What keeps you playing?

[Kilgraw]

Re: What keeps you playing?

I hate exping as RDM, but love to solo and mess around as RDM. The higher level I get, the more things I can do on my own and such. Sounds odd, but I level to solo more. But like yourself, I find it troublesome to take 3 hours out of a week to level. One of my saving graces is ENM. I don't know what I'd do without it now.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: What keeps you playing?

Well i got WHM and BLM to 35, so there is nothing stopping my lazy ass from getting to 70 and retiring Maat except for actually exping.

^^v I'm gonna bury that old man.

[Vinen]

Re: What keeps you playing?

What Sepukku mentioned that he saw in a Bazaar comments as abolutly true......... I hate XPing my RDM because its so much work. Most the time when I XP I am the main healer in a NIN WAR SAMorTHF BRD BLM RDM group. So I find myself hasting, refreshing, debuffing and healing. Least its good xp :3

[katsuoy]

Re: What keeps you playing?

Go beat up that silly old coot.

And I need to get my ass in gear, highest job so far is 73WHM, and started playing jan 2004. Go me. ^_^

[Altae]

Re: What keeps you playing?

What Sepukku mentioned that he saw in a Bazaar comments as abolutly true......... I hate XPing my RDM because its so much work. Most the time when I XP I am the main healer in a NIN WAR SAMorTHF BRD BLM RDM group. So I find myself hasting, refreshing, debuffing and healing. Least its good xp :3

Off Topic!

Oh gosh, I think RDM healing only lasts until your puller stupidly pulls an add. I was exping in Ro Ma'eve(Spelling?) And we were fighting those weapons. As the puller pulled, another spawned next to our room. The BRD tried to keep the add lullabied, but couldn't. As I ended up dying first (RDM) from curing the BRD. Now, this was a NIN BRD DRK THF RDM SAM PT. The only ones who can heal are the RDM and BRD. If I only had a PLD tank, who could heal himself, or a WHM healer, I could of afforded to spend the time to buff myself up and sleep 2 the weapon.

RDMs aren't very good main healers! We have too many spells that are a necessity for mobs, melees, and mages. Refresh = 40mp per cast. Haste = 40mp per cast. Refresh regenerates 150 MP. Enfeebles would cost a good 1/3 of what refresh can give back. If not, more.

But anyway, this type of struggle with the RDM job could cause others to simply fall and give up. But depending on what your goal is, a Good RDM will find their way to 75.

[Vinen]

Re: What keeps you playing?

Off Topic!

Oh gosh, I think RDM healing only lasts until your puller stupidly pulls an add. I was exping in Ro Ma'eve(Spelling?) And we were fighting those weapons. As the puller pulled, another spawned next to our room. The BRD tried to keep the add lullabied, but couldn't. As I ended up dying first (RDM) from curing the BRD. Now, this was a NIN BRD DRK THF RDM SAM PT. The only ones who can heal are the RDM and BRD. If I only had a PLD tank, who could heal himself, or a WHM healer, I could of afforded to spend the time to buff myself up and sleep 2 the weapon.

RDMs aren't very good main healers! We have too many spells that are a necessity for mobs, melees, and mages. Refresh = 40mp per cast. Haste = 40mp per cast. Refresh regenerates 150 MP. Enfeebles would cost a good 1/3 of what refresh can give back. If not, more.

I greatly disagree. You only pointed to one situation for your evidence. For the better part of my leveling from 1-72 (whem I waited 2 months for some NA friends to catch up to me to Set PT), I was the primary healer in PLDorNIN + BRD parties. Never did I have a problem, it was just a lot of work. You have to know how to balance your MP, and you have to know when to convert and when not to. BRD's keep my MP up fine, and I keep blink up on myself to help cover for a sitation like the one you stated above.

Then again, I am a Tarutaru and I did have 1k+mp and some HP gear for when I needed to convert.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: What keeps you playing?

I agree with Vinen. I was the main healer from 55-62 in my static before I took a break. It was PLD BRD RDM THF DRG and we opted to start bringing in DDs instead of mages, to aid in fastere healing.

I think we did so well because of our communication, and the fact that we were in the same linkshell for very long. PLDs are more or less Self-sufficient, so all he required from me was a Haste so he could spam cures (haste helped the recast) and for me to do Slow, Gravity and Paralyze. Of course, Weapons are a different story, but I still have no doubt that with a competent tank and a BRD in the backline with me, I can main heal/enfeeble/refresh just fine.

Then AGAIN, I noticed a correlation in amount or ppl I have to refresh to my healing. When I main heal, its at most 3 refreshes- Myself, PLD and random mage. If I have 4 refreshes and I'm main healing, then there is a problem with pt setup.

