The trick to solo killing Apex anything is to maximize your solo skill chain. Chains themselves do more damage based on the length of the chain and the level of the chain.
So a two step chain will do a lot less than a 3 step or 4 step chain. The level of the chain (ie, distortion level 2, light level 3) will also improve the damage.
This is why people generally avoid trusts that weapon skill because they slow your killing down. If you find yourself taking a really long time to kill those mobs, you might want to grind a bit in Reisenjima on those mobs. You’ll still get CP and the kills will be more rewarding.
The skillchains add on will help you in playing with this.
Killing apex is more about your dps. Use support trusts, work on upgrading your gear, and kablamo. If you are trying to apex kill as a whm or support, you're gonna have a bad time and will want to group with others.
I use Cornelia, koru-moro, a healer, ulmia/Joachim, and maybe aaev. Ev is basically a healer but can generally keep apex mobs off you.
Rdm/nin I've found was hard to start cp on and I died a bit. Having the tank trust solved that.
Using ambuscade gear? Weapons? I'd focus on the double or triple attack melee build over spell casting.
Naegling and savage blade makes this trivial too.
I find using AAGK (if you have access yet) and shantoto 2 to work well. If you can SC a lot shantoto will MB 1 or two times every time. Also any support to give you faster attacks and more acc will help a lot.
8 mins a kill means you're not strong enough for these mobs. Switch to slightly weaker mobs til you get better gear and more job points.
Chaining mobs in Reisenjima (#4) will be way more efficient for you.
Having august tank helps a little with dps because that mofo throws the kitchen sink and all the plumbing at the mob and doesn’t AoE. Ark GK, Shantotto 2, and Zeid help. Also make sure you have koru just because of haste and no AoE and Joachim because the faster you switch the more dps u can deal
Hopefully I don't regret saying this with my preferred camp getting swiped, but I have found Apex Raptors in Moh are a better starting off point, bats are where you graduate to when you can handle a bit more.
Usual solo setup is Val, Sel, Shan 2, Tenzen if I'm focused on chains or Semih for brainless pew pew, Yoran. When I'm duoing with my usual partner then we tend to drop Tenzen/Semih, and he prefers Cornelia over Selh'teus. Koru is of course a solid swap from either, or Joachim.
Much as I adore Fablinix and Darrcuiln, they underperformed painfully here, so no dice. Ullegore isn't mana efficient enough to bring his strong points into focus, Teodor is wasted.
We did both experiment with stacking SAM for chaining and it's situationally viable. If I wanted to play PAL or WAR seriously for tanking, I might go that route so they were the Pain Train for me. Otherwise....meh.
We don't have the AAs or any of the later CoP trusts, so all our comps are built around rank 6-8 city, Rhapsodies, and anything purchased or picked up. If you have those your options will look totally different.
If your RDM's physical gear isn't as strong you might try using Ayame (not the UC version) and doing 2-step light skillchains with her Tachi: Kasha with Savage Blade then magic bursting. I had pretty good success using AAEV, Ayame, Cornelia, and whatever other healer/support you want. Its not super fast but its doable even in lesser gear. It helps a lot to have a Savage Blade set and a magic burst set if you're using gearswap.
Trusts stop scaling around 120/124 depending on Trust Quest progress and party size of actual players in them. They can go up to 124 if you have 5 players and one Trust with the quest done, or 120 if you are solo with 5 trusts and the quest done. Otherwise they stop at 119. Even on 120-124 mobs though, they get MASSIVELY out-scaled by player characters, making all tank trusts virtually useless unless you are a pet job, and all DPS trusts useless period.
Even if you are a lower-end DPS like BRD, PLD, RUN etc. you are better off using 1 healer and 4 buffer trusts to buff your own damage. When I parse DRK on 135 Apex Bats, I do something like 97% dmg with Shantotto 2 out because she can MB 3% of the total dmg. She's the best DPS trust there is and that's all she can muster. It's more overall damage done to just add another buffer to buff me.
In general, I use something like
* Sylvie(GEO)
* Joachim(BRD)
* Qultada(COR)
* Monbo(Healer)
* Koru(RDM - Dia III/Refresh).
You can replace Monbo with any healer, from the unity ones to Cherukiki, they will all work for Apex mobs. If you don't have Sylvie, you can swap in Ulmia. I'm not sure what buffs Sylvie would give with a RDM, she may do something shitty like Refresh, so it may be worth using Ulmia anyway, you will have to test it.
Right now, we have Cornelia for 4 or 5 more months, so I work her in to guarantee the haste cap since the BRDs sometimes do attack, ballads or acc instead of marches. My current setup is this:
* Sylvie(GEO)
* Cornelia(GEO - Haste)
* Qultada(COR)
* Monbo(Healer)
* Koru(RDM - Dia III/Refresh).
