What RDM Sets Should I Make

I just took rdm to 99 and i honestly have no idea where to start what should i do for rdm sets and what items should i get

There are several RDM guides under the Jobs section of the forums and one on bg-wiki. These two (1) (2) are the most up to date.

are you using gearswap? there will be a big difference if you can have precast/midcast sets

If I were new I would start with these sets:

enfeebling set: stack magic accuracy+enfeebling skill then can add enfeebling duration as you flesh our your set

cure set: cure potency caps at 50%, grab some vanya in escha ru'aun, augment it to get your potency up

fast cast: easy for rdm as you'll have 30% @99 and 38% mastered, cap is 80%. can use cure casting time from vanya/other pieces for precasting cure spells until you have enough pure FC.

idle set: try and hit -DT% and add refresh pieces where you can't. PDT and MDT cap at -50%, shellV gives 29% so you will need more PDT to cap.

refresh+: build up your refresh potency (amalric coif, empy legs, af body)


Then from there you can start building melee sets, WS sets, enspell sets. The links above have some starter sets if you need ideas on what pieces to collect

I just know i was looking at the one for pld and it was bad so i did not want to trust the BG one and so i came here to ask you guys what you think?

I am a very good PLD but the last time i played rdm in a party was 75 cap

I think you should look again. the pld guide and rdm guide are pretty good.

I'll correct myself. the pld guide is good.

I don't like the sets he referenced for rdm...

here's a good gear guide for rdm sets

I am looking again now please stand by

HOLY ***

thats a lot of sets i think even more then PLD

RDM is one of the most gear and set heavy jobs in the game because of its versatility. You want to be prepared, but you can be overly prepared, so I'd suggest making sets that you actually need in the short term, and add more when the situations arise.

I do not use Gearswap, so it means I need duplicate sets for if I am playing as a melee, or as a backline. If you only ever play one role, you won't need duplicates.

I would try first gearing for buffing role, then debuffing, enspell, melee then anything else

bingo. most career RDMs will suggest to those new to the job that they can build their RDM in stages- of course 1st focusing on the primary roles a RDM needs in any situation:

1. Enfeebling (often 2 sets at least)
2. Enhancing (often 2-3 sets)
3. Healing

while still remembering the importance of safe and smart idle sets.

Once the "backline support" aspects of the job are done, one typically tackles basic nuking/bursting sets (again, 2 sets needed for freenuking & bursting, if not a 3rd for macc), then various melee builds:

1. standard single wield
2. dual wield physical damage (sword, dagger, club all important in the long-run)
3. enspell build (likely one of our strongest, but also not one of the most desired for endgame moments where one really needs a RDM meleeing)

I really do try and pass on to newer RDMs that one doesn't need every function before they can contribute- in fact, its often better to get really good at the key roles and then add to that job with other tasks, versus trying to do everything the first time you RDM. Its a process, but a super rewarding one.

If you are not using gearswap, make sure you are at least using proper equipset macros.

With limited help or solo:

To start with, get 99 sparks gear for ACC. Bayld gear can also work but generally does not have ACC. Finish up important trust (Unity WHM or Sylvie. Both BRDs: Jaochim and Ulmia. And the COR, Qultada. Long term targets being Monberaux and Ygnis).

Then start doing Domain Invasion and capping DI points daily (80-100 points). The first thing you will want to buy is an Emissary (200 points) and 3 Eschalixirs +3 (30 points) to augment it Path A. You may want 2 of these for when you are dual wielding. If you are having trouble with DI, the Angantyr Armor and Voluspa weapons (purchased with DI points) are good for DI but only DI. Don't stop doing DI, there are a lot of really good accessories for RDM that come from DI.

Work on Ambuscade, your first goal is 1350-1500 hallmarks (hallmarks and gallantry reset every monthly update). At 1350 hallmarks you can obtain a full set of gear (you actually earn pieces before 1350 but the final piece of the set cost 1350) that is vastly superior to Sparks\Bayld gear. At 1500 you can start on a ambuscade weapon, I would suggest the sword but the rod is also very good (the dagger should be third). If you can, get help with Ambu. A lot of people will often help out new players. If possible keep farming Ambu to at least 14500. At 14500, you have earned enough to purchase a +1 set of Ambu armor. Both sets of Ambu armor, that RDMs can use, are very good starter sets. Ayanmo for Melee and Jhakri for nuking. I would recommend Ayanmo first, then Jahkri. I would also recommend not wasting upgrade materials on NQ > +1, instead saving them for +1 > +2 upgrades. Note that getting these sets does not cost you hallmarks, you just had to earn said hallmarks. You can and should still spend you hallmarks (and gallantry) on whatever else you need, such as capes (which are really important and RDM has a lot of them) or items you can sell for gil.

Work on a Thibron (1k tp bonus) and the ambu weapon you chose, with the goal of upgrading the ambu weapon to its Kaja form.

