All For One, And More For Me: A Guide To Red Mage

Why use such a weak setup like that...

Here is what 2 of those daggers give you

Magic Skill +201
MAB +88
MACC +70
INT +20
MDMG +236
Fast Cast +10

There is no staff, that RDM can use, that comes close to that. Plus it gives you easy MP so you can use a real nuking body.

Isn't /sch better for nuking than /blm? You get your own storms, Klimaform and Aspir anyway plus Sublimation, Alacrity and Parsimony.

Whilst the dagger is no doubt powerful, Vamp is quite close, losing only 10 MAB, 35 MAcc, 10 MDMG, but gaining a ton of WSD. Personally I'd bite the Seidr bullet for that and use Sanguine Blade's DMG to make up for the lost DMG since I figure it'd likely end up doing extra. But, that's just me.

You will most certainly run into an MP issue if your aggressively nuking. Aspir 1 is weak as ***and won't be nearly enough to sustain you. RDM doesn't have the cost reduction tools nor the MP recovery tools like BLM, SCH and GEO and convert's timer is way to long to rely on it.

Blizzard V is 267 MP, Blizzard IV is 162, DA only reduces it by 10% to 241 + 146. Without Myrkr, Aspir II, Aspir III RDM is going to run out of MP within a few miniutes and then be stuck waiting on it, or just not nuking which defeats the purpose unless your the primary healer. Energy Drain was netting me about ~450MP at 1000TP and ~900MP at 3000TP, making it so I could nonstop double burst.

My Merlinic body is (cap MBB via other slots)

MAB 20+33
MACC 20+25
INT 40+8
Drain Aspir +7

vs Seidr Cotehardie
MAB 7
MACC 13

So yeah when combined with those daggers, that's is a rather large boost to nuke damage.

Vampy (x2)
Magic Acc Skill 201
MAB 68
MACC 0
MDMG 216
INT 20
Fast Cast 14
Occult Acumen 20

Male (x2)
Magic Acc Skill 201
MAB 88
MACC 70
MDMG 236
INT 20
Fast Cast 10

Total loss is 66 MAB, 102 MACC, 20 MDMG, 48 INT and some gear haste for recast.

I've been working on Aspir set for RDM/SCH. I'm only missing 2 pieces.

Depending on the party, sometimes there's too much nuking power. There will be 2 melee and 4 mages, and only 3 (usually just 2) of the mages need to get their nuke off for the mob to die. If I'm at around half MP or so, instead of MBing Blizzard V I'll MB Aspir 1 for 600... the mob is still going to die. Without MB my Aspir will do up to around 200 (just got the Aspir ring this morning but haven't gotten to try it yet!), but yes often times it is resisted. Then there are some parties where I can actually get a double MB Blizzard V+Aspir off.

Also you should look into your gearset for Energy Drain, mine does around 600 and 1500 (which is way more than my max MP heh).

RDM is so versatile, I've had tons of fun in Apex parties. I'm so glad that 6 man EXP parties are back. :D FFXI is back!

That was last year, they are much better now but RDM has long since been 2100 so little need to use them.

It doesn't end there. I was in a post-Vagary Sinister Reign party last night and surprisingly I was asked to hop on RDM over GEO. We went BLU BLU RDM PLD with trusts. Rolled Darrcuiln, Rosulatia, and August. Darrculin went down like a prom queen. On Rosulatia and August hate got a little weird and I ended up tanking for a while on both. The damage was nothing with just my Beatific shield+1. With a real DT set, I'd be interested in tanking SR full time on RDM. Enmity would be an issue but if I got /PLD or /WAR, maybe I can overcome it. Thoughts?

Grioavolr 19 INT 14 macc 30 mab 228 mac skill 217 magic dmg my augs of 'INT+19','Mag. Acc.+20','"Mag.Atk.Bns."+24','Magic Damage +1 and 3% magic bursty and 5 mab 5acc from grip is...

