My Way: A Solo's Strategy Guide

Introduction:
Why would I want to solo? There are a lot of reasons; time constraints, no one you know available to party, farming, weapons trials, antisocial personality disorder, it’s Tuesday, whatever. The question isn’t why to solo, you have your reasons, you’ve paid your fee, that’s enough. The real question is “what do I want to accomplish solo?” As the answer to that question dictates everything you will do it’s kind of important.

The purpose of this guide is to cover soloing considerations in a general manner. I attempt to lay out the concerns you should address before you attempt to do whatever you plan to do. It is my hope that this guide and the guidelines I venture will allow you to plan a successful soloing strategy at any point from level 1 before you have earned a subjob all the way to the player who is currently level 90 in all 20 jobs. This is why I do NOT make a specific list of "at level 45 as a ninja you should be in Lufaise killing giants" as an example; you may not even want to solo for XP but for crafting materials or skill-ups or something else entirely. Read guides off an individual job's page here on Wiki if you want advice that is that specific; read this guide (or another, I'm not the jealous type) if you want to decide on your own how to solo whatever for your chosen goal.

Update Notes
The version update has come and two important changes have a major impact on soloing, both for the better.

The 1st is the doubling of XP outside Abyssea. Not many choose to Solo in Abyssea; it's difficult to begin with and the mobs respawn at higher levels the faster you kill them. Consequently, people usually do their soloing elsewhere. The greater XP yield simply makes taking the time away from Abyssea more palatable. Any soloing activity that isn't against Too Weak prey simply hurts less. While readilly apparent at any level the rapid XP gain is frightfully apparent at low-levels (2 hours to go 0-10 on pup, most of it resting to recharge my pup's MP pool). The rapid XP means skill gaps will still occur, even solo. You will need to pause leveling to work on skills, but not AS often (switching to tougher prey, doing beseiged, etc-you will get XP but the GOAL is the skill-ups).

The second major change is dropping the skill-up cap to DC, and (somewhat) increasing the rate at which skill-up occurrs. This change has needed to happen for years. The current "level now, skill later" playstyle fostered by the SE changes to the game (level sync, Abyssea rapid XP from leeching, etc.) has only made the prevailing skill gaps worse. Some defensive skills have seen players hit cap in only a few cases accross all servers (parry as an example). Personally, after about 8 years of play my parry skill is still below 200. This change means that players should finally be able to see the full extent of their character's capabilities.

Regardless, it does mean that the reccommendations I make below as to level ranges for most jobs need to be revised. As a blanket reccommendation (once the update is released) ALL jobs may now solo down to DC without fear of not making progress; however in my observation the skill-up RATES-while higher across the board-are still much higher against more difficult oponnents until you reach the point of diminishing returns (frequent misses, resists or hits for 0 damage). You should consider soloing even lower to be viable, but see the revisions to the skill-up section for special commentary post-update. Of course, for farming you could always go as low as you liked, and the only thing this update will change is that farming EP and up will yield greater XP.

Two (or more) birds with one stone
Soloing is an inefficient activity. To make up for this, I always try to accomplish more than one task when I solo. For example:


 * a. I’m after gil but don’t have a lot of inventory space and I also want XP; target level appropriate beastmen that check preferably EP- to EM only, preferably in an out of the way place. This will minimize competition for mobs (always important), beastmen drops tend to be R/EX or stackable, if crystals are available you can get conquest points as well, but if your inventory is full try to fight in a beastman controlled area to prevent crystal drops. The Enemy con choice is deliberate; if I need gil I would rather NOT have to use consumables and you don't generally need them against EM and lower.
 * b. I need 800 AoE Weapon Skills on X mob for trial weapon; go to an area where they spawn EP- to EM and find a camp you can safely pull to without fear of linking or hitting a 2nd mob with your AoE, bring lots of inventory space so you can sell drops from your prey. For a trial to count you must be able to get XP from your prey, if you are lagging on skill this should help so target the hardest mob you can handle and if you have to be there you might as well come away with some gil so have the inventory space to hold whatever drops. Whenever possible if you have Dual Wield and are working 2 trials try to take advantage of any overlaps in your trials.
 * c. I need to farm some “whatever” to sell/craft/satisfy a debt to Guido the Killer Pimp, etc. Farming is tricky and will be dealt with in its own section below.
 * d. I need to skill-up my X offensive skill; depending on the skill gap you are beginning with you may want to go to more than one camp-a massive skill gap can be satisfied easier by speed killing and you don’t need to get much XP until the skill gap narrows. Once it does narrow you need to find a camp that spawns lots of at least DC but preferably EM, maybe even T if you can handle them so you can reach cap. Either way, bring inventory space to make a little cash to off-set the food expense

As you can see, planning is VERY important to efficient soloing. Time is always a factor and there are many things you need to do to keep yourself going in the game at peak level.

Tools of the soloing trade
Soloing requires you to do it all. Every role that needs to be performed in a party you will have to do yourself so you need to be prepared with both gear and a proper attitude. Must-haves include:


