On Red Mage melee...

[cidbahamut]

This is true in many places, but as far as Abyssea is concerned it very rarely is the case.

Killing 6 enemies in the time it'd take to kill and proc 3 doesn't mean more drops, in 99% of cases it mean no drops.

Trigger > 4 Seal
No Trigger > 1 Seal (if you're lucky, most likely not one you're doing the NM for anyway)

Anywhere but Abyssea, and non Emp Weapon items, however I'd agree with you.

Are you factoring in time spent keeping the NM alive? Because you can tear through most seal NMs in roughly a minute if you don't bother with procs.

If you've got a full set of proc monkeys then go for it, but if you've only got a few procs covered then just rip through the NM and hope you get a proc along the way.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

Are you factoring in time spent keeping the NM alive? Because you can tear through most seal NMs in roughly a minute if you don't bother with procs.

If you've got a full set of proc monkeys then go for it, but if you've only got a few procs covered then just rip through the NM and hope you get a proc along the way.

I don't find keeping them alive, killing and proc'ing that annoying or that it wastes time anymore thanks to the Abyssite. (though only seal wise really, WS are still an annoying time sink)

As I said, if you don't have the procs then by all mean go for quick kills it'll probably work better, and in that sense SCH would 100% be better, but if you can get them, at least for me I'd opt for the procs over speed.

1) Had it ever been shown that TH affected seal drops? There's no reason why it shouldn't, of course, but I never really noticed a difference between killing things procless on THF vs. other jobs.

2) Very low compared to what? The droprate you'd come to expect from Abyssea thanks to procs, or FFXI in general?

1) To be honest I've no idea, TH was always dodgy for me. I once went 5/5 on the club in Oztroja (S) with TH3 when a THF I knew never got it in 24 goes with ~9+.

2) Low in the sense I fought one NM 7 times and got nothing at all, that said I've also proc'ed and got nothing so yeah!!

[scaevola]

Are you factoring in time spent keeping the NM alive? Because you can tear through most seal NMs in roughly a minute if you don't bother with procs.

If you've got a full set of proc monkeys then go for it, but if you've only got a few procs covered then just rip through the NM and hope you get a proc along the way.

To be fair, it's not like it takes a long time to land all your potential yellow procs provided you don't have three DDs feeding the NM endless TP while you're doing it.

More importantly, we've kind of deviated from the central point of this little digression, which was that even if procs in general are a nice enough thing to pursue the actual spread of proccing potential between WHM and SCH doesn't justify not using SCH as your main healer for preeeeetty much everything unless you HAPPEN to be going after something for seals/+2s on dark/lightsday.

Saevel was saying, among other things, that we ought to weigh Hexa Strike over Embrava when choosing an Abyssea healer, which is pretty lol.

EDIT: punchline is that EVEN ON LIGHT/DARKSDAY, SCH/WHM only has one less magic proc than WHM/BLM. It loses Banish III, Holy, and Bio II, but picks up two spells from Fire or Lightning.




....man, I really need to level scholar.

[0nionKn1ght]

I have a full melee set for my RDM, and often go RDM/WAR for exp now, as in alliances, there is minimal to no healing needed, so I just keep myself hasted, enspelled and wail away on the leeches. The reason I go /WAR is for the extra double attacks and it unlocks a few more Weapon Skills.

I am able to keep up with other DD's and find it alot of fun to be able to finally play on the front lines with some modicum of success.

Only returned a few days ago though so im probably doing everything wrong, backwards and in a way that causes the very fires of hell to freeze at my noobness.

[Karbuncle]

If you can get an Almace, I'd recommend that, and sticking to /NIN, will offer you better overall DPS, especially in Abyssea.

