Best Job For Soloing Content?

Blue mage

I think the biggest question here hasn't been asked yet.

Solo as in one account, or solo just you but multi-boxing is an option?

Just a guess, but maybe it hasnt been asked, because because the answer is in first post...

No, solo'ing was my standard, and as I stated Dnc is only 1 tier down from Pet jobs, which we mostly agree are the top dog(no pun intended) for pure solo. However Dnc and Blu are the best overall solo jobs "to invest in", because they will still allow you to regularly join pretty much any end game event your server still does.

The premise of the first post is that the game is dying, he wanted to work on a new job that can do things alone, faster than Pld. Not 'I never want to be invited to anything ever again.' That is an important factor when deciding which job you want to invest in, in my opinion at least.

If all you care about is purely solo, then by all means pick whatever pet job you like. If Pld will be your fall back for getting into group events and that's not a concern, then this likely won't apply either.

If you want a job that can solo AND still be top tier in groups, the answer is Blu and Dnc, but that's just my opinion. I am a Dnc Main, and give the edge to Blu, because of their AoE benefits, spell advantages, and ease of farming low end trash for solo purposes. On single target enemies, tanking ability, and pure DPS Dnc gets the edge. For party support, Dnc offers more, as MG is only 50% of the time, but Step+Samba are 100%.

I believe Dnc is easier and cheaper to gear well, easier to understand, and more straight forward to play, whereas Blu has to learn spells, set them for scenarios, understand the effects, a lot more combo's and abilities to know before you can excel.

Just my .02

blu also has aoe erase and access to -15-20% (up to -33% with unbridled learning) def down. with 2 BLUs, assuming no dispelling going on, they can haste cap each other fulltime.

i'm not sure about dnc but their most usefull samba is haste samba (?) and if i'm not mistaken haste2 + samba will not cap haste?

lets also not forget the constant mockery a DNC has to endure if you don't play a female character.

So Dancer was my main for many many years back in the 75 era, its probably the job I have the most practice on it, but post Adoulin era I kind of dropped it because I could never get groups, whereas my Bard and my Paladin never had issues getting groups.

My dancer is mediocre geared, but I guess the main question is: How much effort is it to gear a dancer to be end game solo viable, how much can it handle, compared to a blu?

Blu pretty much seems to just need a Macc set, a Savage Blade set, and a TPing set, and it just needs Naegling+TP Bonus sword.

Thats a pretty low bar, and eyeballing it honestly it just looks like 5/5 Ayanmo is actually a very solid entry set for soloing, as you can pretty easily cap DT with Ayanmo, JSE cape, a defending ring, and twilight neck.

Dancer on the other hand doesnt seem to have ready access to any DT sets. Meghanada is Physical DT, which is okay but Dancer already has tonnes of native PDT with Fan Dance.

Eyeballing it, I don't see a ready access to DT- gear for dancer, and thats a pretty huge hit with respect to getting into soloing.

Furthermore, having to not rely on a TP Bonus offhand means I need a 'real' offhand dagger, which sounds a lot like its gonna have to be an DREAM weapon to do well.

How well does Rudra's spamming with Tauret and TP Bonus Dagger offhand go for Dancer?

due to BLU beeing a melee/mage hybrid its one of, if not the most gear set demanding jobs of the game.

you'll also want a fc, mab, heal sets. cdc, expiation (if you go for tizona) and requiescat sets are ncie, too. considering you can cap -dt on BLU you don't necessarily need a -mdt set but due to BLUs access to decent meva equip you could make one of those instead.

Soloing is literally Trial and Error, practice with what you have at the moment, if you die figure out what you can improve on and work from there. There is no such thing as you need something like certain items or gear to do it. Play a job you are comfortable on that you believe you can solo with.

No one is able to tell you what the minimum requirement to solo stuff is, it is different for everyone - it varies between player skill and knowledge of the job, being comfortable on that job and knowledge of game mechanics to know what's coming.

