RDM/WHM acting as a WHM

[ifandbut]

I got to kazam about last Tuesday. Sence then I have had about 3-4 xping PTs. In 3 of them we were not able to get a WHM. Being that I have a fully leved WHM sub I said that I would give it a go and see if I could keep up with the healing. In each pt we had atleast 1 BLM/WHM for backup healing.

I was suprised as to how mutch I was able to keep up with the healing. I dont think anyone in my PT missed the WHM being there. This suprised me because from what I read on the forms, RDM's should never act as the main Healer....But I was able to

In the last PT that I had we had a Bard with Mage's Ballad. The Bard would keep that song on me and the BLMs and we were able to chain IT mobs that were worth 200+ xp
I got the most xp I'v ever gotten form a chain and that was 260. I was able to go from 26-28 in about 4 hrs of constant chaining.

Was this a rare occerience or is this something that happens more often at higher levels. Has this happened to any other RDMs?

Thanks
Ifandbut
Bahamut
28RDM/15WHM

[Bamce Sylph]

kazham is easy, at least the mandragoras, i was lvling my bard 25/12 and they invited a 5th melee, between 2 paeons, and ballad on myself we were able to take mandragoras, however, not somehting i would ever wish to do again

[Vaiyo]

Up until Kazham is when RDM & WHM still seems interchangeable without any real distinction between the two jobs.

Once you hit around 33 (time for you to leave Kazham altogether) things start to deviate between a full blown WHM and a RDM/WHM. Mobs will start to buff themselves hardcore, and without dispel it'll wreck your party's day up pretty badly. Dispel at level 32 is a pretty expensive spell to cast, 25 (or 24, can't remember which) mp a pop and sometimes I found myself casting it over 4 times in a single battle - that's when I realized 'wow, I don't have enough mp to dispel, plus heal, plus sit to heal back the mp I drained'. Add another RDM or WHM into the mix though, and the group is golden.

At 41 it gets even worse because of Refresh - between doing a Refresh cycle constantly, plus debuffs, back-up heals, occassional magic bursts and possibly meleeing for fun, one single RDM healing by him/herself is near impossible to do without downtime. But, again, add another RDM or WHM into the mix, and the group will do a lot better.

[Chucklez_1]

I'm not really sure what I'm going to notice post lvl 50 but for the past few levels (45-49...I got to 50 by doing genkai lol!) I've been fairly efficient being a main healer at lvl 45-49 fighting goblins in yoahter jungle chaining 200+ non stop. Unlike Whms, Rdms as main healers have a harder time doing everything in one battle. My job then was so busy that the hours flew by and I was really stressed out after. Refreshing me, a bard, and a paladin isn't really a tough job but juggling that w/ healing, maintaining enfeebles, keeping check of haste and other enhancing spells, and deciding if it's a good time to rest between battle is a tough job. Compared to any jobs out there, that is a lot of work!

Whms are nice to add in a pt, but atm, somehow parties seem to pick rdm over whm (as I've been mainly healer for most of my lvl 40ish days)...I'm sure that would change when whm gets raise 2 and I actually don't mind.

edit: Also at lvl 40-44 half the time I was the main healer w/ the same party set up above killing goblins in East altepa...chaining 150+ non stop.

[Vinen]

Me, at least as a Taru RDM/WHM. I am still main healer in groups quiet often now at 68 --;. I dont mind in fact i prefer being the primary healer of XP groups. Otherwise I dont feel like im contributing to the group as much as I could be. Yeah I can nuke but RDM nukes are really weak, and as a RDM/WHM I can still debuff etc and heal. I have 825hp/825mp at level 68~ teh perfect convert ratio.

[Tomoh]

In the 60's, I have been the main healer on several occasions. I personally like WHM in a PT with me since it makes my life easier (Support heal and no Protect and Shell).

But for EXP, I prefer RDM, BLM, BRD, PLD... With BRD casting Ballads and PLD tanking like a rock, this PT was very good averaging around 4000 per hour. I did 4 hours and gained around 15K. I get in to these PTs about once in a blue moon.

