The Role

[Bluecat]

Ok I was just wandering what is the REAL role of a rdm in FFXI? Do we get to use our swords at all, basides when we are soloing? I am kind of confused lol.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: The Role

1-10ish you will solo. 11ish+ you will usually be in a party and it is situational because parties can be different in setup and in knowledge. Until level 40 you MIGHT have the chance to melee but after that it really is rare and next to never in an average party. Once you start sporting staves that you macro into your casting, it really isn't going to happen much. Of course you can make your own parties and tell people up front that you'll be melee'ing. Usually friends and lsmates are more understanding and won't care.

[Ameroth]

Re: The Role

RDM melee is acceptable usually in the lower levels from what I understand. It's not very practical at higher levels, and you'll be far to busy refreshing, hasting, curing, converting, debuffing, and being yelled at by party members for not buffing them quicker to melee anyway.

[Bluecat]

Re: The Role

So then what equipment should I ware in parties? o_O

[Icemage]

Re: The Role

*waits for the inevitable arrival of the pro-melee posters*

As mentioned above, in the earlier levels, RDM melee is at least halfway decent. The general consensus is it starts falling off around level 32 or so, when RDM start losing access to the better swords/daggers, and get a bunch of mage-related duties.

After level 41, RDM melee can be OK, but in an XP party setting or most endgame situations it's not terribly practical. Not always a hindrance, but it can make you unnecessarily busy for not a lot of net payoff.

Doesn't mean you can't melee, just don't walk into the job thinking that's what you're going to be asked to do when you walk into any multiplayer situation beyond level 40.

Solo, of course, you're sometimes going to want to melee, though even there sometimes it's not practical.


Icemage

[Kittyneko]

Re: The Role

> You can use really simple gears for a while.
Lv1-7: Bronze Harness set
Lv7-10: Leather Vest set
Up to level 10 or even a few more, such as 11 and 12, you'll be solo.
Lv10-16: Scale Mail set. There are several other similiar equipment pieces at level 10 and 11, and they're all good. Pick the cheapest? You might be able
to use your Conquest Points (obtained through Signet) to obtain a piece or two from the Gate Guard. For more info on Signet and Conquest Points, click here.
Lv16-20/21: Two choices. You can either use the San d'Orian Tunic at level 15, the Bone Harness set, or a combination of both. Use the tunic, and for the rest pieces of the Bone gear. It works either way.


> For weapons; you'll probably just want to use swords or daggers. (Usually sword) combined with a Shield. You'll want a weapon with as little delay as possible.


> Overall Equipment; there's not much worry about gears yet regarding Red Mage. As you'll level up higher, you'll find out that you'll need different set-up's for different type of spells. A quick example:
INT is for Elemental Magic (Stone, Water, Aero etc.), Dark Magic (bio) and several Enfeebling Magic spells such as Bind and Sleep.
MND is for Healing Magic and Enhancing Magic spells, though it isn't important for those type of spells for a long while. It's also good for Enfeebling Magic spells such as Paralyze.


> Subjob!. I'm sure by now you know what a subjob means.
>> What is a subjob?
A subjob is a job you can set secondary to your Main Job. For example, if you're a level 10 Red Mage, and you set White Mage as your subjob, you'll be Red Mage 10/White Mage 5. You will be able to use the spells and abilities of a level 5 White Mage. Also, you will inherit half of the HP and MP of a level 5 White Mage, thus making your Red Mage a bit stronger overall. That's the whole purpose of a subjob, aiding your Main Job. Don't come up with crazy combinations such as Red Mage/Samurai! The subjob has to aid whatever the main job does. However, note that you have to level the subjob up as well.. For example, if you're a Red Mage level 18 and your White Mage is level 1, when you set White Mage as subjob for your Red Mage then, you'll be a RDM18/WHM1. This ofcourse isn't very helpful. You'll have to level up White Mage to level 9, to be able to use it at it's full potential. Past level 20, party's will really want you to have your subjob levelled up good enough to use as subjob. And yes, this means if you want to become Red Mage level 75, you'll eventually have to have White Mage at level 37 as well.
I'll explain below what subjobs are usually best for Red Mage.
A funny old joke about subjobs:
"A subjob is like sex. You get it at 18, and if you haven't had it at 21, people laugh at you."

