Dragoon/mage soloing

[ubermonkey]

My friend quit a couple months ago and left me with his account (75cor drg pup), which I've been using as a crafting mule and a 2boxed cor for LS events since.

However, I've been looking for new avenues of income, and new stuff to do, so I might break the dragoon and solo some stuff.

Questions are: What NMs can drg/mage solo, and how good does my gear need to be to do it? I still have good r/ex pieces, but I'd need to buy up a few bits and pieces since i cleaned the sellable stuff out to improve my main account. Also, what hints and tips for drg soloing should I be aware of?

Thanks!

[Yugl]

Use DRG/RDM since you get access to barspells. DRG doesn't really solo many difficult NMs (Or they don't seem that impressive to me). The real benefit of DRG/Mage is the ability to solo and outlast XP mobs easily (Or mobs with similar aspects such as Campaign mobs) provided you have Ethereal Earring. As for the technical aspects, you need to be at ~50% HP or less to trigger Healing Breath which you do by casting anyspell (Use barspells as mentioned earlier). If you have Wyrm Armet or Saurian Helm you need to make a Healing Breath macro such as this one:

/equip head "Drachen Armet" <me>
/wait 1
/magic "Barfire" <me>
/wait 2
/equip head "Saurian Helm" <me>

Though overall the real benefit of DRG is the ability to outlast the mob provided you have Ethereal Earring and the mob isn't doing too much DMG.

[Jaybar]

Well you are definitely going to NEED Drachen Armet (Drg's AF head), and what REALLY helps is Wyrm Armet (AF2 head).

Other things that would really help you out are:
Drachen Brais +1
Homam Gambieras
Chanoix's Gorget
Ethereal Earring
Ares's Cuirass

As far as NMs go, you won't be doing anything in sky, at all. Any mob that has limited or no AoE is perfectly soloable. It's a lot easier with some of the bonus gears I listed, also easier if you get some xp beforehand (I think about 1k XP grants wyvern HP bonus).

The max HP of your wyvern affects the potency of Healing Breath as well as Wyvern TP. By breaking the XP bonus you can get a very nice substantial bonus to your healing breaths (Using Wyrm Armet, Drachen Brais +1, and Homam Gambieras, I can get about 493 HP healed on average (500+ with higher TP, 560 max I noticed).

BLU is probably your best subjob if fighting NMs, and I suggest eating Rabit Pie or w/e that new atk/def food is. This along with Cocoon should give you a nice buffer of protection.

It will be much harder to solo NMs in Conquest zones without some form of Refresh (be it drinks, or gear). If you have Ethereal Earring, you can replenish your mp nicely especially if you are using 5mp spells (Power Attack, etc).

What kind of gear do you have now, though?

[ubermonkey]

What kind of gear do you have now, though?

At the moment, with some transfers from my main, I have:

TP:

Love halberd
Pole grip
Turban
Love torque
Brutal
Fowling
Fuckugly Jerkin
Homam hands
Jaeger/rajas
Amemet +1
Swift
Drachen +1 legs
Homam feet

WS

Ohat
Love torque
Brutal
Fowling
AJ
Drachen +1 hands
Jaeger/rajas or ruby/rajas
Amement +1
Warwolf or potent
Drachen +1 legs
Homam

Misc: Drachen +1 head, chanoix gorget, wyrm legs/feet wyrm body.

[Jaybar]

That setup looks fine for solo xp and some NMs (I can't name any off the top of my head). Might have some trouble without Wyrm Armet - you'll probably see 300 HP Healing Breaths, and most likely never over 400.

[Stromgarde]

Get a Saurian Helm if you want to be serious about it in any capacity. The difference is staggering, almost as much as relic. Might not be worth the ~500k though depending on what you want to use it for, however.

[Tomiko]

You definately want to switch out the Jerkin (just use for WS) if you're going to use Healing Breath alot due to the -HP.

I would probably use Wyrm Mail (out of what I see you have) instead since it also grants you parrying skill which helps even if it's just a little. As mentioned, the main benefit is being able to outlast mobs. Doing an extra 10 damage (random number) per melee hit isn't going to help if your HP is too low to trigger Healing Breath and you get killed.

If what you're fighting isn't hitting too hard though, then you can probably get away with it. Even then, I would suggest having a macro that puts your HP & your wyvern's as high as possible for when you do get hit hard. (My normal melee gear without food is around 1480ish I think and my HP gear puts me around 17xx which makes it nice for triggering Healing Breath).

In addition to the stuff Jay mentioned, Wyvern Mail (JSE Body from Subligar quest) is nice to macro in for Healing Breath.

[ubermonkey]

I have a paluwahn body or a scorp harness I can switch out the AJ for.

I can also bring my main account as a duo buddy (blm nin drk) if it makes the difference for killing NMs and such.

I'm not too interested in solo exp, mostly stuff that's going to improve my bank balance really :D

I might be able to score a wyvern helm if one is going to rot in dynamis.

