RDM First Impressions (and perhaps advice) Thread

Okay so I know I am REALLY late with this...


But I finally got off my duff and finally unlocked RDM. I've been tempted to now and then, I've seen RDMs in groups and they seem to do well, and I've read a little about them but never actually sat down to play the job myself.

Well I did that earlier today.

And I might say, that RDM is probably the best designed DPS job I've ever played thusfar? Just the design philosophy behind this job seems miles better than everything else.

It's got variety -- you cast spells, you melee, you have a few movement abilities (I've seen people hurling themselves off of cliffs with it though lol), you even get some measure of self-heal (probably the only DPS that does), and even an emergency Raise.

But what gets me, is the randomness of the job. Verfire and Verstone are very random, but yet it's not really a punishing sort of random, or at least it doesn't look like it? Most of the time when you introduce RNG into the mix, having too much of it, or too little of it, will impact your performance.

But not so, with Verfire and Verstone. The presence (or absence) of it will change your spellcasts so that you're not hitting the same tired combos over and over again, but yet if you don't see a Verfire or Verstone (or even see the "wrong" one), you can work around it. It doesn't feel too punishing, and it makes you think about what you're casting next (whatever you need).

Now maybe this changes later in levels, but for now, it seems like THE DPS job to be if you want something that's not over-complicated, but yet nice and varied with a decent amount of randomness to it.

I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of the basics (that whole use Jolt to get Dualcast thing took me awhile before the lightbulb went off in my head lol), now I just need to build muscle memory. I think I have a rather decent hotkey setup...

1 - Jolt
2 - Veraero (Shift+2 = Verstone)
3 - Verothunder (Shift+3 = Verfire)
4 - Corps-a-Corps
5 - Riposte
6 - Chant Du..... errr, that Z-whatever skill.
7 - Redouble
8 - That jump back skill

The idea is that Jolt is used often so it goes on #1... both Ver-White spells are 2 because the white gauge is on the left, both Ver-Black are on 3 because the black gauge is on the right, jump in with 4, 5+6+7 for the combo, jump back with 8.

Simplicity.

Now I just gotta train my hands to do it. lol.

IMO, RDM is the easiest DPS in the game by a long shot. The very simple priority system and non-punishing mechanics make it very easy for newer players to pick up and do well with. There is one downside though. RDM is pretty terrible at end game. Their DPS is miles behind the other two casters and their party utility is only situationally good. The ability to quick raise is really only useful for progression raiding, but once players figure out the mechanics, very few players die any more so that utility becomes pretty lackluster.

I do agree that the class is a blast to play though! Hopefully they will get some buffs in 4.4 or beyond to make them more competitive.

So Couple things though NONE OF THIS SHOULD MAKE YOU HATE THE JOB OR DISLIKE IT IN ANYWAY
im a rdm/ast main to the core and love them both
1. RDM is not the best designed job as of now though it's up there, BRD and arguably AST are far better design in their current iteration.
(These 2 jobs are very similar in design philosophy to rdm. high utility and low dps. they just do it better than rdm)
2. RDM's variety is purely cosmetic. T/A and F/S do the exact same thing they just look different.
3. RNG does effect rdm's dps a fair amount, not getting Fire and Stone procs is just a flat 30 potency loss
4. Heal while a nice utility is generally uselss at all levels of play except for Potd and Eureka
5. Raise is great but quickly becomes an MP sink when used in succession since you have to pay 360 or 600 mana in addition to the standard 3600 for raise making rdm's raise the most costly

Im only saying this is because, rdm ends up being this oasis though many players go in expecting something interesting when it's pretty shallow. some even end up leaving the job as a result so i decided to let you know everything. This may sound overly negative however rdm is very progression friendly and thats kinda it's only good thing.

Generally you don't want to use Jolt
Fire and Stone are your highest priority cast
F/S > Impact > Jolt > Cure if the boss cannot be hit.
Once you cap your level, you want to keep the gauges imbalanced so that you get a 100% proc from the Holy or Flare after your melee combo
YOU ARE NOT A MELEE DPS, some people seem to think rdm is 50%/50% Cast and Melee However, it's more like 95%/5% in favor of casting. don't stay in melee range but don't stay far in the corner as you miss heals and buffs. it's not a terrible idea to use corp a corp after displacement since you don't always need it to start a melee combo. when you need to use a 15 yalm jump back as a part of your dps rotation, you'll learn that missing heals will happen alot
rdm isn't very great with buff alignment because rng also kinda pushes your melee combo back causing you to miss Trick attack windows where raid buffs go wild.
your OGCDs Fleche, Contre Sixe, CaC, and Displacement are all physical based abilites and beenfit from piercing debuff.
Embolden works on your MAGIC damage (not your ogcds) and your parties PHYSICAL damage. so this buff is best used on cd with other 120/60 sec buffs
Sprint, and potion remove dualcast

