Job Roles
Each job serves a purpose; in fact some serve a handful. Here are some tips for each job as well as what to expect when partying. Keep in mind that these are just suggestions and you are of course free to play your job how you wish, but if you want the most out of your parties its far easier to follow the conventions people are used to. For far more in depth looks at each job see the class guides on offer. Some roles change in Merit Point parties, so for information about that see section 6.
Bard
Position: Backline Job
Key Roles: Dispeller, Refresher, Puller
Bard is a very varied job. When you first start out your general goal is to provide the melee with whatever songs they request (usually a mixture between attack up and accuracy). Later on you will be required to do this, as well as give ballads to the mages to replenish their MP and pull and dispel buffs. It sounds like a lot to handle and it is, but
each of these tasks are added as you increase in level giving you plenty of time to get accustomed to one new role for you to play before you have yet another.
Bards are sought after tirelessly by people making parties, so those playing this job should not need to make their own parties and will quite often receive invite requests even if you are not seeking. While the job has a lot of roles to fill, it is considered an easy way to Lv75 by most.
EXPERIENCE POINT PARTY
Whether you want to make your own party or just seek to join someone else’s, having a greater grasp of more than your own job can help things run smoother and more efficiently. A lot of the time you might find people who are overly harsh on others without fully realizing just how much they’ve got to handle (Red Mages in particular). Knowing the limits of a job can help you gauge whether to pull that next monster or wait and heal a bit too.
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What makes an ideal set up varies depending on your level range, but there are still the core tasks to consider when inviting people. Here is a run down of the general things to consider when inviting jobs with variants as you get higher level.
●Tank
This is a must have role, the job which keeps the attention of the enemy during the fight. This role can be filled by any melee job pre Lv30, but after that your choices soon fall into either Paladin or Ninja.
●Healer
Every party needs a job which can keep the others alive. White Mages, Red Mages, Summoners, and Blue Mages can all be centered on this role.
●Dispeller
After Lv40, Blue Mages, Red Mages, Corsairs, and Bards gain the ability to remove enemy buffs. This is incredibly important when fighting monsters such as Crawlers and Crabs which have high defence up buff moves.
●Refresher
A role which can be covered by the dispeller and/or healer, Red Mages, Corsairs, and Bards gain spells/songs which replenish MP points, imperative for keeping chains going.
●Damage Dealer
Any melee or ranged job can fall into this category, including Blue Mages and Ninjas. How many of these you have in a party depend on how many
people it takes to fill the above categories. At lower levels it’s quite possible to simply have one healer and five melees, but soon it drops to two or three. Black Mages also fall into this category
●Puller
This is a subcategory really, but your party needs someone who is willing to hunt for and pull the monsters that your party wishes to kill. For most of the game this role is filled by any melee that has a ranged weapon with them (Boomerangs, crossbows, bows, guns, throwing tools).
The exception to the conventional setup of a mixture of the above roles is a party consisting of 4-5 Black Mages, a Refresher job of some kind, and possibly a Tank. Referred to as a Manaburn this is a party which relies on the tried and test method of all the Black Mages casting a spell at the same time to damage a monster and then sleeping the monster in order to prepare your next spell. If you include a Tank, they attempt to build hate while the enemy sleeps. The camp guide will mention briefly places that benefit Manaburning, though mostly anything works just not as well. This type of party can also be applied to gaining Merit Points.
Misc. Jobs
So, you aren’t one of the jobs listed above but are still determined to kill things alone to get XP? It’s possible, sort of. If you try hard enough or have the best gear you might be able to kill things alone that most others of the same job couldn’t, but keep in mind SE never actually intended that any job could solo.
What enemies you pick are limited to what they con as. Don’t expect to beat anything tougher than Decent Challenge unless there are other factors (such as a Monk fighting a Bone type) which would swing it more in your favour.
Tips
Here are some general tips for those determined to try and solo;
·Don’t get in over your head; know your limits when picking targets
·Consider if your weapon gets any bonuses or reductions against the enemy you are considering fighting
·Carry a good stock of medicines
·Consider fighting in a duo in a Signet area
Dragoon
Dragoon might not be an obvious choice from the start to be a rather effective soloing job, because it is set up much like all the other melee jobs (who can’t solo). Thanks to some testing years ago by interested players it was discovered that it was possible to fight pretty strong stuff alone because of a certain Wyvern set up mixed with certain actions listed below.
Preparation
The basic preparation for a Dragoon is pretty simple; you require a mage sub job and the healing Wyvern type. You might not be aware, but your Wyvern can actually be one of three types (the most common of which being basic damage dealing type). To make your Wyvern become the healing type you must sub one of the following; Black Mage, Red Mage, White Mage, Summoner, and Blue Mage.
Which sub out of the list above you pick depends on your style. In the past White Mage or Red Mage were the best choices, but thanks to the pre Lv37 spells a Blue Mage sub would offer you (in terms of very cheap MP spells) it is also very viable.
