Changes to DRG

[LadyKiKi]

Incase no one saw. :biggrin:

Job Adjustments: Dragoon
Dragoons will receive adjustments to jump abilities and will be able to copy the Stoneskin effect to their wyverns.

[Job Ability: Spirit Surge]
The recast time for the Jump, High Jump, and Super Jump job abilities will be reset when using Spirit Surge.

[Job Ability: Super Jump]
The recast time for Super Jump will change from 5 minutes to just 3 minutes. In accordance, the merit point Group 1 category "Super Jump Recast" will allow players to shorten recast time by 6 seconds instead of 10.

[Job Trait: Empathy]
Players who have acquired the Empathy job trait will be able to copy the Stoneskin effect to their wyvern when using the job ability Spirit Link.

www.playonline.com (http://www.playonline.com)

I like the Super Jump Timer. Makes soloing many many times safer this time around. 2 minutes is huge, in my opinion. :)

EDIT: I mean 2 minutes decrease from 5 minutes.

[Karinya]

I'm not DRG50 yet - what does Super Jump do for a solo DRG?

[LilithAngel]

For solo play, Super Jump allows the Dragoon to take some heat off of themselves, and let the wyvern tank for a bit while the Dragoon regains control of the situation.

In party play, this jump has a practical use as well. We're one of the few jobs that can get away with unleashing everything we have without much, if any at all, consequence. Super Jump puts us at the bottom of a mob's hate list, effectively. Having Super Jump at three minutes instead of five will just allow us to not care even more about how much hate we pull; we can shed it just that much faster now.

[DakAttack]

Super Jump let's the Drg/Thf Sneak Attack!

[LadyKiKi]

Super Jump let's the Drg/Thf Sneak Attack!

Haha I do that while farming. :thumbsup:

For solo play, Super Jump allows the Dragoon to take some heat off of themselves, and let the wyvern tank for a bit while the Dragoon regains control of the situation.

That, and it allows me to ..... GET THE HELL AWAY!!!! :shocked:

In party play, this jump has a practical use as well. We're one of the few jobs that can get away with unleashing everything we have without much, if any at all, consequence. Super Jump puts us at the bottom of a mob's hate list, effectively. Having Super Jump at three minutes instead of five will just allow us to not care even more about how much hate we pull; we can shed it just that much faster now.

Divine Seal + Curaga II + Super Jump in the most critical situations too ... ! :)

[Skoal]

I really like the Super Jump since most of the mobs I have exping off in ToAU are flying. I also love doing ENM Pulling Strings. With new update I may just do it every 5 days.

[LadyKiKi]

I really like the Super Jump since most of the mobs I have exping off in ToAU are flying. I also love doing ENM Pulling Strings. With new update I may just do it every 5 days.

Why not do it every 5 days? It's actually one of the easier ones to do out of the jobs. With the new 2-hour it's very very easy.

I bring (and my setup):

6 Hi-Potions
Blink Band
Meat Mithkabob
OPTIONAL: TP Wing

Grand Knight's Lance
Full AF
Sword Belt
Merman Gorget
2 STR+3 Rings
Assault Earring/Drone Earring
Hi Potion Tank (I got no pre-60 armor) :P
Bibiki Seashell/Hume RSE Satchet (+1 STR, +1 INT)

Go in. Use Blink Band, and food.
Jump + High Jump.
Melee Normally. Use a Hi Potion per hit to keep it high.

If goblin rolls 2 hour for the mannequin, super jump and engage the wyvern. Penta Thrust it if possible. If not possible, activate Ancient Circle so you can intimidate it more.

Towards end, 2 hour + jump + penta thrust.

Sometimes it's not possible to recover for a very bad situation. This include the goblin getting a roll so you can get Penta Thrusted, Double Thrusted or Skewered. Double Thrust hits as hard as Penta Thrust from my experience, and Skewer generally hits for the same amount. Respectively, this is 500, 600, 600 odd. Give or take the values as other factors get put in. When I did get hit with the weaponskills above I super jumped and let my wyvern take it for a while. I equip my Blink Band and use it once, then recover with Hi Potions where possible (my Potion tank equipped I can chug another out), then engage back.