Thats pretty much it. If you want a rotation, there is the balance discord so go nab one there to really visualize the flow of the job

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Originally Posted by Maeka

But what gets me, is the randomness of the job. Verfire and Verstone are very random, but yet it's not really a punishing sort of random, or at least it doesn't look like it? Most of the time when you introduce RNG into the mix, having too much of it, or too little of it, will impact your performance.

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By 70, Verfire and Verstone are actually not that random. Between Acceleration and Verflare/Verholy, you get the procs more often than not.

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Originally Posted by Maeka

But not so, with Verfire and Verstone. The presence (or absence) of it will change your spellcasts so that you're not hitting the same tired combos over and over again, but yet if you don't see a Verfire or Verstone (or even see the "wrong" one), you can work around it. It doesn't feel too punishing, and it makes you think about what you're casting next (whatever you need).

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Much of the optimization of RDM involves deciding when casting the "wrong" spell is actually the better choice. You'll see more of this once you get Verflare and Verholy, and it will involve not just those spells but also making judgments about which Verfastspell-Verslowspell combinations to use leading up to a melee combo.

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Originally Posted by Maeka

I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of the basics (that whole use Jolt to get Dualcast thing took me awhile before the lightbulb went off in my head lol), now I just need to build muscle memory. I think I have a rather decent hotkey setup...

1 - Jolt
2 - Veraero (Shift+2 = Verstone)
3 - Verothunder (Shift+3 = Verfire)
4 - Corps-a-Corps
5 - Riposte
6 - Chant Du..... errr, that Z-whatever skill.
7 - Redouble
8 - That jump back skill

The idea is that Jolt is used often so it goes on #1... both Ver-White spells are 2 because the white gauge is on the left, both Ver-Black are on 3 because the black gauge is on the right, jump in with 4, 5+6+7 for the combo, jump back with 8.

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Do you have a third row? If so, save space for Verholy and Verflare above the corresponding Verslowspells and Verfastspells. Also save space for Impact at shift+Jolt.

I don't think I'd necessarily assign jolt to 1 just because it "is used often". I'm not saying it's a bad place for it, just the reasoning gets thrown out the window later. You actually want to do everything possible to avoid casting Jolt! This includes

1) Precasting a Verslowspell if there is time before the pull. Start casting at 5s on the countdown, if available.

2) Using Swiftcast-Verslowspell when you have no Verfastspells ready. A single 300 potency GCD is better than 180+300 over two GCDs (later 240+300).

3) Using Impact if it's about to expire, even if you have Verfastspells ready. If it falls off and you get no procs from Verfastspell-Verslowspell, you're left with Jolt. If you use Impact, you have a chance to get another proc or refresh an existing proc -- in either case, you'll do more damage than with Jolt.

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Originally Posted by Wayfinder3

YOU ARE NOT A MELEE DPS, some people seem to think rdm is 50%/50% Cast and Melee However, it's more like 95%/5% in favor of casting. don't stay in melee range but don't stay far in the corner as you miss heals and buffs.

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I must respectfully disagree here. Max melee range is often the best place for a RDM. It allows you to use your movement abilities independently of anything in your rotation, and is especially important if the boss has absurdly large cone attacks that will be impossible to dodge at range.

Being in melee range puts you in a better position to handle most mechanics, and PBAoEs are not a heavy burden on RDM given its high level of mobility.

I do indeed have a third row, and I already put the Holy/Flare up there, lol.

I didn't see Impact, oddly. I went through and assigned most of the action buttons, but I musta missed that one. I'll have to pull the actions menu up again and go find it.

As to the rest of the stuff, well, that's higher level stuff. I'm only 51 now, so... yeah. For the meantime, it's rather fun.

