Question about RDM's

[Ennessa]

I have read that RDM's are the second best soloing jobs in the game. How is this possible? From what I have read RDM's are really a support/debuff type job. If they ARE good solo'rs, what is the best subjob for this and would having BLM as a job be good for parties and still allow me to solo occasionally?

[skoreanime]

Unlike other classes (Except for BST) you can solo fairly easily, just that taking on "Decent Challenge" 's after 30 is more of a stamina battle then anything else. The reason why RDM's are able to solo better then most jobs is because of their wide range of abilities. Our skill with a sword isn't the greatest, but it's still fairly decent. Also, buffing yourself up before a fight and debuffing the mob your fighting definitely helps.

And yes, having a BLM sub helps with landing debuffs. I believe it is the most common combo for RDM main. Personally, when I solo, I sub WAR. My full RSE and other equipment cover for my magic ability loss.

[Uroboros]

Later on you have Refresh to keep your manapool updating, you can debuff a mob into oblivion, and keep Stoneskin/Blink/Phalanx on yourself to keep yourself from actually getting hit. Whenever your defenses drop or the mob's enfeebles run out, you sleep them and reapply everything.

BLM is a great sub for solo, you get Drain and Aspir and Conserve MP.

Perhaps most important though, it's worth noting that the divide between the best solo job, and second best, is pretty enormous. BST is so far past every other job soloing that it's like a different game. They can consistently get the same exp as a decent party (3k+ an hour) on their own for the duration of the game. As an RDM soloing later, it will take you 10+ minutes to kill anything, so if you get 100+ exp a kill you're still not usually cracking even 1k exp an hour. The soloing is nicer for skilling yourself up on things that don't get worked on in parties rather than for actually leveling.

[Vinen]

the reason RDM make such good solo job is beause we are so veristal. we can Protect 4 shell 4 stoneskin blink etc. We can echant our weapons etc.
Ive actually soloed a even match at level 71 althou it took me a hour.