Lack of decent Red Mage Gear

[Varlan]

So I've been leveling up my red mage and I've found that gear (at least on the AH) is strange at best. Up until 75, it's possible to get a good set of STR, ATK, DEX gear without any real trouble. After 75, all of the RDM gear is basically caster stuff. Did something change? Why is blue mage on both caster and damage dealer gear, but red mage isn't? I'm confused, because it seems to send mixed messages and now I'm not sure if I want to continue playing red mage if it's not possible to get the type of gear I want to get (and was able to get at one point).

I'm just curious what the situation is with this.

[Shiyo]

It's the game telling you "Hey, this is a caster not a melee".

[Kristal]

It's the game telling you "Hey, this is a caster not a melee".

Gain-STR and Temper tell a whole different story...

[Shiyo]

Gain-STR and Temper tell a whole different story...

Obviously we get gain-chr so we can sub brd or bst right?

[Economizer]

It's the game telling you "Hey, this is a caster not a melee".

Hybrid. And even White Mages had decent melee gear at 75. Neither overshadowed "proper" melee jobs, but both (and the other casters who get melee roles) aren't getting as many pieces of decent melee gear outside of equips for all jobs. It isn't asking for much to ask that gear continue to scale for one of the playstyle options.

Obviously we get gain-chr so we can sub brd or bst right?

Aside from the obvious ones mentioned, Dagger WS mod.

If people like you keep complaining about the melee aspect, which only affects the weak mobs/casual events/solo aspect of the job, then SE will think melee is all rdms care about and wont boost the mage side, which affects every aspect of the job. That's a problem. That's reason enough for you to keep your trap shut about rdm melee until we recieve the important mage updates we need.

You can ask for both and get both. False dichotomy.

Actually, since there is a large community that is actively trying to make melee mages shut up (and they will never stop, not even if they get all that they want, so that's an invalid argument) the people who want melee things have to shout louder. Basically, if there weren't so many people telling mages who want to melee to shut up, there wouldn't be so many mages wanting to melee talking so much on the forums. The fault is squarely on those who troll the melee request threads.

TYou will also notice RDM gets left off of mage gear also. There are magic attack bonus pieces that WHM can use but RDM can't, and there was that cure potency body that SMN could equip but we couldn't. It would seem this is a way for SE to limit the job's potential, as if they are worried that a few gear choices might make the job overpowered. It wouldn't.

White Mage gets tacked on to just about every piece of mage gear and a bunch of light armor that usually also has the letters MNK / WHM / RDM / THF starting off the gear roster.

While I'm not one to complain about White Mage getting more gear choices, it always baffles me about all the Magic Attack Bonus gear that White Mage is tacked on. If you are trying to do damage as a White Mage, Divine Magic is the last thing you want to be doing (okay, maybe second to last, curing the mobs, even if they are undead is worse), and until recently Magic Attack Bonus gear did little to nothing for melee (although this seems to be more noticeable for weapon skills Red Mage gets, not White Mage).

I suppose as a White Mage I can pop Dark Arts from my sub and cast Impact now? It isn't like Flash Nova is particularly impressive compared to other magical WS even with some Magic Attack Bonus, and if you are using a WS as a White Mage, usually it is a better option to either Hexa Strike or Black Halo.

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More back to the melee side, Doombringer and Saevel mention a lot of good gear and choices as always. Red Mage isn't so pathetically behind, but like any mage looking to melee, getting a solid continuation of gear as the levels go up would be nice.

The absolute terror that the anti-melee crowd displays at the prospect that any mage might want to have their current melee power to scale with levels, or even worse, *gasp* increase is confusing. It won't kill the game to have people play roles outside the ones you might want to pigeonhole them into.

[Mageoholic]

It's the game telling you "Hey, this is a caster not a melee".

To be fair its a pretty terrible casting class to.

[Quetzacoatl]

To be fair its a pretty terrible casting class to.

Gotta agree on this one. I mean, What else does RDM have left in Abyssea? All I've ever done with it so far is make it a Phalanx II job for CW Burns, that's about it. And when it's down to that when your enfeebles outright resist on Higher-Tier NMs, You have to ask yourself.

[Shiyo]

Gotta agree on this one. I mean, What else does RDM have left in Abyssea? All I've ever done with it so far is make it a Phalanx II job for CW Burns, that's about it. And when it's down to that when your enfeebles outright resist on Higher-Tier NMs, You have to ask yourself.

Abyssea is not the game, abyssea is 2010, this is 2011. The only thing abyssea is for is duoing/dual boxing seal NM's and farming emps.

[Quetzacoatl]

Abyssea is not the game, abyssea is 2010, this is 2011. The only thing abyssea is for is duoing/dual boxing seal NM's and farming emps.

2011 up until now: We were still doing Abyssea because Voidwatch was trash to begin with, and had less-than-groundbreaking gear (except Rancor Collar and Deluxe Animator) with horrid droprates.

uhh...okay? As far as I know, Abyssea is still 80% of the game at the moment.

[Tamoa]

LolTemper - not ever going to get that spell for my rdm. Gain-STR, well it would look weird if we got all the other gain-spells and not Gain-STR. Only one I ever use, is Gain-MND.

Rdm does get semi-decent melee gear though. You can easily cap haste, so I don't see the problem. It will never be a good melee job, ever. But if you, the OP, search this forum, there are 7866786789 other threads about rdm melee already. I'm sure you can get some tips about gear and stuff there, if you really really want to go the melee-route.