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For many FFXI players, Dynamis is one of the first endgame activities that they will participate in. It’s also an activity that most successful endgame groups will continue to participate in because of the top quality armor available and the ancient currency which is used to fund linkshell banks and upgrade relic weapons.
If you look around you’ll find many different strategy pages for Dynamis, from the most basic things that all players learn in their first few runs to the extremely specific zone layouts showing which mobs come from each pull. And it’s all useful because the zones never change. So why are some Dynamis groups more successful than others? Why are some groups able to clear an entire city zone twice in one run with time to spare, collect 600+ ancient coins and get 20+ drops? Why are some groups able to clear the Death House in Windurst with ease? With a crew of 25?!
Hopefully this guide will give you some insight to help your crew improve its performance.
Alliance & Party Organization:
Some of the most efficient parties for gaining experience or limit points are mana or TP burn parties. Likewise, if you extend this idea to an alliance or larger group that efficiency would provide larger rewards for all. So let’s look at the most efficient - a TP burn group. Its components are:
Tank: Holds the mob’s attention and takes/negates damage
Healer: Helps keep the party running to its peak performance, with focus on the tank.
Damage Dealer: errr… deals damage and dances on the corpses
Support: Enhances the damage output of the party; controls and weakens the mob so it takes more damage at a faster rate, and backs up the healer in similar fashion. Also handles additional mobs that are nearby in order to prevent additional damage to the group and to keep things moving smoothly and quickly.
If you expand these components to fit a large group, naturally you will have a tank party, and several damage parties. These parties need to be both on their party duty, just as each member must be focused on their duty. Each party will need healing and support components, but the tank party would need to be the focus of healing.
Tank Party: Ideal Setup: PLD/NINx2, NIN/DRK, BRD, RDM, WHM
- Two PLDs allow greater control over the mob’s attention
- NIN/DRK allows an extra tank if needed, and support via enfeebling ninjitsu and stuns
- One has abilities and spells always ready to use
- In case one dies the other can take over right away
- WHM & RDM focus healing magic on the tanks. In emergencies they can heal other members of the group outside the tank party
- RDM & BRD provide support with Haste/March, Refresh/Ballad, and enfeebling.
* SCH is excellent main healer/support – you can use one in place of a WHM or RDM.
** A second WHM can be substituted in place of the NIN/DRK.
Damage Parties: Basic Setup: DD jobx4, BRD or COR, swing slot
The basic setup is just a guide here. There are several variations that should be used to focus damage in the best possible way. Obviously, five BLMs should all be together with a BRD or COR (COR is preferable because it can provide two different full-strength effects, as opposed to BRD that has to sacrifice a Ballad to give something else). A BLM party can also heal and support itself with Sleep/Sleepga, Stuns, Bind, and Gravity, so they don’t need to have a dedicated healer.
In a similar fashion 5 RNG should be in the same party so that all of them can share double Minuet. 4 DRK in the same party with a RDM for Haste/Cures and a BRD for double March is a really insane thing to watch – try it sometime. These focused parties also give you a huge advantage when fighting a zone boss.
The other DD jobs in the game don’t need an exclusive party, but they like all DDs would at least need a BRD or COR to enhance their damage output, plus a RDM for Haste and healing.
Managing each pull:
Most pulls will bring several mobs, usually 4-5 but sometimes as many as 15-20. Sometimes you can’t avoid a big pull. This is where your support staff needs to shine, and your group’s speed is most critical. Manage these hordes by using Sleepga & Horde Lullaby. Make sure to have some players hold back in case a small gang of mobs resist, or wake up and chase down the player that slept them. It’ll save some unnecessary deaths and lots of time.
Enfeebling and debuffing mobs is one of the most overlooked tasks in Dynamis. I mean, what's the point right? So what if it adds a couple extra seconds to each kill, or your tank takes a few extra hits from that Hundred-Fisting MNK... That is exactly the point! Time is key to your performance as a group and your DROP RATE. More mobs your group can kill in a run means more coins and valuable synth items and relic armor will drop, and less frustrating deaths to your members.
This next trick is particularly useful in Windurst - If a pull has multiple statues, have one person Sleepga everything then kite the statues past the group to a cleared spot. Then your BLM party can focus on the entire group of statues at once using –ga spells.