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Originally Posted by Wayfinder3

YOU ARE NOT A MELEE DPS, some people seem to think rdm is 50%/50% Cast and Melee However, it's more like 95%/5% in favor of casting. don't stay in melee range but don't stay far in the corner as you miss heals and buffs. it's not a terrible idea to use corp a corp after displacement since you don't always need it to start a melee combo. when you need to use a 15 yalm jump back as a part of your dps rotation, you'll learn that missing heals will happen alot

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I disagree with this statement as well, for two reasons:

1) RDM's movement abilities also do damage on the oGCD, and thus, it is a straight DPS loss not to use them every time they come up. To accomplish this, you should run into melee range during your opener, then as part of your DPS rotation, pop Displacement immediately followed by Corps-a-Corps during the GCD of one of your Dualcast'd spells. (OBVIOUSLY, don't use displacement if it is going to toss you off a cliff, though). The only time you should be saving CaC or Displacement is if you are near a particular point in the fight where they are more useful to save; like displacing out of a point blank AOE or Corps-A-Corps back to the boss after a separation mechanic.

2) RDM wants to be able to execute it's Melee burst combo as many times as possible during a fight, which is clunky if you are out of melee range when your mana hits 80+/80+. The total time you waste running back into melee is a horrible DPS loss. The only way you could achieve this goal while staying at range is if you always save CaC to close on the boss; which is still a DPS loss as explained in point 1.

Basically, as RDM you should be in melee range ANYTIME mechanics allow it.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

3) Using Impact if it's about to expire, even if you have Verfastspells ready. If it falls off and you get no procs from Verfastspell-Verslowspell, you're left with Jolt. If you use Impact, you have a chance to get another proc or refresh an existing proc -- in either case, you'll do more damage than with Jolt.

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I never considered this. I assume you obviously wouldn't want to do this if you have both procs, or your one proc would expire first (or before you could use it). Would this take priority over Swiftcast if it's available (since the Swiftcast is another proc chance)? e.g., Impact > Slowcast > Proc > Slowcast vs Proc > Slowcast (no proc) > Swiftcast > Slowcast.

The ONLY pull back Rdm has in Pfs, is that its personal dps is low.

Otherwise Rdm is full of positiv aspects.., and aside of maybe getting in speed kills / speed farming PFs, Rdm are still desirable as a caster or dps in most PFs and in general content.

Well, I'm not concerned about the PF because I wouldn't be using RDM for that anyways. I mainly wanted a DPS that I could bring to FC/Linkshell stuff when people want 8man runs or something but the heals and tanks are already filled.

That, and I wanted a good DPS for solo questing too, preferably one that can self-heal (like RDM can, and it seems to be the one and only one that can at that), and also Eureka when I want to do something like a challenge log or something (takes stinking forever to kill anything as PLD).

I have zero intention of doing Ex Primals, Savage Raids, etc.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

3) Using Impact if it's about to expire, even if you have Verfastspells ready.

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Originally Posted by Pyitoechito

I never considered this. I assume you obviously wouldn't want to do this if you have both procs.

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Your instinct is understandable, and yet the optimal choice is actually to use Impact anyway.

Say you have 10s left on Impact, and you have both Verfastspells Ready.
You use Verstone-Veraero (570) and do not get a proc.
Then you use Verfire-Verthunder (570) and do not get a proc.
There's now <1s left on Impact, so you can't cast it. You're left with JoltII-Verslowspell (540).

Total potency 1,680, and the last spell had a 50% chance to proc.

Back to the beginning.
You use Impact-Verslowspell (570) instead. No proc, but it doesn't matter.
Verstone-Veraro (570), no proc.
Verfire-Verthunder (570).

Total potency 1,710, and the last spell had a 50% chance to proc.

This is just the (no,no) proc outcome of course. All outcome combinations:

Starting state:
Verstone Ready, Verfire Ready [VSR/VFR]



(no, no)
==========
Verstone-Veraero: 570 potency, 20 mana, dud [---/VFR]
Verfire-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 20 mana, dud [---/---]
JoltII-Verslowspell: 540 potency, 17 mana, 50% [VXR/---] 50% [---/---]
Total: 1,680 potency, 57 mana, 50% chance for 1 proc

Impact-Veraero: 570 potency, 19 mana, dud [VSR/VFR]
Verstone-Veraero: 570 potency, 20 mana, dud [---/VFR]
Verfire-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 20 mana, 50% [VXR/---] 50% [---/---]
Total: 1,710 potency, 59 mana, 50% chance for 1 proc

Impact better by 30 potency, 2 mana



(no, yes)
==========
Verstone-Veraero: 570 potency, 20 mana, dud [---/VFR]
Verfire-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 20 mana, proc [VXR/---]
Verfastspell-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 20 mana, 50% [VXR/---] 50% [---/---]
Total: 1,710 potency, 60 mana, 50% chance for 1 proc

