Support Job preferences

[Zagen]

On "easy" stuff I tend to use /WHM or /RDM depending on how much I value Reraise/Repose over Fast Cast and Magic Attack Bonus II for a given event.

I tried out /DNC but it loses a lot without sambas and watlz wasn't needed, the evasion bonus was nice but overall I didn't find this to be better than /WHM or /RDM.

If I'm more DD than "tank" I use /WAR.

I've played around with /NIN a bit and it's helpful with the shadows but that's only true against targets that don't have aoe type melee attacks. I found dealing with those /NIN is more of a handicap than a boost due to focusing on spamming Usu over other things.


Subs on my "to experiment with" list are /PUP, /DRK, and /SAM.

• At face value /PUP doesn't seem to add much but the Evasion Bonus II and the cures/buffs from the puppet might be of benefit on easier targets. Not sure if that would really be much of a boost compared to other subs but it's on there either way.
• /SAM on the other hand seems straight forward high buff situations where I'd be more support/DD and less dedicated tank.
• /DRK shows potential well once they adjust Last Resort it will in my book be worth trying out.

Run dose have an high eva, using /nin could boost it up

Just pointing out to prevent confusion, as I'm sure it was just poor wording, /NIN only provides Utsusemi in the context of evasion, while that prevents from taking hits similar to how evasion works it's actually only consumed when evasion fails. So it doesn't directly boost RUN's evasion, only /THF, /PUP, or /DNC's Evasion Bonus traits actually does that.

[Babekeke]

If I'm more DD than "tank" I use /WAR.

How does that work out? Do you take extreme damage from AOE phys attacks? Can you keep up with other DDs at all? When fighting Ultima I found that my Resolutions were doing ~50% of the damage that I would do as DRG/SAM. Gear for both gives similar att/STR boosts, and aside from a little STR from hasso, some acc, and acc2 and att2 traits the WS are pretty similar. Damage on my polearm is only 5 higher than the GS I was using. Other than that it's just the difference in base stats for run/nin compared with drg/sam, and the att penalty of resolution. Unless there's something I missed, like maybe we had a brd when I went drg, idk.

I've played around with /NIN a bit and it's helpful with the shadows but that's only true against targets that don't have aoe type melee attacks. I found dealing with those /NIN is more of a handicap than a boost due to focusing on spamming Usu over other things.

I found it handy as a backup tank for the AOE phys spells, as that was the main time that shadows were consumed, and it meant I took very little damage the whole fight. Also reducing the CE lost from being hit, of course.

Just pointing out to prevent confusion, as I'm sure it was just poor wording, /NIN only provides Utsusemi in the context of evasion, while that prevents from taking hits similar to how evasion works it's actually only consumed when evasion fails. So it doesn't directly boost RUN's evasion, only /THF, /PUP, or /DNC's Evasion Bonus traits actually does that.

And a bit more agi from /nin rather than /war or /sam, but yeah basically shadows to prolong your eva. Remember too that the agi helps with the all important parrying for RUN.

[Zagen]

How does that work out? Do you take extreme damage from AOE phys attacks? Can you keep up with other DDs at all? When fighting Ultima I found that my Resolutions were doing ~50% of the damage that I would do as DRG/SAM. Gear for both gives similar att/STR boosts, and aside from a little STR from hasso, some acc, and acc2 and att2 traits the WS are pretty similar. Damage on my polearm is only 5 higher than the GS I was using. Other than that it's just the difference in base stats for run/nin compared with drg/sam, and the att penalty of resolution. Unless there's something I missed, like maybe we had a brd when I went drg, idk.

Keep in mind I'm going off eyeball memory so take my statements with a grain of salt. At some point I'll get around to my planned parsing to see how much I'm actually doing based on subs, I could just math it out but I don't know the stats on some of the targets and it I'd like to know what I'm capable of doing as a player not just my optimal potential.

With /WAR overall I noticed a 100-500 boost in WS damage. The damage taken while Berserk was up 50~300 more.

I found it handy as a backup tank for the AOE phys spells, as that was the main time that shadows were consumed, and it meant I took very little damage the whole fight. Also reducing the CE lost from being hit, of course.

For AoE TP moves I definitely like shadows and honestly I'm leaning toward /NIN being the go to sub option unless I'm just a DD/Support then it'll be /WAR and maybe /DRK. My only issue with the shadows was on stuff like Iron Giants, Mantis, Naraka, etc. (AoE melee hits) I found I was wasting my time (and damage potential) trying to put/keep up shadows instead of just eating the damage and working on killing faster.

Heh I forgot about the few extra AGI from /NIN so I guess it can potentially boost evasion 1-2 points depending on what you're comparing it with.