Dumb Question

I feel stupid asking this but here it goes: im an inspired upcomming rdm currently @ 4k till 73, im looking for gear set ideas or maybe gear sets you know that work for each type of spell, wether it be stoneskin slow bio ect that kind of stuff. I'm mithra if that helps, so i do lack in the mp and mnd/int department. im just more confused on what to use and when to use it as opposed to not haveing a clue what to do. any help/thoughts would help greatly :D thanks

depends on your play style really, if you plan on being a generic endgame RDM go for Aquilo's staff, enfeeb + gear, enhancing + gear MP gear etc... some solo RDMs go for more of a defense setup like cheviot cape and things that will help shadow casting. I have put off on finishing RDM because the I don't have the space to hold all the stuff I could potentially use.

There's no such thing as a stupid question, only stupid people. Wait...

Seriously though, that's a very open ended question, it's like you just asked "how do I play RDM?". Don't get me wrong though, it's better that you admit you don't know than to steam on ahead and pretend you know everything like so many do. My advice is to browse KI/alla/BG/wiki rdm forums and guides, as every question you have has already been answered at some point.

Some gear you might want to try for:

HQ staves for your debuffs- Ice, Earth, Wind, Dark mainly. These are a must.

+Enfeebling skill/magic accuracy gear - most of the "good" gear in this category can't be bought, with some examples being:
Goliard clogs/Avocat pigaches, Nashira pants, Goliard cuffs, AFv1 body (You do have this, right?), AFv2 hat, etc. etc. The list can go on with all the rare/ex gear you can try for.
Spider torque/enfeebling torque are some good buyable options for this, and Witch sash is nice too.

If you're going to be serious about Phalanx 2, look it up on wiki for some options to max out its potential. (Enhancing magic skill gear)

Bio is affected by Dark Magic skill, although there's not too much gear out there to help boost it.

MND gear works for your stoneskin and cures (with your stoneskin being capped at a little less than 100 MND if you have enhancing magic capped)

Some RDMs like a hMP set, although it doesn't get used much between convert and refresh, but it's still nice for those times when you DO rest

Lastly, try to get a gearset that brings your HP/MP into a 1:1 ratio. That way when you convert, little to no mp is wasted. If you don't have access to the abjurations for the crimson/blood scale mail set, the cobra unit set from Allied notes is nice since it not only gives HP and MP, but Conserve MP as well.

Hope some of that helps you.

as a mithra myself
it depends on how u play the job
i have my RDM merited more towards soloing

HQ Staffs:Plutos, Austers, Aquilos, Jupiters
merits in 5/5 vert, 3/5 ice acc, 2/5 wind acc, 5/5 bio3, 3/5 para II, 2/5 slow II
other merits are 8/8 enf/ele skill
you dont really need a Jupiter staff, i have one from having BLM75 also, i would recommend it for when your soloing and have the MP to spare for thunder3 since its the highest tier spell

get a decent nuke set for when/if u can nuke
i use
Ele Staff|Wise Strap|--|Phantom Tathlum
AF Hat|Ele Torque|Ele Ear|Phantom Ear
E.Houplande|Z.Mitts|Snow Ring|Insect Ring
Prism Cape|Penitents Rope|Mahatma Slops|RSEv2
skill278
skill288(w/ Aquilo's)

another nice peice to add from AH is elite beret, can keep the fast cast from af hat if you start cast in it and swap to beret by midcast for the extra +4/+5 enfeeb skill
can also pick up the enfeeb earring
can also buy the ele grips to go with the correct staffs for more acc on your enfeebs

ice acc isnt for the paraII merits, its mostly for bind when soloing, as the wind for gravity..

u need a dark skill of 211 to hit cap dmg/tic from bio3 which i get thro crimson gauntlets(+10)/dark torque(+7) for a skill of 217

my ss set includes (notable MND+ peices) goliard chapeau/bugard strap +1/e. houplande/prism cape/penitents rope/mahatma slops/mithra RSEv2 feet

i keep a fairly decent Hmp set to get it back asap
plutos(+10)
goliard hat (+2)
beak neck +1 (+2)
antivenom earring (+1)
relaxing earring (+2)
e. houplande (+5)
heirarch belt (+2)
and wizard cookies if i dont need the +7int from cream puffs

still working on some r/ex stuffs like goli clogs

only time i use a 1:1 HP <--> MP set is when im /whm in a merit party, soloing as /nin i prefer to be in gear for spells to land, resists are bad ><

Here's a general little guide I'm throwing together,
it should get you by with doing what you need to do.