A common method some groups use is splitting into two large units and fighting more than one mob at once. This is a great idea if you have a large group, say over 40 players. If you have a smaller group though, your best way is to fight as one unit. A 20-player group can kill the average Dynamis mob in under 8 seconds, without nukes! This lets your support players focus on controlling the sleeping crowd while your group plows through entire pulls in a few short moments.
Finally, the mob kill order. This is a basic thing you learn, but I've learned it's much more important to fight each mob in a different specific. This is the order I've come up with:
Eye > SMN > BST > BLM > BRD > MNK > RNG > RDM/SAM/WAR/DRK/DRG > PLD > THF > NIN > WHM
Also, the BLM should take down the statues first, then the pets once the BST is dead. Keep a DRG's wyvern around for Aspirs until the entire pack of mobs is down, then let the alliance kill it to get TP for the next pull.
Optimizing your drop potential:
Thanks to recent information from SE, we now have some ideas on how Treasure Hunter works. In order for it to activate, a THF must place enmity on a mob. Easy enough – just make sure your THFs apply hate to each and every mob you fight, and that your THFs have their Treasure Hunter trait maximized with Thief’s Knife and Assassin’s Armlets. Stacking enmity gear does not apply it to a mob – you must perform an action. That means damage the mob, or use a job ability that can get its attention. This also applies during pulls – your puller puts hate on the statue, but not the pops that come with it. They’re just along for the ride! If you want, you can have a THF/NIN hold a mob by blink-tanking and that will work. You can also tell one of your THFs to sub BRD – and get hate by casting party buffs or Horde Lullaby or Mazurka. These methods don’t guarantee you’ll get relic armor drops, but it will significantly increase the chances for each mob your group fights. One thing it will guarantee is that your group gets many more coins to drop (not to mention 100V drops and stolen coins).
-=-=-=-
This is all I can think of at the moment, though I’m sure there’s other advanced ideas out there that I looked over (like gear.. it's too big a variable in this game and too specific to each job). By all means, post a reply and help an old fella out. And despite these ideas, never forget the basics – bring reraise items, appropriate meds, foods and items to help enhance your job. I’m constantly told to bring poison pots to this very day, and I forget half the time!
If you look around you’ll find many different strategy pages for Dynamis, from the most basic things that all players learn in their first few runs to the extremely specific zone layouts showing which mobs come from each pull. And it’s all useful because the zones never change. So why are some Dynamis groups more successful than others? Why are some groups able to clear an entire city zone twice in one run with time to spare, collect 600+ ancient coins and get 20+ drops? Why are some groups able to clear the Death House in Windurst with ease? With a crew of 25?!
Hopefully this guide will give you some insight to help your crew improve its performance.
Alliance & Party Organization:
Some of the most efficient parties for gaining experience or limit points are mana or TP burn parties. Likewise, if you extend this idea to an alliance or larger group that efficiency would provide larger rewards for all. So let’s look at the most efficient - a TP burn group. Its components are:
Tank: Holds the mob’s attention and takes/negates damage
Healer: Helps keep the party running to its peak performance, with focus on the tank.
Damage Dealer: errr… deals damage and dances on the corpses
Support: Enhances the damage output of the party; controls and weakens the mob so it takes more damage at a faster rate, and backs up the healer in similar fashion. Also handles additional mobs that are nearby in order to prevent additional damage to the group and to keep things moving smoothly and quickly.
If you expand these components to fit a large group, naturally you will have a tank party, and several damage parties. These parties need to be both on their party duty, just as each member must be focused on their duty. Each party will need healing and support components, but the tank party would need to be the focus of healing.
Tank Party: Ideal Setup: PLD/NINx2, NIN/DRK, BRD, RDM, WHM
- Two PLDs allow greater control over the mob’s attention
- NIN/DRK allows an extra tank if needed, and support via enfeebling ninjitsu and stuns
- One has abilities and spells always ready to use
- In case one dies the other can take over right away
- WHM & RDM focus healing magic on the tanks. In emergencies they can heal other members of the group outside the tank party
- RDM & BRD provide support with Haste/March, Refresh/Ballad, and enfeebling.
* SCH is excellent main healer/support – you can use one in place of a WHM or RDM.
