"I'm back"

[tdh]

Been out of the game for nearly a year. Now I'm completely back to stay.

I've been farming my Elvaan butt off the past 3 days trying to raise gil to afford the horrid economy on Lakshmi. I've raised about 300k, and I've already spent 250k. But I need to know what I need in the mid-Lv.30's for RDM.

I've been trying to go through the AH, looking at various things, looking for something new that I'll need.

With my old gear, I can have about 350MP, MND+20, INT+17(I ~believe~ this is with the aid of food), the only spell I'm really missing is Poison II & Phalanx. What do I need, do people recommend.

I take a lot of pride in my RDM'ing, so I want the gear that's going to help me keep up with the quality I expect, so any help in getting me back up to speed would be greatly appreciated.

[Dragonsword]

Re: "I'm back"

Assuming the RSE as a starting point, I copy below my saved information for your reference (i.e. they are not written by me, but I found it very helpful, especially for an elvaan rdm ^^)

________________________________________________________________

Head: Silver Hair Pin should be OK until you reach Lv40 where you can wear Electrum Hair Pin (HP-10, MP+25) and then Gold Hair Pin at Lv50 (HP-12, MP+30), which will last you through Lv60 where you can wear your AF Warlock Chapeau.

Neck: Holy Phial will last you through all the way up to Lv59 where you will be able to wear Stars Necklace (Def1, 15HP to 15MP, CHR+3) or up to Lv65 where you will be able to equip Enfeeble Torque (Enfeeble skill +7) or Spider Torque (Enfeeble skill +5, Lv64).

Body: This will be the first thing I would consider switching at Lv40. You have 2 choices. You can wear Sandoria Rank4 CP item Robe (Def 26, MP+10) or Bastok Rank4 CP item Gunpisun(SP?) (Def27, Projectile Accuracy+3, Projectile Attack+3. You don't get good boosts, but atleast you don't get negative INT stats). At Lv45, you can wear Brigandine (Def32, HP+10, DEX+2, VIT+2). At Lv50, you can wear Windurst Rank5 CP item Robe (Def31, INT+1, MND+1, CHR+1,light+1, dark+3). At Lv55, you can wear Sandoria Rank6 CP Red Gunpisun(SP?) (Def36, Evasion+5, dark+12. Not much +stats, but it does look good with other RDM AF parts. ). You can wear your RDM AF Warlock Tabard at Lv58.

Hands & Feet: RSE Should last you all the way up to AF items.

Legs: Definately lasts until your AF.

Back: White Cape and/or Black Cape (having both would be better) should last you upto Level 43 where you can wear Red Cape (Def4, INT+2, MND+2) . This should last you through up to Rainbow Cape (Def7, HP+9, MP+9, MND+3, INT+3, CHR+3) at 71, unless you get your self Rank6 CP Mantle of your country at Lv55, or Enpower Mantle (Def 9, HP+10+1%, MP+10+1%) at 67, or Blue Cape at 68 (Def 6, MP+20, Convert 15HP to 15MP, fire-10, ice+5, wind+5, earth+5, lightening-10, water+5, light+5, dark5).

Earrings: Black Earrings x 2 should be good for awhile, or you might want to get your hands on Morion Earrings (Lv30, MP+4, INT+1). You can get Enhance Earring at Lv40 (HP+5, MP+5, Rare), Moldavite Earring at Lv47 (Magic Attack UP +5), and Phantom Earring at Lv60 (MP+8, INT+1)

Rings: Two Electrum Rings at Lv40 should do fine, unless you can get a hold of Astral Rings. You may want to carry several around to switch with your macro.
Choose MND+ rings or INT+ rings, depending on your total amount of boost for each stats.

