Lvl 16 RDM and I feel so...useless! Please advice...

[Vaigrant]

Re: Lvl 16 RDM and I feel so...useless! Please advice...

Ah ok, just wanted to make sure I wasnt skipping out on another Enfeeble I could do. But then again Im glad, thats about 40 or so MP I can save for a Refresh or Haste when I need it lol.

[Murphie]

Re: Lvl 16 RDM and I feel so...useless! Please advice...

There is almost never any reason to cast Bio anyway, so yeah. Good to be able to skip it.

[Vaigrant]

Re: Lvl 16 RDM and I feel so...useless! Please advice...

Yeah the loss in Def is usually better than a loss to Atk plus dia is part of the Enfeebling family while Bio is part of the Dark Family. Rdm being so much more adept at Enfeeblign makes it an easy choice.

[Murphie]

Re: Lvl 16 RDM and I feel so...useless! Please advice...

Plus, Dia helps everyone, whereas Bio only helps the tank, and I suppose by proxy the healers, but whatev. Screw the healers.

[Vaigrant]

Re: Lvl 16 RDM and I feel so...useless! Please advice...

Plus seeing alot of Nin tanks out there, the loss to Atk is usually never noticed anyways.

[Omni]

Re: Lvl 16 RDM and I feel so...useless! Please advice...

whoa, jei is back. wb jei!!

[Altae]

Re: Lvl 16 RDM and I feel so...useless! Please advice...

What also may be a factor is the level of your EXP mobs at the time during static partying. Perhaps your party fought something completely out of YOUR level range. Well, maybe not completely, but by a level or two.

Also, you can always land a debuff whether it takes 1 try/cast or multiple attempts. The only exceptions are certain NMs. But it's economically wiser to build your equipment set to enhance your capability in getting debuffs landing on that first cast. You save mp rather than blowing away most of it from 7 casts on one monster.

[Karinya]

Re: Lvl 16 RDM and I feel so...useless! Please advice...

Blowing off Bio is all well and good on crabs and crawlers, but dia on an IT pugil is a good way to get someone one-shotted, IMO. It depends not just on tank type but also on monster type.
Of course, most pickup parties are too chicken to fight pugils or spiders or things like that in the first place, but if you get a party that does, you should be aware.
Anyway, there are a few things that haven't been mentioned yet that I'd like to add:
1. Forget TP. Nobody's TP is all that good at low levels and yours is worse, because you're using a one-handed weapon. A DRG or DRK might do 100 damage with 100 TP, if they're lucky. You can probably do 200 damage with 100 MP without breaking a sweat. So rest all you can and leave the weaponskills to the DD jobs. A corollary of this: don't be afraid to switch weapons as often as you need to.
2. En spells. They're cheap, last 2 minutes and add a significant amount of damage that is not affected by defense and doesn't give any additional TP to the monster. Eventually, after 40 or so, you'll be so busy you hardly have time to swing, but for now, use them. An en spell can easily do more damage than Fire or Blizzard, and it costs less. You might even want to consider a dagger instead of a sword (especially Beestinger with its ultra low delay) so that you can hit more often. On the other hand, on some enemies a sword will actually hit for pretty good damage, so see what works better for you.
3. Poison. It's very cheap and does more damage than you probably think. Some parties at your level will be fighting a lot of fish and crabs, which have very high water resist, but against anything else, you should poison it. If the poison wears off and it has more than about 1/3 of its HP, poison it again.
Part of your feeling useless may be because the effects of some RDM spells aren't immediately visible. If a BLM casts Thunder they can see right away how much damage it does, but with Poison you just have to guess from how much faster things die; with Slow you may not be able to immediately see how much less damage your tank is taking; etc. In addition to being busy and complicated, RDM is also one of the game's most subtle jobs; a lot of its effects are indirect and behind-the-scenes. Some of your most powerful spells are dedicated to making something *not* happen, like Paralyze and Silence; who notices a spell that doesn't get cast?
Some people really don't like this; others don't understand it and will undervalue your contribution to the party. I call this the "Look at my damage (and just ignore Haste, Gravity and Dia)" mentality. Since you're in a static, you may not have to put up with those kinds of people as much as other RDMs do; or you may be unlucky enough to have one *in* your static and you'll have to put up with it more.

[Vaigrant]

Re: Lvl 16 RDM and I feel so...useless! Please advice...

I generally just avoid Pugils through Dunes. Ive seen them take out full HP War's with decent Def equipment in one shot with Screwdriver.

Id much rather just Chain and get more XP over time than the larger lump sums.

[Aeni]

Re: Lvl 16 RDM and I feel so...useless! Please advice...

Plus, Dia helps everyone, whereas Bio only helps the tank, and I suppose by proxy the healers, but whatev. Screw the healers.

You forget that Bio has a better DoT than Dia on any level. This helps with tough mobs and trying to get the last 20hp on a metallic skin spamming crab. And what Karinya said. Again, key here to being a better mage than a mage of mediocrity is being flexible. Like with anything in this game.

[Murphie]

Re: Lvl 16 RDM and I feel so...useless! Please advice...

I don't forget that Bio has a better DoT than Dia. Don't presume to tell me what I do and don't know, Aeni. Thanks.

If you're relying on DoT to kill the mob, you've got bigger problems than Dia vs. Bio. I stand by my earlier statement.

[Vaigrant]

Re: Lvl 16 RDM and I feel so...useless! Please advice...

ITs not a matter of the DoT for Dia or Bio as far as Im concerned, since Dia lowers the Mobs Def while it lasts, the Meles can do more damage. Im sure the amount of extra Damage done by Dia will out perform the Extra DoT Damage done by Bio.

Also Bio is a Dark Magic, which is really not a great Rdm Skil. Dia on the other hand is an Enfeebling magic which since we have a much better skil in, is more likely to land and stick for longer.

[hongman]

Re: Lvl 16 RDM and I feel so...useless! Please advice...

I am a lvl 14 RDM and feeling the same, but this thread has some really good tips.

Thanks!