Reasonable Limits For A Duo? Best Duo Job Combo?

I've recently returned to this game to take my revenge after 15 years and managed to talk a friend into playing with me. We're both pretty fresh 99's, I've got 5 under my belt and she's got THF and DRG to 99 so far. And we're hitting a bit of a roadblock and not sure where to proceed from here. A lot of stuff feels like it's not worth doing or it's so abusively difficult that we stand no chance. What content can we expect to be able to handle and what's going to just be completely off-limits?

Alluvion Skirmish kicked our butts, but I think maybe we tried the wrong one - we tried Yorcia but none of the mobs seem doable. It's a lot of missing. The easiest ambuscade also rocked my world. Tried to unlock one of the ARK-EV trusts on the easiest setting... destroyed us.

I suspect that I need to farm up job points at this point for gifts to increase my stats more and went to try these apex mobs I've been told are worth oodles of JP. It was the fight of my life to kill even one of the leeches for only 2600 points a kill. I feel like I'm missing something obvious.

And the second part of my title question; best combo for 2 people to go as far as we can? I've heard lots of good things about dancer and my friend is playing that right now and loving it and I'm just wondering what my best option(s) are to work with that. Should I be using BLM for those mighty bursts? Should I do GEO for these insane buff/debuffs I've read about?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for your time.

I'm not going to reinvent the wheel by giving my opinion on what you should do. The good folks over at BG Wiki made this extremely painless on what to do/Content Progression Levels in their "Returning to Vana'diel' page. There's a whole chart and list of content that you can search from that page that should give you a good ballpark as to what you can tackle currently, and what you could work towards.

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Returning_to_Vana%27diel#Content_Tiers.2FProgression

You may or may not be able to skip some of this content, and you may need additional people to challenge some of it. Nonetheless, it's all there and worth the read and review.

SE has also listed their content progression on their website as well, but they aren't really going to just give you all of the juicy information that BG does. Can find that page: http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/contguide/

also this Quickstart_1-119_Guide

I feel dumb for not noticing the details in both of those guides. I know for certain I've read the quickstart 1-119 a bunch of times. This game has involved so many wiki pages that I'm having trouble keeping them all straight. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction there.

Any advice for job combos that work really well together?

If one of you wants to play a support job, and the other a DD job I would suggest Blu and Geo. If you're both wanting to play DD then Blu x2 will definitely take you pretty far. It would also give you two a lot to do together. Farming spells, and gear for blu is time consuming but really rewarding.

I guess that depends on what you eventually want to do in the game and how much time you want to invest... 2 X thf/dnc for dynamis if you want a relic weapon

We just trio'd our way through escha zi'tah nms smn burning all the things. If you want an aeonic.

Mythics... are a hell of a lot of work....

there are a bunch of returner linkshells on asura you could hang out with while you figure it all out.

You're going to get a ton of different responses to this, but I'm just going to give you my personal experience.

Play as many jobs as you can by getting most of them to 99, if possible. At least 49 for the sub. The best combinations of jobs are (1) Support OR Healer + (2) Hybrid DPS/Tank OR full out DD. You can even go TANK+DD if you're relying on trusts, also. The "OR" depends on either function from both groups 1 + 2. If you have a really good healer with you, you can afford to use a DD as your tank. Or if you have a really good support who can heal, you may not need a tank. Alternatively, if you're not a great DD, perhaps a slower pace as tank+healer would be better suited, and use the trust magic to fill the difference.

The reason I said to play as many jobs as is possible is because, simply, options. You gain a whole different perspective on what content you can do and how each job interacts with each other when you actually play them. You gain an appreciation for BRD singing when you know the struggles of seeing them drop mid-battle. You appreciate healers more when you realize that split second decisions matter.

You don't have to master and gear them all, and you don't have to play them all at once. Just pick a few jobs, and work towards gearing it. Then move onto something else to give you a change of pace. This will help keep your options open for shout/event groups much better than if you were only a THF or DRG. It will also improve your skills as a player the more jobs you learn how to play.

If your plan is to just duo, you can just pick the best jobs that can kill and stay alive long enough to kill whatever it is you're fighting.

People will tell you to [Play COR/BRD/GEO/WAR/SAM ], but I have noticed that that type of advice may not be good for players who are trying to return to the game. They invest heavily on one job, and they may not have all of the subs, gear, or experience for the job. And even if they do, if a group is only looking for a job they don't have, they can't participate. Keep your options open and play at least one tank, one mage/healer, one support, and one DD. You'll have more fun this way.

Lots of wiki pages list accuracy caps. Compare that to what this command tells you: /checkparam <me>

Ambuscade limits your rewards monthly, so I'd recommend doing that once you have a full set of 119 gear and enough different types of trusts to fill out other party needs. You can work towards +2 set-based armor (plus set ring) and job-specific capes (with selectable bonuses) from this content, which are probably both significant upgrades for you.

With respect to skirmish, I followed the content level progression while doing Records of Eminence objectives (there are many). Also, probably watch a video about Yorcia's, since the gimmick of the battle can do most of the work.

Easiest thing to do is Tank Healer Support.

So PLD/RUN WHM/RDM GEO/BRD/COR

I would do DD last cause everyone plays DD.

you kind of have to for duoing all the things because the dd trusts suck even after you upgrade them...except shantotto II she rocks, AAEV is a decent tank for low level stuff and yoran oran is a pretty good whm. toss in a bard or ayame who you can train to start off weaponskill chains then shantotto II drops the low tier nuke in after for magic burst

If you're looking for 2 jobs that will always get you into content with other people together; I'd recommend a tank, healer, or support combo.

