Ok, so my first guide got a nice response so ive decided to revise and expand. You wanted to know about duoing/trioing, ill tweak the soloing guide and give everyone a mental rundown/checklist of DRG only partys. The guide is divided into 2 parts 1.Soloing 2. DRG only parties.
-------------------------Soloing: Play with yourself!---------------------------------
Sitting for hours in Jeuno got you down? Cant seem to keep those skills capped? Why not try soloing? Yes thats right for just a small investment you too can be a Dragoon Gangsta, from the streetz G!
Ok this is my semi comprehensive guide to: "The Art of Dragoon Soloing". I am only a lvl 65 drg, but have solo'd all of 5 lvls since obtaining my AF helm. In this guide I will cover the basic strategy, the strengths and weaknesses of each subjob, and your equipment and food choices.
[Red]-----DISCLAIMER--------
This is not as fast a way to lvl as parties by any means, but it beats sitting in Jeuno all day. Drgs are unique among melee in that we have the option to get by without parties. You can expect to average 1k exp an hour and make a decent chunk of change while your at it.
Ok so the basic concept here is to outlast your enemy. By using your small amount of MP to trigger healing breaths you essentially balloon your HP to a point that the enemy cannot deal enough damage to you before he dies. But first you must understand the workings of healing breaths.
1. by subbing whm,blm, or rdm your healing breath will be triggered when your HP is <33.3% upon casting *ANY* spell. When you equip the AF helm this point is moved up to <50% hp and gives the Healing Breath an extra bit of power. At lvl 60 your breath will do 190hp, but this will increase.
2. The power of the Healing Breath is directly tied to your wyverns HP. I have found that for every 4.5hp your wyvern has you will get 1hp of healing breath. So by equipping your Drachen Brais you will increase your wyverns healing breath by roughly 10%, and if you equip the new Wyvern Perch which adds 50hp to your wyvern you will add 11 hp to your healing breath.
3.Also if your wyvern has more than 100% tp and uses a healing breath you will notice an increase, which consequently uses your wyverns TP. At lvl 60 if your wyvern has 300% tp it will give you a healing breath of approximately 230 hp.
4. Since Healing Breath is tied to your wyverns HP as you gain Lvls your wyverns HP increases and Healing Breath increases in strength. You can expect a 2-3 HP added to healing breath for every lvl you gain. NOTE: your wyvern does not gain the strength of a new lvl unless he is Called during the new lvl, so if you want the extra healing power after you lvl up Dismiss and re Call Wyvern.
----- Subjobs-------
White Mage- Ok this is the most powerful and useful subjob for party situations hands down. You have a medium lvl of base MP and in emergencies Divine Seal + Curaga2+ Super Jump is a super combination. You also can quickly throw down Barelementras incase someone missed them. This is also the Subjob I recommend to use when soloing for exp. You have ProtectII Blink and Stoneskin, to lessen the damage you take and, CureIII and Regen to lower your downtime between fights. However you only have Dia to trigger Healing breaths which costs 2 more mp than Poison, and in emergencies you are stuck if you are not near a zone so youll need to carry warp scrolls.
Black Mage- This job lends a greater amount of base MP and you have less casting cost to trigger healing breath. And with Aspir at your disposal MP should never be a problem. Also in emergencies you have more options with Elemental Seal+ Sleep or Super Jump+ (Warp or Escape). You also have more desirable job traits sooner with Clear Mind II and Conserve MP. However you are missing out on the HP conserving Buffs and your downtime will be longer.
Red Mage- Also allows you to use Poison to trigger healing breaths at lower cost, and your melee related stats will be better than the other subjobs. You also get Fast Cast which will ease your mind a bit in HP emergencies. And at lvl 66 you will have access to Phalanx which really moves the job into thee subjob for soloing. However you don’t have access to
Divine Seal or Elemental seal, and you will be starting with the least MP of all 3 subjobs.
4. BRD/NIN/PLD/DRK- ummmm...hmmmmm.... ok heres the thing, as far as *SOLOING* these jobs really arent the greatest. All of these subs have quite low HB point triggers. Brd has uninterruptable spells but the recast time is quite long. NIN has utsu, but has very few other spells that will aid to your soloing ability and will eat up GIL. PLD has extra defense, but a very small exp pool to work with, similarly dark has extra offense but very small mp pool. But it can never hurt to try it out a bit, and if you like it more power to ya.