>> How to get a subjob:
At level 18 you'll be able to do a relatively easy quest; either Elder Memories in Selbina or The Old Lady in Mhaura. You'll only have to do one of these two quests and it doesn't matter which one. I advise you to do Elder Memories in Selbina, as Selbina (you'll find out later) is really close to the area where you will play in Party's a lot, Valkurm Dunes. This one seems more logical because the 3 items you'll be asked for to complete the quest, you might find simply during Party playing. If you're level 18 and still don't have all 3 items, you can ask someone to help you out. For a bit higher levelled player, this usually isn't much of a problem.

>> What subjob is best for Red Mage:
Well, up to level 75 you'll be choosing up between 3 choices. (Note that you can change your Main Job and Sub Job at any time in your Mog House.)
White Mage is usually the most preferred sub job. This because it offers a good MND boost and eventually lets you use White Mage-specific Healing Magic spells, which will come in very handy, especially when you're the "Main Heal."
Black Mage is another good sub job, because of the Int boost (which eventually helps on using the Sleep spell on monsters) and several Black Mage-specific Elemental Magic spells.
Warrior might be a good sub at lower levels, just for a bit more Attack and Defense boost, but you won't gain the benefits such as Int, Mnd and much more MP which Black Mage and White Mage offer.
Eventually at much higher levels, there are also other subjobs you can use such as Ninja, but you will find out more about this as you level up. You won't have to worry about this at all yet. With just White Mage, you'll be able to level to 75 without any worries.


> Your role; up to level 20 and even a few levels beyond, your purpose in a party is basically to melee the monster, giving it a little damage, and using your Cure spells to aid out party members in need of Healing. Also you can use Enfeebling Magic such as Paralyze, which also helps skilling up your Enfeebling Magic. At higher levels this is very important.


Future look at Red Mage:
At much higher levels, you'll do a lot of Enfeebling Magic spells such as Paralyze, Slow, Blind etc. on each monster your party pulls. Also you'll be asked to keep Enhancing Spells (also called: buffs) on several party members. The mages in your party will need to have Refresh casted on them everytime it runs out, and the melees in your party want the same with the Haste spell.
You'll be able to use a varation of gears, which you will use to switch back and forth quickly between different type of spells. Not to worry, this you will all be able to "program" into Macro's, allowing you to switch a lot of gears with just a single press on the button .
Also, around level 55 and higher, you'll also be asked a lot to Main Heal. This basically means you'll take over the role of White Mage. With your Refresh spell and your Convert ability (quickly converting all your HP into MP, in case you run out of MP), you'll be able to replace a White Mage very well, as you'll hardly ever run out of MP! This also makes sure you won't be looking for Party's longer than other jobs have to..
Note that you will all learn this as you proceed through your levels.
Red Mage is a very useful job for endgame (level 75). Once you're 75 and have gathered a bunch of Merit Points and good gears, you'll be able to solo really strong Notorious Monsters, if you're willing to learn how. But that's not for you to worry about just yet.

You will certainly never regret having levelled it. Is it fun? That, only you can answer..

Ps.: This post has a lot of clickable links in it, to gain more info about the terms I used

[assumedvigilance]

Re: The Role

Red Mage role = Legendarily, these "prima donnas" were often regarded as egotistical, unreasonable and irritable, with a rather high opinion of themselves not shared by others. the term often signifies a vain, obnoxious and temperamental person who, although irritating, cannot be done without...

[MrMageo]

Re: The Role

While I am very pro melee, the best advice on role I can give is this

RDM is Support

If you need healing inthe party you can do it (/whm)
If you need Magic Bursts in a Party you can do it (/blm)
If you need a 3rd wheel weaponskill for a skill chain you can do it (/blu,/war,/drk)

Melee as a RDM is a very hot button issue but since I am on the otherside of the fence I will touch on it as carefully as a I can.

