Best sub for soloing?

[ShadowIX]

Hey guys, when I played DRG I was never really a solo drg, I just did /war up till 60 and /sam till 75. I did /nin and /sam for events and such, but I was never one of those dragoons who could solo NM's well.

This time around I want to be able to solo NM's and such.

What sub would be the best for soloing? I was thinking /rdm would work the best due to spikes, the bar spells, stoneskin, etc, however, I've heard alot about /blu, /sch, and /whm that is making me reconsider.

What would you suggest as the optimal dragoon soloing sub? Considering that the level cap is now 90 and all.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Best sub for soloing?

Not a DRG myself, but:

You won't get full strength Stoneskin outside of Abyssea, I think, and you won't be able to put it up easily under pressure. The weakness due to skill level goes for Phalanx as well.

/SCH: Has all the -na (except Stona and Viruna--but you won't be casting Stona on yourself anyway) and MP recovery method (Sublimation) in its favor. The biggest draw back is the lack of low MP cost, 0.5 second spells to trigger Healing Breath; the closest thing is Poisona (8 MP, 1s cast time, 5s recast). It also lacks Bar-element spells and MDB, but Aspir with Dark Arts up actually works.

/RDM: Lot's of fast casting spells, and can get Refresh at DRG82/RDM41. No -na spells, though, but at least you get Bar-element spells.

/BLU: Again, lot's of fast casting spells, but no MP recovery option from the SJ itself. Versus lower level NQ monsters, Head Butt actually has decent proc rate from /BLU (IIRC). Don't think you get any status ailment fixing spells, either. Cocoon, though is a very strong defense boost.

/WHM: Don't think anyone isn't familiar with this...

/BLM: Really odd choice, but it has one spell going for it: Stun, at /BLM45. (You would retrain the defensive wyvern unlike /DRK.) Has a few other fast casting spells for breath trigger, too.


Just looking at the SJs, I would think you'd want /BLU and /WHM (or /SCH) at least, but I'm sure there are situations where some of the other choices may work better.

[ShadowIX]

Re: Best sub for soloing?

While I've been playing for a while, I'm pretty nooby to soloing setups and such, so pardon the potentially nubish questions.

What does /whm have that makes it still better than /rdm with refresh and such?

[Mhurron]

Re: Best sub for soloing?

What does /whm have that makes it still better than /rdm with refresh and such?

the -na spells.

I think you have to add /dnc to the list of solo subs.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Best sub for soloing?

the -na spells.

I think you have to add /dnc to the list of solo subs.

Only problem there is DNC likes to eat TP for healing and the bread and butter of DRG soloing is spamming weapon skills. The only upside is less resting, but these days with all the refresh buffs and being able to pocket sublimation resting isn't so much of an issue, especially with Healing Breath's most critical spells being activated at low MP costs and fast speelds.

/SCH, /BLU and /WHM would still be the best things going for DRG subs now. And with Celerity from SCH, you've pretty much eliminated any chance a much-needed Dia can be interrupted. I think /SCH would offer Aspir at 72+, and Alacrity is a real asset to MP recovery so long as you're targeting mobs with MP, anyway. Just gotta watch those Strategem charges.

[Takelli]

Re: Best sub for soloing?

I think /SCH would offer Aspir at 72+,

I doubt that Aspir would really net you more than 5 mp, it may even give you less mp than what it should give you. Mainly because its half the level it should be of the mob you are fighting...

[Armando]

Re: Best sub for soloing?

I doubt that Aspir would really net you more than 5 mp, it may even give you less mp than what it should give you. Mainly because its half the level it should be of the mob you are fighting...

Dark Arts would give you B+ Dark skill, unless that only applies to main job Scholars.

[Malacite]

Re: Best sub for soloing?

DRG/DNC is actually viable now at 90 because SE added 2 new commands for DRG to force your wyvern to either use it's healing breath or elemental breath. They're pet commands that share a 1 minute timer and I personally love them to death because it means I don't need to have my AF Helm on, just my (newly acquired as of 2 nights ago) Relic Helm for the enhanced strength and can heal myself now on DRG/SAM. Problem is you can't do that until 90 so ....


WHM is pretty much the default sub, until you get higher up when RDM and SCH become viable options. BLU is also really good, especially in the lower levels. Sprout Smack, Wild Oats & Cocoon can have a huge impact and while their damage will suck they will land just fine since the accuracy isn't based on blue magic skill.

