Hako 3v3

A primer on hako jobs and game size.  Plus what we've banned over the years and why.  

Work in progress.

These days 3v3 is going to be the most common set up, simply due to the number of players.  Luckily for us, 3v3 can be one of the most interesting and intense types of games.  What follows is the simplest way to get a fun game.

 

Jobs

 

One back line job:  White Mage or Paladin.

I personally prefer playing WHM here, it has so much more to do.  It's also a lot easier to kill a WHM as compared to a PLD.  So back line killing strategies are more commonly on the table.  Excitement, yes please.

PLD works just fine, usually it comes to this because players aren't familiar with playing WHM.  Don't forget that PLD is the primary scorer here though, and should be quarrying at every opportunity.

Two front line jobs:  Dragoon, Samurai, Dark Knight, Monk, Warrior, Ranger.

    Power rankings among front line jobs are approximately like this(updated 2023~):

Samurai>Ranger>Monk>>Dragoon>>Warrior>Dark Knight

Samurai has good built-in defense with Seigan and, with the increased damage of Raiden Thrust, the unmatched power of Meikyo Shisui to eliminate targets.

Ranger has the greatest threat and the ability to do almost all of it's job while being disengaged (ease of quarry) and at a distance (no downtime).  However, the need to stand still to deal damage makes it an easier target.

Dragoon is deceptively strong, with good built-in survivability and utility with Spirit Surge and jumps.

Monk has improved drastically with recent updates, especially the scaling power of Howling Fist.  MNK is also the meatiest of the front line jobs, putting it in a solid position to carry games.

Warrior is standard, provoke is extremely useful.  Mighty Strikes is powerful, and great ranged accuracy means WAR can act like a RNG part of the time.

Dark Knight can dish out extreme damage, but is fairly easy to shut down.  Blood Weapon is much more difficult to get usefulness out of than other high ranking 2h abilities.  Despite this, DRK has the highest potential of all jobs to make winning plays because of the utility gained from spells.

    Why does any of this matter?   When we're putting together a hako set up, we want to create a balanced, fun game.  So we generally want to avoid stacking games with the strongest damage dealers.  A game of PLD RNG SAM is going to be an absolute bloodbath, and some of the usual strategy might fall out the window.  (And that's totally fine, do whatever you want! just a warning.)

    Disclaimer ~ you absolutely can get some decently good games with 3 front line jobs!  What I've written here is just the best way to get a well structured match.

Subjobs

 

Just like main jobs, we mirror these too.

Dragoon, Dark Knight, Warrior, Ranger, Monk - sub Samurai

Samurai - sub Warrior 

Paladin - sub Warrior

White Mage - sub Scholar

There isn't a lot of wiggle room for front line job subjobs, these are the best ones.  

Common complaints: 

What about SAM/RNG!?  SAM/RNG lacks consistency (misses way too many sidewinders on real targets) and burst power.  

MNK/SAM?  This isn't anywhere as egregious as SAM/RNG, but /war just outdoes /sam.  More defensive, more offensive, and provoke gives MNK a little extra something.  You could sub this and be ok but we want to mirror subjobs and any decently experienced player is going to want to use /war. (outdated)

We have since adopted MNK/SAM as main!  Howling Fist is obscenely strong and MNK/WAR is actually too powerful and needs to be pulled back and we now use MNK/SAM.

PLD/WHM?  You could argue this in certain game setups.

WHM/anything else?  Again an argument could be made, but we settled on /SCH.  It gives a lot of tools to boost the healing/support part of WHM which is it's primary focus.  Subbing rdm offers gravity and bind, which are neat in OMs but are only mildly effective in a small arena game like hako.  

 Bans

 

Why aren't we using X job?

     specific to 3v3

BLM - banned, elemental magic outrageously overtuned since update

RDM - not used in 3v3 - converting to your death to force hyper is a problem - elemental magic broken since update - usable in 5v5+

THF - not used in 3v3 - doesn't deal much damage - used in 4v4+

BST - banned, unfortunately call beast pets were overtuned

BRD - not used in 3v3 - used regularly in 6v6

SMN - not used in 3v3 - summoner pets are awkward to use in small games

NIN - potential but not normally used in 3v3 - damage is low 

BLU - potential but not normally used in 3v3 -

PUP - banned, unfortunately pup attachments were overtuned

COR - not used in 3v3 - too powerful, similar to bard, better in a larger group

DNC - potential but not used in 3v3 - a proper hyper dnc would make killing anyone nearly impossible - back line DNC maybe

SCH - potential but not used in 3v3 - used regularly in 5v5+

GEO - assume banned - elemental magic broken since update

RUN - not used in 3v3 - used regularly in 4v4+

 

Banned Weaponskills

Calamity - too strong in conjunction with Mighty Strikes  ~3000 damage possible

Earth Crusher (used by SAM) - too strong since update/with Meikyo

Spirits Within - too strong since update/with Meikyo

Cyclone - too strong since update/with Meikyo

      

Banned Items

Areion Boots - Ranger is stacked enough as it is

 

 

 

Here's some vids of 3v3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coV1qlpccZQ by Evviva(Azurro), with Yeira and myself(Desuyo).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWj7SudB6sE by Vyi, with members of our linkshell back on Lakshmi?.. I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuBMR2m5aIU by Ryom(Yayokichi) with members of the JP shell on .. god knows what server, we were everywhere. lol

these have varying volume levels, don't blow your ears off