DNC with Tauret + TP bonus is far stronger for duo something in escha than BLU with Naegling + TP bonus.

Im not gonna write another essay why I think so. I will probably make video about it at some point, but I will say one thing again, because you seems to not listen. You need accuracy buffs to use TP with bonus sword for melee on something serious, even in Escha. Same for most Ambuscade above Easy and probably also VD merit fights.

My Apologies. thank you for your comments.

COR ;)

Real pirates solo all things and hoard all the treasure ;)

(Then they got kick *** friends One Piece style aka get invite to pt anyways ;))

Dragoon also works well if you have it. The job is flexible for soloing/soloing with trusts. Some fights require a zerg and as /sam you can keep unloading multi-step self skillchains (You can easily cap your haste with trusts). In extended fights where the trust tank is at risk of dying or the trust healer is at risk of running out of MP, you can use /whm to preserve them and yourself while having an easy way to remove status effects that a trust healer may be too overloaded to handle. Dragoon has access to more HP+ gear these days and can help trigger wyvern breaths while maintaining higher safe HP ranges (A well geared wyvern breath should fully heal you each time). Drg/whm is mostly a forgotten art these days, but can be useful for solo if you know how to use it. Some Escha NM's use certain moves at known HP thresholds and Leg Sweep can be invaluable for blocking them or even stun locking if your able to watch for when stun wears. Leg Sweep damage isn't spectacular, but I have stun locked nms to death with it where there was no other option.

Just beware of situations where there is a perpetual unremovable/aura high potency dot in play. In that situation, the best you can do is go for the zerg, have a Steady Wing macro that equips all your wyvern HP gear and waits 2.5/3 seconds for it to register, use Steady Wing as your wyvern is about to die (you'll have to eyeball you and your wyvern's rate of decline), follow with Spirit Link (the timer should be back up from having to use it at the start of a level restriction scenario), then resume the zerg and hope it dies before you or your wyvern. Super Jump is good for one solid aoe dodge as well, if the dangerous condition is the result of a move rather than an aura. It's mostly just a trial and error learning process.

idk, context? Maybe PUP, but alot of the cool BST solo videos like Pakecet and Vir'ava, can, and have been soloed by BLU.

Not to mention in those videos, the BST relies on temprorary items, which makes other things BLU can solo, like Sarama, a little more questionable.

BLU is crazy good for solo.

Capped haste, stun (sudden lunge), AoE sleep, Defense down (Tenebral crush), Subduction (AoE heavy), Self heals (Magic fruit and Sanguine blade)

Also barrier tusk breaks the cap, albeit multiplicatively, for 57.5% DT. I like dnc but I don't really see it being better at the tanking aspect than blu. Blu is extremely durable, and has just as much if not more survival and support tools, not to mention debuffs and good dps. Any battle that will go on for more than a few seconds, I think blu has the edge, but they're both great choices.

just one shot everything on COR

1: I don't know a lot about Blu, other than what I've picked up from a close friend who just picked up the job and geared it this past month. I believe you are underestimating the things needed for that job, but even if you aren't, I could easily say the same for Dancer (any job really). TP Set, WS Set, DT set, and Waltz set. Ambu weapon and a Taming Sari from SR and you're good to go.

That's the absolute minimum of course. As a career Dnc, my Lua gets longer every day, but this will be true of any job in the game. Having 3 DT sets, 3 Acc sets, 5+ WS sets, a cleaving set, an enmity 'casting mode' that adds 81 Enm to everything JA/Spell I have, 65% Fast Cast for /Blu or /Run, rules for climactic, rules for WS with climactic, rules for if I have X tp, Y tp, hell I have a set for converting dmg taken to MP for when I want to tank and have minimal refresh available. You can min/max every job in the game far beyond the average person will, but you don't have to in order to be successful or effective at the job.

2: I believe you are sadly mistaken here. As just mentioned I have 3 variations of -DT gear, because I actually like to play Dnc as a tank/super tank, and it all started when I wanted to farm the FIRST JSE capes years ago, I saw a Pld super-tanking Reives, and thought to myself I want to be able to do that... so started making sets for it.

