Dragoon (Final Fantasy XI)



Dragoon is an advanced job in Final Fantasy XI. It is a damage-dealing class that specializes in the use of polearms.

Dragoons are entrusted with a young dragon, called a wyvern, which they can summon. The wyvern fights alongside the dragoon and takes on different characteristics determined by the dragoon's Support Job. For the most part, the wyvern will focus on physical attacks and do a breath attack when the Dragoon uses a weapon skill. The one substantial difference to this rule is in the case of a Dragoon having a mage support job. When that Dragoon casts a spell, the wyvern's breath attack will do no damage, but instead heal a member of the party.

Dragoons in Final Fantasy XI learn five versions of the trademark jump ability. These include a normal damage-dealing Jump and a Super Jump which does no damage but reduces the likelihood that an enemy will focus its attacks on the Dragoon. The class also receives an accuracy bonus, which means it can potentially hit targets more often than its peers, and Dragon Killer, which provides a chance to intimidate draconic foes and thereby prevent their attacks.

Becoming a Dragoon
The quest to become a Dragoon begins in the Kingdom of San d'Oria. Eventually an adventurer must slay a dragon in Ghelsba Outpost. After this encounter, one earns the right to select the Dragoon job.

Dragoon Abilities
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Job Abilities

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Job Traits

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Strengths

 * Is one of the few jobs that has Piercing Damage in their main weapon.
 * Dragoon is naturally the job with the highest accuracy of any melee type between the two levels of accuracy bonus and the September 2007 version update to two handed weapon combat.
 * Dragoons can summon a pet wyvern which can add to the damage dealt and can also use curative abilities with the right support job.

Weaknesses

 * Dragoons get a poor selection of equipment compared to most damage-based jobs.

Warrior
Warrior is a popular support job for Dragoon because of both passive and active job abilities. Berserk helps improve a Dragoon's damage over time and improves again at high levels (50+) when they gain the Double Attack and War Cry abilities.

Thief
Thief offers the Sneak Attack and Trick Attack abilities to Dragoons, allowing for greater weapon skill damage, and a thief's Evasion Bonus can help avoid attacks in some situations.

Samurai
Samurai is occasionally used by Dragoons because of the Hasso and Seigan abilities. And the Meditate and Store TP are useful as well, allowing them to deal incredible amount of damage with multi-hit weaponskills. Samurai are arguably considered one of the best support jobs for dragoons past level 60 because Meditate allows them to deal large amounts of damage using weapon skills.

White Mage
Dragoons use White Mage as a support job primarily for soloing. In this combination, the Dragoon's wyvern will use Healing Breath when the Dragoon casts a spell, provided the proper HP conditions are met. Under normal conditions, the Wyvern will use Healing Breath when the Dragoon or another party member's HP is at 33% or less. However, with the Drachen Armet equipped, the Wyvern will use Healing Breath when the Dragoon casts a spell with HP at 50% or less. As the Dragoon gains levels, more powerful versions of Healing Breath are gained. Should multiple party members be low enough on HP to trigger Healing Breath, the wyvern will always heal the Dragoon first.

Rather than using an elemental breath attack when the Dragoon uses a Weapon Skill, the Wyvern will instead attempt to cure any status ailments that may be present.


 * It can, very rarely, be used in merit parties with the unlikely combination of many Dragoons with similar subjobs. In this way, there would be no need for a healer, but it would be quite risky.

Red Mage
A Dragoon would choose this support job for the same reason that he would choose White Mage. White Mage is theoretically more useful for most circumstances, but Red Mage would offer some utility in its better physical characteristics and the existence of bio.

Blue Mage
Blue Mage is a great support job for the solo Dragoon. Like the White Mage, it gives the wyvern defensive capabilities, allowing the Dragoon to harness low-cost, quickly executed spells such as Power Attack or Head Butt to activate Healing Breath when low on HP. Combined with Cocoon that boosts defense by 50%, as well as the available Job Traits and stat bonuses Blue Magic offers, the DRG/BLU is an excellent solo job combination.

Trivia

 * In the past, Dragoon was one of the most unpopular classes of Final Fantasy XI. Its original two-hour ability, Call Wyvern, severely limited the use of its signature pet. Wyverns could easily fall in battle or be automatically dismissed by a variety of actions and thereby force their masters to continue alone for an extended period. As Dragoons were designed with the wyvern's damage contribution in mind, this resulted in the class under-performing as a whole. They also suffered the absence of a powerful, lifesaving two-hour like those wielded by other jobs. These issues were addressed in December 2005 when Dragoons received their new two-hour, Spirit Surge, and were allowed to call their wyverns every twenty minutes. It took years and additional version updates for the job to recover from its dismal reputation, however.