Solo faster?

[cidbahamut]

I feel like I take too damn long to kill things solo.

Anyone want to give me some generalized advice to help me speed up my murdering sprees?

[Taskmage]

Re: Solo faster?

Play another job. XD Soloing on rdm has always been a contest with the mob over who can die slower.

Beyond that, what are you fighting, what tactics are you using, what gear, etc?

[Mhurron]

Re: Solo faster?

EP.

Keep an eye on your accuracy, though if your weapons are skilled up and you're hitting EP that shouldn't be a problem. If ACC isn't a problem, you want attack food.

Dispel Defense and Attack boosting spells and abilities.

Bio III ( ) and Poison II.

Of course there are things you can do but RDM is not going to ever kill things very quickly, so be realistic in your expectations.

Edit: Ya I sort of assumed you're meleeing mobs, not nuking or dealing with NM's.

[Armando]

Re: Solo faster?

Blood tank if you can get away with it. Utsusemi eats up too much time, but you probably already knew that.

If TP moves are an issue, you can try this trick to avoid physical mob TP moves. Go into first person mode, remove target lock, start running backwards in a circle. If the mob attempts any close-range TP moves, you'll move out of its range. Exercise caution when doing this, because you obviously can't see where you're going, so don't make that circle too big and make sure the area is clear. If it's not feasable to do this constantly, consider doing it when the mob approaches 25% HP, because there's a good chance he'll have a TP move ready at that point.

[LeonstrifeLEV]

Re: Solo faster?

If you don't want to lose the dual wield you can also use /dnc. it will also let you heal using tp instead of mp. Downside is you can't weapon skill as much doing that but the things you would be fighting weapon skilling is rarely the deciding factor in fights.

[Armando]

Re: Solo faster?

If you don't want to lose the dual wield you can also use /dnc. it will also let you heal using tp instead of mp. Downside is you can't weapon skill as much doing that but the things you would be fighting weapon skilling is rarely the deciding factor in fights.

While I agree that DNC is generally a viable choice, lowering your offense to increase your survivability is the opposite of what cidbahamut wants. Don't underestimate how much your WS contribute to a long a fight.

[Taskmage]

Re: Solo faster?

While I agree that DNC is generally a viable choice, lowering your offense to increase your survivability is the opposite of what cidbahamut wants. Don't underestimate how much your WS contribute to a long a fight.

I haven't seen a well-geared Sanguine in action, but I would anticipate the use of evasion and defense reducing steps would contribute more to overall DoT than a more frequent Death Blossom.

[LeonstrifeLEV]

Re: Solo faster?

maybe /bst then? Or /pup but I've never heard of /pup being used for anything and I've been to lazy to try it out myself. (always thought it had some leeway for a main healer having a "second battery" though") Use the pet as a second source of damage and the main focus for damage. /blu also could raise his defense to near godly levels too, but then that also doesn't help with the killings in that regard... maybe it will let him use dia III and attack food to make up for it? Avoiding on casting non offensive spells in general would probably be the first step in efficiency for this case right?

[Mhurron]

Re: Solo faster?

I haven't seen a well-geared Sanguine in action, but I would anticipate the use of evasion and defense reducing steps would contribute more to overall DoT than a more frequent Death Blossom.

And you won't with either /NIN or /DNC. To get it and still have a subjob that would give you survivability tools you would be looking at /BLU or /PLD. Of course /DNC was mentioned to not give up dual wield, which you would have to to use Sanguine Blade.

The highest WS RDM gets natively is Death Blossom, and given that (iirc) cid just got to 75, I doubt he has done Nyzul Isle to get it.

Also, if we're just talking about killing mobs as fast as possible, that would mean targeting EP, so evasion, and therefore evasion down, shouldn't be much of a problem. That however, is dependent on cid saying what and why he is soloing.

[Raydeus]

Re: Solo faster?

Never forget Reverse Flourish, ever.

You spend 50TP to weaken the mob using instant steps and get 60 back with RF.

So unless you are using TP to heal yourself (which you shouldn't be doing except for Erasing annoying effects unless you don't have Refresh II yet) you wont lose any TP and will actually get Acc bonus and step support from /DNC.

This is one of the reasons I'm going to get Nyzul done, since 3-hit Savage Blade already deals a decent amount of damage for stuff I solo with dual Trial swords, so I want to give the 4-hit Death Blosson a try as both /DNC and /NIN with DW3.




PS > Regardless, RDM killing will always be a war of attrition, since better gear/sub will only help you ever so slightly if you are already playing it smart.

So better get used to it or level another job for faster kills.

[Armando]

Re: Solo faster?

I haven't seen a well-geared Sanguine in action, but I would anticipate the use of evasion and defense reducing steps would contribute more to overall DoT than a more frequent Death Blossom.

Good point, I was focused more on healing with TP than steps. Still, like Mhurron said on EPs Accuracy shouldn't matter. If you're fighting something where your Accuracy matters you're probably getting hurt and will spend too much time healing with TP.

As for Defense, you'd probably break even using Box Step before 80 - you lower your WS rate by 10/(whatever TP you can earn in 1 minute) to increase damage by ~5%. Stacking it would be bad because subsequent steps give only 2% more Defense Down and last 30 secs more instead of another minute. You'd probably be better off just facetanking with /NIN for DWII. But after 80 you could use Reverse Flourish to get back the lost TP and essentially debuff the mob for free. You also get DWII at 80.

You spend 50TP to weaken the mob using instant steps and get 60 back with RF.

Are they truly instant? Can you attack during the dancing animation? That's always been a concern of mine. If it's not instant, excessive dancing will cut into your DoT.

[Taskmage]

Re: Solo faster?

Oh rdm melee threads, how I've missed you. And since nobody parties anymore, nobody can ruin it by starting THAT discussion.

[Raydeus]

Re: Solo faster?

Though I think we all agree Lago shouldn't melee and should just stay in the back Refresh II'ing BLUs.

[Taskmage]

Re: Solo faster?

I'll just give them all aneurysms by repeatedly overwriting their Battery Charges with Refresh I. Problem solved.

[Raydeus]

Re: Solo faster?