 * a. Healing. Unless your main job is capable of keeping you alive you will need to find another means, either through your sub-job, your NPC fellow (which will limit your time), bloody bolts, pixies (not very reliable) or simply being resigned to downtime. Casters don’t forget your echo drops
 * b. Stealth. You have to be able to get to your camp safely and that means oils and powders or magic, ninjitsu, jigs, whatever. Plan for it.
 * c. Know your enemy. Note that I said enemy, not prey. The greatest camp in the world can be useless if there’s an impassable wall of True Sight agro mobs in the way. Once you get to your camp, you still need to know what your prey can do and plan accordingly, i.e. don’t wear a bomb queen ring if you are fighting enemies that spam allot of fire, undead are immune to drain, etc.
 * d. Have an exit strategy. With the cost of Instant Warp scrolls being so low now this isn’t as much of an issue, but I’m not just speaking of when you’re done. Sometimes you bite off more than you can chew for whatever reason and your choices are usually run or die. It’s too late to be looking for a safe, quick path to a zone line or river to lose agro then, so know it in advance
 * e. Distance pulling. Necessary in almost every situation is a means of pulling your prey from a distance. The preferred method is almost always a ranged weapon, but magic and job abilities have their place too, depending on prey. You don’t want your cycle broken because you have to wait for the Recast Timer on Chi blast after every kill. It sucks to get all the way to a difficult to reach camp only to realize you left your crossbow in your mog locker.
 * f. Inventory space. Ok, I know this seems like a stupid thing, but if you are out to farm you need it, and in the field you only have 3 options, transfer stuff to your satchel/sack if you have the room, throw it away or head back to town to sell/send to mule. MUCH better to take care of it before you go, no?
 * g. Gear/food. If you are using weapons with consumable ammo, make sure you have enough. If you will need food for whatever reason make sure you have enough of that. If you plan to craft drops on site make sure you have sufficient materials and crystals to do it. If you plan to level and new gear will be usable you may want that within reach, or your next spell scroll.
 * h. Signet. Ok, this is just a fundamental “don’t leave home without it”. That being said, we all do forget it. If you want to hold on to your TP, heal your HP/MP in a reasonable amount of time, get the points you are entitled to, crystals, XP bonuses and possibly buffs get signet, sanction, sigil or whatever works in your camp. Getting a Signet staff and keeping it in your satchel/sack at your earliest opportunity is advised.
 * i. Kupower. Not a must have so much as a “don’t miss an opportunity” thing. In other words, if Martial Master is up it’s a good time to skill-up, Treasure Hound/Artisan’s Advantage work well with farming, etc. Useless in Campaign, ToAU or Abyssea
 * j. Smoke ‘em if u got ‘em. XP rings should be used any chance you get, every little bit helps. Do not use ring if waiting for an Abyssea invite or planning to Dynamis or Campaign battle, you are wasting a charge.
 * k. Know your limitations. AKA know your job, this means that soloing is NOT the time to over (or under)estimate yourself. I don’t just mean the capability of your jobs, but your own skill as a player too. If you can’t be trusted to get a cure off in a timely manner you may need to rethink everything, etc. By the same token, if you’re killing everything in 5 minutes but there is a 16 minute re-pop timer you may want to move to either a harder or a more plentiful camp.
 * l. Death and Dismemberment Policy. This game is ultimately based on a random number generator that operates within a set pattern of restraints (the rules of the game) and no matter how well you plan or play eventually the game will eat your face. The important thing is how you choose to deal with it. Is it worth it to use a Reraise Item considering the expense? If you are using an Instant Reraise scroll (7 points) do you need to go back to town when it is gone (you can only carry one)? Is Fields of Valor Reraise available? Is it better to simply Home Point and run back out (taking into account a possible inventory dump/resupply run)?
 * m. Wish you were here. Soloing is usually repetitive and boring; do you have someone to talk to, either in game or real life? Do you have the sheer stubbornness to just grind it out? Good tunes?

Your NPC Fellow
This thing can be a godsend to the soloer, as long as it's able to stay out. From level 5 until about level 78 your NPC is going to be your best friend. When set to Healer you can avoid having to use a healer sub-job. If you need to work on a mage job or a range damage job the tank version is excellent. If you want to do skill chains the attacker version is great with a little practice on your timing. The downside is that your NPC will need downtime to recover and that it can only be out for a certain number of kills; it also takes a 30% bite out of your XP. Nevertheless, a great tool to use when you can. DO get the enhanced version of each style; trade with friends for the Manuals. Also, use your fellow points to increase your NPC's time.

Where Do We Go From Here?
Picking a camp is a very important part of soloing. What goes into a good camp though? That’s dictated primarily by your goal for soloing and your survivability. There are some important factors besides those, and here’s a list of a few:
 * a. Pick on someone your own size! Picking the right prey is very important. Some jobs stand up to things better than others, some mobs won’t satisfy what you are after, some mobs just gather together too tightly to be viable, some despite their con just take too long to kill to be worth the effort, and some you may just not like to fight.
 * Do you want Gil? You need to concentrate on mobs like beastmen that carry gil or else something that drops a reasonable value item in reasonable quantities, whether sold on the AH or straight to NPC.
 * Just fast XP? EP to DC prey that goes down fast to your job skills but that also leaves you with the least downtime should be your focus.
 * Farming for that special whatever? See Farming below.
 * Satisfy a Weapon Trial? There are basically 2 ways to go here that are any good and both take roughly the same amount of time. You can find the weakest mobs that satisfy the trial and speed kill them (bring room for drops, see section I above); concentrate on this method for Elemental Magian weapons. The other approach is to pick the toughest mob you can handle that will satisfy the trial and use the opportunity to work on your skill caps; concentrate on this method for your Weaponskill Magian trial. The XP works out about the same, although the 1st method is more likely to take full advantage of an XP ring. Obviously, if weather is a factor you will want to be in a zone that has both the weather and target that you need, see elsewhere on Wiki for that information. Weapons needing NM kills are seperate, see the Camping NMs section of Farming.
 * Learning to Fly. See the skill-up section below.
 * b. Bad Company. It’s a very good idea to know the critters that surround your camp. Blood agro is an ugly thing, elementals can mess up your day, and having to pull through a pile of agro is no fun either. Figure out the layout before you go there.
 * c. Can’t find my way home. Do you have a secure place to pull to or are you roving and killing? Either way, you want to know where your safe place to run and/or rest is. This is why it is so important to know your zone, and have a map (but study it beforehand-if you have to look it up while running you are as good as dead). Don’t forget to factor in the all important “no agro when I run to the can” factor if you don’t log…
 * d. …Watching the Wheels Go Round. Know how to establish a cycle. In other words, how many mobs can I kill, factoring in the time to get to the next Mob and any necessary rest breaks during the re-pop timer? Which circular path will allow me to satisfy it? Killing in a cycle is the most efficient way to solo; once established the risk of a re-pop link/agro is minimized, the actions needed to make your kill with the least effort are established and your character’s needs in terms of recovery are addressed. The XP and/or income will be fairly constant, too.
 * e. The Golden Rule. Courtesy may in fact largely be a thing of the past in this game but there’s no reason YOU have to be one of the jackasses preventing its return. If somebody is already in your chosen camp see if they are willing to take you on, but if not move elsewhere. Hopefully, the zone has more than one camp that will satisfy your needs, but if not you need to go elsewhere. On the other hand, if you were there first then stand up for your rights to the camp even if the other guy is a higher level than you-he probably has more options than you anyway. If they refuse to move on, shift your camp slightly to mess up THEIR cycle as much as possible and make it clear you are NOT moving; if you don’t have the stomach for that then just acknowledge that you are a doormat, resign yourself to always deferring to that guy and find a different camp. Don’t bother complaining to a GM, the Terms of Service clearly state that any unclaimed Mob is fair game.
 * f. …Stand up for your rights. You basically have none. Referencing e. above, you are NOT entitled to a buff, heal, raise or someone grabbing the add you just got. If you are fighting an NM, they are even allowed to just stand by, watch you die, finish off the mob and keep the drop you wanted for themselves, all without the decency of even shouting for a raise once. That is actually part of the Terms of Service. Conversely, if they move in on your camp you are not obligated to do any of those things for THEM, and this is an excellent manner of getting them to leave. It does hurt your reputation and leave you open to a /tell Flame Festival but isn’t that what your /blacklist is for?
 * g. Man up! Whoever says that is an idiot. Don’t just stand there and let mobs consistently beat you down, even if your Reraise is minimizing your XP loss. Better idea, Brain Up! If you are consistently being beaten then you can’t handle that camp; leave and find another one or find some help. Sure you can regain XP in a hurry these days (at least at upper levels), but if you aren’t accomplishing anything why keep losing it? Honestly, the definition of insanity is to repeat the same action expecting a different outcome. Just move and save yourself the ulcer and psychotherapy bills.