You fight an enemy as normal with your Wyvern helping (after having done any pre battle buffs your sub can provide). When your health drops low you use a low MP spell on yourself or the enemy (such as Dia or a Bar spell if you are subbing White Mage) which triggers the healing Wyvern to use Healing Breath, restoring a good amount of HP for a very low MP cost.
Healing Breath levels activate at the following levels; tier 1 Lv1-19, tier 2 Lv20-39, tier 3 Lv40-75. Taking on far stronger enemies is only possible after you have access to Healing Breath Lv3. For tips on improving the healing amount of your tier see the sections below.
Ideal Enemies
Any monster which does not have extremely damaging TP moves is fair game to a soloing Dragoon. You can technically fight some hurtful monsters, but it would make it all the more important to follow the tips below to make your Healing Breaths restore the most amount of HP possible for your level. It is also important to remember that enemies with hurtful AOE attacks should be avoided, you do not want you’re Wyvern taking damage.
Start out easy, on things maybe Decent Challenge and Even Match to get into the swing of how you work. Harder stuff is a challenge despite how easy it might sound, and finding crabs usually results in good safe XP.
Tips
Here are some tips to remember when soloing as this job;
·Healing Breath will heal yourself, or a party member, and will only activate if said persons are under approximately 30% total HP
·Using the Dragoon AF1 helmet increases this base target to 50%
·Using the Dragoon AF2 helmet does not increase the trigger % but does increase the amount healed by a large degree
·Total TP and Wyvern’s total HP also effect the amount of HP healed by a breath
·As long as you have MP you can keep casting low cost spells over and over and your Wyvern will keep using Healing Breaths – it will not ‘run out of MP’ like you can, the only danger is if you run out of MP
·Bringing some cheap refresh drink (outlined in the medicines section) to save you in a pinch is recommended
·It is possible for your healing Wyvern to do a Removal Breath which will take a negative status effect away from you, this is activated when you use a Weapon Skill
Blue Mage
In a duo it is possible for Blue Mages to reach Lv75. If solo, this is not as effective as partying, but there are enemies you can go after at almost every level.
Preparation
Having the correct spell set up is important, as well as sub job. Since this can vary hugely depending on what level you are and what spells you have learned I can only give a rough overview rather than specifics to you.
The choice of subs is; Ninja, White Mage, or Red Mage prior to high level. This is to either be able to avoid damage or heal it back to a larger degree than normal. Next you must pick spells which are high damage (multiple hit) as well as any and all healing related spells you have learned.
Here is a pick of spells; Bludgeon, Healing Breeze, Wild Carrot, Magic Fruit, Refuelling, Frenetic Rip, Hysteric Barrage, Disseverment, Death Scissors, Sickle Slash, and Head Butt.
Ideal Enemies
Prior to end game, your target enemies are either low conning easy to kill targets or Goblin pets. These are enemies which you can find conning Tough to you, but have tiny amounts of HP and attack compared to a normal Tough enemy. You would find a Goblin with a pet, wait until its back is turned, and safely pull the pet away to kill. The Goblin would eventually re-summon a pet if there are no more to chain with. Blue Mages physical damage spells rip these pets apart extremely efficiently.
For merits or finishing off those last two or three levels, Blue Mages can take on Heraldic Imps. The set up for fighting these is very specific; you must have pretty much all the list of multi hit spells I mentioned above as well as subbing Ninja. Imps hurt and cast nasty spells, so you must kill them quickly, stun bad spells, and avoid damage. Amnesia doesn’t stop your spells so don’t worry about that. This is very effective but can sometimes be dangerous depending on what spells the imps decide to cast. Also, unless you can find a quiet location all to yourself, Merit Point parties will be after the same monsters as you.
Tips
·Carry a good selection from the medicines section of this guide including; a re-raise scroll, refresh drinks, XP ring, and Echo Drops
·Take the time to learn the spells which will best assist you soloing
·Consider buying a sword with Demon Slayer trait on it to help when fighting Imps
·Goblins aggro by sight and this includes if they see you fighting their pet
·Goblin pets link by the same rules as a normal one of their type would (if it was a beetle and you were fighting a beetle nearby then it would link and attack you, bringing the Goblin with it)
·Learn to correctly use Head Butt
·Self skill chaining can speed battles up drastically
Ideal enemies
The idea (for the most part) is that you will attack an enemy with your avatar doing the bulk of the damage and keeping hate to protect you while you chip away at a monster. Any monster will do for testing your limits. Most of the time your avatar will not out last the monster so when it is almost dead you disengage, run away to a safe casting distance, and then re-summon when your avatar is defeated. With buffs you should receive little to no damage in the time it takes your new avatar to get hate back. As you can imagine this works as long as you have the MP to sustain avatars.
Enemies which have a lot of HP should be avoided. As far as TP moves go it isn’t so important, as long as you can get far enough away to re-summon.
