Jack Of All Trades: A Guide To Red Mage

you mind posting your WS set for that?

ItemSet 365737
Was using Thibron in offhand. Feet have WSD 9, Cape is MND WSD


Also did a bit more testing in Inner Raka.





I would have liked to get gargoyles too, but they were behind Umbrils in almost all cases.

On said umbrils, damage was a bit lower, not sure if they have physical resist or not. Seems like it from white damage being lower as well though.



Only buffs in all sets were trusts buffs and a Idris GEO. So no (real) bard buffs and I was still able to hit lv 138~ targets with 96% accuracy as long as distract was Saboteur'ed in potency gear.

With Apex Draugrs it was about what you would expect, 60k~ since they are weak to blunt.

Without saboteured distract, OH accuracy fell to about 45%.

Still this should show that with HM March Mad Mad you shouldn't be having major issues in most content. But since you can't always get distract with sabo up on everything in Wave 3, it's not all that viable there, and I also wouldn't expect this to work on anything with higher evasion than T4's, which would include certain unity NMs due to lack of vorseals.

Those are pretty nice numbers. How are your Naegling/Thibron SB numbers with the same setup for comparison? Or Sequence if you didn't have a spare glow weapon for Naegling.

Usually does about 38~41k if I'm using Kaja Sword with Thib, so they are both pretty good. It was mostly just to show it was better than it seems, since if you're able to hit with Thib using Kaja Sword, you'll be able to hit with club. On single hits they are close with club having a slight edge, but when the NM has enough HP to survive the first hit, I think what's putting club ahead is the higher MND modifier (which aligns better with RDM's available gear), and the fact the extra hit(s) are getting 50% boost instead of 15%.

Club seems to have a bit more of an edge in Escha for some reason, though.

Naegling is really nice when you don't have a pocket geo or cor. but once you do, i can easily see the club being good. There really is a few really good choices now, which is a nice change of pace.

Also true strike is kinda garbo... but

Black Halo > True Strike > Black Halo > Black Halo does

Detonation > Gravitation > Fragmentation

Could also Empyreal Arrow > Black Halo for Light.

For those not tracking Monthly update:

Dia and Bio have respectively each had their effects changed.

Each level of dia is now 5% higher than it was in the past, putting Dia III at 20% Defense Down. Light Shot increases each respective Dia level by 3%.

Each level of Bio is now also 5% higher than it was in the past, putting Bio III at 20% Attack Down. Dark Shot increases each respective Bio level by 3%.

It's not a huge departure from the way it was previously but the overall effect is slightly higher for RDM.


From Dev post:

thats not what there saying, it was 5% higher with light shot now 8. but now you cant dia 2 and double light shot for dia 4, can only do dia 3 then 1 light shot for dia 4 now

That is what they're saying, read it again. Light Shot/Dark Shot enhances by 3% now.

Did a super lazy test of Bio and Dia using the chat log. They don't stack still, </3. This was strictly just rebalance towards bringing a RDM.

Went and did some testing. I also confirmed you can't do x2 Shots anymore.

Thanks Geriond lol

Gotta love it when someone says you got it wrong even when you straight up copy/paste the dev post...


Yeah, I went out and tested it too, and also got numbers a tiny bit higher than 20%, I thought it was just an anomaly at first.

This is a quality post.


We should get this exact picture up on the BG wiki sites for Dia and Bio

Why Taeon over Ayanmo for CDC?

Personally dont, only taeon i can see possibly competing is legs or head, and it wont be by much if it does due to the heavy acc/dex on ayanmo

Legs relic+3

Taeon crushed ayanmo+1 but the +2 stuff wins out now.

According to the spreadsheet, a (perfect) Taeon chapeau still beats out Aya. Zucchetto +2 rather significantly.

This is our best CDC set to my knowledge:

Uncapped Attack:
ItemSet 353572

AF+3 gloves are practically tied with Jhakri Cuffs+2. AF+3 wins out if you have good Attack buffs, but Ayanmo Hands +2 Volte Mittens > Taeon hands win at Attack cap.

pre- atanmo+2/volte jhakri won on hands non attack cap but 20/20/3/3 taeon won capped.

Did you plug some volte parts in? Rather high dex str

Volte is so rare I barely even consider it realistic, but below Attack cap they don't beat any of the pieces in the set above.

At Attack cap, Taeon head, Ayanmo body +2, Volte hands, Taeon Legs and Thereoid are BiS for CDC.

I forgot to check Taeon hands earlier, but you're right about them. At Attack cap: Volte hands > Taeon hands > Ayanmo +2 > Atrophy+3 > Jhakri +2.

By the way, for what it's worth: Maxentius/Perf Malevolence are very likely our new BiS nuking weapons aside from Raetic Staff+1 (I think). Stats-wise they beat an absolutely perfect (i.e. practically impossible) Grioavolr/Enki thanks to the much larger amounts of MAB, MDMG, MACC and Skill, which should more than make up for the lower INT. Needless to say, an average nuking Grioavolr would also lose.

As far as off-hands go, Malevolence beats Ammurapi Shield thanks to the MDMG and Tauret thanks to the massive MAB.