Magic Acc Skill 228
MAB 59
Magic Acc 34
MDMG 218
INT 38
Fastcast 4
Conserve Mp 5
Magic Burst 3%

Sch sub
Dark Arts 10more Fast cast i dont need
-10% mp cost
Dark skill 316 bumps up to 386
Ele Skill 394 bumps up to 420
2strats to cut mp costs another 50% on T5s
+ weather
Conserve mp trait
3 more int then /nin
Can eat crepes for more macc
If stuff is aspirable you shouldn't have much mp issues even while double bursting.

While i would of loved to try nuking/melee with 2 Male daggers in a cp pt i had no luck in SR and my vamps werent nice either. Also while i had great melee auged teaon gear at the time i doubt id convince anyone to let me /nin for that.

Could always make a matt colada

Was Saboteur Dia ever fixed? I think I recall it not working last time I played (years ago).

Edit: Tested it with a friend. It still doesn't work... sigh. What do you guys typically use with Sabo? I guess it depends on the mob, I've pretty much always used it with Dia because, ya know. I'm trying to decide if using it with Poison 2 is worth it. Otherwise I'll probably mostly use it for Paralyze 2. Maybe Silence since it can still take me a couple casts to get it to land on certain NMs. I wonder if it works on Inundation?

Sadly I don't think using Sabo on any of rdm DoT is remotely close to being worth it. Pretty sure they are still on the lvl 75 cap system. Not sure though, I might have missed something in my absence, the duration/potency gear we have is hardly worth rdm DoT, only the -def on dia which is capped at -15% I think.

Poison scales with skill now (not sure when this was changed). Mine ticks for like 113 normally, and for like 232 with Saboteur. Considering the cast time is instant and it doesn't feed TP, it's a rather incredible spell. I don't really notice resists either. Sadly Saboteur only affects the DoT portion of Dia and doesn't affect Bio at all since it's Dark Magic.

If yer not using Poison II now, it's time to start. ;)

What are you using it against? If it's on normal monsters, then killing them outright would be faster. If against NMs, I'd think other enfeebles are more worth it.

I almost always cast dia/poison as a natural instinct, still pretty sad that rdm is only getting a 230ish DoT spell during the use of a ja to increase it, pretty sure sch is pulling 10k DoT, maybe?

I would be happy if rdm could break 1k DoT

However I do use the crap out of Dia III for the -def

Well that's why I asked what people use Saboteur with. Since I've been using it with Dia this whole time (lol) I don't have much experience with it.

Maybe I was just trippin but the few times I used it with something like Para2 it just didn't seem that different. I plan on experimenting some more though. Any personal feedback is appreciated. :)

Frazzle, paralyze, distract are the 3 I almost always use sabo for.

I guess I should have mentioned I prefer sabo/para combo.

I am currently exploring RDM as option for myself because it looks interesting.

I'm pretty sure I can get with a group of friends and do some endgame content. I just don't know where to start or even if I am sold on the class fully. I am currently gearing up Corsair to be used for end game but I enjoy diversity and RDM seems to offer all of that. Fortunately RDM/COR seem to share swords and potentially some TP gear for melee RDM.

Can anyone answer a few questions for me?

1. Merits, this guide seems a bit out dated and all the information I can find is outdated, what are the best skills to merit?

2. Should I focus on Enhancing skill or should I just use the 109/119 Empyrean set to buff for a longer duration?

3. Should I bother with Ghostfyre cape when I can make a MND + 20/ Macc + 30 / Cure Potenty +10% Ambuscade cape to cover my enfeebles and heals?

4. I read that Magic Accuracy and Enfeebling Skill are the same when it comes to enfeebling. If There is a piece that gives +16 Enfeebling Skill and a piece that gives +20 Macc should I be using the Macc piece for enfeebles or the Enfeebling skill piece?


This class seems to have a lot to it and there are probably things that I haven't even considered so if there is something I may need to know that would be helpful as well.

Thank you for anyone who takes their time to answer even one question.


Side note: I am also interested in Melee and Nuking, I actually want to be very comprehensive and find a job that I can easily solo/duo (With my wife who plays GEO/DNC) a lot of content while being pretty diverse. The Melee aspect of RDM is what draws me to it VS. SCH and the bandwagon on BLU is a bit of turn off(though my Blue mage is 99 with almost every spell). I feel like RDM enfeebles may be a lot stronger than what people are giving them credit for.