[Amok]

I dunno man, if you're not in it for exp but for drops, then not having TH will suck. So having your main account there subbing THF is what I'd recommend. Though you might want to consider not having it engaged all the time if the frequency of TP moves is tilting the balance. Dual boxing a nin/thf for debuffs and TH seems like the best idea to me.

[homerun]

Just some tips:

If you are fighting something that counters (mnk type mobs) or has cone attacks (lots of stuff) do this: engage the monster, wait till your wyvern hits it, then spin around so your wyvern is attacking it's tail. This can be the difference between your wyvern dying and your wyvern taking no damage in the fight.

Spirit link: An awesome tool, but know when to use it. The best way i've found is to use it right after a healing breath goes off, so you can transfer the most hp and be in a more safe position to use it. Also, you can time a healing breath to go off right away after you've used it to increase safety.

One last thing: if you engage a monster and it's looking like it's going sour fast, you can sacrifice your wyvern (poor little guy) to get away. If your wyvern has accumulated a decent amount of hate during the fight, just turn your back and super jump. Most people know the invincible state extends to yourself and the wyvern during a super jump, but the hate reset only applies to you. So as long as you don't accumulate any hate (i.e by hitting the monster), your wyvern will be tanking. Keep in mind, your wyvern will die very fast, so do what you have to do right away (triggering an emergency HB or running away or whatever).

[Mabubeezareel]

Adding to what's already been said, here's a few tips of my own:

Do not rely on using +wyvern HP gear as part of your HB trigger macro. There is a short amount of time that the game takes to recalculate the wyvern's max HP total after equipping the gear, and you may not always get the benefit of a higher HB. I'd recommend full-timing any +wyvern HP to be certain on consistent HB amounts.

Try not to macro out any +HP gear as part of your HB trigger macro. Before I got Ace's, I would use Turban for TPing when solo, and the difference in the +HP amount from Turban and Drachen Armet +1 would sometimes lower my max HP to the point where I was no longer at 50%, causing HB to not be triggered. Same thing goes for auto-regen. While Barone body is not a bad solo choice, the extra +2 auto-regen could also cause your current HP to be > 50% by the time that the Drachen Armet (+1) gets equipped.

Speaking more of HP gear, don't use any -HP gear at all, and try to use +HP where you can afford to (keeping in mind what I mentioned above about macroing it though). Assault Jerkin and Tiphia Sting are not good choices for solo, while a BQ Ring is excellent. Keeping your maximum HP high will mean a higher HP trigger amount, giving you much more of a safe buffer on mobs that have hard-hitting TP moves. Having your HP trigger amount at 700 opposed to say 600 will save your hide at times.

Be cognizant of your HP trigger amount at all times, and anticipate when an attack from a mob will take you into your trigger threshold. Get used to hitting your HB macro the instant that your HP hits orange.

Know when to save your TP and know when to use it. Saving TP for removing blindness or paralysis in certain situations is better than spamming it as soon as you hit 100%. Also, learn to love Leg Sweep.

If using /BLU, create separate HB macros for each spell in your arsenal. Aside from the normal spell macros for Power Attack and Foot Kick, make one for Head Butt, Coccoon, Pollen, Bludgeon, etc. Being able to put Coccoon back up midfight and getting an HB simultaneously is pure win. Pollen is also a nice self-target spell to use for an HB trigger outside of combat, and even more so in a group because the only other viable self-target spell is Coccoon which has a long recast time.

A couple of good NMs to give a shot for practice are Wyvernpoacher Drachlix and the lesser-known Bloodthirster Madkix in Kuftal Tunnel. The latter is a WAR, and Mighty Strikes + double attacks will keep you on your toes.

[Ophannus]

DRG can also solo Lindwurm but if you don't have 1600+ HP,/BLU and Def food, you're in for a rough fight.

[Tordall]

Drg/blu can solo Simurgh and Roc too.

[Xanthe]

Do not rely on using +wyvern HP gear as part of your HB trigger macro. There is a short amount of time that the game takes to recalculate the wyvern's max HP total after equipping the gear, and you may not always get the benefit of a higher HB. I'd recommend full-timing any +wyvern HP to be certain on consistent HB amounts.

I disagree. You are severely hampering your offensive and defensive stats by fulltiming wHP gear. I macro in my wHP gear with my Healing Breath macro with no issues. It's very rare that I hit an off value on a breath, only happening occasionally in high-lag situations and even then it's usually because I hit the macro more than once, throwing off the timing to get my Wyrm Armet +1 equipped. Make sure all of your /equip lines come before the /ma line and you should be fine.

