RED MAGES. HInts

[Patchinko]

Soloing means fighting Toughs, Very Toughs or NMs by yourself for experience or rare items (which TH won't help with). RDM/NIN is very good for that.

[Karinya]

TH does help with rare items, I don't know how these rumors keep circulating when the difference is blatantly obvious to anyone who has tried hunting with and without it. I guess people without a level 15 thf just *want* to believe it.

Well, if you want to solo RDM/NIN for exp, go ahead (as long as you aren't taking too many monsters away from exp parties, that's just rude when a soloer can easily go to other areas that are just as good but not populated.) I think a decent exp party will easily get double the exp you will soloing (and you'll spend more money to solo), but it's up to you.

But please don't bring RDM/NIN to a party. Your melee is not a sufficient reason to invite you against VT or IT monsters, and your spellcasting abilities will be weaker than a BLM or WHM sub.

[moblin]

I WILL BE A RED MAGE

i m lvl 10 war and from all this info i m going to be a RDM again
I CANT WAIT THANK U SO MUCH TRIEL AND JEI THANX FOR ALL THE INFO.

[Hyrist]

What I've currently found out form my studies is that around 62ish in parties that need a little more melee umph that sub Drk actually works quite well too.

This ties into the more hp than we have MP issue that origonally miffed me. A good balance in this is using Souleater while you melee, with a combination of latent effect gear.

Souleater turns that excess HP into added melee damage, and will whittle your life down to about 70% if used wisly, after that (when your hp turns yellow) if you still want to souleater, slap on a stoneskin for it to soak the damage, and maybe a regen too just incase it eats away stone eater too fast. With your MP usually at around 70% of your total MP without loads of swamp gear and merits, this can be used for an almost perfect convert ratio, with the HP you would have normally lost in the mix, now contributing to somthing you had been lacking in earlier.

Of course parties in which you use this tactic are stituational, but its somthing to conister. The Latent effect gear I use for this situation is the earring that latent effects +3 accuracy, and Warlocks Ring that adds +5 to our enspell damage per hit (+2-3 if its resisted) All of this adds up to making us a halfway deicent melee in the right situation, ontop of our own Mage Duities and Magic Bursting.

Again, this is all severily situational.

[Jei]

Seeing some later replies seem to get confused by Taz original post I think it's a good time to revise some histories ^^ And share my new thoughts about sub job.

What Taz said about Rdm being the last choice was true in the past. Rdm had changed a LOT along many patches and currently, we Rdm are no where near the original Rdm we used to be ^^

Mid 2002, FFXI released
There were no regen, no refresh, no dispel, no convert. Rdm had very little spells to offer to a PT and even worse, gaining any combat skills were also almost impossible. Imagine my Enfeeble were only 40ish at level 55, they just never go up. We couldn't cure, we couldn't nuke, hell we couldn't even land our enfeeble magics. Basicly none of our trademarks we have nowadays were available and that gave PTs very little reason to invite Rdms. This goes on for almost a year.

Rdm at this time were a depressing job. Searching for ppl flagging for PT, I knew immediately that I would NOT get invites if there's any other mages in the list. When the search list had no other mages than me ALONE, then, I might get an invite! Having Rdm's AF as my inspiration was the only reason I kept going on as Rdm.

Needless to explain much, I was forced to lead probably 90% of the PTs I was in. Which was extremely hard at early levels because I couldn't speak much JP -_-' Good thing tho it forced me to learn Japanese on the Fly and by level 40ish I no longer had much problem leading PTs.

This went on until mid 2003, our turning points arrived. The Rise of Zilart

1 Week before Zilart was released was a huge update patches preparing for Zilart contents. With this patch, came our god sent spell Refresh together with many other changes that improved every Rdm's lives forever.

- Convert Dispel Regen Refresh were all introduced with this patch. And MY GOD every Rdm need to respect what SE had given to us. Getting my first Refresh from BCNM was hard, took me weeks with 7 tried but after I got my refresh, for the first time in my Rdm life I got PT invites without being in Jeuno..... I was so happy and so in love with refresh. Respect it, my friend, respect refresh and cast it as often as you can. It is that good.

- Skills were made easier to gain. The Skill gaining has become very close to today's system. I got my enfeeble from 40ish to 150ish in 1 single level up PT You get an idea. Never before were I able to land my enfeebles on strong mobs we level on... and I cap my sword skill for the first time as well. Once again, thanks SE!

So that sets the path of Rdm from a roleless exp leachers to the excellent enfeebler-refresher and supporter we are today. We are now loved and needed. And Refresh/dispel/Convert is what gain us the love from other players.

Ok enough ranting about the good ol days ^^ move onto sub job.

With the introduction of cap 75, there is a new combination that became very handy. Rdm/Drk.
Ok don't look at me like that Rdm/Drk is not for melee boost, but purely for Stun. In a levelling PT it's not as useful, but when you're fighting higher ties HNM, a Rdm using 2hr and chain stun can render the HNM's 2hr to useless! The dragon enables hundred fist? Have 3 Rdm chain stun 1 by 1 and you can buy a free 1 minutes 30 seconds stopping the hundred fist totally. Doesn't that sound great ? In the HNM LS I knew they have a specific Rdm PT assigned as Stunners, they really help a lot.

