Quote Originally Posted by Saefinn View Post
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.