The TRUE Power of Dragoons - share your stories.

[nazlfrag]

Re: The TRUE Power of Dragoons - share your stories.

I'm only a new dragoon, but I had a blast the other day in my first party, with a pup and smn! I got the summoner meleeing with carby and we were a nine person killing macine! I was /rdm and guzzling juice, it felt good to backup heal and still put out awsome damage. We were carving a path through the dunes at an incredible rate.

I gotta try this with a bst thrown in the mix. 6 people + 4 pets = {Impossible to gauge!} Gotta love those pet jobs!

[LadyKiKi]

Re: The TRUE Power of Dragoons - share your stories.

RDM, is ... boring. In parties anyway. I have no doubt that soloing something 5-15 levels above you is a lot more fun and exciting than anything else, but honestly, I've really decided to solo it to 75 now with BST sub. I know it's our job, but as RDM it's sometimes hard to replace me in parties and I end up staying up late. Although I do eventually want to get to 75 to go off soloing other stuff, with my number 1 (err, kinda) aim in mind to solo myself a Joyeuse

But there was this other thing that bugged me as RDM when I go out and solo, it's the ... amount of casting I have to do to keep myself alive. This isn't with BST sub, by the way, but I got annoyed when it this situation happens:

Refresh -> Phalanx -> ice Spikes > enspell > haste -> blink/stoneskin -> (swing a few times) refresh wears off recast all above repeat ...

That's what terribly annoyed me, but unlike DRG, all I do is fire off poison when HP gets low, and it cures for a good amount ... nice and easy ...

[DakAttack]

Re: The TRUE Power of Dragoons - share your stories.

Why don't I see any /Whm anymore? High level Cure spells and Divine Seal for emergencies, Dia for triggering Healing Breath, several different -na spells for different situations, and several different Bar/ra spells for different situations as well. There's also Erase, which is a huge help. Auto Regen is level 30 and pretty nice.

I think Whm and Rdm subs share Sneak, Invisible, Blink, Stoneskin, and Aquaveil. Rdm has En- spells, which are pretty useless even for Rdm main, and Phalanx. Fast Cast is level 30, right?

Still not as useful as /Whm.

[LadyKiKi]

Re: The TRUE Power of Dragoons - share your stories.

I'm too lazy to level WHM. Is that enough?

Again, situational. I can see at times where /WHM would be really useful to me, I'd love to erase my negative stats off and also teleport, but I would only use Divine Seal if I would be resting. But I also like the very fast barspells with /RDM. Trust me, when you're in Bostaunieux Oubliette and there's 2 dogs and 1 bat sexually assaulting you (err, assualting, but whatever, I was fighting a bat and managed to HP aggro 2 dogs ), the cheap and quick barspells will save you and enable to outlast them while you try to take them down, whereas I can see the slow Dia/expensive Barspells will not see you through such a fight,

I did die a few times when fighting 2 dogs, due to paralyze from their howling moves , but if they don't do it you can typically outlast them, although I did have to use a melon juice (I always have juices handy).

[Khaeos]

Re: The TRUE Power of Dragoons - share your stories.

I may or may not be correct (Its been a few months since I played due to computer problems), but aside from Stun, Dia is one of the fastest spells in the game. It clocks in at what, .5 seconds? .75?

Dia and Poison are by far the most efficient, both in speed and mp cost, catalysts for Healing Breath. I have both WHM and RDM leveled to 37, mainly as subs for my 75BLM, but /WHM is what I mainly use for my 75DRG. I've known many a time I would be farming in Lufaise Meadows or Sea with WHM sub, sometimes with multiple links (Diatrymasx2 both using Triple Attack at the same time = much hurt), the fast casting Dia always managed to save my ass on multiple occasions. Combine it with AF2 helm for enabling Healing Breath at higher levels, and you have a winning combo.

I'm not disputing RDM though. Its is a very viable sub, and Fast Cast while very slight does help out. The En- spells are basically useless on a lance weapon (Too high a weapon delay. You need a sword or lower to build any significant damage through En-), and if you were using a sword it would probably have to be /NIN sub to be any effective unless you had a Joyeuse. I've done quite well with /37 NIN sub, dual-weilding Joyeuse and Wing Sword.

