2nd Character... THF or DRG?

[Hershies]

I was thinking of making a secondary character to fool around with when my roommate can't party with me. The two I am most interested in are Dragoon and Thief. Last I heard they were both having a very hard time getting party invites. I like the idea of having a pet, but I also like the idea of having some utility as a THF.

Which do you think is the easier job to play/gear up for as a player starting from scratch? Is THF or DRG harder to fund for gear than the other? Which is one more useful/fun to play?

Also, I was just planning on making a completely new character since I only have one anyway (could use this one as a mule of sorts as well). My main reasoning for this is because I am a taru, and they don't seem all that great for melee. Especially because I have no money to twink out a taru to be able to do so effectively.

Thanks for the help =)

[LilithAngel]

While your stats as a Taru shouldn't be the main determining factor on whether or not to play a melee (it can, however, be one regardless), it's your call. However, if you're gonna start a new toon from scratch, you might as well just play Thief on up to 30 to unlock Dragoon anyway (as a matter of fact, that's exactly how I did it); you'll get a good chunk of THFing out of the way, working up gil for leveling will be a bit easier, and a 30THF/WAR can easily solo the Dragoon quest (except the wyvern of course; again, exactly how I went about doing it). Then you can level both to your hearts content.

With the two-hander update, Mithra stand to be a bit ahead of the pack as far as Dragoons go; with very high natural DEX coupled with the inherent Accuracy Bonuses the job itself gets, a Mithra Dragoon can load up on full STR/Attack gear and food and hardly have as much accuracy problems as the other races tend to do. While milage may vary from level to level, on average, that race/job combo tends to have a systematic advantage now, post-update. I chow on Hedgehog Pies and Coeurl Subs, wear little Accuracy gear, and still hit that 95% Accuracy rate (of course, this is at 75 DRG/SAM with Polearm merits, but that Acc rate is fairly constant regardless of what I'm swinging at, colibri or Kirin).

Elvaan and Galka Dragoons both have very high STR scores, letting them use minimal DEX/Accuracy gear to make up for low DEX scores, and put the rest to use loading up on STR/Attack and really slam the message home. As a matter of fact, the only Elvaan and Galka Dragoons (or any race, actually) I ever was outparsed by were the ones that found the right amount of Accuracy needed so they could just load up as much STR/Attack as they could. That was scary (but in a good way).

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

If you're going to do two characters, its probably wise to specialize them, but that doesn't mean you have to close the door on your taru being a melee job. I level BST on my Taru right now and may finish his DRG to 75 as well. I have no intention of going back to BRD anytime soon, but I didn't merit anything combat-wise for BRD, so the taru is still an open book for melee.

I've basically settled on the fact that if the job deals in guns, bows, swords or daggers, its going to be a job for Omgwtfbbqkitten. If it deals with an axe or something different, I'll probably do it on Foobar.

The real sticking point to having two characters is the retread of subjobs and missions, if you can deal with the large level of retread that may be involved, then go for it.

[Kailea]

Why even do two characters, when you cant PT with your friend, just change jobs and level something else.

[Hershies]

Is DRG/THF a decent combo or do I need to sub Warrior instead?

[711rocks]

ya dont start over, change your job
thf and drg are both good jobs
flip a coin
or level both
test them out ya know

[Murphie]

Not until at least 30, when you have access to Sneak Attack, and even then it might not necessarily be the best sub for all situations.

[Nuriko]

you'll need WAR to 15 anyway to take THF to 30 ... try it and see.

[LilithAngel]

Ya, Thief works well with Dragoon (especially in the higher levels when you can couple Sneak Attack with Wheeling Thrust), as does Warrior and Samurai.

[Hershies]

It looks like I am following this path (recommended by my LS mates)

MNK - 15, WAR 35 (sub MNK), DRG - 75 (sub WAR)

[Murphie]

You mean MNK 18, WAR 37. But yeah.

[Lunaryn]

DRG is a lot more popular for parties than THF now, due to the 2H weapon update. These jobs have similar stat importance, so doing them both on the same character is quite reasonable.

I personally enjoy THF but I must warn you that in the last year or so people have started to forget what THF is even for; we are very much in a lolTHF rut right now even in the level ranges where we're supposed to shine, due to parties/leaders who understand neither the value of hate control nor the importance of opening Distortion for a THF. Yes, with BLMs also unpopular Skillchains are also lol, but SATA Viper Bite + Distortion actually does good damage reasonably often, and more to the point that's the tank's damage as far as the mob's concerned...

A lot of people recommend trying to form a partial static with a tank, and I certainly can see how that'd be helpful. As for pickups, you'll hopefully get some good parties, and you'll get plenty that just will not work with you and see you as nothing but a bottom-tier, pathetic DD... Weathering the latter is the major frustration of the job.

[Kailea]

honestly with DRG, there are many choices for subjobs

I decided to level all my jobs to 37, so I could sub what ever I wanted.

I have found /BLU to be a nice choice at 70

but yeah

DRG/???
1-30 /WAR
30-50 /WAR or /THF
50-60 /WAR or /THF or /SAM
60-70 /WAR or /THF or /SAM or /DRK
70-75 /WAR or /THF or /SAM or /DRK or /BLU

for soloing /BLU is great and /WHM comes it second along with /RDM

when the new expansion is released, I will level Dancer and the other new job, and test them out as DRG/??? as well

[Hershies]

I am starting fresh, and I've never been melee before. This gear stuff has me stressed out! Armor and weapons are so expensive, and I have no money to afford it. Given my path MNK > WAR > DRG what gear should I get and when? Should I even bother gearing MNK at all since it's only going to 18? What about Warrior? Do I need this uber expensive "Neck Chopper" to advance, or can I get by with something cheaper?

[Kailea]

well one thing you can wear as all three of those jobs to level 37 would be

STR rings and ATT+ earrings (rings at level 14 and earrings at level 16)

as far a weapons, you don't have to get the OMG expensive ones, neck chopper is more for extra power, you can do fine without it.

since you are not going to /NIN Great Axe would be your best bet for WAR

*thinks* mmmmm.... oh at 15 there is a belt that you can get that WAR DRG and MNK can use, its good all the way to 37

also to save yourself trouble, first level MNK to 18 then WAR to 37 then DRG all the way

leveling one job at a time will save space, and frustration with gil ;p

Most important... have fun with it, don't let all the info stress you out, if you can't get a particular weapon or armor at a particular level, dont worry about it to much.