If it all looks toooo helpless, don't bother trying, you'll only waste more gil. I can understand the frustration of losing because of the amount of gil needed (unless you're lucky. My worst is 132k. 2k for teleport) but it's not at all that hard really this fight. No super gear or anything needed, although it's entirely optional if you want to equip a Scorpion Harness and such.

I won the same way with both melee and mage sub. This is one of the fights where your sub somewhat matters as it'll depend on what your wyvern will do. If you go melee sub it will do a breath attack whereas on a mage sub you'll probably get 200%TP + when you do Spirit Surge (since it doesn't get released when you weaponskill).

[Jei]

... why would that makes invite rates increase for Drg...? Their pets have stoneskin now.... so what?

While every other jobs are running forward, sounds like Drg are taking 1 step at a time. Side tracking step too...

[LadyKiKi]

... why would that makes invite rates increase for Drg...? Their pets have stoneskin now.... so what?

While every other jobs are running forward, sounds like Drg are taking 1 step at a time. Side tracking step too...

Agreed. Actually, with the lack of gear still (50-60 range) and how our AF only tries to make the wyvern better, this is only trying to make the wyvern more useful again in a way ... even AF2 focuses on the wyvern a bit ... and the JSE ... and a crappy level 70 JSE ... lol


Our pets have stoneskin = can survive 0.5 AOEs!!!!!!!!!! :wasted:

[Vyuru]

... why would that makes invite rates increase for Drg...?

I don't think it's supposed to.

From my own experiance in TP burn parties that I keep getting invited to, nobody wants to bring a thief to those for one, so I already have to be careful with my damage output, and unless the tank is really really good, I will be taking alot of damage and pulling alot of hate even if I save my jumps to shed hate, and sometimes I can't even eat any food or use berserk because then my damage output is too high for the tank. That's mostly a problem with average ninja tanks though.

So I think that this update is supposed to give dragoons a little more survivalibility in some situations.

[LilithAngel]

Surviavability seems to be the key word for this Dragoon update, and everything I've seen from SE lately seems to be pushing for Dragoons to take a more active stance in terms of soloing (Dragoon: the new Beastmaster, perhaps?). We're already getting primed for a more active party role with what amounts to the resurrection of DRG/SAM, so I'm not surprised in the least bit that SE decides that the updates directly aimed at our job helps our solo abilities.

[Raydeus]

Or maybe SE has recognized lolDRG will never get invites no matter what they do, so they wanna help them solo a bit better, might give em Charm and Leave later on too. :rofl:



(Just kidding, just kidding! don't kill me :P )

[Skoal]

Why not do it every 5 days?
It costs too much. It also seems that the rolls are pretty one-sided so having jumps reset will give a little boost. Its going to have to be really easy or I probably won't waste the gil when I can get 2k exp plus seals from soloing in less than hour.

[Celeal]

I have seen a DRG use Super Jump to evade Soporific (AoE sleep) from Puktrap during lvl 61 exp. party in ToAU area. Only the NIN tank, the DRG and her pet stayed awake after Soporific in the party. I was very impressed.

[raidenn]

Or maybe SE has recognized lolDRG will never get invites no matter what they do, so they wanna help them solo a bit better, might give em Charm and Leave later on too. :rofl:
(Just kidding, just kidding! don't kill me :P )

Spear him! :P

[Icemage]

I suspect that the change to /SAM will do Good Things for Dragoons after the update, and I think S-E feels the same way.

The change to Super Jump and Spirit Link seems really strange and out of flavor - I wasn't aware that these were really issues for Dragoons. Both changes make sense to me, but as Jei noted, they don't really address the fundamental problems with Dragoons: Can't take or evade hits well, horrible skillchain potential at higher levels, and dependence on wyverns that can get KO'd by AoE.