Shield: Targe should last you through Buckler at Lv45 (Def10) unless you can get a hold of Strike Shield (Def6, Attack+6) or Balance Buckler (Def9, Accuracy+3) at Lv40. You can get Hard Shield (Def10, HP+5) at Lv48, Master Shield (Def8, Shield skill +10) at 52, Bastok Rank6 CP Shield (Def12, AGI+3) at Lv55, Astral Shield (Convert 30HP to MP, +2 on all elemental def.) at Lv58, and Darksteel Buckler (Def14, Attack+3) at Lv59.

Weapon (1h sword): Centurion should last you until your AF at Lv41.
Weapon (Dagger): Sandorian Rank3 CP item Dagger (D12, Delay181, Accuracy+3) is very good. I would suggest Hornet Needle (D16, Delay150, DEX+1, AGI+1, EX, Rare) at Lv48, Darksteel Baselard (D20, Delay195) at Lv55, Garuda's Dagger (D19, Delay183, AGI+3, Attack+7, occasional Silence effect) at 59 is also very good.
Weapon (Wand/Club): Solid Wand should last you through all the way up to Ebony Wand (D17, Delay216, INT+6, MND+6) at Lv60.

Range Weapon: Get Morion Tathlum (Lv25, MP+3, INT+1). These are good for stats boost. But don't throw it at a mob, because it won't come back (unless ofcourse you have tons of gils to spare. ). You can get Phantom Tathlum at Lv66 to replace it. (MP+10, INT+2).

_________________________________________________________________

For spells, from lvl 32-41, u will be invited mainly for Cure III and Dispel, so try to keep these spells up to ur level. Phalanx is useful for solo or farming at this lvl and if gils are a concern, u can afford to have it later and will not affect in anyway ur party performance ^^)

It is also during these lvls that I gradually position myself away from the mob =D, i.e. less melee and more enfeebling and supplementary curing ^^)V.

Good luck to u and welcome back </bow> to a fellow elvaan rdm.

[Icemage]

Re: &quot;I'm back&quot;

A few corrections/additions to the above:

Head: Agree with the hairpins, unless you happen to have multi-millions to throw at a Trump Crown.

Neck: Black silk neckerchief is useful for the +1 INT when casting black magic spells (Blind, Gravity, Dispel, nukes). At level 48, Promise Badge becomes available (HP+10, MND+5). Not sure what this runs on your server, it's somewhat expensive on Midgardsormr.

Body: Doesn't much matter, chances are your RSE is superior to all the listed choices.

Hands: Disagree with the commentary here for most races. Devotee's Mitts are very useful for their +5 MND (but remember to equip swap them out when casting black magic, as they are -INT). There's also the very cool Mycophile Cuffs MND+2 INT+1 Enmity-2 at level 25 if you have the ability to acquire those.

Legs: RSE most likely your best choice here, but a note should be made about Baron's Slops for their +1 hMP at level 20, but these are probably out of your budget range.

Earrings: There's also the new Geist Earring, MP+5 MND+1 at level 38, as well as the SJSE earrings (Warlock's and Healer's being of particular interest to RDMs).

Rings: Low budget items are electrum rings at 40, Mana Ring at 40, eremite's rings for +2 int at 10, saintly rings for +2 mnd at 10. There's other more expensive options as well (Astral Ring, Serket Ring, Ether Ring, etc.).

Shield: The only shields of note for RDMs are Elegant Shield at level 30 (CHR+1, MP+6) and Hard Shield at level 48 (HP+5) until at least level 60+. Neither of these is particularly important, and you could just as well go with any shield you choose for the looks. Chances are you won't be using a shield at all past level 51, except when activating Convert in XP parties.

Weapon: AF1 Fencing Degen is useful for its +MP for Convert. If you throw this away (like I did), you can buy a Crimson Blade which is MP+10 and INT+5 at level 49. For standard use, I recommend Yew Wand +1 at level 18 and Solid Wand at level 32. There's also that R/EX level 10 wand that is +2 hMP from the new NM in Sarutabaruta.

Ranged: Fortune Egg from the easter event is really nice in this slot if you don't want to pay for a Morion Tathlum. None of the items you can wear here make much of any difference until/unless you get a Hedgehog Bomb in the 70s.