What job should I use?
I hate to answer a question with a question, but what job have you got? Repeat after me—ANY JOB CAN SOLO! Yes, any job. That being said they all solo differently and some are better than others. That’s where your decision-making skills come in.

I have only Leveled Beastmaster, Bard, Thief and Dancer past 50 so much of the information that follows on the job considerations is speculative. If you have more information to add, please use the Talk page for this article so I may find the best place to incorporate it. In addition, as the next stages of the level cap increase go into effect some of these considerations may be addressed, and of course you can use gear/food/meds to modify some of the considerations. Always remember that a job's abilities change by level, and some are so profound that they change your gameplay entirely, like Release, Refresh, Shadowbind, etc. Read any job’s page here on Wiki for more specifics.

All of the following information is given under the assumption that you are familiar with the job, either by playing it or at least reading guides elsewhere on this Wiki. The following information is my opinion based on observations and my own reading of the guides and is given as a basis for the "con" range suggested for the jobs. For those jobs where a specific con is not specified (the NM option) assume I mean VT-IT range for normal mobs, if you research the mob before wasting a trip to see if it is strong to your form of damage or capable of blocking your defensive/survival/healing moves, i.e. has silence, amnesia, paralysis, resistance to "fill in the blank", etc. No matter what, always consider that it may be more ecconomical to go after a lower level than those listed unless you have a specific need to go against the toughest prey you can handle. Soloing a VT for 180 XP in a 7 minute fight is not as efficient as killing 6 EP mobs for 40 XP each in the same amount of time since 180<240.
 * a. Bard One of the squishier jobs out there, but with the right sub-job is actually a fairly decent melee with daggers, sword and staves. It is Excellent against elementals or for fighting in areas where elementals are thick as songs are not aggroed, although magic from a sub-job is. Handles adds better than most jobs do because of the high-percentage sleep, Finale is potent against Spikes and buffs. Songs are not interrupted short of a TP move or a spell, either. Absolutely MUST have Echo Drops, does not take damage well and cannot kill fast unless fighting seriously weak mobs. Sub-jobs of choice for solo will be Dancer or Ninja if using daggers or swords, White or Red Mage if using staves; use any other subs and avoid anything over EP. Stick to DC or lower mobs in general and do your homework before going anywhere.
 * b. Beastmaster	Often considered the best soloing job in the game, it hasn’t been until the introduction of Abyssea that this job even started getting consideration for parties outside of specific missions from most non-beastmasters. Sub-job plays a major role in how the job is played, but there isn’t much that it can’t handle. 1-75 this job is usually able to make a living off of charming the surrounding critters and using them against the other critters in the area. In addition, the Beastmaster himself can dish out pretty decent damage with his axe(s). Healing is always an issue and the dreaded mis-charm is the usual means of death, the other being overconfidence. In the higher levels jug pets are the pets of choice (or necessity as everything so far in Abyssea is immune to charm). The most common and effective sub-jobs are dancer, ninja and white mage, with thief and red mage seeing occasional use. Fighting DC-T is where it’s at for this job for highest efficiency although the job is capable of handling IT+ with some luck and a good supply of pets. Unless you are using jugs, camp choice requires the consideration of available pets in addition to the right prey, and both ambient and jug pets should be chosen in consideration of the beast correlation chart.
 * c. Black Mage We’re all about the damage here. Black Mage is the second weakest job in terms of taking a hit but in the top tier in terms of dealing out the damage, if not the most effective. The biggest factor (assuming you have all the spells available at your level) is skill to overcome your prey’s resistance. It requires intelligence on the PLAYER’S part to maximize your performance through proper exploitation of your prey’s weaknesses and the proper management of your MP pool. Tactics vary widely depending on the strength of prey. Weak prey is frequently taken in groups (the train) and hopefully 1-shot by some type of –aga spell. Tougher prey is generally hit by heavier single target spells, then Bind, Sleep or stun are used to keep the prey away from you until you can unleash another nuke. Biggest problem for Black Mage is down-time to recover HP/MP. The most common subs are white and red mage or scholar, and considering that your entire defense is coming from them you should really keep those skills up too. With some means of MP recovery, skill, competence in play and a bit of luck even difficult NMs may be soloed, although the fight will be long. Concentrat on +hMP gear instead of food, or any means of refresh to save the consumables costs while still keeping down-time minimised.
 * d. Blue Mage This job is all about the spell list the player chooses. Having only a limited number of spells in the field, it is planning before you fight that will win the day. Spells are both offensive and defensive in nature and your choice of spells opens the door to additional effects like Auto-refresh-see the Blue Mage section of Wiki for information. Your Blue is also capable of significant damage with their swords and frequently uses them to self skillchain for major damage; with timing and skill they can even Burst on occasion. Blue Mage is mostly used with melee subs, particularly ninja although healer subs like white, red and scholar are common too. Tough and lower is going to be your best bet with this job.
