Favorite Party Setup

I know this probably differs by level, but what are your favorite six jobs to form a party? From about 30-50 this has been my ideal setup so far:

Paladin/Warrior (me! Taru PLDs are the best tanks ever)
White Mage/Black Mage (the lifeblood, and Regen and Haste are pretty nice)
Black Mage/White Mage (Does the most damage of any class)
Red Mage/White Mage (With Refresh and Convert there is never any downtime)
Dark Knight/Warrior (I've found them to be the most consistent DD melee, and they make good SATA partners)
Thief/Ninja (Man I love SATA, gives me a buttload of hate to start the battle and does some sweet damage, THF is a good puller too)

There are plenty of efficient parties but when I am forming a group and there are a lot of people looking I tend to fall back on this setup.

though a not a very good one, a full party of Bards would be mine :]

n_n-b

At 75 for merits it would either have to be.

3xWAR/NIN, RDM/WHM, BRD/WHM, BRD/NIN

or

4xWAR/NIN, RDM/WHM, BRD/NIN


For most normal (non-burn) merit builds I prefer a NIN tank with a THF to help plan hate. I can't really say one PT set up because they are basically all the same thing as long as you have the right people filling the roles.

Tank, 2xDD (who can SC well together), BLM, WHM, RDM (or BRD or COR)

or

Tank, 3xDD, WHM, RDM (or BRD or COR)

I honestly think that in a PT of people that know what they are doing that the PT with BLM is more efficient, but you can't expect that all the time.

I'd rather be in an outlandishly odd PT of people that know what they are doing than a perfect set up with noobs. Most often the case is that if you have a group of people that know what they are doing the good set up will follow naturally.

I agree with Yeargdribble

There really isn't a "Perfect" set up that always works. And even if there were a "perfect" party set up that doesn't guarantee that the people in the party know what they should be doin'.

I usually just check out the feel of the party and if it doesn't work then it doesn't work. I disband and move on.

I have been encountering alot of noobish groups who just build a party with their mates and disregard the fact there isn't a healer or DD ...
or that the lvl's in the party are spread out to about 5 or 6 ...

I am not trying to put anyone down because i am still pretty new to XI and i make mistakes to.

But sometimes those partys that you think "Holy cow this is going to be a big disaster!" turn out to be funner and more challenging ... sometimes that lil' voice of the tiny man inside your head was right .

I don't know ... i just try to have fun with it regardless :tongue:

Back before all the modifications to Ranger we used to have a static RNG/NIN, RNG/NIN, RNG/NIN, RNG/NIN, BLM/WHM, BRD/WHM BCNM40 party. That was some of the most fun I ever had with the game.

There isn't a perfect setup but there must surely be some certain jobs you like partying with more than others.

I don't really have a party setup that I tend to remake very often. I do have some favourite jobs though. Like everyone, I love a bard, furthermore, I almost always prefer a pld tank over a nin tank. It just feels like things are going smoother with a pld. Feels much safer because I know it's so much easier for him to hold hate. With a pld it doesn't really matter if i do a SATA behind another DD, he usually doesn't draw hate anyway. I would ofcourse try to get the SATA hate on the tank, but it's not always doable.
By the way, nin tanks are going to have a bit of a problem keeping hate when I get war to 30. Sneak Attack and Sturmwind hurts, I hear, and I'm already getting hate without SA.

BLM/WHM
RDM/WHM
BRD/WHM
SAM/WAR
Any other DD, I'm not picky.
PLD/WAR

The lack of WHM doesn't bother me. More often than not, I can main heal better than WHMs on my RDM anyway. Having a RDM and a BRD is pure awesome. Elergy and slow is a godsend for any tank, and refresh and double ballad is any mage's wet dream. I've always been fond of SAMs, and now that they've got their update, they should be even better. I'd also take a second DD; like I said, I'm not picky--I'd take just about anything. To keep up with the TP so they could chain as often as the SAM, I'd probably want a DRK for absorb-TP (though I don't know how much the nerf affected that). PLD/WAR is my favorite tank. I find them more reliable than NINs for maintaining hate, and with a refresher, they don't have to worry about running out of MP to heal themselves, which makes it easier to main heal for the RDM (me).

At Lv 60 (highest is 62) I good setup for me would be:

DRK/WAR(or THF) - Me
PLD/WAR
RDM/WHM
BRD/WHM
SAM/WAR
BLM/WHM

Basically, PLD will obviously tank, I skillchain with the SAM while the BLM magic bursts and does a few spells.. and the RDM can cure/haste/refresh (hey, I've done it plenty of times, its not hard) while the BRD buffs and pulls.

I had a BRD pull in my last party and the experience was amazing.. this was the setup and it worked great. We did have the BLM use a few cure IIIs now and again when the RDM was running low on MP, which worked out nicely too.

Ofcourse, COR is nice too if a BRD doesnt show up. Gotta love CORs with a WAR in the party when you are a DRK/WAR..

I was just in this really nice party ...

rdm
whm
pld
war
thf
blu

i got from lvl 53-55 in like 3 hours ... :tongue:

That's pretty good. How much exp do you need from 54 to 55?

11,600 for lvl 54-55 :D

Hmmm, let's see.

My preferred party setup is pretty close to Del Murder's except I would switch out RDM for BRD or COR. My main concern as a WHM is having the lovely lovely support that BRDs, CORs, and RDMs provide. My personal preference for support jobs would be BRD and COR. The damage melee spots I don't really have much preference for. Anyone who is decent at their job can fill those spots and I wouldn't really care much. But I just looove BRD and COR.

BLM BLM BLM BLM BLM BRD

But.. if it's a regular party:

NIN SAM SAM RDM BRD BLM

I love mana burn partys :D

Sooooo much fun !