take rdm out if ffxi

[elqplau]

ATM mostly teon gear but trying for better can't really do anything soloing caps slow but people only want bst for that..when I do find a decent place its always taken over by bst zergs then I have to go somewhere else...as I said at least give us the chance to defend ourselves... I can take hate from most if I try but I'm immediately KO'd...its harder 'not' to grab hate than to get it

[dasva]

Use your defensive spells and DT gear. Rdm has always been one of the most resilient non tank jobs and at times even more resilient than the tank jobs

[Hyrist]

Don't know what RDM you play, but the one I play on is very powerful. With zero buffs, no food, just the plain gear on, I have 974 accuracy and 1,034 attack in my normal TP set. I am almost always taking hate and end up tanking because my swords are swinging at about hundred fists speed. I suggest you work on your gear more. Get a good main hand sword that will do good WS damage (Murgleis, Excalibur, augmented Colada or augmented Claidheamh Soluis) and offhand something like Demersal Degen+1. For your armor, I suggest Taeon augmented with accuracy/attack +20/+20, triple attack+2, and STR/DEX +7/+7. If you can swing it, get Carmine Cuisses +1. Also look into getting Combatant's Torque, Windbuffet Belt +1, Bleating Mantle, Suppanomimi, and Eabani Earring. Get your Job Points up to 1,200 so you have Temper 2 (I have 40% or so Triple Attack with spell + gear). RDM is overly strong right now.... so much so that along with some other jobs (BLU, BST, GEO, PUP, SCH, SMN) I'd say it needs to be nerfed.

I realize this thread is dated, but I'm returning to the game and I've been working on getting my RDM back in shape. I noted this this post specifically as some goal points for my frontline gear and had wondered how much of this could actually be soloed with Trusts.

To state clearly; I'm wanting to do progress as far as I can on my own so I am at the best I can be when asking others to accept my playstyle to assist in improving it. (I'm just flatly not interested in back-lining on my Red Mage.)

So, primarily what I'm looking for is a route to take towards this goal. My goals are to have multiple sets to switch between during what instances they are needed. (TP set, WS set, various caster sets.) And work to improve them. Research, sadly only gives me a vague idea of what the end goals are, not so much what gear and events done will lead me into what capacity to get things done on my own.

So any help here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Hyrist]

An update for those wondering.

Taeon, Claideamh Solius is soloable, though expensive to do alone. But this will get you entry level on gear as you work up.

Demersal Degen, Bleating Mantle, Carmine Cussies +1 and Combaant's Torque's are NM dependent and are currently out-of-reach for me as a soloist. I'll need to get a dedicated group for these things. Bleating Mantle, however, IMO looks to be replaceable now with the Augmented Ambuscade Cape with melee augments in them. I would figure DA +10, Accuracy +20 and Dex +20 outweigh what the loss of Triple Attack +2 could bring you in this case.

No word yet on Eabani Earring as I have not attempted the Escha Zi'tah boss. My idea is I will have to watch for crowds and co-op into this open event with my own trusts.

Windbuffet Belt +1 is AH buyable, but about 3 mil on Asura. I was lucky and got into a Walk of Echoes with a couple of Blue Mages doing a Surge walk 13 and it dropped for me there.

A word, however on A. Skirmish Gear and augments.

Dusk-anything, let alone Dusk Tips, which are required for the Damage Augment on the sword, as well as the +STR/DEX on armor pieces are incredibly rare and at a premium on Asura. This may take a lot of farming to get even a single piece to drop and I would recommend finding a farming group of similar interests to go with for repeat runs of Yorcia Weild A. Skirmish - as you will want plenty of Leaftips for attempts at triple-attack +2s for each Taeon piece regardless.

Taeon still remains our best 'easy to approach set' due to the focus and customization of stats. Though keep in mind gears like the Dispair set beat it out until you get max augments, which will take quite some time.

That said, while I'm woefully lacking on attack, I am at 904 based accuracy before buffs (including composure) or food and can easily see reaching the 974 Mark just by hemming up some of my lower rolls on stats, and augmenting my JSE Sword offhand for a sizeable boost in accuracy there. I'm already swinging quite frequently with my current augments and self buffs alone (Temper I still) and with support trusts, I get that 'Hundred Fists' Speed swings fairly easily.

In summary, there is a true sense of progression here for those who which to improve their front-line performance that will make you feel stronger and appreciate the work you are putting into it.

[Athen]

Demersal Degen, Bleating Mantle, Carmine Cussies +1 and Combaant's Torque's are NM dependent and are currently out-of-reach for me as a soloist.

If you have your heart set on a Bleating Mantle, Unity can be entered solo, and Ironhorn Baldurno is level 99, so you shouldn't have any trouble soloing him, especially with trusts.

[Hyrist]

I managed to pick up Demersial Degen from a party joining in. Funny that it went all-out offensive and I opened SC in a suicide run to magic burst down the boss. It worked though, boss was farmed (with lots of death) and I got my weapon and +1ed it that night.

Thing is, I'm NOT certain that Bleating Mantle is worth it at this point. But if it is soloable with trusts, then I might give it a shot during the campaign, just to have the mantle on hand.

[Dale]

I managed to pick up Demersial Degen from a party joining in. Funny that it went all-out offensive and I opened SC in a suicide run to magic burst down the boss. It worked though, boss was farmed (with lots of death) and I got my weapon and +1ed it that night.

Thing is, I'm NOT certain that Bleating Mantle is worth it at this point. But if it is soloable with trusts, then I might give it a shot during the campaign, just to have the mantle on hand.

WB to FFXI Hyrist.

You may want to check out the Fettering Blade from The Dawn Promathia fight. That's a nice sword also and solo-able with trusts as a RDM on Normal.