But to be honest with divine seal for emergency healing, Dia for fast Breath catalysts, and a host of other -na, SS, Blink, Teleports....Its hard to go wrong.

[Skoal]

Re: The TRUE Power of Dragoons - share your stories.

I recently purchased Spiked Finger Gauntlets. Since I haven't partied since 60 I decided to test out all my xp gear. Our set up was Brd Pld Drg War THF and RNG.
We got minuet x2 so I was going to try out sushi. Skillchain was Skewer + DE for like 150+ distortion. I asked if the war/nin could chain with the thf since I was taking alot of damage and my sushi was getting stolen by thost birds. I switched to meat for while but got tired of that being stolen. With songs, sis kebabi and berserk my att was 622.

After I quit getting raped trying to skillchain, I asked the RNG to give me a tp report. We then proceeded to Penta Thrust + Sidewinder for some nice Transfixion action. Penta was doing 500-1000+ while the Sidewinders would constantly break 1k. The skillchain would actually do anywhere from 100-750 dmg.


All in all a fun party, I kept my damage in check though after the first fight. I think I hit a 537 jump w/o af boots one fight that got me hate and caused me to lose some food.

Double Post Edited:
Khaeos: Dia is a 1 second cast with 5 seconds recast 7 mp and so is Poisona 8 mp.
Rdm Bar- spells are 6mp .5 seconds cast with 10 seconds recast.
Whm Bar- spells are .5 seconds with 10 second recast 12 mp.
The bar spells I am talking about are elemental ones not barsleep(ra) etc.
-na spells from whm can be beneficial but you wyvern will heal paralyze, blind and poison.
You cannot use Silena on yourself to cure silence. The only other -na spells that whm offers you that other def wyvern subs cannot cure is cursna and viruna. Of course one nice thing to have with whm is erase.

[Vyuru]

Re: The TRUE Power of Dragoons - share your stories.

Ladykiki:

Between rdm and whm subs for dragoon, I favor rdm. /whm may give you more mp, but I think you get fewer healing breaths out of it because the spells for whm are more mp costly. The of the -na spells you get, I think only paraylna would be really good for dragoon, but you can normally avoid mobs that use paralyse, and even then you can get off a WS to have your wyvern use paraylna on you. Some would say that you could be paraylzed, and lose your tp, but I would say you could be hit while casting a spell, or the spell could be interrupted with parayze, leaving you unable to cast for a little bit, both are just as chancy, and I'll take my chances with using a weapon skill.

Teleports can also be avoided by using the outpost teleports, I've gotten most of them done, so I can pretty much teleport anywhere I want to, most areas are under control by some nation or other nowadays too, so it's very handy IMO.


Now, if you are soloing in the Aht Uhrgan areas, the mp thing is not as important with Sanction Refresh. The refresh effect is 1mp/3seconds, and activates when you are at or below 3/4 of your total mp.

At this point, it's which sub do you favor? I favor cheap mp spells like poison and the bar-elemental spells, I like fast cast, especially when fighting the Lesser Colibri. As a mithra, my RSE pants give me +32mp, toss a couple of Electrum rings in and my mp pool is more than fine by itself to handle these birds, toss in sanction refresh, and I can reach exp chain #3-4 sometimes before I stop to rest, toss in any kind of juice, and it gets even better.

So I favor /rdm, for Fast Cast and cheap mp spells that are naturally fast casting, I can always boost my mp pool with equipment, and poison and the rdm bar spells will get more out of that mp than a whm's dia and bara spells.

DakAttack

Why don't I see any /Whm anymore? High level Cure spells and Divine Seal for emergencies, Dia for triggering Healing Breath, several different -na spells for different situations, and several different Bar/ra spells for different situations as well. There's also Erase, which is a huge help. Auto Regen is level 30 and pretty nice.

High level cure spells are ineffective and take awhile to cast. They are ineffective because Cure III, which is not a high level cure spell IMO, costs 46 mp to cast, and with Divine Seal, can do what, 360 hp? I can get out 9 poisons for that amount of mp, and roughly 1,620 hp back. It may take longer to pump out 9 poisons, but those will not get interrupted, whereas casting Cure III midfight is most likely going to get interrupted unless you super jump. The -na spells are nice, but I can just avoid the mobs with paraylzing attacks if I don't want to face them. In the event of beastman spell casters, I'll eat paralyze, it's not as bad as the Cuerl's Paralyze attack. Erase, now that IS nice, but against crabs I could argue that Dispel might be better, but dispel is pretty mp costly so a brd sub with magic finale might be best, /shrug.

