[Kiege]

Well I know the first thing people are going to say is "Paladins are for parties" or something similar. True, however I like trying unconventional things and honestly, I'm not really into partying with random strangers each and every night, so until I find a good LS and form a static party I'd rather duo and solo.
Having said that, since I'm mostly going to be duoing with my girlfriend until I can setup a dependable static for us, I'd appreciate some help deciding how we need to set this up. My Girlfriend adores being dps and hates being healer or tank, which is what gave me the idea to use Paladin in the first place. The tricky part is what job should I sub if she's going to play as a drk, drg, dnc, or possibly war?
I know Provoke from /war would be very handy and is mostly likely going to be the best option in my opinion, but I might be overlooking some benefits from other jobs. For instance I have read that paladin/rdm makes a very good combination, but what I've read mostly suggests that combination for soloing. Any advice you fine people can provide is greatly appreciated.

[Kailea]

PLD solo /duo is fun ;p

Depending on the job she chooese, your sub should be chosen acordingly.

Now of course this is my opinion, so others might differ, but my two cents anyways....

Your GF________You
WAR/SAMorTHF__PLD/DNC
DRK/SAMorTHF__PLD/DNC
DRG/SAMorTHF__PLD/DNC
DRG/DRK_______PLD/WAR
DNC/NIN_______PLD/WAR she would be the healer in this setup

You might want to let her know, DNC is more of a support/healing, not a DD

now /DNC for you is very nice, it will let you cure even if you run out of MP, you will still get a voke of some sort, and later in elvel you can AOE cure and heal status ailments.

Also I did not say anything about DRG/mage, because that would require her to level a mage job, and 90% of the time, that means healing ;p

[Kiege]

Very good information =) Thank you so very much. Knowing her, she's most likely to go warrior/ninja because of the pure dd power, but I might be able to convince her to go drg/dnc but I doubt it. She likes putting up big numbers so asking her to do something to hinder that will likely put me into one of those arguements I won't win even if I do win.
If she were to go with a high damage output job, say War or Drg etc, would my being Pld/Dnc hurt since I wouldn't have a truely strong voke? I had originally thought to duo Pld with her Drk but we are duoing her Drk with my Rdm and so far that's working out fairly well.

[Kailea]

Originally Posted by Kiege

Very good information =) Thank you so very much. Knowing her, she's most likely to go warrior/ninja because of the pure dd power, but I might be able to convince her to go drg/dnc but I doubt it. She likes putting up big numbers so asking her to do something to hinder that will likely put me into one of those arguements I won't win even if I do win.
If she were to go with a high damage output job, say War or Drg etc, would my being Pld/Dnc hurt since I wouldn't have a truely strong voke? I had originally thought to duo Pld with her Drk but we are duoing her Drk with my Rdm and so far that's working out fairly well.

mmm yeah if she goes for pure DD, you should still go PLD/WAR

having /DNC to experiment with though for your PLD is nice, I have enjoyed it

[Kiege]

Ahh, /war then. Very cool. So I need to gear my pld the same was as I would gear for an exp party, load up on defense, +VIT at early levels and later + ACC?

[Kailea]

Originally Posted by Kiege

Ahh, /war then. Very cool. So I need to gear my pld the same was as I would gear for an exp party, load up on defense, +VIT at early levels and later + ACC?

yeap


Enimty > DEF/VIT > ACC > ATT

[Kiege]

You rock =) Thank you so much. One last question to pose to you if you don't mind:
Since she seems to be favoring her drk lately, do you think paladin would duo better with it than RDM? Currently we are only level 20 on drk and rdm and I know things change later on in levels.

[Armando]

PLD/RDM is tremendous both at solo (and duo, for the very same reasons it's good solo) but only really gets its power after 66 with Phalanx, which grants you insane endurance yet doesn't sacrifice your offense completely. At your levels, /RDM doesn't have the benefits you've likely read about.

/DNC offers survivability at the cost of offense. That can be bad sometimes - stretching out the length of fights is not very conducive to EXP gain. In addition to that, /DNC doesn't cost everyone the same; that is, TP isn't equally useful for all jobs. Warriors have a lot to lose, PLDs and THFs pre-60 don't have nearly as much to lose. On top of that, since one person's TP is being used primarily for healing, it rules out skillchains.

If your girlfriend goes /NIN it would be best if you went /NIN as well. /NIN is wasted if the person using it doesn't have hate. So if you tank too well, it will be useless; but if you allow her to use it, it would be even more advantageous for you to have /NIN as well so no matter who's getting attacked, minimal damage is being taken. Plus, this makes skillchain usage more feasable. Whether you do or don't, though, if your girlfriend should use Shield Break and later on, depending on your Accuracy, Armor Break.

VIT is not a good stat to stock up on. You want Defense, Accuracy, and Attack wherever it's available. +VIT is kind of your last resort. A "well, I can't get anything better, but I need to put something in this gear slot."

Enimty > DEF/VIT > ACC > ATT

Wrong. Offense is more important than +Enmity. VIT has no place in that tier list anywhere but on the bottom. Defense is hard to place somewhere because you either have too much of it or not enough.

Depending on your level, Marinara Pizza can cover all your girlfriend's bases (Attack AND Accuracy) and if you're going to go double /NIN, it would be in your best interest to eat DD food as well.

