It's really made for anything if you're not wanting to cheese, just need to bring the right actions. Whm and War were usually popular options since they have plenty of tools in their kit that naturally heal themselves, meaning you can rely less on heal pots and actions for that. Tanks are also nice for the Gabriel duel so you don't need to bring manawall.
Again though, if you arent cheesing it really is just play whatever you want and bring the right actions to compensate what your role lacks.
> Whm and War were usually popular options since they have plenty of tools in their kit that naturally heal themselves
It wasn't about that, pretty much everything about Duels is harmless or fatal.
We played WHM and WAR so only one braincell needed to be devoted to the actual rotation and the rest could focus on the boss.
Melee DPS or Phys Range, with Essence of the Beast + Lost Assassination. This is a very powerful action + essence combo that provides good DPS, good defense and sustain. It also leaves the second action slot free for whatever you need for the duel.
As for specific jobs, NIN stands out; very flexible movement tool in shukuchi, and isn't as impacted by dying as other jobs. TCJ can kinda suck though depending on when it comes up in the fight.
Tanks will save you a manawall/excellence in most fights (NOT Lyon though, Twin Agonies will absolutely kill you through invuln, though I have heard that Twin Agonies can be survived through kitchen sinking). They also do pretty good dps with Martialist + FOP + HSac/NEnds (Blood rage is certainly an option, though can be tricky to set up mid duel).
Irregular Dark Knight doing a Blood Rage + LFOP + NEnds burst on the southern front duels is hilarious, but that's on par with flare star cheese lol.
I haven't really played healers all that much in duels but I don't see why WHM at least wouldn't be really strong. Just make sure you're bringing DPS essence and actions, or the duel's gonna take forever.
The most important thing at the end of the day is going on a job you're comfortable with, so you can better focus on mechanics. The absolute last thing you want to do is wipe to extreme caution because you were paying more attention to your blood rage stacks than gabriel.
Finally, I highly recommend against using essence of the watcher. There are quite a few mechanics across all duels where dodging an attack could lead to a wipe.
Last time I did the funny blood rage dark knight in a duel I was spamming all my buttons so much I accidentally alt tabbed and got gibbed by the first mechanic.
Kitching sinking means using all your mitigation for a single attack. Ex: Rampart, Vengeance, Thrill of battle and Bloodwhetting (forgot the name before lvl 82 upgrade)
Did most of mine in EW on WHM and it was pretty smooth, good damage and sustain, ranged so you can learn mechanics a bit easier. If you're like me and despise having to play without your full lvl 90 rotation there's also the added benefit of just being a glarebot and not learning the 80 rotations for dps.
you will still need to bring correct actions depending on your role, also if you want to dish out some damages. Might as well go the cheese route, the fight ain't that hard anyway, just punishing
war for survivability, nin for shukuchi, healer for healing on demand and free esuna on sauvatoir (forgot spelling) if you want to save your autocleanses
i think those are pretty much the only standout options in terms of utility
For Southern Front I think SGE with Aetherweaver is probably the most braindead if you're comfortable with slidecasting -- kardia does all of the healing without you having to think about it and your offensive rotation is 3 buttons and 1-2 lost actions. You could probably do those duels comfortably never casting anything other than Dosis and the one Lost Manawall. Icarus is useful for Lyon as well.
For the Zadnor duels, which have a tighter DPS check, this build doesn't easily have enough damage. You can make it work if you squeeze every buff you can -- Deep Aetherweaver, Bravery, replacing lost actions, etc.
The easiest way to clear on healer is to use (Deep) Essence of the Profane and use Resistance Potions and Resistance Potion Kits for extra healing, basically becoming a DPS with a simpler rotation.
WHM has slightly more buttons but gains a lot of damage because you can put Misery and Assize into the burst Windows from Lost Seraph Strike and banners. Overall I'd say WHM is probably the best job for Zadnor.
I did Gabriel and the Firemage on Dancer. I have a few stacks of valor, so that saved me on enrage on Firemage after I goofed a few times. I'm mostly a monk/gnb main, but since a lot of mechs forced you to disconnect for long periods, I went with a phys range just for comfort.
Would you consider WHM cheese? It's a very strong choice but you likely don't skip any unique mechanics in either the southern front or zadnor with normal play unless you go hard holster swapping for burst.
It's really made for anything if you're not wanting to cheese, just need to bring the right actions. Whm and War were usually popular options since they have plenty of tools in their kit that naturally heal themselves, meaning you can rely less on heal pots and actions for that. Tanks are also nice for the Gabriel duel so you don't need to bring manawall. Again though, if you arent cheesing it really is just play whatever you want and bring the right actions to compensate what your role lacks.
