Dragoon: Guide to Races and Subjob Selection

Category:Guides
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==Job Overview==
Available after completing The Holy Crest.
With their lances in hand and their faithful Dragoon Wyvern by their sides, dragoons suprise their enemies with their extraordinary jumping abilities.
===Strengths===
*Having a Wyvern around provides a constant stream of extra damage.
*Wyverns can use a variety of different breath abilities depending on your support job.
*The Wyvern's Healing Breath is the most MP efficient healing ability in the game.
*Jump abilities, when used in conjunction with a high delay lance, cut off a substantial amount of time required to attain 100% TP. This makes Dragoon one of the faster TP building melee jobs.
*Jump abilities allow a Dragoon to shed hate accumulated through battle.
*Polearms are extremely effective vs Flying enemies.
*While lacking exceptional defensive abilities, Dragoon has the faculty of soloing monsters efficently, often taking on monsters two or three levels higher than him/herself at higher levels by making use of the wyvern's healing breath ability.
*Dragoon shines in overwhelmingly powerful party setups, ie. well-oiled merit parties. By making use of wyvern damage, TP and damage from extra attacks provided by Double Attack/Jump/High Jump, and the weapon skill Penta Thrust paired with supplemented attack stats, Dragoon makes a formidable melee job.
===Weaknesses===
*Has a general lack of utility. While most jobs have a function or purpose that allows them to be implemented in a versatile manner, Dragoon can perform damage dealing duties with no peripheral function, or be implemented as a fairly mediocre healer in a group situation. Dragoon also has an exclusive specialization in the polearm, but lacks a viable secondary weapon choice for the most part.
*Polearm users rely on a wide array of multi-hit weapon skills, all of which have a very demanding stat requirement to meet an acceptable damage potential in respective party environments. While this is mostly a non-issue as a Dragoon reaches level 75 (due to better equipment choices, lessened dependency on multi-hits, and relatively weaker opponents), weapon skill damage at lower levels can be discouragingly low unless used with exceptional equipment in ideal party settings.
*Dragoon soloing stratagems are rigid and often entail a degree of risk some may find to be unproductive. For example, a Dragoon can not solo a monster which can potentially take a large portion of HP with one special ability, or a monster that would interfere with his/her wyvern's functionality with a heavy area of effect damage ability or enfeeble. This leaves fewer safe soloing options.
*Comparatively lower base stats when compared to other melee jobs. The lack of base Strength hurts Dragoon's ability to adequately damage some defensive opponents.
==Race Selection==
===Starting Stats===
Race 	HP	MP	STR	DEX	VIT	AGI	INT	MND	CHR
Hume 	30	0 	7 	6 	7 	6 	5 	6 	7
Elvaan 	32	0 	8 	6 	8 	5 	4 	7 	7
Tarutaru	26	0 	6 	6 	7 	7 	7 	6 	7
Galka 	35	0 	8 	6 	9 	6 	5 	6 	6
Mithra 	30	0 	7 	8 	7 	7 	5 	6 	6
Thanks to [JesterX] for this info!
==Support Job Options==
The choices listed below are by no means the only options available. Feel free to experiment with any combination suits your fancy.
===Warrior===
Choosing Warrior as a support job will give the Dragoon an Offensive Wyvern, increasing his damage potential. The stat bonuses of Warrior add to this even more. Provoke allows a Dragoon to pull hate away from other party member, or from his wyvern as needed. Later on, Berserk, Double Attack, and Warcry provide a much needed TP and attack boost. A great option for dragoons when pitted against high defense enemies such as crabs and beetles. For enemies that have a weakness to piercing damage, Samurai is the better sub job choice for optimizing damage output in weaponskills.
===Thief===
Among melee jobs, Thief is uniformly subbed as a weapon skill buff. Sneak Attack and Trick Attack are used together before a weapon skill to intensify its effects. However, it is important to know where the benefits begin and end before using this subjob. Trick Attack when used as a subbed ability does not add any damage, but still makes the next hit transfer its hate to the person standing directly in front of you. Sneak Attack ensures that the next attack will land with 100% surety and that that hit will be a critical, provided you are standing behind the enemy. It is important to note, however, that in the case of multi-hit weapon skills, (For Dragoon primarily Double Thrust, Penta Thrust, Skewer, and Impulse Drive) the effect of Sneak Attack only applies to the first hit. The transfer of hate from Trick Attack applies to all damage done by the weapon skill.
What this means is that Sneak Attack has a marginal benefit on weapon skills that hit many times (especially penta thrust in this case), and a much greater damage benefit on weapon skills with few or single hits. For example, Wheeling Thrust is the most reliable weapon skill to sneak attack in the Dragoon's arsenal because it hits once with (relatively) tremendous force. A Dragoon can also take advantage of the fact that his SA'd weapon skills can't miss to temporarily equip armor and accessories that increase his strength and attack in lieu of accuracy to increase his weapon skill damage even further. Using Sneak Attack on Jump with a similar strategy is also feasible.
Outside of the weapon skill, however, this subjob offers no benefits. Also, depending on the situation, a DRG/WAR or DRG/SAM may actually perform more powerful weapon skills than a DRG/THF simply because of the attack and strength advantages, as well as being able to do those weapon skills more often and hitting harder on normal swings. It depends on the usage of the weapon skill. A DRG/THF's Wheeling Thrust will be more powerful than a DRG/WAR's, but a DRG/WAR or DRG/SAM's Penta Thrust will be close to or greater than a DRG/THF's Wheeling Thrust.