Phalanx: Skip this spell if finances are tight. You don't need it any time soon. It's nice, but not really necessary until you get to level 41+ for Refresh.

Refresh: This should be extremely inexpensive these days. Make SURE you buy this scroll before you hit level 41!

Bar-spells: None of these is of much value in XP parties. You can safely skip all of them until you need them for farming or whatnot.


Icemage

[tdh]

Re: &quot;I'm back&quot;

Thanks guys. That helped out big time.

I have a lot of the things suggested. So it looks like there wasn't something BIG added in the past year that I really should have, but I did see some things I'll have to look into.

I have a Holy Phial and Devotee's Mitts. I switch out my Devotee's Mitts for my RSE mitts to add INT+2 instead of the INT-4. I don't have the Neckerchef, but it's on my list now. It's only one INT, but it will help.

Morion Tathlum was really expensive when I left the game last year, so I bet it's 1.5mil with the economy now. But I already have a Promise Badge. Bought it off a friend a long time ago.

I bought Refresh with the reward gil for doing Rank 4 a while ago. I believe it was 4k at the time. I bought Dispel when I was Lv.25. I was going to make sure I had it as soon as I hit Lv.32.

I have 2 each of the Saintly and Emerite's rings, but I want two of the +1s. They're 150k and 300k respectively.

I have most of the Bar-spells, but I never a reason to use them honestly. Eventually I'll buy them all just to say I have them all, but I'm probably missing a good 10 of them at this point. lol

I've been using a +1 Wand to switch in since Lv.30. I've pretty much ended my meleeing. Between all the equipment changes and casting, I never really got a chance to really swing and miss the mob anyway. lol I have a DRK51 that I farm with. Actually farms pretty darn good too.

I have a LS mate who has pretty high level Woodworking. He said he can make my staves if I buy the gem for it. He says he even has a "chance" to HQ them. Which I would really like! Maybe I'll start buying those now, and get started.

Earrings: There's also the new Geist Earring, MP+5 MND+1 at level 38, as well as the SJSE earrings (Warlock's and Healer's being of particular interest to RDMs.

Should I go for these MND+1's or go for INT+1's? Since I need more INT at this point?

Outside of wanting to eventually get my hands on as many Questable Weapon Skills in the future, is there any reason to keep Sword, Club, and/or Staff skills leveled? (I plan to eventually learn Axe, Club, Dagger, Great Axe, Great Sword, Scythe, and Sword Weapon Skills. Possible I'll get others as well.)

[Icemage]

Re: &quot;I'm back&quot;

Just noticed a mistake in my above post. On earrings I should have typed WIZARD'S(/BLM), not Warlock's(/RDM). Didn't proofread my post well enough, my apologies. The Warlock's Earring does not work at all for main job RDMs.

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Morion Tathlum runs around 100K on Midgardsormr, I doubt it's much out of that range on your server. Honestly speaking, I have one but I don't bother using it, as I find my Fortune Egg to be more MP as Taru, and the +1 INT I can live without. I could equip swap it in for nukes and such, but I already swap so many other pieces of gear that adding another piece would require more macros than I'd ever care to use.

Regarding elemental staves: Do not under any circumstances have someone craft a staff for you unless they are level 100+3 woodworking. Anything less and you will most likely lose money on the deal (the elemental beads cost more than the NQ staves on virtually all servers). Without 100+3 skill, your chance to HQ is anywhere from 1-5%. That's not good odds.


Icemage

[Tsikuro]

Re: &quot;I'm back&quot;

Ohhhhh, okay.

[tdh]

Re: &quot;I'm back&quot;

Something else occured to me here. As I was reading through the suggestions, I noticed a lot of MND, and some INT. How much MND should I really go with, and how much of a difference is it going to make?