------ Food and Juices-------
Ok, here ya go Defense Bonus Foods. Now these are listed by which food you should use compared to your BASE defense. Granted i can the difference will be small between foods, so your prolly just gonna wanna use the most cost efficient you can.
0-260 Steamed Crab
260-280 Fish Mithkabob
280+ Shallops tropicale, Tavnazian Taco. Same effect, taco just lasts for 30 mins.
Now juices...... they take up a lot of inventory space and the better ones cost a decent bit of money. But since Drg/mage requires very lil mp to do its jobs an extra 45 mp per apple juice will allow you to chain Toughs, so I highly recommend either buying them or do what I do start lvling Cooking Skill the juices span the first 40 lvls of cooking quite nicely.
------ Equipment-------
If your RSE has a good MP+ bonus, it will help alot at lvls closer to the 30's, later the lack of Defense makes soloing a little more frenzied, youll have all the MP you need but your gonna be spamming HB's alot more often. If you can afford to get the RSEII, whooo wee you can approach godly lvls of healing.At lvl 60 just goin straight AF with a Grand Knights Lance is really the best setup, at 61 I would recommend picking up the Carapace Body and Hands. You would also want to opt out your rings for MP+ rings, Astral being the best but if you don’t feel like shelling out 440k (shiva AH) then two electrum rings will do just fine. I just stick with the Standard attack earrings Mermans and Assault but im sure any Evasion+ would do just as well if not better. Also use a Holy Phial for neck wear and swap it out after the MP is used for a Mermans Gorget.
Pre Lvl 60, most of your normal gear for parties should do pretty well for soloing. Just change that neckwear, and rings for
that much needed MP+. A very interesting piece of equipment was added in the 12/08/04 update, the "wyvern mail" wyvern hp+65 this piece of equipment should boost your HB (healing breath) by 15hp. It is a rare/ex piece of equipment that is obtained thru a quest given by Bridget in Bastok Markets, but it requires you to already have full AF of at least one Job. But this piece of equipment is a huge bonus for HB, even at lvl 63 i would use this when acting as a 1 man skill up party. Also if you are having trouble with your AF or just want to try soloing before then, theres a piece of leg equipment called "Falconers Hose" that has a wyvern hp+.
Wyvern HP+ Equipment
1. Lvl 50 Wyvern Mail
Falconers Hose
2. Lvl 52 Drachen Brais
3. Lvl 73 Wyvern Perch
4.Lvl 74 Ostreger Mitts Def: 24 Vit+4 Wyvern Hp+10 not on the items category yet. Note they are tied for highest defense of any AH hand equipment.
------Places---------
Ok so you wanna try this out, where do ya go? Well I recommend easing into it by starting on the beetles in the basement of Garliage Citadel at lvl 60 they will con DC. When you feel comfortable and ready to step it up, Helm Beetles in Crawlers Nest are the best for exp, but this is also the most dangerous place you will have to ever lvl in because you are so far from zone. And there is an irritating Rumble Crawler that spawns every 16 minutes, so pick up an egg timer if you don’t already have one (best 5$ I ever spent, cept for that one time in Tijuana).
