DRG @ 99

Possible addition of another jump ability either 76-99, or prior to that with the job adjustments. Also buffs to make wyvern more powerful.

Beyond that though I'm wondering what you guys think DRG will be like at 99, what subs will bring, and how that will affect our play.

Healing breath IV anyone?

New ws?

Wheeling Thrust except not ***? That would be cool.

/SAM still wins for pure DD. /BLU still wins for soloing I think, though the weak Phalanx from /RDM gets a bit of a buff. 10%+ Haste while soloing is pretty awesome if you can afford the MP drain, but other than that I don't see any real changes happening outside of the incoming buffs to the job itself.

DRG at 99 will still be loldrg! But I love it! <3

What level is 'Refueling' Coz haste on that as /blu with soloing would be hawt

48, so you wouldn't get it until level 96.

sucks that you wouldn't get auto refresh, but still drg/blu is crazy good as it is.

Penta Penta thrust!! Goodbye birdies

Drg/Rdm out plays /bLu. Rdm has Haste/Phal/Convert/Refresh while Blu has Haste and a quick 5mp spell for Healing Breathe3. So /Rdm rules!

/RDM is inferior in every way that counts for solo. /RDM only wins if you need access to fast, self-target spells to cure other people.

You kidding? Rdm out do Blu any day/ for sub that is not making fun of any blus out there

Cocoon says wassup. /RDM is the new king for anybody without Ethereal Earring, but a 12 damage Phalanx does not outweigh Cocoon if you've got Ethereal Earring feeding you MP. On lesser solos /RDM will win via faster kills, but for anything challenging I'd still take /BLU.

What benefit does /RDM give over /BLU when not playing with other people?

And what if you don't have Ethereal EArring if your a drg out there?

Refresh/More MP/Fast Cast/ I'm just saying if subs gong to be 49 rdm is better then Blu. But w/e it depends on how you play

Already addressed this with a note that Refresh carries it here, but the best answer is to get Ethereal. It's too powerful for DRG soloists to pass up and if it's your third string or lower job you're probably not soloing on it anyway so it's irrelevant in that case.

EDIT: Max MP is irrelevant, playstyle is a terrible argument.

What do you do if you ran out of mp?

If you run out of MP, you're doing it wrong.

Not that this would be a huge deal... but /BLU would give you access to chain affinity..Would be a fun bonus to be able to self SC, even if for not much damage. Not sure what BLU spells would SC with polearm.. hopefully Head butt or foot kick or something cheap.. so you can trigger a HB on your self SC for added awesomeness!

yeah that was a bad one....:x

Also, I'm fairly sure /blu allows more HP (along with more HP+ spells) which means higher HP procs, and better chance at staying alive.

Granted I'm a galka, back when I was looking up all this stuff, and checking the difference, without any auto refresh and ethereal, I got MORE procs from /blu, if I cast no other spells then the 5 mp spells (BLU) and 6 (RDM).

In the end though, I believe /BLU and /RDM are PREFERANCES.

You get more than just 12 dmg phalan.

Phalanx last alot longer than cocooon for 1.

Phalanx can block more if you put pretty much any enhancing gear on.

Fast cast/MDB II loves you.

Ice spikes to para the mob.

5% more haste.

Pro III/shell II

Enspells

Dia II to speed up kills

Bio II to slow down mob killing you.

Bar-spells to help mitigate negative status effects

The ability to actually spam stuff like that without regards to mp thanks to convert and refresh

You shouldn't be running out of MP. Where ever you shall decide to solo, you should have at 1MP/tick refresh (Sigil, Sanction, or FoV). If you're not healing yourself at a faster rate than you're gaining your MP back, you should be fine.

If you don't have the Ethereal, Refresh will help a lot. Refresh makes the Ethereal even nicer. With Sigil/Sanction/Fov, Ares, and Refresh, you're getting 5MP/tick, then any MP you get from the Ethereal. You shouldn't run out of MP.

With just Sanction and an Ethereal, I wasn't running out of MP when I did Flies in the mire. The only thing I really like about Blu is the fast trigger for HBs with the low recasts. Dia isn't that bad of a trigger once you get the timing down, neither is Poison. It's all just about what your preference is.

The other thing it's about is not running out of MP. If you're running out, you're doing it wrong.

DRG subjob is situational. You might just need /whm sometimes. /blu is overall better if you don't need to cure your status much.

DRG99 is definitely one I'm looking forward to. I'm sick of my SAM lately, but I'm definitely taking THF and DRG to 99. =)

Oh come on ! I love /RDM for many reasons*, i don't care to know if /BLU is much better or not, because i'm feeling too lazy to level it... My preference would go to /WHM tho, for raise and reraise options that can be handy :P

*Protect, Dia II etc...

I Usually use /whm for hanging, i use blu only when i want to get serious.

Whm is so useful... teleports, -na, erase, reraise(you never know what can happen:P), stoneskin and such..

Personally, the /RDM, /WHM and /BLU arguement is stupid. They're all situational to me. I go /RDM for Nyzul to assist healing while still having sneak/invisible, /WHM if status removing is required, such as shark soloing, /BLU if it hits hard and I wanna lower it (Greater Birdies).

Its all situational in the end, theres no one sub for DRG/Mage, any good DRG should know this.

^ This

Ihm's right, there's no one subjob for DRG/mage. I've got all of them leveled 'cept for RDM, though I'm working on that once I get Phalanx. (stupid price jacking, they used to be 50k!) But I've played /BLU, /WHM, and I get the concept behind /RDM too. Each has its own benefits for the situation.

/BLU is a great soloing job between Cocoon for defense, a fast, cheap HB trigger, and the rest of the spells being used for stats alone or for traits like Auto-Regen or Clear Mind. The downside is that Cocoon can drain MP fast if you don't watch it, and when we get Refueling witth the new level caps... say buh-bye MP. We can't set Conserve MP.

/WHM is the one I generally use when I'm not facing uber-strong mobs like Greater Colibri. Reraise is my best friend, not to mention Protect/Shell for some additional defenses. With the update DRG will get Haste on /WHM, meaning another MP drain... bleh. We'll have Regen II for less downtime and Protect III at least. I don't see /WHM really benefiting here though.

/RDM is the big uproar right now because of Refresh. It already had Phalanx as early as DRG66, so that's not the issue. Traits don't get a huge improvement; the MAB II doesn't matter because even with the Wyrm Mail transferring the trait it's a support wyvern subjob, so that's pointless. MDB is nice, I suppose. But Refresh, and Haste at DRG96/RDM48 using that Refresh to offset it would be nice, and you can still use a cheap Barstone for a 6 MP HB trigger.

As it's been stated, all three subjobs have their ups and downs. It's mostly situational, and it's mostly preference. The point of the game isn't to play a job a certain way just because they say "This is how you do it." Play it the way that works best for you.