Jack Of All Trades: A Guide To Red Mage

it's pretty meaningless, just like trying to explain to you why

It's not meaningless in any setup that gets DPS increase with holding TP. Ofc you can also keep being jerk tho.

same situation, just a different number to reach

Not really, because you are not trying to reach any specific number then. If one setup would lets say have less time between rounds, but other higher TP/sec, then that means second setup will WS slower but with much higher TP overflow, which could mean higher DPS.

Definitely this. Enspells are an amazing free damage tool that should be taken seriously and exploited when targets are particularly physically tough. Even more so when WS or SCing is prohibited by mechanics. At the end of the day you have to pick the best setup for the content you're tackling.

Plenty of things mitigate elemental damage by resistances (sdb) instead of by m.eva and/mdb. That can very quickly damphen all the extra work put into your enspell damage set. That set is not as sturdy as a full malignance set or even a modified one setup for DW, nor does it TP as well as either. Further, the only way to boost enspell damage is weather/day related bonuses, Sroda Tathlum, affinity, or lowering sdb via Gambit. I believe Rayke and Tomahawk would both restore mitigated enspell damage instead of boosting the damage itself, but don't take my word for it. I just switch to other strats when enspell damage gets resisted and have not tested it personally. That all being said, you can also build an Occult Acumen set, nuke 3 times and then WS with an elemental WS to get around Invincible if Enspells aren't being effective.

Further, Most of the time I'm /DNC and using haste samba because most jobs can get benefits from it. That means i'm throwing enspell 2s for some extra damage or even just for extra atk from naegling. Enspell 1 damage, while sweet, doesn't generally beat out TP generation with haste samba. Haste Samba is better than full DW which means you get to WSs faster and can do longer SCs when timing matters. It also provides more tp overflow which benefits every major WS you use except sanguine blade damage.

The best part of all this is that you're still a support regardless of subjob that can distract 3, cure, nuke, and take hits very well so long as you're conscious of your sets(fast cast hp and cure set dt levels specifically). Sabo Paralyze 2 has trivialized many scary fights.

Enspell damage is a great perk but don't neglect the rediculous range that RDM can also offers a party either as the job itself or what you can bring from a subjob.

A quick question, Is Sequence worth making if I already have a Naegling? This guide seems to suggest that it is apart from.certain situations, while another guide I looked at said the opposite.

On this topic, whats the current Sanguine Blade set look like post-V20 Odyssea? Has pixie +1 hairpin finally been supplanted?

After getting R25 Nyame, I did a bunch of testing between Pixie/Nyame/Amalric +1 and other gear on Apex Idle Drifters (chosen because of me wanting a high INT target). The highest damage set ended up being:

Crocea/Bunzi/-/Sroda
Pixie +1/Baetyl/Regal/Malignance
Nyame/Jhakri +2/Epam/Archon
Sucellos/Orpheus/Amalric +1/Nyame

Nyame is Path B. Sucellos is 30 MND/10 WSDMG. Baetyl slightly beats out Sibyl. Belt is obviously Hachirin if getting double weather or weather + day.

If you're getting outside MAB buffs (like Acumen) then more Nyame will likely pull ahead, but I didn't test that situation specifically.

So Pixie+1 is still the Ubermech of the head slot, I was hoping to replace it but ohh well.

Surprised that Amalric was still able to pull ahead with the r25 Nyame pants. Do you remember how different the two compared?

Figured I'd post this here. Rub, Shadowmeld, and myself noticed a variation in times that the in-game timer didn't always match up with Composure up, we figured it out so we could update Timers/Replacement.

If you'd naturally get more then 30 minutes the game uses that time; merits, gifts, gear etc etc. If Composure is what would push you to 30m+ it caps it at 30 minutes.

Also means Protect and Shell are effected by Composure which was easy to test with the new Sroda Necklace.

Also Sroda Necklace is just -50% Non-augmented gear, so same term as COR Roll/Gear.

Has anyone ever played around with Excalibur/KoR or Almace/CdC with offhand Kraken? I'm wondering if greater TP speed and self Light SCs might make them compete with or even beat Naegling/Thibron when you can self-SC (on mobs that take good Light damagr), especially if attack capped.

I'm curious if Excalibur 119 R15 competes with Naegling mainhand.

Been using Ullr bow for my 5 steps, and ranged accuracy doesn't seem to be an issue, but if Excalibur is anywhere near close to Naegling when you have a lot of buffs on, I might make one for a better defensive option situationally.

Just wondering if anyone has compared the 2?

About to make a dedicated ambuscade cape for Empyreal Arrow, but don't wanna pull the trigger till i know if Excalibur is an option.

I made an Excal and got R15, it actually does really well now that Nyame exists, especially if you the target is vulnerable to SC's. At R15 it acts kinda like a 8.4 fTP WS, though the 68% damage bonus is also applied to the offhand and any extra procs from Temper II. Depending on my TP I'll do Savage -> KoR -> KoR or KoR -> Savage -> KoR.

Is there a noticable difference in your Savage Blades with the missing 15% from Naegling?

Most of the time I use the 1000 TP Bonus sword offhand, and that pumps up Empyreal Arrow too.

