Dragoon: Guide to Races and Subjob Selection

{| border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" align="center" width="100%"
 * valign="top" width="25%" |


 * valign="top" width="75%"|

Job Overview
Available after completing The Holy Crest. With their lances in hand and their faithful Dragoon Wyvern by their sides, dragoons suprise their enemies with their extraordinary jumping abilities.

Strengths

 * Having a Wyvern around provides a constant stream of extra damage.
 * Wyverns can use a variety of different breath abilities depending on support job.
 * The Wyvern's Healing Breath is the most MP efficient healing ability in the game.
 * Jump abilities allow a Dragoon to shed hate accumulated through battle.
 * Polearms are extremely effective vs Flying enemies.
 * With the Wyvern available, Dragoons can effectively make use of any support job.

Weaknesses

 * Must compete with other melee jobs for party slots, leading to slow invites.
 * Damage is somewhat dependent on the Wyvern. A Dragoon without a Wyvern is usually unable to keep up with damage from other melee jobs.
 * Poor armor/defense for a melee class.
 * Cannot have two pets at once. (i.e.- a charmed monster/an avatar + wyvern)
 * }

Starting Stats
Thanks to [JesterX] for this info!

Support Job Options
Your support job choice affects the behavior of your wyvern. There are three types of behavior; Offensive, Defensive, Multipurpose. All uses of Remove Status and Healing Breath will be used only on those with a status effect or under the HP trigger and will be prioritized by the dragoon's party list (i.e. the dragoon will always be the first to receive these effects if he needs them, then the next person on his list, etc.)

Offensive Wyvern support jobs: Warrior, Beastmaster, Monk, Ranger, Samurai, Thief, and Summoner
 * Weapon Skill triggers Elemental Breath.

Defensive Wyvern support jobs: White Mage, Black Mage, and Red Mage
 * Weapon Skill triggers Remove Status Effect:
 * Casting any spell at 1/3 HP triggers Healing Breath (amount cured is based on wyvern's max HP):

Multipurpose Wyvern support jobs: Paladin, Dark Knight, Ninja, and Bard
 * Weapon skill triggers Elemental Breath.


 * Casting any spell at 1/5 HP triggers Healing Breath on Dragoon only (amount cured is the same as above).

The choices listed below are by no means the only options available. Feel free to experiment with any combination suits your fancy.

Warrior
Choosing warrior as a support job will give the dragoon an Offensive Wyvern, increasing his damage potential. The stat bonuses of warrior add to this even more. Provoke allows a dragoon to pull hate away from other party member, or from his wyvern as needed. Later on, Berserk, Double Attack, and even Warcry lend themselves well to a Dragoon's usefulness in providing his enemies with a stabbity death.

White Mage
Useful in party as well as solo, White Mage gives a dragoon a Defensive Wyvern. Since the wyvern's curative breaths can affect any party member, this makes him a useful backup healer. Access to the -na spell line allows him to cure party member or himself while soloing, of any nasty effects to come his way. A larger MP pool than Red Mage sub can make this attractive, but can be offset by the relative cost of the spells.

Red Mage
As useful in a party as sub White Mage, Red Mage provides the same Defensive Wyvern. The spell Poison provides the dragoon with a quick and cheap way to provide himself and his party with cures. Later on, the single target Bar-element spells provide him with an even faster way to cure (as the breath takes affect after the spell is cast) that is only 1 more MP than Poison, attracts less hate, and does not give the mob TP. The smaller MP pool is offset by cheaper spells. Red Mage and White Mage are both equally useful support jobs, though there will always be debate over which is better.