Impact-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 19 mana, dud [VSR/VFR]
Verfastspell-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 20 mana, proc [VSR/VFR]
Verfastspell-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 20 mana, 50% [VSR/VFR] 50% [VXR/---]
Total: 1,710 potency, 59 mana, guaranteed 1 proc, 50% chance for 2 procs

Impact generates 1 less mana, but guarantees an extra proc



(yes, no)
==========
Verfastspell-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 20 mana, proc [VSR/VFR]
Verfastspell-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 20 mana, dud [VXR/---]
Verfastspell-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 20 mana, 50% [VXR/---] 50% [---/---]
Total: 1,710 potency, 60 mana, 50% chance for 1 proc

Impact-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 19 mana, proc [VSR/VFR]
Verfastspell-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 20 mana, dud [VXR/---]
Verfastspell-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 20 mana, 50% [VXR/---] 50% [---/---]
Total: 1,710 potency, 59 mana, 50% chance for 1 proc

Impact generates 1 less mana



(yes, yes)
==========
Verfastspell-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 20 mana, proc [VSR/VFR]
Verfastspell-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 20 mana, proc [VSR/VFR]
Verfastspell-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 20 mana, 50% [VSR/VFR] 50% [VXR/---]
Total: 1,710 potency, 60 mana, guaranteed 1 proc, 50% chance for 2 procs

Impact-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 19 mana, proc [VSR/VFR]
Verfastspell-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 20 mana, proc [VSR/VFR]
Verfastspell-Verslowspell: 570 potency, 20 mana, 50% [VSR/VFR] 50% [VXR/---]
Total: 1,710 potency, 59 mana, guaranteed 1 proc, 50% chance for 2 procs

Impact generates 1 less mana

Summary:
The Impact scenario will deal the same potency 75% of the time, and will be more potent 25% of the time.
The Impact scenario will end with the same procs 75% of the time, and will generate one extra proc 25% of the time.
These two 25% events are mutually exclusive. There's a 50% chance Impact will result in the same potency and procs, a 25% chance Impact will deal 30 more potency, and 25% chance Impact will generate an extra proc.

So if Impactful is at <8s remaining, it's best to use it. If you use it, the worst that will happen is you'll generate 1 less Mana. But you have a 50% chance to do more damage or gain an extra proc.

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Originally Posted by Pyitoechito

Would this take priority over Swiftcast if it's available (since the Swiftcast is another proc chance)? e.g., Impact > Slowcast > Proc > Slowcast vs Proc > Slowcast (no proc) > Swiftcast > Slowcast.

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Yes, Swiftcast is for avoiding having to use Jolt, or for fitting in one last spell before the boss jumps. Avoid using it when you have a 270 option available.

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Originally Posted by Remyogic

I disagree with this statement as well, for two reasons:

1) RDM's movement abilities also do damage on the oGCD, and thus, it is a straight DPS loss not to use them every time they come up. To accomplish this, you should run into melee range during your opener, then as part of your DPS rotation, pop Displacement immediately followed by Corps-a-Corps during the GCD of one of your Dualcast'd spells.

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um not sure where i said you shouldn't use the ogcds on cd. in fact my arguement to not being in melee range is because there is no benefit to doing it, all this does is set you up to have to move because of an AoE. being max melee is definitely fine and is the best place.

"don't stay in melee range but don't stay far in the corner as you miss heals and buffs. it's not a terrible idea to use corp a corp after displacement since you don't always need it to start a melee combo."

That is what i said.

Using CaC after displacement allows you to regroup with the party for heals especially in heal intensive figths like o8s. Also you don't have to use your movement tools immediately as they come off cd, this is because manafication refreshing the timer already alters the time that you'll get these abilites off cd. the golden rule is to use them on cd if you don't need them for a mechanic.

Displacement has a significantly longer animation lock than any other oGCD and CANNOT be double weaved with any other oGCD without clipping your GCD. It also CANNOT be single weaved after Enchanted Riposte and Enchanted Zwerchhau (even if your back is against a wall and you stay in melee range, you will still clip) but it CAN be single weaved after Enchanted Redoublement. Assuming 100% uptime, when you use Manafication optimally you will actually have approximately 5 seconds left on Displacement and 10 seconds left on Corps-a-corps. Since Manafication resets the CD for these two abilities this means that you can hold both for up to 30s each per Manafication use in order to use them to deal with mechanics and not lose a use. This is convenient as there are times where we do not want to use Displacement on cooldown since it will cause us to move out of heal range during a heavy AoE damage part of the fight. We can safely wait until after the healing is done to use Displacement and not have to worry about missing a use of it. This also places them in the bottom of your priority list for oGCD usage.