** A second WHM can be substituted in place of the NIN/DRK.
Damage Parties: Basic Setup: DD jobx4, BRD or COR, swing slot
The basic setup is just a guide here. There are several variations that should be used to focus damage in the best possible way. Obviously, five BLMs should all be together with a BRD or COR (COR is preferable because it can provide two different full-strength effects, as opposed to BRD that has to sacrifice a Ballad to give something else). A BLM party can also heal and support itself with Sleep/Sleepga, Stuns, Bind, and Gravity, so they don’t need to have a dedicated healer.
In a similar fashion 5 RNG should be in the same party so that all of them can share double Minuet. 4 DRK in the same party with a RDM for Haste/Cures and a BRD for double March is a really insane thing to watch – try it sometime. These focused parties also give you a huge advantage when fighting a zone boss.
The other DD jobs in the game don’t need an exclusive party, but they like all DDs would at least need a BRD or COR to enhance their damage output, plus a RDM for Haste and healing.
Managing each pull:
Most pulls will bring several mobs, usually 4-5 but sometimes as many as 15-20. Sometimes you can’t avoid a big pull. This is where your support staff needs to shine, and your group’s speed is most critical. Manage these hordes by using Sleepga & Horde Lullaby. Make sure to have some players hold back in case a small gang of mobs resist, or wake up and chase down the player that slept them. It’ll save some unnecessary deaths and lots of time.
Enfeebling and debuffing mobs is one of the most overlooked tasks in Dynamis. I mean, what's the point right? So what if it adds a couple extra seconds to each kill, or your tank takes a few extra hits from that Hundred-Fisting MNK... That is exactly the point! Time is key to your performance as a group and your DROP RATE. More mobs your group can kill in a run means more coins and valuable synth items and relic armor will drop, and less frustrating deaths to your members.
This next trick is particularly useful in Windurst - If a pull has multiple statues, have one person Sleepga everything then kite the statues past the group to a cleared spot. Then your BLM party can focus on the entire group of statues at once using –ga spells.
A common method some groups use is splitting into two large units and fighting more than one mob at once. This is a great idea if you have a large group, say over 40 players. If you have a smaller group though, your best way is to fight as one unit. A 20-player group can kill the average Dynamis mob in under 8 seconds, without nukes! This lets your support players focus on controlling the sleeping crowd while your group plows through entire pulls in a few short moments.
Finally, the mob kill order. This is a basic thing you learn, but I've learned it's much more important to fight each mob in a different specific. This is the order I've come up with:
Eye > SMN > BST > BLM > BRD > MNK > RNG > RDM/SAM/WAR/DRK/DRG > PLD > THF > NIN > WHM
Also, the BLM should take down the statues first, then the pets once the BST is dead. Keep a DRG's wyvern around for Aspirs until the entire pack of mobs is down, then let the alliance kill it to get TP for the next pull.
Optimizing your drop potential:
Thanks to recent information from SE, we now have some ideas on how Treasure Hunter works. In order for it to activate, a THF must place enmity on a mob. Easy enough – just make sure your THFs apply hate to each and every mob you fight, and that your THFs have their Treasure Hunter trait maximized with Thief’s Knife and Assassin’s Armlets. Stacking enmity gear does not apply it to a mob – you must perform an action. That means damage the mob, or use a job ability that can get its attention. This also applies during pulls – your puller puts hate on the statue, but not the pops that come with it. They’re just along for the ride! If you want, you can have a THF/NIN hold a mob by blink-tanking and that will work. You can also tell one of your THFs to sub BRD – and get hate by casting party buffs or Horde Lullaby or Mazurka. These methods don’t guarantee you’ll get relic armor drops, but it will significantly increase the chances for each mob your group fights. One thing it will guarantee is that your group gets many more coins to drop (not to mention 100V drops and stolen coins).
-=-=-=-
This is all I can think of at the moment, though I’m sure there’s other advanced ideas out there that I looked over (like gear.. it's too big a variable in this game and too specific to each job). By all means, post a reply and help an old fella out. And despite these ideas, never forget the basics – bring reraise items, appropriate meds, foods and items to help enhance your job. I’m constantly told to bring poison pots to this very day, and I forget half the time!
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