Personally, I've always wondered why Dragoons have such horrible Evasion skill (C-) when they ought to be one of the most acrobatic and quick jobs (behind Thief and Ninja), and they wear similarly light armor.


Icemage

[Grandsummoner_Kairos]

I have seen a DRG use Super Jump to evade Soporific (AoE sleep) from Puktrap during lvl 61 exp. party in ToAU area. Only the NIN tank, the DRG and her pet stayed awake after Soporific in the party. I was very impressed.


This is why i think the shorter super jump timer is one of the most important things to come from this update for fragoon. I know we always think of super jump in terms of soloing or just losing hate, but remember that when we super jump we are impervious to all harm for about 5 seconds. If you can learn to time your super jumps well, dragoon becomes one of the most survivable jobs in the game against deadly special attacks. I have escaped all damage from meteor, astral flow, citadel buster, goblin bombs, sleepgas, ga-spells, and many slow enemy TP moves including abrasive tantara which i avoid wuite often.


With this update you can merit super jump down to being 2minutes 30 seconds recast which will make it a much more common tool for us to use.

[tdh]

The Super Jump changes help /THF skillchain partners more than they help the DRG I think. Now for those uber PLDs who won't relinquish hate so we can SATA close Lv.3s, we can now close behind DRGs, and they can just shed all the hate... every 3 minutes.

So DRG/SAM, partying with a PLD, THF, and DRK can open Light and shed hate if somebody needs to close a big Light skillchain behind the DRG. Might have to snatch up a DRG friend from my LS for my static. I was thinking I'd have catch up with WAR, and switch over to open Light at Lv.66.

[eticket109]

... why would that makes invite rates increase for Drg...? Their pets have stoneskin now.... so what?
While every other jobs are running forward, sounds like Drg are taking 1 step at a time. Side tracking step too...

As the job stands there is little or anything that needs to be improved. The Dragoon is one of the most versatile jobs in the game. We don't need to do any running forward, we're already there.

[Anaki]

actually for the solo enm i would just use spiritsurge when my hp got low then jump and penta and usually after that ive almost won :X i never really brought items so its not too costly i think. also for empathy it seems more like based on what empathy does, allowing it to copy stoneskin is as if it was accidently forgotten to be coded in since stoneskin is a buff isn't it?

[Vyuru]

The Super Jump changes help /THF skillchain partners more than they help the DRG I think. Now for those uber PLDs who won't relinquish hate so we can SATA close Lv.3s, we can now close behind DRGs, and they can just shed all the hate... every 3 minutes.

So DRG/SAM, partying with a PLD, THF, and DRK can open Light and shed hate if somebody needs to close a big Light skillchain behind the DRG. Might have to snatch up a DRG friend from my LS for my static. I was thinking I'd have catch up with WAR, and switch over to open Light at Lv.66.


Mmm, I dunno, what's stopping the SC of Shark Bite > Wheeling Thrust > Ground Strike/Spinning Slash? TA + SB onto paladin, after lvl 60 that works like SATA right? Then Wheeling thrust to close SC, then since it goes both ways you can use the Ground Strike/Spinning Slash to do another light SC.

horrible skillchain potential at higher levels

I almost never party without a thief, dark knight or samurai, so I'm rather happy with our SC placement :P


As the job stands there is little or anything that needs to be improved. The Dragoon is one of the most versatile jobs in the game. We don't need to do any running forward, we're already there.


Yeah, there will always be something cool and nifty that I'd like, like I'd LOVE to be able to wear the sam/nin/mnk line of gear on my dragoon (mithra in Okotes + white kenpogi thingy = hawt) , but I guess I'll just have to level samurai and grab a Couse or some other polearm if I want to have that look.