1-32 go ahead and melee, (when you are not needed to MB, or heal). If your enfeebling skill is capped you should have no issues landing your enfeebles. Meaning you can get away with using a sword or dagger more often. However certain mobs will require you to o things better suited to supporting the party. (ie. Madragora who aoe sleep fairly often, its best to sit back and wake up the heavier melee (DD,tank).)

32 you get dispel and you will be responsible for keeping mob buffs off (evaision,attack,defense boosts) you will have to watch closely as to when these abilities are used so you can quickly dispel them. However it is possible to damage them in this level range you will be fighting beatles who are thik skined and your damage wont amount to much compared to a well timed nuke. This is where melee falls down for a very long time.

41- You get refresh you will now be holding a 2-3 person (+) cycle of refresh, now you will have no time to melee at all, between it your enfeebles which require more INT/MND to land, and dispel you wont be able to output enough damage to be worthy of meleeing. (situations of course do arise where you can at times melee 2x rdm.)

48- You get haste adding in another 2-3 person cycle to go along with refresh, you will now have just enough time to cast all your spells rest for a few ticks and do it again. Melee is pretty much at an end here.

51- elemental staves, these will be your bread and butter tools for a long time, with these your enfeebles will go virtually unresisted for a long long time. Forget about meleeing here entirely, switching between weapons and staves is futile as you will not e able to garner enough TP to use a WS to participate in a SC

75- Meripo Here you can work melee back into the equation sometimes, the thing is you must know when it is an acceptable time to do it as well as not defering from your required duties. Magic Bursting is virtually non existant in most meripos you will be involved in. Colibri being the main target they are virtually negates spell casting entirely. You will often be a main healer, but with 3+ DD /NIN you will not be casting cures or regen ery often. Outside of dia the most used spell will be Haste since you will be the sole user with MP your cycle is shortend greatly. The Colibri does not buff itself nor debuff players so dispel and eras are of no use, and the mobs life span doesnt justify the use of loads of MP for a full debuf cycle. In situations such as colibri you can melee effectively with the appropriate build. /BLU and /DNC really shine here as they are both decent melee subs that offer some form of enhancement to your job as main heal.

75- Endgame you will more often than not be called in for refresh, sometimes you will be brought into tank but this is few and far between. You will also be brought in as a stungun in some occasions to chainspell stun through /DRK. The mobs here have nasty TP moves high evaision and defense and will laugh at a RDM who tries to melee against them and may at times decide to punish members of your alliance for your irritiating pressence.


to be concise

1-32 Melee is decent
32-41 melee falls off but is doable
41-75 forget about it you will be far to busy

75M- certain nstances (colibri) yes it is possible to melee
75E- no not even as a tank if tanking use and earth staff to reduce damage you may receive because it is bound to happen.

If you plan on meleeing at 75 it is imperative to have sword and dagger capped (at least 1) but do this on your own time not in a party 41-75.

[Kittyneko]

Re: The Role

Meleeing yes or no is kind of dependant of if you can stand close to the monster, without harming the Party play.
For example a Bard will want to cast Mage's Ballad on the mages, it's very annoying if a mage is standing near the belees then, because they're going to get another buff.
Another concern is AoE damage, make sure the Red Mage doesn't get hit by AoE damage which causes the Red Mage to use up even more mp.
And last; you need to be able to your mage duties (healing, buffing, enfeebling; thus supporting) without being distracted by your melee play.
It's harder to use the F-key's to target party members when you're engaged and locked on to a target.

[Deeke]

Re: The Role

Thought I'd just mention that using <stpc> macros in conjunction with up and down on the d-pad (this is on a controller, I assume there's a comparable input on keyboard) allows me to target party members whilst locked on to a beastie easily-peasily.

[Negklar]

Re: The Role

Ok I was just wandering what is the REAL role of a rdm in FFXI? Do we get to use our swords at all, basides when we are soloing? I am kind of confused lol.