You're going to need a few different gear sets, I'm ranking them in order of personal importance:
Enfeebling Skill Set (For when you're trying to land Enfeebles on higher level mobs)
INT Enfeebles Potency Set (Gravity, Bind, Blind, Sleep)
MND Enfeebles Potency Set (Slow, Paralyze, Slience)
Curing Set (For all your healing needs)
Enhancing Set (For keeping yourself and your DD alive easier)
Fast Cast Set (For a speedier haste/refresh cycle, it helps soloing later on too)
Dark Magic Set (For Chainspell Stunning)
HMP Set (For getting MP back faster when resting)

Gear:
General:
-All NQ level 51 staffs at least, HQ if you can afford it.
These are sort of your bread and butter.
-I also personally use the level 73 elemental grips.
-Penitent's Rope or Witch Sash (the former is a great piece,
the latter is better but quite expensive)
-Rainbow Cape/Prism Cape or Aslan/Gleeman's Cape (from Einherjar)

Enfeebling Skill: (Note: I include +magic accuracy pieces too when I can, like Morrigan's Cuffs, though you may find pure INT/MND better. It's a touchy subject.)

Enfeebling Torque (Necessary, imo)
Enfeebling Earring (Nice to have, work up to it)
Avocat Pigaches (Also nice to have, they're from a T2 ZNM)
Warlock's Tabard
Duelist's Chapeau
Altruistic Cape (From sea, not the easiest piece to come by, work up to it)

INT Potency:
Snow Ring x2 (Diamond if you can't afford, but work up to them)
Phantom Earringx2 or Morion Earringx2
Errant Cuffs
Errant Slops
Errant Body

MND Potency:
Aqua Ringx2 (Sapphire if you can't afford)
Communion Earrings are nice here, but very expensive. Worry about them last.
Devotee's Mitts(+1)
Errant Body, Pigaches and Slops again are nice here

Curing Set:
You're best stacking MND where you can here. Skill is nice but a lot of MND seems to do better numbers than skill. VIT also comes into play.
Personally I use some +MP Gear and a bunch of +MND and Fast Cast/Haste, skill where it comes on AF/AF2.

Enhancing Set:
Enhancing Torque
Augmenting Earring
Warlock's Tights
Duelist's Gloves (Devotee's here work too. They're level 27 and easier to come by than the AF2 gloves.)
Other than that, stack MND wherever you can.

Fast Cast/Haste Set:
Warlock's Chapeau
Duelist's Tabard (Goliard Body works too, since we're stacking FC and Haste. Duelist's is better, but it works.)
Swift Belt
Dusk Gloves/Leggings
Loquacious Earring

Dark Magic Set:
Dark Torque
Dark Earring
Nashira Body
Lots of INT

Healing MP Set:
Errant Body or Warlock's Tabard +1
Beak Necklace +1
HeirIcan'tspellit Belt (If a Duelist's Belt ever comes your way, that instead)
Baron's Slops
Relaxing Earring (Don't even stress about this. After two years I'm still only half way to this ***)

I could spout off gear suggestions all day. What's important is for you to find your 'balance'. Between +skill, +int/mnd, +MP, whatever it is. Every RDM has a different style and list of gear needs based on race, merits, situation, etc. You just have to experiment and find what works for you.

EDIT: (I just realized I forgot about Elemental Magic. ._.)
Like Enfeebling, this is all about balance.
Elemental Magic Skill - Genie Gages, AF2 pants, AF1 head, torque, earring, Etc.
INT - Errant is REALLY nice here, as are Snow Rings Etc.
MAB - Zenith Mitts, Duelist's Boots, Etc.

