Red Mage Questions

Chichiri97

Claw Mittens
Adventurer
Joined
Mar 8, 2005
Messages
94
I've been confused lately about if a Red Mage needs Charisma or Mind...it'd be great if someone can clear up that question.

Also, are elemental staves helpful in enfeebles, according to their stats all they do is "extra" damage of their element. For example a Light Staff does extra light damage at times. It doesn't seem to affect the rate of enfeebles. I can understand the use of an Ice Staff because of the Elemental Magic up. What about Wind Staff? Does it improve the rate that the spell "Choke" sticks or the amount of damage wind based attacks can do? Same question goes for all the other elemental staves.

Currently, I'm only using Light Staff and Dark Staff. I find the majority of the time I'm back-up healing.

Also, since you don't melee in battle (or most Red Mages don't) where do you go to level up sword skills? Currently my sword skill is 140 and I'm looking for a good place to solo skillups.

About support jobs, I've been asked to sub Ninja several times...I see that a Ninja has enfeeble spells...but... :lol:

The Black Mage support gives me the most MP, so that's what I went with, but when they ask me to main heal, I go with a White Mage support. I've also seen few Red Mages with Bard(?) as a support job and I wonder how that works out.

Stamp me as a noobie. :wink: Thank you in advanve for whoever can answer all these questions.
 
Red mage needs mnd and int, no chr. A smart rdm will have a set of mnd equip and a set of int equip and swap them depending on whether theyre nuking, using an int based enfeeble or using a mnd based enfeeble.

The elemental staves increase the potency of the corresponding elemental enfeeble, and buff if applicable. For example, an ice staff helps paralyze, earth helps slow, wind helps haste etc. A full set is always useful to have. Ice will also increase the damage of your nukes.

Ninja is only really a viable sub after 74 when you get Utsusemi: NI, and even then, its best used for soloing, you'll want blm or whm for pt situations. BLM gives you aspir and drain, very helpful, and chainspell -> escape is always nice in emergencies. WHM gives you more curing options and status cures. Your'e spot on with when to use them. I wouldnt be fond of a bard sub, it giving no MP, but it wouldn't be terrible, and might be fun to try out.

About skillups, work out what lvl your current sword skill would be a cap at, then go skillup in a place you'd normally xp in a pt there. Then move on as it trails off. Obviously, try not to skillup on mobs people are xping on atm.

Feel free to correct me on any of this people, I've never played rdm personally.
 
Pretty much everything Galkia said is correct, however the elemental staffs are unable to boost buffs. Normal Quality staffs give you a 10% better chance of sticking the spell and a HQ staff gives a 15%. Matching them up with the element of the spell you are casting will increase the likelyhood of the spell sticking, while your MND and INT are what determine the potentcy of the debuff.

Since debuffs have partial resists like nukes, you can see a noticable difference when you hit something with a 10% slow, and a 20% slow and a 30% slow.

General rule is MND for the spells that a WHM would get and INT for the spells that a BLM would get and CHR for BRD songs and BST charming.

I was glad to read that the OP saw something odd with the /NIN suggestions people were giving him. :lol: BLM/WHM/SMN are the most accepted RDM subjobs and in some situations DRK. Keeping your WHM and BLM leveled as subs should generally take priority as those are the most commonly requested subs for a RDM to have available to PT with.
 
there's a rumor that CHR helps stick some Enfeeblings.. but I haven't really realized any thing of my CHR aiding Enfeeblings XD
 
From what I have seen the CHR given on our Body AF is only usefull for Spirits Within. Considering that sword is the given weapon for RDM with our AF it wouldn't suprise me that another peice of AF would have a stat that could support our weak melee skills. Other than that, I have never really seen anything a RDM could do with CHR.
 
Bigboy said:
From what I have seen the CHR given on our Body AF is only usefull for Spirits Within. Considering that sword is the given weapon for RDM with our AF it wouldn't suprise me that another peice of AF would have a stat that could support our weak melee skills. Other than that, I have never really seen anything a RDM could do with CHR.

gloves give dex, so don't speak too soon?

and if your leveling subs early do:


White mage
Black Mage
Dark Knight
Summoner
Ninja

DK for stun
WHM for pts w/ brds
BLM for other pts
Smn for when you need mp
ninja for solo


Keep both dagger and sword skills lvled, buy earth, light, dark, ice, and wind staffs. Earth = slow, light = healing, dark = resting, ice = MB/paralyze, Wind = gravity + aero MB.
 