Enfeebling and Enahancing (Dia, Paralyze, Slow, Gravity, Blind, Sleep, Poison, Dispel, Regen, Refresh, Haste)

You can use your sword VERY early in your career, and in a few specific situations, VERY late in your career.

So then what equipment should I ware in parties? o_O

For the significant majority of leveling RDM, you should have a MND/INT wand or elemental stave equiped.

You should, however, keep your sword/dagger skills leveled up for solo (or duo/trio) play doing things like quests, NPC buddy, farming, etc.

[sykoticjestr]

Re: The Role

i feel it needs to be said again. mainly because i am a rdm and i like giving advice to people trying to learn the job.

my best advice: keep your sword, enfeeble, healing, and enhancing up AT ALL TIMES! especially if you /WHM.

other than that have fun and enjoy the many aspects of this job

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: The Role

i feel it needs to be said again. mainly because i am a rdm and i like giving advice to people trying to learn the job.

my best advice: keep your sword, enfeeble, healing, and enhancing up AT ALL TIMES! especially if you /WHM.

other than that have fun and enjoy the many aspects of this job

Beyond sub level, maintaining skill ups on weapons is the player's own problem. Same thing with magic skill-ups. A RDM that pulls out his sword to "skill up" in a PT setting is liable to booted just as quickly as a BLM who wants to skill up his Dark Magic skill in manaburn. I certainly have done the latter, but haven't seen a RDM pull the skill up card on the former, so I haven't booted one.

EXP PTs and even burn PTs are about killing the mob as quickly and efficiently as possible. If you want skill-ups, go do Robber Crabs in Kufta and Steelshells in The Boyhada Tree.

PTs don't like RDM melee mostly because - despite claims to the contrary by RDMs - they lose focus on what's important to the PT in terms of what a RDM can do. They get too absorbed in melee.

Last night, I had a Promy-Vazhl run, RDM came /NIN for no good reason. He got absorbed in the melee and we ended up wiping the the third floor NM two times because he was sitting on all this MP he had. After we hit 5th floor, even his girlfriend was insisting he go change subs. I don't know what he was trying to prove, he wasn't even using enspells.

[MrMageo]

Re: The Role

PTs don't like RDM melee mostly because - despite claims to the contrary by RDMs - they lose focus on what's important to the PT in terms of what a RDM can do. They get too absorbed in melee.

Thats etirely true and is honestly the most important factor when it comes to using your sword. Which is why earlier i recomended not meleeing at all from 41-75. You may think you got licked but you miss a dispell or a refrsh you will hear about it.

If their is a BRD in the party and you are meleeing, (as a melee not as a mage with a sword) take the melee buffs. Obviously if your meleeing you are not being responsible for everything in a mage role (or in a lolibri pt). SE gave you convert for more reasons then just omg this guy can cure forever.

Also it is imperative you acctually take time and effort to build a decent melee build. Their is plenty on the AH that can bring you up to a decent melee. ACC>ATK in one set WS mod set, and if you dont have an issue with ACC and ATK id go with a haste/store TP set. It is very expensive to maintian a good gear set, and in conjunction with your 3-4 mage set you will not have space for it all. Which is why you must know before hand what you will be going to the party for.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: The Role

In parties, start at the back line--and make sure you're equipped for it.

INT - Black Magic spells (Blind, and probably Bind, Gravity, all direct damage spells like Blizzard, Thunder, and others)
MND - White Magic spells (Slow, Paralyze, Stoneskin especially.)
(Later on, you'll be adding skill items for Enfeebling, and possibly Elemental and Dark Magic as well.)

Not all spells need those stats (Cure after hitting soft cap, for example, or Blink), but make sure you have gears.

If the situations allows it, you may elected to go up front and melee. But, don't do that with a BRD in party if he has Ballad, as someone said. Same goes for COR. And, definitely don't do that if the monster has AoE attacks which interferes with your job. Avoid MND down, avoid getting slept (RDM should be helping with waking sleep people, not getting help waking up), avoid taking damage (should be helping with cures, not getting cured), etc.

Of course, if you're soloing, do whatever you want. XD