I must say I am very happy with the job as it is. I'd have to say I'm especially happy with it, it's a really fun job no ifs ands or buts about it :)

[Slayerxox]

DRG has to possibly have one of the best skill chain properties. We can open/close Light -and- Dark with 1 weapon, Our Lances. DRKs have to use Scythe for a strong Darkness or Greatsword for Light/mediocre Dark.

I think DRG is right up there in Skillchain capabilities. As for Super Jump, I just see this as less blood tanking during Mire Merit parties as I always tend to pull hate and SUper Jump quite isnt fast enough to save me. I'm not sure but, I've never had to use it for soloing unless it was to evade Avatar 2hours ; what were you guys reffering to?

[LilithAngel]

Sometimes, during soloing, Super Jump can be used to give you a few precious seconds to either find a way to take control of a situation that's getting out of hand, or to escape. This is achieved by unlocking your camera from your target and turning away from it when you land, thereby turning the mob to your wyvern becuse your enmity level is lower than it. This time can be used to either heal yourself (if you've taken damage and needed to Super Jump to give yourself a few seconds to cure up), or to find a way to escape a situation you didn't plan on (either the mob is too strong, or you got links you can't handle, or you just simply need to leave *fast*).

Super Jump, in either party or solo play, can be a life saver.

[Karinya]

Anybody that can avoid damage from Citadel Buster has no cause to complain about their survivability. Wow. (As if hate-free wyvern damage and two hate-shedding abilities weren't good enough - plus Third Eye for DRG/SAM).


Anyway, I don't think DRG is weak in skillchains - they are clearly built to open, since part of their WS damage comes from the wyvern and thus doesn't count toward SC damage when they close. I've found so far (DRG34) that when I add my WS damage to wyvern's breath damage it is almost always stronger than any other WS in the party (the only thing *consistently* stronger is SATAVB). My experience with DRGs in high level parties is consistent with this.

Wheeling Thrust makes light with dragon kick, shark bite, spinning slash (even savage blade if you're with a BLU). Impulse Drive makes darkness with cross reaper, tachi:gekko, full break/steel cyclone. The only DD weapons that *can't* make a level 3 sc with polearm are katana, bow/xbow/gun and 1h axe, and with the impending renaissance of WAR/SAM as well as DRG/SAM... unless your party is all ninjas and rangers, I don't see a problem.

In any case, DRG is a DoT job like monk - it doesn't rely on huge WS damage to do huge overall damage.

[Macht]

Seriously think the adjustment for DRG is just fine, may not be all that impressive. A big bonus is that the 2hr ability resets the jumps, that means in a desperate situation the DRG can attempt to pull out 6 jumps quickly (3 are now guarenteed). Along with that 3 of those jumps providing effects that can help the party survive.

6 jumps also dealing decent amount of damage that can help to kill a mob turning out to be a problem. If I recall 1 of the 2hr jumps allows them to also erase hate from a part member as well. Used properly 6 jumps in a row with 3 giving extra effects is an extreemly huge change, especially for big mob fights, or players doing something that is an intended aspect of MMOs and that is to explore and actually challenge yourself.

As for the DRG having low evasion that makes sense as well. DRG are able to completly avoid damage by a properly timed jump, as such their evasion skill is solely in their jump. As DRG then it makes sense they'd know how to effectivly avoid devestating things through their jumps, the low evasion is to encourage the DRG to avoid damage in this fashion.

It also provide a nice balancing since jump is able to completly avoid any damage or effect. Another who's benefits were once overshadowed due to Utsusemi being to strong when it could negate anything as well.

[Vyuru]

I've never had to use it for soloing unless it was to evade Avatar 2hours ; what were you guys reffering to?


Every now and then a situation while soloing may go slightly dangerous, maybe i get interrupted a few too many times, maybe the mob did a double attack and both hits were criticals, just things like that, so super jumping hate onto the wyvern gives you time to get at least 2x healing breaths in before jumping back into the fray.

