Seeing Red Again

[Joven]

I'm pretty sure this topic has already been covered before, but I don't frequent the forums very often and I don't feel like searching through years of posts just to find out. That being said, I do appologize if this subject is tired.

I decided to try Red Mage for the first time since unlocking it way back when it was introduced in Stormblood and I got to say I was confused with how the job was meant to be played. I had to have a friend explain the mechanics to me because the tooltips don't. Like at all.

Why doesn't Jolt mention that it reduces the cast time of Veraero and Verthunder? Or that it has a chance to proc Doublecast?

What's the point of even having the melee skills available all the time if they're useless before you charge up your mana?

You might say "well that's what the first job mission is for", but it's been years since I picked this job up so I don't remember anything about it. Regardless the job should be self explanatory. All the other jobs do a good job of explaining conditions for when/how to use each skill and on top of that there's the added bonus that most of the jobs start at level 1 and introduce each skill as they become relevent which allows you to play with them and get a feel for their use.

Not that it helps now, but I think that all the jobs should have started at level 1 so there's an easier time to learn and a better possibility for more competent players in high level dungeons. I know they don't just so people can use them right out of the box, but I think that's detrimental to the overall quality of player usefulness. I certainly wouldn't have been willing to give Red Mage a chance if I didn't have someone right there to explain it to me at that moment. Maybe that's just me?

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Honestly, I feel like reading your tooltips would help with this. And looking over the job guide on the lodestone.

Starting at lvl 1 would not have helped you at all after all that time since playing it.

Jolt doesnt say it reduces the cast time of those... because it doesnt? Using any spell that has a cast time grants dualcast. If its instant, you don't get dualcast. The dualcast tooltip tells you how it works.

[Acuiasa]

Honestly, I feel like reading your tooltips would help with this. And looking over the job guide on the lodestone.

Starting at lvl 1 would not have helped you at all after all that time since playing it.

This. Both skills and traits have tool tips.
RDM is a pretty easy job to understand the basics of.
If you really feel the need to understand how it works with a few skills, run early ARR dungeons, but the job was designed to be started at 50.

[Esmoire]

This job starts at a higher level and because of that it should assume competence. If you didn't boost, surely you'd understand by level 50 that jobs unlock actions and traits over time, and to know what those do, you have to read the descriptions. A trivial and minute anount of patience is all that's required to read the actions and traits. If you don't understand them, read them again. Don't understand them, read the website (a guide opens literally the first time your character zones in). IMO there is more than enough information.

Jolt doesn't have a "chance" of proccing Dualcast. If you stopped to read the trait, it tells you how it works in one sentence. If you cast a spell with cast time, it activates dualcast, making your next spell instant cast. That's all you need to know. There's weak spells with short cast time, powerful spells with long cast time. Even a cursory level of deduction would mean you should use the weak spells to proc dualcast, and then consume dualcast to make the stronger spells instant. I can't imagine how this could be made more rudimentary and obvious.

[Shibi]

I think that all the jobs should have started at level 1 so there's an easier time to learn and a better possibility for more competent players in high level dungeons.

What i do, coming back, is look at a list of spell levels for the class at https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/jobguide/redmage/ and then running lower dungeons (non-roulette) with just a small number loaded on the hotbar. Level 15 dungeon, then load in the 1-15 spells. Get the feel back, then graduate to the next dungeon and add one more spell.

You get the feel pretty quickly without forcing the horrible re-grind from 1-whatever.

[Joven]

I'm more than certain that I've had a few times where casting Jolt didn't proc Dualcast and I don't mean right after casting Verfire/Verstone. Maybe it was a glitch which is what lead me to think it only had a chance to proc.

[Esmoire]

I'm more than certain that I've had a few times where casting Jolt didn't proc Dualcast and I don't mean right after casting Verfire/Verstone. Maybe it was a glitch which is what lead me to think it only had a chance to proc.

Maybe you are casting it while the Dualcast buff is active. Keep in mind, Dualcasted spells will not recursively grant Dualcast. If you cast Jolt and Dualcast is active, then Dualcast will be consumed to make Jolt instant. It's with any spell cast with cast time; that is if the casting metre thingy shows up. Dualcast and Swiftcast make it instant, thus there is no cast time, thus Dualcast is not granted. It will always grant Dualcast if you use it while Dualcast or Swiftcast is not active (they are actual buffs that show up with your other buffs), though I hear the Dualcast buff is wonky with high latency.

[Mhaeric]

though I hear the Dualcast buff is wonky with high latency.

I have ~50s ping, but when I get a latency/lag spike it won't trigger the Dualcast until after the lag clears but lets me start casting the next spell before the Dualcast takes effect. This leads to starting a hard-cast Veraero or Verthunder which needs fixing by taking a micro-step to cancel it and then casting it again to make use of the Dualcast. If it gets pretty laggy it gets hard to work around. I've never tried it with just general high latency, though. I imagine it might be the same. I have never once had a spell not proc Dualcast if hard cast, however. Just the timing of it taking effect gets wonky sometimes.

[Joven]

Maybe you are casting it while the Dualcast buff is active. Keep in mind, Dualcasted spells will not recursively grant Dualcast. If you cast Jolt and Dualcast is active, then Dualcast will be consumed to make Jolt instant. It's with any spell cast with cast time; that is if the casting metre thingy shows up. Dualcast and Swiftcast make it instant, thus there is no cast time, thus Dualcast is not granted. It will always grant Dualcast if you use it while Dualcast or Swiftcast is not active (they are actual buffs that show up with your other buffs), though I hear the Dualcast buff is wonky with high latency.

Yeah, I watched while banging on a practice dummy that every so often I'll have a full cast time of Jolt that doesn't proc Dualcast. I played with it to make sure. It could be due to latency, though I've never really had any noticable problems with that before on anything else. Probably just not paying much attention to it to notice.

[Aldora]

I'm more than certain that I've had a few times where casting Jolt didn't proc Dualcast and I don't mean right after casting Verfire/Verstone. Maybe it was a glitch which is what lead me to think it only had a chance to proc.

I've had cases like this, but it usually was linked to either a "Miss" or lag, where it didn't register the proc in time.

To give you an example, when i play DNC i sometimes have the issue (lag related) that when i press either Fan Dance or Fan Dance II, Fan Dance III wouldn't proc immediately. About half a GCD later it would still proc, but by then i pressed the next weaponskill or Fan Dance (I or II), losing the opportunity to use Fan Dance III at that time. Or when you press a step action, the next one in line doesn't proc immediately. Since you can see in which order you should press the step actions, i would still press it, only to find out that the server didn't register it as the next valid step action. Then i have to repeat it in order for it to register correctly.

It is pretty annoying when that happens several times during an encounter. (T_T )