Red Mage Opener confusion

[Nemekh]

Several reasons:

Never open with Embolden into damage oGCDs. Prepull Acceleration into a long cast should always be the way to go unless you're having to Jolt instead. Embolden is better a bit later aligned for party burst. It also does nothing for the damage oGCDs as they are all physical so the highest stacks are wasted.
Swift should never be used for the opening 1st GCD, although with C6 -> Fleche we're already behind.
The string of OGCDs is extremely GCD inefficient and is a big dps loss just from the GCDs it's not rolling.
CAC and Displacement are not used prior to Manafication resulting in further potency losses due to Manafication's resets overwriting available cooldowns.

You can adapt the current opener down, or use the original Stormblood era openers since the core of RDM did not change. All you're missing are certain pieces but the core remains the same.

[Leidolf]

Okay... I didn't know they were physical and not spells....

[Rongway]

As a Red Mage under Level 70, is there a reason not to go with something like: Embolden > Contre Sixte > Fleche > Swiftcast > Acceleration > VerAero > VerStone > VerThunder > VerFire > VerAero > VerStone > Manafication > Corps-a-Corps > Melee trio > Displacement for an opening?

(Additional side note: You absolutely must cast at least 8 spells before you can Manafication>Combo, so it's only possible to do the quoted bit if you're in a dungeon and have leftover mana from a trash pull.)


Each oGCD takes about 0.7s~0.75s (except Displacement, which takes noticeably longer). Each instant Spell also takes 0.7s. This means that in the span of one 2.35s~2.45s GCD, you have time to cast an instant spell and use two oGCDs (as long as neither is Displacement) without delaying your next GCD. This is why you don't want to use any more than two oGCDs at a time. If you use those five oGCDs at the beginning, you're effectively losing spells that you could have cast for lots of damage, because in the same amount of time that it takes to do

(oGCD1+oGCD2+oGCD3)
(oGCD4+oGCD5)
Spell
Spell+Spell

you could have done

(oGCD1)
Spell+Spell (oGCD2+oGCD3)
Spell+Spell (oGCD4+oGCD5)



I would recommend practicing this opener, which is a potion-less modification of one of the Balance RDM openers:

10s before pull: (Acceleration)
5s before pull: start casting Veraero
(Veraero finishes)+Verthunder (Fleche+ContreSixte) *** run up to the mob during the instant Verthunder so you can Displace after the next Dualcast
Verstone+Veraero (Displacement)
Verfire+Verthunder (Corps-a-corps+Embolden) *** Embolden boosts party members better here. Use later if being selfish
Verstone+Verthunder (Manafication+Corps-a-corps)
begin Enchanted combo

If rushed pull with no precast time:

(Acceleration)
Jolt+Veraero (Fleche+ContreSixte) *** run up to the mob during the instant spell so you can Displace after the next Dualcast
Verstone+Verthunder (Displacement)
Verfire+Veraero (Corps-a-Corps+Embolden)
Verstone+Verthunder
>>>Proc) Verfire+Veraero
>>>NoProc) (Swiftcast)Verthunder
(Manafication+Corps-a-Corps)
begin Enchanted combo

[Leidolf]

Thanks. I'll work on getting used to it.

Edit: Nailed it. Thanks!

[Gruntler]

I don't even think that's true.

Using:
VS=Verstone, VSr=has Verstone Ready
VF=Verfire, VFr=has Verfire Read
VT=Verthunder, VA=Veraero

The fastest you can possibly get a melee combo is:

VT (procs)/VA (procs) (11/11, VSr+VFr)->VS/VA(procs) (11/31, VSr+VFr)->VF/VT (31/31, VSr)->Verstone/Verthunder (40/41)

This require three procs, and it requires the first three spells to proc.

Acceleration forces the first three to proc.

There is nothing else to question after that. Any scenario that makes you Jolt in this will prevent you from having 40/41. Replacing a VS puts you at 34/44, and replacing a VF puts you at 43/32 at your 8th cast, and holding acceleration to see if neither your first VT or VA proc means your third spell is jolt, so you cannot get 40/40 by 8th gcd in this case, even if you decide to Accelerate regardless of procs.