Most agree that in typical exp situations, left to his own devices a DRG/WAR or DRG/SAM will do more raw damage than a DRG/THF. However, a DRG/THF has strategic implementations a DRG/WAR doesn't have as an skillchain closer (the damage done by the closing weapon skill in a skillchain determines the damage it can do), and as an aid for tanks to acquire enmity via a strong Trick Attacked Weapon Skill. Also, in non-typical situations against extremely strong monsters, a high level DRG/THF can be more effective by relying on consistent high damage weapon skills. Ultimately, preference on one or the other is entirely situational and it's best to have both prepared. However, most Dragoons generally get more mileage out of subbing Samurai or Warrior.
===Samurai===
Samurai offers two passive Store TP traits, and the active abilities Third Eye and Meditate.
As of 19/10/06, Samurai gained the abilities Hasso (lv.25) and Seigan (lv.35) and the job trait Zanshin (lv.20). Hasso gives a boost to strength, accuracy and attacking speed while using a two-handed weapon, Seigan allows Third Eye to absorb/counter multiple hits, and Zanshin will randomly execute a second attack on the event of missing a swing, potentially resulting in making up for the lost hit. These abilities make Samurai a more attractive subjob for Dragoon.
===Beastmaster===
Due to the inability to have two pets at once(i.e. the Dragoon's Wyvern and a charmed monster), this is a moot subjob option, with the exeption of needing an Offensive Wyvern, and possibly the extra Killer traits Beastmaster gives.
===White Mage===
Useful in party as well as solo, White Mage gives a dragoon a Defensive Wyvern. Since the wyvern's curative breaths can affect any party member, this makes him a useful backup healer. Access to the -na spell line allows him to cure party member or himself of any nasty effects that may come his way. White Mage also gives Dragoon access to Curaga I and II, which can be used in conjunction with Divine Seal and Super Jump as a harmless area of effect heal.
===Red Mage===
Red Mage provides the same Defensive Wyvern. Poison provides the dragoon with a quick and cheap way to provide himself and his party with cures. Later on, the single target Bar-element spells provide him with an even faster way to cure (as the breath takes affect after the spell is cast) that is only 1 more MP than Poison, attracts less hate, and does not give the mob TP. The smaller MP pool is offset by cheaper spells.
Red Mage has an advantage over White Mage in that the single target Bar-Spells are a superior healing breath trigger to Dia. However, White Mage provides Na-spells and Erase, Curaga and Divine Seal. A faster healing breath trigger is always desirable but not necessarily required, while na-spells and Erase are either essential or completely useless. Most Dragoons agree that as soloing subjobs the preference over one or the other is situational.
After reaching Dragoon level 32, Red Mage sub allows access to the En- spells, starting with Enthunder. This allows the Dragoon to deal slightly more damage with each attack, along with tailoring the damage to the monsters elemental weakness.
===Scholar===
Scholar like many of the mage jobs provides the dragoon with a defensive wyvern and a wide range of spells to pull from. The chief difference between this sub job and the others, is the ability to have access to magic skill proficiency with the use of dark and light arts. This gives dragoon a higher chance of landing certain spells like sleep and aspir, giving dragoon a new arsenal of magic use efficiency.
===Ranger===
Ranger provides an offensive wyvern. It also provides Accuracy Bonus I and II. The first is eventually over-written by Dragoon's inherent accuracy bonus at level 30, and second is only inherited at level 60. Lacking a better subjob option, Ranger is a viable Dragoon sub from levels 20-29 simply for the passive 10 accuracy. The second accuracy bonus is a moot point, as Dragoon gets Accuracy Bonus II at level 50.
===Ninja===
Ninja provides the multipurpose wyvern, Dual Wield, and Ninjutsu. Dual Wield is mostly wasted as polearms are two-handed, with the next most effective Dragoon weapon being staff, also two-handed. Ninjutsu enfeebles and nukes are ineffective due to half-level ninjutsu skill. When Utsusemi: Ni rolls into the Dragoon reportoire at level 74, it can be used much as any other job would use it. Because of the slow casting time in Ninjutsu and reduced trigger HP, Dragoon/Ninja's can only rely on healing breaths in an indirect manner. This makes Ninja a dubious soloing and party choice. Subbing ninja is a wonderful tool for dragoons in events like Nyzul isle where monsters are agressive to magic and job abilities.
===Paladin===
Although it may be argued if the DRG/PLD combination makes any sense at all, the Paladin, however is one out of the four classes that can use a polearm (although weak it may be). The Paladin may provide some extra defense and protection from undead. It has a few traits and abilities that improve shield use, but that won't be a question since the Dragoon will NEVER use shields. But, on the bright side, it provides a very useful multipurpose wyvern.
===Dancer===
Like the Paladin this job combination seems to make little sense at first glance. The Sambas and Waltzes use TP that is generally used for skills such as Penta Thrust. However it is a great solo option, allowing you to have an offensive wyvern yet have healing skills from Curing Waltz and Divine Waltz, as well as having Sneak and Invisible via Spectral Jig. In addition this sub gives its own version of Provoke in the form of Animated Flourish. This combined with Quickstep to lower enemy evasion, which counteracts the low accuracy of the Dragoon class, and you have a well rounded, yet unorthodox Subjob for soloing. Dancer is an incredible soloing option against monsters that are aggressive to magic and can make dragoon more survivable in such situations.
===Blue Mage===
Not quite as useful in a party environment but it provides more attributes if you're a soloist. With Cocoon at a high level you'll see about 120 increase in defense. This subjob is more for soloing without the aid of others unlike the other 2 mage subs which can benefit other party members. Although the spells may not be as potent Foot Kick and Sprout Smack are both excellent choices to trigger Healing Breath because of their low mp cost coupled with fast casting and recast times. Overall, blue mage is an excellent subjob that allows dragoons to equip spell sets that infuse valuable job traits with optimal stat boosts.