1.
ice macc affects para/distract so that's prob best of macc, after that can spread between wind(silence), earth, ect.

Category 2 there's some flexibility.
Blind2 is useless no.
*Paralyze2 is required at least 1/5.
*Phalanx2 is a very useful tool in group play, if you're gonna do phalanx2 you should really go all out to 5/5.
Slow is kind of a meh spell these days, some ppl keep it 1/5 still.
Bio3 is useless.
*Dia3 is requires, takes 3 merits to be same duration at normal dis.

2. Some buffs have a potency that is affected by skill+, some do not. This is covered in the opening post of this topic which was ignored.
The ones that have a potency mod you should equip skill+ first, then duration second. In addition to this there's phalanx+ pieces also for phalanx that affect both phalanx 1&2.

The ones that have no potency mod you should just equip for duration+. For max duration + in main body slots it is 4/5 Empy, with AF119 hands.

3.
The original JSE cape is still useful for 1 thing (see 2.) max enhancing skill+ (+10), which ideally you'd go for +10enhancing paired with as much duration+ time as you can get (max+20).

MND30macc20 > mnd20macc30, most important spells have a MND mod to potency.
...
4. continuing. This is covered in almost every single page of this topic but you're just gonna have to look up mods on certain spells.
1 enfeeb = 1 macc
1 MND/INT(depending) = .5macc or 1macc depending on mob

...
Poison/Poisonga/Poison2/Distract3/Addle2/Frazzle3 (note besides poison only the 550 gift distract/addle/fraz work like this)
enfeeb skill > MND

Paralyze/Slow
MND

Thank you for the answers. Sorry if I missed some things from before, I really just wanted confirmation and I greatly appreciated the reply.

Given what you mentioned about Distract III, Addle II and Frazzle III- Does that mean the Ghostfyre cape is better than the Ambuscade cape for these debuffs or do you still want the Macc to land the debuffs?

The "enfeeb potency+" on ambuscade cape trumps anything else. Same applies to empy body... Empy hands during saboteur

How about Uk'uxkaj Boots for enfeebles. Thou Skaoi boots have the 17 skill and tons of macc

I was trying to avoid mentioning those out of lazyness, also looking at my op I came off ruder than I meant to - sorry long day in the library.

Skaoi are kind of a reach for some players since they're t4 reis (read: rdm lfp) but medium sabots fall into a similar situation.

Here are the current options at feet (only talking for potency) someone probably has better insight into this than me, if so please chime in.

Uk'uxkaj Boots max aug: MND24 "enhances enfeebling magic effect" (+~6%)
Chironic taup max aug: MND39
Medium's Sabots max aug: MND29 enfeebling15
Skaoi: MND17 enfeebling17

The question is wether the upgrade in mnd/enfeeb vs ukuxkaj justifies the 6%. When i tested in ballista a while ago for poison and Distract3 medium's sabots just baaaaarely beat out uk'uxkaj; i wanna say the difference was like -1 or 2.

With paralyze/slow this is harder to judge cause you can't see the concrete number so easily and there's no enfeebling skill in the mod. At the time of the test I did this left uk'uxkaj still best cause it was basically 6%mod vs only +5MND. Since then however Chironic came out which can get up to +15 mnd on them ~ I'm honestly not sure which wins. I persoanlly use Uk,uxkaj for paralyze/slow myself.

Important to note again all the other options are superior in macc (and can argue merlinic and kaykaus\+1 into that catagory). My own max macc feet for sleeps/dispel and such are +39macc merlinic.

Also Skaoi are only +2enfeebling over Medium's but -12mnd. ~brain hurtz

Do we know if there is a current cap on Temper II? I am sitting at 614 enhance magic skill, just not sure if there is a cap or not.

No cap to my knowledge at the current moment. At least not a reachable cap since they made the changes a while ago. Enspells and Temper continue to increase with enhancing skill 500+.

Random question:

Does the 119 AG Excalibur still have the "Additional Effect: Damage Varies with HP"? Reason I ask is because it isn't on the picture of the weapon on BG-Wiki.

Yes.

I see no difference in barspell from 500 to 600. I think 500 is the cap for barspells at 150 resistance.