Luxury Goods That We Need?

[BurningPanther]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

You DO realize you can still be NIN, right? =P And it makes for the bitchin'est solo-RDM subjob at endgame. I've heard legends of lone RDM/NINs completely VIOLATING notorious monsters left and right on my server. I even sat and watched as one soloed Ungur in 20-30 minutes, then went on to duo Bune ten minutes later.

But all things considered, Mithra is still an excellent choice for RDM, whether meleeing or casting.

[Taskmage]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

Every race has strength and weaknesses. On a job as well rounded as rdm it's hard to make a bad choice. As a taru, my low mnd stat gives me fits sometimes, so that just goes to show there's no one "best."

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

I've done rdm on every race but Galka. (My husband did Galka and was too frustrated with the mp pool.) But MY choice for rdm is taru. Second choice would be mithra, third would be hume, and last would be elvaan. I did 2 mithra rdm's, one taru and one elvaan. (Yes rdm is my favorite job!)

[Aeni]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

I've done rdm on every race but Galka. (My husband did Galka and was too frustrated with the mp pool.) But MY choice for rdm is taru. Second choice would be mithra, third would be hume, and last would be elvaan. I did 2 mithra rdm's, one taru and one elvaan. (Yes rdm is my favorite job!)

You know, I'd never would've thought this, but ...

I LOVE mage jobs. I've falled in love with WHM as well. Why? I don't know! I'm being honest here.

In the past, I shied away from mage jobs, particularly healing class, because I was afraid I would suck at it. I felt if I had to be responsible for the well being of fellow party members, I'd have to live up to their expectations and I didn't like working under pressure.

To my pleasant surprise, I actually like working under pressure. >.> The more hectic the pace and frantic the battles, the better it gets. For example, in a JP party on Saturday night out near the Yuhtunga Outpost leveling off of Goblin Furriers, the tarutaru ninja was down to 23 hp even after I frantically reeled off a DS+Cure II bomb and I didn't have quite enough mp for another Cure II. So I bene'd, hoping that the Furrier was near death (He was) The ninja was very appreciative, because he leveled on that monster. Had he died, that would've been all too frustrating, even for a tank (Knowing that your level up was coming up and you were anticipating this)

RDM is also fun. Fun, fun, fun. What's probably more fun is seeing enfeebling stick 85% of the time on exp mobs like Goblin Smithies, help with curing duties and being able to stick MBs in the absence of a BLM (I was leveling RDM before WHM on the same day with another party)

Even with all that, I still want to get out of Elshimo really really badly. =_=;;

[tdh]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

I'm an Elvaan RDM. So I have insane MND, but not so great MP. However, I've spent gil, so I have almost 700MP at Lv.70. I have about 1100HP, so not close to the beloved 1:1 ratio. I have gear to add on MND/INT+25, I'd like to be around +30, but it's MP I wish I had more of. I like being able to MB for 500+dmg when I can, more MP would help me do that some more.

I've leveled a lot of jobs, but I'm "a mage at heart." I say that, but I really dislike WHM. I just can't wrap my heart around that job. I enjoy BLM, I LOVE RDM, BRD can be enjoyable. And once I get Diabolos, (and/or the new Avatars going to be released next month.) I'll start leveling SMN. I knew as soon as I heard anything about the game, I wanted to be a RDM. I've never regretted that decision!

[Jei]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

I'm a taru with more INT than MND. But I like Whm, I enjoy keeping ppl alive ^^ I can't stand playing Blm much, I got really sleepy levelling up my blm.
As you can guess I don't MB much with my Rdm. Do it only rarely when I'm really free.
As a taru, Rdm/Whm gives me close to 1:1 ratio. Rdm/blm gives me a lot more MP than HP. I really like /whm for normal PT play no matter what kind of mob we're going against.

[Khidir]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

As you get higher lv you tend to need more of int earrings than trying to balance mnd and int since whms will easily outperform you

Moldy earring

Hq staves

[Susurrus]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

Tamas Ring is AWESOME for any mage. At level 75 you get 5INT, 5MND, 30MP, and Enmity-3. (Level 30 gets 2INT, 2MND, 15MP, Enmity-3; anything that is different between 30 and 75 raises as you level). http://ffxi.somepage.com/itemdb/7093 I think this is one of my favorite pieces of gear that I've obtained. Definately get this if you can finish Chains of Promathia.

