Wyvern Survivability

[Greylynx]

I recently started partying in Caedearva Mire, and I noticed that Eisenzahn has a very short life expectancy while fighting the flys here. There cursed sphere move, which they are prone to spamming, takes him out after 3-4 hits. I find that Spirit Link isn't enough to keep him in the game full time, and I often find 5-10 min stretches where I can't call him back due to the 20min timer (good thing its not our 2hr anymore). As I understand, Caedearva Mire is the prefered leveling spot from 67-Merits (although maybe flys aren't always the target mob?) so I need some advice.

Pre-merits, I see two possibilities:
1) Wyvern Feed (reward from ENM60) which gives wyvern regen
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/Wyvern_Feed

2) Gargoyle Boots (Stubborn Dreadvodd Drop) grants wyvern stoneskin
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/Gargoyle_Boots

Neither of these is particulary easy to get, so I wanted your opinions on the worth of these items.

When merit time comes around, the obvious solution is to merit empathy. I wasn't originally planning to do this however. I can't imagine protect, shell, etc extending Eisenzahns survivability by enough to be worthwhile. Am I wrong?

[Sevv]

As short as the life of the wyvern are in the Mire it comes down to the fact where your target mobs wont allow your wyvern to live. Also 73+ you can get a group of drgs and burn in Nyzule Isle, as well as a good deal of the better merit pts have moved to Nyzule Isle. Nothing really will dramatically help the wyvern feed will do a good deal of helping but nothing huge.

[Skoal]

Earth Greaves will be much easier to obtain. It sucks but fighting flies = dead wyvern.

[Vyuru]

There really isn't anything you can do to keep your wyvern alive longer there I'm afraid.

Flies aren't always the target, but there are normally alot of other parties there, exp and merit, so you have to take what you can get.

I would recommend switching up mobs so that you can get more out of your wyvern before he dies, fight a fly or two, get some imps if you can, bring in a Jnun or two, and try to avoid the flies. Doing that normally lets me be able to use Call Wyvern again when Lumiere bites the dust, and if not a well timed Spirit Link will for sure extend her life.

Of course, you take what you can get, so meh.

Oh, and when you fight Imps, watch out for the AoE attacks and that Amnesia move. If your stunners/silencers are unreliable, you may want to consider Super Jumping their AoE spells which can really hurt sometimes, especially if you don't have a bar spell up, otherwise I would save Super Jump for when you see them preparing their Amnesia move, you can avoid it that way.

[raidenn]

SuperJump avoids Amnesia? Really? Ive never seen anyone try it yet.

[Sevv]

ya <3 when im paying enough attention to it to super jump lol

[Malacite]

Yeah, go fight the Colibri. You probably won't be able to use food since you'll be tearing them a new A, but it's worth it to keep your baby out full time ^^ (Plus if you have a BRD, food doesn't matter quite as much)

[Archain]

I've found it difficult to keep the Wyvern alive when spammed with AoEs as well. The only thing I've been able to do about it is enhance the timers on Spirit Link and jack up the Cat#2 ability "Empathy" to help out. This applies to post-75 though and I've unfortunately haven't been able to keep it out as long until these came into play.

A standard Wyvern has somewhere around 1000HP at 75 (Looks like 980HP by Wiki's listing). There are certain pieces of armor, like Homam Feet, that jack up Wyvern HP slightly but I wouldn't expect you to be at that level fulltime.

In terms of gear to invest in, go with the Drachen Armet +1 (macro in for SL) for a lower HP hit when you do decide to Spirit Link. Empathy is the ability that will strengthen the hell out of your Wyvern with the buffs that you already have anyway. Every single time you Spirit Link, you will copy one of your own buffs to the Wyvern. Shell, Protect, Regen III, Haste, Berserk, and many other buffs will copy themselves over.

You want to take advantage of any sort of Regen type spell that comes your way, Empathy will make that spell work for the both of you.

You may even decide to go with unconventional subjobs just to see how it works out. Remember that Giant's Drink and Body Boost are also abilities you can copy over. Offensive and Healing type Breaths with your Wyvern's new jacked HP are fairly impressive.

Empathy Souleater Copy

Giant's Drink and Wizard's Drink can be copied! Besieged, Salvage, Ballista, and Nyzul Isle Assaults can take advantage of this.

While it may not fit in to keeping your Wyvern alive, Deep Breathing isn't bad for giving the frequent Spirit Link user the ability to pound out a lifesaving HB Cure or Offensive Breath. You've got 3 minutes to knock out it's use once it's been activated.

You'll have a much easier time keeping the Wyvern alive after you aquire a few merits. The other abilities really open up DRG in terms of power as well. While it may suck pre-75, you can get to a point where you can keep the Wyvern out fulltime without too much trouble.

You'll essentially get to the point where you're honestly a very good soloer. If you can perform maintenance on your Wyvern when solo, you'll see how easy it is to carry to other situations. Make sure you skill up your other weapons, you'll never know when they'll come in handy sometime!

• Current DRG Skills

• Current DRK Skills

• Current NIN Skills

• Current THF Skills

[Grandsummoner_Kairos]

Empathy helps out a lot, i have it merited twice. In the mire you can actually spirit link as often as you'd like, but the armet+1 helps and if your party is struggling already then i understand wyh spirit linking isn't a good option. At75 in parties after pro/shell, i activate empathy right away to give those buffs to my wyvern. Really i think its the amount of HP your wyvern has as well as how much spirit link restores for your level. I'm sure it will get better once you cap at 75.

[Feba]

Being able to rest with signet on now helps, but that wouldn't work in AU I suppose.

What I used to do, when I was a DRG long long ago, was fight as normal, and if anyone commented on the wyvern dying too often (2hr recall was a bitch), I'd tell them that we can either pull slower so I have time to rest/SL up, or we can fight without the wyvern. Only happened 4 or 5 times, but people always decided to fight without the wyvern.

[LilithAngel]

(2hr recall was a bitch)

QFGT!


Yeah, keeping the wyvern alive can be annoying, but it's manageable at times. Earth Greaves might help some, but the Stoneskin effect only lasts 1 minute/200 points of damage (whichever happens first), so it'd be up to your personal preference. Some parts of the AF, Relic, and HQ versions are good to macro in during down times, or if you expect an AoE to hit soon, but other than that, not much else to do that won't hurt your own performance as a trade off.

[Srxjo]

just be glad the pet isn't the 2 hour anymore thats when trying to keep him alive was really really needed but now it's on a 20 recast you can be a little bit more loose when keeping it alive