For lvls 1-65, here is a guide supplied by NasciaKujata
Lvl Prey Location
1-10 Everything Obvious
11-20 Everything 2nd Tier Zones
17- Maze Makers Shakrami Maze
22- Land Worms Korroloka
25- Land Worms Qufim
27- Clippers Qufim
30- Clippers Korroloka
33- Yagudo Drummers, etc. Sauromugue
35- Stream Sahagin, etc. Yuhtunga
37- Soldier Crawlers Yuhtunga
42- Worker Crawlers Crawlers Nest
44- Worker Crawlers Yhoator
46- Hell Bats Gustav
49- Desert Beetles West Altepa
51- Helm Beetles QuicksandE.Altepa)
54- Helm Beetles Quicksand(W.altepa)
57- Werebats Bost. Oubliette
60- Helm Beetles C.Nest, Garliage Citadel
61- Robber Crabs Kuftal
63- Dire Bats King Ramg. Tomb
65- Robber Crabs Boyahda Tree
66- Robber Crabs Cape Terrigan
68- Raptors Valley of Sorrows
70- Falmingos Sky
73- Steelshells Boyahda Tree
Well thats as far as I’ve really thought about. You just want to avoid any mob that silences, petrifies, spams AOE, or has a WS that can one shot you. Specifically spiders, the bats that are groups of 3, beastmen, scorpions, rabbits. You get the idea. Single Bats, Crabs, Beetles, Birds, are prolly the safest to try out. A good formula is to lvl places that parties 8-9 lvls below you party at for exp, 11-12 lvls if you dont have the AF helm.
--------- How Good Are You?--------
So how do you stack up in your soloing ability, well this is my guide so ill set the lvls for you. No jumping lvls here, gotta go thru lvl 1 to get to 3. That Tough rarab you slayed as a lvl 2 DRG/MNK doesnt count.
Lvl 1. Get your Drg to level 42 and have the AF weapon
Lvl 2. Solo your First EM
Lvl 3. Solo Your first T
Lvl 4. Get your first "Cool i never knew Drgs could solo" /tell
Lvl 5. Solo for Exp Chain #1
Lvl 6. Solo for Exp Chain #2
Lvl 7. Solo an AF armor NM
Lvl 8. Solo for Exp Chain #3
Lvl 9. Solo a VT
Lvl 10. Heal someone for 360+Hp for 5 mp and Zero Hate!!! match that White Mages! ;p
------ Random Tips & Strategy-------
1. *ANY* lvl drg/mage is capable of soloing, not T's but you can chain EP's or take a DC or two if you are close to lvl up or die and delvl and you want your lvl back. Regardless of Race... thats right Taru can solo too. Every race has its own strengths and weaknesses so use your head and find out what works best for you.
A. I do reccommend trying out being a "One Man Skill Up Party", If your friend wants some skill up points, just equip all out MP gear and go find some High Defense mobs. Less People= More Swings for you= More Pts. Aint nothin to it but to do it.
3. Always Log Out with Full MP and HP and buffs, it may take an extra minute but this has saved me many times. You never know what surprises youll log on to find, or what parties in the area may need help.
F. If you are not subbing BLM carry a warp scroll on you at all times, theres nothing more frustrating than losing a lot of progress because you got a bad link or bad lag.
4. Be prepared to deal with ppl who have no idea Drgs can solo, You're gonna have to tell well intentioned mages not to heal you or else they can very easily get themselves killed. Its hard to hold hate without Provoke when you tank. Also be prepared for some animosity from ppl who think you are a high lvl bully taking all there mobs. Most of my experiences have been very good with parties I share mobs with, especially since you'll most likely end up helping with a link or two. But be prepared for the occasional idiot who isnt gonna think its nothing out of the ordinary; for some reason I’ve only had problems with RNGs and PLDs (which is really unexpected), even DRKs have been very supportive. You'll really enjoy making ppl take a harder look at DRG, they'll really see how versatile a job it is.
5. When you solo you also have to look at the non exp or gil related benefits. Your Skills will be constantly capped Polearm and Evasion will hit cap fast, and you will make a huge dent in that parrying deficit all non tanking melee have. Which will payoff big time when you go hand Maat his A$$.
6. Keep it Real, Don’t quit the Job just cause people are gonna say this and that about the job cant do dmg, once you get past the bottleneck of about 63 where a lot of melee give up you'll see an increase in the invites you get. I've personally shot down a lot of invites because I’d rather just solo (I know! im crazy!).
Ok well thats my guide! ill come back and update as I go any constructive comments are appreciated, save the hating for someone who cares. If you found the guide helpful or just interesting please Rate UP!
"<Dragoon>s, We smoke while we shoot the bird t(''t)"
Take That Subspace!