Oh, and if you get a link, super jump will not put that mob's attention on your wyvern, your wyvern actually has to hit it once to get some hate, then you can super jump hate from both mobs onto your wyvern, and (Run away!)

I always dismiss Lumiere before she dies, I have this thing about using her as sacrificial bait while I escape >.>

Anybody that can avoid damage from Citadel Buster has no cause to complain about their survivability

What is this "Citadel Buster" move and what mob uses it? Sounds nasty.


unless your party is all ninjas and rangers, I don't see a problem

You might want to toss in warriors, it's a very rare thing right now to find a warrior with anything BUT one handed axes skilled up for exp parties. I'm hoping this will change with the new update, c'mon Gaxe warriors!

And of course since warriors, ninjas, and rangers were/are among the most popular jobs to play as, I think that is where people got the impression that dragoon's SC placement was lousy.

Of course they'll all say that Gaxe damage was "fixed" and ignore what the other Gaxe using warriors have been saying all this time :P

As for the DRG having low evasion that makes sense as well. DRG are able to completly avoid damage by a properly timed jump, as such their evasion skill is solely in their jump.

Well, there's that, but I am curious to know what the other melee job's evasion is? If drk and war have Cish evasion as well, I wouldn't say that ours is so horribly low. We're dragoons! Not ninjas :P

Something I've always wondered about though, if TA transfers your hate from your next move to another person, can you use TA + super jump? Or SATA + super jump? (dunno if the SA would DO anything, just asking)

I recall 1 of the 2hr jumps allows them to also erase hate from a part member as well.

Spirit Surge + jump = big time def down
Spirit Surge + high jump = enemy TP reduction according to the damage you dealt.
Spirit Surge + super jump = eliminate party members hate, you either have to be standing behind them or in front of them and I can never remember which it is.


Super jumping nasty evil AoEs is about as cool and useful as a bard using the sleep songs to interrupt an opponent's spell casting IMO.

Of course yeah, you avoided damage, but now everyone else is dead and a very angry mob is waiting to rip you to pieces, but at least you avoided his AoE! :P

[eticket109]

Citadel Buster is used by Proto-Ultima in Temenos

from FFXI Wiki
Citadel Buster: 30 second countdown, followed by extreme targeted 20'(?) AoE (Light?) damage (~900-1700), ignores Utsusemi


Spirit Surge + jump = big time def down
Spirit Surge + high jump = enemy TP reduction according to the damage you dealt.
Spirit Surge + super jump = eliminate party members hate, you either have to be standing behind them or in front of them and I can never remember which it is.


SS + HJ will also stun the mob

for SS + SJ in addition to losing all hate on you, 50% of the hate will be lost for anyone behind you when the jump is performed.

[Lmnop]

I'm hoping this will change with the new update, c'mon Gaxe warriors!

...

Of course they'll all say that Gaxe damage was "fixed" and ignore what the other Gaxe using warriors have been saying all this time :P

Thank you. I was under the impression that the only people who didn't think dual axes were the "only way" were a select few bitter Warriors like myself. Nice to know someone out there would let me use a Great axe.

[Macht]

Of course yeah, you avoided damage, but now everyone else is dead and a very angry mob is waiting to rip you to pieces, but at least you avoided his AoE! :P

Now that's just rediculous, DRGs aren't the healers if the parties dead from that and just you alive. How is having better evasion going to be of any benefit there? What you want THF's "Perfect Dodge" 2hr as a permanent ability on you? It's sounding a bit rediculous now.

To add to this if you jump avoid an AoE and party is alive you are now 1 less member the healers have to worry about and have effectively conserved their MP.

[Drive]

I always wondered how can ninja's where more defensive armor then a dragoon and still have good evasion. There are some exceptions but it is still strange.

[Raydeus]

Personally, I've always wondered why Dragoons have such horrible Evasion skill (C-) when they ought to be one of the most acrobatic and quick jobs (behind Thief and Ninja), and they wear similarly light armor.

