I posted in the main forum a little while back about good jobs for soloing, mainly with a focus on storyline content. Dancer came up fairly often as the job to do it with, so I levelled it up to my current cap of level 95 as quickly as I could (read - I did what I shouldn't have done and levelled the job without necessarily understanding it). I haven't really stocked up on gear yet other than my AF1 and a set of Aurore since I'm not sure where to focus my efforts. Have been skimming posts here to try and get some ideas.
However, my main concern at the moment is that I'm not sure I necessarily understand the job properly, because I'm not able to solo as easily as people here seem to be able to. This could well be because I'm still working on getting the rest of my stats up to scratch - my dagger and evasion skills aren't capped (working on this at the moment), and I don't yet have Utsusemi: Ni on my Ninja sub (currently saving up for it). If after reading this you believe those two points are enough for me to not be functioning optimally, then that's fine, just tell me to fix those first and I'll come back once I've done that.
That being said, here's my essential understanding of the job from a straight up perspective:
* Keep steps up on mob, focusing on evasion or defence depending on how well you can hit
* Reverse Flourish wherever needed to keep building TP
* Keep Haste Samba up (if not using Fan Dance to reduce damage)
* Keep shadows up to reduce damage
* Curing Waltz for when your life drops
* Weapon skills when TP is not needed elsewhere to drop mob HP
I know that's very basic and there is probably a lot more nuances to the job, however not having a strong melee background in this game, I'm probably approaching it the wrong way somewhere.
To people who do solo through Aby mobs and NMs, where do you focus your efforts, and how do you actually go about the fight?
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Scholar trying to dance - needs lessons!Follow
Drusenija - Resident Scholar of Asura
"The game is nothing, the playing of it everything" - Simkin
"The game is nothing, the playing of it everything" - Simkin
Basic Rule: The faster the fight is, the lower the odds of you getting unlucky/dying or messing up/dying are.
Strategy:
Dancers typically go through two phases of "how do I mine soloing?":
1) I'm really afraid everything is going to kill me, so I'm going to hold WSs+Reverse Flourish and full-time Fan Dance while wearing full Evasion gear.
2) Wow, those fights are really slow. Instead I'm going to wear a DD set, WS/self-skillchain normally, and use Haste Samba (and Saber Dance when appropriate). If I need to Waltz, I'll drop Saber Dance and do it.
You can test these two options against each other (maybe the Puk NM in Abyssea - La Theine?). Remember that dying is hardly "Game Over" at this point in the game. XP is easy to get.
Notes:
* Cap your evasion and dagger skills, of course.
* You need two good daggers. I'd recommend buying an Aluh Jambiya (main) and making a AGI/Eva Thokcha (sub). Wind weather is common in ToAU in the right season, so just hit that seasons and grind it out. It shouldn't take long.
* Cap your merits (5 Reverse Flourish, 5 Haste Samba, 1 Fan Dance, 4 No Foot Rise, 1~5 Saber Dance, 0~4 Closed Position, 5 Exenterator, 8 dagger, 4 evasion, 4 parrying) - bolded my choices for the option ones, but if you're more focused on soloing you could do the opposite.
* Get gear better than Aurore. Depending how much Cruor you have, you can finance a few upgrades by Blinkering gil. Go to Aby-Attohwa Conflux #00, take the Chocobo Bastion Op. "Desert Rain II?", Go to the NPC near the chocobo and buy stacks of blinkers with Cruor, then warp and NPC them. Wash, rinse, and repeat. This will get you 2.5 gil/Cruor - Aluh Jambiya, Utsu: Ni, and Brego Gloves.
* Essential R/Ex stuff to get: Charis Feather (SCH solo), Charis Necklace (DNC solo), Etoile Tights +2 (Dynamis, so DNC), Suppanomimi (DM), Brutal earring (Limbus, can solo farm coins on DNC), Rajas Ring (CoP), Atheling Mantle (find people killing Orthrus in Abyssea - Altepa and ask for it), Twilight Belt (Shinryu, going to need a group), DNC AF3+2 head/body/hands/feet (however you can)
Strategy:
Dancers typically go through two phases of "how do I mine soloing?":
1) I'm really afraid everything is going to kill me, so I'm going to hold WSs+Reverse Flourish and full-time Fan Dance while wearing full Evasion gear.
2) Wow, those fights are really slow. Instead I'm going to wear a DD set, WS/self-skillchain normally, and use Haste Samba (and Saber Dance when appropriate). If I need to Waltz, I'll drop Saber Dance and do it.
You can test these two options against each other (maybe the Puk NM in Abyssea - La Theine?). Remember that dying is hardly "Game Over" at this point in the game. XP is easy to get.
Notes:
* Cap your evasion and dagger skills, of course.
* You need two good daggers. I'd recommend buying an Aluh Jambiya (main) and making a AGI/Eva Thokcha (sub). Wind weather is common in ToAU in the right season, so just hit that seasons and grind it out. It shouldn't take long.
