It's true that Red Mage does not do much damage when it comes to Melee, However RDM is Melee. En spells expose their additional effect seperatly in the transcripts adding up to an average melee. Know this and move on to other things other than reading the transcripts induring battles. Just check the damage readouts for others briefly.
We share weapons and armor with melee jobs, thus having the most variety of each to choose from. At an early stage it is introuduced to RDM that their job is to enfeeble. When i'm in parties i melee and cast.
why stand off to the side when you can be more useful cutting the mob when you are not casting. (set delay between attacks, it's not rocket science, the battle systems automated melee system gives you the "same" opertunity as you would just standing there)low damage yes enfeeblment in it's own way. I had the occational complaint like everyone else does from time to time from the kind of people who tell people how to play, even when much time has come to pass. Yet within those complaints we still managed to level for hours on end. Even when i'm main healer i play like a RDM and last, and hear no complaints. On the most part i strive to be cherrished by my teamates, and a many splenderid time with other players.
Red Mage can also take part in weapon skills, and has a fairly well ballanced list of TP attacks. I'm a Tarrutaru RDM and i never rest due to the size of my Mana pool. And when i do rest, it's because we just had a very hard battle. Other than that, i collect TP and use it on my own time.
.....Also RDM is not meant to blow away their MP, If you miss the Mages ballard, no worries, you'll survive like you can without it. But on the other hand, be a good RDM and know where the BRD plays and when they play.
As for Refresh. this is something you should get at level 41 right after convert it comes, At first your think "Refresh, that's the cherry on the convert sweet" but in little time, probably before you reach the next level, you'll hear a never ending rant "Refresh please, refresh please".
If you want to be a respected RDM, Refresh yourself first and watch the refresh clock, every 18 seconds or so, you'll be casting it none stop, induring and inbetween battles for every magic user. I recommend refreshing the PLD after yourself. and when your Refresh is gone. start the cycle again, and there you go, none stop refresh.
18 seconds is more than enough time to cast other spells. In Melee i use Refresh (and Cure ) manually because my targeting is already set on the mob, I still get the job done, while Meleeing, and maintaining a Refresh cycle, and at the same time looking out for enemy buffs. Later on Dispel is more demanding than ever so don't get too comfortable with your many tasks.
On the whole, i'll admit i would not put on a very good performance if i'm tired. so i don;t level when i'm tired.
In the end a RDM that does not Melee will have underleveled weapon capabilities. And will either end up soloing, or taking party in weapon skill up parties, (which is rare might i add) for the sake of being able to break Genkai 5.
Red Mage is a very busy job, and it's definatly not for everyone. This adds to the whole RDM being the most contraversal job in the games current state.
- Is RDM a Damge dealer ?...No but they can deal more damage that most jobs.
- Is RDM Melee ? ...Well all those TP skills heavy armor and weapons shared by most any Melee job should just rot....this i don't understand.
- RDM cannot nuke like black mage and cannot heal like WHM... Neither can any other job, and many are lead to believe RDM is weak because of this, when in truth they are a dangerous force due to unfair advantages in Ballista, even at level 30. (Which is Melee dominated).
Drecan if you think RDM is too demanding due to enfeebling alone, then i don't recommend continuing RDM, cause at level 41 and up, you'll be exspected to do alot more.
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Oh and for all you Theives reading this. If you have a Melee RDM in your party that uses Stoneskin + Phalanx trick off the Red Mage. With that mobs hit RDM for zeros like you wouldn't believe. In Castle Zhabailies or whatever it's called, i've gone very deep into that place at level 61 and been arggroed by mobs that only hit me for zeros, and tanked for party members 11 levels higher than myself. Even when our hunt kinda turned into a farming session, i was able to go off on my own and fight the same demons we were fighting in the party of 5. Long solo battles yes, but the abuse i assure you was 0 unless stoneskin wore off, then the demons would hit for 10-24 damage. when in the party the 70 PLD would sometimes have near death. So Theives trick !