[locus]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

RDM Equipment list:
Needed: None. Unless you're an elvaan or galka, in which case, sell your soul for -hp +mp.

Enfeebling torque is never necessary for an experience party. I personally run around with an Uggalepih or a gold republican medal. RDM has A+ in Enfeebling magic, after getting your AF body and NQ staves, anything that is likely to resist you on a regular basis is either 1) a HNM or 2) Something you shouldn't be exping on 3) Resistant or immune. Yes you can land sleep 2 on Ahriman. No, it's not worth the MP trying.

If you must choose between staves:
For Exp: Dark = Light > Ice = Wind > Thunder > Fire. Water is a waste of money.

[BurningPanther]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

As far as luxuries, go for all the staves, in particular the HQ versions. The water staff is actually usefull, unless for some reason you dislike casting Poison, Drown, Water, or Aquaveil. Actually, fire is the staff with the fewest applications, being good for Barblizzard/Paralyze, Fire spells, and Burn. Though I still wouldn't give it up.

After 72, we get a floodgate of new gear options opened up to us. At this point, I've mostly stopped bothering with INT/MND+ items, seeing as how the Wise and Errant sets give us MORE than enough. As far as those sets, the only part I don't have are the Wise/Errant feet and head, which I leave out for space reasons, and can honestly do without. With the INT/MND boosts given between Wise, Errant, and Warlock sets, I mostly focus on +MP and +Skill Accessories. I've mothballed all but three of my +Skill earrings, kept all the torques, and keep Astral and Ether rings on at all times(Astral to be replaced by Tamas once if I ever finish CoP). Prism cape, Phantom tathlum, and Phantom earring +1 add decent MP as well, in addition to generous INT and MND.

And the Pimp Hat stays on my head, no exceptions.

[Icemage]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

I'd rate the overall usefulness in RDM XP:

Dark = Ice = Earth > Light = Wind > Thunder > Fire > Water.

Light is nice, but doesn't seem nearly so critical to me as Ice or Earth are for sticking Slow and Paralyze.

Agree with the rest of Locus' post though. There's some nice stuff out there that you can buy, but nothing else is really going to spectacularly impact your performance in an XP party (with possibly the exception of a Vermillion Cloak, if used properly).


Icemage

[locus]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

As far as luxuries, go for all the staves, in particular the HQ versions. The water staff is actually usefull, unless for some reason you dislike casting Poison, Drown, Water, or Aquaveil. Actually, fire is the staff with the fewest applications, being good for Barblizzard/Paralyze, Fire spells, and Burn. Though I still wouldn't give it up.

Very clever post, except it's wrong.
-Equipping a water staff does NOT increase the effectiveness of aquaveil, in the same way that equipping an earth staff does NOTHING for stoneskin.

-Poison is a waste of MP and also a short duration DoT on exp monsters (IT). It will generally last no longer than 60 seconds at most on IT monsters and do 10 damage/3sec, which means you've done 200 damage for 34 mp. This sounds like a good deal except I'd rather be refresh chaining, hasting or healing someone with that mp, and if I wanted to do 200 damage, I wouldn't plan to do it with a spell over the course of 1 minute. I'd rather just stab the monster with a sword.

-When you can MB water, it's almost always a better idea to MB ice. It's more mp efficient, Ice staff has a int AND elemental skill boost on it (RDM has worse elemental skill than DRK, as a FYI.) Ice is THE element for rdm nuking. If you're using a reverberation skillchain instead of distortion, don't bother MBing.

-Drown is stupid, especially with a ninja tank. The fastest way to mitigate damage in an exp party is to get a dead monster. Burn and Choke. Even more amusing is that Drown is an elemental magic spell, so the elemental skill on Ice staff will help it stick (more reliably than a NQ water staff, might I add).

Icemage likes Earth and Ice, and very nice staves they are, but I like Light staff more, because it increases your cure efficiency and therefore your convert efficiency. Nevertheless, Ice is really a very important staff.