Horos Body is not only BIS for TP, it's 6PDT.
Loricate Torque is 6DT
D Ring 10 DT
MoonXX Ring is 5DT
Herc Gloves get up to 7PDT
Mummu Legs are 5DT
That's 39%, and we've barely sacrificed much DPS yet.

JSE Cape could be another 10% by itself if you want the easy way out.
Personally, because I tank a lot of things I probably shouldn't on Dnc, I use MoonXX Cape, and double Odnowa Earrings, to maximize my HP into the 2500~2600 range as a Hume.
Staunch Tathlum +1 = 3
Flume Belt +1 = 4
If you have to, you can use Herc Head or Feet and get another ~12.
And we're looking at what 68% PDT?
Vocane over MoonXX Ring for another 2% if you want to save gil and don't care about the ~100hp, but you're a Pld main and already likely have 1 or 2 of these.

3: This is a confusing statement. Firstly, offhanding TP bonus is absolutely an option on Dancer. Secondly, the TP dagger is 100 times more effort than it takes to go get a Taming Sari. Sure offhanding a Twashtar would be optimal, but in my tests it's only 100DPS advantage over a capped Sari. Noticeable, but not a deal breaker depending on how serious you are.

4: If using Tauret, you won't be spamming Rudra, you'll be using Evis. Recent calculations show Tauret/Sari will out DPS Aenaes/Sari, but there's still some testing going on with the unknown 'TP/Crit' calculations, regardless it's damn good. See below about the TP offhand, but the point remains Tauret spamming Evis will be competitive with any other Dagger Dnc has access to as of today in 'solo-to-average' scenarios to my knowledge. Max buff hypothetical scenarios will come in the following weeks from others like Simon Kaatrinna etc, but for the time being, Tauret/Sari and Evis will get any job done.

Hope this helps.


I want to beck up Simon here. The Dnc forums are extremely active, with maintained DPS discussions, optimal gear sets, etc etc. Centovente offhand was widely discussed as the top offhand dagger for DPS. When I returned to the game not long ago, I of course read that, went out and farmed one, and immediately equipped it, thinking I was going to increase my DPS. Nope, it sucks. Unless you have a LOT of buffs going on, this dagger will kill your DPS. Honor March is an absolute minimum IMO, so if I don't have a real 5 song Brd in my party, I don't even bother. Even things as mindless as Sinister Reign, this dagger couldn't compete with a simple Taming Sari in my off hand.
However... when you get the right buffs, the DPS absolutely shows up and it's definitely worth it. I was able to see gains (again in SR) in upwards 900 DPS, using Scoreboard over the course of each individual run. (2717 vs 3634) *Note that due to randomness of mobs, this is not a fair comparison, just some back and forth tests I did for lulz while helping a friend.

tl;dr without Major accuracy buffs, TP off hand weapons will suck. Please account for the fact that when people discuss these 'max DPS scenarios' they have literally every buff applied for their spreadsheet tests. Your results will vary, in fact I recommend you test it for yourself on the DPS sheets.

I feel BST PUP are best at no trust solos. If trusts are available most melee can probably solo with higher efficiency. Honestly soloing NM with no trust and temp spam is not that necessary when you just want some gears from them.

Since OP has an alt, and wanted solo to farm gears instead of challenge/for fun, imo melee jobs are better choice than pet jobs because the melee can solo/farm with good efficiency, as well as being better fit in melee pt(meta).

I dont think anyone that talked about tp bonus offhand ever say "you should use tp bonus offhand in every party under every situation" ever. It has always been discussed under the context of "raid" scenerios that the users are doing event with a rema brd.

If people read tp bonus offhand as by all end all best build for every situation for whatever reason, then they read the info wrong.