Again, I've solo'd alot to get to lvl 66, and I haven't really fought any mobs where Erase would have been really useful, yet. Mobs like the Hundred Eyes, hounds, and mandies are the only mobs that I can think of that I would want to have Erase, but those are also mobs I would never exp off of.

Auto regen is nice, but I prefer fast cast.

Hmm, does /whm give you access to regen II? That is a really nice spell.

[silentsteel]

Re: The TRUE Power of Dragoons - share your stories.

regen 2 is a lvl 44 whm spell... so no =/

[Karinya]

Re: The TRUE Power of Dragoons - share your stories.

Ladykiki:

Between rdm and whm subs for dragoon, I favor rdm. /whm may give you more mp, but I think you get fewer healing breaths out of it because the spells for whm are more mp costly. The of the -na spells you get, I think only paraylna would be really good for dragoon, but you can normally avoid mobs that use paralyse, and even then you can get off a WS to have your wyvern use paraylna on you. Some would say that you could be paraylzed, and lose your tp, but I would say you could be hit while casting a spell, or the spell could be interrupted with parayze, leaving you unable to cast for a little bit, both are just as chancy, and I'll take my chances with using a weapon skill.

Weaponskills can't be paralyzed. They can be stunned and possibly terrorized or the target can move out of range and that's it (well, they can also miss, but I think the wyvern will still remove status).

[LilithAngel]

Re: The TRUE Power of Dragoons - share your stories.

Oh, Weapon Skills can *very* much be Paralyzed (I've lost quite a few that way).

[LadyKiKi]

Re: The TRUE Power of Dragoons - share your stories.

Oh, Weapon Skills can *very* much be Paralyzed (I've lost quite a few that way).

Speaking from 75 levels of soloing experience, no, I've never been paralyzed when doing a weaponskill. Throughout levels 65-75, the hounds love to use "Howling", a move which paralyzes you. It's always a godsend if I have 100% TP when they do that, I'll remove it as soon as I get paralyzed. I've missed before (Wheeling Thrust missed), I've hit for 0 before on Penta Thrust (damn Steelshells, screenshot in my guide), but I've never got interrupted by paralyze when doing a weaponskill. It could be because as soon as you weaponskill you unparalyze straight away due to wyvern curing you (though from the screen it looks like that it doesn't kick in until you finish the weaponskill). I cannot speak from other jobs unless I give it a test, but I don't remember trying to weaponskill and getting paralyzed. I do, however, remember trying to fire off Spirit Surge, Jump, High Jump, Super Jump and Ancient Circle and I still get paralyzed. Job Abilities and Spells and Melee/Ranged Attack I've gotten paralyzed from, but not weaponskill.

Wyvern only heals:

Blind
Paralyze
Poison

It will NOT un-silence you or un-bio you, or whatever else.

Vyuru:

I still favour RDM sub. Although if I chose to sub BLU or WHM, I can get a permanent 4hp/regen effect. (Presidential Hairpin, with my nation not controlling area, Barone Corazza, Auto-Regen Trait). Throw in the HP regen drink (er, the one which lasts a long time, lasts 10mins and gives 4hp/regen) and I'll be sitting on 8hp/regen.

I would avoid mandies and the hecteyes, but the hounds is what took me to 75. I soloed on them and bats exclusively between 65-75. They aren't as bad as ghosts/skeletons.

Erase is a big hit on your MP pool. Even as using RDM subbed I don't use Phalanx or Dispel. Although the Attack Down effect from Funnel Bats were somewhat annoying, I was just patient and continued to fight until it wore off (then it'll just stick to me again as I fight the next monster).

I'm sorry but I've never soloed in the Aht Uhrgan areas. I didn't get the expansion til quite late and I was happy with where I was at that time when I did so I never bothered going there. So I cannot comment on that.

[LilithAngel]

Re: The TRUE Power of Dragoons - share your stories.