At first i thought my wyvern was a plumbot, but its a changetron
Quiet Maggie! I am transmitting rage! t(''t)
--------------------------- Multiples DRG Parties: Wyverns love company ----------------------------
Ok these are the setups for an *ALL DRG* situation. I very well understand that adding a RDM,BRD, or PLD can increase your exp/hr. But i cant go and create a list for every possible combination. Im gonna outline the basics at first then go into a few of the minor strategies. Please do not come in here and suggest that i add a bit about other jobs, you people arent stupid, how to use a RDM,BRD,and PLD should be fairly obvious.
For Solo/Duo/Trio stick with the mobs you solo on and just take them out faster than before. 4+ DRGs can step the difficulty of the mob up a bit.
Duo:
DRG/mage( Pick one)
DRG/BLM
Strategy: Soloing strategy but having /BLM for escape would be nice. This is just a prefered setup, 2 DRG/mage of any combination can get exp at the same rate really.
Trio:
DRG/WHM
DRG/RDM
DRG/BLM
Strategy: Once again general soloing strategy, WHM can take care of the Buffs and the downtime. RDM prolly the best at taking damage and keeping it with en-spells. BLM gets most MP and Aspir, has Escape for emergencies.
Noone can stop the Quad-Wyvern:
DRG/WHM
DRG/BLM
DRG/RDM
DRG/WAR
Strategy: the strategy from above, except now you have someone to tank. the other DRGS will use jump then high jump, while the tank should go high jump,jump,provoke for hate reasons. At this point it becomes over kill to have anything more than 3 /mages to heal.
You can also tailor your gear more to your role at this point. Mages can concentrate on MP+, Tank can concentrate on DEF and enmity.
The real Penta-Thrusting:
DRG/WHM
DRG/BLM
DRG/RDM
DRG/WAR
DRG/WAR
Strategy: Same as 4 man, just now you have an extra voke to keep the hate on the members with the highest def. As you tailor your gear to your role, you also should be tailoring your Race. Tarutarus should be your mages if possible, Galkas your Tank, Elvaan backup tanks/DD. Humes and Mithra fills the holes, since you have better MP than elvaan and galka, but less damage taking abilities.
Six and Six, the un-alliance:
DRG/WHM
DRG/RDM
DRG/BLM
DRG/WAR
DRG/WAR
DRG/THF,DRK,BRD,WAR,MNK,NIN
Strategy: Now we are talking a serious amount of wyverns flying around. Thank god Healing Breath takes care of the targeting for you; our lil buddies are so smart! The sixth member of your party adds the 4th element of tailoring. Jobs that lost their luster long ago might be a lil more attractive now.
/THF: SATA jumps and WS onto one of your /WARs to help cement the hate. this subjob should be as easy to find on a DRG as warrior
/WAR: a 3rd /WAR will be able to concentrate on damage, and has the 3rd provoke for some sort of hellish emergency i dont wanna think of......(3 way link, 3 /wars tanking, 3 /mages healing and pounding juices. *shudder*)
/DRK: At higher lvls this can be very useful with ABS-AGI,ABS-VIT,STUN,ASPIR and all the lvl1 Elemental spells if you wanna try your hand at MB. At lower lvls you still have access to the Weapon Bash,Last Resort, and SoulEater.
/BRD: Only can give your party one spell each but they can be greatly helpful. Knights Minne can boost that DEF, Mages Ballad will give you a MP regen, and can do some enfeebling on the mob if need be. This will require a pretty skilled player to get
the most out of to keep your wyvern dealing DMG and getting around to the appropriate players for the right songs.
/NIN: Utsusemi will help minimize damage on pulls, and also has the ability to weaken the mob to elemental damage, and other enfeebles without wasting precious MP.
/MNK: Thats right ppl MNK! Boost, Dodge, Chakra, and Focus. They also have a huge HP pool which will up the Healing Breath trigger and make for an impressive Spirits Within if you want
----------------------------------- Equipment------------------------------------------
Tanks:
Armor:
61-Carapace Helm
61-Carapace Breastplate
61-Carapace Gauntlets
70-Barone Carozza
70-Barone Zuchetto
70-Barone Manopolas
70-Barone Gambieras
70-Barone Cosciales
71-Warwolf Belt
72-Gavial Greaves
72-Gavial Mail
72-Gavial Cuisses
72-Dusk Gloves
Rings
43-Mermaid Ring
50-Phalanx Rings
63-Jelly Ring
70-Defender Ring - ok chances of you getting this are miniscule but it would be awesome.
