weapon of choice for RDM

[nothed]

What is the best weapon that I can get as a RDM lvl 26.
I want to inflict the most damage per swing, and be able to use it with speed as well.

[Fliegar]

Re: weapon of choice for RDM

I have yet to play, still at my dad's , but wouldnt a sword be best? I've heard they're fast enough.

[Caspian]

Re: weapon of choice for RDM

If you insist on meleeing, then use a 1h sword. Its the best rated weapon you have. Honestly though, you should quickly be getting used to the idea that you won't be meleeing for much longer. More usable spells means more time spent casting and recasting and less time in melee range. Plus, a lot of mobs will start getting more and more painful AOE attacks, making the dmg you do to the mob greatly outweighed by the damage you take and the MP needed to keep you alive. If you decide to not melee, then I'd look for some clubs and staves and such that give you +MND and +INT for curing and MB'ing nukes and enfeebles.

[Balodoth]

Re: weapon of choice for RDM

Probably Auriga Xyphos is what you are looking for. Go to Fort Ghelsba and just keep on killing the Panzer until you get the NM that drops it.

Otherwise I have to agree that you will want to start spending more time casting and less time meleeing.

[Ghostraven]

Re: weapon of choice for RDM

when you arent casting you should be resting, not meleeing... sorry but this is the way of the rdm in typical exp parties.

If you want to be a meleeing rdm, sub nin for dual wield, solo, or form your own parties. Expect to be frowned upon though. /shrug

[Hyrist]

Re: weapon of choice for RDM

He's level 26, he melee skills are not apsolutly terrible yet. (If I can outmelee a Warrior/Ninja in ballista at level 30, (as a rdm/nin) then I dout its much worse at level 26 with /mage)

Stick with 1h Swords, I cant remember whats the best sword for that level.

There is truth in the aspect that you should get accustomed to not using a sword in expirence parties, however this dosent come into play untill around level 35-41, where your casting duities will become consiterably more.

However in my opinion, you should not start to develop a proper resting stragity until after you obtain refresh, so you dont get a false prestence as to how much resting time you actually get when you manage your convert timer AND your refresh cycle.

Other than that, if you really want to keep swinging a sword, look into skill up parties and soloing.

[Armando]

Re: weapon of choice for RDM

Swords are your best bet. However, everyone else is also correct in that RDMs shouldn't melee in EXP parties. You can't keep up with the melees without eating meat dishes. If you're eating meat dishes, you can't take advantage of cookies or pies. Not only this, but you can always nuke harder than you can swing, and you're losing valuable resting time if you're meleeing. If you really have spare MP, just assist with some backup nuking/healing. I know RDM/NIN can do some awesome things in Ballista, but that's hardly the same as a RDM in an EXP party

[LadyPeorth]

Re: weapon of choice for RDM

Keep a Wand (for status and nukes) and a Sword (you're in the "Before refresh" days so meleeing is okay). Start each fight with enfeebles, then melee. Heal after every battle (saving TP on purpose is a no-no). Long as you do this, and they don't ask you to stop meleeing...you can melee as much as you like.

[Fliegar]

Re: weapon of choice for RDM

Sorry for the noobish question, but what is refresh? Mana regen or something?

[Armando]

Re: weapon of choice for RDM

Yup. THE mana regen. There's around 5 you'll find commonly: Refresh, which is 3 MP every 3 seconds for a total of 140(?) I think, available to RDMs at 41; Juices, usually 1 MP/3 seconds with a long duration or 2 MP/3 seconds with a shorter duration, these don't stack and are hard for most people to use constantly, and will overwrite (as well as be overwritten) by Refresh; Mage's Ballad, a BRD song, 1 MP/3 seconds, available at 25 for BRDs; Auto-Refresh, a level 25(?) SMN job trait, I think it's also 1 MP/3 sec; Equipment with Refresh effects, these are, however, only available in the 60+ levels, and are more often than not ridiculously expensive. Basically, most people won't spam juices back to back, Mage's Ballad is nice but it's still the lowest possible MP regen rate and requires you to have a BRD, you won't be seeing refresh equipment for a long time, and you probably won't sub SMN in an EXP party...so Refresh is a very big milestone for RDMs, it makes them a necessity, simply because of how powerful the MP regen is.

[nothed]

Re: weapon of choice for RDM

when you arent casting you should be resting, not meleeing... sorry but this is the way of the rdm in typical exp parties.

If you want to be a meleeing rdm, sub nin for dual wield, solo, or form your own parties. Expect to be frowned upon though. /shrug

I need the weapon for solo work. In parties I do not get into the fracus, I stand back and cast.

[Gwynn]

Re: weapon of choice for RDM

Go with Sword. There are some very nice Swords out there, and Spirits Within is excellent for solo-work against high-DEF mobs. Then again, if you really like En-spells then you could just get a low delay Dagger and go to work. Depends on your personal preference really.

[Altae]

Re: weapon of choice for RDM

At level 26, you can afford to melee and cast. But don't forget to rest up your MP. Meleeing is okay, but you're still a RDM, and not a very good one without MP. Same thing applies to higher level parties. You can melee, but without MP you're just wasting yours and everyone else's time.

Edit: And for weapon of choice, a one handed sword.

[tdh]

Re: weapon of choice for RDM

RDM has the same skill in Sword and Dagger. With cap'd Enhancing Magic, a Platoon Dagger with Enfire can do a lot of damage. Delay:150 hacking away would be faster than a Sword, and in the end out damage the Sword. At Lv.64 I use a Hornetneedle and Enfire on most things. I have access to Haste so it speeds things up considerably.

At Lv.26 I didn't do any solo work. Well, solo EXP work that is. For farming I'd say go with a Sword. Use your MP on Enfire, maybe Blaze Spikes, and Regen.

Lv.30 was when I started my heavy equip swap macros. I still meleed at Lv.30 but there was no TP since I was changing from a Wand to a Sword for spells. The Lv.18 Wand +1 is nice. I believe it's INT+4 & MND+4. At Lv.31 I stopped doing any melee at all. At Lv.60 I started doing Skill Up Parties so I could learn Spirits Within. At Lv.60+, I've only seen one RDM try to melee, and for some reason, as soon as they did they went from a usefull RDM to a useless one.

[ultimaknight]

Re: weapon of choice for RDM

Well, I'm a lvl 31 RDM and personally stick with Rapier class swords. Mainly because I think they look cool with the RDM, but also because they have a smaller delay than some of the other 1h swords. But like many here have said, I find myself doing a lot less melee work in EXP parties.

I do some meleeing just to keep up with my sword skill because I don't want it to get to far behind. Plus, when I do I usually go the route tdh pointed out. I typically cast Blaze Spikes, Enfire, and Regen so that I can do some damage without lossing to much HP.