I also suggest not full-timing HP+ accessories such as Bomb Queen Ring either. Those items can be swapped in at the same time as wHP gear. I do agree that you should try to keep your max HP as high or higher during your Healing Breath trigger as during your TP set. Using effective swaps can even artificially raise your trigger amount by swapping out non-essential offensive gear for +HP gear. I have yet to change my macros to add additional +HP gear, but here are my sets for Solo TP and Healing Breath (Drn. Armet +1 on trigger). Ammo, Ear2, Hands (I prefer to keep Homam instead of swapping in Ostreger Mitts), Ring1, Ring2, Back, and Waist are all fair game for swapping in +HP, ideally filled by White Tathlum, Bloodbead Earring, Alkyoneus's Bracelets, Bomb Queen Ring, Bloodbead Ring, Gigant Mantle, and your lvl70 RSE Sash.

[Yugl]

I think that would work for those that use Windower, but I know that in moderately laggy situations some of your Wyvern HP+ gear won't be calculated if you use the regular macro. I just try to stick with ~2-3 pieces for HB macro.

[Mabubeezareel]

I disagree. You are severely hampering your offensive and defensive stats by fulltiming wHP gear. I macro in my wHP gear with my Healing Breath macro with no issues. It's very rare that I hit an off value on a breath, only happening occasionally in high-lag situations and even then it's usually because I hit the macro more than once, throwing off the timing to get my Wyrm Armet +1 equipped. Make sure all of your /equip lines come before the /ma line and you should be fine.

I also suggest not full-timing HP+ accessories such as Bomb Queen Ring either. Those items can be swapped in at the same time as wHP gear. I do agree that you should try to keep your max HP as high or higher during your Healing Breath trigger as during your TP set. Using effective swaps can even artificially raise your trigger amount by swapping out non-essential offensive gear for +HP gear. I have yet to change my macros to add additional +HP gear, but here are my sets for Solo TP and Healing Breath (Drn. Armet +1 on trigger). Ammo, Ear2, Hands (I prefer to keep Homam instead of swapping in Ostreger Mitts), Ring1, Ring2, Back, and Waist are all fair game for swapping in +HP, ideally filled by White Tathlum, Bloodbead Earring, Alkyoneus's Bracelets, Bomb Queen Ring, Bloodbead Ring, Gigant Mantle, and your lvl70 RSE Sash.

I probably should have mentioned that I do not advocate using a full-time +wyvern HP build for soloing. I was referring more to using pieces that make sense where applicable. I certainly don't, and wouldn't recommend to others either, to TP in Wyvern Mail, Ostreger Mitts, and Wyvern Perch. However, full-timing Drachen Brais +1 or Chanoix's Gorget are not terrible choices, especially for someone new to soloing or who may not have better options in those slots (the OP didn't mention if he had Homam Legs).

When soloing for exp (puks, lolibri, etc), my TP gear is pretty much identical to yours, except I use Askar Body instead of Ares (dont own it) and BQ Ring instead of Blood Ring. The only piece of gear that's being swapped in my HB macro is my helm. I choose to do this because I do not use windower macros and prefer to use only 1 macro to trigger my HB. This allows me to consistently get an HB off in the absolute least amount of time possible from when my HP hits orange.

However, for harder stuff like statues in sky if I'm farming for a diorite, I prefer to go with more +HP and +wyvern HP gear. In cases such as this, where a double-crit + Heavy Strike can put you down in one round, I prefer to have a fulltime higher HP trigger amount and higher HBs.

For those who don't use windower macros (like myself), you'd be looking at at least 3 macros for HB if you were to macro in all +wyvern HP gear, and subsequently macro it out back to TP gear. In the amount of time that those macros take to complete, the mob could get in an extra attack round, negating the higher HB amount healed. Personally, I prefer to have my HBs come out as fast and with as little effort as possible.

[Stromgarde]

If you do use windower macros, this is the timing that I use.

input /ma "Poison" <t>;
wait 0.3;
input /equip Head "Drachen Armet";
input /equip Ring1 "Bomb Queen Ring";
wait 2;
input /echo <pettp>
input /equip Legs "Drn. Brais +1";
input /equip Ring1 "Ulthalam's Ring";
input /equip Body "Wyvern Mail";
input /equip Neck "Chanoix's Gorget";
input /equip Head "Saurian Helm";
wait 2.5;
input /equip Legs "Homam Cosciales";
input /equip Body "Homam Corazza";
input /equip Neck "Chivalrous Chain";
input /equip Head "Homam Zucchetto";

[ClarkSammich]

Stromgarde macro stuff

Do you see any latency problems with Wyvern HP using that macro?
I swap in all my Wyvern HP gear before I cast, and still have it not register ~50% of the time with /RDM or /BLU.
Though, it usually registers with /WHM or /SCH due to slightly slower casting times from what I've seen.

Also, while pricey, I'd strongly recommend using Pescatora while soloing anything difficult. (i.e. Wivre, stronger NMs, etc.)

[Thorny]

Drg/blu can solo Simurgh and Roc too.

post-rage? source? I'd think massacre elegy would make killing it before rage difficult/impossible..

[Charismatic]

post-rage? source? I'd think massacre elegy would make killing it before rage difficult/impossible..

Didn't they rage before BLU was even added or am I getting things mixed up here?