DRG Subjobs In 2013

So I've been away for the game for 2 years now and I'm adjusting to the latest changes. I'm guessing that /SAM is really the only option for DD'ing, yes? OK, but how about for soloing and low-man activities?

/WHM - This used to be the most common mage subjob used for DRG. I like it for Raise/Reraise and Sneak/Invis. How good is this option today?

/RDM - Good to have for Phalanx, Sleep 2, Refresh, and Convert. Is this the best option if you have no other way to get Refresh? As an Elvaan I find myself running out of MP quickly...

/SCH - Don't know much about SCH except that it's used quite a bit now, both as a main and subjob. How is this sub for DRG compared to WHM and RDM?

/DNC - Popular because it's convenient and looks good on the surface. I know this is NOT the best sub for DRG but it has its uses.

/NIN - Leveled this years ago for Utsusemi obviously, but haven't used it in the 2 months since I've been back. Is there any reason to use /NIN anymore?

/BLU - Don't know much about BLU let alone /BLU for DRG. Never been interested in BLU because of how difficult and time-consuming it is to get all of the spells. I don't plan on leveling this unless someone here can convince me ;)

Any additional info on these subs would be nice. Also let me know if I missed any jobs

Given the changes they are looking at doing to DRK it could become an interesting alternative to /SAM. It should give you the haste cap with JAs changes and also gives you magic for healing breaths but we will have to wait and see.

I pretty much switched to /RDM exclusively for my mage sub job mostly cause it can use haste at 99.

Try to get an augmented subligar (can DRG use the hairpin?) or something, that + ares' body or twilight set should give u 2-3 per tic refresh in your idle set. It's more than enough for me, but yes with /rdm you can refresh yourself between/before fights also.

It wouldn't be the JA haste cap. The way it was discussed showed it at 15% for last resort alone, which is all /drk can get.

Drg has come a long way in two years, not where it needs to be but getting there. Sub WAR is good in Voidwatch, but that's about it tbh. For soloing, depends on the situation, hell now you can even /SAM and with full wyvern HP+ set be just fine. HB is every minute and they bumped up DRGs evasion. But /RDM will take care of your problems though if that's what you want to solo on. I personally go /SAM for low man things if we have a Rdm, Sch or Whm and when you or your group need a fast cure, activate a quick HB.

yep

If you're /mage you're likely taking hits. Ethereal Earring usually makes up for the mp. It's not that hard to get nowadays.

/RDM is my favorite sub for DRG as well, being able to self haste+regen+ice spikes/etc and then spirit link everything over to the wyvern with 5/5 Empathy merits is great.

The other reason I prefer a mage sub is that the wyvern wont waste its TP store on an offensive breath so I have the option to spirit link and take her TP so I can do another WS.

That being said this is my choice for not-seriousbusiness solo/lowman stuff.

It all comes down to the situation too. Soloing and low-manning what and where? Inside abyssea with a regen atma you may not even need /mage or /dnc, for example.

/SAM - DD or if you can solo with just 1 min HB's.

/RDM,WHM,BLU solo, which one depends on what you're fighting. I like /RDM the most but /WHM is useful for getting around too. /BLU for anything that you're taking a ton of high physical damage.

/DNC - Dynamis Onry... Don't use this for soloing unless you're in dynamis and using it for JA procs... For the love of your wyvern. Just no.

/everythingelse - probably not a good idea but some highly situational use does exist for other subs.

I wish a GM would go around the game finding all the DRG/DNC and send them to Mordion Gaol. Except the ones in Dynamis maybe.

doing it all wrong.

Level war and drk for DD

Level a Solo job for farming

Level bst for dynamis

Everything else - why are you still playing a lolDrg?.

Go back to bumming money in PJ, Chyula.

To piss in your cheerios of course!

Oh, and to contribute to the topic, er, something something mage sub.

Can't account deactivated, NO MONEY!. Rani shout have 0 sale T.T, no gil = no money = no account.

it sad seeing /dnc the Popular pick ><!. i cry every time i see a drg/dnc in pt and even soloing. i had people lol/mage when iam on /rdm or /blu. maybe iam getting too old and /dnc is the best sub now?

man times changed... i wont be surprise if people start thinking the best DD subjob is /cor for Chaos Roll

Because it's fun? i.e. game ... video game = fun?

Trying too hard.

/sam and use Restoring Breath. Job done.