/whm /blm is the same old cookie-cutter sub ^^ With erase and teleports I really think /whm is more helpful to the PT but either one of these will work fine.

/thf for farming. /nin for 2 blinks. No explanation needed right?

/Brd you wouldn't believe how good /brd is ^^ Imagine if your PT is set up like
Pld Drk Rng Blm Whm Rdm
Now there's 5 members to refresh.... you'll be doing nothing but cast refresh, sit, stand up, refresh, sit, repeat. Using /Brd in this situation will give you a free 60Mp from Ballad plus you can get away without refreshing Pld and Drk sometimes. Add prelude to Ranger and everyone in the PT will love you

I think that pretty much wraps up my idea:angel:

[sudo]

lol the rdm of the past sound amazingly like the smn of today.

smn lfg time is pretty lame compared with other mages. Sounds alot like the rdm of the past.

Wonder when smn will get to be as good as the other mages. We're pretty good today but not nearly as good as the other mages in how well we are liked by others when it comes to getting pt invites.

[Yunaleska]

Thanks for the information ^^.
It's very helpful since I'm a beginner RDM.

One question is how good would a RDM/ Dragoon be... if that combination is even possible?

[neighbortaru]

It's not.

For XP parties it's pathetic and useless. Even solo it's of questionable use (better off with RDM/drk).

[Jei]

you can jump around and look cool maybe.

[tazirai]

Heh dont forget I wrote this 2+ years ago. there have been many changes not only to FFXI but to red mages in general. many things listed are outdated. but good as an archive of the red mage of the past.

[BurningPanther]

To Yunaleska, you would probably be better served with DRG/RDM as opposed to the oppostie. Subbing RDM to your DRG gives your Wyvern some support/healing type attributes, somewhate useful in parties, probably more useful soloing.

Dragoon is the only job I plan to level that wasn't meant as a Sub for my Red Mage.

[Pianna]

Re: RED MAGES. HInts "will be updated as much as poss.

Fact : The red mage is a generalist class good at everything, master of none.

actually that is untrue.
When you get higher up in RDM you'll realize that RDM is master of Enfeebling.
You're a mage, not a melee.

saying that RDM are "good at everything" is what makes all the stupid little meleeing RDMs you see.

Meleeing is fine in the early levels of RDM, but once you get Refresh, RDM aren't supposed to melee.
stand in the back with the other mages and enfeeble, refresh, and dispell.

Spells you should always cast in an XP party are the following:
Refresh (all mages, and paladin), Dispell (when mob buffs), Slow, Paralyze, Dia, Gravity, Blind, etc.

spells you should NEVER cast in an XP party (after 41) are:
Enthunder, Enfire, Enwater, EnBlizzard, etc.



Stats you should be focusing on are MP+, MND+ and INT+.
You DO NOT need Attack+ or Accuracy+.

DO NOT MELEE IN XP PARTIES PAST LEVEL 41!!!

[neighbortaru]

Re: RED MAGES. HInts

Hmm Pianna, do you realize that you are quoting something 2 years old?

Heh dont forget I wrote this 2+ years ago. there have been many changes not only to FFXI but to red mages in general. many things listed are outdated. but good as an archive of the red mage of the past.

[Pianna]

Re: RED MAGES. HInts

lol, oh wow.

I didn't.

sorry

[Enialas]

Re: RED MAGES. HInts

heh

well i experienced my first manaburn party last night. I being 1 of 2 rdms, my job was obvious, you would think that job was obvious to the other rdm. after he d/c'ed they immendiately found another blm b/c they didn't like how he tried to melee and didnt refresh anyone. <ping> Almost 54 now, need to update profile. I meleed at 41 at was considered a good RDM. once i was able to afford Dark, Light & Lightning staves (after dispel, phalanx and other outrageously priced spells) I kissed meleeing goodbye in XP pts. Excluding Anticans w/ AoE Silence, the DoT I provided w/ melee was actually helpful as far as pts have been concerned. Now, with switching staves at a moments notice (in macroes) and increasing mobs that do AoE damage, I'll never get the TPs needed to preform a WS and my Elemental Spells (when I get the time to shoot one off) do more damage than I would have swinging away.

I guess the reason no one cared about my meleeing was that I always enfebeled before I moved in, creatures without AoEs only I'd stay back w/ AoE creatures, kept everyone refreshed, back-up healed and back-up hasted, with the ocasional WS, Chain and MB I participated in.

but ... bringing a sword to a manaburn party? wtf??? such a party only needs a rdm for 3 reasons: Refresh, Gravity and Cure. In that order basically. I knew refresh was prioriety #1, but I did tell the party leader it was my first manaburn before I said I would go, so he was willing to teach me the finer tricks. Interesting.... lots of refreshing, lol