Soloing.

[Gawainnnnn]

what would you guys say the easiest job to solo with is? the cheapest?

after reading about the pup, im not sure.
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other than BST.

[Nuriko]

Re: Soloing.

Try DNC.

Alternatively, try WoW.

[Ellipses]

Re: Soloing.

DNC and DRG are canonical. No personal experience with PUP, but I'd imagine it's in there somewhere. With some jobs, it's a matter of level and target, too. (e.g. BLMs soloing off of beastmen pets, SAM/DNC, etc.). "Easy" depends on what you find difficult, though.

Like, if you find it difficult to use search functions and read existing information, you might consider needless cross-posting easy.

[Durahansolo]

Re: Soloing.

For that matter why keep posting new topics when you don't even post in the old ones?

[Gawainnnnn]

Re: Soloing.

yeah, my question was sort of asking how you guys felt about solo-ing pup.

no need to be a douchebag nuriko.

[LadyKiKi]

Re: Soloing.

To solo PUP effectively you need to spend some inital cash on attachments (and further on upgrades for your automaton).

As for easy, I think that all you need to do is learn the Maneuver's efficiently, knowing when to use which and what, and learning what they do to provide the best support given X situation.

But as you level up you'll want to spend more money on parts and also gear for yourself, so you need to cover both really. Generally your automaton's performance will depend on what you attach to it, i.e. if you have a Coiler attachment early you can activate 3 Maneuvers to make it Double Attack very frequently, increasing its TP gain and hits dealt, speeding up your kills.

Similar to DRG, if you mess up early and get your automaton (or for DRG, wyvern) killed then you'll have to wait for the timer to call your pet again, which can slightly irritating.

[ShepardG]

Re: Soloing.

Go with BST one you've gotten it unlocked. It has the longest History of Soloing, but there are choices out there that people have found great success with. BLU,PUP,DNC all come to mind.

As for soloing in FFXI in general, you'll have to look at the history of the game a bit.

FFXI when it was released, was, and still is focused on bringing the players together. It was, and still is, the underlying theme to the whole game, and back in the day, it was virtually required to gain experience points at a rate that most people would be pleased with, by partying with a group of other players.

And please correct me if I assume somethings that are incorrect, but this seems like your first MMO and you seem confused about how to play it.
Gawainnnn, don't worry to much about it, there are gonna be doucher's throughout any MMO (I don't think your a Doucher Nuriko, I actually laughed at that comment when I read it, it was a well thought out pick ) just like there are Doucher's in real life.
This game is tough, and it's a constant learning experience, after playing it off and on for almost 5 years now, I still learn things almost everytime I log on. It takes time, and alot of focus.

[aegina]

Re: Soloing.

I have no experience with PUP or dancer, but soloing with Drg was a lot of fun. It also doesn't cost anything to do it (aside from the basic gear you'll need anyway)

If you don't want to play Bst (Which I don't understand, I found Bst to be tons of fun!) then give drg a try. Go Drg/whm. If you cast a spell (any spell, even something like dia or barwater) when your hp is in the red, your wyvern will cure you! :D

[Solymir]

Re: Soloing.

Pup is a very viable solo job, but it certainly isn't cheap. Over the course of about a year I have spent at least 500k on attachments, and I still don't have the more expensive or rare ones. If you decide to solo pup you will most likely use the Automaton to cure yourself so make sure you get the stormwaker frame at level 10. I suggest subbing Warrior so you can use Provoke if/when your Automaton pulls hate.

If you decide to solo a melee job other than Dragoon I would recommend getting the Dancer job as soon as you can to use as a Support Job.

[Sabaron]

Re: Soloing.

no need to be a douchebag nuriko.

I really don't think that's an appropriate response. Nuriko's comment is rather to the point, but it is a sound one. FFXI is primarily a team or group play environment, not a soloing one. While there are soloing opportunities available, it's really not the focus of the game. Nuriko's suggestion that you try WoW is appropriate since it is much more solo-focused than FFXI. Besides that, why would you pay to play a Massively Multiplayer Game all by yourself?

That being said, there are sometimes I like to solo, too, but in general I find it more boring than group play. Some people don't have time for traditional parties, but the devs have been implementing solutions for that too with activities like Fields of Valor and Campaign.

The only job that really solos exclusively is BST and they are very good at it.

PUP is next, but they have a lot of uses in a party, so there's no reason not to party as PUP.

BLU is probably the 3rd most soloable job, but again, very useful in a party too.

DNC has good soloing ability due to their survivability, but they lack damage compared to other soloists. They're not truly efficient at XP grinding and can be an excellent addition to a party.

DRG is also quite soloable, but it can get a little dangerous before you get Drachen Armet at 60. Quite fun, but not efficient--you're better off partying.

SMN is soloable during some level ranges and other times it's rather difficult. You're better off going as a healer.

BLM can solo after you start getting your high-end nukes, but again, more efficient in small groups or parties with a buffer to restore MP/boost effect.

RDM soloing is usually reserved for audacious and grandiose adventures. Trying to solo for XP as RDM is a giant pain in the ass.

Most other jobs can solo as well, but they usually don't or don't have any need to. There are a few jobs that do not solo well for a good portion of their levels:

WHM: Until you get Hexa Strike you will suck.

SCH: You have to nuke to solo, so there is some possibility of solo after you get sleeps and access to gravity & bind with /RDM (That's level 42) to control the mob. Things will still be rather hectic until you have access to Sleep II at level 65. Even still, you're best nukes are DoT, and there's no shortage of invites for people that can buff and heal so why not party instead?

