Solo DRG Gear Critique?

[Murphie]

I'm soloing DRG/BLU right now, working on eventually getting it to 75. Just looking for some feedback on my gear and food setup so I can maximize my effectiveness.

Here's what I'm wearing for general melee right now. I generally also keep Cocoon up full-time.

For WS, I switch to this. I also swap to that in order to maximize my HP for earlier Healing Breaths. Speaking of which, should I get more HP+ gear in order to make that even easier, or am I over thinking things?

And for jumps I swap in Volan's Greaves, but everything else stays the same as my melee set.

I'm eating Rice Dumplings at the moment. Should I still be doing that? If not, what should I be eating, and if so, when should I switch to something else? I should be getting a bit of an ACC boost at 40, with the Woodsman's Ring and Tilt Belt.

Any and all suggestions/advice appreciated. Thanks!

[Skoal]

Re: Solo DRG Gear Critique?

Everything looks good. Pretty similar to my 40 set I use for Royal Jelly.

Suggestions:

Behourd Lance at 40 (its cheap) AF lance next.
Jaeger Ring is your have it.
Rice dumplings are fine or you can use meat mithkabobs if they are cheaper. Haven't purchased dumpling in a while.


What spells do you have equipped now?

I don't use +hp gear to help with healing breaths. I am a hume though. I say mess around with it and see if you like it.

Also I have gear for drg for levels 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 75. Just ask if want to know what other people are using when approach those levels.

[Ellipses]

Re: Solo DRG Gear Critique?

I'm a fan of HP+ gear for HB triggers. I don't know that I'd go crazy on it, but you might give more a shot anyway, see what you think. Bomb Ring should be fairly reasonable. No idea on Bloodbead Amulet (got mine farming leeches anyway). The level 33ish earrings are ridiculous, though. I try not to give up too much DEF with those swaps (since, y'know, imminent death), so I stick with accessories more than visible armor.

[Lmnop]

Re: Solo DRG Gear Critique?

That's pretty nice (well, awesome for party play), but I assume you're not soloing anything higher than EM or low T. Between your 2-handed weapon, A rank, and Accuracy bonus trait, you shouldn't need much acc for solo, methinks. Or at least, were I in your shoes, I'd put a bit more focus on evasion.

That's all I have to offer.

[Murphie]

Re: Solo DRG Gear Critique?

Good to know, everyone.

... - I'll have to see what I can do in that area. Having HP+ gear to swap in means I can keep myself out of the scary below 33% area that I have as a Taru. I've had quite a few Final Sting deaths over the past few days, so anything to keep my HP high is something worth looking into.

Lmnop - Good to know that I'll be equally set for party play should the opportunity arise.

On that note then, I guess I could wear Emp. Pin and maybe, um...not sure? I'll have to look at my options.

[Ellipses]

Re: Solo DRG Gear Critique?

You know, on the subject of 33% being scary and not really needing that much ACC... Carbonara. Expensive as hell if you're not making it yourself, but it might be worth looking into. I haven't bothered yet while I'm still /BLU (DRG 23), but I'm a Galka, so it'd be kind of overkill on the HB trigger thing.

[Armando]

Re: Solo DRG Gear Critique?

I'd like to echo what Lmnop said. You shouldn't have any trouble hitting solo targets AND your Evasion actually counts against them. I wouldn't use the Acc+/Eva- gear, and I'd try to squeeze a bit of +Evasion where you can.

Also, if the mob's damage moves are close range, you can try my patented solo method.
1) Drop target lock.
2) Go into first person view.
3) Run backwards in a circle.

Your constant movement will cause you to go out of range of any close-range TP moves including but not limited to Sickle Slash, Goblin Rush, Dimensional Death, Power Attack, Rhino Attack, etc. In addition to this it makes moving out of Smite of Rage, Self-Destruct or Meltdown a breeze since you were already running at the time the mob started the move (this essentially means you can prey on suicide mobs and get them to kill themselves for free.)

[Lmnop]

Re: Solo DRG Gear Critique?

Level 29 Dodge earrings are a path, if you don't mind dropping some money on solo-only gear. (like 20k/pop on my server but... you have leaping boots). Emp hairpin will hit your hp a bit, but it's huge. changing those 3 slots would change your net evasion during TP from +2 to +22. 10% damage avoided at the cost of 10 defense.

Also, it's not such a big deal now (and maybe Cocoon means you should completely disregard this) but do remember that your pantaloons are level 25. The body and legs need to be occasionally updated just for defense' sake. Ok, I guess not the body, since you'll prolly upgrade to a Brigandine (+1). But a lot of people have troubles letting go of the Pub Sub when it's 20 defense behind, even for solo. Right now, if you upgraded legs and body to iron stuff, you'd get something like +15 defense.