Weapons:
68 tonbo-giri
69 barcha
70 Collosal Lance
Mages:
This is pretty easy, just go for all out MP gear and Wyvern HP gear.
------------------------WeaponSkills and SkillChains----------------------------
OK your standby Weaponskills are Penta Thrust and Skewer. With some tailoring you can pull off some SCs worth your while.
1. Penta Thrust> Skewer > Transfixion
2. Penta Thrust> Skewer> Penta Thrust> Compression
High Lvl Polearm SC
1. Impulse Drive> Vorpal Thrust> Wheeling Thrust> Light
Polearm+ Staff SC
1. Spirit Taker> Skewer> Fusion
2.Skewer> Full Swing> Skewer> Gravitation
3.Skewer> Full Swing> Penta Thrust> Gravitation
4.Skewer> Spirit Taker> Skewer> Fusion
High Lvl Polearm+Staff SC
1.Impulse Drive> Retribution> Wheeling Thrust> Light
-------------------------------Strategy------------------------
Ok when you battle with this many wyverns you need to take careful note of positions. Alot of the mobs you are able to exp on will have directional attacks that you want to keep off the wyverns and mages. This is one party where the tank will want to pull.
To keep the mages and all the wyverns out of danger you must choose your point of engaging carefully. When the tank gets to camp they will engage and then spin it 180 degrees. Then everyone else will engage from behind and move to battle stations. Tank in front, mages in the rear, and backup tank and support flanking. So that you get something that looks like the diagram below. (Yeah it might be a lil confusing but thats the best i could do with text)
w=wyvern
M= mage subjob
D= Damage Dealer
T= Tank
w w w w
w M M M w
m
o
D b D
T
Its actually quite easy to pull off. This will keep your wyverns and mages from getting hit with slow/disease/poison breaths and directional AoE. Very important to utilize on crawlers,raptors,and greater birds.
Just use the SCs from above. My group was able to just freestyle them pretty well but im thinking of incorporating a buddy system with /tell macros for TP. Freestyle worked fine but /tell TP macros would just allow for a more streamlined party.
----------------Locations and Prey-------------
Ok so basically take the soloing list and for each party member additional add a lvl to the avg lvl of the party and go from there. i.e. a party of 3 lvl 60 drgs will party where a lvl 63 drg would solo, or a full party of 60's will party where one lvl 65-66 would solo. This isnt an exact formula so you will have to figure out whats best for you.
When you have a designated tank you will be able to add crawlers and raptors to your list of prey. Both have very weak defense so they go down fast.
---------------------------------------Points of Interest------------------------------------------
1. I dont believe that Duoing or any higher should really be attempted till lvl 60 for exp reasons.But when you hit 6 ppl you
are almost morphing from an endurance party to a DMG party. If you can find something weak to polearms a pack of DRGs and Wyverns will be quite a force to be reckoned with.
2. At lvl 68 DRG/WHM gains two very important things. Spirit Taker, and Viruna. Spirit Taker can recharge your MP to full most likely. Viruna will allow you to lvl on Raptors with their disease breath.
3. At lvl 70 you can really hit stride with the Barone gear, the body might be a lil unrealistic, but with an investment you can get the Boots/hands/helm crafted for you and pick up the pants on AH. This will really help the tanking. Even if the helmet does make you look like some sorta medieval biker.
4. At higher lvls a party of DRGs equipped with Bourdonasses could blaze their way through Sky. You dont get a polearm penalty at all just a Blunt bonus on regular swings and your wyverns will be packing a punch. You will however need a /DRK for the Stun and someone to back it up by holding TP for Legsweep.
5. Escort quests and NM hunts are a great way to adapt to the all drg style of play. My squad of DRGs are going to be doing regular escort runs, its fun and yields a small amount of EXP. Seeing a crawler get hit with 12 jumps in 5 secs is pretty hilarious.
Edited, Thu Apr 14 20:27:28 2005 by Awwwsnap