Source: https://www.mooglemedia.com/rdm-guide/#ogcd

So... I'd like to ask... what Role Actions am I supposed to take?

Swiftcast is a no-brainer, obviously.

But otherwise, I'm looking at the list.... MP does not appear to be an issue, and if RDM damage falls off at higher levels, Lucid doesn't really seem like anything I'd be needing.

I thought of maybe taking Erase, I guess? But I wonder how often I'd actually use it.

The other choices just seem so... lack-luster. There's Mana Shift, and while MP isn't an issue, I don't know about handing lots of it off to other people is a good idea either, it's not like I'm a BLM that has infinite MP.

What I would love to get is Second Wind, but no of course we can't have THAT, lol.

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Originally Posted by Maeka

snip

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On the contrary, Lucid is kind of mandatory, both from a threat perspective, and a mana regeneration point of view. All of your aggro generation is frontloaded, and Red Mage is the only caster without any sort of fast way to say "I WANT MANA NOW".

Diversion is for similar reasons as Lucid, but that's good for DPS in general.

Swiftcast people have already covered.

It can be situationally useful, but I've come to get a LOT of mileage out of Surecast, for potential cheesing of mechanics.

Yeah, I'm going to second what was said about Lucid: It's absolutely essential for a RDM. If you're in a situation where you either rez a lot or get rezzed yourself, without Lucid you have no other ways to speed up your MP regen. You can use ethers, but that's hardly a reliable way of doing things.

Surecast has its uses, of course. Perhaps not vital, but good to have on hand. Swiftcast, while a bit undermined by Dualcast, is certainly helpful to have, especially if you want to fish for procs. Diversion can also be used in a pinch if Lucid is on cooldown, as RDMs can accidentally rip aggro in dungeons with their bursts if they're not careful. For the last one, I'd say it's situational. I keep Mana Shift for dungeons to help the healers out, though Addle and Apocata could be helpful for certain bosses. The other role actions are essentially useless, and you should pretty much never use them.

RDM operates on an MP deficit. Without Lucid Dreaming, you'll run out right about the 4 minute mark. You won't feel it in a dungeon, but during a trial or raid Dreaming's refresh effect will be the difference between being able to cast 2 spells per 2 GCDs or slogging at 2 spells per 4 GCDs for the second half of the fight. And remember that Verraise costs 1/4 of max MP, so every time you cast it you lose a minute's worth of MP. Dreaming's hate drop effect is also important. If you play well, you can find yourself creeping up on the tank even with Diversion.

Mana Shift is nice on a BRD singing Requiem or a BLM in the middle of a Fire phase, though more often you might find yourself using it on a healer who's been nuking a lot, or worse, a healer you've just raised. Verraise+ManaShift costs 45% of your MP, and the decision to do this or not will be situational. The healer should have some means of refreshing his own MP, but if heavy party-wide damage is coming soon, party survival is worth the MP cost.

Surecast is a great choice in any fight with a blockable knockback, because it lets you dictate where you're going to stand. Without it, you can be knocked away in the middle of an Enchanted skillchain, or forced to reposition before the knockback and then again after.

If the fight does not have knockback, consider Addle or Apocatastasis. Addle weakens enemy magic and is good for AoEs, while Apocatastasis is good for protecting a single target from enemy magic.


Must-haves: Diversion, Lucid Dreaming
Not-100%-needed-but-should-really-be-on-your-bars: Swiftcast, Mana Shift
Situational: Surecast, Addle, Apocatastasis (if unsure/newfight, take Surecast)

Lucid Swiftcast and Debatably Addle are mandatory, I say Addle is mandatory is because it’s rare that it’s not worth using and mitigating any damage is better than mitigating none

Diversion is “kinda” mandatory, in higher levels of organized play you won’t need it as things like shadewalker and smokescreen in conjunction with your lucid allows you to control your tanks Aggro and allows you to take mana shift for the possible bard/healer mp refresh.

Surecast is needed as fight dictates
Apoc is very good for certain encounters, the best known is UCoB where it’s another tank cooldown. Otherwise Tanks/healers usually are fine without it

Lucid/Addle/Swiftcast are your mandatory slots

Diversion is your 4th
slot and the 5th is dependent on the encounter

Okay so I just got a huge dose of why Lucid is awesome.

Did a Sohm Al with a rather bad healer.