While you may have never gotten WS Para'd (*very* lucky, I might say), I've had *plenty* a time when my TP was eaten by it, and I can assure you, WSs can be Paralyzed. No, it wasn't that the mob moved out of range, it wasn't that it died just before it went off, it wasn't that I hit the wrong macro or anything like that, it was straight up Paralysis. "Lilithangel readies [insert Weapon Skill here], Lilithangel is paralyzed." kinda stuff.

Like I said, you might have gotten lucky, and if so, I wish I had that kinda luck in the fights I've had to deal with (75 levels of Dragoon of parties, quest/missions, solo, on top of leveling Warrior, Thief, White Mage, Bard, Corsair, Ninja, etc. ad nausium...), but I do believe your info, while based on your personal experience, may still be a bit faulty. I'd say get a Red Mage friend and get into a Ballista match, or just fight a mob known for strong Paralysis, and try a few WSs (and only WSs). See how many times you lose TP. It could just be that you've gotten *extremely* lucky with Para (or always just had a boatload of Ice resistance, that can help against Para too), but it can happen.

Oh well, hey, if you can prove me wrong, good on ya. I like a good debate over a contested point that could still be unproven, and it'll help resolve it. Hey, when I get a chance, I'll do some testing of my own to support my rebuttal (as just someone's word on a subject on a forum is meaningless unless pictures, formulas, testimony, whatever counts as 'proof' is presented. I'm not saying you or anyone else is talking out thier ass, but the random poster/viewer tends to think that unless the point is proven/shown along with the argument).

[LadyKiKi]

Re: The TRUE Power of Dragoons - share your stories.

I don't think it's luck. Karinya said it already that it cannot be paralyzed. While I'm not going to try to prove you wrong or right either, it's a petty thing to argue about. As I said, either the remove paralyze breath kicks in as soon as I enter the weaponskill phase so that's why I never get paralyzed, or it's true that paralyze doesn't affect weaponskills. All those times I fight up to 2 Hecatomb Hounds taught me that if I don't have 100% TP by the time they used their Howling move and paralyzed me, I would simply just have died (2x Double Attacks, I can't get healing breath off fast enough, Super Jump paralyzed, 2 hour paralyzed).

On the same note, my wyvern has NEVER been paralyzed when doing a Healing Breath (normally when I'm paralyzed so is my wyvern) or a Status Remove Breath. It would've been extremely silly to count this as luck throughout all 75 levels, we all know this game can screw you over at will. Regardless, I don't want to argue on about it. We'll hold on to our thoughts and believes and stick with them.

Exorays and Hounds provide strong paralyze special attacks. Even at 74 I regularly paralyze 2-4 times in a row, along with my wyvern. Back at level 60 odd I get paralyzed too from Exorays, but never on weaponskills. Hence if I know I'm paralyzed, and I have 100% TP, I will quickly unleash a weaponskill to get rid of it. As I said, maybe the breath kicks in immediately.
Peace.

[Balodoth]

Re: The TRUE Power of Dragoons - share your stories.

Oh no, this is not an argument. Weapon skills CAN be paralyzed. In fact, the contrary is a very hard position to take; it only requires one paralyzed weapon skill to disprove, whereas saying paralyze can't interrupt it is merely a theory up until it's disproved. Considering I too have had a paralyzed weapon skill, the possibility is there. The only other thing to be considered is how and when paralyze is removed by the wyvern.

As for the quickness of the cure, that should be pretty easy to test. Does the icon disappear before the weapon skill begins? I've never seen a breath occur before the event that triggers it, nor have I seen cast time bypassed, nor is there any equipment to give your wyvern fast cast (of which 100% fast cast doesn't exist). So mathematically, I'm going to have to say no. But just to be safe, I'll go do my own tests.

See you guys in a couple days.

[LilithAngel]

Re: The TRUE Power of Dragoons - share your stories.

I will agree with you one one thing there, LadyKiKi; I've never seen my wyvern ever have any kind of breath Paralyzed, so I don't believe it ever could. It's lost plenty of breaths from the fight ending; every Dragoon will see that many times daily, but never has Lum ever lost a breath due to Paralysis, even against rediculous Paralyzes like that from Byakko.