But if you're just looking to clear content. Go for DD. :)

I'm down with playing pretty much anything. My goal on returning was to 99 every job and I'm on decent track to get that with 5 under my belt already. I was a WHM when I played 15 years ago, so I don't mind being a healer - and probably a smarter one than the trusts honestly. I also love the big numbers which is why I have BLM, RNG, NIN, THF and DRK at 99 first. The real challenge is going to be finding out what my friend is going to choose for her main and so far she's loving DNC and so am I seeing what it can do.

We really only plan to play as a duo, so joining other shells and stuff is out for us. We're happy with doing what's within our limits and being good with that. My thought pattern was that if she's liking dancer, then she can skillchain with herself and I can burst with a black mage. Or would it be better to do GEO to further enhance her by buffing/debuffing? I Realize it's a tough call when there's so many situational things where one group setup is more optimal than another at doing certain mobs. Lots of things I've read tell you about how good a class is to solo, but not as much about a duo to compliment them.

Is THIS how I actually know what my damn accuracy rating is? I've always know there's a ton of maths you can do to figure it, but you can just do this command? Goddamnit... lol That will help a lot, thanks so much

In this case, disregard most of what I said above; I'd recommend a DD+Support combo, such as GEO+DNC. Dancer can hold it's own as far as damage goes, and GEO is easy enough to buff someone while providing support in other ways. GEO has the advantage of being able to improvde Defense or Offense at any moment, so that sounds like the better option IMO. If you go the trust route, pick up a healer WHM (like Apururu or Yoran) and just aid them in case they get slept or silenced. You should be able to clear a lot of content this way.

Pretty much what buukki said, GEO + Hybrid DD (DNC, BLU, NIN, MNK, RUN) or of course, SMN. (Cor works too, but it's a little more advanced gearwise)

There isn't a whole lot that that combination can't do. (not efficiently, but effectively)

One person being a RUN subbing DRK makes a fantastic tank/heavy DD/hybrid job to do the damage you need for most things. Alternatively a decent BLU/WAR/DRK/DNC/NIN can fill this same role as a dd/tank to an extent

2nd person realistically will be some sort of healer. WHM being the obvious choice but RDM SCH or GEO as a backup work well too assuming you have Yoran-Oran unity and other support trusts (Ulmia, Qultada, Joachim, Koru/Arciela1/KoH, Sylvie, Cherukiki/Kupipi. To name a few worth working with)

This covers the basic DD/Healer combo but there are other combinations to consider Such as a blm+sch combo with tank trusts or pup+pup having both pets in a hybrid mode.

DNC + GEO is definitely a good combination and better than DNC + BLM. It's similar to BLU + GEO but you lose blue mage's AoE ability, which is nice on a few things. Remember that GEO gets access to tier V nukes and a lot of great nuking gear, so you'll be able to burst her Darkness skillchains as well. Make sure you have healing sets on GEO because Trusts can suck at healing. I'd join Apururu or Yoran-Oran Unity too.

Another combination that rocks is PUP + COR. The ability to have a pet that is almost unkillable and does good damage, plus pet attack/regen rolls and ranged damage, is pretty potent. You can melee with your automaton or, for dangerous stuff, stay and range and either Overdrive it down fast or use pure pet DD and take it down slowly.

then the quickest way would be to both level bst to 99, grab a cricket, and take turns wrecking puks and dragons in escha zi'tah with the corresponding RoE pages on while the other one follows.

get the KI Molifier so you dont pop Beist accidently

I've done a lot of dual boxing with BLU or SCH plus GEO. Have third account now too, but that doesn't usually change using one of those pairings.

Hybrid DD + GEO is probably your most flexible. Trust DD tends to be mediocre, as does its AI for support, crowd control, etc. So having the second person on a job that can do that more intelligently is good.

A good DT/Hybrid set and/or trust tanks will be fine for most of the applicable content, as will trust healers. Having the option for a backline setup is nice - SCH can do skillchains from the back, plus magic burst, and Helix spells are a great insurance policy on NMs.

Starting out, it may help to find jobs that can share some gear but shift role around. For instance, if your friend sticks with DNC, she could also turn around and use many of the same armor sets for COR, which would still work paired with GEO, or could do fun things with a SCH too.
Not that things like SMN would be a bad idea either, but they tend to take fairly specialized gear.

Surprisingly, the "light armor" DD happen to be some of the most low-man versatile jobs you can choose from. RUN, DNC, BLU seem to be the best choices, with NIN also being a useful option, if you are skilled enough. Monk is fine, too, but you're going to get better results with Dancer or Blue Mage, from my experience. DNC can aid the mage in healing a bit, and can remove status debuffs, and can use Fan Dance in a pinch if needed. BLU can use Occulation, stun lock, and magical aoe spells to clear ***out in a flash, and NIN can generally blink tank anything of danger if shadows don't get wiped. In short, all of these light-armor Hybrid DD jobs can take a hit and also put one out, and they all come with some gimmick to help them heal or negate damage.

Alternatively, jobs like SAM, DRK, DRG, and WAR are far more offensively-oriented, and put out impressive numbers, but may put stress on your healer, especially if it's a trust. SAM is fine with Seigan, though, and DRK has Dread Spikes to kind of rely on.

SMN and GEO.

You can ACburn almost all mid level content. When infirst returned my friend and i did this to catch me up fast.

Thanks again for the replies, peeps. It's helped a ton and given me something to think about. I should have asked on here a month ago

SMN and SMN

FYI, you're not supposed to attack the monsters that are running toward your base. Just the elements/butterflies (which don't have high evasion to a player in 117 sparks) scattered around for points, from which you can then spend on your own group of monsters to attack the opposing base. It's like FFXI's version of RTS.