Ideal Party Setup

[aegina]

also remember when choosing a camp, it is almost always better to chain tough mobs than to push for the omg!200xp!!1!1337 fights. if you can make chain 4 or 5 off mobs that give 100-150 xp a kill, you will make more xp per hour than if you were fighting IT++++ for 200 xp a kill.

the only downside to this is, sometimes it's hard to find a good camp to chain tough's.

choosing a good camp is as much a part of the party setup as matching the jobs is.

[tdh]

I agree, but toughs make EXP gain a tad low when you can do the same thing and gain 150-200+ EXP. Chaining Robber Crabs to Chain #4, gaining about 180+ with the Chain, and then pull a mean Terror Pugil with TP and wipe it out for end the chain. I'd much rather chain VTs, then end it with an IT. Blow out a huge skillchain and a few good sized MBs FTW!

[aegina]

he's right. i didnt mean chain only toughs for 98 xp each. Ideally, aim for about 150 xp per mob(not counting the bonus from the chain) or so. That's usually the best balance between xp and downtime.
i did this in an xp pt last night, making 150-200 xp a kill for chain 4 or 5 every time, starting at 150, but reaching 200 by the end of the chain (with an occasional 100 xp beetle sneaking its way into our chain lol). we had the nin-sam-thf-blm-blm-whm pt i mentioned above, and we made around 6k xp an hour. this was a around lvl 42-45 pt in west altepa desert. not a bad pt at all^^

[lionx]

Hmm at Bibiki Bay i had PLD DRK SAM DRG RDM WHM(me!). Fighting Gobs and Birds, and on a Gobs mostly.

SC: Guillotine(500) > Tachi: Gekko(forget) > Wheeling Thrust(604) => Light(908)

and Swift Blade(all over the place) > Tachi: Gekko => Darkness

I wasnt able to haste since it was moving so fast with SC here and there but damn it was awesome for me. In your faces DRG haters..

[Balfree]

It obviously depends on many things, but my favorite type of parties are:

NIN for tanking (above 60~)
THF for helping NIN with hate, and to do amazing SC damages
BRD for my MP ^^
WHM as a healer
BLM that's me
DRG / MNK / WAR / SAM as damage dealers and skillchain partners.

Props of DRG:
Good damage overall, provided the wyvern is present most of the time, at 60 and above, my experience with drg has been a very fruitfull and enjoyable one, they gain super TP, that's all i'll say, <3 drg.

Props of MNK:
Wow... they keep stealing hate with the dmg they do and the TP they get, imo, the best DD in the game, specially side by side with a THF and a NIN! Distortion -> Light! and the BLM doing double MB and the mob dieing in 10 seconds D8

Props of WAR:
Saves you in a pinch, deals more than enough dmg, TP gain doesnt lag behind, overall a great job in any way.

Props of SAM:
My favorite melee job, the Samurai... oh the Samurai.. i used to be one~heh. TP for le win, damage is above average, constant 100% tp is this job's main trait, they will not let the SC down, ever!

IMO, a good party NEEDS a good skillchain, i hate DRK with a heart because i havent ever come across a DRK that skillchains properly, the SC partner waits the whole battle for the DRK to get tp... and then most of the time it's already too late, but yea, they use it on next mob and the damage is off the hook, but i prefer SCing in everybattle thank you.

[aegina]

some tips for a good pt setup:


whenever you get a sam, try to get a blm or two. magic bursts rock! and with a sam, you can burst more often

whenever you get a ninja for a tank, try to get a thf. they help the ninja hold hate better, freeing up your other dd's to deal more damage with less hate problems.

whenever you get a pld, get a rdm. a rdm with refresh makes a pld almost self sufficient, and greatly reduces downtime.

just a few tips^^

[Rodin]

King Ranperre's Tomb, everyone 71+:

MNK/WAR
MNK/WAR
MNK/WAR
MNK/WAR
BRD/WHM
WHM/SMN


....If every MNK has Asuran Fists, XP can get crazy.

[aegina]

I know that based on some mobs you might want different parties everytime but I am just looking for a basic favorite.

this thread isnt about unusual pt's, like monk burn and mana burn pt's. its about normal pt setups in normal levelling zones.

[FRITOBANDITO]

best party was mnk( me) mnk, mnk, mnk, whm, and brd in KRT.

[Kafeen]

One of my favourates so far was RDM (me), BRD, BLM, NIN, DRG, THF. We were in Dragon's Avery taking out darters in about 20-40 seconds per fight depending on whether the Melee's TP was ready. We were averaging about 250 exp per kill and it rarely dropped below 200, getting up to about 300 a couple of times. This was before the new exp rings aswell. The BLM timed us in 1 fight, it took us 19 seconds to kill a mob from pull.