 * e. Corsair This is one of the 3 most expensive jobs to solo in the game. Corsair is more dependant on luck than any other job in the game too. This isn’t to say that there is no skill involved-far from it-but much of the job’s power comes from random dice rolls and it IS a gamble. Their spell-like abilities require the ability to land a Quick Draw (so keeping Magic Acc and Agi at cap is crucial) and like other support role jobs you generally don’t take a hit too well. Melee damage is mediocre but that is what the gun is for. Downtime and expense are the killers here. Common subs are white mage, ninja and thief, warrior and dancer have their fans and a highly-skilled corsair/ranger is just evil… With luck (pun only half intended) this job can solo T and VT mobs and considering the expense/damage ratio it is well worth it to do so, as speed-killing just eats consumables for a loss.
 * f. Dancer The new beast! Seriously, one of the best soloing jobs in the game with nearly uninterruptible curing, self buffing, debuffing and the like abilities, this job can handle pretty-much any mob that can be soloed at all. About the only things that slow a dancer down are paralysis (avoid mobs with ice or shock spikes like the plague), blind and high auto-regen. The only drawback to dancer as a soloist is that for the prey it’s like being beaten to death in a pillowfight; damage is not a dancer’s forte’. Far and away the most common sub-job is ninja, but thief, samurai, Beastmaster, monk and warrior are common, even the healing mage jobs get some situational love here. Like Black Mage and Red Mage, even difficult NMs can be handled, and frequently are, but anything with Feather Tickle, Ice or Shock Spikes is best avoided.
 * g. Dark Knight	Although not often thought of as a great soloist, this job is actually able to do quite well against a lot of enemies. Dark is the weakest of the melees at taking a hit (well, tied for worst with ninja), but only Samurai rival it for damage on melee hits (Sam actually get the DPS nod). However, Dark also has spell abilities to augment their high melee damage output. The absorb spells even allow the dark to buff/debuff in 1 spell. At upper levels Dread Spikes is awesome too. The weakness of this job is undead since they are largely immune to Dark’s spells, have high damage considering Dark’s lousy defense, and resistance to slashing damage. All of the melee subs except dancer seem to be common using Drain to cure and from 82 on red mage can be awesome. A skilled Dark can work T and down fairly reliably as long as they lay off the undead and anything else with dark resistance.
 * h. Dragoon This is currently one of the more popular solo jobs, although over the years it has been off and on due to SE adjustments. Capable of very nice melee damage in itself, it also has a little flying lizard that likes to help out too. This job combo is all about the sub because it is your sub that determines your wyvern’s capabilities. For general soloing what you are after is Healing Breath and that means white, red or blue mage as a sub. Game play for Goons really doesn’t change solo, party or whatever, only the sub of choice to set offensive or defensive wyvern breath. Sub-jobs are as listed above. T and below are your soloing choice with an emphasis on anything weak to piercing weapons.
 * i. Monk If Samurai are the 1 punch KO of the game then Monk is the undisputed king of punches in bunches, killing by accumulation. Their defense isn’t very good, so they get a huge HP pool and the most fun defensive ability out there, Counter. That’s a good thing because their primary defensive ability-Guard-doesn’t seem to work much. Another fun part of playing Monk is spell interruption, hitting as often as they do they can frequently stop a mage or ninja from casting. Their greatest enemy is anything with Spikes damage-a Monk is quite literally able to punch herself to death! They also don’t have much to work with for pulling, and I have occasionally seen a level 90 carrying pebbles when solo (hey, it works). These days the solo sub seems to be dancer, with occasional ninja, warrior or healer mages. Monk is at its best powering through large numbers of weak enemies where its high attack speed keeps the goodies pouring in, or taking out black mages or bards having fun with their puny defense, although a skilled player can certainly handle EM and higher mobs. They also rock against skeletons with their rapid blunt damage, IF they can survive the spikes.
 * j. Ninja Another entry in the top 3 money pits, ninja is a strange mix of vulnerability and tanking power. The key is shadows. With their shadows up a ninja can’t be hit (for the most part) by direct damage; however, once their shadows are stripped, either by melee hits or a single AoE, they don’t take damage particularly well, comparable to a Dark. This is partially offset by some of the best evasion in the game. Like Dark, Ninja also possess some spell-casting ability, although it’s rare to see much ninjitsu outside Utsusemi and your stealth spells being cast. The money sink is that every cast costs you an item and that really adds up over time. Plan to farm and/or craft, ALOT to keep you in business. Your melee damage is only on the upper end of mediocre so don’t expect allot of speed kills either. Soloing is really the time to work on your casting skills and throwing, unless you get an invite to a party with a Pally tank where you can pull and/or DD. Solo sub is usually dancer these days, but warrior and thief see some use, mage subs are very rare. Skilled ninja can be almost as effective a solo as a dancer, but the expense really isn’t worth it; concentrate on EM and lower for a decent balance of speed and economy and don’t leave home without your Echoes.
 * k. Paladin Think of an M1A1 tank… with a BB gun where the cannon should be, that’s Paladin in a nutshell. Nothing takes a hit like a Pally, and they can heal themselves. Nothing pisses off the enemy like a Pally either. However, my bard without songs has been known to out-damage very good Pallys. In other words, don’t expect to be among the solo big boys even if the big boys do die more. Common subs for paladin solo are warrior, ninja and dancer. Paladin/dancer frequently solos stuff up to the VT range, maybe because they like to still be alive fighting the same mob 30 minutes later, but if you want to get anything done aim for DC and lower and just blow through, saving the VT mobs for skilling up.