[Karinya]

I don't think Dispel is expensive - at least not in MP :mad: - but when I cast Dia II (59 MP, IIRC) and see "The Evil Weapon's shadow absorbs the damage and disappears."... :mad: :mad: :mad: From now on I cast something cheap like Paralyze first, and save Dia II until I know it's going to hit.

In that party (NIN, THF, MNK, WHM, RDM (me), BLM) the WHM wanted to do Paralyze/Slow so I would have more MP for Dia II, Gravity, Silence, and Dispel - it ended up with me having more than I knew what to do with because I hardly needed to dispel anything and only half the monsters even needed silence, and a NIN tank doesn't need backup healing. So I cast an En spell and meleed - more MP efficient than nuking, especially with Dia II/Gravity on, although I did nuke some too. Consistent 4-5 chains.

RDM can always act as a main healer, but aren't always good at it. Depending on what you are fighting you may need two healers to keep up with its damage output, and while it's possible for BRD or BLM to backup heal during combat, most don't in my experience (they will only heal if they have spare MP between fights, to let the WHM or RDM/WHM sit).


Tomoh, why don't you change to WHM sub when you are the main healer? In the 60s you would have Protectra II and Shellra (cheaply), and then could also cast Protect III or IV on the tank (do PLD get their own protects?). At my level I usually do Protectra, Protect II on tank, maybe on puller. It's not as good as a WHM would provide, but still saves more MP on heals than I spend on it. And Divine Seal is great for a RDM acting as primary healer - especially with Curaga.

At my level I think WHM RDM BRD is the optimal backline - maybe I've just partied with too many bad BLM but they seem to use a lot of MP for not very much damage, and don't enfeeble at all. And sometimes cause hate problems for the tank on top of that.

[Tomoh]

I use only BLM as my PT support job and nothing else!

Believe it or not, my WHM is LV1:sweat: I have no option.

[jaby]

I use only BLM as my PT support job and nothing else!

MP conserve is quite useful. ^^
I'm subbing BLM instead of WHM, just for that reason. And warp, heh.

[riceburner4540]

At my level I think WHM RDM BRD is the optimal backline - maybe I've just partied with too many bad BLM but they seem to use a lot of MP for not very much damage, and don't enfeeble at all. And sometimes cause hate problems for the tank on top of that.

yep, you've partied with too many bad black mages. on behalf of them, i apologize to you m(._.)m. i use elemental enfeebles, letting the rdm use the others, and nuke well enough to dish out good damage without causing aggro while keeping my mp relatively equal to the whm's, maybe slightly lower since i regen faster add to that the power of magic bursts and i'd like to think that i'd be a great addition to any back line.

[SharMarali]

In my opinion, playing as any job, you don't really get to see what the job will become and will remain for the rest of the game, until around level 35-40. RDM is no different. Once you hit 40-41 and have convert & refresh, you will see that the ENTIRE game has just completely changed for you. RDM goes from being a fill-in mage to a full-blown, indispensable support class.

To me, RDM undergoes the most transformations of any other job in the game. At early levels, RDM can fill in as an attacker or a mage. That stops pretty quickly, like around 15ish.. haha. Then we become a fill-in, something you primarily invite for a PT only to round out the bunch with a 3rd mage, not really expecting them to do anything other than MB and backup heal. Then with dispel, the job starts to take shape, but NOTHING like that transformation that occurs from 40-41.

At high levels, nothing can truly "act" as a WHM other than a WHM. Level 30 and below though, yes, it is fairly common for RDMs to play as a full-time WHM in a party. And yes, for the most part, at that level, a RDM is just as competent for healing as a WHM. Don't expect it to last forever. ^^

[ifandbut]

WOW

WOW...thanks for the inforamtion. Guess I have a lot to learn in the next 10 levels, but I cant wait.
Too bad my leving has been postponed untill my friends can catch up.
Oh...well....Guess I have enough time to go farming. Between DiaII, Dispell, and Refresh I need to save up about 30-50k.

[Karinya]

Wow, how do you get Dispel so cheap on your server? On Carbuncle AH is as expensive as just buying it from the shop... at 69k with good fame.

On the other hand Refresh is a mere 3k.