rdm/nin solo

[Septimus]

Dual wielding is not as bad as people say. Joyeuse/Justice Sword is an awesome combo, you get +7 STR and take advantage of the dual wield haste effect since Justice double attacks as much as Joyeuse. Martial Anelace/Joyeuse is a really nice combo as well, both Spirits Within and Savage Blade have large TP bonuses at 300%, being able to fire them off at 200% is not a bad trade off. (People already mentioned daggers, so I won't go into them.)

Red Mage soloing is just a matter of outlasting a mob. With that said, I never feel safe while soloing on WAR/NIN even with my WHM second character to back me up. On RDM I can be fairly certain that I will survive nearly anything that is level 73 or lower so long as it is not a crazy super-strong NM and is alone. (Except for Morbols, those things just suck.) On WAR I can get housed by an EP mob if I am not careful about shadows. (Need to start carrying bloody bolts...)

And speaking of having to keep casting buffs, I had a dream last night that Square added in a new JSE for RDM, and the feet had the effect that increased buff (haste, refresh, regen, en-spells, spikes, phalanx, bar-element spells) duration to five minutes instead of 2.5-3 minutes. I wanted to cry when I woke up. ;_;

[Khamsin]

Actually I was wondering.

What's faster.

Joy/sword or dagger.

Or single joy?

Joy/Justice seems to work well for me.

Two ceremonial daggers with enspells can work well, situationally, too if you are really afraid of the mob's TP moves.

As for shadows going down and stoneskin wearing on that hit, try to get a feel for how many hits you can take before your stoneskin wears, then when you know you're close, after your next utsu cast recast stoneskin and quickly click off your current stoneskin while it's casting. You should never get interrupted on your utsu casts that way, unless you fall behind on your debuffs and let your shadows fall too quickly. If you're desperate, you can always sleep/grav/bind and run away to recast and rebuff.

[Scythiroth]

I just bought a Guespiere, havn't really had time to test how good the damage is compared to other things though.

Guespiere/joy btw

I tried this sword for a little while and didn't really like it. If the added effect could work while en-magic on, it would have been awesome. This is just a personal opinion though, other people might like it better.

I just stick to joyeuse/genbu's for everything.

[Eddie]

How's Evisceration compared to Savage Blade.

[Sady]

RDM/NIN solo is like watching a Rocky movie. Just let the mob beat the shit out of you until it gets exhausted, then come back in the tenth round with the knock out punch! My only advice would be to LEAD WITH YOUR FACE!!!

Martial/Joy for when you wanna kill weaker stuff more quickly (EM or lower).
Joy/Genbu for slow and steady battles (T or higher).
I don't have a Blau or Justice sword so I can't comment on those but I did try a Guespiere once and I was not impressed...

[Raineer]

How's Evisceration compared to Savage Blade.

Owns it unless you have a Martial Blade and want to wait on 200tp, but it owns it in that case anyways since you can do 2 evis per 1 savage.

Obviously I soloed a ton on RDM/NIN, and mine was before the dagger update (actually quit FFXI and sold my Blau the DAY BEFORE the boost.) Evsiceration with Blau/Joy was the highest possible dps option back then outside of Excalibur. After the boost I doubt anything can truly compare to it (you need +attack gear though.)

With enough attack gear pre-patch I would see 450-650 evis on EP/DC mobs, which is about as high as you get without having to start casting Utsu.

BTW a pro-tip about RDM/NIN is to learn to play it without Shihei first, then phase that in afterwards. Everyone thinks RDM/NIN owns because you can "spam shadows at lightning speed", that isn't what it's about at all. Shouldn't need fulltime shadows unless it's an NM or well above level 75.

[Eddie]

Yeah I often heard Evis was better than Savage. I need like 20 more dagger levels, so I guess i'll go for it then.

I was skilling up my Polearm (ding Penta! lol) and a RDM friend came to help cure, and level Club.

She pulled out Hornet Needle, and used haste....LOL good god it attacks so fast.

Does that dagger have any use besides attacking at crazy speeds?

[Epical]

In terms of weapons, I Joy/Genbu on shit where on the way to the place, I'm constantly saying to myself "Fuckfuck I'm really going to die." Everything else is Verdun/Joy (currently going through WS points psychological therapy from unlocking Senj/Kodachi of Trials... no way I can be bothered to unlock Dissector right now). Yes, lolVerdun, but I don't have a Justice Sword, Guespiere/Martial Anelace is too expensive to buy just for RDM solo, and an Anelace is less effective in my eyes than a Verdun, sooooooooo 8)

[Khamsin]

How's Evisceration compared to Savage Blade.

Owns it unless you have a Martial Blade and want to wait on 200tp, but it owns it in that case anyways since you can do 2 evis per 1 savage.

Obviously I soloed a ton on RDM/NIN, and mine was before the dagger update (actually quit FFXI and sold my Blau the DAY BEFORE the boost.) Evsiceration with Blau/Joy was the highest possible dps option back then outside of Excalibur. After the boost I doubt anything can truly compare to it (you need +attack gear though.)

