Trying to get better as a RDM

[Virlym]

Well my reply was eaten due to being too long and my phone being dumb. So I'll just touch on the points:

Clean up your crossbars
Use acceleration more
Manifaction for more melee combos
Double weave (use 2 oGCDs inbetween GCDs) all but displacement if you have lower latency
Don't stack spell speed (1k is more than enough)
Walk into melee > displacement out > corps back in. more autos = 20-30 more dps

[Trespar]

Double weaving can be done with a low ping.

OP just seems really slow at activating their abilities to do a proper double weave.
Might have something to do with inefficient crossbars. I'm personally not familiar with playing this game with a controller, though.

[Ceallach]

Double weaving can be done with a low ping.

In general, yes. Specifically pairing Fleche and Contre Sixte is bad, as Rongway pointed out.

I actually wasn't aware of using auto-attacks and Embolden like that, so I'm glad I followed this thread. Thanks!

[Kabooa]

Trespar nailed the primary issue I saw, in that the hotbar configuration didn't seem to allow for the quick priority system Red Mage demands. Several points you lost several GCDs just do to swapping between them to get to what you needed.

As a Keyboard Mouse user, I'm not entirely sure how well Hotbar swapping works for controllers, but I'd argue you should keep your primary spells (Jolt, Impact, Ver-all of them) on one section, the Melee stuff in another along with VerHoly/VerFlare, while putting the CDs and OGCDs where they feel most comfortable, while including a Hotbar you don't interact with somewhere that holds all of them for the purpose of tracking their cooldowns.

[AphraelAmarantha]

snip

Oh, hot bar swapping works by holding R1 and then entering a button or dpad input. There is a total of 8 bars, one for each face button and cardinal direction on the controller input.

Also does anyone know how to set up a separate hotbar so I can track my oGCDs (if it's even possible to do so on a controller setup)? I think that is one of my biggest issue because I cant tell when their timers have refreshed so I can cast them again immediately so I can minimize clipping.

[Zol_blade]

Also does anyone know how to set up a separate hotbar so I can track my oGCDs (if it's even possible to do so on a controller setup)? I think that is one of my biggest issue because I cant tell when their timers have refreshed so I can cast them again immediately so I can minimize clipping.

Watch all this
Step1: https://youtu.be/_xsqL68V8CI
Step2: https://youtu.be/gwgCkfjqYNQ
Step3: https://youtu.be/-aT2X5iwocQ

[Rongway]

Some suggestions in regards to the layout of your abilities on your crossbars.

It looks like you have Veraero-Jolt-Verthunder on right hand buttons, but then you have Verstone and Verfire on D-pad buttons, and they're even on directions that are inconsistent with the other buttons. You can reduce the amount of thinking you have to do by being more consistent.

For example, if you do this,

      [        ]                    [        ]
[        ]  [        ]        [ Vaero  ]  [ Vthndr ]
      [        ]                    [ Impact ]

on one of your bars,
then on other bars, do this:

      [        ]                    [        ]
[        ]  [        ]        [ Vstone ]  [ Vfire  ]
      [        ]                    [  Jolt  ]

and

      [        ]                    [        ]
[        ]  [        ]        [ Vholy  ]  [ Vflare ]
      [        ]                    [ Accel. ]

So that all the white spells are on the same button, and all the black spells are on the same button. Then you control the tier of the spell with your shoulder/trigger buttons.


If that doesn't work, give something like this a shot:

      [        ]                    [        ]
[        ]  [        ]        [ Vaero  ]  [ Vstone ]
      [        ]                    [ Vholy  ]

on one of your bars,
then on other bars, do this:

      [        ]                    [        ]
[        ]  [        ]        [ Vthndr ]  [ Vfire   ]
      [        ]                    [ Vflare ]

and

      [        ]                    [        ]
[        ]  [        ]        [ Impact ]  [  Jolt  ]
      [        ]                    [ Accel. ]

In this layout, shoulders/triggers select the color of the spell, and then all the spells of the same tier are on the same button.


Consistency of either sort will reduce the cognitive load of selecting the appropriate spell by a lot, leaving you in a better position to succeed. Once you've decided how to organize the spells so that you can cast them all without thinking about them, you can add on the other buttons. If you have Verholy and Vflare on the same bar, then you might put your melee combo on the dpad for that bar. Maybe you'll find that Corps-a-corps and Displacement go well above and below Verholy and Verflare, while Acceleration goes better somewhere else (maybe with the Verstone and Verfire buttons). However you do it, it's all about arranging the buttons to make sense of themselves, so that you don't have to try to make sense of them when you're in the middle of a fight.

[Virlym]

Here's an example of what I currently use (buff/debuff bar is sitting on top of my hp). During a fight you are on #1 90% of the time, swap to 2 for melee, and only touch 3 for sprint.

[Limonia]

I didn't watch the whole video, but it looked like as if you switch your hotbars by holding R1 and then the direction for the specific hotbar (like R1 + O to get to hotbar 2). Personally I think that's really slow and inefficient.
You also neither use expanded hold controls nor the W crossbar, like soooo many other people.
You can use both the expanded hold controls AND the W crossbar OR only one of them.
Personally, I have set it up so that I use the W crossbar only to DISPLAY my second hotbar, which I access with the expanded hold controls.

The W cross hotbar:
After you activate it, you can access it by double tapping R2 (right side) or L2 (left side).
I find it rather clunky, so I don't use it like that anymore but many people like it.
Here is how you display it:


Here how you set it up:

You can choose which hotbar it accesses, I have cross hotbar 2 left and right because I use it to display my cross hotbar number 2.

On the image you also see how to set up expanded hold controls.
If you hold R2 and then press L2, you can access one half of a hotbar and the other way around.
That's what I use to access my cross hotbar number 2.

For me, the W crossbar is only so I can track what's on crossbar 2, that's why they're the same. But you can also choose to use them for another crossbar. I don't know any class that would have need of yet another hotbar though.

Here's what it looks like for RDM (I changed the position of the W crossbar to under my default crossbar, but where you put it is up to you; the default position is also nice):



The last thing is this:

When set up like this, when you press R1 once, you switch to hotbar 3 (choose whichever you want). If you press it again, you're back to hotbar 1. I use this for things like potions, limit break, summons or just things that didn't fit on hotbars 1 and 2.

Just try it out. After getting used to it, it's much much easier than manually choosing which hotbars to switch to. You can still switch hotbars like you do now if you need another set for mounts, teleport etc.

Also, I've noticed you use the default HUD. For me, it's much easier if the target and status effect bars are near my cross hotbar. I also have the job gauges near my hotbar, and above of it is the party list. I still have enough space to see mechanics and all important stuff is close to each other.

I'm bad at explaining but I hope it helps.

[SuperNoob]

I personally only use 4 hot bar for my controller. I also use w and expanded crossbar.

So hotbar 1 is my main Attack... then hotbar 2 put enchanted melee, some role skill and centre, displacement. Hotbar 3 is w crossbar double tap lt will go left.. I use this to put limit break role skill or cooldown, Potion, sprint..

Hot bar 4 is where I put mount other shortcut such sheath, sign, way mark, minion... and invigorate... for melee job.