With how OP Temper II is, a max enhancing skill set will really improves your TP gain. Gleti's Knife is one the best offhands when you do not need the Thibron (can also be VERY easy to get with help).

Once you have a Kaja Sword (or Rod), a Savage Blade (or Black Halo) set will drastically improve your kill speed. Generally focusing on Weapon Skill Damage (WSD), Str (or MND) and Attack. There are guides that others have already listed to help you with the specific gear wanted. The final goal is upgrading to the Naegling (or Maxentius).

During all of this you should also be reforging and upgrading your AF (except boots), Relic and Empy armor. All pieces have a place for RDM.

This, but also keep in mind your macros will be very difficult to build, especially with things like Crocea Mors in your MH, which will throw off all your cast times. It can be very difficult to use FC sets without putting a 1s delay in front of all your spells, and if you don't use a FC set your midcasts will need to be timed at various different timers depending on the FC in your idle set/main hand.

Getting RDM working without GS is a bit of a headache and involves a lot of testing. Lord help you if you get addled or encumbered, ***will be broken.

Congrats on 99. Get ready to spend the next 2-3 months collecting all the gear and putting the sets together, as well as learning the cadence and flow of playing RDM (if you ever desire to play it in any end game capacity), as it's not as easy as other jobs. Fun as hell and the investment is worth it, but it's a loaded job for sure.

Your RDM desires 5 of your wardrobes. And if you play it long enough, it will get it

So you can get around the fast cast issue by using some type of <st> for all spells that would have a fast cast issue. Equip your fc equipset, then /ma cast your spell with a <stxx> and you can manually wait the 1 second between clicking the macro and selecting the target so that you can then immediately switch into midcast when the spell starts casting without any <waitx> in the macro itself up to this point. The only issue with this is if you get impatient and select the target too quickly midcast will fail to equip.

For example
/equipset fastcast
/ma "Frazzle III" <stnpc>
/equipset midcastfrazzle <wait2>
/equipset idle

I've done this before, but you have to still manually time out all your 1 second waits, and it doesn't actually solve the problem since the spell is still delayed a second anyway (you're just waiting the second yourself). You add an extra enter key press on every spell you ever cast, plus people can blink you between the time you choose to cast the spell and the time you hit enter. It's just a mess all around so I prefer <t> whenever possible.

YMMV though, if this is something you (or others) prefer to do, go for it.

Putting FC/CTR in your idle set solves the problem.

I hear people say this about so many jobs... it really makes me think "you guys have no frame of reference".

Kylos is NOT guilty of this, but the comment just got me going.

I fully gear out all gear sets on all jobs. Isn't that like 1/2 the fun of the game? Red Mage is above Average... a bit. but really looking at the rdm gear guide I linked just seems like the normal number of gear sets for a job.

Heavy DD jobs have the fewest, but I feel that is how everyone gauges "average" when they make the above statement... and those people probably do the minimal for gear up. ie, they have 2x sets: Tp Set and WS set and they use the same set on all weaponskills...

You can actually get away w/ that a bit on Warrior and Dark Knight... but you are still underperforming.

Main reason you can get away w/ that is because its so easy is: Odyssey Gear and Empy +3. Then they think the really advanced job sets have 2 different WS sets and 2 different tp sets.


Yes Rdm IS versatile, so you have alot more hats you can wear and alot more gearsets you can make....

but the jobs that have the most gearsets are Blu, Bst, and Pup.

RDM and SCH are next tier after that imo.


But really, there are alot of sets to make:

Max TP set
Hybrid dt/tp set
Subtle Blow tp set
Mythic Am3 tp set
Counter build set
Evasion set
Max Acc tp set

JA sets for support jobs:
Jump sets
Waltz sets
Fast Cast Sets
Fast Cast utsusemi

Idle sets:
Idle Refresh Set
Idle Regain Set
Idle Regen Set
Idle MaxHp set

WSD WS set
PDL WS set
Magical WS set
CRit WS set
Multi-hit WS set

Magic acc set
MAB set
Various Magic Skill sets

Pet Mab set
Pet Macc set
Pet acc set
pet tp set
pet attack set
pet multi-attack set

Drain/Aspir sets
Stoneskin set
aquaveil set
blink set
refresh set
regen set

Cure potency set
Cursna sets

ranged attack set
ranged acc set
preshot set

Sure not all jobs have all of these... but all my jobs have most of these. even on pup and bst I use the casting sets, (cuz pup/drk is the bomb, and /whm, /sch, /rdm, /blu /run, /nin are so useful in so many ways.) and yes I have full waltz potency and cure potency sets for beastmaster and pup and blu and any job that might melee or might stay at range. and yes I do have sets for Ullr on bst and rdm and pld and thf, etc

but there is a surprising amount of crossover when you fiddle with different support job combinations and roles.

Odyssey limitations really draws out some peculiar approaches as well.

Yeah if you don't mind not having DT/refresh/melee stats in your idle sets. While meleeing on RDM I don't have the option to fill 2~5 slots with FC gear so my spells can go off at a reliable time.