 * l. Puppetmaster Solo this job is kind of a cross between Blue and Dragoon-it’s all about the spell list, your pet’s spell list to be specific (i.e. frame/head choice, attachments, manuvers). Your puppet is really the “muscle” of your combo. After you choose your prey, equip your pup to either exploit your prey’s weaknesses or to keep you healthy (or use the “red mage” pup to satisfy both). There are solo Puppetmaster guides on the job’s page you may wish to consult for specifics. As to your job in soloing, you are kind of like a Monk, but without the HP to back it up and your job is to deal a bit of damage and give your puppet commands without overloading it. Your subjob should be chosen on the basis of you puppet set-up, i.e. if “Clank” isn’t healing you, you might want to do something about that. Most Puppetmasters handle T mobs fairly routinely.
 * m. Ranger This is another of those high damage/ultra squishy jobs; it is also the last member of the big 3 in terms of expense. As the name implies Ranger is at its best working from a distance, tricky to do when solo—excepting worms, Ranger’s bread and butter. Ranger is pretty self-explanatory solo, with the exception of NMs, another Ranger specialty. Ranger also has Wide Scan, so may solo widely separated targets without having to rely on luck to find them. Due to their lack of defense, Rangers almost exclusively solo with a ninja subjob for shadows AND due to the bonuses from a 2nd weapon, dancer is not as viable due to (hopefully) a LACK of melee contact. With skills at/near cap Ranger can solo quite powerful NMs, healing via Bloody Bolts, so undead need a bit of caution.
 * n. Red Mage This is another of the “big boy” jobs for soloing. Red is a jack of all trades job in that it can nuke (black mage are better), heal (white mage are better), enfeeble (nobody does it better), buff (arguably the best as well) and even melee if they feel like it. Advice-you may want to bring meds when you take on a big NM; that’s it. Sub-jobs are either ninja or any of the mage subs, primarily to boost MP, but also for either Reraise from white or Sleepaga from black, and dark at high levels for stun (at level 90 black works for that, too). Again, difficult NMs may be soloed by Red, if they suffer at anything it would be speed-killing weak stuff because they might die faster than Red can regain MP.
 * o. Samurai CHEESEBURGERKETCHUP—HI-YAH!!! The melee damage kings, mediocre defense. The general idea here is to kill SO quick that your prey doesn’t have a chance to swing back. Sam is another job that doesn’t alter their play much to solo (hack and slash until one of you dies), but gear may get tweaked a bit to boost defense or evasion, or you may just stick with a TP gain set. Sam lives and dies by the Weapon skill/skillchain, so study the Self skillchain possibilities (like I needed to tell a Sam that, yeah…). Solo subjobs are usually ninja or dancer, but I’ve also seen warrior, thief, ranger, dark and red mage used; adjust based on your prey. Generally EM and lower is where you want to go with Sam, but T is certainly not out of the question if you go into the fight with TP.
 * p. Scholar Weird job, sort of like changing jobs in the field between black or white mage as the need arises. This is another job that can be killed by a light sneeze. To be honest, I never really see this soloing-probably because everyone that has it has something else that works better as well. All that being said, it can’t nuke quite as well as a black mage or heal quite as well as a white mage or do both quite as well as a red mage. What they can do is target an enemy’s elemental weakness with their ability to simulate weather. Sub either a mage sub to boost MP or ninja to boost your survival. Concentrate on DC and lower.
 * q. Summoner Another pet job and potentially a great solo artist in the hands of a great player. Terrific damage from pets with additional spike damage, buffs or healing via Bloodpacts. This job has 3 major weaknesses; MP (luckily you start with a truckload); your pets are the weakest of the pet jobs in taking damage, with a long recast to pop the next one; and even a black mage takes a hit better than you do. That being said, Summoner solos very well, especially in higher levels as Avatar perpetuation gear becomes available. Solo subs are almost exclusively mage jobs to boost the MP, RARELY a ninja sub. Summoners that I see tend to solo in 2 ways, letting pet melee DC and lower, or dishing it out against T+ mobs via Bloodpacts, even IT with your 2hour.
 * r. Thief This one solos from greed, not need (well, that and the glut of thieves on the server makes it damn near impossible to get a party). About the only time a thief isn’t de facto farming is fighting Evil weapons, and that’s only because they don’t drop anything. Due to all of the farming thief is also in sort-of a constant skill-up. The biggest advice for a thief is to bring inventory space and know the markets. Thief generally subs ninja or dancer, they may sub ranger for NM camping. Unless they are targeting something specific or capping a skill, thief is usually better off speed killing DC and under and selling drops and beastmen are a personal favorite because they also drop Gil.
 * s. Warrior The disregarded job. This was the original tank job but it lost its job to paladin and ninja, lost DD to samurai and their ilk, and pulling is taken by thief, bard and dancer. In point of fact, they are usually treated like a placeholder job—nothing could be further from the truth. This is a melee DD with the widest choice of weapons and armor, dealing major damage and actually having the defense to deal with the consequences. Their ranged attacks are nothing to sneeze at either, and with a decent sub they make a very good soloer. No major changes to play solo, just pound stuff until one of you dies. The usual subs are either ninja or dancer; red mage is also a viable choice. Best used on EM and lower mobs via speed killing.
 * t. White Mage White mage is a good soloer. They have decent damage from clubs, can use shields and have defense 2nd only to a Paladin, a good thing considering all the hate a cure pulls. Reraise means that mistakes can be handled better than any other job, repose can handle a single add fairly easily, DD spells are generally not to be relied upon. They excel against undead, but their primary DD spell—banish—is wasted because it strips undead resistance to non-blunt damage and White only uses blunt damage; conversely, healing magic hurts undead (an excellent way to skill healing/divine). Subs are generally ninja for shadows/dual wield, a mage job for MP boost (and refresh) or dancer, especially after 50 against mobs that can be Aspired. EM or lower is your best bet, with the occasional T if you sub ninja; just pray the MP holds out.