With enough attack gear pre-patch I would see 450-650 evis on EP/DC mobs, which is about as high as you get without having to start casting Utsu.

BTW a pro-tip about RDM/NIN is to learn to play it without Shihei first, then phase that in afterwards. Everyone thinks RDM/NIN owns because you can "spam shadows at lightning speed", that isn't what it's about at all. Shouldn't need fulltime shadows unless it's an NM or well above level 75.

Another pro-tip is that some things just aren't worth soloing. I tried soloing Mamool Ja Staging Point Puks because I was bored, they gave good limit points, and to break latent on Sapara of Trials. I was able to kill them without difficulty, but I went through shihei like a BLM goes through xp.

Just stick to things that offer a reward worth the time and shihei invested. For the most part, this means NMs. Most things that you could farm or skill up on you can probably find a suitable mob that won't require much effort.

[Raineer]

Yeah I often heard Evis was better than Savage. I need like 20 more dagger levels, so I guess i'll go for it then.

I was skilling up my Polearm (ding Penta! lol) and a RDM friend came to help cure, and level Club.

She pulled out Hornet Needle, and used haste....LOL good god it attacks so fast.

Does that dagger have any use besides attacking at crazy speeds?

Attacking at crazy speeds can always help on RDM because of enspells. It's not much use at 75 unless you want to be lazy farming mid-level elementals (think dark/ice in xarc lol).

[Eddie]

lol go go parry skill. mine rarely goes off on my freaking SAM!!!

I suppose I should try and get a Genbu. My chat LS is getting some members sky.

I've only did a few sky gods, and kirin a few times. Seriously, working till 10pm and going out all the time. Never really did big event stuff.

Anyway, isisn't genbu kinda easy with a few people?

[Epical]

Anyway, isisn't genbu kinda easy with a few people?

Tell your friends you're sick, set aside about 3-4 hours, make your favorite Poison and Bio /p message, get a couple stacks of Shihei, and solo it.

If you don't want to do that, it can be killed with 2-18.

[Eddie]

lol, well i'd probably fall asleep for 3-4 hours soloing....

Whats a good setup with like 3-6 (including rdm)

[Raineer]

lol, well i'd probably fall asleep for 3-4 hours soloing....

Whats a good setup with like 3-6 (including rdm)

With 3 you're talking a DOT-type fight, and best setup is RDM/BLM/BLM. Probably they will all be subbing /NIN as well for safety.

With 6 you can do whatever you want, maybe have a NIN tank and RDM support, with a few DD on the side. From what I hear about the PLD changes PLD could probably tank it straight-up now as /NIN or /WAR just fine with 2 healers as support. lolGenbu can still hit like a truck if you're unlucky.

I liked to go to Genbu as RDM/DRK, if you can eliminate the -aga's a good NIN should have no problem with shadows.

[Epical]

Pretty much your average TP-burnish party...

NIN WAR WAR BRD RDM WHM.

Some could say you could take out the NIN, add another WAR, take out the WHM, add another BRD or RDM. Bunch of stuff.

[Eddie]

Basically, a group who's knows what they're doing. ;-0

thanks for the tips

[cassiraa]

he problem with meleeing your enemies to death is that it requires a lot more buffs and misc. spellcasting, which means you are trying to balance a lot more tasks and ultimately have more chances to screw up. Nobody is perfect, everyone is prone to a minor error, and I find that just one screw up can mean the untimely end of a long annoying battle

Wow, You managed to summarize everything I LIKE about RDM solo. Replace "long annoying battle" with "long difficult battle" and we're on the same page.

Balancing 17 different things at once and pulling it off is a huge rush, and is why I love to gear my RDM for solo and go out to have some fun.

[Eraphiel]

I've got a few different sets of melee-based gear for rdm...some for all acc for skillup, some more geared to +att for quick kills, and then the -%dmg gear that's for skilling shield/parry/other thing solo.

Few weeks ago, borrowed a kraken to cap my club skill for drk, got my tank kit (narasimha's, jelly, cheviot cape, genbu's, and other misc. def/vit pieces), and sat around clubbing robbers and steelshells for about 3 or so hours in the tree. Month or 2 before that, grabbed that same set of gear (trade weapon/shield for earth staff), and powerleveled parry. Phalanx + defender + def food + -%gear = so much fun.

[Septimus]

I've got a few different sets of melee-based gear for rdm...some for all acc for skillup, some more geared to +att for quick kills, and then the -%dmg gear that's for skilling shield/parry/other thing solo.

Few weeks ago, borrowed a kraken to cap my club skill for drk, got my tank kit (narasimha's, jelly, cheviot cape, genbu's, and other misc. def/vit pieces), and sat around clubbing robbers and steelshells for about 3 or so hours in the tree. Month or 2 before that, grabbed that same set of gear (trade weapon/shield for earth staff), and powerleveled parry. Phalanx + defender + def food + -%gear = so much fun.

I've wanted to do that, but what do you do when you are done fighting and want to walk away alive?

[Eddie]

I've wanted to do that, but what do you do when you are done fighting and want to walk away alive?

my thoughts exactly