Getting the Most Out of Red Mage (as a new 99)

[Saefinn]

Hey folks,

I am a returning player, who is currently trying to work out which of his now level 99 jobs he wants to focus his attention on. I have been trying out a variety of my jobs and seeking the best ways to get the most out of them. Not necessarily to find the most sought after job or the best statistically, I didn't do that back when I played before.

I fear it might cause controversy if I were to say "RDM feels a little weak", but in fairness, I said that when I got my SMN to 99 and learned I was missing something.

I have had a read through a more recent RDM guide and it looks useful for gear progression to i119, however, I am sat at i117 trying to look at how to optimise for my current iLevel and then work on progression afterwards.

So I am looking on feedback on how to try and optimise RDM for:

Melee
Nuking
Tanking

I realise that RDM is the jack of all trades. I know already how to optimise for support at least. But in the other areas, even if I am chaining tier IV nukes, I feel like they could be more powerful. And when I jump in melee, I feel like my Corsair is doing better than my RDM, and my Merit WS feels inferior to my other weapons (gun and fists).

I know based on past experience people have said RDM to be weak or the job SE doesn't care about. An argument I am aware of, so I am pre-empting those, I don't need to know the arguments here. :P

I want to see if I can get the best out of what I've got at i117.
My current sets of gears:

Melee:
Weapon: Eminent Scimitar
Shield: Matamata Shield
Neck: Twilight Torque
Clothes: Full Espial Set
Back: Cerberus Mantle
Belt: Anguinas Belt
Rings: Enlivened Ring & Vehemence Ring
Earrings: Beetle & Bettle +1 (I realise I should upgrade these, but figure I seek advice before I upgrade)

Casting
Weapon: Eminent Wand
Shield: Harpy Shield (for the MAB & MACC)
Neck: Beak Necklace (only decent mage neck I have is for SCH only)
Clothes: Full Wayfarer Set
Back: Twilight Cape
Belt: Tarutaru Sash (with Spell Interruption -10%)
Rings: Acumen Ring & Perception Ring
Earrings: Hecate's Earring & Moldavite's Earring

Any thoughts? Recommendations?


[edit]

That said, now that I've finished redoing all of my macros, I think I am getting a more efficient at murderising with my RDM.

[Rydal]

Your first priority is to get out of 119. There's no point in optimizing sets for 117 when 1. no one does that, 2. getting to 119 is easy prey now and 3. you will quickly reach 119 and thus put a bunch of effort into 117 for no reason. Ambuscade is the easiest choice that can help you with 119 easily even if you get the NQ.

You need to make a set for pretty much every situation, which sucks because it means a lot of gear. Fast cast, Healing, Enhancing, Enfeebling, Nuking, melee, weaponskills are the basic sets for RDM. If you don't party much, you might be able to drop the healing and enhancing sets for now.

I'll quote myself a bunch:

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)

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).

[Afania]

I fear it might cause controversy if I were to say "RDM feels a little weak", but in fairness, I said that when I got my SMN to 99 and learned I was missing something.

Not to discourage you but as someone who recently just start gearing and learning RDM, I honestly think RDM isn't very new/returning player friendly as first job to gear. The amount of gears required for this job is way greater than some other jobs that I have, such as WHM and RUN. Even though I have access to reisen T2/T3 gears that most returning players are struggling to get, such as colada/Grioavolr/Merlinic body etc, and are more resourceful in terms of connection/gear access than a returning player, I still find myself fit into the party more easily on my equally geared/JPed WHM and RUN, which doesn't even use reisen T2/T3 gears much.

For this job to perform well, you do need good gears, tons of sets for multiple aspect such as melee/ws, enfeebling, enhancing, JP to unlock important spells etc. A middle of the road RDM(in terms of gears) aren't going to bring much to the table, while a middle of the road COR, RUN, WHM probably brings more.

Don't get me wrong,I'm kind of player that firmly believe that as long as a job is being geared to the max, it'll perform well and bring a lot to the table than what community believes. But some jobs(BLU, COR, WHM, RUN, SCH etc) just performs better in low/mid tier gear while RDM just isn't kind of job that you can spend 5~10hr(that's how much time I spent on collecting gears to have a functional WHM and RUN) to collect 3 key sets of gears, pop in a pt and contribute a lot.

