RDM/DNC @Bird Meripo

Just wanted to publicize how awesome this combo is for all my fellow bored merit-whoring RDM's.

Was rocking this out last night to the tune of 20k/hr at Nyzul> Bhafflau and we probably could have gotten higher if not for lost chains do to switching people in and out and the fact we were killing faster than repops.

Gearwise, I wore Haste where I could: Walmart turban, swift belt, goli body. The rest was just MP gear. Having a joyeuse is extremely important, pairing it with a brutal earring isn't necessary but is really helpful.

During fights I kept haste and refresh up on myself, along with Drain Samba II. There is no point to hasting DD's. Focus on keeping TP up for Waltz and Samba spam. You'll actually have to convert now and again as MP will be drained more swiftly than if you /mage job and were able to rest.

So why do this?

BRD and COR can focus solely on pulls and melee buffs. In turn, the party becomes more efficient since there is no need to focus on refresh songs or rolls. Birds last no more than 15 seconds with everyone wailing away and in the process as the RDM you're made more aware of what's going on since you're at the frontline.

This isn't going to work for everyone, however I just wanted to advertise this setup as an alternative to folks. It's a guarantee for bird camp, as for mamools I'll have to test but I can't see why it wouldn't. The only thing about mamool meripo's is that they're a bit more MP intensive on account of the cure spamming that needs to occur depending on pulls, links, and sleeps.

Anywho points made. Feedback encouraged. If anything I hope folks can have fun with this! :D

My main question is, what can meleeing with /DNC give that RDM can't give anyway?

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Haste of all DD's will dish out damage faster then anything RDM/DNC could do.

@Ganesha - I hope you're not taking me out of context. I'm just saying for THIS pt setup. The RDM DOES NOT need to haste. You're just wasting MP that can be better reserved for cures. Parties will kill fast enough where DD's not being hasted is not an issue.

Let me direct this also at everyone else whom I suspect is going to have the same hangup... If I told you you could get the same exp and have fun doing it my way. Would you ever go back to /mage job and just hanging back bored out of your mind? As long as I know we're doing birds, I'm going /DNC. I'm not going back to how I used to do things. That's really it... I'm just putting an alternative strat out there, if people want to improve on it. God bless them! But seriously folks, don't knock till you try it!

While I totally support having a bit of fun with whatever, 20k/hr isn't really something to be used as any form of persuasion technique >.>

In my PT's, I generally pull 30-35k/hr at Bird camps. Not hasting your DD's is also a bit.. shoddy, whether you're trying to put out an extra bit of damage or not, it just means you aren't really doing as much as you can to increase PT EXP/HR imo.

long time ago there was a RDM/NIN in my meripo on the birds. He did really well with hasting everyone main healing and melee. I still have a few levels to go on RDM before getting it to meripo's though, but I'm probably gonna just /WHM sit back and relax. If I wanna melee I'd go melee to pt, if I wanna keep busy I just go BRD lol

Regardless of exp/hr I'm happy to see people think outside the box and try new things. If I wanted mind numbing boredom for numbers flying by on a screen I'd be a stock broker. I like to have fun when I exp thank you.

I dunno, two independent sources of healing is pretty nifty. It's proven to be exceptionally useful when soloing and I have no reason to believe it wouldn't be equally useful in certain party situations either. It's the manner of execution that makes all the difference.

But Red Mage's can heal anyway. Why sub Dancer and melee to heal when you can just, y'know... Cure IV? <.<

This way healing is spread thinner through two independent sources of both TP & MP. If just TP can be used to heal moderately for all non Pecking Flurry damage recieved, that's all the more MP saved for other things. The downside is it's on birds, and casting options other than healing are rather.... limited ; ;

From my experience, though, there's no need to have MP saved for other things. Pretty much every merit PT I have I never convert because there's just that little to do. With that point made, I can understand how a little additional damage could be beneficial; but the question begs how much MP or enmity minus gear are you sacrificing so you don't whiff every swing? Just the waste and neck alone, I count -22 from Beak Necklace +1 and -47 from Hierarch Belt.

That's why I don't really have much fun at bird parties. If I get bored as DD I can only imagine how the BRDs and RDMs feel. Thank god they're introducing FoV to zones like sky <333 that along with campaign battles will make me very happy.

@Wooooodum: (THE SHORT ANSWER) It's just an alternate. Yours is the same question if you've subbed the 3 most common mage jobs (1) /whm, 2) /sch or 3) /blm). What do they really give as an advantage over the others?

1) WHM - Divine Seal, teleports for party evac at pt end, RR, curaga
2) BLM - Warp (because you're a selfish *** who doesn't want to port people out at party end) and Greater % of Conserve MP proc
3) SCH - Better MP management with Light Arts + sublimation = less downtime with /heal

A bird-meripo RDM can easily do the job with any of the 3 subs. However any RDM will tell you that a pt could care less what you sub so long as you CURE and keep people alive. HASTE is good too since most of the time you're only fighting with 3 DD's who need to do the work of 4 or 5. As such, as a RDM you spend most of the time staring off into space waiting to start buff cycles over. As long as people keep shadows up you'll hardly even cure either.

