BST & BRD dou?

[neighbortaru]

My wife and I have new characters we are trying to lvl together. She is going RDM with aspirations of switching over to BRD at 30. I am doing WHM and switching over to BST.

Since BST is commonly a solo job, there goes the whole lvling together thing unless we can duo. I am thinking it should work ok if we go the DC->EM route. We'll have the pet attack, she'll debuff and sing DOT songs. When the mob is low, she'll buff me and I'll move in and engage. We should be able to chain pretty well this way no?

Would this actually work in practice? Or should I just sub /war and have her get me into parties :D (or find another BST and triple team)?

Keep in mind we are doing this for fun. Uber XP is not of paramount concern. Thanks for your opinions.

[xarddrax]

Being that i have played both jobs past 55, i can give you an honest opinion. Have your wife get you into parties.

Having the best solo class (BST) and worst solo class(BRD) is basically like having a BST solo, but you get half the XP since you have another person sharing the XP. You guys can duo together while you wait for PTs to invite, but i wouldnt reject PT invites because you guys want to only solo.
BRD's damage is nil past 35 whereas when you duo with another BST, the other BSTs pet helps you take on VT or ITs... a BST and BRD can not do this (or not easily at a least). So when soloing a BST gets about 120-200 per kill on Toughs... with a BRD along, youll only get 80-150 (guessing at numbers here).
Thats fine XP at level 25-30, but when you get to 50's thats a long road.

[neighbortaru]

hmm, noted. thanks for sharing your opinion xarddrax. btw, you were close, 2 ppl on toughs is 72-120.

maybe we'll just dou til 35 (for release) so I'll get to learn the ropes of being a BST.

[neighbortaru]

how about BST & NIN?

heh, sorry to bump an old post, but I've been having more crazy ideas about how to effectively double team with my wife.

As the previous posts describe, I'm going WHM to 30 then BST/whm. She is going RDM to 30 and then switch. So I was thinking, how about BST/whm and NIN/rdm team? NIN already make good solo'ers (with enough money) and with healer subs, it should give both of us ample curing. What do you all think?

[Altruist]

If you want to have fun together do whatever works, there are a lot of ways to get a good deal of enjoyment out of the game. However the dynamics of it may be an issue. nin/rdm and bst/whm might be a very good team. Hate control isn't a huge issue but for the most part your wife is going to end up tanking. This is mainly due to the hate loss when your pet dies or you switch. But ninja damage isn't really high, so later on your pet might out damage her enough that it regains hate.

[neighbortaru]

Thank you Altruist for the reply. I've had the same thoughts regarding the hate issue. But with utsu+aquaviel+blink+cures, she should be able to survive until I find a new pet.

[Yossar]

A few weeks ago a BRD LS friend and I were bored and I took him to get a little exp with me, it didn't work at all. Sure he has some ok buffs, but that is it. You can't really take on anything tougher than what you would solo, because the BRD doesn't add any attack power, so the EXP is horrible. You'd be better off by subbing WAR or NIN and just partying.

[kaply]

It may be a viable duo to do BST/WHM & DRG/WHM.

The idea is that with a DRG they can reduce their hate through the jump abilities and therefore when you go switch pets they can tank a little bit and then jump the hate off after you get a pet to start attacking it. The reason to sub WHM is so that the dragon has healing breath and also so that the dragoon has an auto healing ability so they can heal their pets more efficiently, ie w/o heavy drain on MP. I suppose a RDM type could work also but they don't get the auto regen and overall mp from a dragoon isn't all that high.

Later on, it may actually be viable to do something like BST/NIN & DRG/WHM. This way you can have the DRG heal you and /NIN to avoid blows.

[neighbortaru]

thanks for the replies. She's not really interested in playing DRG. My available choices are BRD, NIN or MNK. I've scratched BRD off the list cause ppl bought up some compelling arguments against it. MNK I am leary of because it might steal too much hate and not be able to survive. NIN seems the way to go for now unless someone can point out the flaw in my logic.

[Rakuyo]

The main reason a bst can solo so many mobs is because they have the pet tank + they don't do enough damage to draw aggro but have a nice ws to finish a mob off.

The trick you have is to find a job that won't steal aggro from the pet, but still contribute to damage and xp flow.

Nin may be nice because they won't likely draw any more hate then a bst through regular attacks, and can deal with any hate they may get. Still they will basically be an xp leech as their contribution will not balance the xp you will lose compared to if you went solo or with a bst partner.

The only job, other then a bst, that I could imagine really contributing in a duo situation would be a smn. If the pet loses aggro to an avatar it is no big deal... The smn would probably need to have Fenrir, however, to really provide much damage output.

[Lightseeker]

Just an idea -- your wife might want to consider rdm/nin instead of nin/rdm. As a subjob rdm is not going to be very helpful. Enfeebles may stick at lower levels when fighting T or VT mobs, but at higher levels, having her enfeeble skill capped at half-level will make paralyze, slow, etc. pretty useless. Her MP will also be pretty low. Having nin as the subjob though -- dual wield and utsu are still quite helpful and she won't suffer from a lower enfeebling skill. At higher levels rdm/nin is considered one of the better solo jobs (not far behind BST). Blink, stoneskin, phalanx, utsusemi, en-spells, dual wield... mmmmm... not to mention refresh which will help both of you.

[neighbortaru]

NIN gets debuffs too and the Ni versions are much more effective than the RDM ones. The /rdm won't be there for enfeebles, just to keep her alive and tanking a mob until I can sic another pet on it. Well, at least in theory.

btw we're both tarus on remora.

[Lightseeker]

Originally posted by neighbortaru
NIN gets debuffs too and the Ni versions are much more effective than the RDM ones. The /rdm won't be there for enfeebles, just to keep her alive and tanking a mob until I can sic another pet on it. Well, at least in theory.

btw we're both tarus on remora.

I've honestly never compared the effectiveness of my enfeebs with those of a NIN using Ni spells, but don't forget the usefulness of things like Dispel and Gravity (lowers evasion) -- both of which can be a godsend when you're trying to finish off that last sliver of HP on a mob.