A Word About Sub-Jobs
There are 4 sub-jobs that are probably the best for any solo, at least once you've got about 10-20 levels under your belt:


 * Beastmaster Any non-tank melee job can use beast without much trouble. Your pet will probably hold hate most of the time. The worry is that you won't charm as well as a Beast main. The popular theory is that Beast needs to be at least as high level as your main job to be effective; personally, I have no idea but it can't hurt. Until level 70 you won't have Release, so you will probably be using your pet to the death or zoning to come back and charm its re-pop. This does mean wherever you decide to go needs viable pets, so undead and beastmen strongholds are generally out. You can't skill your defense very much with this sub-job as your pet will usually have hate. You also can't use jugs, but as they would more than likely pop at the level of your sub-job that's probably to the good.


 * Dancer This allows any job to heal itself in the field, both through Drain Samba and Waltzes, and short of paralysiis there isn't much that can stop it, adding greatly to survivability. You do sacrifice some weaponskill damage as your TP will be going to healing and such. Starting at 40 you also get access to Dual Wield and Steps, both of which can be a great help when solo, although there is nothing stopping you from still using two-handed weapons or a shield if that's better for your main job. The only Samba that affects undead is Haste Samba, but feel free to fight them, just don't waste TP on any other Samba. If you plan on doing your damage at a distance you may want to consider another sub-job, especially mages as your TP is usually low.


 * Ninja This used to be the melee sub-job you had to have until Dancer came out and it still has its place; it is still a must-have to most people when NOT soloing. At 20 it will give any job Dual Wield (no benefit if using 2-hand weapons) and at 24 Utsusemi, increasing your melee damage output and your survivability a good deal. It will take a bite out of your wallet for the tools. As you rise in level you get access to some other ninjitsu as well, allowing you to stealth yourself and some enfeebling, but don't plan on doing much offensively with your ninjitsu as prey will generally resist it due to your halved ninjitsu skill. It is a viable means of pulling if you don't have ranged attacks on your main job. Not particularily good when skilling your defensive skills as the shadows will cost you opportunities.


 * Scholar For mages this is an awesome sub. The MP boost is excellent, and it opens up spells you wouldn't have from your main and increases the effectiveness of all spells. There is even an MP regain and it doesn't saddle you with a half-strength avatar like a summoner sub-job.


 * Red Mage From level 80 onwards this sub seems to get the nod from most mages for 2 things, Convert and Refresh. The only downside is that the MP Pool is smaller than the other mage jobs (except maybe blue), but with keeping Refresh up pretty much constantly it tends to equal out. Just be VERY careful when you convert solo; dying is the greatest of all time wasters.

A. Holy Cow, That’s Allot of Cabbage!
Farming doesn’t mean growing stuff to harvest in FFXI parlance, that’s Gardening and it’s handled elsewhere on Wiki; Farming means to kill for a drop. This doesn’t mean no XP, skill-ups, or trial progress, but your GOAL is the drop, and the income it provides.

Farming comes in 3 types, farming for Gil (killing beastmen), farming for saleables, and farming for crafting materials (possibly sold, possibly for your own use). Related is NM camping, which will be handled in a sub-section of this. This guide isn’t going to tell you WHAT you should farm (well, except beastmen for Gil), but questions you should be asking.

Farming is an exercise in math. There are 2 equations that need to be solved and then an average at the end. Even then, there are no rules, just some basic guidelines to look at. Much of the information you need to do this at the best rate of return is not publicly available. The VERY worst part is that someone else may arrive at the same answer as you, making farming your chosen item impossible, because they beat you to it.

The first equation is your effectiveness/prey’s strength=what is the most I can handle. This doesn’t mean that “it cons DC, therefore I can take it fairly quick” because con doesn’t cover everything. Your job’s capabilities vs. your prey’s capabilities are what we are actually talking about here. Say you are a ranger/ninja and you want bone chips to make arrowheads; you don’t want to be fighting EM skeletons if you can avoid it because they resist piercing damage and you can’t heal yourself, but spamming holy bolts against EP and lower is certainly viable (my apologies to any rangers out there if I’m wrong in that assessment). You actually need to do this calculation for every potential prey you consider.

The second equation is even more complex. Factoring in the item(s)’ price at sale (either NPC or AH), projected drop rate (how many whatever do I need to kill to see one), how quickly it sells (instant for NPC, to how often between sales on AH) vs. how fast can I kill whatever, how much is it going to cost me per kill in consumables (ammo, food and meds), and how often do I die in the process; the answer you arrive at should be “how much gil can I expect based on my time spent (or gil I can save if farming for self-consumption)”. So, if I’m farming X which NPCs for 500 (and less on AH), has a 20% drop rate, and sells immediately (1) vs. 3 minutes a kill (factoring in recovery time and travel) (20), a per kill cost of 43 (food and ammo) and 1 death every 60 kills we get (500 x .2 x1)/(20 x 43 x.016)=43.6 gil/hour. I know my math is wrong here but regardless it’s a lousy farm prey.

The averaging I was speaking of earlier is based on your best effort vs. your probable yield= is whatever worth your time? More often than not the answer will be no, UNLESS there is some other benefit to make it worth it. For example, if you can skill-up or satisfy trial kills and get within about 80% recoupment of your costs doing so it probably IS worth your time to farm whatever.

