Afraid for a friend...

[Nova_Dresden]

Don't the single person instances in the MSQ start to give you an echo buff if you fail them a couple times? With that plus some nice crafted gear your friend should be able to get through.

Yes, they do. It does sometimes take a few failures for it to kick in though. Gear is a good improvement, but if he needs the gear then he really should just outlevel the content. If the fight is 42, then he'll either be capped at 45 or 46. Either way it's enough to have 4 pieces of AF armor, a lot more health, and some better abilities for the fight.

But again, if he's having issues there he's going to hate life going through the 2.1 through 2.55 stuff.

[KuriLing]

-Level 42 main scenario, he's level 44
-Doesn't have the situational awareness
-He can't take the hits
-He's got mobility issues in his hands

This explains everything, sadly to say your friend needs to switch to another class if he's having all of this issues, you need mobility and situational awareness if you're using a DRG, or any melee. Having issues with your hands while playing as a melee...it's 100% a no go, he needs to change.

-basement for the MSQ in Ishgard
-5 mobs.
-Caster, healer, three melee

And this is another reason why you need situational awareness and the easy steps to kill for any class:
Healer > Range > Melee > Tank
And you're basically done, simple. Healers are the number 1 go to kill-off list, any range should also be killed because they are squishy, melees even though they hit hard, still need to move in order to hit, and tanks for obvious reasons because they don't hit hard.

[Kaiser-Ace]

I'd recomend your friend traid his spear for a bow. Archer/Bard is alot more moble and far less taxing on avoiding attacks. It'd also prep him for Mechanist when he hit 3.0 content and would allow him to have a Gun.
Gun>>>>>>>>>Bows on the DPS Bad Ass meter.

[fm_fenrir]

And this is another reason why you need situational awareness and the easy steps to kill for any class:
Healer > Range > Melee > Tank

They even give you a couple guildhests to ram this point home, because ignoring the healers in, say, Stinging Back means you're in for a long fight (if not a wipe). Also, a DRG that can't take hits? Up until level 47 you have access to the same defense gear a tank class does, so you are literally just as equipped to take a beating as a WAR or PLD would be.

Past that point, you're still the most durable DPS class by a mile, with bloodbath, life surge, second wind all a fingertip away and access to the best defensive (keen flurry) with defense boosting backup from foresight. DRG does not die unless the player absolutely wants to.

edit: Also, I think echo bonuses only trigger if you've run the solo instance for a certain period of time before failing, like it is with any other trial/raid that has echo bonus. If you wipe on the first Titan landslide, you don't get an echo, but if you fail after heart, you get echo...

[Neophyte]

As someone mentioned: If it's too hard, your buddy should play to 45 and do the classquest first. Then he'll get gear, which is waaaaay better than his actual one (around 44 i think).

[Temjiu]

There have been some solid ideas here. I'd also suggest a class that is either tankier (take more of a beating). or has healing options (summoner). The advantage I found with leveling multple classes was if i couldn't beat the quest on one, I could switch over to the other. summoner is great since you get a pet to tank for you. But if he's not the caster type:


Other solid options (both are tanks) :
Paladin. Less damage, but can take a beating, and with a spammable interrupt/stun, can help with the casters.
Warrior: This one is a great option if you like the DRG. it's playstyle is similar, but less active moving around (more face tanking), and has some backup heals. since it's a tank, it will last longer against those kinds of fights.

I prefer the Warrior (Maruauder). fun class, feels much like the DRG (big weapon, 2 primary attack cycles, etc), and in it's late levels gets a DPS stance.

[jshinkoku1600]

I will have to sadly say your friend should stick to crafting if this aspect of the game is beyond the scope of playing.

Mostly this will result in the lack of interest a player can have and then be added to the skill aptitude of a player in these games. Your friend may enjoy these games but seemingly has no hand eye coordination to actually play them with a keyboard.
I would suggest getting them a controller and hope they nut up on playing this way.

MMORPGS can be fun but frustrating. Some people simply lack the mobility of mind and body to get this stuff done. If Siren is presenting a problem for them they will be unable to clear many of the other things found in the game later on. You mention Ishgard and that can be a troublesome quest.

If they can't get the MSQ stuff done you may want to direct them to crafting as I mentioned. This does not require them to move around a lot and well...they could be a super rich sum bitch if anything else.