Trying to get better as a RDM

[Rongway]

For one thing, you shouldn't try to double weave Fleche and Contre Sixte. The animation lock slows down your global cooldown, and that's never good.

I am not for sure what you mean by double weave. Can you explain?

He means don't use both Fleche and Contre Sixte in the same GCD. Their animations are both long, Fleche a bit more so, and you'll end up delaying your next cast as much as a whole second if you try to do them both. Split them up into separate dualcasts.

Double weaving can be done with a low ping.

Fleche with a self buff or movement ability, sure. But the specific combination of Fleche and Contre-sixte is best avoided altogether.



You spend an awful lot of time at range. You should spend most of your time in melee distance so you get auto attacks with each dualcast. Don't Displace unless you can dualcastspells>Corps-a-corps after, or you plan to run back to melee range during a dualcast. Decoupling your melee combo from your movement abilities will allow you to use them more often or use them for mechanically important movements. By being in melee range by default, you'll also have an easier time dealing with many mechanics, and will never be out of range of beneficial party AoEs.

Use Embolden before starting your melee combo. Getting an extra 10% on E.Riposte is better than an extra 1.85% on a Verfinisher and maybe an extra 2% on a Verslowspell/Verfastspell before expiration.

Avoid starting a melee combo with equal mana gauges. For example, at 1m57 you had 82|82. You could have done another dualcast for 91|93 without an overflow. If time-sensitive mechanics are not pressing you to burst, you don't necessarily have to melee combo immediately upon getting your mana high enough; postponing for one dualcast will usually be no worse, especially if you've decoupled your melee combo from your movement abilities anyway, as explained above.

For similar reasons, don't Swiftcast>Verslowspell just so you can melee combo one GCD sooner unless it's a mechanically important burst step.



If you're entertaining the idea of playing heals, it's worth learning at least one of the healer jobs even if you ultimately decide you want to continue RDMing. It might help give you a better idea of distances and effective caster positionings. If you're very nervous, just casually inform your party that it's your first time healing and they'll prolly be understanding.

[AphraelAmarantha]

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I see, interesting indeed. Thx for the double weave explanation.

Yeah I see mage and I think range casting, not used to a caster class casting spells in melee (then again I guess I'm still used to BLM more than I thought, lel) plus I'm afraid of getting hit by non-telegraphed melee attacks some bosses have (Clamp anyone?).

Also, why do you not want to start a melee combo with your mana bar even? I don't get that one. O.o

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Yeah, I am slow in activating abilities, I don't really have the dexterity I used to have from ten years ago. Plus my mind always jumbles up where my inputs are so I pause a moment to remember where the next ability is at. x_x

[Rongway]

Also, why do you not want to start a melee combo with your mana bar even? I don't get that one. O.o

If your mana is uneven, then using the Verfinisher that matches the lower color will guarantee a proc.

White higher when you start: finish with Verflare, guarantee Verfire Ready
Black higher when you start: finish with Verholy, guarantee Verstone Ready

If they're equal, or you use the one that's already higher, it's only a 20% chance to proc Ready.

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.

You can use one of the normal hotbars. Just place it somewhere conspicuous, maybe increase the size if you want, and slot any abilities that you want to track cooldowns or procs for.

/hudlayout will open up the hud organizer. You can enable or disable bars there (not sure of the controller buttons to do things) or in /characterconfig