Revision History
Appologize for the "big wall o' text". SO glad the outline tool in MS Word directly translates to Wiki. Wait, no it doesn't. OK, will purty it up as I figure out how, or with a little help from my readers--Deadmeataru 22:14, January 13, 2011 (UTC)
Over the last several days I have been making numerous small edits to the content of the page based mostly on conversations with in-game friends that I have asked to review the document as to FACTUAL errors they may find. As I said, I'm not infalliable and I ask that anyone seeing an error in fact please place a comment here so that it may be corrected in the next revision.
Those who take issues with an OPINION expressed I would also ask to comment here in the Talk page, but under a seperate Heading to differentiate it. Please include an explanation as to why you take issue with the opinion expressed to back up your objection. I did not venture these opinions without a good bit of research myself. Simply stating that "you need to kill EM+ to maintain a chain for XP" is not enough to get me to change my expressed opinion without the math to show the XP/hour rate vs. recovery downtime and expense for consumables and the like. --Deadmeataru 19:57, January 26, 2011 (UTC)
Edited to accomodate the proposed version update and its effect on soloing. Watch for revisions.
Revised to accomodate a couple days of playing with the new adjustments, more will likely follow as I play at different levels.--Deadmeataru 19:14, February 16, 2011 (UTC)
Again, I would ask that noone alter the text of the main page, feel free to make any comments (useful comments that is) on the talk page, which I FREQUENTLY check so that they may be incorporated into the guide.--Deadmeataru 19:24, February 16, 2011 (UTC)
Edited to repair vandalism to main article, random deletion and flame without reasoning, notice or even a message. Content restored. --20:59, February 16, 2011 (UTC)
Edited for additional content, mostly regarding skill-up.--Deadmeataru 18:13, February 22, 2011 (UTC)
Added a section on Abyssea, expect it to be heavily supplemented.--Deadmeataru 19:45, February 25, 2011 (UTC)
Linked jobs to the main job page for each, to speed access to job-specific guides (if any) linked from the job's page. Apologize for not doing this sooner, but unfamiliar with the Wiki mark-up language--Deadmeataru 20:18, February 28, 2011 (UTC)
A couple minor gramatical errors corrected. A few statements clarified to get rid of any ambiguity. A paragraph added to the updates section about upcoming content changes with impact on soloing that are in the works-these changes may also impact other areas of the game, but they are relevant to soloing.--Deadmeataru 17:44, March 10, 2011 (UTC)
Job notes, Abyssea notes and notes about NPcs.--Deadmeataru 18:13, April 12, 2011 (UTC)
not neglecting my guide updates, they simply came at a bad time and I have not had the opportunity to really explore any of the new content/changes. The nerf to burritainos means that I've had to start a 2nd trial weap for my pup, and I can't get a party to get it to 90, so I've been confined to working on it solo. Couple that with my social LS deciding to work on 3 people's Aby NM based weapon and I'm simply out of hours in the day. I WILL get it done eventually.--Deadmeataru 14:52, May 13, 2011 (UTC)
Made some edits to accomodate the updated content.--Deadmeataru 19:20, May 16, 2011 (UTC)
Added my Solo Dynamis section and a bit to the update section. However, the update section has gotten unwieldy and with the level cap now capped again I am in the process of a complete rewrite to roll everything into the main text. Plan to add a salvage section as soon as they get around to making the salvage changes. Watch for changes if you are interested.--Deadmeataru 05:17, January 14, 2012 (UTC)
Version 2.0 of the guide is up now. Some minor edits are on a different computer, and will be loaded once I am at that computer. For the most part the rewrite was to roll all of the "Updates" section into the main text, but there were some changes to simply help me with performing future edits.--Deadmeataru 17:03, March 12, 2012 (UTC)
Added in my F/GoV section, looking for the rest. expect some minor formatting edits, which I won't comment on. Need to "pretty this thing up" a bit--Deadmeataru 00:12, March 13, 2012 (UTC)
Added preliminary entries for Geo and Rune, expect supplementation as more is learned and when merits/AF released.--Deadmeataru (talk) 16:28, April 4, 2013 (UTC)
Added a section to Reives about the SE vision of Tiered reward content throughout SoA.--Deadmeataru (talk) 19:32, June 5, 2013 (UTC)
Deleted the "no merits" reference in Geo and Rune. Added a section on gear since this is the new "leveling" method. Appologize for the mini-rant tone, but it IS justified.--Deadmeataru (talk) 22:28, July 10, 2013 (UTC)
Added a section on other income streams, a brief summary of other activities--Deadmeataru (talk) 15:45, August 17, 2013 (UTC)
Added sections for Trust and Eminence as they are designed for soloers. Minor edit to Adventuring Fellows.
