Best soloing jobs
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Beastmaster
When it comes to soloing, there simply is no other job that can compete with Beastmasters. For soloing purposes Beastmasters rely on their ability to charm local pets and use them to fight against other local mobs. If done skilfully, the Beastmaster's pet takes all the beating, effectively tanking the battle, while the Beastmaster melees alongside his pet to speed up the killing process (and thus the EXP/hour). While most other jobs start to have a rough time killing DC/EM mobs from level 20ish on, or have to rely on killing 'weak' preys (like beastmen pets) at higher risk, the Beastmaster can effectively target and battle T/VT prey throughout his entire career (1-75).
1. BST/WHM: At lower levels, this is regarded as the best combination, since it gives BST the ability to cure himself (less downtime), buff himself (Protect, Shell, some bar- spells), and enfeeble the prey (paralyze, slow, dia). This combination remains valid (and some BST soloed 1-75 as BST/WHM), mostly because of the added benefits of spells like Stoneskin, Blink, Erase, Regen, Reraise, ... and the access to virtually unlimited MP with the Gaudi Harnes.
2. BST/BLU: Though not fairly seen at the higher levels, it is not a bad sub job for the lower level training. The Blue mage sub gives access to certain spells which can increase aspects wanted in a BST(mainly CHR and HP/MP), as well as have the abilities of the spells help in fights. These spells can come in handy during a tight situation or fast kills.
3. BST/NIN: This combination adds to the survivability of meleeing Beastmasters. Having three reliable shadows up (instead of the less reliable Blink effect) to absorb damage, is a huge benefit when grabbing hate over your pet or when swapping pets. Dual wielding axes is nice too (especially when using Rune Axe in combination with the Gaudi Harness.
4. BST/WAR: This combination is usually not seen with the soloing BST, but mainly in parties. However, it is a good combination if, for whatever reason, the Beastmasters wants to increase his damage output. For solo purposes this combination is more dangerous and difficult than the previous two combos, since BST/WAR really means balancing on the thin line of hate.
Dragoon
When subbing mage jobs a Dragoon can become a very capable soloing job. Dragoon soloing is heavily dependent on the subjob you choose as this will gives your wyvern access to the Healing Breath and/or Remove Breath ability/abilities. This ability will cure you, based on your level, the equivalent of a Cure I, II, III or IV, any time you cast a spell below a certain HP percentage. Remove Breaths can heal some status ailments when a weaponskill is performed. Dragoon can solo at any level from 1-75 but your capacities increase greatly from level 60+ as you gain access to the Drachen Armet which allows for your wyvern to trigger its healing breaths from a higher percentage of HP. At level 75 you can equip the Wyrm Armet which boosts healing breath amount to the Cure IV equivalent, thus increasing your capabilities further.
Best Subjobs for soloing:
1. DRG/WHM -- This is a very common and capable sub for soloing as a DRG. With access to Cure III from the earliest level and Divine Seal you can heal yourself quickly, or regain hate from your wyvern, in emergency situations. DRG/WHM at lv. 64 also gains access to the Erase spell, which helps to remove status effects that the wyvern's Remove Breath cannot.
2. DRG/RDM -- Another very good solo sub for DRG. Gives you access to a lower MP pool, but makes up for it with a lower cost spell and the Fast Cast job trait for triggering Healing Breath. The loss of Divine Seal and Erase, may make for slower recovery time and/or more dangerous situations than /WHM.
3. DRG/BLU -- New on the scene, and a very good choice. As blue magic spells are dependent on your stats, and not your skill, this makes your buff spells much more effective, i.e. Cocoon. Also this sub has access to two very low cost, rapid cast spells for triggering healing breaths, as well as a higher MP pool than a RDM sub. However, because it lacks Erase and Bar- elemental and status spells, this sub isn't recommended if you're fighting mobs that inflict status effects that can't be removed by Remove Breath.
4. DRG/NIN -- Uncommon, but capable in certain situations. Ninja gives access to the hybrid wyvern, which has a lower HP percentage trigger for healing breath, the loss of Remove Breaths, but you gain the Elemental Offensive Breaths back during weaponskills. Can be dangerous with the lower HP trigger, but shadows could be used to help out. Only useful on mobs that cannot take out more than a third of your health in a single hit. Ichi spells will most likely have casting times too long for effective triggering.
Blue Mage
Blue mage can be a very formidable soloer if geared and worked correctly. It is possible to solo BLU from 1-75, and many people have done that, only getting a few parties along the way.
Popular sub jobs for soloing as a blue mage include:
1. BLU/NIN -- This sub is the most common soloing sub for BLU. It can be used for soloing from 24-75.
2. BLU/BST -- This is another common sub. It is used by people whom already have leveled BST to 75.
3. BLU/WHM -- This is used commonly at low levels, and all throughout the levels if it's needed.
4. BLU/RDM -- This is used much in the same way as /WHM is.
Black Mage
Black mages rely heavily on spike damage and a combination of stunning, sleeping and shadows to solo effectively. Although black mages get plenty of invites early on, the rate of invites to join parties tends to evaporate around level 50. However, black mages can solo easier than almost any other job once they begin to learn ancient magic.