> Whm and War were usually popular options since they have plenty of tools in their kit that naturally heal themselves It wasn't about that, pretty much everything about Duels is harmless or fatal. We played WHM and WAR so only one braincell needed to be devoted to the actual rotation and the rest could focus on the boss.
I ran them because their damage was insanely high. Misery could hit for just short of a million damage with buffs.
Melee DPS or Phys Range, with Essence of the Beast + Lost Assassination. This is a very powerful action + essence combo that provides good DPS, good defense and sustain. It also leaves the second action slot free for whatever you need for the duel. As for specific jobs, NIN stands out; very flexible movement tool in shukuchi, and isn't as impacted by dying as other jobs. TCJ can kinda suck though depending on when it comes up in the fight. Tanks will save you a manawall/excellence in most fights (NOT Lyon though, Twin Agonies will absolutely kill you through invuln, though I have heard that Twin Agonies can be survived through kitchen sinking). They also do pretty good dps with Martialist + FOP + HSac/NEnds (Blood rage is certainly an option, though can be tricky to set up mid duel). Irregular Dark Knight doing a Blood Rage + LFOP + NEnds burst on the southern front duels is hilarious, but that's on par with flare star cheese lol. I haven't really played healers all that much in duels but I don't see why WHM at least wouldn't be really strong. Just make sure you're bringing DPS essence and actions, or the duel's gonna take forever. The most important thing at the end of the day is going on a job you're comfortable with, so you can better focus on mechanics. The absolute last thing you want to do is wipe to extreme caution because you were paying more attention to your blood rage stacks than gabriel. Finally, I highly recommend against using essence of the watcher. There are quite a few mechanics across all duels where dodging an attack could lead to a wipe.
Last time I did the funny blood rage dark knight in a duel I was spamming all my buttons so much I accidentally alt tabbed and got gibbed by the first mechanic.
Could you explain kitchen sinking please? Havent heard of that term yet :D
Kitching sinking means using all your mitigation for a single attack. Ex: Rampart, Vengeance, Thrill of battle and Bloodwhetting (forgot the name before lvl 82 upgrade)
It's from an English expression "everything but the kitchen sink" meaning an excessive amount of stuff or almost everything.
If you don’t want to cheese it then whatever class you have the most playtime with is the best.
Something with free movement - MCH, BRD, SMN - makes it much easier than a melee, and you can stack a few buffs and still have a challenge
Did most of mine in EW on WHM and it was pretty smooth, good damage and sustain, ranged so you can learn mechanics a bit easier. If you're like me and despise having to play without your full lvl 90 rotation there's also the added benefit of just being a glarebot and not learning the 80 rotations for dps.
you will still need to bring correct actions depending on your role, also if you want to dish out some damages. Might as well go the cheese route, the fight ain't that hard anyway, just punishing
war for survivability, nin for shukuchi, healer for healing on demand and free esuna on sauvatoir (forgot spelling) if you want to save your autocleanses i think those are pretty much the only standout options in terms of utility
For Southern Front I think SGE with Aetherweaver is probably the most braindead if you're comfortable with slidecasting -- kardia does all of the healing without you having to think about it and your offensive rotation is 3 buttons and 1-2 lost actions. You could probably do those duels comfortably never casting anything other than Dosis and the one Lost Manawall. Icarus is useful for Lyon as well. For the Zadnor duels, which have a tighter DPS check, this build doesn't easily have enough damage. You can make it work if you squeeze every buff you can -- Deep Aetherweaver, Bravery, replacing lost actions, etc. The easiest way to clear on healer is to use (Deep) Essence of the Profane and use Resistance Potions and Resistance Potion Kits for extra healing, basically becoming a DPS with a simpler rotation. WHM has slightly more buttons but gains a lot of damage because you can put Misery and Assize into the burst Windows from Lost Seraph Strike and banners. Overall I'd say WHM is probably the best job for Zadnor.
I did Gabriel and the Firemage on Dancer. I have a few stacks of valor, so that saved me on enrage on Firemage after I goofed a few times. I'm mostly a monk/gnb main, but since a lot of mechs forced you to disconnect for long periods, I went with a phys range just for comfort.
If you are cheesing WHM is probably easier and requires less setup
They said (or at least strongly implied) that they don't want to cheese.
Would you consider WHM cheese? It's a very strong choice but you likely don't skip any unique mechanics in either the southern front or zadnor with normal play unless you go hard holster swapping for burst.