So given that, 3 Refreshes are easily managed within a convert period and main healing if you budget your time. So while I do see holes in my comparison of experience to yours, I overall disagree with your claims to difficulty.

Besides, thats an isolated incident

[xNightwolfx]

Re: What keeps you playing?

Well I have had a pretty tough pt setup before.

PLD, DRK, DRK, BLM, SAM, RDM was the set up. Thats 3 constant refreshes and 2 random ones I have to throw in cause were killing crawlers. Then i am also healing and hasting the tank and debuffing :x

In the end I did it...but it was one of the worst times I had on RDM.

Oh and i no longer look forword to leveling now that i am a 60 RDM. I only do it so I can do other things with friends and by myself XD

[Hyrist]

Re: What keeps you playing?

What keeps me going?

Why do I keep pushing for a more Hybrid RDM stragity?

Why do I gut down and backline when my party leater asks it of me so I can get the levels to test my theories?

For love of the job. Its History, its complexity, its representation. You really have to see my post on conseptions of a Red Mage to really undersand the level of passion I hold for this job; The master of the duel, the one and only Magical Fencer.

The name 'Hyrist' is a drivitive from three words in latin, that basically means "This is it" Or roughly "This is me". Its the reason why its on my FF1 Character, its the same reason why its on this one. Hyrist is me, had I the power, the reponciblity, the training, and the enviroment. This is what I would be.

Even when I level other jobs, I am still a Red Mage, I am still a stragitist and a theologist. A scollar of life, as it were. A jack of all arts, a master of stragity, though he is master at no specific task. Thats how I like to think of myself in this game. Its very few times where my stragities dont work, and I am putting that record to the test with this research I am doing.

Red Mage isnt just an approach in the game, its an approach in life. And I am proud to be playing the one class I have respected and admired above all otherse in this epic seriese of games.

[Cesaria]

Re: What keeps you playing?

I wanted to get to end-game, I was desperate to see and do dynamis and things... so I levelled like mad to get there (and yes I levelled fast, and no I'm not a crappy RDM). I love dinging up the levels as well - I love that level up thing too much. Now I hate hate hate exping to get buffers back so I'm very good at switching merit mode off before I get close to level 74 again. I don't mind merit exp because it's short sharp bursts with lots and lots of dings and it means I can do the stuff I like better - although quite what I'm going to do when I cap out enfeebling upgrades in the next few days is beyond me.

[Alauna]

Re: What keeps you playing?

what keeps me going on rdm?

Abjurations.

I recently aquired A.Head, A.Legs, and W.Feet. All three are Lvl 73. Then I have Genbu's Shield waiting for me at Lvl 74.

My 66BLM knows Thunder III, so there really isnt an inspiration there...

[Deathguise]

Re: What keeps you playing?

At the moment it's my friends. ^_^

[Alucath]

Re: What keeps you playing?

I simply don't. xD

I've gotten 12 levels in the past 10 months on my RDM. I went from October 2004 to April 2005 (7 months) and only got 6 levels. Then I went on a small binge, now Im learning to XP RDM for 3-4 hours like 2-4 times a week. (Plus I do ENMs and Ballista a lot now, so that helps).

Edit to add:
You know everyone thinks RDM is the fast track to 75, second only to BRD. Only a bad RDM will get to 75 as fast as people know RDMs and BRDs can. A BRD I saw before in Boyahda Tree had the bazaar comment:
"If you're enjoying XPing your job, you're not doing it good enough." I completely agree with that statement. A suck-ass RDM would enjoy his fast invites, quick leveling, and low-stress work. A good RDM would be stressed out and overburdened by the effort they put out on their own choice to be great.

I agree whole-heartedly . Although I'm pushing myself to level because I want to experience the end game, when it takes me (4k/hour, 29k for a level) 7 and a half hours of XP to get a level, it's really draining. And that's assuming no downtime, a good XP rate, and instant XP pretty much (let's face it, that doesn't always happen). So if I get half a level in a day, I feel really wiped out. Plus, a lot of my IRL day is gone. It makes me weary to try it again. But I still really want to get 70+ at least... I'm nearing my maat fight.

[fuz]

Re: What keeps you playing?

Even though I hate exping on rdm most of the time (mostly because of refreshing), it's still an unsually powerful solo and help job. There's not many situations that a rdm can't fit into, so when my melee job isn't ideal, I have my rdm to fall back on. I feel needed and wanted, which I like.

And well, it's about the only job I dare to skill shield and parry solo on--it's just not practical (or low in cost) to do that for most others.

BTW, bard is decent solo--just that they kill even slower than rdm. :3

[WishMaster3K]

Re: What keeps you playing?

soloing doesnt mean Lullabying it every 3 swings >.> then resting. BLMs solo faster than BRDs