Got to the last boss, she dies at 60-70% left on Tioman. So, I pick up role of main healer while throwing Fleche when possible. The 2nd DPS (a SAM) dies right after the wings phase. It was just simply impossible to keep 3 people up with Vercure, though I tried to keep him up as long as I could because we needed what little DPS we could get.

Constantly casting Vercure over and over and over and over again, fight took absolutely forever, we got her down to 20% and I only had 1k MP left. Popped Lucid and it was enough to carry us through the rest of the fight. I won with like 1200MP to spare though I think if the fight had gone on another 5 seconds, I might have gotten clipped with her star attack, I didn't notice it while casting Vercure and I was like "oh crap oh crap not now" and then the screen went black and WHEW. We won.

thats a rather niche application but it is an application regardless. well done

Nothing like dumping a newbie RDM doing their first dungeon after getting Vercure in the first place into a situation like THAT lol.

Got 2 comms at the end, I can only assume the Healer was insulted or something that we did most of it without her.

So on another hilarious note... LS and I decided to do a Vault run when we made a mistake... we forgot to bring a healer. Well...

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/...78312437363285

We not only got to the last boss, but we got him down to like 15% left. So close. We tried a couple more times but kept running into insanely bad luck so we decided to just abandon and go back in with an actual healer. Still, though!

It's not really meta, but it's sometimes helpful to bring Erase along for dungeons. There are quite a few dungeons with cleansable DoTs, some of which are unavoidable. It can save the healer a GCD to weave an Erase between casts every now and then. It's also fun, in it's own support-y way.

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Originally Posted by Maeka

Well, I'm not concerned about the PF because I wouldn't be using RDM for that anyways. I mainly wanted a DPS that I could bring to FC/Linkshell stuff when people want 8man runs or something but the heals and tanks are already filled.

That, and I wanted a good DPS for solo questing too, preferably one that can self-heal (like RDM can, and it seems to be the one and only one that can at that), and also Eureka when I want to do something like a challenge log or something (takes stinking forever to kill anything as PLD).

I have zero intention of doing Ex Primals, Savage Raids, etc.

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in that case, Rdm is perfect for you!

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Originally Posted by Shiroe

in that case, Rdm is perfect for you!

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Indeed!

I'm now almost 61 and it is fun as heck, and very OP in lower level roulettes lol. I love showing up to <Lv50 stuff and just destroying everything in my path.

Red Mage is so behind in dps because all other jobs have had buffs since StormBlood's release. Red Mage hasn't been touched. When everything but you receives a buff that's essentially a nerf. I personally think a cd should be added on verraise in exchange for a dps increase.

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Originally Posted by LunarEmerald

Red Mage is so behind in dps because all other jobs have had buffs since StormBlood's release. Red Mage hasn't been touched. When everything but you receives a buff that's essentially a nerf. I personally think a cd should be added on verraise in exchange for a dps increase.

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I am now Lv64 and from what I've seen, I'm still doing more than enough damage to be happy with it.

And yes, I'm aware it falls behind "at endgame", but again, this is mainly for my own use for stuff like Eureka or treasure maps, or just solo stuff.

But if they end up buffing it (which it sounds like they'll have to at some point), that'd be awesome too.

One thing I noticed about RDM that no other DPS has, is sustainable AoE. Nobody else comes close. Melees that rely on TP will run out of TP way before the RDM runs out of MP for Scatter.

BLM comes close, but it seems to me that they can't endlessly spam their AoEs either?

RDM, though.... you can scatter and Enhanced Moulinet until the cows come home. Eventually you'll need a Lucid, but if the stuff ain't dead by then, then you should look at what's really the issue.

Black Mage has unlimited MP so they can AOE spam infinitely but it's not a constant burst. They have to wait a few seconds for their MP to come back. Their AOE damage is also way higher than Red Mage's. Black Mages are the king of AOE damage this expansion.

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Originally Posted by LunarEmerald

Black Mage has unlimited MP so they can AOE spam infinitely but it's not a constant burst. They have to wait a few seconds for their MP to come back. Their AOE damage is also way higher than Red Mage's. Black Mages are the king of AOE damage this expansion.

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They are also glass cannons, and they have next to no mobility from what I saw. It's a decent tradeoff; sustainability and decent sustained damage, but way better mobility and movement options. Even if sometimes it is potentially dangerous. And you can't beat the durability unless you take a tank or a healer job instead, but if you do that, your damage output goes into the dirt.

So it's the best of both worlds even if it doesn't perform as good in endgame. Not every job needs to be awesome at raiding in a game where you can change jobs.