Dark Arts would give you B+ Dark skill, unless that only applies to main job Scholars.

Works when subbed as well, it's one of the job's greatest strengths as a sub. Makes Bio 3 actually viable as a DoT

[Takelli]

Re: Best sub for soloing?

Works when subbed as well, it's one of the job's greatest strengths as a sub. Makes Bio 3 actually viable as a DoT

I did not know that. I thought it would just go up to the sub level, and that's it... O.o;

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Best sub for soloing?

/WHM and /SCH gives you the freedom to fix status effects without the TP restriction of Remove Breath. /WHM also gives MDB, which is nice when expecting to be hit with a lot of magic type attacks. If you have MP support (such as Atma in Abyssea), Haste full-time may also be possible, eliminating many Slow effects as well as speed up kills.

/WHM also adds Erase, Viruna, Cursna (and Silena, Stona when duo'ing), which Remove Breath can't match. /SCH currently won't give Viruna, and likely will never give Stona.


* * *

Conceivably, /DNC can be good for monsters whose normal damage don't do much, but special attacks can be devastating--i.e. situation when you want to keep HP much higher than the threshold for activating Healing Breath. Another situation is when frequent AoE would make keeping the wyvern alive unattainable--have to rely on yourself for cures.

Should be noted that Violent Flourish is available at DRG90/DNC45, and its recast timer is 20 sec, much shorter than Stun from /BLM. Of course, /DNC gives an offensive wyvern, not defensive, so Restoring Breath (Lv.90) once a minute is the only cure the Wyvern can give you, and keeping yourself alive will heavy tap the TP supply.

And with Celerity from SCH, you've pretty much eliminated any chance a much-needed Dia can be interrupted.

Just to clarify, Dia is not a SCH spell; can Celerity Posiona (if Addendum: White is activated) or Cure if an ultra fast casting spell is needed to activate Healing Breath.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Best sub for soloing?

Just to clarify, Dia is not a SCH spell; can Celerity Posiona (if Addendum: White is activated) or Cure if an ultra fast casting spell is needed to activate Healing Breath.

They say the things you learned at the lowest level are the first to go when you start forgetting things about a game you quit. Dia is indeed WHM/RDM only. I am on my way to replacing FFXI with other useless information pertaining to video games.

SCH should have it anyway, though, don't see why its still exclusive to those two

Though if memory does serve correctly, Celerity Poisona would be a hair faster than Celerity Cure, plus Poisona is one 1MP less than Cure. DRG still has a tiny manapool to deal with with a mage sub, so every bit saved counts

[ShadowIX]

Re: Best sub for soloing?

The relatively small mp pool is why I always assumed /rdm was superior to /whm. Oh well, I guess I'll just keep both for different situations.

[Karinya]

Re: Best sub for soloing?

They say the things you learned at the lowest level are the first to go when you start forgetting things about a game you quit. Dia is indeed WHM/RDM only. I am on my way to replacing FFXI with other useless information pertaining to video games.

SCH should have it anyway, though, don't see why its still exclusive to those two

In practice, SCH usually sub RDM or WHM, so they usually do have it. It's just SCH/BLM or other jobs/SCH that miss out.



Personally, I used to usually use /BLU and fight something where status removal isn't that crucial. Cocoon makes a big difference, especially when chaining EMs and low Ts, and some BLU spells are even cheaper and faster than Dia (I think Power Attack is the cheapest, and casts at Stun-like speed). I don't think I've done much DRG soloing post-75, though, aside from trials.

[Malacite]

Re: Best sub for soloing?

Violent Flourish is a freaking Godsend when soloing now. Not sure about outside of Abyssea but inside it's super accurate on mobs NMs, makes soloing on NIN/DNC a joke for most mobs ^_^

The problem with DRG/DNC was always that you ended up having to use your TP to heal instead of your wyvern, but at 90 you can force a HB every minute so not sure how it's changed as I haven't messed around with it yet.

[ShadowIX]

Re: Best sub for soloing?

So it's sounding like /blu and /whm are the ways to go here. I've done drg/dnc before and it works decently but the lack of weaponskililng makes it a bit of a pain. That is less of a problem now though since the cap raised.