Seeing Red - A Complete Red Mage Guide

[xyaie]

Impact. When do I mainly use it?

no dual cast, no verfire or verstone ready. basically same time you'd use jolt.

[Ferrasper]

no dual cast, no verfire or verstone ready. basically same time you'd use jolt.

Ok. Thank you.

[Garotte14]

I'd use the proc and another spell with the same Mana type. It\\'s better for you to have one mana higher than the other anyway to get 100% proc Verholy/Verflare.

This is wrong though. Holding your melee combo another 2 gcds when you don't need to is the same as holding a cooldown. Your melee combo is your biggest burst. So you want to use this as quickly and often as possible. If you're already at 80/80 with both procs, you can do your meleel combo and you are not losing anything. You're not losing anything either with what you're suggesting, but delaying your burst. The only time I would ever suggest holding your melee combo an extra 2 gcds would be if you knew Trick Attack was about to come up.

[xyaie]

This is wrong though. Holding your melee combo another 2 gcds when you don't need to is the same as holding a cooldown. Your melee combo is your biggest burst. So you want to use this as quickly and often as possible. If you're already at 80/80 with both procs, you can do your meleel combo and you are not losing anything. You're not losing anything either with what you're suggesting, but delaying your burst. The only time I would ever suggest holding your melee combo an extra 2 gcds would be if you knew Trick Attack was about to come up.

it isnt quite the same as holding onto a cooldown as long as you dont overcap your mana, or get one less melee combo off.

If you melee at 80/80, then build 80/80 more for your next melee
and I build 80/80, but dont charge in yet, and melee at 97/97, then build 65/65 more for my next melee

we will still have both built 160/160 and done our 2nd melee combo at the same time, even though my first one was done 4 globals later.

that being said, i'd never TRY to do it 97/97, however if the situation calls for it (AoE circle around the boss, or some reason not to be in melee) it wouldnt be a DPS loss. (assuming charge/jump back are utilized optimally still. )

[Fortune_Cookie]

This is wrong though. Holding your melee combo another 2 gcds when you don't need to is the same as holding a cooldown. [...] The only time I would ever suggest holding your melee combo an extra 2 gcds would be if you knew Trick Attack was about to come up.

It's not really the same as holding a cooldown. Melee combos are strictly limited by the amount of mana generated (except for the last melee combo used during the encounter). Holding a 60s cooldown for 5s each cast will cost you about one cast every 12. Going into the melee combo 2 GCDs later every time will cost you at most one melee combo irrespective of the fight length, provided no mana is wasted as a result.

Arbitrary example: you're on 83/85 (WM/BM) and have a Verstone ready proc. In general, casting VS -> VT before melee will be superior. The timing of Manafication, Embolden, raid cooldowns or fight mechanics can obviously impact that.

[Maero]

So Red mage is not so much spell speed? Wonder if some have tested if initial cast time is reduced having more of it. I ask because since i would have the same gear for my blm that is going to be spell speed melded if/when possible
Having revived so many players in both Royal Menagerie and the level 70 dungeons past few days only solidifies the need for me to play Red, lol

[Rbstr]

It would probably be fine. Maybe someone would whine at you that it's not "optimal". You can tell them to stuff it because things will really be OK with fairly small differences.
RDM doesn't have anything that would cause SpellSpeed to give outsized gains. But really they don't have "extra" synergy with any of the secondaries (that is like crit procs, BLM's particular phase style, tanks lack of direct hit w/o melding).
It really comes down to how much worse spellspeed is than the others at increasing DPS in general. The answer has usually been "it's not that much worse but you drain resources faster".

[xyaie]

BLM loved spell speed last xpac as they could get more done during their cycle, and they were exempt from the "resource drain".

For us it's a matter of not gaining the full effect of SS. ~20% of our global (melee combo) benefit 0 from it.

If your group requires you to have .1s less on your instant cast (1 GCD) rez to get through content, the group may be better off improving on other areas.

[Maero]

Yeah i was just trying to find out as if i use same gear for both blm and Red mage, blm i would not want crit over spell speed if i can as ss is more beneficial to blm.
I have so much materia stockpiled i may try to experiment.

[Ferrasper]

Yeah i was just trying to find out as if i use same gear for both blm and Red mage, blm i would not want crit over spell speed if i can as ss is more beneficial to blm.
I have so much materia stockpiled i may try to experiment.

That's where I am at on figuring out which one to main. I love RDM, but BLM will always be my true passion. Just talking about BLM fills me gitty while RDM doesn't. For the gear though, I am putting SpS on it for my BLM, but I was wondering how bad it would affect the RDM.