The higher level the mob, the more skill you're going to need, just like enfeebling. MAB raises the pure damage, INT raises the damage and accuracy. I believe it's something like +10 damage per MAB and +5 per point of INT. Don't quote me on that. XD
Nukes are something I'm still screwing with, my sets seem to change in every situation. >< Sorry I couldn't be of more help on that one.

Blizzard 3 is still more useful when soloing higher tier mobs though since you have 5 Ice Accuracy merits and the +elemental skill on the stave itself, since RDM has low elemental skill every bit counts.

Bind/Gravity: Enfeebling Skill/INT/Magic Accuracy.
1 Enfeebling Skill = 1 Magic Accuracy, 1INT = 1Macc sometimes and 0.5Macc other times (when dINT > 10, = 0.5macc per point where dINT is defined as your INT - enemy INT).

My current: http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=97186
Needs Altruistic Cape (yarite) and Morrigan pieces (even more yarite).

Silence: Like above, but substitute INT for MND.

Slow/Para: Mix Enfeebling Skill/Magic Accuracy with MND for potency. Remember MND also gives Magic Accuracy!

My current: http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=97190
Needs a lot... 10MND wands, MND bow (augment), 2+ MND earrings, second Aqua Ring, Aslan Cape and Morrigan's (yarite). I wouldn't use wands until you get enfeebling merits behind you, and still use staves on some targets then.

Dark Magic: Just get 211+ and you're good. Dark Torque, Dark Earring, Glamor Jupon, Merciful Cape, Crimson Finger Gauntlets and Nashira Manteel all add Dark skill.

Phalanx: Purely enhancing and it only changes when you break a tier (which is different between 1 and 2). Augmenting Earring, Enhancing Torque, Merciful Cape, Glamor Jupon, Duelist's Gloves and Warlock's Tights all enhance this (hoho, pun).

Stoneskin: 95MND to cap at level 75 with 256 enhancing skill. Really easy. If solo, stick haste into as many slots as you can for recast purposes.

Haste/Refresh: Haste/Fast Cast/Conserve MP work well here.

Stun: Thunder based! Dark Magic skill, INT, Magic Accuracy and Haste/Fast Cast are important (the latter two not being important if you are chainspelling it). Drain and Aspir follow the same rules but are dark based.

There's other stuff too but that's just your basic spells. Haste/Fast Cast for Utsusemi etc.

its not really low for me, i have A+ without the skill from Aquilo's XD

only have 3, but its still nice to have for when im looking for despot,

aggro PH, run, sleep, grav, thunder3/bliz3, bind, thunder3/bliz3, sleep, rest, thunder3/bliz3

when u can just stick to the 2 top tier spells it makes things easy, only way i would invest in HQ Fire is if i had RNG51+ lol

Oh yeah, Despot is easy cause he's lowish level. Stuff like Faust will resist Thunder a fair bit though :(

And even though you bump your skill to A+, BLMs have that skill naturally and start adding from that base while we're still working up to it and you wouldn't expect an unmeritted BLM to do well in endgame.

awsome what i was looking for :D. I understand how to play the job as i said before i have 75 BLM as well, so i have most of the basics hq staves, prism cape peni rope ect, i was just looking for what to fill in those empty slots cause there as just so many different things its like "wow, if i use this am i missing out on that?" lol but thanks so much :D

/

And yes this was for more of a soloing standpoint, so which would be more useful slow2 or para2?

Slow2

Para2 is meh. Not proven to actually give any potency over para1 and 6x the MP cost. It has only really been proven to affect magic accuracy and as long as you're not being resisted 6x, there's no real problem with recasting Para1 due to its incredibly low recast.

There are apparently dMND bonuses higher up but when you're sacrificing merits in bio3/slow2 from a soloing standpoint, not so wonderful.

cool beans. i knew to max bio 3 didnt know what was the other one to max, assumed slow 2 but wanted to ask the veterns :D