Which (situational) sub to level first? Follow

RDM after DNC then DRK. /BLU is for super tanking only (Divine might is the only place I remember it being mentioned at all)...which you won't do often, if at all.

Quick question, is /blu better than /rdm for super tanking? Cacoon and such better than stoneskin? I get the feeling I'm missing something huge XD

If your supertanking, good luck putting up stoneskin again.

/BLU just offers a massive defense bonus, and given all you will be able to do is stand still and get reefed on, its pretty good just for that. Not that adding that much more defense helps all that much, but the 1 level of mdb from /rdm isn't that much better. I don't have /blu so for the few times I've supertanked DM I went /war anyways. You can get reprisal off easily still, and cures are a little difficult but manageable.

In regards to supertanking and /rdm holding hate better... eh? The idea of super tanking is to run in and grab that 'initial' aggro, then have them all hit you while your alliance/party picks them off one by one. By you casting flash or provoking or w/e on a guy, you screw things up for hate control, since your healers will be laying cure bombs on you, if you have hate on one there's a good chance they might take hate too.

If you have /rdm, you technically don't ever need /dnc (as people who post here a lot know, I hate /dnc).

Really, everything that pld/dnc can do, pld/rdm can do better.

/drk is actually optional too, unless your ls actually allows /drk to dynamis. Or unless you've found another use thats never occurred to me :p

I still occasionally go /whm to campaign, specifically for the reraise capability. One thing about Stoneskin is that it actually reduces some of our potential XP: taking damage. I throw it on when fighting the NMs but usually prefer to leave it off for the little guys.

Of course, lately, if I do campaign, it's on BLU.

I also am not a huge fan of /DNC. I know it has potential, but I've always had more luck with /RDM than with /DNC. I'm glad others have a use for it, but it just seems so... lackluster to me. I mean, it feels like I HAVE to use DD gear with /DNC to make it effective. And that doesn't sit as well with me as you'd think.

The point isn't that I GET to use DD gear... it's that I HAVE to use it to use a subjob effectively. The subjob should support the style; the style should not be necessary for the subjob.

I've used it in Dynamis, I like /RDM better though.

I've kited stuff /DRK, and played around with it a bit, but everything that I've done /DRK I've found easier and more effiecient /RDM.

I'm surprised no one commented on the valhalla helm over mhead before.

The reason I wear it in campaign, is the mobs in campaign are only like decent challenge. With all shield gear besides mhead, I can already almost max out the block rate against them, as you can see in the video. The mhead offers literally almost no difference with or without. Valhalla Helm offered a very visible increase though, because it reduces the damage of their unblocked hits by an additional 5%. This actually pushes a pretty good chunk of their regular hits from being 1-2 damage, down to 0 with Phalanx.

With Haute, Terror shield, Valhalla Helm, and jelly ring, thats -27% physical damage. Calculating that up, that pushs about every hit thats 28 damage or lower to an automatic 0. When I get my Valhalla Breastplate, that'll kick it up to 30 damage or lower. Assuming I have the 65% capped block rate, thats 65% of the time its already 0, and then with food, protect, and usual 560 defense, every hit below 28 unblocked is also an automatic 0. This also reduces feather storm and the whirl attack to automatic 0.

With how weak the usual campaign mob is, especially monks like I have in that video, that means easily 80% of the hits I take are 0, 65%+ of the 0's give me 3-5 tp, and the majority of what slips through is single digits. I did monks for the video because it looks more impressive with the flurry of swings, but I can barely manage it against harder melees like war or drg or sam.

Edited, Feb 24th 2009 5:42pm by Asdrabael

Try tanking Khimaira 13 toa Mission 22 with a cor/whm as pld/rdm. I duo with my friend asheda and win.