Cocoon, though... /shrug.

[Murphie]

Re: Solo DRG Gear Critique?

It's weird. I've had the Leaper's for so long that I don't even think of them in terms of gil cost, and what I could do with that gil. I probably should though (honestly, I probably should just get a damn pair of Bounder's, but whatever). I can certainly afford some dodge earrings, and maybe I should start looking into some things that will boost my DEF a bit while solo.

I hadn't considered the fact that as a solo DRG I'm not fighting IT++ or even VT mobs, so stacking my ACC and ATK aren't quite as necessary. I'm going to boost my defense up a bit and see if that makes staying alive a bit longer when fighting something that hits hard less difficult.

Thanks so much for all the suggestions. Though feel free to keep them coming!

Still not sure about food. Offhand, with a mostly ACC/ATK setup like I have, if I were to party, when would I want to drop the Dumplings and move to something else? And would I want it to be meat since I'm doing ok on the ACC?

[Vyuru]

Re: Solo DRG Gear Critique?

Crap, I had a very long very nice post written up that I spent alot of time on, then the school computer froze on me and I lose it all...

Gonna be one of those days probably.

So, in very short summary:

IMO drop the HB gear swap macro, full time RSE body/feet.
Keep using the Rice Dumplings, maybe switch to meat mithkabobs somewhere in the 43-45 range.
Take a look at Marinara Pizza as +acc/att food.
Later on I favor Yellow Curry, don't use on mobs that eat food which you will be fighting alot of later on.
Consider full timing Leaping Boots over Volan's Greaves.
Save TP for when the bee is under 1/4hp, use Double Thrust when you see that the bee readies final sting. Double Thrust ought to activate first, possibly killing the mob or at least dropping it's health enough that final sting doesn't hurt too much.
Since you have Cocoon up I am dubious of a purely defensive build, I think with Cocoon you're at or near the limit of what +def will do for you. +vit might be another matter, but someone who plays Pld would be better suited to talk about vit vs def and what vit does for you when you're at high levels of defense.
Evasion build could work at this level, my personal preference is to gear however I need to survive (+mp, +whatever stat) and then go for a DD build in the rest of my gear slots.

And that's it. Sorry that you lost my explanations that went with this :/

[Lmnop]

Re: Solo DRG Gear Critique?

Yes, defense is nice, but as /blu, you have a lot more leeway. If you can, I really would invest in an emp pin (i'd sell leaping boots for it, honestly )

It's pretty hard to cap out attack. I think sticking with meats solo is grand, but I think other DRGs can shed more light on how that plays out than me.

Also: you said you Jump in TP gear except for greaves. I don't really see a reason not to use full WS set instead (with whatever feet is best). And on that note, I'd like to mention that once you get Penta, there's really no reason to ever sac an Acc ring for a STR ring. I really mean this for party play, but I'd still suggest not reducing acc even further while solo. I would've mentioned it earlier, but DT is only 2 hits so no cause for concern.

[Skoal]

Re: Solo DRG Gear Critique?

What spells do you have equipped for /blu?

[Murphie]

Re: Solo DRG Gear Critique?

Lmnop - Yeah, I knew to stick with ACC once I get Penta, but for DT, I figured, may as well hit as hard as I can.

I haven't been missing my jumps in what I'm wearing, so I'll give swapping to STR gear for that to see how it works out. With greaves, I should be ok.

Skoal - Let's see...

Foot Kick
Power Attack
Head Butt
Cocoon
Pollen
Battle Dance
Blast Bomb
Bludgeon

I...think. I'm not EXPing atm, so I can't tell for certain. But that sounds close to right.

[Skoal]

Re: Solo DRG Gear Critique?

Just reminded me.... My blu is 40 and I don't have Blast Bomb.


I don't know why I use them, but I use Healing Breeze and Sheep Song for auto-regen. I am sure it helps some but its what I have always done.

[Malacite]

Re: Solo DRG Gear Critique?

Also, if the mob's damage moves are close range, you can try my patented solo method.
1) Drop target lock.
2) Go into first person view.
3) Run backwards in a circle.

I can't get this to work for the life of me, I don't know why ; ;

I prefer either meat or MP foods personally when soloing on DRG (usually lean on meat) since while evasion is nice, I'd rather have a nice fat 50+ attack boost to beat mobs into the ground quicker so I use less MP.