I already have MND+20. I was thinking of stocking up on some INT+, and if there were some Enfeebling Magic +, or Elemental Magic + items I'd look into those. (Well I did look into those things, and I don't have 5.5mil to spend on them. :depress: ) Do you think I need more? Or should I continue to try and add more INT?

I checked on the Morion Tathlum today, I think it said it was 55k. I was surprised to hear the big difference in an item like that. Things like this are usually 1.5mil on my server. It's crazy. I'll pick it up when I sell my Tropical Punches. Another 5 Lv.s of MNK or so.

[Icemage]

Re: &quot;I'm back&quot;

+20 MND or so should be fine. Always good to have more, but there's always trade-offs, and you probably won't see a huge difference in effectiveness past that point anyway.


Icemage

[tdh]

Re: &quot;I'm back&quot;

UPDATE:

Hit the grind yesterday, knocked out 4 levels, so now I'm Lv.42.

I haven't had the time to go buy Electrum Rings yet, but is there anything else out there to help me get closer to a 1:1 HP/MP ratio. I currently have 701 HP and 380MP.

I hit Lv.41 with a party of PLD, WHM, BLM, & DRK. I only really Refreshed the DRK when they were below 70MP. But with all the casting, some times it felt like I was laxed on my Enfeebling. I'm still adjusting, but I managed to get my Enfeebling cap'd pretty quick.

In parties like this, do I ask for help from other mages with the enfeebles? Ask the BLM to handled Blind, the WHM to handle Paralyze. And I go with Dia/Bio II, Gravity, and Slow? What are the rules here?

[Xyphere]

Re: &quot;I'm back&quot;

Ref > Enfeeble > Ref > Enfeeble > etc; you should be fine.

And later it should go like Ref>Haste>Enfeeb or something like that. I find it most effective.

[tdh]

Re: &quot;I'm back&quot;

I guess that makes sense. I have been using two macros the past few parties. I have one that does Paralyze and Gravity, and another that does Dia II and Slow.

So I'd case Refresh, then do one set, then Refresh, and then the other set, Refresh. But that was only casting 4 debuffs. I guess I could make a Blind and something else macro to do between then. And honestly, it was a good thing the party wasn't doing skillchains, I wouldn't have really had the time to Magic Burst at all.

I was fortunate to have a Tank that really shined last night. She kept hate off a Benediction with out using her PLD 2hr. WHM was shocked as hell.

[Alucath]

Re: &quot;I'm back&quot;

Welcome back to the game and to Lakshmi :D (I'm on Lakshmi as well).

Someone mentioned Mycophile cuffs:


While they are like completely awesome, they're not equippable by RDM. Otherwise, I'd help you get them, since I'm on your server. They're pretty easy to get as well, just need the pop items. Anyways, good luck on your continued RDM leveling :D You'll probably pass me, I level like molasses(sp -_-).

[tdh]

Re: &quot;I'm back&quot;

Yeah, I've been noticing a lot of INT and MND plus gear that a RDM can't wear. And I've found it very vexing. Seer's +1 set would have been very nice for RDM, but of NOOOOO! And I just recently leveled BLM to Lv.31 and heard about those mitts you mentioned Alucath. The Enmity-2 would be nice for BLM Magic Bursts, but I'm not sure it would really be worth the fight just yet. Maybe once I level SMN I'll look into them. A DRK Lv.51 could handle the kill, can't it?

[Alucath]

Re: &quot;I'm back&quot;

To be honest, I don't know.. Probably though. .

[Tienellia]

Re: &quot;I'm back&quot;

Just keep in mind that equipment macros are good as you get higher up as well. Also remember that spells that you would generally have as a WHM (slow, silence, etc) are mnd based spells. And things such as gravity, blind are int based spells. So if you have to use equpitment macros to up your mnd or int depending on the spell, you should. It will make them stick a little better. Also post 51 invest in the elemental staves. Each spell you cast is an elemental base (gravity and silence are wind, paralyze is ice, slow is earth). Have the proper staff equip for the certain spell also helps it stick a bit better or land that is.