returning rdm with a few questionsFollow

It has been a long time since I have played FFXI so I was hoping to get some of the new info for RDM


First off what is the new good sub for soloing, I want to solo the sky gods when I get leveled up since it was always a goal when I played before. Back then it was all /nin or /blm but I have sen some videos and it seems /blu might be the new solo sub.

Are rdm still a desired class or does everyone just /rdm now since lv cap is so high?

Since I am starting from scratch should I make a taru? are they still slightly better with higher int and mnd? or does the newer gear make that obsolete?


That is all I can think of for now. Sorry for the boring post but I have 2 hours left on the updates for FFXI so trying to pass the time.

What do you mean for soloing? Like EXP soloing or NM Soloing.

EXP soloing

/SCH, /BLM work great for nuking.

/BLU, /DNC work great for melee.

/NIN is effective in either situation.

For NM soloing

/NIN is still pretty much go to.
/BLU is useful if you have the -PDT set to straight tank mobs
/SCH is useful for kite nuke strats

For party play
/SCH is pretty much the best in the backline now
/WHM is slightly useful (stona,viruna)
/BLM is also slightly useful (stun,sleepga)

/NIN is the highest damage melee sub
/DNC is decent damage decent support melee
/WAR is decent melee.

Pro's in a group
Can proc weaponskill !!'s
Can proc magical !!'s
Can hold mobs

Cons in a group
Can't heal well
Doesn't have wham pow damage dedicated jobs have.

It is a hybrid job, like DNC it is tough to get a niche roll. With Refresh being mostly redundant in Abyssea, RDM is kind of mostly redundant in a lot of peoples eyes. But it can be quite the !! proc job if you have a competent player at the helm. It currently is one of the better low man choices for groups because it can do such a variety of magic and WS based procs, while offering some damage and some support. Its not like ToAU days where it seemed that for EXP parties if their was no RDM seeking there was no party.

If you are looking to be a relevant asset quickly focus on NIN and SCH first. They are the most useful subjobs currently IMHO. But if you are just out to enjoy the process I highly recommend going BLU or DNC first. They are incredibly fun support jobs.

yeah I just restarted as a RDM but I am a BLU at heart and never tried DNC so I think those are some of the things I will be focussing on once I can grind up a bit. I am slightly concerned about jobs like SCH which seem tough to solo - are there enough low-level parties going on out there to make leveling okay for lower ranked peeps?

SCH/BST is also a pretty viable way to go if you have BST to sub. If you have a fresh character, eh, it'll be kind of a pain.

If your aim is to 49 SCH with /BST, you'll need BST to 49, as well. Maybe less if you stick to EP mobs, but in general BST is a quirky sub like that. As I've told others in the past, though, /BST in Qufim is pretty solid in taking you from 32-41 paired with FoV. With the EXP adjustment and more FoV, it's even better. Just nab the crab/pugil page, charm a leech, commence slaughter. It'd be up to you if you use Sublimation or FoV Refresh, but eventually you'd be able to Aspir the crabs and nuke decently alongside the pet. I'd suggest meleeing with a club otherwise.

a quick rundown:

azure lights come from magic kills
pearl lights come from weapon kills (not ws kills)
amber lights come from magical ws kills (sanguine blade etc)
ruby lights come from physical ws kills (avoid these unless you want exp)

edit: forgot to add that vnm t1 mobs are great to build fast pearl while ephimurals are great to build fast pearl - about 5 lights per each mob.

basically if you want to make the most out of your time cap pearl and azure first in the order of 25-30ish each. Basically you want the messages on blue chests to read "gains a tremendous amount of exp" or "princely amount of cruor" consistently. If they do then you more than likely have your lights capped. But be careful as sometimes you will get a high yield exp or cruor chest mixed in with medium yield which means you are not capped yet. By capping these two you will get time extensions more often (TE) hopefully. Then from there you can either cap or bring to about 15ish lights amber light. Some camps say that 15 is about the median where you can get better yield of spoils from gold chests rather than Key Items from giant gold chests. I tend to agree with this and try to stick with only small gold chest pop. Some others believe you should cap amber...ill leave that up to you.

You will definitely need a hard hitting aoe ws if you want to farm fast. Aeolean Edge works well for rdm as you can boost the sh*te out of it with atmas to bring it to about 1.5kish (dont quote me on that)...and your drg friend i dont know what aoe ws he would use as i have never aoe farmed with drg before. Make sure you have some form of aoe sleep. Treants worked well for me but you can use saplings as well to farm or even shrooms.

If you dont go the aoe way than single kills will more than likely go pretty fast just not volume wise like aoe style. Be prepared with a lot of keys and macro keys to help open chests faster. Also note that getting that hairpin is like litterally finding a needle in a haystack. Some people have farmed for 7 hours straight and gotten 0 hairpins...others got extremely lucky and got on within an hour.

ANNND if you happen to make friends with a decent blu they can charged whisker farm with you and things will go very fast then.

hope this helps....

Edited, Apr 15th 2011 12:10pm by Deadus

typically groups farm red chests only if they want to boost their exp/cruor yields. I would stay far away from farming any ruby to do aoe farming. Ebons boosts all lights. Ruby chests can drop any light (pearl, azure, gold, silver, ebon, amber) but you are not guaranteed the potency of that light unless you are capped on ruby...which would be very bad for farming as you would have tons of red chests dropping wayyy more than any gold. If you want to waste an inordinate amount of time do this...and possibly NOT get any TE on the way.