I blame lances, those things seem to be freaking heavy, a DRG with a Gae Bolg should get reduced movement speed effect. :thumbsup:

I guess jumping is much easier than evading when carrying such a weapon. /shrug

[Vyuru]

Now that's just rediculous, DRGs aren't the healers if the parties dead from that and just you alive. How is having better evasion going to be of any benefit there? What you want THF's "Perfect Dodge" 2hr as a permanent ability on you? It's sounding a bit rediculous now.


I meant it as a joke, AoE wipes the party but the dragoon who used super jump lived to be killed by non AoE attacks.

Thank you. I was under the impression that the only people who didn't think dual axes were the "only way" were a select few bitter Warriors like myself. Nice to know someone out there would let me use a Great axe.


Gotta show the Gaxe some loving ;)

[LilithAngel]

The one thing I found to be most amusing was our relatively high (I think A- to A+) Parrying skill. I've always wondered how a Dragoon with capped (and merited) Parry would perform (I have such a hard time leveling that skill, no matter what I do or what gear I equip for it). Any thoughts?

[LadyKiKi]

DRG's Parrying is C. My parrying ended at skill 185 I think by the time I soloed to 75.

[Vyuru]

I would think that a capped parrying skill would be pretty good. I think mine is around the 140ish area (lvl 67 drg). I parry a decent number of hits, but I evade way more. I play as a mithra dragoon, and I notice that I tend to evade and parry more hits than other races. I don't really see us parrying/evading alot of hits though. I think it's samurai who have the A parry skill and ninjas who have the highest evasion, or maybe thiefs.

To get the use out of parry/evasion, most times you have to have hate, and most times that means you're tanking, which we don't really have the gear for and I think samurai would make a better tank than dragoons could.

However, some of the AoEs some of the mobs do in the Aht Urhgan areas can be parried or evaded, the AoE attacks that Puks do come to mind, I parried or evaded a surprisingly large number of those. I've parried a few of the Colibri's Morsel Snatch, and evaded a few Feather Tickles, might have parried one too but I'm not sure.

So the way some of the Aht Urhgan mob's attacks are seem to be different from the old school AoE attacks, where you got hit by them 99% of the time.

If you want to level up your parry LilithAngel, i would suggest fighting chigoe type bugs depending on your level. I think level 64+ would be safe enough to fight them. You WILL need /rdm for it and spam your bar-elemental spells, they attack just too fast otherwise. A little experimenting and you can get the hang of chigoe fighting pretty quickly, if you need any help just ask and I can go more in depth on how to fight chigoe and little tricks to use against them, like how to still use a WS to kill 'em and get exp :D

[Lmnop]

I blame lances, those things seem to be freaking heavy, a DRG with a Gae Bolg should get reduced movement speed effect. :thumbsup:
I guess jumping is much easier than evading when carrying such a weapon. /shrug

Heavy Halberd (http://ffxi.somepage.com/itemdb/447)

DRG is C rank evasion and parry, just like warriors (I thought right up until just now that WAR was actually D rank both...) and Paladins. Seems good enough... You get enough parry+ on random AF/JSE pieces. Some higher Def is a nice start.

[LadyKiKi]

I wanted to try the setup to see how much I can actually parry with my current skill (shame that 2-3 pieces are way out of my reach but ...)

Sub NIN
Dual Rapier x2 (+20)
Wyrm Mail (+10)
AF Gloves (+10)
Boxer's Mantle (+10)
Barone Feet and Head (+13)
Parrying Earring (+3)
Parrying Torque (+7)
Bushinomimi (+5)

If I had all that with my current parrying (185 I believe) that would net me 185+78 giving me 262 parrying skill. Although my lack of AGI may just not let me parry as much as I would like to ...