I highly suggest you play another job that can get invite easily, and are faster to gear. That way you can probably make progress as a returning player a lot faster and gear your RDM. WHM shares a lot of gear as RDM, most pt wants it, and it relies on skill/knowledge of the job more than having super gears. IMO it's a pretty good side job to have while working on RDM. GEO is also a solid choice for returning player and they share nuke sets, although at this point GEO probably require quite a bit of work to be competitive when almost everyone else has 900 skill and some has idris. A roll only COR is also a cheap/fast choice to make progress on and they share carmine set/some melee weapon options. If you enjoy tank roles and have vag clears, RUN pretty much just need an aettir and some 119 AF3 for most low to mid tier content.

I know "play another job" is probably not the answer you want. But in FFXI some jobs are more returning/new player friendly and some jobs are not, which is fact. Personally I'd rate RDM "Very returning player unfriendly" job.

[Saefinn]

Thank you both for your responses, I've had a read through and useful advice on both. I am still actually in that "returning player, what do I want to play?" phase, hence I am looking to get the most out of the jobs I have levelled to make a fair decision and give each a fair chance. Would hate to walk in go "this feels weak" and toss it aside and miss an opportunity, because it can be gear/learning curve/perception thing.

Red Mage, I definitely enjoy it as a job, the gear lists also give me something useful to work towards.

Afania, your advice makes sense. RDM being the jack of all trades would require a number of gear swaps to be effective and at i117 the choices are limited and it does end up feeling weaker at this point and not as useful. So maybe this would end up more difficult as a Red Mage getting into the newer content as you say. Fortunately, I tend to main 3 jobs, for a bit of versatility and if it makes more sense to focus on one of the others first for RDM to then later benefit, then something I wouldn't object to. I have been looking a lot at my options, RDM is one of the jobs that interests me the most to play but for a returning player, seems I am most drawn to SCH or COR to get myself started, which were my mains previously. As you say, may mean decent gear sharing options. WHM is a decent option...but I only levelled mine to 12, granted levelling is quick, from what I understand SCH is still a good alternative.

[Afania]

Thank you both for your responses, I've had a read through and useful advice on both. I am still actually in that "returning player, what do I want to play?" phase, hence I am looking to get the most out of the jobs I have levelled to make a fair decision and give each a fair chance. Would hate to walk in go "this feels weak" and toss it aside and miss an opportunity, because it can be gear/learning curve/perception thing.

Red Mage, I definitely enjoy it as a job, the gear lists also give me something useful to work towards.

Afania, your advice makes sense. RDM being the jack of all trades would require a number of gear swaps to be effective and at i117 the choices are limited and it does end up feeling weaker at this point and not as useful. So maybe this would end up more difficult as a Red Mage getting into the newer content as you say. Fortunately, I tend to main 3 jobs, for a bit of versatility and if it makes more sense to focus on one of the others first for RDM to then later benefit, then something I wouldn't object to. I have been looking a lot at my options, RDM is one of the jobs that interests me the most to play but for a returning player, seems I am most drawn to SCH or COR to get myself started, which were my mains previously. As you say, may mean decent gear sharing options. WHM is a decent option...but I only levelled mine to 12, granted levelling is quick, from what I understand SCH is still a good alternative.

At minimal gear and JP, both SCH and COR brings a lot to the table, probably more so than RDM. SCH is capable of performing Skill chain for BLM setups even with limited JP and gears, although you probably need JP(1200 I think?) and nuke set if you want to participate in high end party.

COR pretty much fit into any setup with just a roll set, and support wise still brings more to the table than low gear lv RDM.

Both COR and SCH are hybrid jobs if that's type of job you like, those jobs just happened to have more game changing ability that's needed in the pt, even as pure support and only have 1~3 easy to obtain sets they still contribute than equally geared low gear lv RDM.

[Saefinn]

I am somebody who likes variety and versatility, probably hence I end up attracted to hybrids. SCH and COR were pretty much what I was mostly playing last time, PUP for the odd thing. It is nice to see two of my favourite jobs getting so much love. I'll stick to them for the time being, until my RDM is in a better position.