[Rydal]

Hello. I am also a RDM main that has to deal with the fact that RDM is mostly pushed to the wayside, especially in the last year. I'll give you a few suggestions, although most of the best gear is not (easily) soloable.

-Egeking fully augmented gives a huge amount of accuracy if you find yourself needing some. It's better than most other options when accuracy is an issue.

-Nibiru Blade (Escha Ru'aun T2) is a great sword to have. Try to get a party for it.

-Fettering blade is a great main hand sword that gives great stat boosts (and it looks cool).

-Ginsen from the Tenzen 2 fight is a must have. Lupine cape from Fenrir 2 is great as well. You can spam them both during the campaign on Normal or Easy. Partying for Difficult or higher will yield better results but I got both from Normal.

-Now is the time to spam Alluvion skirmish to get augments on your Claideamh Solius and Taeon sets. Unless you can get hold of Carmine+1, Taeon is pretty much the best melee RDM can get.

-You can buy Voodoo Cuisses and Greaves for Carmine+1 (roughly 10m each, which is waaay cheaper than most HQ abjurations). You'll need to obtain the abjurations from T1 and T2 Escha Ru'aun NMs (shout or get a party) but they are well worth it. The NQ versions (probably under 50k each) are useable if you don't have 20m (or want to spend that much on 2 pieces of gear).

-Ambuscade cape- get at least 3 (1 for enfeebling, 1 for nuking, 1 for melee, and possibly a 4th for weaponskills)
-Accessories that are easy to obtain: Brutal Earring (Ancient Beastcoin exchange), Suppanomimi (Divine Might 1), Asperity necklace (Delve), Rajas Ring (CoP story).

-All the better accessories will require a party: Petrov Ring (Escha Ru'aun T1), Dignitary's Earring (Reisenjima T2), Combatant's torque (Combining all the Warder torques in Escha Ru'aun), Sanctity Necklace (Reisenjima Domain Invasion), Reiki Yotai (Escha Ru-aun Kirin), Hetairoi Ring (Reisenjima T3), Kentarch Belt+1 (Unity), Sarissaphoroi Belt (Reisenjima T2)

-Might be worthwhile to make an Excalibur (easiest REM to solo)

That's all I can offer for melee at the moment. If you want advice on magic sets I can do those as well.

[Hyrist]

I am going for Excalibur in the first of my quests to collect REMA swords, especially for the attack.

Overall I've breached 1100 Accuracy with Sublime, though I can solo Apex Rapters/efts/etc with Marinera Pizza just fine, which is great cause I'm attack starved.

Working on Fiota Gorget, as I've gotten the belt. Working mostly around skillchains, the 2% chance of not expending TP would be nice, on top of the equipment stabilizing my SC damage.

Noted that there's also a decent WS headpiece from Tenzen too (+30 WS accuracy, decent attack str and dex stats) I'll be experimenting around with these and other WS items in an attempt to improve my WS damage in the event that I'm closing or recovering a Skillchian.

I'm considering building a weekly static for Skirmish, as stat customization there is rather nice for specific situations (can be a powerful boost to Phalanx if we can get the Dusk stones for it.)

No need for fettering blade as Egeking is in the process of augmenting and I've gotten Claideamh Solius.

I wouldn't mind advise on Nuking sets, though keep in mind I have intentions to doing so while swording as well as backline, so perhaps two separate sets for that anticipating Sword-based or lack of dedicated weaponry there may be a consideration. Tenzen also has a decent neck piece there for nuking - which makes him my number one Merit Sink for a while.

All and all I'm happy I'm making progress with all this. Game feels good to me, especially now that I have a group that supports me gearing up all aspects instead of just pink-maging it.

[Rydal]

Don't bother with the head piece from Tenzen 2. You want overall accuracy, not just weaponskill.

RDM have more support in the magic armor so you'll have more wiggle room.

-Our AF/Relic/Emp sets are all still useful 119, unlike a job like BLM or BLU where only 2 or 3 pieces matter. AF and Relic have low requirements so get as many of those as possible.

AF: Head (fast cast), Body (Enfeebling skill/Idle), Hands (Enhancing duration), Legs (Cure potency)

Relic: Head (Enfeebling skill/Idle), Body (Fast cast/Healing+Enhancing skill), Hands (Enhancing Skill but don't bother), Feet (Enfeebling skill)

Empyrean: Head (good MAB/Macc on a head piece), Body (Enfeebling potency/Idle), Hands (Enfeebling skill), Legs (Good MAB/Macc and Refresh potency), Feet (Enhancing skill and duration)

Bold are must haves and the rest are good to have.

-Marin staff (+1) is a great staff that will hold you over until you are able to get a better staff. It's from a UNM 128 fight so I doubt you'll be able to solo it but it'd be good to party for.

-Helios and Telchine sets from Alluvion Skirmish let's you customize healing, buffing, debuffing and nuking sets easily.

-From HTB fights: Vanir Cotehardie (Eald'narche 2-okay fast cast/nuking), Mizukage-no-Kubikazari (Tenzen 2- great from Magic Bursting), Culminus (Omega/Ultima 2- amazing nuking shield for when you're using a single sword/club), Gyve Doublet/Trousers (Dawn 2- amazing MAB/vanity pieces, gl getting the doublet), Lebeche ring (Garuda 2- quick magic ring), Voltsurge Torque (Ramuh 2- fast cast/Macc neck), Vrikodara Jupon (fenrir 2- good cure potency if you can't get it elsewhere)

-You'll want any non-JSE Escha/Reisenjima gear that you see WHM, BLM and SCH wearing (Vanya set, Psycloth set, Amalric set, Kaykaus set, Merlinic set, Chironic set).