Your Ideal Salvage team

[TB]

MNK, WAR, WAR, RDM, WHM, BRD + THF is what we have often and I like it. Unfortunately we don't have enough MNKs, but totally pimped WAR's are fine too.

[Judai]

Depends on zone or what you are doing. Can get anything done with MNK,MNK,THF,BRD,RDM,WHM.

We usually have a very good DD NIN(when he's not half asleep) instead of second MNK. DRG is omgamazing for when you want to own gears(or "harder" NMs) fast(nerf LBC,Clear 6F for QQs, own GGs asap, CC, etc) BLMs wreak Gears as well. imo more then 8 slows you down some, so that main 6 and then a DRG or couple BLMs or RNG really can help speed things up.

[Mojo]

MNK MNK THF BRD WHM RDM is our typical configuration. It's feasible to manage every 35 NM in a single run as well as the boss, the exception being Bhaflau(more members wouldn't help anyways). Why do with 8-10 what you can do with 6.

[rithridan]

mnk mnk thf whm rdm brd

We have started testing solo-MNK tanking bosses, and its going pretty well for us. Knowing that you are going to have two weapons to start has let us test out MNK, SAM, WAR as our melee and its been pretty effective.

MNK is still great, but in general with two weapon cells to start we have started relying more and more on Jailer weapons on the first two floors. Even a RDM with a Joy helps to clear things out quick.

Our potential THF's are also our BRD and RDM. They hate it as much as I hate telling them that they can't come as THF.

Wouldn't Jailer weapons require unlocked ranged/ammo to be effective? That would rule out them being useful in the first floor of both Zhayolm and Arrapago.

[ringthree]

mnk mnk thf whm rdm brd

We have started testing solo-MNK tanking bosses, and its going pretty well for us. Knowing that you are going to have two weapons to start has let us test out MNK, SAM, WAR as our melee and its been pretty effective.

MNK is still great, but in general with two weapon cells to start we have started relying more and more on Jailer weapons on the first two floors. Even a RDM with a Joy helps to clear things out quick.

Our potential THF's are also our BRD and RDM. They hate it as much as I hate telling them that they can't come as THF.

Wouldn't Jailer weapons require unlocked ranged/ammo to be effective? That would rule out them being useful in the first floor of both Zhayolm and Arrapago.

Well, we are doing a lot of Bhaflau and SSR right now, so I haven't noticed (I go MNK). Zhayolm is probably a problem, but the way we get drops in Arrapago everyone always has ranged. >.< Point is still true, with automatically getting 2 weapon cells to start and the two-handed update, jobs besides MNK are viable as tank/DD much earlier.

[Rocl]

Myself multiplied 6 times but somehow having MNK, BRD, WHM, and THF leveled. That way I can yell at myself more often when I inevitably mess something up and then not feel bad about possibly hurting someone's feelings.

[Shassira]

mnk mnk thf whm rdm brd

We have started testing solo-MNK tanking bosses, and its going pretty well for us. Knowing that you are going to have two weapons to start has let us test out MNK, SAM, WAR as our melee and its been pretty effective.

MNK is still great, but in general with two weapon cells to start we have started relying more and more on Jailer weapons on the first two floors. Even a RDM with a Joy helps to clear things out quick.

Our potential THF's are also our BRD and RDM. They hate it as much as I hate telling them that they can't come as THF.

Wouldn't Jailer weapons require unlocked ranged/ammo to be effective? That would rule out them being useful in the first floor of both Zhayolm and Arrapago.

Well, we are doing a lot of Bhaflau and SSR right now, so I haven't noticed (I go MNK). Zhayolm is probably a problem, but the way we get drops in Arrapago everyone always has ranged. >.< Point is still true, with automatically getting 2 weapon cells to start and the two-handed update, jobs besides MNK are viable as tank/DD much earlier.

Oh, we usualy give one weapon, JA and HP to the mnk so we can be sure that she'll be tanking from the start (counterstance is good stuff here), while the secondary weapon goes to a 2hander, even if we have another mnk that will end up being second tank on a boss.

i'd guess SAM does a perfectly good DD/Tank on the initial floors, although i've never really tried it. In general, it's probably better to give your 2handers both weapons first and let the mnks punch without weapon, but this is the way we've been acostumed now and see no reason to change it yet (because we still have other things to improve =^^=)


On another note:

We often also go with mnk mnk mnk thf whm brd. This setup is exceptionally potent, and can do everything in salvage, but faster. Especially now with repose.

It does rely on a very excellent whm, and bosses are slightly more difficult because of no rdm debuffs. Having a whm with cure5/shell5 and a good 2h ability makes up for the mp-durability of rdm.

I'm interested in this setup too. Only time we tried this, we had 7 people so we did have an extra RDM. It was on SS and things were dying pretty quickly, specialy when we started messing around doing a 3 way SC xD
On the other hand, i see this a bit rough for the WHM. I'll take your word on it working ofcourse, but this looks pretty hard to pull off without much practice.

