All For One, And More For Me: A Guide To Red Mage

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Going to have to disagree heavily against saying that Usonmunku is not worth it. For only 3mil you get a guaranteed 135 damage, 10 bonus acc and 7 dex (I'm mentioning Path B as RDM is not as accurate of a melee as others). For DW situations, Uson/Bura is the absolute best combination outside of RME options. The Claideamh has far too high of delay to be a top contender for DD purposes, and even with the absolute best augments possible, still falls short of an Uson/Bura pairing. Taking into consideration the level of luck necessary on the augmentation system, this should be the one labeled as not worthwhile.

The Skirmish sword can beat Uson (STR Path only) With the right WSD Augments and is especially good with MAB + WSD augs for say Sanguine Builds (and yes you can get 9k on Sanguine blade so its definitely not a lol ws).

Just check blu forums for this, they can do 17k with GEO buffs, no other RDM ws can come close so... You're wrong.

Oraen is absolutely correct about Uson and Claideamh. A few other things that I noticed:

On your enfeebling set: Aureole in the ranged slot is superior to that sachet. Ischemia Chasuble is superior to Atro. Tabard +1 (1 macc = 1 skill). For black enfeebles (blind/II, dispel, gravity/II, Distract/II, Frazzle/II), the Mnd on that Leviathan ring isn't doing anything; you might want to note that it needs to be swapped for Shiva if you know that dInt is uncapped, or Perceptor Ring if you're unsure.

On your healing set, swap Atro. +1 gloves for Ayao's Gages for an additional 15 healing skill. You could also augment +4 cure potency on your gend. feet, then swap the gend. head for Paean Mitra. That would give an additional 7 healing skill as well as -9% CCT. Iaso Mitra would obviously be better, but the -1 piece is a pain to find.

Looking good so far. Keep it up.

I think Sanguine Blade is one of the absolute best weapon skills in the game, you won't find me disparaging it. My main argument was that 3m for a guaranteed superb weapon was a lot more worthwhile than an indeterminate amount of money spent on luck.

I also don't particularly see how basing the entire merit of a weapon on buffs from other jobs or niche, particular content is going to make it superior as a general purpose weapon. I check the BLU forums religiously, and the last I've read from there, multiple people had determined that even with superb augments, Claideamh was not superior to an Uson.

Rope is a poor nuke option, yamabuki no obi prob better. Quartz ammo and globidonta enfeeb perhaps, aureole stun. Andoaa earring (perhaps not needed though)hirud earring, umbani boots.

Gonna be a downer here. I so look forward to the generation of brain dead players this thread will create. Players who will inevitably flood this thread every update asking how they should gear for Slow spells with the new equipment available.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the word 'Mind' appears one time in your opening post. Maybe you should go into it a bit more since it's kind of important for a RDM.

For god's sake, this thread seems more for jerking off over how much you know about the basic fundamentals of the game rather than an actual guide. The job is called 'Red Mage', try throwing in some information about the job's primary spells, how they work and what they do.

Uk'uzkaj boots with +MND augment are more than fine to use on hard things. Merited para/slow II with these boots is pretty sweet.

Pya'ekue belt should be in enhancing others set instead of a dt belt to reinforce the need to have haste gear when you need to buff multiple people.
I'd suggest looking over some of Demonjustin's sets.

Also you should be recommending side/downgrades for itemsets to be meaningful guidance to anyone.

missing colossus torque in enhancing sets as options

Also the theia's hairpin +1 is trying too hard for high acc versus a lithelimb cap, I can't imagine anyone would take the crippling absense of no haste/def/mdb/-pdt/statvomit of the hairpin.

RDM can't use Sanguine Blade unless subbing BLU. So, that limits it's use for RDM by a lot, because /BLU is a really limited utility for RDM.

@OP - You list Saboteur for Paralyze II, but it's probably most potent with Distract II. If you're there on RDM, chances are Distract is going to do more for your group than Paralyze.

Perhaps take out extraneous gear that does not help the purpose of the set. Putting pdt/mdt in every set for each slot that has no other purpose doesn't really help anyone. I think most people can figure out that it wouldn't be a bad idea to have in there if they want but it clutters the sets and makes it more difficult to see what is actually doing something and what isn't or if something needs an augment to help that set.

Thanks for the feedback! let me comment on a few things. first off absolutely correct on the body, i completely missed that. better overall and easier to get to boot.
I would comment that because rdm is very gear intensive and that AV isnt often shouted for (dont know the soloability atm) that the aureole while best for macc may not be easily attainable especially for those with inventory issues.
also true the mind does nothing for blind dispel and gravity, distract potency is dmnd and haven't seen confirmation on frazzle but id wager the same.

Atrophy gloves +1 beat the ayao's gages, 1 healing skill= 2 mnd 33 mnd= 16.5 skill.