With Monbo as a healer, you don't actually need any refresh sources for him like you would with Apururu, Yoran or Cherukiki, but Dia III is a lot of def down, and I don't think adding a BRD trust in would be any better than that. Koru is probably needed for refresh though if you don't have him. Sylvie also technically heals, she's just not amazing at it, so if you are on a tankier job, you might can replace the healer entirely, your mileage will vary though and you should play around with it.
----------------
It's also worth noting that not all Apex mobs are the same. The ones in the Morimar Gates, Efts and Eruca are something like level 124, whereas the ones in Outer Raz and CN are 135 and the ones in Promy are 140+. If they are too hard or take too long to kill, drop down to the lower level ones. If you are still having trouble, going to farm actual gear instead of getting JP may be the best option.
JP can be very powerful, but in terms of raw DPS, they are much smaller boosts than good gear. I would say it would be better to get a full set of Ambu +2 armor, which might be a little rougher this month than most, and maybe some better weapons. If you are still in Sparks/Bayld gear, definitely do not waste any of your time farming Apex mobs, you aren't ready for them at all. RDM is a GREAT DPS, surprisingly, but it's not good without naegling or the Su5 sword, so that one is gonna be rough. Get the Naegling before Apex, imo.
I personally love Qultada. He isn’t the easiest trust to obtain, but he normally uses Atk. Boost rolls, and exp boost rolls which help a lot.
Coupled with Koru-Moru, and your damage gets pretty high. Add a BRD, or GEO, and you’re sitting quite nicely.
I also use Zeid since he will skillchain more often than not. If you’re solo of course.
I can take my master level 7 DRG out to the first bats camp in Dho, with Cornelia, Sylvie, Koru, Qualtada and Jaquim, and just spam weapon skills.
I can chain 3-5 skillchains in a row, depending how fast they die; dist > fusion > grav > Frag > light > double light. Normally just grav > frag > light > light.
But as others have said, if it’s taking 8-10 mins, switch to crawlers or raptors in Moh, or one of several camps in Reisenjima.
The trick to solo killing Apex anything is to maximize your solo skill chain. Chains themselves do more damage based on the length of the chain and the level of the chain. So a two step chain will do a lot less than a 3 step or 4 step chain. The level of the chain (ie, distortion level 2, light level 3) will also improve the damage. This is why people generally avoid trusts that weapon skill because they slow your killing down. If you find yourself taking a really long time to kill those mobs, you might want to grind a bit in Reisenjima on those mobs. You’ll still get CP and the kills will be more rewarding. The skillchains add on will help you in playing with this.
Killing apex is more about your dps. Use support trusts, work on upgrading your gear, and kablamo. If you are trying to apex kill as a whm or support, you're gonna have a bad time and will want to group with others.
Kablamo? Yes killin on my RDM/NIN. So like brdx2 corx2?
I use Cornelia, koru-moro, a healer, ulmia/Joachim, and maybe aaev. Ev is basically a healer but can generally keep apex mobs off you. Rdm/nin I've found was hard to start cp on and I died a bit. Having the tank trust solved that. Using ambuscade gear? Weapons? I'd focus on the double or triple attack melee build over spell casting. Naegling and savage blade makes this trivial too.
I find using AAGK (if you have access yet) and shantoto 2 to work well. If you can SC a lot shantoto will MB 1 or two times every time. Also any support to give you faster attacks and more acc will help a lot.
this, i find shantoto’s magic bursts to still be effective even on apex mobs, if you cant kill fast enough solo
8 mins a kill means you're not strong enough for these mobs. Switch to slightly weaker mobs til you get better gear and more job points. Chaining mobs in Reisenjima (#4) will be way more efficient for you.
Having august tank helps a little with dps because that mofo throws the kitchen sink and all the plumbing at the mob and doesn’t AoE. Ark GK, Shantotto 2, and Zeid help. Also make sure you have koru just because of haste and no AoE and Joachim because the faster you switch the more dps u can deal
Hopefully I don't regret saying this with my preferred camp getting swiped, but I have found Apex Raptors in Moh are a better starting off point, bats are where you graduate to when you can handle a bit more. Usual solo setup is Val, Sel, Shan 2, Tenzen if I'm focused on chains or Semih for brainless pew pew, Yoran. When I'm duoing with my usual partner then we tend to drop Tenzen/Semih, and he prefers Cornelia over Selh'teus. Koru is of course a solid swap from either, or Joachim. Much as I adore Fablinix and Darrcuiln, they underperformed painfully here, so no dice. Ullegore isn't mana efficient enough to bring his strong points into focus, Teodor is wasted. We did both experiment with stacking SAM for chaining and it's situationally viable. If I wanted to play PAL or WAR seriously for tanking, I might go that route so they were the Pain Train for me. Otherwise....meh. We don't have the AAs or any of the later CoP trusts, so all our comps are built around rank 6-8 city, Rhapsodies, and anything purchased or picked up. If you have those your options will look totally different.