I've parried a Goblin Rush before (have screenshot to show). That felt good. (I think I took 1 of the hits. But I must've parried the other. Not 100% sure but I did get a skillup from it!) :D

[seq]

[Job Ability: Spirit Surge]
The recast time for the Jump, High Jump, and Super Jump job abilities will be reset when using Spirit Surge.
that's the only good thing, i never used Super jump anyway (so rare that i always had the timer up when i needed it).
as for the ENM60, why do you use potions anyway.... i've always won without using one potion. just food,AF,GK lance and some very normal gear.

[LadyKiKi]

that's the only good thing, i never used Super jump anyway (so rare that i always had the timer up when i needed it).
as for the ENM60, why do you use potions anyway.... i've always won without using one potion. just food,AF,GK lance and some very normal gear.

I use potions in the fear of getting hit by a weaponskill. :(

Sometimes if I paid 50k+ to get in there I would like to ensure my victory. I used to wait for my jump timers before using Spirit Surge to finish off the fight, now I can just unleash it and go crazy. That ENM just got easier for us!! :biggrin:

[seq]

hahaha yah it's way easier now,
you can spam him with Jumps and Pentathrusts if you enter the battlefield using /Mage (Wyvern will be set to mage too, so no elemental breathe).
build 100TP > Penta thrust > Jump > H-Jump > 2H > Jump > Pentra thrust > H-Jump
and if he didn't die yet, you'll have time to penta thrust lol.

As for the DRG having low evasion that makes sense as well. DRG are able to completly avoid damage by a properly timed jump, as such their evasion skill is solely in their jump. As DRG then it makes sense they'd know how to effectivly avoid devestating things through their jumps, the low evasion is to encourage the DRG to avoid damage in this fashion.
it doesn't make sence to me, give DRG heavy armor and it'll. NIN,SAM,WAR & even DRK wear heavier gear and still have better evasion :P
according to somepage:
WAR, DRK, PLD & BST : C Evasion skill
SAM: B+ Evasion skill
DRG: C- evasion skill

[LadyKiKi]

Hm, Maat also become way easier too. I just realised. 300% Penta Thrust. Jump, HighJump. Swing Lance twice. Spirit Surge. TP wing. Jump, High Jump, Penta Thrust. Win.

[KoukiRyu]

it doesn't make sence to me, give DRG heavy armor and it'll. NIN,SAM,WAR & even DRK wear heavier gear and still have better evasion :P
according to somepage:
WAR, DRK, PLD & BST : C Evasion skill
SAM: B+ Evasion skill
DRG: C- evasion skill

Err what he said should make sense....the DRG don't need higher evasion despite their armor, and the other jobs have to have it because they can't evade big things like Dragoons can. Dragoons, since they have Jump, can avoid them, and don't need to worry about physically dodging them...just seems viable to me :x

[Mouser]

Partying in Bibiki Bay vs goblins long ago, Super Jump saved me around 10 deaths from suicidal gobbies that blew themselves up with 80% of their HP remaining. There were a few times I was the sole survivor. :D

Great vs BLM mobs too.

[Raydeus]

I think SE considered the fighting style rather then how heavy the armor is when they were thinking about Evasion skill rating.

A THF and a NIN are more likely to have higher evasion, a SAM would have a combination of both evasion and strenght because of how their way of fighting is. Western swords are a bit faster because they are smaller, but they are heavier than what G. Katanas are in this game even though they are one handed weapons.

A sword and a shield (PLD, RDM) combo would make evading something very difficult, and two handed weapons are just way to heavy to let you evade much. That would mean your fighting style would be more static than that of a SAM or NIN (or a THF).

So other jobs (DRG, DRK, PLD, RDM, etc.) are based on a way of combat that focused more on raw damage with heavy weapons, and heavier armors as defense. And that would mean a lower ability to evade, even if you wore lighter armor the fighting style of a DRG isn't a fighting style that would favor Evasion.


I know this isn't very accurate, but I think that's kinda the way SE determined evasion and other skill ratings. If you look at it that way I guess it kinda makes sense.