Also, do NOT under any circumstance use a Size 1 shield (bucklers, aspis, targes, bone shields.) Use Size 2 (larger flat round shields) until you can use Size 3 (kites.)

[Kailea]

Originally Posted by Kiege

You rock =) Thank you so much. One last question to pose to you if you don't mind:
Since she seems to be favoring her drk lately, do you think paladin would duo better with it than RDM? Currently we are only level 20 on drk and rdm and I know things change later on in levels.

I would say DRK and PLD duo would be better

[Armando]

Ah, missed that. It really depends, a DRK and a PLD will result in either both going /NIN or the PLD going /DNC for survivability and the DRK trying to balance that out with pure offense. On the other hand RDM brings enfeebles and curing power to the table and can actually melee with enspells. Something like PLD/RDM and RDM/DNC could end up working just as well, with the RDM using his own TP for cures, providing supplemental damage by meleeing and throwing Blind/Paralyze/Dia II/Slow on the mob, and the PLD doing the bulk of the damage and tanking, making use of Enspells for extra damage and getting an MP boost.

At higher levels the compatibility of the PLD and RDM gets better when RDM gets Refresh, but then again the DRK's damage potential will be going up as well; and come to think of it a DRK could feasably enfeeble too.

[Kailea]

Originally Posted by Armando

Ah, missed that. It really depends, a DRK and a PLD will result in either both going /NIN or the PLD going /DNC for survivability and the DRK trying to balance that out with pure offense. On the other hand RDM brings enfeebles and curing power to the table and can actually melee with enspells. Something like PLD/RDM and RDM/DNC could end up working just as well, with the RDM using his own TP for cures, providing supplemental damage by meleeing and throwing Blind/Paralyze/Dia II/Slow on the mob, and the PLD doing the bulk of the damage and tanking, making use of Enspells for extra damage and getting an MP boost.

At higher levels the compatibility of the PLD and RDM gets better when RDM gets Refresh, but then again the DRK's damage potential will be going up as well; and come to think of it a DRK could feasably enfeeble too.

mmm yeah I guess /DNC would be better, I was thinking of the better voke /WAR would get, to keep hate from DRK, but /DNC can do that too ;p

[Armando]

It's not THAT hard to keep hate off a DRK that isn't being a jackass. Much less at low levels.

[Kiege]

So Armando you suggest whatever DD job my Girlfriend uses that I'm duoing Pld with that we both go /Nin so that whoever is taking damage doesn't take a huge amount, therefore letting me draw hate off of her by healing her and doing damage myself, and you suggest using a sword and shield rather than dual swords to increase my endurance and only use +VIT gear for say in the early levels when acc gear etc isn't available?

[Armando]

Something like that. I don't really know what level you are, but going /NIN will only help after Lv.24. That aside, at those levels bouncing hate might be a bit tricky. You'd have to experiment with that to see how well you can manage hate. Bear in mind that the person who pulls starts with more hate, so it's in your best interest to be the one that claims the mob. If one person gets enough hate to make it difficult for the other to turn the mob, the person with hate should unlock and turn their back to stop getting more hate. Also, DRKs can get the mob's attention for little MP by casting Bind or Blind. As a PLD you can use Cures, but since MP is a limiting factor don't toss, say, a Cure III when a Cure II is all you need to grab the mob's attention. Needless to say it's useful not to max out your HPs between fights, so you can always Cure for hate.

Post-37 things become much more straightforward because PLD gets Flash and DRK gets Stun, both of which are near-instant and generate plenty of hate. WAR of course already has Provoke all this time so that can be used too. If you find that double /NIN is too difficult pre-37 then just go with the PLD/DNC + DD/Whatever strategy. I would honestly recommend WHM sub for the DD in this case since Fields of Valor allows you to get 1 MP/tick, which translates to 20/MP a minute, and that almost buys you a Cure II for free. Plus, status ailment cures. DRKs can also get Paralyze out of subbing WHM. WAR of course won't be making use of Paralyze, but WAR comes with Shield Break anyways.

Whether you should use sword and shield will depend on how cleanly and efficiently you can bounce hate back and forth. If you find yourself taking a reasonable amount of damage, equip a shield, if you don't get hurt much then use two swords.

Also, if your girlfriend goes WAR or DRK she should cap her Marksmanship and use Acid Bolts for Defense Down, Bloody Bolts to recover HP, and Sleep Bolts for when the situation turns sour.

You should be able to duo reasonably well with almost any job your girlfriend picks so just go with whatever jobs you actually want to level.

[Kiege]

That makes sense. Her drk is 20 but my Pld is not unlocked yet, but I can unlock that within an hour and a half if we decide to go this route, which I'm seriously looking into. As I posted earlier in this thread right now I am duoing my Rdm with her Drk and it is working nicely. We are getting chain 4's in the dunes on T goblins. There is a significant amount of downtime though and that's why I was looking at Pld instead. Hate bouncing, assuming we can get it down, would seem to be the key to preventing so much downtime. The weak, yet useful, fields of valor refresh could help keep my MP up while I pull, and then one or two cures on her DRk when her shadows drop should, in theory, get the mob back on me so she can recast shadows.