BRD: You can't do any damage and invites should be plentiful unless you get a reputation for sucking. Never solo on BRD.

[Elwynn]

Re: Soloing.

WHM: Until you get Hexa Strike you will suck.

WHM is certainly cheap (except for a few spells in the 50s or so), but it's quite hard to solo your club skill up to 220 for Hexa Strike unless you solo another DD job with at least a C in Club to get it that high. WHM is my first main job, and at level 68 my club skill wouldn't even be at 147 if it weren't for banging on Fortifications.

[Sabaron]

Re: Soloing.

WHM is certainly cheap (except for a few spells in the 50s or so), but it's quite hard to solo your club skill up to 220 for Hexa Strike unless you solo another DD job with at least a C in Club to get it that high. WHM is my first main job, and at level 68 my club skill wouldn't even be at 147 if it weren't for banging on Fortifications.

Skill ups are a bit off topic for this but...

Most of my WHM friends do solo quite a bit. I think it's sort of a WHM requirement that you do so. WHM's have excellent survivability and quirky gears here and there that are out of place for a party healer but dead on for front-lining. I think most WHMs work very hard on their club skill because it's really the only fighting skill that they have. The most efficient way to increase it is to do skill-up and go beat on mobs of an appropriate level after you reach 75. Fortifications are fixed at level 50 which is why you cap out at 147, obviously, but skilling up a weapon takes a good bit of effort for any job that doesn't normally use a weapon. The hardest one being Staff skill. Club is much easier than Staff. The faster the weapon, the easier it is to skill it up. I also would not recommend trying to "cap out" on a specific target such as a Fortification. As you get closer to the skill cap, your skill up rate goes down.

You should be working on mobs where you have some distance between your current skill and the skill cap for the mob. You want to tailor your mob choice based on the amount of Accuracy and +Skill you can pile on to your character through gear and food. I would say you probably want to choose the largest possible skill gap mob that checks as "Low Evasion" and then change mobs when the big skill ups start to dry up--you want to see occasional or frequent 0.2 - 0.5 skill ups for most lower end skill grinding until you work your way up to Bohyada Tree Steelshells which are the traditional "cap out" mobs for skill up. You can also skill up on merit level mobs as these will produce excellent skill up rates provided you can stack enough Accuracy. I wouldn't recommend Greater Colibri since you can't put on Sushi.

Vana'diel Bestiary

On the left-hand side of the linked page near the bottom you will find a form you can fill out to give you a nice range of skill up monsters for your job, weapon, skill level, and job level. Remember to put on the fastest weapon you can find for your weapon class that does the least damage possible and, if available, has +Accuracy.

Hand-to-Hand: Tropical Punches
Dagger: Hornetneedle, Beestinger or Republic Dagger
Sword: Aramis's Rapier, Musketeer's Sword +2 or Republic Sword
Great Sword: Ferrara - FFXIclopedia - a Wikia Gaming wiki or Federation Sword
Axe: Light Axe
Great Axe: Military Axe
Scythe: Republic Scythe
Polearm: Achilles' Spear, Lizard Piercer, Iron Ram Lance or Reserve Captain's Lance
Katana: Hayabusa +1, Kitsutsuki, Hototogisu, Hien +1, Hibari +1 or Kunai +1
Great Katana: Hacchonenbutsu Dangozashi, Gold Musketeer's Uchigatana, Sukesada or Uchigatana +1
Club: Tactician Magician's Wand +2
Staff: Federation Staff
Bow: Loxley Bow or Lamian Kaman +1 and Fang Arrow
Crossbow: Machine Crossbow or Velocity Bow +1 and Crossbow Bolt

The list above contains the fastest items and alternatives if you don't have or can't get them. Obviously, use the NQ versions of the items if the HQ is too expensive or impossible to find. I have excluded items (such as the Pitchfork and Lotus Katana) that will frequently do 0 damage to your target monsters since you don't get skill points for 0-hits. Note that I haven't really skilled up with a Beestinger at high level since I was using Dagger of Trials and a Hornetneedle, so I don't know if you hit for 0 frequently, but it does have a very low damage code. You should also use Dual Wield whenever possible as it decreases your overall delay and of course switch to your Weaponskill Quest weapon as soon as you get access to it.

[Neverslip]

Re: Soloing.

No experience w/ PUP

Can verify Dnc being a very good choice for solo... pretty cheap too. /NIN is how I tend to solo on my DNC... but I've also been successfull with /SAM as well.

/Dnc works well post Level 30 to make most melee jobs "solo-able". Only job that was still a little hard to solo with /DNC was THF.

I'm wanting to get my BST level'd enough to DNC/BST and see how that works.

[Susurrus]

Re: Soloing.

I'm wanting to get my BST level'd enough to DNC/BST and see how that works.

You'd be better off going BST/DNC. Leave is very nice to have.
Also, supposedly the success of charm depends on the level of BST so you'd have to have a 75 BST to do this anyway. [Note: This is not first hand experience, but widely believed.]

With the right jug pets, BST is awesome in a party, too.

[Sabaron]

Re: Soloing.

...Also, supposedly the success of charm depends on the level of BST so you'd have to have a 75 BST to do this anyway. [Note: This is not first hand experience, but widely believed...

It's not a belief, it's a confirmed fact. You cannot charm Even Match mobs as a level 75 character if your BST level is only 37, but you can if your BST level is 75.


Read herein: Charm - FFXIclopedia - a Wikia Gaming wiki