Disagree about Earth though - Slow isn't really a great spell except for ninja tanks, which ideally should bring their own slow with them. It's useful, but definitely not stellar, in the way paralyze is. I'd take 10% more powerful cures anyday, but that's just a preference. This is because I love using Curaga a lot and Curaga is a spell which gets massive efficiency bonuses from cure power.

Quick summary of the other staves:

Wind: There's a few reasons the HQ staff is so expensive, other than the maat fight.
-A resisted silence is likely to end up REALLY hurting. On the other hand, a resisted slow isn't likely to kill anyone.
-Gravity is a very very very very very very very very good spell.
-Choke is one of the better elemental debuffs.

I'd rate Wind over Earth any day. In my list, Earth should be just behind wind and before Fire.

Fire: Burn. Go read my post on INT and resist rates for black magic. This, unfortunately, is the only use for a fire staff (and pretty much means whee, I subbed blm and I want to do damage!). But Burn is one of the best of the elemental debuffs for a reason - it drops your resist rate on elemental magic to acceptable levels. (For RDM, elemental nuking is rarely efficient because of the aforesaid skill problem)

[Jei]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

I give pirority like this
wind > dark = earth = ice > anything else.

And by this priority, I mean priority to get the HQ. Because IMO if you're a smn, blm or rdm, it's just so normal to have all the NQ version which corresponds to the spells you commonly use anyway. There's no reason to not have NQ ice earth wind dark light for Rdm for example. But which one should you get the HQ I go by my list above.

Sticking silence can mean life or death > I give wind top priority. Altho you don't use it every battle, when you use it you want it to stick.

Sticking sleep again can also mean the life or death.

paralyze + slow are like the standard debuff. I personally like slow much more than paralyze, but either way these are good to be able to stick without too many tries regardless of which you favour more.

Since bind is ice base, ice staff seem to have a good use here too.

I didn't give light any priorities because I assume we should have the NQ at hand already. And for the most part, except if you want to summon carbuncle, the NQ is fine.

[Taskmage]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

I disagree on Poison. It's a good way for a rdm to contribute a meaningful amount of damage at a price that's very efficient compared to elemental magic. I often sneak it in as a 2nd MB on Distortion, which is very easy to time due to its very fast cast speed. Just use discretion when using it. If your pt is skillchaining towards the end of the fight then obviously bursting it isn't going to be a good use of your mp, and if you're running a little short on your Convert cycle then you might want to skip it.

That doesn't make the Water Staff much more useful, but I'd rate it above Fire at least.

[Aeni]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

Good posts. I have a better picture now of what I need down the road for my RDM. I *might* consider trading in Ali's SH for a VC on Akemie, but not sure about that decision yet. For a mithra, a friend recommended River Gaiters, but I'll have to gather up people willing to help me with the BC that drops it.

The torques are probably one of those luxury items that I'll just have to buy. I could possibly camp Dune Widow for one of those torques, but the RMTs are there 24/7 (I think there's a bot in place similar to the one in Davoi that has 7 Jujitsu Gis for sale in bazaar)

I disagree on Poison. It's a good way for a rdm to contribute a meaningful amount of damage at a price that's very efficient compared to elemental magic. I often sneak it in as a 2nd MB on Distortion, which is very easy to time due to its very fast cast speed. Just use discretion when using it. If your pt is skillchaining towards the end of the fight then obviously bursting it isn't going to be a good use of your mp, and if you're running a little short on your Convert cycle then you might want to skip it.

That doesn't make the Water Staff much more useful, but I'd rate it above Fire at least.

I agree with Taskmage. With a PLD tank, Poison II and Bio II are so good. 400-500 damage in that one minute is just that ... 400-500 dmg. To get that, I'd have to nuke 3 tier II spells and that consumes 200 mp. Not a good effacy on MP, something we RDM would have to deal with.

The key I had found out recently is timing with the RDM. That means deciding which spells to blow your mp now and which spells will get you the most bang for the buck. If all we had were spells that had to be used immediately, refresh wouldn't be able to do shit for us. We'd need Refresh VIII to keep up with that kind of spell casting (wastage)