Returning after 9 months, need some general adviceFollow

Hey guys. I took a break from the game for about 9 months, but have just returned and plan to pick up DRG again. I'm hoping you can provide me with some general advice on a few things.

1) Which lance(s) should I be focused on getting? I have a defense down Langdebeve. Is that still good enough that I should continue upgrading it?

2) Is Drakesbane still the bread-and-butter WS? How should I be gearing for it? I used to focus on capping dDEX then stacking STR. Should I still put in lots of DEX, or not worry about it since there are so many different targets with different VIT values that we may or may not even know yet?

3) Are the new jumps better than the old jumps, generally?

4) For soloing, is mage sub still a matter of preference, or with the higher level cap has one of the mage jobs pulled away and become the standard go-to solo sub?

5) Any other general advice?

Thanks!

Thanks for the input. Is full perle still the best option for TPing while I work on AF3+2?

****Full Perle is still the best for TP IF..... you have a 6 hit build from a source other than Askar Body/Aurum Body, which is pretty easy now, Rose Strap (I don't have, have never done campaign) or Heed Ring should help with that.

1. Def Down Langdebeve is great. At least, it is good enough, I would definitely finish it. Non-magian alternative would be Vogier's Contus or new lance from Voidwatch (assumed) Oneiros Lance. Oneiros lance lacks 8 base damage on Vogier's, but it has an extra +30 atk and 4% crit rate. Magian alternatives are OAT Corseca, there are a few drgs on these boards that worship it. And Empyrean, have to use a crappy WS every 3ish minutes but then you get ODD proc on melee.

2. Yes, inside abyssea, STR, STR, STR, and then some atk basically. outside abyssea, STR and DEX, then atk.

3. Yes, primarily because you get extra TP by having your wyvern out. Double Attack with them out and you basically have another WS ready. Triple attack and you have about 130 TP.

4. I haven't soloed in a while, but I would be inclined to go /whm now over /blu or /rdm because I could haste myself, sadly, my whm is only level 14.

5. For AF3, my advice would be pick one to upgrade, and then focus on it, at least to +1. I made the mistake of trying to upgrade many at once, and as a result, on drg I only have 2/5 +1 and no +2. Our +2s suck to get, 2/5 of them drop best on T3 VNMs, which are a pain to get and pop. I am coming up on my Sobek trials for my Almace, I will probably see if my LS will let me lot cards for my +2 legs at the same time. I don't know what I am going to do about feet.

**** Barring having equipment like Ace's Hose/AF3+1|2 head|feet|body/ Timarli|Aces hands etc.

Edited, May 23rd 2011 4:09pm by Meldi

You have to WS every 30 seconds with Empy to keep ODD up, not 3 minutes.

Edit: Also, Langdebeve is "ok", not "great".

Edited, May 28th 2011 6:08am by Noodles

.

Aftermath works a little different.

Empy Aftermath:
100tp=ODD (30 sec)
200tp=ODD (60 sec)
300tp=ODD (90 sec)

Mythic Aftermath:
100tp=acc bonus (180 sec)
200tp=atk bonus (180 sec)
300tp=OAT (120 sec)

Ah there it is. I remembered seeing a post about teh durations being increased post 75 a while back but was thinking only the T3 aftermath got extended by some amount. (but couldnt find it so I just copypastad the wiki in the above) That is the thread i was thinking of. Its so hard to find good info on those since no one does them >< but that is VERY encouraging as I have just begun my own mythic. I was a little miffed at the durations before, but 3 min is very respectable. Thanks for digging that up ^^

On my way! 799 alex so far having started on sunday xD 2.66% done with alex portion! lawlz.

Oh the irony is probably that I will win a mythic next year when I am nearly done with ryunohige im sure of it. Also, 10% done with alex in just over a week. Also very broke. I thought alex would be way harder to find and had my gil making paced out over a much longer stretch. But that is a good problem to have instead of the other way around sitting on 100 mil and no alex to be found.

At this rate, it looks like the hold up is going to be assault tags for my nyzul tokens way later down the line.

Not until S-E unlocks the level cap to 99 since refueling is level 48 BLU.

However, for soloing purposes, I still prefer BLU as it is more potent for Azure lights than the other two since physical spells accuracy is mainly based on weapon's accuracy. Also, there are now enough refresh gear options for us to equip that /RDM shouldn't be needed. Also, if you have access to Atma of the Dragon Rider, I would suggest you trying to get the lancer's torque as it is more potent than the Chanoix's gorget for healing breath neck gear.
As for the rest of the healing breath gear, nothing has changed since lv75, which is pretty sad...

Edited, Jul 6th 2011 9:51am by goudaba

Is there a link someone could give with good Abbysea gear for a DRG? What a good Lance to use now is? Or what the best atmas we can/should equip are?

There's so much new stuff to research now.....

Thanks in advance.

Edited, Jul 7th 2011 5:58pm by ReiThor

I have a little info on this subject. The parses are on my home PC, but i can provide them later if anyone really wants them to nitpick through greater details.

I parsed a buncha Qilin zergs last week and i was floating around 94% acc (could be capped with margin of error etc) while a fellow galka drg with a slightly different setup was around 90% (used F.R.Mail instead of AF+2 and being galka vs mithra being the primary acc differences). I also have 3 dex merits (thf, twashtar etc)

My polearm was still actually uncapped by a bit, so acc numbers arent 100% accurate. We had no acc buffs (march, march, misers, chaos), no thf for feint, and nothing else i can think of that would greatly swing the acc numbers. Not 100% sure on actual acc amount because of uncapped polearm skill, but should be ballparked pretty close for an idea about high end mob evasion.


93+18=111 Dex
412+14=426 Polearm(wasnt this high during fight)
35(Trait)+26(gear)=61 Acc

So:
83(dex)+403(skill)+61=547

As i said, i was getting polearm skillups during this fight (hit 95 in a party that very day), so i had a decent chunk less acc. Maybe 530-535ish guestimate. But somewhere around there i was getting 94% hitrate on qilin.

TLDR: I had probably around 530+ acc and was basically at or near acc cap on a VW Zilart T3. At least its a general ballpark you probably want to be in for that level of mob. Definately 500+ if you dont want to start using lolpizza.