I suppose this is an option and I may look into it for my casting setups, though it still hinders your ability to stack refresh, DT, meva, etc. in your idle set.

not that hard tbh i play it without gear swaps just manual normal macro for every single *** thing.

While I wholeheartedly agree with what you're trying to say in general, I'm not sure a RDM thread is the best topic to pick to vent out that discontent.

I mean... RDM truly does have a lot of potential sets.
If you wanna use RDM for all its various fields of expertise, that is. You don't necessarily "have" to.

What do you mean "manual normal macro"? Because even with a macro for every spell, you still have to either:

Not use fast cast
Use fast cast set involving few enough items to use /equip slot "item" for all your items, to avoid the 1s delay on /equipset
Include FC gear in your idle

This is a limitation with the /equipset delay, there's no way around it except the 3 above, that I'm aware of. Would love to hear what other non-GS RDM are doing to cast all their spells with Idle (melee) -> FC -> Midcast -> Idle without running into /equipset issues.

Edit: I think I found a solution, going to test it soon.
/equip Head "atrophy chapeau +3" (16 FC)
/equip body "viti. tabard +3" (15 FC)
/equip feet "merlinic crackows" (11 FC)
/ma "spell" <t>
/equipset midcast <wait 1>
/equipset idle (melee)

Mastered RDM has 38% FC, with the 42 above that should put you at capped FC no matter what, unless you're addled or encumbered.

People can't blink out of <stpt>, it targets via the party menu.

It doesn't take an extra second because you can do your first click of the macro while you're still locked out of taking any action by your last spell/weaponskill

Same idea though, you have to wait for your last macro to finish its last /equipset and then wait 1 second after that is finished to hit your macro or it will conflict with your FC /equipset.

If you have, for example:
/equipset FC
/ma "Cure IV" <stpt>
/equipset cure <wait 1>
/equipset idle

You have to wait until 1 second after your /equipset idle before you hit your next macro...meaning you time it in your head/wait until around the time your spell has finished/you're free to cast again before you starting hitting your next /equipset FC macro.


This is true and I've considered swapping my <stpc> to <stpt> but you can't use F1-6, so if you want to cast on the 4th party member you have to click macro -> down down down enter as opposed to macro -> F4 enter which seems slow/counter-intuitive to my brain. I'm sure it works for you, it's just a bit alien to me.

I play with a controller so party targeting is simpler for me, just have to use the dpad.

As for the having to wait for the previous macro to put you back in idle set, this isn't true. You hit the next macro as soon as your spell goes off, before the equipset idle kicks in, so theres no conflict. Yea there's still timing it in your head but isnt pressing buttons at the right time what video games are all about?

I have a similar problem with blm where I use a slightly different work around. Spells that will be cast in rapid fire, like the nukes that use bursting set, I don't return to idle set, just leave it in burst set so there's never a problem going back to fast cast. For spells that cast sufficiently fast, like t1-2 nukes and ga1s I just cast them in nuke set and don't care that i might be casting 0.05 seconds slower or w/e.

This method works. It's what I currently do.

I really have no idea what people mean when they say rdm has so much more gear than other jobs. I really don't see much of a difference in my loadout for RDM vs. other utility jobs.

As far as sets RDM has to make my 2 cents:

• Enhancing Magic
  

  • Enhancing Magic Duration
  
  

• Enfeebling Magic
  

  • Max Duration
  • Max Potency
  
  

• Idle
  

  • Refresh
  • DT

• Casting
  

• Magic Burst

• Absorb-TP

That's really it, that is the minimum for RDM. I include the Casting sets because that will be the bare minimum you'd need for Sortie entry as a rdm if you're going to pursue that content.

Shadowmeld, people say RDM use a lot of gear/sets because they're not talking about "minimum viable RDM" they're talking about maximized RDM. A minimum viable MNK probably needs 1-3 sets, for comparison.

A fully maxed RDM needs (at least):
Idle refresh
Idle DT
FC
Enhancing
Enhancing (for others)
Stoneskin
Aquaveil
Enhancing skill-maxed
Cure
Cursna
Enfeebling (macc only)
Enfeebling (skill included)
Enfeebling (potency)
Free nuke
MB nuke
DW TP set
Single-handed TP set
Enspell TP set
Alternate TP sets for all of the above for DT
Alternate TP sets for all of the above for acc
Elemental WS set
Sanguine set
Savage set
Multi-hit WS set
Stun
Absorb-TP

I probably missed some, but that's a good start.

And if you're not using GS, you also need to duplicate all of these for weapon swapping or not.

My rdm is completely decked out with everything. I don't notice more gear than most of my other jobs. In fact there are a few jobs that I have that are worse off in terms of inventory space. RUN and RNG come to mind.

Edit: Maybe I misread in between the lines of the OP, what I heard was I just leveled to 99 and I don't wanna do all the things for RDM. What do I absolutely have to make, and what is optional.