So in my skillchain of:
Savage Blade // CDC // Emyreal Arrow // Savage Blade // CDC
the Empyreal Arrow actually hits for 20k'ish with another 10-20k Fusion, combined with the x2 Naegling Savage Blades.

Because TP doesn't scale on Knights of the Round, i've been trying to account for that too, since it'll directly replace
Empyreal Arrow in that 5 step.

So i'm not sure overall if R15 Excalibur is gonna fall too far behind when 3 of the 5 weaponskills are gonna be a combination of Savage Blades, and replacing Empyreal arrow, that actually hits decently hard.

I can see it being more useful when i'm not dual wielding though, and don't have my 1000 TP Bonus.

It all depends on target selection and buffs / situation. I made it for fun since I have everything else and have liked using it since. It works well when your not using magic WS's with Crocea.

Cape is basically free and quick. R15 crystals is a boat load of gil or time.

I wouldn't wait on Excal finding a strong niche as to pulling the trigger on that cape useless your queue is very deep.

What should I buy & start upgrading first? Duelist's Torque +2 or Crocea Mors? I can afford to buy one or the other this month, but not both.

I would personally buy the neck first seeing as it boosts your enhancing and enfeebs

By far, the +2 neck. It's useful at all times, and the difference between +1 and +2 will be more impactful to your overall RDM performance than the difference between Vitiation and Crocea.

Crocea Mors, while a pretty good magic accuracy MH, is situationally useful at best for DDing. And that's frustratingly less often than I'd like, being real. Just get a Vitiation Sword as a stopgap, or if you can make up the funds before you'd be able to even RP the Vitiation, just wait and get Crocea later on.

I'm farming Odin HTBF for the Freke Ring. I pretty much am using the optimum setup shown for Enspell 0TP with dual Aern Daggers, 1 dmg. I've been doing Normal to get my feet wet. Most of my fights go very smoothly, 0 TP fed the entire fight. About 10-20% of the time, when I start with an identical setup, I am doing 1 damage a lot. This feeds TP, leading to eventual death from Zantetsuken.

I didn't do this fight pre-ML. I'm wondering if anyone else has done this recently, and if the MLs are affecting damage (Currently ML 31). Or if there's something else I am not thinking to look at. Maybe after a certain ML Difficult will be the only viable battle for this to work on?

I recall trio-ing this on N? And D with two other rdm, (for speed kills) and one of them was in that ml range and we didnt have any tp feed issues. (Its possible we were only doing D runs? )

If I understand it, your accuracy effects it landing, your macc effects the enspell hit and the pdiff effects the attack damage? - are you casting dia3, or bringing any huge attack buff or def debuffs in? (Even maybe gain-str?)

I could be totally wrong here on my understanding and will let someone who knows correct us here down below /grin.

ML will affect it - you can only do 0dmg melee hits if you have a -1 fSTR value to negate DMG:1 weapons. https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/FSTR

If you have more than (Odin's VIT - 14) STR, you'll occasionally do 1 damage. Change up gear to have less STR as you level, and you'll go back to all 0's.

the str from master levels is why you aren't hitting 0s anymore

Thanks for the detailed replies! I'll look at 2nd tier options to fill in!

I cannot speak to post ML stats, but I farmed two complete sets of Odin gear with RDM enspell on Odin before ML came out. Accuracy determines if you physically hit Odin, MAcc determines if your enspell is resisted or not. You want as little STR and Atk as possible along with two 1 dmg high speed daggers to maximize enspell damage while physically hitting for 0 on /NIN. You will likely want to use Gain-MND to help your enfeebles land, and not be resisted.

Also, there is no reason to apply Dia3 if you are using an enspell strat on Odin. If you desperately need a Treasure Hunter tag action, apply TH gear to your Inundation cast since it always lands, and since no one will be weapon skilling it has no real affect on the fight.

The only real threat during an Odin fight should be silence wearing right around when he uses Manafont causing him to get a Kaustra cast off which feeds Odin a ton of TP due to his Occult Acumen trait. This causes him to Zantetsuken immediately. It's rare, but it does occasionally happen.

For reference, this is the gear I used to melee Odin, not perfectly optimal, but it got the job done:

main = "Aern Dagger"
sub = "Infiltrator"
range = "Ullr"
head = "Umuthi Hat"
neck = "Duelist's Torque +2"
ear1 = "Sherida Earring"
ear2 = "Suppanomimi"
body = "Malignance Tabard"
hands = "Ayanmo Manopolas +2"
ring1 = Stikini Ring +1"
ring2 = Stikini Ring +1"
back = "Ghostfyre Cape"
waist = "Reiki Yotai"
legs = "Malignance Tights"
feet = "Malignance Boots"

Thanks for this little info here - I actually saw this happen last night and didn't understand how Kaustra allowed him to immediately Zantentsuken us. Just really bad timing on when Silence wore. Thanks.

Has anybody confirmed that enspell damage and triple attack rate have gone up with the increase to our Enhancing Magic skill via Master Levels?

They have.

Can anyone post updated Sanguine Blade/Seraph Blade sets?