I understand what you mean and you're completely right, but you have to understand that casual players who show up to the forums, looking for info on a new job, they check a guide, or 'optimal set', and often imitate it without much more thought or research. They don't read all 50+ pages, or the back and forth discussions for context, or even the original testing/data/DPS sheets yada yada yada. 9 times out of 10 (complete hyperbole, I don't have a clue what the real percentage is) they check current 'Best in Slot' they farm/equip it, and depending on how serious they are about the job, it might end there.

For example, I mentioned above, the Dnc guide/forum are extremely active and up to date. If you go to the Dnc guide on BG here is what you will find:



How many people do you think skipped straight to this, and didn't read a word of the guide? I'll put my money on more than half. Sure it says "much more acc than usual" but what does that mean? Sushi instead of meat? Madrigals from a trust? Quickstep instead of Box?! Could be anything.

Maybe they skip to read about the actual dagger:

Centrovente:

This Dagger can potentially give the highest DPS in offhand when you go [TP Bonus +1000] and Pair it with Twashtar (Level 119 III) or Setan Kober B.
It will require a metric ton of accuracy in high end content and luckily Dancer has one of the highest Accuracy in game.
Good Luck getting it from Dagger Trials in Weaponskill Trials via Magian Moogle.

Okay, a 'metric ton' does a far more accurate job of describing what's needed to make this dagger work, but then it immediately follows with 'in high end content' which might give people the false idea that it can be used in 'regular content' easily. Regular and High End might be different for every person, as I already admitted, I believed Sinister Reign to be 'low end' and was wrong.

Immediately after that is says, 'luckily Dancer has one of the highest Accuracy in the game' again another false sense of security to the casual player/reader without more context.

Maybe they even went to the forums or searched for Dnc DPS and found this:


Again, very little context UNLESS they read the multiple pages before and after that chart, but we know how humans are... they rarely do/will. The search is simple "what's max dps" and they isolate the quickest, easiest answer that spells it out black and white, preferable in picture form and they obtain their instant gratification, say "that's what I'll get" and they start farming/grinding.

I am guilty of this action, I am not speaking down on anyone.

Additionally, I am not saying anything is wrong with the Dnc guide or trying to criticize it in any way, I want to be clear I'm pointing out the, dare I say flaws, of human nature, and the realistic expectation/outcome of what happens when people see numbers or discussions or sets involving Off hand TP bonus weapons.

I mean Hell, even in this thread, read the way the OP is discussing TP weapon as a no-brainer offhand to both melee jobs being discussed, and we're talking about purely solo situations where we damn well know he won't have the buffs to make it work. That's all Simon was trying to point out, and I just wanted to reiterate his point, as a person who was also ignorant enough to go fall into that same lazy trap.

Its ffxi, of course everything is situational. TP bonus or not, Whoever play the game or read the guide with a mindset of "this is best 100% of time" is simply....just wrong. It doesnt happen in ffxi.

I dont think its reasonable to write down details for every single situation in a guide. There are way too many different setups and content.

IMO "you will need more acc than usual" is enough in a guide as far as wordings goes since it already addressed the biggest weakness of the weapon. If you are unsure about meeting the requirement or not, just use checkparam for offhand acc before you engage after buff, then swap dagger accordingly.

If the reader cant not even do simple /checkparam before engage, to the point that they NEED red text in caps to warn them not to use it without a brd, then I question their ability/willingness to make correct decisions for other builds as well.

Just think about it, sushi is only 100 acc, 242 skill is eaily > 100 acc. Of course sushi cant cover then lose of 242 skill level. Its very very obvious. We dont need a guide that tells people "hey if you offhand tp bonus, sushi isnt enough to make up the difference" because 242 skill > 100 acc is simple math.

Next youll see the same person asking if they should use moonshade for Y ws at X tp, if they should use A rema in B situation, if they should use sushi instead of meat in C situation. Then it goes on and on. And we will ended up having a guide with 30 pages of essay, which makes it harder to read.

So yeah, its not really about TP bonus, its about people being too demanding on guides holding hands for everybody. And I feel that a guide shouldnt be THAT detailed or else it will have too much text.

Dancer.