1. BLM/NIN -- At lower levels, the use of utsusemi:ichi is a good substitute when sleep and stun spells are unavailable. Shadows are also good to use against mobs that are resistant to dark magic.
2. BLM/RDM -- The best subjob for black mage soloing at higher levels, because of enhanced "fast cast" traits and use of the spell "gravity." At higher levels, this sub also gives access to blink and stoneskin.
3. BLM/WHM -- Gives blink and stoneskin at an earlier level than /rdm.
Thief
A Thief's best assets when soloing is a Thief's Evasion and Marksmanship. It is very important as a Thief soloing to keep these two skills capped. Soloing as a Thief begins at Lv25 when a Thief is able to use an array of status bolts. These bolts consist of Acid, Blind, Sleep, and Bloodly bolts. The most important of these status bolts is bloodly bolts as they help you recover lost HP. Second is sleep bolts followed by acid and blind.
The use of sleep bolts is to sleep the mob long enough for the Thief to run behide it so the Thief can use Sneak Attack + the desired weapon skill to deal high spike damage. It may take some practice but if done correctly it will help you dispose of the mob much more quickly.
When soloing as a Thief it is best to find mobs weak to piercing weapons such as birds and avoid dark based/undead mobs at any cost. Soloing dark based/undead mobs will lead to death fast because they are resistant/imune to sleep and bloodly bolts.
There are two, generally accepted, subs that work best while soloing as a Thief in addition to a third, less common, sub.
1. THF/NIN: This is the best sub out there for soloing as a Thief. Utsusemi combined with the Thief's natural high evasion assures you won't get hit much. With this sub it is best to avoid mobs that can do AoE(Area of Effect) damage which can strip you of all you're shadows. With this sub its best to use accuracy foods or foods that boost you're DEX and AGI. Also a very good benefit to this sub is the ability to duel wield a Sword/Dagger combo. Reason behind this is that sword has the weaponskill Fast Blade. It is the best weaponskill to use with Sneak Attack until you get Viper Bite with dagger.
2. THF/WAR: With this sub you can deal out more damage but you tend to take a lot more damage. If you are going to use this job you will have to invest in a lot of Bloody bolts and its best to use evasion/def food. Also you have to decide between dagger or sword (until Viper Bite) though an added benefit is the use of shields some of which have great stats.
3. THF/BST: This is a very interesting combo, especially for THF. The name of the game here is hate control and the principal aim is to charm pets that deal sufficient damage to keep the mob's attention pinned on the pet instead of turning to the THF. One of the biggest advantages (besides basically duoing mobs and hardly ever taking a hit) of this approach, if played right, is that the mob is always facing the pet, which makes it extremely easy to SA/WS the mob (no sleep bolts needed). With its arsenal of status bolts, the THF can also easily control the outcome of a fight (enfeebling the mob with blind, paralyze, acid, ...) and the use of (expensive) Bloody Bolts is highly reduced. This strategy even opens up the option of fighting EM/T mobs using DC pets (less mischarm issues compared with EM pets) for higher EXP/Hr.
While soloing on Thief stick to Decent challange and Even Match mobs and even though you might be tempted avoid anything higher then Even Match as they can really hurt Exp over time and can possibly lead to death.
Puppetmaster
With lots of evasion, guard, and an automation thats extremely versatile Puppetmaster is a great job for soloing. When soloing, there is a lot of things to consider but one of the main things to keep in consideration are the skill levels of you and your automaton. Always try to keep your evasion and hand-to-hand skill capped on yourself. On your automaton you need to try to keep all your skills capped, most importantly automaton magic skill. There are a few different sub jobs that can come in handy for soloing Puppetmaster and what you choose mostly depends on the situation and your play style of the job.
1) PUP/MNK: This combo of jobs is great before level 50. With added Martial Arts skill and other skills like Boost, Dodge and Focus you can improve your fighting ability fairly well. Timing of using abilities is key when using mnk as a subjob; one must know to boost before a Weapon Skill and when to use Dodge to improve evasion enough to be missed by whatever the monster you're fighting throws at you.
2) PUP/NIN: With these two jobs in unison you have massive amounts of evasion. The spell Utsusemi also adds to hindering the monsters ability to harm the puppetmaster. Dual Wield allows for the use of two dagger weapons with this job combo, also there is the elemental magic and enfeebling magic spells that nin gets that can be used to cripple and do damage to your foes.
3) PUP/WHM: White Mage as your sub lowers the amount of damage that you can dish out, however it sort of acts like a utility belt. A player can use this job to cast curative magic to survive monsters for a longer amount of time. In addition to curative magic, you get defensive magic like Stoneskin and Blink to prolong your life even further, and status removal magic to get rid of any problems like Paralyze which is a Puppetmaster's biggest fear.
4) PUP/WAR: Warrior sub lets you take more damage and dish it right back out just as effectively. This job is best used after level 50 mainly because of Double Attack, which is a great trait for gaining TP and getting extra damage in quickly. Berserk and Defender are great situational abilities that allow you to modify your attack for Weapon Skill damage and your defense if you are fighting a monster that's very accurate or doing large quantities of damage to you.
Your automaton will probably change depending on what your fighting, but mainly it seems that the popular setup is either Valoredge head with Stormwaker frame, or Harlequin head with Stormwaker frame for cures (and some debuffs if using Harlequin head).