Now, what to farm? This is impossible for a guide like this to answer. Anything that NPCs well SE will kill the sales price on to keep RMT from homing in on it; necessary, but it doesn’t help those of us who are actually PLAYING in terms of income. Realism will keep some items from dropping too low however, so that’s the niche you need to exploit if going the NPC route. The AH is really your measure for good or bad for most things. Nothing on the AH should ever reach what an NPC will SELL the item for; if it does jump servers because you are playing with idiots. The exception is guild NPCs that might only sell 2 saruta cotton balls (as an example) in a week. Now, just because the item you have to sell goes for 1 million each doesn’t mean it’s a good item, it might only sell once every 3 months. By the same token something that only sells for 3k might be worth your time because 70 sell per day. Flooding the market and undercutting are huge factors, too. If beehive chips have climbed to 20k/stack it might be a great time to farm them unless the rest of the server realized it too. Conversely, if beehive chips have stabilized at 20k/stack you don’t want someone (including you) to sell them at 18k just to get a faster sale. Craftables are even more volatile; all the ground wasabi in the world is useless if there is no fish or rice to make sushi, behemoth hides are worthless if no one is leveling leather in that range, you get the idea.

What you need to do for any item is look up its sales history and its NPC sales price, and keep looking it up on occasion. Prices fluctuate all the time based on what people are selling, what they are using, what time of the week it is (prices frequently fall on weekend due to more farmers) and sometimes for no discernable reason at all. There are also advanced techniques to manipulate the market, but I think most violate the ToS according to SE. The only one I know is ok is hoarding (stockpiling stuff on a mule for sale when the supply drops or demand spikes), but if you pick wrong that stuff may be on your mule for years. You might also hoard to level crafting—buy whatever you need whenever it’s low so you can do a major crafting session on firesday and the full moon as an example.

B. Doo-dah, Doo-dah.
NM camping is still a part of the game, even with SE doing all they can figure out to get rid of RMT. However, a lot of the market has died out and in other cases SE has killed the drop itself. Some Gil drops that used to be excellent are now Rare/Exclusive, the drop rate is miserable on others, and some are superceded by newer items. It still has its allure though and for some it’s simply about getting the title. You may also need the kill for an Empyreal Weapon trial. You need to ask “why do I want to kill this thing?” The answer is somewhat important.

First off, some common elements of NM hunting:
 * Patience is a virtue. NMs are only up when the rules for it say they can be up, and they are usually area spawns (excepting the Force Spawn NMs), so you may have to satisfy its pop conditions and then you still have to FIND it, one of the reasons Beastmaster or Ranger is so common camping NMs.
 * NMs are more powerful than other mobs in the area, they may have different behavior and different abilities so studying up on it is a VERY good idea.
 * Competition is a factor. Not every NM is in demand anymore, but for those that are getting claim is crucial. Have your fastest hate-generating ability ready at all times when camping; you may even need to claim it while you are already engaged if it pops because if you don’t you get to wait through its re-pop cycle.

The Title/bragging rights people don’t really need a lot of advice. Those killing for vengeance for an earlier defeat want to follow this advice as well. Unless your level gap is insanely huge the key to soloing an NM is usually your consumables. Food for boosts, meds for recovery during the fight and any available debuff item to make it manageable are your focus. Do your research as well. Now here’s the kicker; now that you’ve beaten whatever nobody is actually impressed and you may actually see your reputation go DOWN for doing it if it is an NM that people actually need.


 * "_______ NM is so easy to solo as a ___/___" but you keep dying to it. You probably aren't doing anything wrong. Most of the people who write in to say how easy it is to solo ANY NM aren't writing in for informational purposes but to brag about their character. If you read the lengthier posts you will see that they have 3 of the best Atmas, fully-capped skills, fully upgraded empyrean weapons and probably a top-flight gear set. They also often have a load of temp items. For MOST characters where building a character is a work in progress (getting gear, skill-ups, etc.) any "easy to solo" NM is going to be considerably more difficult than posted.

Killing for a drop is often frustrating. If you are killing to use it yourself the item is often useless by the time you are able to beat the NM that drops it, so be prepared to use a higher level job to kill it and do so in advance of leveling the job(s) you want the drop for. Whether killing for sale or your own use however, most desireable drops have a drop rate that is well below 100%; you may be getting to know your NM very well (I myself was 0/200+ on Jaggedy-Earred Jack’s drop before I gave up and bought it). Posted drop rates are a reflection of odds, they are not a guarantee. Either way, if an item is highly desired expect competition, some illegitimate (people camping Argus to force you to buy the one they have on AH for millions instead of a free Rare/Exclusive item, etc).

Lastly is killing NMs for your Empyrean Weapon trial. Most of these trials require you to kill the same NM multiple times, sometimes it simply keeps score, others you have to turn in a set number of drops from the NM. For the most part these are not the most in-demand NMs—except among people on the same trial. The same problems pertain as above, but you want guaranteed kills. First advice is team up with people needing the same NM whenever possible, turning competition into allies. Otherwise, come over-prepared in terms of your consumables and job choices i.e. you may never sub red mage with your main job, but for this particular NM it is the way to go, etc. Do whatever you have to do to minimize the number of attempts you need.

I Want to Fly Like an Eagle…
Well if you want to fly through this game you’re going to need skill, as much as you can manage. The game comes with a ton of different skills and they all level separately. Some you can combine in 1 session but for most there is no overlap for the solo player. You can also do some skilling up as part of your leveling but not that much the way the game is currently played—most people having to level via level sync until Abyssea levels (75+) and suddenly facing massive skill gaps.