As far as whatever goes, I'm finally picking up my RDM Again after so long, Got my Mandau, and i'm looking forward to having fun with it. Wish i could Merit Requiscat... but Already locked on Exenterator, Resolution, and SHATTERSOULZ - Luckily, With a Mandau, I'll get more uses out of Exenterator

[Demon6324236]

Myself I prefer /DNC or /NIN, the Dualwield massively helps your DPS and while you may be hurting for WSs, with the Merit WS, Almace, Excalibur, Death Blossom, or Mandau, you can still have a great WS to use. As for your melee set I am curious what you use, as you said you are returning I am curious if you have seen the wide verity of gear RDM has gotten and how much of this you have/use. Myself I aim to have this set as it is the best possible TP build set for RDM imo. I currently use this instead till I am able to get the rest of the gear.

Also welcome back to FFXI, I hope you enjoy RDM and can make it successful for you as I have for myself! ^_^

[saevel]

I sold my Calmecac trousers once I got Phorcy's for DRK. I just use Rubeus for both TP and for DB / Requiscat. Only piece I'm missing is that G*D DAMN Aketon. Been slaughtering Morta and it still refuse's to drop, drops for everyone else in the alliance except me.

If someone doesn't have Almace then Requiscat is a good WS for most content a RDM would be meleeing on. RDM has a metric sh!t ton of MND gear that we carry anyway for our enfeebling sets. KoTR is actually decent if you got Excal @95, the 25% bonus helps being it more in line with other WS's, provided your dual wielding.

RDM's only issue is that the lack of great melee gear. Lots of mediocre / good gear, but very few really great pieces. And they keep putting RDM on generic "any mage" gear that just turns into a bunch of situational pieces.

[Karbuncle]

Wish i could even see or find a Morta shout >_>

Edit: Also, RDM was put on some pretty decent Melee/WS gear recently. So its not all bad. I'd have to look it up, But i know they got put on some nice armor recently.

[saevel]

Wish i could even see or find a Morta shout >_>

Edit: Also, RDM was put on some pretty decent Melee/WS gear recently. So its not all bad. I'd have to look it up, But i know they got put on some nice armor recently.

Our LS does Morta x 6 every now and then, depends what else is going on. We've gotten tons and tons of bodies, just me and one of the COR's hasn't got it and it's driving us nuts. Morta really isn't that hard, just needs a solid voidwatch group who aren't on "proc onry" jobs. It piss's me off to no extent when people say they got 6 or 7 jobs "at 99" when I ask them what they can come as. I want to know what they got geared, skilled with full macro sets, not what they threw together to get invites.

Gear wise Morta's body was about it. Everything else is scavenged from other sets or is all jobs. Z.Tiara, Rub pants, Rajas / Tyrants / Mars, Brutal / Suppa, Phasmida Belt, Ath Mantle. Just the generic all purpose DD gear that everyone else gets. It's got nothing that compares with most jobs Emp armor, Thaumas / Phorcy's sets, or Toki / Octh / Athos gear.

Honestly I'm of the opinion that SE should just stick BLU on all the sets RDM is on and stick RDM on all the sets BLU is on, then call it a day. Would instantly fix the gear issue, RDM would still be behind BLU due to RDM needing /NIN where BLU gets /WAR. For now everything feels cobbled and hacked together.

[Demon6324236]

BLU gets to much of the gear RDM should be on. Between VW & NNI on the gear sets BLU got great TP & WS pieces that make RDM's look bad, while RDM still got just plain old mage things that while useful help nothing to do with wielding a blade at all. We have good gear coming to us outside of these sets but the sets are what shine the most. For instance Toci's makes Antares look like crap for CDC however Antares is the best for RDM still when it comes to CDC, while BLU gets Toci's. Much the same with Thaumas & Athos, they are great for DEX and TPing gear, but RDM gets put on Nares & Rubeus which while they are good, are nothing by compare to BLU's sets. And the worst part is so far as magic damage goes BLU wins over RDM by far without the high amount of mage gear because they have fast potent spells.

I love my RDM melee but I have to say sometimes I still feel the shaft when it comes to gear overall.