Iaso Mitra only has a overall gain of ~4 skill also, the added hate reduction from the gend head helps greaty considering we have to go 4-3 for less overall then whm 5-4-2. 9% cct while nice isnt a major thing assuming 80% fast cast. that being said i may try to rework the healing set later.

also the Uson/Bura argument is only valid when discussing dualwield. unfortunately /dw isnt often the best subjob choice if your running in a group. and personally I go to an event say rdm/sch if i get the opportunity i melee, but that means i have to look at swords individually not paired. And that is the perspective I took when writing the guide, as someone who dw occasionally but is mainly sword/shield.

Just wanted to point out some changes to the cure set:

-Vitivation Gloves +1 give more for cures than Atrophy Gloves +1

-Depending on your augments on Gendewitha, if you can spare 7% Cure Potency and still be capped, Tefnut Wand is better than Tamaxchi.

-In addition to using Tefnut Wand, if you have at least 9% Cure Potency total between Gendewitha Head/Feet augments, you can drop Genbu's Shield for Matamata Shield +1.

-Quartz Tathlum +1 (or Oreiad's Tathlum) give 1 more MND than Mana Ampulla.

Glad to see someone plunged forth to start a RDM guide :)

Good effort but this guide needs A LOT of work.

Suggestion: considering what the purpose of a guide is(to, well guide people on their way)you should put at least in the form of text under the various sets alternatives to the top tier gear, cause remember a guide isn't much for the hardcore players(although it can help everyone for sure)but the more casual people might actually seek support in these type of threads, so cater to them.

Also some info on how spells work(affecting stats for instance) cause not everyone knows that stuff.

What "all for one, and more for me" has to do with rdm?

Spontaneity can be targeted on other party members too. Can be used in a pinch on your SCH or GEO if you really can't afford to eat next TP move, or WHM Arise.

Uh... Composure joke?

Also, the post could use more talking about the spells, JAs, and other minor things available to RDMs, and how they're usually used. Chainstunning, immunobreaks (lol), etc. Pretty okay start, though.

And yet Multiple people didn't understand how GEO buffs worked with Magic Damage and MDB... So I disregard what the crowd thinks mainly because they base it on flawed maths and understanding of the game.

Those said forums specifically show they're wrong~

For Phsycial WS's you're right, but if you're focusing on Sanguine and have Pixie Hairpin +1 it's certainly something to consider as it also works in offhand.

Granted no one is rdm/blu so I guess it's Niche.

Perhaps you could phrase that in a way that's not coming across as completely arrogant and dimeaning?

It's only one part and he did say "anything I've missed let me know" it's not like anyone else bothered to make a RDM guide.

While I agree he missed a couple fundamental parts to RDM, overall it's certainly a good start.

Besides who wants to spoon feed people everything, a guide doesn't need to be everything, it's more how to get started, what to do and aim for. Self Discovery is a big part of the game, and how to get better, besides alot of "Slow II" information on how MND works is on BG Wiki and a simple internet search can show you that.

/DNC gives the same Accuracy Bonuses as /DRG, plus a lot more like DW and Haste Samba.

/DNC is highly overused as a melee RDM subjob. It's suitable for soloing when a mob frequently silences or has a debuff that is problematic and erasable. For party play, the loss of DW is generally preferable to gain access to party support.

As one of the multiple people who said that, keep in mind I was referring to general melee purposes that utilize CDC.

This is what I've been waiting for since the history of ffxiah!!!! Thank you for all your effort!

Didn't one of the more recent patches change this so that they are properly effected by slow or am I crazy?

I'm not crazy about the Convert merits, I rarely even had to convert on content unless we really messed something up and even then its not like I was riding the recast timer. I guess it comes down to each individual and how they do events. You could argue that there's a bunch of content where the extra accuracy isn't going to change anything but I'd then argue that you're probably not converting on that stuff either.

I think its been mentioned but I would just stack Enhancing/FastCast things in the respective sets and then just mention its overcapped and you only need to stack to their respective caps. That's not to say I don't agree with using PDT and such in those slots if you don't need them, but I wouldn't send people hunting specific pieces of gear when there's stuff like Prolix Ring, Orunumila's, Colossus' Torque, etc.

Convert merits made sense in 2007 when the most Refresh gear a rdm had was 2. These days, you're better off doing 5/5 ice and 5/5 wind, or 5/5 ice, 3/5 wind, 2/5 earth. Ice helps bind/para/distract, and is our strongest nuke with /sch with hailstorm and obi. Wind for grav/silence which have some use for certain fights and earth for slow.

With haste 2 cycles outside of party and constant dispels, I find myself riding the convert timer quite a lot these days and wishing I could justify the merits, actually. You could make a case for them, but generally, elemental acc merits are more useful, for sure.

RDM should also try for a Aspir Potency set since our most used sub is /SCH and we can wear decent amounts of Dark Skill/Aspir Potency equipment.

Can Manifestation it after a big pull in Incursion and get a full bar of MP back.