And as a last commentary, i do find BLM to be a pretty wasteful slot. I do know some groups that like to use 1-2 BLMs per run no matter where they go, but personaly i only take BLMs to Bhaf for the gears (2 BLMs simply means you won't fail killing them) or if i have to take someone extra to a run and has nothing better (or not redundant to the current setup) to come as. BLMs do reduce boss times though, which is pretty nifty, but i don't think that grants them a space on a small party.

As for DRKs, i love bring a DRK to Arrapago. MNK, DRK, THF, WHM, RDM, BRD as party does pretty well. We usualy have to target the Bhoot there because we are in "need" of that drop, which means you somewhat need as many stuns as possible to not mess up, specialy perdition. Having Shoulder Tackle miss on a GA casting isn't an instant kill, but missing on Perdition blows badly >_>

[Ferien]

mnk mnk thf whm rdm brd

Quoting this again to reiterate it. This is pretty much the minimum I like to run with, but since I only have WAR and PLD, we'll either have me tacked onto that as WAR, or replacing either a MNK or a THF if we're short, depending on the zone and target. If we're running heavy, MNK, SAM, or WAR are my preferred melee jobs, WHM, RDM, and BRD are always useful, and BLM works for boss runs. The key is really to make sure that your DDs are comfortable tanking. Luckily for me, my 2 best MNKs and both of my WARs all have PLD, NIN, or both leveled.

Last time I did Bhoot in Arrapago, I had a NIN and our RDM both sub DRK. Didn't get a Perdition or a -ga off the whole time.

[Ianpier]

we usually have a set 6man group of MNK MNK THF BRD RDM and either another RDM or a WHM, and then we have 1-3 extra persons that come with us sometimes just on blm or war. but the solid group its MNK MNK THF RDM BRD RDM/WHM, i agree this setup its very balanced and for me prolly the best we could use.

Sometime we swap for 1 sam instead of 1 mnk to tank chariots its pretty fun.

[sleekmotorwurkz]

mnk mnk thf whm rdm brd

How do you handle QQ's running away without ranged/magic?

[Ianpier]

for QQA we just have the mnks store tp on the mobs when u hit the floor have 100TP, the RDM opens with a nuke, and mnks ws it and rdm keeps nuking it, never had a warp on it before,
for QQTH just dot and nuke, the mnks have Heralds and i believe the rdm gravity it, not quite sure im usually the brd or a sam for arrapago lol.but they run behind it also with sprinters drinks from chest around and hit it and when it stops just WSing and usually dies when it stops for the first time.

[Ferien]

mnk mnk thf whm rdm brd

How do you handle QQ's running away without ranged/magic?

Follow them. 2F QQA stops to cast, 4F QQTH stops to melee, 5F QQA stops to both cast and melee. 3F doesn't stop as often/for as long as the others, but we usually skip him anyway. DoT and Sprinter's Drinks are nice, but imo it's a waste of time clearing the room full of Ghosts in order to melee it to death when there's another one right upstairs and 2 on 6F.

[Ianpier]

Yeah we just do FL3 when we are doing full QQ's farm. but its pretty easy.

[Eldelphia]

I wish our shell's one remaining MNK would come... but he can't often. So we end up with 2 x GA WAR, WHM, RDM, BRD, BLM, THF + SAM.

[Zanz L. Barre The 3rd]

mnk mnk thf whm rdm brd

What he said.

[tymora]

MNK MNK THF COR RDM BRD

Endless MP for RDM anyways. Good for all zones. As for Zhayolm, just endure the occasional petrify

[Tsama]

My group does mnk,mnk,whm,rng,blm,blm,rdm usually... with the rdm not being there and one of those blms changing to thf 70% of the time. It is great for regular NMs, havent made a shot for bosses yet. But, we work well... It helps that the rng has a k club so he spams winder.

My group is fairly new having only been doing salvage as a group for 3 weeks. The members seem to not understand the advantages to lower numbers.

[Silpha]

Usually have a core of mnk thf rdm brd. And rotate with 2nd, 3rd mnk, pld, blms, whm, cor, depending on who's coming. Had a sam sometimes, works quite good too; and tried war last run, i liked it to team with my mnk on DDing.

[RKenshin]

Our setup changes often but for the most part we're either one of these two at minimum:

1. SAM, WAR, WAR, THF, BRD, RDM

2. MNK, MNK, MNK or WAR, THF, BRD, RDM

We're almost always using the first setup, as we definitely kill/clear mobs faster with it. The second is more the safe setup for something like LBC. 7th and 8th members are usually either a WHM or RDM and another WAR.

One of the additional WARs has actually been going WAR/DNC lately, and it's pretty amazing in Salvage. He easily gets enough TP to both do good damage and assist a great deal in curing/debuffing mobs. Surprisingly enough he lands steps rather often.

[Wulfgang]

Out of all auxilliary DD spots, I think RNG is one of the best for any boss fight and has fairly high utility overall in any situation. Doing more damage than a BLM without MP limitations, out of Discharge and Inertia Stream range, Shadowbind, decent kiting ability.