I agree with you, as stated, the OP came off as someone who believes you just toss the TP weapon in off hand and you're good to go, so I was trying to emphasize that it isn't that easy. No more, no less.

dual-box x18

Even as someone who plays BLU alot, and has played it at a competent level for years, AND as someone who has made fun of the bandwagon that BLU experienced (and still does to some extent)... I can say that 1) Not all spells are necessary, and 2) You can get by mostly with:

1) Fast Cast set (crucial but easy since you get 24 for free @ master)

2) TP set (with some DT accessories to sprinkle in in tougher fights)

3) A solid, sensible WS set for either Expi (if you use Tiz, and CEC set if you don't use Thib) Savage Blade (if you use Sequence) or CDC (if you use Almace, or none of the above).

4) Cure Potency.

5) AoE Nuke/Magic Hammer set.

Even with just these, the flood gates swing open for content in the lower band, and in Soralin's case if you encounter something you can't solo, you still have PLD.

The only caveat here is, yes you can get far more milage out of BLU with tons of sets and understanding every single spell, but there is beauty in simplicity... the most important thing for the job is making sure that those CORE sets are ROCK SOLID and not "I guess this is acceptable"

You also want to make sure you know a fair bit about swing speed and pDiff, because if you're solo, BLU CAN do alot of the legwork on it's own to make itself strong, but that means that you personally have to understand all the moving pieces. But this is something someone should make sure they understand from top to bottom anyway, because not understanding these core mechanics will make you fall flat on everything, not just BLU.

You highlighted many good points, and yes, guides should always cater for all levels, not just meet the current updates in game.
I'm going to share this across DNC forum for reference, urging more feedback such as this one, while simultaneously paying attention to context.
The more you share criticism, the better the outcomes are.

So after doing some research, this approximately looks like the two sets Id be comparing for Blu vs Dnc:

Dnc DT + Tping
ItemSet 365651

Blu DT + TPing
ItemSet 365646

Both effectively can cap DT pretty well, but as you can see the Dancer set requires immensely more gil, and requires 5/5 Dyna Divergence clears for Horos Body, which is a lot of effort. Still less effort than Artifact +3 items though, card farming is such a pain.

The blue set however requires much less investment, but it does require 5/5 Ayanmo set, which means it will take at least 2 months to put together.

I already have pretty good amounts of fast cast gear, SIRD gear, Potency gear, etc.

However...

The dancer's entry level set has SUBSTANTIALLY more attack, so we will be looking at WAY better solo DPS.

So that may be worth the slightly higher entry requirements.

You are looking at soloing way too much... it's literally go out and experiment. you don't all the +3 relic gear to do it. You have a tp set which you'll no doubt use more, DT set is for when you switch to survive a heavy hitting attack. It's not complicated to solo most stuff.

I'm not sure if you look at spreadsheets or not, but i wouldn't recommend it if you just want to solo. You get the idea of higher requirements for easy AF stuff. I was soloing T1-2s with NQ adhemar gear back on Rune. There is no one set is better than that, it is always situational, no matter what. Stuff will change, go out and try stuff for yourself and no point overthinking easy stuff.

Also it's worth pointing out on BLU, your set would look almost nothing like that. You have tons of shadows on BLU so you don't need as much DT, in solo sets I usually hover around 25~30 DT/PDT and just keep up barrier tusk and/or Cocoon (Which may look like Loricate, Defending, PDT AMbu cape and then the Herc hands/feet give a free 4 PDT, If the mob is particularly hard I can swap in +3 hands and a -6/6/6 Dark ring). And you have better DT options if you're considering +3's on DNC, there's no reason to not at least consider +3 hands for BLU which give 6 DT. Loricate torque also gives 6 DT instead of 5. Dark Rings give better damage mitigation if you farm a good one rather than just using Ayanmo, etc.

Also there is very little reason to offhand a Kaja Sword.

Then you can swap out and use DW/PDT cape and Ambu body if you ABSOLUTELY MUST have 50 DT.