Updated the gear section, differentiated pre 99 and post 99 level sections, accommodating the addition of reforging and skirmish +2 being the thrusts of player growth now.--Deadmeataru (talk) 19:39, February 19, 2014 (UTC)
a couple small edits about job points and skill-ups related to the March 2014 update. Another edit to come related to the most recent trust NPCs (waiting for information on Ingrid as I'm not eligible yet)--Deadmeataru (talk) 15:27, March 19, 2014 (UTC)
edited to get the Trust section up to date--Deadmeataru (talk) 15:21, April 29, 2014 (UTC)
Reader's comments
Here's your playground readers, go nuts!--Deadmeataru 16:42, February 21, 2011 (UTC)
My thoughts. Nice guide, but I think it's missing a few points.
- You should definitely cover whm as a sub and I have to disagree that /dnc is always worse than dnc. Nin/dnc for instance is generally just as good, if not better, than dnc because nin/dnc has all the dnc must-haves. (Stun Flourish, DS2, HS, CWIII is pretty good, HW) but ninja has faster attack, slightly better subtle blow, and most importantly, enfeebles. A yonin ninja/dancer with enfeebles has a higher chance of success.
- You should cover white mage as a sub, for now and the foreseeable future, it offers haste, reraise, and like rdm, barspells. /whm is old-school but so is /rdm (for anything besides mages). Now everything is /dnc and /nin. You'll also probably want to point out that haste can be used from /rdm when 99 rolls around.
- Concerning "farming for drops", I have to also point out that mobs in aby die *much faster* than game-world mobs. I've been surrounded by 5 ITs on my ninja solo before and not even the slightest bit worried...with DD atmas! Such a scenario outside of aby and I'd be considering my 2hr. Honestly, against one IT outside abyssea and it could go either way.
- SCH as a sub for melee: This has merit in abyssea when you want to be able to Azure and are a pure melee. I've seen several people farming for KIs as mnk/sch, thf/sch, etc. It definitely beats the pans off trying to get a mob to low health and nuking with /nin ni tools, saving both gil, time, and inventory space.. Dark Arts gives them quite a decent elemental skill that stacks well enough with Ascetic's Tonic to be able to get decent killing blows. They can start with nuking atmas to help out. /SCH, like /WHM, also offers reraise. You'll want to point out (so that it's clear to even the most clueless reader) that when you come /sch to stack lights, you must stay /sch for the duration because, of course, leaving Aby burns your lights.
--Grimrising 06:05, August 27, 2011 (UTC)
Thanks for the commentary, I was planning on redrafting the aby section, not entirely, but to accomodate players that have gotten all the atma, gear, etc, most likely with a beginner's section and a vet's section. I was going to hold off though because of the lvl cap increase that was supposed to happen and has now been postponed. As to whm and sch subs, you raise good points, but I'll have to think of exactly how to put it in there. Aby play is so different from regular play that I need to be careful that people don't cross things up. The /dnc vs. dnc/ comment had to do with the 3rd tier of Drain, Fan dance and the higher tier waltzes; it was not to say that /dnc isn't still awesome. I am usually /dnc solo on all jobs (even bard) due to its survival boosting skills.--Deadmeataru 15:17, August 30, 2011 (UTC)
Proposed changes/new content
I would ask that if you have a change you think should be made you post it here. Obviously, identify the section that needs the change, for example "under ranger I think you should add something about undead killing via Holy Bolts spam. I suggest: 'blah blah blah, yacketty-smackety'" There are 2 reasons for this method: 1. to let me keep the formatting consistent as every author has a slightly different style, and 2. to let other readers comment on your text, for example "I like it but you need to mention +Mind gear set-ups", "don't add that, this guide is long enough, if you want to know that much about ranger look at the ranger pages", etc. PLEASE sign your proposed edit, I may contact you if I have a question, especially if it's something I've never seen before.--Deadmeataru 16:42, February 21, 2011 (UTC)
Views and Opinions
Hello! This is an amazing guide. I did have a question about your opinion of /dnc. It seems that its so overused now, especially on some jobs such as DRG, maybe even BST. Since you are a BST by heart it seems, what is your view on this? Tbh, I think BST/WHM or like you said BST/BRD brings a whole lot more to the table than /dnc with the BST's Fencer and the ability to have a shield in case your pet dies etc. Now for DRG. I can't believe people even sub dnc on DRG.. I mean come on.. a healing breath can heal much much more than a waltz can not to mention a wyvern can also heal you of a status ailment, and its unlimited use unless you run out of MP ( which rarely happens if you know what to cast). DRG/BLU or WHM will always be my one of my favorites. Whats your opinion on this?
100% on board with you about dragoon IF PLAYING AT SKILL FOR LEVEL. Below level I can see a use for /dnc, specifically quickstep to lower eva to help if you Aby-burned the job and your skills are lagging. Granted, if you don't HAVE a healing breath mage job levelled then /dnc may be the way to go. It's obviously useful for new dynamis if you prefer to target JA mobs rather than MA for proccing. Otherwise, I'd say it's situational. Drg has had alot of changes lately, including a bit of control for breaths (not as much as a drg would want, but some...); depending on target some breaths may be preferable. In Aby healing may be addressed via atma and the like, so the need for HB might not be there. But for general solo gameplay, especially outside Aby, yeah, use one of the mage subs, especially if you have access to a refresh.