I'm surprised you are just researching this now at 62 rdm, but I guess now is better than later.
The elemental staves increase the potency of the corresponding elemental enfeeble, and buff if applicable. For example, an ice staff helps paralyze, earth helps slow, wind helps haste etc. A full set is always useful to have. Ice will also increase the damage of your nukes.
Just to expand on that, the elemental staves help most with your resist rates. If resists are not a problem, you are better off with a +mnd/int wand to increase the potency of enfeebles as staffs do little to nothing in comparison for enfeebles. You can read more on that here in a very detailed discussion of it.

Charisma can help you with some ws, but that is fairly irrevelent to a rdm. As for it helping your casting, I have seen and heard nothing of the sort before. Where did you catch wind of a rumor like that?

/Nin sub is worthless for an exping rdm. The enfeeble spells won't land as your skill will be too low. Further you are gaining no useful abilties or spells (dual wield clubs is mute if you are using a staff for resistances). Brd can work for a rdm if there is no brd already in the party 50+ and is best with a taru as they will have less mp issues. A whm or rdm subbing brd in a rdm&whm pair works quite well as they can add a ballad for the mages and madrigal for the melees giving them an extra +15 accu. You will miss out on some of subbing blm (conserve mp, escape) or whms (divine seal, -na spells) abilties though. So it really depends on your party setup.
 
Chichiri97 said:
I've been confused lately about if a Red Mage needs Charisma or Mind...it'd be great if someone can clear up that question.

Also, are elemental staves helpful in enfeebles, according to their stats all they do is "extra" damage of their element. For example a Light Staff does extra light damage at times. It doesn't seem to affect the rate of enfeebles. I can understand the use of an Ice Staff because of the Elemental Magic up. What about Wind Staff? Does it improve the rate that the spell "Choke" sticks or the amount of damage wind based attacks can do? Same question goes for all the other elemental staves.

Currently, I'm only using Light Staff and Dark Staff. I find the majority of the time I'm back-up healing.

Also, since you don't melee in battle (or most Red Mages don't) where do you go to level up sword skills? Currently my sword skill is 140 and I'm looking for a good place to solo skillups.

About support jobs, I've been asked to sub Ninja several times...I see that a Ninja has enfeeble spells...but... :lol:

The Black Mage support gives me the most MP, so that's what I went with, but when they ask me to main heal, I go with a White Mage support. I've also seen few Red Mages with Bard(?) as a support job and I wonder how that works out.

Stamp me as a noobie. :wink: Thank you in advanve for whoever can answer all these questions.


My personal experience:

1. Get all the staves. If you can't afford all at once, I say get ice and wind staves first since you already have dark and light.

2. You really don't need to use sword in an exp PT. You shouldn't have too much problem getting into skillup PTs later on, you're a rdm ^^

3. For subs... blm and whm are a must. Ninja for solo if you want.

4. Good luck, rdm is a challenging job and you can make or break a PT depending on how you do ^^
 
rones you say mad(tab)(enter) gives you +15ACC how do you know this being there is no stat that shows ACC. iv always wondered how people find out the effects on food such as jack o lanterns with 10ACC and 10 EVA how do you find out since there is no stat linked to those?
 
They usually discover those stats through the aid of a parser. I know in the case of the jack o lantern the +10 Accuracy was discovered because parser stats while using that item were the same as if the player had equipped a Life Belt.

Most of the numbers we're getting are coming from Japanese sources, though, translated and filtered down through various NA sites. There are a few JP players who seem to be truly "hardcore" even moreso than some of the "elitist" NA players, and have no qualms about running hours of tests using various parsers to discover hidden stats on foods and items. ;) But do we know that they're truly accurate? Well not really, not unless you run hours of tests yourself- but most of the numbers we see seem to jive with results we get in the game, so noone really questions it much.
 
