Dilemma about Red Mage job... :D

[Elusivellama]

Ok, I have a dilemma...I started playing my hume RDM a few days ago, and I've gotten him up to level 15 with on-off playing. Also a level 13 WHM on the side, but no SJ yet. I mostly stay in the back row, put on a stat raising club, eat an apple pie and throw the debuffs out, plus backup heal. Working out very well so far.

Then I got to thinking about my MAIN character, who is Elvaan DRG. He's got rank 3, kazham, many maps, 33k CP, decent fame in Sandoria, and is level 50/25 with warrior sub (damn Genkei 1).

And then I got to thinking...wouldn't it be nice if my main could be the RDM instead of the hume? Then I think about the mp difference between hume and elvaan (and Galka, just for fun):

Elvaan: 267 mp (level 40, no equip)
Hume: 308 mp (level 40, no equip)
Galka: 204 mp (level 40, no equip)

That's 41 mp, which is approximately 2 or 3 spells. (say a Cure II, a Slow and a Paralyze). Of course, if you factor in equipment/food (Electrum Rings, RSE, Hairpins, pies), then the mp levels will be much higher, but I still think the Hume will pull ahead in the mp department.

I think you can see where this is all leading...do I continue to level the Hume, do the subjob quest again (real easy with high level friends), get kazham keys (again real easy with high level friends), do chocobo quest (got all 4 grasses already), level BLM and WHM subs, buy all the necessary maps, do some cabbage run quests in Selbina to build fame.....

OR

Go onto my main Elvaan and struggle with the low mp as RDM/BLM/WHM, but not have to go through all of the above again?


I should note that getting back on par with my main character in terms of 'perks' (ie. gate crystals, rank, chocobo pass, SJ, kazham, maps, CP, fame) sounds like a tall order, but I already know exactly what to do, and where to go, and I have high level friends to help me with that kind of thing. I guess the question can be boiled down to this:

"If i go Elvaan RDM, will I regret not being Hume/Mithra all the way up to level 40, when Convert becomes available?"

My playstyle is definitely not melee redmage...I'm already way too busy at level 15 from casting debuffs, and backup heals (hence the stat-increasing club, not the sword). I have +27 mp right now from gear, and +25 mp from apple pie, and I still come close to runnin' out of mp on VT goblins and such.

Well, any advice is appreciated of course ^^

[Weezingpipes]

Taru gets the most efficient convert of all the races, which is why you would care about the difference in mp between races really. Otherwise I've seen and partied with many Elvaan RDM who are quite fine with no real mp issues. I think Jei posted in another thread past level 41 mp demand is lessened in a way since spells don't scale up to be much higher, and a level 70 RDM is basically still casting the same refresh/haste/enfeebles as the level 41 (well 48 for haste) RDM.

If you wanted to be a WHM or BLM I'd say start over as a Taru or at least Hume, but Elvaan RDM has been pretty effective in my experience.

[Solistam]

Dont listen to the naysayers..

Elvaan RDM rule! The going is tough early on, but break past 41 and it's all worth it, my friend

[Elusivellama]

I went and calculated RSE stuff at level 33 for both hume and elvaan RDM/BLM...

Hume: 256 + 48 = 304

Elvaan: 222 + 60 = 282

Difference of 22 mp, which is not a whole lot, really. Of course, the hume has to get 3 RSE, and the Elvaan has to get all (or skip the body piece, which is only 4 mp). At level 50/25 DRG, I think I could easily solo the RSE stuff without getting into trouble (but I'm not sure, lol).

Also, the hume has 36 int, elvaan has 32 int...but elvaan gets 37 mind, hume get 31 mind, which is a bigger gap than the int difference.

The list of enfeebles I've seen so far using white magic as their base:

Dia
Paralyze
Slow
Silence

And the list with black magic as their base:

Blind
Bio
Gravity


Ahh the numbers and stats, my eyes are burning...i need to go sleep -_-zzz