If you want to solo merits or are Lv73 and above, target Heraldic Imps in the new expansion areas. Do not fight along side your avatar against these and after your initial Blood Pact only move in after the Imp has used a TP move, to make sure you do not get caught by amnesia. If you do, then you will be unable to remove your avatar, tell it to attack, tell it to Blood Pact, or to retreat. Getting chain #2 for over 400XP is easy, any more than that becomes a challenge. Be prepared for this to go wrong sometimes and for death unless you have a friend supporting you (the XP is still good with two people).
The exception to this overview is when you hunt bomb type enemies. You don’t help the avatar fight the bomb and stay fully buffed well back. The idea in this situation is you use an avatar to force the bomb into using Self Destruct, killing itself. This usually creates the best XP chains. The best place to find bomb types consistently is at Ifrit’s
Cauldron. If you are too low level for them I would find other targets closer to your level and come back later (or find more Summoners to help).
Tips
Here are some tips for soloing as this job;
·Having cookies and Refresh medicines for when things go wrong is important
·Echo Drops should be in your inventory at all times
·Having Carbuncle’s Mittens makes him a free MP avatar after a certain level (ideal for bombs)
·The most popular choice of avatar to use after Lv65 is Fenrir and Garuda
·If you feel the battle isn’t going your way, wait until the avatar has hate again and run
·After Staff level 220 you gain Spirit Taker which gives back MP proportionate to damage done, which should be used every time you have TP from that point on
Preparation
For the most part the equipment and set up you
need is the same as you would use in an XP party.
Concentrating on having a lot of MP and reducing
the cost to keep and avatar out is the idea. Using
certain pieces of AF, Elemental Staffs, and clothing
all help these factors. As you can imagine most of
these are not available until later levels, which is
when you can truly solo effectively.
Tips
Here are some tips for this job;
·Once you get your AF armour you can use it all the way to Lv75 as its Charm+ can’t be beaten (extends the length of time something is charmed but not the success rate of charm)
·CHR effects the success of Charm only
·INT effects Tame
·Certain pieces of AF1 and AF2 add the ability for Reward to heal status effects such as poison
·Teaming up with another BST can prove faster than alone
·If you use Charm on a monster which cannot be charmed it will be bound for a few seconds, this can be valuable if you are trying to run away (this has roughly the same enmity generation as using Provoke)
·Using your two hour ability allows you to keep your charmed pet for half an hour regardless of Charm+ gear or what it conned as, which works well if you manage to successfully charm a very strong monster
Summoner
Surprisingly, although being limited to just a few types of enemy, Summoner can solo through whole levels quite quickly. There is a bit more danger than there might be for other jobs, but the pay out is higher. If you are too low for a particular enemy consider forming a party of only Summoners, it works well against the ideal enemies listed below or a combination with other good soloing jobs.
Beastmaster
For the longest time, this was the only job with any real soloing potential. Things change for good and bad though, and now while other jobs can now solo to a certain degree, Beastmaster received an indirect hit to their potential thanks to anti-MPK monster actions implemented over a year ago.
Because, even today, Beastmaster can still solo all the way to Lv75 in a way it requires a guide to itself. This will just be a general over view of the tips and preparations you should concentrate on. Also keep in mind that you can join XP parties and Merit Point parties despite what other people might think. You may need to make your own parties if you do want to XP in this way though, to avoid misconceptions about the job.
Preparation
Soloing as Beastmaster is simple in description but hard in practise. You charm a monster rated Even Match or below and pit it against a monster between Even Match and Tough helping it defeat the monster. Just before the enemy is dead you release your pet to receive full XP otherwise you receive a penalty.
Your preparation stage falls into collecting the following information and items; jug pets, pet food, re-raise scroll, food, and finding a location where you have a fair amount of Even Match and Tough enemies. I found the best way to work this out is to look at your level, work out where a party of the same level would be (use the section in this guide) and then go to the place one stage before it. So if parties were in Qufim, I’d still be in Dunes and so on. Any other items you think you need from the medicines list in a previous section are also helpful.
Ideal pets
What pet to use is tricky to define, since it will vary from zone to zone. As stated above, to have a fair chance of charming it into fighting for you and staying charmed for a decent length of time, the monster should not con higher than Even Match. First I would select your target and then see what monsters nearby can be charmed and could put up a decent enough fight. Remember you can always run and get another pet as needed. Some monster families cause intimidations on others, this is important to remember. There are two ‘sets’ of intimidation rules and these are as follows;
Amorphs >> Avians >> Aquans >>
Amorphs
Beasts >> Lizards >> Insects >> Plants >>
Beasts
Ideal Enemies
Your ideal enemy is something conning Tough or lower which does not have any extremely damaging AOE or single target abilities. The exception to this is Goblin and Bomb types, these can be fought with just a pet while you stay well out of range until a
suicide bomb or Self Destruct is triggered. You should also avoid anything which could petrify or sleep your pet as this would put you in danger.
You can solo Merit Points after you reach Lv75, but I suggest teaming up with a Summoner and killing Heraldic Imps as a duo. This might also work with a Blue Mage team mate, but I have not tested that combination.
Comprehensive detailed information about specific BST tips can be found here;
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/jobs.html?fjob=8;mid=115573086281496833;num=21;page=1