Ah hmm, just a note on the BRD, later on you can cast the first ballad. Which, if stacked with Refresh gives +4 mp per tick instead of 3. If you do the method where certain jobs [like BLMs] don't get Refresh [Rightly so in some situations, we med MP so fast later on] then the ballad still gets us, helping out over all. The obvious problems would be: Loss of BLM spells, [like escape!] Whm spells [Na, protect, Curaga], MP, and INT/MND boosts. But, you also get a couple handy songs, but its up to you on effective they are. I'd say only use this if your not needed as a WHM or a BLM as well as much as keep MP up [for chains, for example. If your chaining VTs to chain 5-8, MP is critical for Mages, PLDs, DRKs. Besides on VTs, the chances of dying are reduced [though still there, thankfully, you get Cure spells as is from being a RDM]
So, the PTs you can use this are limited. Sadly few do VTs until later, if at all. But if your leveling on something with little AOE to do damage, or has few stat effects [like crabs, who realy only need Dispell for shell/skin, save maybe erase to get rid of the str. down] Then this would be a decent sub. How ever, if the PT needs you more as a WHM or a BLM, go with that just to keep PTs movin.

As to my own personal use of the sub, well... this is what I've seen some RDMs do, as a RDM 54 I haven't had the chance to try this [due to what I've had to level on]. But, the PTs where I've been BLM, its worked pretty well. Also, as a note, some missions/quests involving fights with alliances, chances are theres more than one WHM, so, subbing BRD to keep your PT going might be better. [MIGHT, sometimes I've had WHMs decide they only need to watch theyre own PT] [Also, sorry if this is a bit long, I tend to yammer on alot some times, end point, its pick in choose, Subs tend to make the RDM often]
 
Elite, I gained the numbers from Applepie on ffxionline.com. If you are familiar with the site you will most certainly have seen some his posts. He is quite involved with many JP testing groups to find these hidden numbers in addition to having access to JP game guides which put ours to shame as they gain actual information directly from SE (You can buy the JP game guide here.). In those they actually contain many unkown accurate values. Here is a list of ones he has supplied so far:

/RNG10 : +10 Accuracy/Ranged Accuracy
/RNG30 : +12 (Total 22) Accuracy/Ranged Accuracy
/RNG50 : +13 (Total 35) Accuracy/Ranged Accuracy
Focus (MNK25): +20 Accuracy
Aggressor (WAR45): +25 Accuracy
Sword Madrigal (BRD11): +15 Accuracy (Can be up to +19 with Traversiere +1)
Great Sword Madrigal (BRD51): +25 Accuracy (Can be up to +29 with Traversiere +1)

Applepie can explain things better than I can, so check here.

Lin, you are completly right in that rdm/brd has very specific party setup requirements for it to be pratical. A party of blm, rdm, whm against crabs or crawlers makes an excellent canidate as -na and curagas are not needed much.
 
Rones said:
Elite, I gained the numbers from Applepie on ffxionline.com. If you are familiar with the site you will most certainly have seen some his posts. He is quite involved with many JP testing groups to find these hidden numbers in addition to having access to JP game guides which put ours to shame as they gain actual information directly from SE (You can buy the JP game guide here.). In those they actually contain many unkown accurate values. Here is a list of ones he has supplied so far:

/RNG10 : +10 Accuracy/Ranged Accuracy
/RNG30 : +12 (Total 22) Accuracy/Ranged Accuracy
/RNG50 : +13 (Total 35) Accuracy/Ranged Accuracy
Focus (MNK25): +20 Accuracy
Aggressor (WAR45): +25 Accuracy
Sword Madrigal (BRD11): +15 Accuracy (Can be up to +19 with Traversiere +1)
Great Sword Madrigal (BRD51): +25 Accuracy (Can be up to +29 with Traversiere +1)

Applepie can explain things better than I can, so check here.

Lin, you are completly right in that rdm/brd has very specific party setup requirements for it to be pratical. A party of blm, rdm, whm against crabs or crawlers makes an excellent canidate as -na and curagas are not needed much.

Just to add on the +1 intruments also alter duration of the buff... but if you brd was /sub you will not be able to equip the intruments anyways so my post is basically pointless :?
 
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