* Cap your merits (5 Reverse Flourish, 5 Haste Samba, 1 Fan Dance, 4 No Foot Rise, 1~5 Saber Dance, 0~4 Closed Position, 5 Exenterator, 8 dagger, 4 evasion, 4 parrying) - bolded my choices for the option ones, but if you're more focused on soloing you could do the opposite.
* Get gear better than Aurore. Depending how much Cruor you have, you can finance a few upgrades by Blinkering gil. Go to Aby-Attohwa Conflux #00, take the Chocobo Bastion Op. "Desert Rain II?", Go to the NPC near the chocobo and buy stacks of blinkers with Cruor, then warp and NPC them. Wash, rinse, and repeat. This will get you 2.5 gil/Cruor - Aluh Jambiya, Utsu: Ni, and Brego Gloves.
* Essential R/Ex stuff to get: Charis Feather (SCH solo), Charis Necklace (DNC solo), Etoile Tights +2 (Dynamis, so DNC), Suppanomimi (DM), Brutal earring (Limbus, can solo farm coins on DNC), Rajas Ring (CoP), Atheling Mantle (find people killing Orthrus in Abyssea - Altepa and ask for it), Twilight Belt (Shinryu, going to need a group), DNC AF3+2 head/body/hands/feet (however you can)
Yay for Jhereg!
http://www.ffxiah.com/player/Lakshmi/Byrth
http://www.ffxiah.com/player/Lakshmi/Byrth
Thanks Byrthnoth, that is exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for. Whilst I wouldn't have thought it, your scenario #1 describes me perfectly at the moment. Looks like I have a bit to learn yet then :)
I'm aware of the Chocobo Blinkers cruor conversion method - was looking at dumping a ton of my stored cruor earlier tonight to finance just such an upgrade before realizing I didn't really know what was worth buying (other than Utsusemi Ni of course, but I haven't got _that_ much cruor put away at the moment), so I haven't touched it yet. Knew Aurore wasn't going to cut it long term, but it was a cheap stop gap in the short term whilst I got to grips with the job.
I tend to solo (that's why I was looking for a more solo friendly job) purely due to my erratic play hours and my time zone, which means even when I do get a block of time to play, most people in my link shell are offline. That doesn't bother me so much, and I can do stuff on the weekends when I need a group, but for the rest of the time, having the ability to solo is worth it to me, so the merit recommendations are much appreciated.
In any case, looks like my first objective (other than capped skills and merits) is to start working on my first trial dagger. Thanks for the advice :)
I'm aware of the Chocobo Blinkers cruor conversion method - was looking at dumping a ton of my stored cruor earlier tonight to finance just such an upgrade before realizing I didn't really know what was worth buying (other than Utsusemi Ni of course, but I haven't got _that_ much cruor put away at the moment), so I haven't touched it yet. Knew Aurore wasn't going to cut it long term, but it was a cheap stop gap in the short term whilst I got to grips with the job.
I tend to solo (that's why I was looking for a more solo friendly job) purely due to my erratic play hours and my time zone, which means even when I do get a block of time to play, most people in my link shell are offline. That doesn't bother me so much, and I can do stuff on the weekends when I need a group, but for the rest of the time, having the ability to solo is worth it to me, so the merit recommendations are much appreciated.
In any case, looks like my first objective (other than capped skills and merits) is to start working on my first trial dagger. Thanks for the advice :)
Drusenija - Resident Scholar of Asura
"The game is nothing, the playing of it everything" - Simkin
"The game is nothing, the playing of it everything" - Simkin
I actually asked Byrth about this ingame recently too -- the augment on Etoile Tights +2 only works if it is continuously worn while Saber Dance is active (and likewise, they're probably only really worth using if you take Saber Dance all the way up). Due to the changes made to Saber/Fan Dance merits, there isn't much point at all anymore in putting more than one point in Saber Dance unless you have the tights.
You can take it off and put it back on to regain the effect, but you can't only wear it for activation. I wish I could just swap them in for activation and remove them... and now that I think about it, I never verified that I couldn't. I guess I know what I'm going to be doing tonight!
Still, for a solo player the augmented AF2+2 are probably easier to get than AF3+2 legs (Tristitia VNM) so I'd recommend getting them anyway.
Still, for a solo player the augmented AF2+2 are probably easier to get than AF3+2 legs (Tristitia VNM) so I'd recommend getting them anyway.
Yay for Jhereg!
http://www.ffxiah.com/player/Lakshmi/Byrth
http://www.ffxiah.com/player/Lakshmi/Byrth
Quote:
You can take it off and put it back on to regain the effect, but you can't only wear it for activation. I wish I could just swap them in for activation and remove them... and now that I think about it, I never verified that I couldn't. I guess I know what I'm going to be doing tonight!
... Why you toy with me like that D:
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