So what does RDM/DNC give? So much for thinking I was clear enough in the OP. As /DNC I actually played RDM as a frontline job as SE intended without sacrificing any of the curing power that a party expects. The efficiency of BRD and COR improved since they can focus on pulls/melee buffs. The fact that they don't have to waste time on on doing refresh buffs on the mage can not be understated. Lastly as /DNC I had more fun over the 5 hours I was in meripo. And since this is a game played for fun I'll just let that speak for itsef.

I'm sure people can crank out higher EXP/ HR. I'm not writting for you people. If 20k/hr or whatever the hell we actually got isn't good enough for you stay as you are. All I've ever claimed is that you can get atleast this much, doing as I had done and in the process you can have more fun playing RDM in meripo.

That is all folks...

BRD/NIN is actually a pretty busy job in merit PT's, at least for me.

Normally pull > sing > pull > sing > pull > maybe ballad a mage > pull > rinse and repeat.

Always busy!

A bigger MP pool vs /DNC

^

Fun is great, and if you go against the grain, brilliant; people will call you out and question it if you publicly post it, though. We're simply asking to understand.

And no, not all parties would tell you that. If my RDM's don't sub WHM or SCH, I kick them.

Head - walmart
Neck - Morgy Choker
Ammo - Phantom
Body - Goli
Waist - Swift
Legs - Jet Sera
Hands - Wood Gaunts
Feet - Goli
Ring1 - Serket
Ring2 - Omega
Earring1 - Brutal
Earring2 - Loqacious
Main Wep - Joy

That's what I had on. I had maybe around 870ish MP since I have +5 MP merits. I did have coffee muffins with me which could have bumped me up another +10% mp but I never used them. Given the MP I had on hand, I was able to do my job fine. I also had NO PROB hitting the mob, and I didn't even worry about hate since the fights never lasted that long anyways. - Enmity wasn't as issue.

With friends, fine. In a random exp party, I would kick you.

Play RDM in bird meripo and I'll laugh at you if you need to convert 1x. If you have atleast 800 MP you can main heal as RDM and be fine. Again if /mage for sub you WILL need ballad or evokers roll and you'll ALSO be healing for MP between cycle. Do that for 4 hrs or so in a meripo and you'll want to stab someone.

If you are insisting on meleeing, why the halfassed haste build?

If you cant make a proper build, stop wasting time and get on your whm sj and do what you are suppose to.

brbafk aneurysm.

What I don't get about the people who are so quick to kick, what do you care? Can the RDM heal you and keep you alive that's the main point, isn't it? Hell when I playtested this last night I went /anon soon as I got the pt invite. No one even said a word to me after we had done about 20 kills.

Moreover, I was fully prepared with a warp scroll to go back and change to a more traditional sub if it didn't work out. This meripo I joined was a pug. I knew no one. And by the end of it I was getting praise for my ingenuity.

Meh... there's just no pleasing everyone. Knock away as y'all have been but I trust someone out there will read all this and run with it. That's the person I'm trying to reach...

You make it sound like /DNC means you'll never need refresh ever again.

LoL... I just used what I had on hand. I'm not even trying to say that I had the best gear. I posted what I used so people know what I had. Melee's in their TP builds are typically atleast 17% haste ranging to about 25% if able to cap.

There's nowhere near enough haste gear for a RDM, atleast not amongst what I have or am able to easily obtain, so again I used what I have. I wanted haste so I could keep atleast 50% TP at all times to use as needed.

IF you have a better build to suggest to use in conjunction with this strat, post it. Why bother calling it half-assed if you aren't contributing a useful criticism like gear that ought to be used instead.

If you're going to DD, don't half arse it. If you're going to heal, don't half arse it. You're half arsing both of these things with this which just makes it silly.
The point of random exp pts is to make exp flow as fast as possible. This at least requires hasting your DDs. You can do much better than 20k/hr at birds. Probably by sitting back and hasting your DDs rather than poking away for maybe 200dmg WS with a joytoy :P

Never said that. The only people who aren't using refresh are BRD's and COR's. The RDM in this setup operates as usual, doing everything and anything they can to keep party healed and moving.

Moreover, I'm pretty sure I made clear this works very well on birds. I do not claim that this works well on mamools, and I won't know for sure until I test it there. I have no reason to expect that it should fail, but again till I test it myself I'm not going to advocate doing what I have not.

Look I'm sure NIN/DRK as tank was looked at funny at first. I'd hope that over time RDM/DNC is looked at as alternate main heal build for meripo. That's all. Till you see it in action why criticize people will naturally have doubts. I'm saying that you ought to set such doubts aside, it can be done...

Sure, and me meleeing on my bard while pulling at birds can also be done, but it sure isn't going to make exp flow as efficiently as possible!