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How are red mages in endgame?

Edited, Jun 2nd 2011 12:56pm by Qualic

How tragic.... Red mage was always the most fun. Always felt like I was playing piano swapping from ws, to spells, and abilities.

I dunno I still see plenty of activity as a RDM, and to be quite frank, I play quite a large variety of roles now the @ 75. (Well that is without at least one person not having a total **** fit if I used a WS on an NM if I had TP stored, or used a wing, or nuked because sitting on 900MP waitng for a cure 4 is silly). Ive done lots of low man stuff where I was /WAR and used as the red proc job, blu proc job, yellow proc job. All be it no where near as effective as say a WAR, NIN or BLM.

RDM is not overly useful....until you wish you had one. Outside of abyssea its use is almost mandatory, for refresh II alone as infinite MP dies at the Maws.

The way I look at it, is this. The people who played RDM solely in the style "accepted" @ the 75 cap, are the ones who have the largest gripe of RDM being useless. As one who used the versatility of the Job my entire FFXI carear I would say RDM is more useful now then it ever was. It is truly that job that fills holes now. While we are indeed missing somethings at a direct comparison level (see Melee falling behind more and more, Healing being pretty much comparable to a /WHM), the fact is that we can fill mostly any hole (in and out of abyssea) and can do so pretty fairly.

By far currently as of today Nuking is RDM's strongest suit, but its healing and melee are both average.

Glad to see you are branching out early lots of RDM's do not and then wonder why when they try they fail. Being a DD oriented RDM is tough, because not only do you try and optimize what you can do offensively, you are always the fall back and need to know when your support becomes more efficient over a certain span of time. This is something that JA's Gear etc can not give you.

Another issue I see so freaking much it makes me sick is the RDM's who try and melee in **** like errants gear (yes it still happens even though errants is mostly replaced by teal). They tend t be the ones who so heartily try and tell us RDM melee is garbage.

Ive said it many many times before a RDM can put out 70-75%(80-85% if all you are casting is dia III) of a top DD's numbers, while at the same time increasing that DD's numbers by 35-40%(17% if all you are using is dia, haste varies depending on the amount of bonus from haste equiped and being applied.) with Haste and Dia III, and helping to keep them healed.

70-75% isn't anything to scoff at considering the other perks of having the RDM present (Crowd control, Magic kills, Magic Damage on PD and Invincible mobs).

Playing RDM in a well rounded way tends to be infinitely more useful (*currently in abyssea and any endgame outside of abyssea subject to change depending on how SE changes difficulty of upcomming content, or past conent tweaks). Then a RDM who solely focus's on one task. This is large in part due to the fact that RDM is so outclassed in specific roles it makes no sense to bring one to simply heal, or nuke, or melee, but one that combines all three is a great asset to any low to mid man sized group, for the reasons i pointed out above.

Just please promise me that if you do melee, wear melee gear and not mage gear, for the love of god don't do that, it makes you look silly, and is one of the largest factors responsibl for lol rdmmelee stigma.

It is a good thing I have 160 then.

Only sets one needs in aby are a nuking set, a TP set, and a WS set. Everyting else is a placebo. HMP set is nigh useless, Refresh gear is mostly unneeded (I can't rememberthe last time I even had to use convert. Or needed to wait on its timer). The only thing that is a pain is going back to the dude to change my atmas depending on what role I will be doing. But even then I tend to just go with RR/VV/Beyond, so I can buff Vorpal(or evis if im /WAR or /NIN), build TP for my weaker Weapons before trying a proc (staff, club if /WAR), boost Sanguine, boost Blizz 4. Not that hard to fit 70ish items for the three sets in my bag, with meds, tools as well.







Edited, Jun 7th 2011 10:15am by rdmcandie

Honestly RDM doesn't need a bazillion equips, never really did, and most definitely not inside abyssea. People would become obsessive to get 5 situation pieces that would combined give you 3 more MND and 3 more m.acc on Slow. The ultimate result is a 3~4% higher initial land rate, or something like 0.5 ~ 2.0% higher actual land rate. Problem was that like melee accuracy magic accuracy caps, and anything that RDM couldn't easily cap it out on was most likely immune or nearly immune. The actual effect of the majority of situational gear was marginal to nearly nonexistent when the bigger picture was looked at. But there wasn't anything else to expand on and maintain a "mage onry" stance, so people did it. TP set, WS set, nuke set, and a set for landing enfeebles (bind/gravity/sleep/silence and maybe slow) without switching weapons. This is accomplished in 60 gear slots with some creative use of a few pieces, and easily accomplished with 70 gear slots. I know because I've done it before mog sack / mog satchel was introduced. Biggest issue was that you had to leave staves at the mog house, but that isn't a problem anymore with the sack.

"End Game" RDM depends. Inside abyssea we're kinda useless most of the time. Useful when your LS or friends are killing some of the Hero body +2 / emp+2 NM's without brews. Saboteur Dia III / Slow II is a pretty nice thing to throw up, plus haste / refresh / phalanx II and the occasional spot cure. Outside of abyssea we're bad a$$'s. The new VoidWatch NM's are no fcking joke. The T2 crab will kick your a$$ if all you've done is abyssea. The T3 crazy-fairy-***** will stomp a mud hole in your chest if you go in with a MNK + WHM "we can do anything" mentality. Those NM's have so many ways to completely ***** you over with little to do recourse (Strip buffs -> lock gear -> Thundaja" or the crab's 400 ~ 900 damage aoe that inflicts a 30~50hp/tick venom effect that can't be removed. The crab one shooting tanks with mega scissors or the Behemoth spamming Thunderbolt -> Meteor -> Thunderbolt -> Ecliptic Meteor under 50% HP.

I am mostly melee/enfeeb with my AF plus filling the earring/ring/neck slots with some kinda DD gear that doesn't lower my mage stats. I am finding it quite enjoyable. Now that I have access to the tier 2 en- spells, my damage is very solid on EM-T mobs. Wis.Wiz. Anelace with tier 2 en- spell that corresponds with the mob's weakness can land for ~100 dmg combined. Which is a nice chunk to hit with during the enfeeble rotation. My only issue is our WS are kinda "meh" for the damage they put out. I am hoping that the later levels of the sword will offer stronger WS. (Currently I am capped on my sword and dagger just under 200).

I really do love this class for the versatility it offers as well as being a respectable sub-job for most casters. Once my RDM is maxed I will be doing BRD/RDM to cap.


edit: The ability to land sleep on a EM-IT mob is amazing too lol.

Edited, Jun 8th 2011 1:05pm by blindsyde84

Is it better to be melee'ing with dagger or sword as a RDM/BLM or SCH? I dont have any melee jobs leveled high enough to be a sub for my RDM.

If you HAVE to melee with /sch then grab a martial knife, put up windstorm, and use Aeolian Edge with a wind obi. Might as well get some AE e-peen shots lol.