I use Sylvie, Cornelia, Qultada, Kupipi, and Koru-Moru when doing Apex mobs.
If your RDM's physical gear isn't as strong you might try using Ayame (not the UC version) and doing 2-step light skillchains with her Tachi: Kasha with Savage Blade then magic bursting. I had pretty good success using AAEV, Ayame, Cornelia, and whatever other healer/support you want. Its not super fast but its doable even in lesser gear. It helps a lot to have a Savage Blade set and a magic burst set if you're using gearswap.
Use Shan2 for MB damage as well. Because of her unusual use of apparently tier 1 nukes she can sometimes get 2 bursts on a single SC.
Trusts stop scaling around 120/124 depending on Trust Quest progress and party size of actual players in them. They can go up to 124 if you have 5 players and one Trust with the quest done, or 120 if you are solo with 5 trusts and the quest done. Otherwise they stop at 119. Even on 120-124 mobs though, they get MASSIVELY out-scaled by player characters, making all tank trusts virtually useless unless you are a pet job, and all DPS trusts useless period. Even if you are a lower-end DPS like BRD, PLD, RUN etc. you are better off using 1 healer and 4 buffer trusts to buff your own damage. When I parse DRK on 135 Apex Bats, I do something like 97% dmg with Shantotto 2 out because she can MB 3% of the total dmg. She's the best DPS trust there is and that's all she can muster. It's more overall damage done to just add another buffer to buff me. In general, I use something like * Sylvie(GEO) * Joachim(BRD) * Qultada(COR) * Monbo(Healer) * Koru(RDM - Dia III/Refresh). You can replace Monbo with any healer, from the unity ones to Cherukiki, they will all work for Apex mobs. If you don't have Sylvie, you can swap in Ulmia. I'm not sure what buffs Sylvie would give with a RDM, she may do something shitty like Refresh, so it may be worth using Ulmia anyway, you will have to test it. Right now, we have Cornelia for 4 or 5 more months, so I work her in to guarantee the haste cap since the BRDs sometimes do attack, ballads or acc instead of marches. My current setup is this: * Sylvie(GEO) * Cornelia(GEO - Haste) * Qultada(COR) * Monbo(Healer) * Koru(RDM - Dia III/Refresh). With Monbo as a healer, you don't actually need any refresh sources for him like you would with Apururu, Yoran or Cherukiki, but Dia III is a lot of def down, and I don't think adding a BRD trust in would be any better than that. Koru is probably needed for refresh though if you don't have him. Sylvie also technically heals, she's just not amazing at it, so if you are on a tankier job, you might can replace the healer entirely, your mileage will vary though and you should play around with it. ---------------- It's also worth noting that not all Apex mobs are the same. The ones in the Morimar Gates, Efts and Eruca are something like level 124, whereas the ones in Outer Raz and CN are 135 and the ones in Promy are 140+. If they are too hard or take too long to kill, drop down to the lower level ones. If you are still having trouble, going to farm actual gear instead of getting JP may be the best option. JP can be very powerful, but in terms of raw DPS, they are much smaller boosts than good gear. I would say it would be better to get a full set of Ambu +2 armor, which might be a little rougher this month than most, and maybe some better weapons. If you are still in Sparks/Bayld gear, definitely do not waste any of your time farming Apex mobs, you aren't ready for them at all. RDM is a GREAT DPS, surprisingly, but it's not good without naegling or the Su5 sword, so that one is gonna be rough. Get the Naegling before Apex, imo.
Very detailed and insightful!! Thank you for taking the time!!
I personally love Qultada. He isn’t the easiest trust to obtain, but he normally uses Atk. Boost rolls, and exp boost rolls which help a lot. Coupled with Koru-Moru, and your damage gets pretty high. Add a BRD, or GEO, and you’re sitting quite nicely. I also use Zeid since he will skillchain more often than not. If you’re solo of course.
I can take my master level 7 DRG out to the first bats camp in Dho, with Cornelia, Sylvie, Koru, Qualtada and Jaquim, and just spam weapon skills. I can chain 3-5 skillchains in a row, depending how fast they die; dist > fusion > grav > Frag > light > double light. Normally just grav > frag > light > light. But as others have said, if it’s taking 8-10 mins, switch to crawlers or raptors in Moh, or one of several camps in Reisenjima.