Skill increases your chance of survival in several ways: offensive skills let you kill faster, lessening the hits you take; defensive skills lower the hits you take or the damage from them; offensive magic skills both increase damage and help overcome your target’s resistance; healing skill allows your spells to heal more damage, etc. The point is you want to close that skill gap as quickly as possible. A skill-up party is the preferred option, but they are rarely available these days, so you will frequently be soloing. There are guides to skilling MOST of the skills mentioned here on Wiki so I’m going to just summarize a few basic strategies.
 * a. Offensive weapon skills. Find EP- mobs and plow through, generally against the highest defense and evasion you can find. As the skill gap narrows seek out EM or even T mobs (if you can beat them) and just keep pounding away. Low-delay low-damage weapons let you concentrate on skills. Yes, you can reach cap on DC prey now, however my observation is that the rate of skill-up increase (while improved) is still better with tougher prey. Best to strike a balance between getting skill-ups and not being able to connect, which is why you want to avoid prey above T, but EM-T seems to yield the highest rate of skillups/attempt. I do still reccomend if you have a LARGE skill gap that you power through EP until you narrow the gap. Sell the drops and use it to stockpile food/consumables to use when you have the gap narrowed. The exception is ranged attack; the ammo is expensive so you want the most skill-ups you can get at the lowest cost; burn your dog-bolts/arrows/free garbage you get from scavenge, and when you are out use the cheapest ammo your job allows until you've narrowed that gap, but always fight the tougher prey (worms if available using ranger tactics, or the T-zone line tactic)
 * b. Defensive skills. Put on the worst gear you can find (yes, the worst) and still live, then go pick a fight with something with great accuracy that hits like a feather duster, monks are a great choice here. You also do NOT want to be dealing damage to your playmate so no good weapons please. Above all, don’t forget your shield if you are leveling shield (trust me, I’ve seen it….), and just forget you even have shadows, avoid pets too if they take hate (except puppets, as they need skill-ups too). This is actually the best way to skill defense if you are a job that can’t hold hate against a tank. Still being tested post update, but the skill-up rate still seems much slower than offensive skill-ups
 * c. Offensive magic. A lot like the offensive weapons with one exception, if you can find T+ mobs near a zone line run in and pop a spell then zone, rinse and repeat. Otherwise, use low-level spells and use them a lot. The prey of choice is worms, stepping into casting range to unload a spell and immediately stepping out to avoid a counter. You can also fight enemy black mages and rangers as they won’t approach until you’ve taken 30% HP off of them (then zone and repeat on the re-pop). *d. Healing magic skill. Nothing fancy here, step outside your MH and cast cure on yourself until your run out of MP, step in to refill your MP and repeat until the suicidal urges are almost irresistible. Enhancing is the same except use a bar-element spell. Any of these have the added advantage of annoying everyone passing through the Mog House zone. Note you can also level healing magic by casting cures OFFENSIVELY on undead, but be ready to zone because they will hit back; this is MUCH more effective post-update.
 * e. Dark skill. Sleep stuff. What, you want a novel here? Ok, see the next entry, too.
 * f. Enfeebling magic. Cast anything that doesn’t inflict damage on dolphins in sea (paralyze or slow or something). Repose will level divine this way too. Flash may work as well.
 * g. Summoning skill. Step outside a town and just summon as in d. above. You get to rest MP to break-up the monotony, enjoy. Once you reach Abyssea levels equip a refresh or conserve MP Atma and do as above WITHOUT zoning, doing ops/ quests while summoning so as not to completely waste your time.
 * h. Ninjitsu. Cast elemental ninjitsu while farming. Either that or just cast Utsusemi allot, but you’re just wasting money that way. Ninjas are reccommended to level their ninjitsu while farming, as every cast costs you money, farm for cash OR the materials to make more tools.
 * i. Bard skills. Sleep dolphins, 1st with a horn, then a harp until it doesn’t give skill no more. Then go stand like a lump anywhere with a lot of people, run through your Carols and relieve your boredom by telling the people who ask you to stop or take it elsewhere to get stuffed. Bard songs skill up VERY fast used offensively in end-game; sleep is still your primary skill-up method, but cycling Threnody to yellow !! in parties is good too. Solo this is not as effective, but can be adapted; as with ranged attack and the zone line pull you can cast at the range limit and flux out, or work on worms. You will lose XP, but you can also use RR songs followed by a Horde lullaby in bastion; if you have abyssites of lenity You might actually GAIN some XP if the NPCs are beating the attackers.

Questing
This one is wide open, and there isn’t much advice to give other than BE FLEXIBLE! To be sure, not all quests can be soloed and this is by design. The good news is that for most quests you can take your level 90 job (if you have one) and beat them relatively easily, as SE removed MOST of the level-capped quest battles.

You may want to do some repeatable quests for gil or certain drops, possibly fame as well (Avatar Prime fights come to mind). Other quests are for progress in certain story arcs. With the advent of Synthetic Atma (see the Atma page) completion is being rewarded now with extra power in Abyssea. You may simply be doing them for the individual quest rewards (like access to Toramai Canal through Windhurst, a gear drop for a new job you wish to level, etc).

Of course, the big thing everyone is trying to complete would be their AF3 seals upgrade. This is best done in a group if at all possible as most jobs have difficulty soloing NMs in Abyssea, at least without a large number of temp items, but NMs is your best rate of return on a seals/attempt ratio. However, most of the quests that reward with seals CAN be soloed, including those requiring you to farm some item to complete. The biggest favor you can do yourself in this regard is to have more than 1 level 90 job completed to let you choose the job with the best chance of survival against a particular mob (low chance of getting a seal and then only a chance of that seal being what you need).

Closing:
this guide is a work in progress. I welcome any participation, directly editing the guide as to links, via the talk page as to content.

About the author:
I have been playing FFXI since shortly after the NA debut. My main character on Caitsith is Glamdring. I took a bit over 5 years getting Beastmaster to 75, entirely solo as Beastmaster/Bard. I currently have Beastmaster, Bard, Thief and Dancer at level 90; I intend to work on Ranger next, but I have much to do on Empyrean weapons, AF3 upgrades and skill-ups, first. For those that wonder, the delay in leveling jobs is because I haven't found a steady income stream in the game, not a lack of talent (although my beast/bard spent a great deal of time re-earning XP). I don’t claim to be an elite player, but I am competent. All of the above is from my personal observations and I am FAR from infalliable. The one thing that has characterized my entire playing career is that I do not simply follow the tried and true safe path, nor do I accept that things can only be done in 1 way, although I do believe that people may not have figured out YET how to do them a different way; hence the title of this guide.

My blog: --Deadmeataru 20:09, January 13, 2011 (UTC)