/SAM= Bread and butter, gives us the most tools to get the job done and happens to be the best DD option in 95% of cases(except in VW). Use this always unless indicated otherwise.

Pros:
+Hasso, sTP for TP gain and haste
+Sekkanoki for self skillchain or TP overflow(Drakesbane->Stardiver= Gravitation)
+Seigan&Third Eye will keep you alive in situations where you have hate i.e temporarily tanking, soloing old content like Limbus, too much hate etc)
+Demon Killer/Warding Circle help for demons which aren't that uncommon these days i.e Ig Alima, Dynamis-Xarc mobs.

Cons:
-A big con used to be healing but now with Restoring Breath this is mitigated to a great degree.
-Can't remove debuffs/ailments
-Attack is lower than with /WAR, although the pros really do outweigh this, especially the more magic haste you have.
-Lack of provoke may be a problem in low man situations where the tank is dead and you need to grab hate off of mages.


/WAR= Mainly for voidwatch or epeening damage in Abyssea.
Pros:
+Massive attack bonus from Attack at the cost of defense. In situations like VW where TP gain is more related to regain/Dusty Wings and not Store TP or attack speed, this plays a more vital role in overall damage than anything /SAM will net you.
+ 10% double Attack is very nice, can proc on Jumps and Weapon skills for curiously high damage/TP gain on a proc, can give this trait to the wyvern with Wyrm mail.
+Provoke actually is very handy when low manning content with a lot of 'lightly armored' jobs or mages and the main tank dies. Since our jumps either make 0 hate or shed hate, this can actually help you take control of the situation while everyone gets back on their feet.
+Defender isn't worthless, it can come in handy in the situation above, though not as effective as Seigan+Third Eye but maybe after the DEFENSE update, it will have more use, especially in conjunction with a PDT set.

Cons:
-While Berserk is nice, it can lead to you dying very fast. When berserk wears, most of the benefit of /WAR is lost while you're waiting for the recast.
-/WARs other job abilities like warcry are lackluster and don't really benefit you or your party by much.
-Lack of sTP traits means it's harder to get a 5-hit build which greatly impacts TP gain and the amount of swings necessary to reach 100%+.


/RDM
This is really the go-to subjob for soloing for many, many reasons. The spell list is huge and /RDM has many tools for a variety of situations and is my personal favorite.
Pros:
+Haste, a 3 minute 15% haste spell is extremely useful.
+Dia/Dia II, while dia makes a decent pull spell or HB trigger spell, Dia II is amazing for soloing semi hard or difficult fights or for chaining a lot of exp in quick succession. 10% defense down is nothing to scoff at especially when combined with Angon for a total of 35% defense down. To give you an example of how amazing that is, if you assume you have 1000ATK and the mob has 1000DEF, 35% defense down is about equivalent to you having +50% attack.
+Enspells, while seemingly weak, 9-12 damage every hit over 3 minutes can add up, especially on mobs that take extra damage to magic or have invincibility or something where they are immune to physical damage. Curiously enough the damage from an enspell is added on to your jumps and weapon skills although not indicated in the log, the damage is added already to the final damage total. Empathy this to your wyvern for extra benefit.
+Ice Spikes: I don't know if it's intentional but from my anecdotal experience, Ice Spikes' paralyze sticks about 15-25% ignoring level difference. Meaning the mob will receive the effect of the paralyze about 1/4 or 1/5 hits. As for the proc rate of the actual 'paralysis', it's about as potent as Paralyze II I'd wager. When I solo DC mobs in Dynamis Qufim as DRG/RDM, Ice Spikes paralyze has saved my life and procs extremely often, about 20-25%, I've seen it proc 4x in a row before, it's amazing.
+Cure IV, enough said
+Shell II, ProtIII, enough said
+Barspells: Amazing HB triggers and decent vs magic
+Sneak/Invis: enough said
+Dispel: Useful!
+Refresh: Godsend if you don't have autorefresh gear or ethereal earring yet!
+Convert: See Refresh
+FAST CAST: Amazingly useful, helps more than you think for HB triggers
+Magic Defense Bonus: Again helpful more than you realize
+Stoneskin/Blink: good as prebuffs before a difficult fight
+Aquaveil: prevent pesky interruptions to your HB trigger. Godsend on a HF mnk mob or fighting multiple mobs

