front lines to help speed up fights. This is often a better alternative to 2 when the tank isn't a damage-focused job.
4) The DD/DNC. This operates on more or less the same principle as the combat mage - have a healer that does damage.

Another strategy is to simply have a BST pet or PUP automaton tank.

Other general observations:
*A shield is a great way to mitigate damage for the tank job. Never underestimate their efficiency just because the job doesn't have A+ skill like a PLD. You are, after all, not fighting IT mobs. However, never use Size 1 shields (bone shields, targes, bucklers, aspis - anything small and spherical), their damage mitigation is rubbish. Assuming your job can't use Size 3 shields (the kite types) then use Size 2's (big, flat, round shields.)
*FoV Refresh is amazing. Use it, abuse it.
*Marinara Pizza is the shit.

Like Aksannyi said, there are many, many combinations that'll work so long as you have some form of recovery and the person tanking has at least halfway decent defenses. The introduction of Treasure Caskets, Fields of Valor and /DNC really loosened up the restrictions on what combinations will and won't work.

[Reverent Knight]

Re: 2 Duoers Need Advice

I duod blu/whm with my war/mnk from 66-72 level synced down from 11-32 and it was very easy. Hardly any downtime for the whole period blu/whm gets stoneskin cocoon blink and can heal. Got 72-75 synced down to my drk and that combo worked even better because the dark can drain and aspir hp/mp back which helps with healing. Then I levelled 32-38 on the war with a BLM/WHM, WAR/DNC combo, really easy no down time again and I was taking on T mobs with ease.

FOV in the jungles mandys/lizzys is really fast, Id just pull with my blm have my war tank for a few seconds to build up hate, throw a few enfeebles on it and blast the hell out of it at 50%. Then Id rest and the war go pulls a mob takes it down to 50% and I stand up and Blast the hell out of it again. works wonders. I was initially meleeing with my scythe Just because I could was putting in quite nice numbers but decided while I was using 2 chr on a pc and the xbox its just easier to stand back and nuke. Got from 32-38 in a very short time.