NIN/DNC duo partner...your choice?Follow

What jobs/subs do you have might help and what you are trying to duo. Both of those can change the answer.

oh geez, don't have any real targets in mind of the top of my head. i dunno Charby? Simmy? KA? Sky pop NM's? maybe low man some ZNM's? Hagun ENM, mission NM's....i know most of these can be solo'd, but its usually safer with a partner.

any suggestions?

as for my jobs, all subs, 75brd,sam,drg,blu,rng,mnk ....working on getting rdm/dnc to 75 atm. guess i'm just curious as to if there's just one job that benefits it most of the time. i know things are situational, i'm tired of lvl'ing jobs though, and would just like to lvl one last job if i have too, or retire exp'ing and actually have some fun.

For Nin/Dnc, I'd say Rdm/Brd would be a great duo partner. Don't look at this unconventional sub and write it off just yet. We all know that brd songs are terribly gimped when subbed, but you can take advantage of melody earrings (+1) for 10-12 evasion skill in the 2 earring slots. Personally, I'd have the Rdm sing march to activate them. It'll be gimped, but even subbed, it's still 4% haste. So you effectively get 10-12 evasion skill, and 4% haste from his /brd. Not too bad IMO. The Rdm can also get 1 extra mp/tick.

Since you said you're trying to test your limits, I think this combo can push it pretty far. Just remember, this is a more of a defensive duo made for longevity, not a speed killing duo for mass slaughtering VT and under.

My 1st choice would be a rdm/nin or /whm without a doubt. I have however been duoing with a dnc/nin lately and its been alot of fun, although its a little harder to go after the "big game" with that combo as you lack the enfeebling prowess rdm provides.

Edit: And Haste, guess I thought that went without saying >.>

Edited, Jul 7th 2009 6:46pm by petersghost

For NMs: i would have to say brd or rdm. brd will buff you better but rdm can save your ass in a pinch. depends which NM basically.

For exp (at 75): drg, plain and simple. you wont get haste, you wont get buffed, but you will ultimately kill faster than with any other duo partner. in this situation you are more support for the drg than the drg is for you.

For exp (trip to 75): blu, rdm, or bst. with blu you will kill faster and keep chains a little easier. they can enfeeble pretty well, STUN, can help cure in 'oh sh*t' situations, and put out great dmg. rdm can buff you, do moderate dmg, and never really have to rest. bst is great to duo with if you can manage your hate.

Except duoing is less about killing fast and more about surviving. In this respect a brd supplements a nin/dnc more-so than a rdm will. At best a Rdm brings to the table haste. The most important enfeebles, i.e. blind, and slow, a Nin can do himself. Dia is nice but not a "need". Further, gravity has never been a staple of Nin solo/duoing. For Rdm it works great but for Nin whose primary damage comes from katanas it is counter productive.

Looking at Brd though a Ninja is able to not only use the songs Brd can give he can also enhance them through gear. "Usually" in a solo/duo situation a Ninja is going to be relying on evasion to mitigate a large portion of damage. In this train of thought it is important to remember that Brd can give two exceedingly more potent than /brd evasion songs to a Ninja. Further a Bard can Slow a Mob down with a song that can be planted on a enemy at the same time as Slow the spell (this is an important distinction). Also there is the matter of things like Melody earrings to consider that are opened up in the gear department to help push the evasion element further.

On top of all this there is the base idea of hate, a Brd with his limited MP pool is likely not going to ever produce as much hate as a rdm from cures. This in and of itself will help insure that hate stays planted firmly on the Nin, making the fight a more fluid, and less chaotic event. Also to consider is the fact that if you have a Rdm meleeing and healing, and enfeebling there is going to be times when he pulls hate from the Nin/Dnc. I don't know how many Nin/Dnc's you've duo'd with in full evasion gear but their hate line is very low, almost non-existent. Hate jumping around in a high danger duo situation can be the worst thing to happen and ultimately can be the difference between a successful attempt and failure.

As I said, in my experience brd/whm is hands down the best duo partner going right now for a Nin. True, Rdm is a close second as it does bring some unique things to the table, but in the presence of eledgy and evasion songs and the redundancy of slow and blind between Nin and Rdm line of spells I don't see the absence of haste as being that big of a hurdle.

Personal preference, I'd want a bard. Rdm are nice, but when you stack all those debuffs along with the damage they will pull hate over the nin/dnc.

BRD/WHM (dia 2, mambo, minuet, paeon, march, elegy, requiem)
RDM/NIN (dia 3, gravity, paralyze, haste, blind, melee damage + enspell, shadows, poison II)

NIN/DNC (shadows, paralyze, blind, slow, poison, def down, evasion down, endrain)


Coming from solo'ing a couple jobs to 75, I would go for damage negation vs increased damage. The goal is to get no one to die and the bard has a better shot at it. The rdm might be able to finish off the mob if the nin dies, but the nin stands a higher chance at survival with a brd for most mob types.

Now the times when I'd choose a RDM over a BRD are when I need a silence. At that point RDM would become a huge asset over BRD. The difference is marginal in all other situations with BRD edging out over a RDM on most mobs.

On the note of poisons and other DoTs like that, I would probably slap anyone who casts them while in duo with me... Especially when the job has a sleep spell. I want that emergency sleep/lullaby if the mob can be slept!

To explain my logic: If the mob is even slower that means there's more time between attack rounds for the nin to recast shadows. It also means there will be less attacks in the time that the recast counts down. This lets the shadows stay up longer. Couple that with the evasion that a BRD can give and you have a solid duo going. More on evasion in a second...

The BRD can cast resist element spells and songs where the RDM cannot without going /whm. The Bar spells they do have are single target for themselves. You might be thinking LOL-Bar spells. More times than not, they have helped me out of bad situations.

The big question for me at the moment is: Can the RDM give more evasion than the BRD?(RDM Blind vs NIN Blind + Mambo x2 + song gear) The BRD has two huge evasion songs, and things like melody earrings and the like help the ninja achieve a huge evasion build. With the ninja having Blind, the mob acc and evasion + points go to BRD over RDM.

This all goes back to the basic premise of killing things: "Get mob health to 0 before ours goes to 0." If the mob can't hit you fast and you evade often, you don't get to 0 as fast.


My answer and reason behind not wanting a support to take aggro is simple. I don't want my support that's making this fight so much easier to be the center of attention and possibly die leaving me out to dry. While it's not likely to happen with a RDM because of recast ect... it's still a distinct possibility more so than with a brd/whm who doesn't melee as hard as a RDM. Blind itself is a nice chunk of enmity. The BRD shouldn't pull hate off the nin/dnc especially if the ninja is using debuffs(blind, paralyze, slow, defense down and evasion down), heals, DD, and faux voke.

Both RDM and BRD are great selections to assist a ninja. I wouldn't look beyond those two jobs for a duo partner honestly. It is just my personal preference and play style that leads me to brd over rdm. I hope that explains where I'm coming from in a duo partner choice.