Returning RDM75/Nin37 - Solo at 99?

[SpankWustler]

The main thing I'd stress for anybody playing any job nowadays is just to equip for whatever action you're taking, even if that equipment isn't so great, but that goes double for Red Mage. Ideally, one's character should be the invisible man while playing Red Mage.

Make sure you have whatever Cure Potency stuff you can obtain equipped while curing. Make sure you have whatever Magic Attack Bonus stuff you can obtain equipping while using Elemental Magic. Make sure you have whatever melee stuff you can obtain on while engaged in melee. Make sure you have whatever -DT% stuff you can obtain on whenever things are about to go bad. And so on and so forth for every single action, forever and ever.

This principle has always been important, but the amount of easily obtainable specialized equipment has skyrocketed over the past few years, so it is now more important than ever.

[Arcon]

Yes, let's listen to the PLD and WHM main in the RDM forums instead of the people that actually leveled a RDM as their main from 75 to 99 as their only main. Geniuses.

So because I set PLD as my "main" job, you can't be wrong? So the Lv.99 THF who doesn't know what TA does is to be believed over the smart non-THF who actually knows? And the term "main" job is completely retarded in itself because I don't have one main job, neither do most people, and it's certainly not PLD. I only chose to display PLD for nostalgia because it was the first job I played and loved, I didn't even play it in about a year or so. Yet that's your defining argument for why people should not listen to me, instead of actually saying why I'm wrong or why you're right, neither of which you tried to contend so far?

To all the newbies, you will come to find that, sadly, even at 99 some people have no idea what they're talking about, no matter how long they've played the job or how much they love it. Whom you should listen to is a very simple decision, though. Don't listen to either PLD or RDM, listen to the one who's right. And it's certainly not that nutter butter over there. None of what I said is a secret, every claim I made I can back up:
http://www.ffxiah.com/search/item?&jobs[]=32&stat=19
http://www.ffxiah.com/search/item?&jobs[]=32&stat=93
http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Attack_speed
http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Damage_Taken

To get back on topic, Haste will help you in a lot of different ways, and is very easy to come by. PDT will also help, but sadly it's not as easily obtainable. You should get as much of both as you can afford though, either will help you out noticeably. If you maintain you want to be RDM/NIN, MDT will be even more important, since the ratio of magic damage taken compared to physical damage taken shifts significantly if you have shadows to absorb melee hits. MDT also has some certain cheap to obtain items, but like PDT, not very much. Every bit helps though, and you should try to get as much of it as possible.

Like the monkey said, the importance of gearing for the moment is significant if trying to solo. Even if you don't have much gear for different categories yet, setting up proper macros and getting accustomed to switching gear around is very important and may save your life. Just start out with sparse sets for various purposes, and include new items as you obtain them.