Only thing that slowed us down was running out of mobs.

[DrivenTooFar]

this thread isnt about unusual pt's, like monk burn and mana burn pt's. its about normal pt setups in normal levelling zones.

Actually, it is about any party that you like. It doesn't matter if it's a normal party or a burn party, as long as it is a favorite of the poster.

[Aeni]

I've been in several good parties and I guess they don't really fall into traditional setups.

I think the most undoubtedly fun one was a party of five. Yes, you read that correctly.

PLD THF DRK SMN WHM

No refreshing ability (outside of the SMN) We were making chain #4s and 5s for 180 to 270 exp each. This was about level 61 in Valley of Sorrows. We knew how to scrimp MP and make exp chains. It was wild. We pulled and killed faster than this party with 2x RNGs, BRD, NIN, THF and BLM.



Another fun party I was in ...

NIN DRK WAR WHM RDM BLM

We churned about 8k an hour even with the level spread out from 69 (me) to 74 (BLM) Of course it didn't hurt that it was with my LS at the time ;3a The key to doing this was we never had a down time. We pulled and pulled and pulled. If WHM needs to rest, RDM takes over main healing. When RDM needs to rest (She was constantly going through conversions) the BLM would take over enfeebling and healing. It was a tandem of mage cooperation. WAR and NIN would take turns tanking - most WARs I've been with don't like tanking - and that made it easier to setup SATA, since there were no preference really. It also allowed us to take on an add (NIN would solo a mob while the rest of us tried to bring down the other quickly) which made the exp chaining even faster.

A party I was in emphasized fast exp. That was the most exp I ever gained in a party. 20k exp in 2 hours.

RNG RNG PLD RDM DRK SMN

And another party I was in was similar ...

DRG SAM DRK RDM WHM NIN

The 3-way light was devastating. It ate up 70% of an IT hobgoblin's hp in 5 seconds. Also featured light and dark chains almost every fight

[Hellbringer]

Im a 50 pld, and lvling from about 45-50 i found my favorite setup to be:

sam, thf, pld(me), blm, whm, rdm(refresh of course)=D

Sam vokes first, SATA onto me, then when skillchain is ready: Tachi:enpi>>viper bite SATA onto Sam, i can still hold hate and the mobs hp goes way down.... sweet

[TenchiHawkwing]

My favorite PT setup, while not the most efficient, was the most fun I've had, it included
PLD/NIN
WAR/NIN
NIN/WAR
COR/RNG(How this guy got up to the 60s so fast, I don't know!)
BRD/WHM
RDM/BLM

[Liquidedust]

Well depening on level-range as well as which job I play I have diffrent favorite setups.

Samurai (30-34)

When I last played SAM 30-34 the setup which I favored where.

WAR/MNK, WAR/THF(Gaxe), SAM/WAR (me), THF/WAR, BLM, WHM

1. I pulled as SAM and then the WAR/THF voked I did Tachi:Enpi >>> SATA Viper Bite off WAR/MNK BLM MB'ed.
2. Next fight WAR/MNK voked and we did Tachi:Hobaku >>> SA Sturmwind BLM MB'ed.
3. Repeat from 1.

Warrior (60-65)

When I play WAR I do it as WAR/NIN or WAR/THF and have a SET DRK partner that subs either /WAR or /THF.

Basically we do either Power Slash >>> Rampage or Guillotine >>> Raging Rush depending on which tank we have we sub diff jobs (NIN tank we sub THF, PLD we sub /NIN and /WAR).

For the other three slots I like a BRD, RDM or WHM and BLM setup since it allows for fast-paced fights and decent exp per hour.

Basically a school book example.

1. Pull mob
2. Build TP
3. WS + SC
4. repeat from 1.

Paladin (60-65)

I set with a SMN as PLD (actually the same player that is DRK SET with my WAR).

I must say as PLD I want a RDM since it makes my life so much easier when it comes to manage mp usage/fight, BRDs work too but creates some headaches for song positioning when fighting certain mobs (some mobs you just don't want to be facing any mages).

As PLD my preferred setup would be PLD(me), SMN(SET friend), RDM(or BRD), 2 melees that can make a beefy skillchain and a BLM to MB off the Skilchain (my SMN friend gets to MB off it as well of course if timers are up).

As PLD only thing I really care about is mp usage/fight and to keep hate on me, the damage and skillchains I leave to the melees and mages to fiddle out since I am not really part of them.

For other jobs, well I havn't played them so much recently so cannot really state an opinion on them right now (since I have no recent experiences).

But in general tank + 2 melees (skillchain partners) + healer + support + BLM is how I usually build parties.