Cons:
-Hard to remove debuffs, have to rely on Wyvern remove breaths
-Lower defense against very physical strong targets(like Orcus) in cases like that, /BLU shines a great deal more than /RDM.
-Lack an OMGWTF Divine Seal+Cure IV
-Lack of Banish could hurt you against skellies

/WHM
Pros:
+Can remove debuffs
+Banish: Useful vs skeletons
+Emergency Cure V with CureIV+DS, good if Wyvern dies and you need a little extra healing.
+Most of the same benefits as RDM, not gonna type em out

-Cons
-Everything black magic or trait related that /WHM lacks from /RDM is a con. Really /WHM is inferior and almost never used over /RDM or /BLU.

/BLM

--Don't bother with this, the only useful thing about this is Stun which is overrated if you're soloing unless it's for a specific mob/fight where you absolutely need it for some reason.


/BLU
-Practically as useful as /RDM, slightly different

Pros:
+Cocoon is mainly why this is used, +50% defense for 90 seconds means you can get crazy damage redux for certain hard fights
+Sprout Smack is a great HB trigger spell, a bit more MP than Power Attack or Rabbit Kick but the chance of sticking the added Slow Effect is quite high and the slow effect is moderately potent ~10-15%.
+Sandspin, this is similar to Dia in that the Accuracy Down almost always lands which could help if you're fighting something hard and need the extra debuff.
+Metallic Body: Can give you a decent 100ish Stoneskin, good prefight.
+Headbutt is another good HB trigger though more expensive, I alternate Headbutt with Sprout Smack, stun is moderately accurate.
+Refueling: Not as good as haste but better than nothing.
+Can set spells for traits i.e Killer or Auto regen, helps decently; also setting spells modifies your base stats, can get a decent boost to HP, VIT and STR by setting certain spells.
+Due to how BLU spell damage calc works, if you're fighting TW mobs, Bludgeon or Jet Stream actually deal quite high damage (400-600)
+Can dispel


Cons
-Lacks sneak/invis
-Lacks a defense down dia
-Unless you have a way to recover MP with gear or items, can run out of MP
-Wild carrot isnt as good as cure IV
-Poor against magic, no MDB or shell or barspells
-Must learn spells
-Some spells will 'fail to activate' if they fail an accuracy check.
-Less utility spells

Bravo!!

I never see /SCH mentioned as a possible DRG sub. Am I missing here?

In theory, having the ability to sleep/dispel mobs and still be able to buff yourself with pro/shell sounds amazing. You also have access to -nas, reraise, and erase. You lose out on erase, but sublimation is still decent and there are plenty of options for refresh idle sets.

Light/Dark Arts gives you an instant B+ skill in the respective schools of magic, so you shouldn't have any problems landing spells on most soloable things. Also, azures.

I haven't actually had the chance to try it myself, but it sounds awesome. Unless they changed all this in my absence, of course.

EDIT: I guess the lack of haste and ice spikes could suck.

I believe the main reason is the lack of a decent HB trigger spell (Decent = short cast and re-cast time with low mp cost being a bonus)

Gungnir Shock Spikes son.

Actually, that makes a whole lot of sense. The only things I can think of that would keep mp costs low are protect and poisona which both have 5 second recasts and poisona requires Addendum: White to be up all the time.

I guess in situations where you won't have to spam cures it'd still be nice. Maybe duo DRG for that sweet dispel/erase. But this is about solo so...

You shouldn't be soloing things that need Sleep; Dispel comes with /BLU and /RDM. SCH's only way to recover MP is sublimation which is iffy, Poisona is actually a pretty good trigger spell but besides that there's few benefits from /SCH I can think of. I get more Azure from capping Ruby and opening Intense Azure light chests than by Azure killing stuff anyway. The -na's aren't that great since the Wyvern can remove most debuffs that are detrimental, erase while good under certain circumstances is widely overrated; just simply don't solo things that can destroy you i.e Worms that use Gastric Bomb, Leeches that use Acid Mist etc. Carry Echo Drops to heal Silence and you're pretty much golden. I can't think of many debuffs that would cripple a DRG/RDM with Echo Drops besides 90% Attack Down from Gastric/Acid Mist which would lead to your wyvern getting hate and dying. Aside from those two TP moves, the only other time Erase would save your life is against Fomors that use Aegis Schism as that can easily lead to you dying(its like 95% defense down).