Maxentius/Malevolence have INT+25, MAB+65, MACC+75, MDMG+350, Skill+250 total vs. Raetic+1/Enki's INT+10, MAB+81, MACC+72, MDMG+267, Skill+242. They're pretty close, but I don't have a Raetic Staff+1 atm to compare the two. But I'll test it later if I manage to borrow one.

Edit:

Looks like Maxentius/Malevolence beat every other option, including Raetic Staff+1/Enki Strap Maxentius/Kaja Rod wins, see below. That's actually pretty impressive. Too bad we're usually /SCH when nuking.

Maxentius/Malevolence:


Ngqoqwanb/Enki:


Raetic Staff+1/Enki:


Maxentius/Ammurapi:


Maxentius/Malevolence:


Marin Staff+1/Enki:


Edit 2:

Might be Maxentius/Kaja Rod is even better, but I don't really feel like burning Hallmarks just to test it right now. If anybody else wants to test it that would be great.

You can always give a check to see if Naegling/Maxentius is higher, if it's higher than Rod/rod will definitely be.

Maxentius/Naegling lost to Maxentius/Malevolence by a relatively large margin iirc.

Edit: Seems like Naegling beats Malevolence on higher level targets (tested on VT Agitated Chapuli in Reisenjima), whereas Malevolence won on level 0 mobs.

So Maxentius/Kaja Rod are officially our BiS nuking combo, just like BLU.

This was my nuking set for reference. I purchased a Kaja Rod after retesting Naegling:

ItemSet 353576

- Nuked at minimum range for Orpheus
- Merlinic augmented with INT+2, MACC+30, MAB+40, MDMG+2
- Chironic augmented with MACC+18, MAB+48 (slightly better than Amalric Nails +1 for high tier nukes)

That’s great info ty, is the raetic staff +1 still bis for mb or is rodx2 the way forward?

Kaja Rod off hand beats Malevolence?
And the reason is, what exactely? The much higher Magic Damage?

Compared to Kaja:
Malevolence > Same INT, same Macc, +16 Mab, -114 Mdmg
Nibiru Cudgel > +11 INT, -28 Macc, +13 Mab, -108 Mdmg (not taking into account the INT>Macc though)

Am I missing something? I always assumed MDMG added a static, negligible value (when properly buffed) to high tier nukes, whereas Mabb added much, much more (because of buffs multiplying that bonus etc)

Well, Raetic Staff+1 already loses to Maxentius/Kaja on regular nukes, so I don't see any reason why it would win during a Magic Burst since it doesn't have any Magic Burst Damage+.

Additionally, Maxentius gets Magic Burst Damage I that increases with every skillchain step and caps at the usual 40% gear MBD, while Raetic staff+1 with BiS MBD gear gets only +39% MBD I (assuming Shiva Ring +1 > Jhakri Ring). With Maxentius/Kaja you can also swap out some MBD for more MAB or something to push your damage further.

For reference, I think this was our previously BiS MB setup with Raetic+1--please correct me if I'm wrong:

ItemSet 353587

I believe Static Earring could get replaced by Friomisi Earring if you are using Maxentius.


The reason is that MDMG gets added to the base spell damage, which is then multiplied by MAB. At higher MAB values you have diminishing returns, so increases to base damage yield bigger results. As a very simplified example: 1000 DMG x 20.0 = 20,000 vs. 1100 DMG * 19.0 = 20,900, where for the latter terms +1.00 would represent +100 MAB without taking MDB into account.

In other words: the worse your MAB gear is, the better Malevolence performs vs. Kaja Rod and vice-versa.

What are considered to be the best 5 nuking options for when you're not dualwielding though?

Does Maxentius alone hold up against other options? With Culminus or Ammurapi, don't even know what would be best at this point...

Atm I'm gimp and using a Grioavolr augmented with Some Macc/Mab and some INT. If I recall it's INT+15, Macc+20, Mab+25.
Not the best nuking staff around but was the best among my options, on RDM.

Maxentius/Ammurapi should be about on par with a decently augmented Grioavolr, but a really good Grio will win out.

For Blizzard: Maxentius/Kaja > Ngqoqwanb > Raetic +1 > good Grio > Max/Ammurapi >= average Grio (estimate) > Perf Malevolence/Ammurapi > bad Grio

For Aero: Maxentius/Kaja > Marin Staff +1 > Raetic +1 > good Grio > Max/Ammurapi >= average Grio (estimate) > Perf Malevolence/Ammurapi > bad Grio

For everything else: Maxentius/Kaja > Raetic +1 > good Grio > Max/Ammurapi >= average Grio (estimate) > Perf Malevolence/Ammurapi > bad Grio

As far as pure damage goes, a good Grio would be augments like 15+ INT (cap: 20) and 25+ MAB (cap: 30) as well as some MDMG+. However, Maxentius/Ammurapi has much more MACC than even a perfect Grio, so keep that in mind if you roll high damage but low MACC.

What's the threshold when Grio stops being "average" and becomes "Good" xD

I'd say an average Grio would have 50%-75%ish of the possible values, i.e. 10-15 INT, 15-22 MAB and 5-8 MDMG (just going by the caps of each stat). A good Grio would probably have 85%-95% of the max values. A perfect damage (not counting MACC) Grioavolr would have 20 INT, 30 MAB and 10 MDMG as augment.