Beast is a whole different matter. Yes, I did in fact solo 1/75 as a beast/bard, but no, I would NEVER reccommend it to anyone else; I did it solely because people said I couldn't and it took litterally years to get done. I will use /brd in Aby still for yellow !! procs because I can usually land them, but only if I'm in a party (if the mob is resistant, Despot coupled with Ascetic's is usually enough to overcome it), solo I /dnc, almost full-time now. Yes, beast has access to Fencer, and some nifty bonuses from some shields, especially Tatami (love that thing), but usually the benefits to be gained from a 2nd weapon outweigh the benefits of the shield-and those benefits are minimal considering beast's pathetic shield skill. Solo your pet will usually have hate, plus our shield skill is a bad joke; the effects of Fencer are so little as to be unnoticeable for the most part, and the 2nd weapon has bonuses that can beef the pet, not easy to find outside our JSE stuff. In addition, we laugh at silence (paralyze is a different matter). You can also /nin, and that definately has its fans, I just like /dnc more. Going /whm is definately a possibility; it was the preferred way to level until the release of dancer and it still works just fine, also giving you RR which you will need from some other source on any other job (or below level 50). I use it situationally, just not much.
Thanks for the good words, hope this helps.--Deadmeataru 15:42, December 2, 2011 (UTC)
Dancer is also a very good subjob for RDM as well.
Just wanted to add that subbing /DNC other then /NIN for RDM is a really nice asset to RDM for soloing better then subbing /BLM or /WHM which is weaker offensively and defensively in my opinion. Healing Waltz is awesome to have if you get silenced or paralyzed. The awesomeness of this combo is the dual wield you can have at level 40 on. Case and point at lower levels 40+ drain samba/aspir samba with dual wield is really nice to regain hp/mp. When you get en-spell 2 you can have en-spell 2 in main hand and a samba in off hand. Also really nice is when you equip a Joyuese in off hand and hit samba twice 50% of the time. Curing waltzes are nice backup in case you need a quick cure or get silenced as well. Plus all the attribs bonuses that /DNC adds are awesome for any melee job, and my friends and I have used /DNC to level many melee jobs to level 99.
Yeah, I don't disagree with you. When I wrote rdm I sort-of had party play on the brain. Drain Sambas do suffer from generally only being half as effective if using your enspells from being off-hand only, although Haste works just fine. I do question it in the new SoA content-I'll need to see it in action solo as I have some skepticism about melee rdm with the new gear choices-caster rdm certainly works but there are better subs for a casting rdm. It's in my notes for my next set of revisions.--Deadmeataru (talk) 13:45, August 18, 2013 (UTC)
Yea I understand what you are saying about new gear, even gear like the EMPY +2 gear it's all catered towards a back line caster job not front line melee job. Coarse if you mix and match RDM pieces like I do you can put together a good melee set. I use Relic +2 augmented head and body pieces with Empy +2 for the rest which makes a pretty awesome melee set. I also use an Atheling mantle for extra double att and att bonuses and a Raja's Ring paired with a ring that has +5 vit, str, agi. With the gear I use it's pretty well rounded for damage and defense when I sub /Dnc. For /Nin I change up and equip fast cast earrings and fast cast ring with Witiful Belt. Also if you notice in the AH there is some pretty hefty melee gear Rdm can wear too now although it doesn't add Rdm trait bonuses etc.. Also remember /Dnc has stun too if you build steps. My friends use this a lot when soloing magic using mobs. Now I am not talking about soloing NM's so much with /Dnc, although I have soloed a few Abyssea NMs with MM, VV or RR, and Apoc atmas on. Outside Abyssea I would use /nin for most melee NM's. Non-Abyssean NM's that like to spam aga spells and aoe enfeebling tp moves and spells eat up shadows way too fast, and are just a pain when you're subbing /Nin this is when I sub /Dnc. With /Dnc sub I can quickly negate most any enfeebling put on me with healing waltz, and I can use curing waltz when I need to save mp, and also I can stun some of the most damaging tp moves or spells with violent flourish. The only way mage sub jobs work in soloing at lower levels is mostly for sleep kiting tougher mobs for exp nothing else, and yea you will never sub /Whm when solo kiting NMs unless you plan on dying and just sub it for the re-raise. XD By the way Square/Enix you need to give Rdm re-raise already sheesh. Anyway If I were just starting Rdm from level 1 I could solo it all the way to level 99 with /Dnc sub and not have hardly any down time for healing whatsoever that's how much a Dnc sub compliments a soloing Rdm. Another interesting sub combo is Rdm/Pld and vice versa this makes a pretty awesome defensive combo. Anyway I did notice you updated your page with /Dnc as a melee solo choice for Rdm that's awesome. It is really a sub job that shouldn't be over looked for any solo melee job for that matter. Peace out!!!