Jack Of All Trades: A Guide To Red Mage

I believe the most important part of the basement in Sortie is first hitting the INT wall *correct me if I'm wrong* which I think is 470, as you can see from the tables Izanami posted, after that would be MagicAcc.

I've also been having questions about RDM if anyone can help. I've been testing some sets I've found for Seraph Blade and so far this is what I see.

{ammo="Sroda Tathlum",
head="Leth. Chappel +3",
body={ name="Nyame Mail", augments={'Path: B',}},
hands="Leth. Ganth. +3",
legs={ name="Nyame Flanchard", augments={'Path: B',}},
feet="Leth. Houseaux +3",
neck="Fotia Gorget",
waist="Orpheus's Sash",
left_ear={ name="Moonshade Earring", augments={'Accuracy+4','TP Bonus +250',}},
right_ear="Malignance Earring",
left_ring="Weather. Ring",
right_ring="Epaminondas's Ring",
back={ name="Sucellos's Cape", augments={'MND+20','Mag. Acc+20 /Mag. Dmg.+20','MND+5','Weapon skill damage +10%','Phys. dmg. taken-10%',}},}

200 Seraph Blades Average was 51,933

Mob was Locust Ghost Crab
Buffs - Sams/Wiz, HM, VM, Spirited Etude, Logical Etude, Acumen, Malaise(900 skill geo).

Is this the right range for this WS? Trying to figure out the best buffs/mix of gear to increase DPS in the basement of Sortie and Dyna-D.

Thanks for any help or feedback!

Nyame Head to Legs with Leth +3 feet would have more WS and SC damage, but that would have less DT than the set you're putting up. I have a normal, accuracy, DT set and a SC toggle for all of them. What you put up is a very good DT if you're worried about terrible things hitting you.

My knee jerk on Fotia Neck made me think about how Crocea Mors increases damage so I'm actually going to go test that myself before I just say something that is incorrect. If you value it for the chance to retain TP then idk. Baetyl Pendant for damage (TRASH!), Dls. +2 for accuracy, Warder's Charm for SC damage.

The hill I'm personally willing to die on is changing your Moonshade to 4 MAB for 4 Acc. Regal Earring when at 3000tp.

Edit: Fotia Works better in my normal damage set. Thank you for the fun tip, now to try it on Sanguine Blade/RLB.

There is no "INT Wall". The benefit INT has on damage is a step function that decreases at intervals based on the spell used and the mob's INT. Sortie mob INTs vary widely, and buffs and debuffs affect dINT a lot, so it isn't very helpful to even roughly pick a specific INT value to shoot for unless you know what mob you're calculating for and what buffs/debuffs you're going to have.

Here's an example of Stone V's and Fire V's base damage (with +350 Magic Damage taken as a reasonable estimate) from -100 dINT to 200 dINT:





As you can see, at least at reasonable dINT values and with higher tier spells, the benefits that INT has on the base damage of the spell are pretty close to (though not quite) constant, with "higher" element spells having a lower slope. This causes the percentage increase of adding more INT to gradually go down the more INT you have more than the enemy, meaning the amount of INT you need so that swapping in MAB or MDMG instead beats it will depend extremely heavily on the mob's INT. Higher element spells start off with more base damage but a lower boost from increasing dINT; this results in every element having basically the same damage at very high dINT, but them varying immensely at very low dINT.

As an example, let's take 2 of the basement bosses in Sortie: Dhartok and Gartell. We'll assume the RDM is using Stone V (because that's one of the main weaknesses for both), and has 450 INT and the same +350 MDMG as above.

Dhartok has 363 INT. This puts Stone V at a base damage of 1485. If you add 100 INT (or remove 100 INT from Dhartok with debuffs), that brings Stone V's base damage to 1898, a 27.8% damage increase.

I forget Gartell's exact INT, but it's about 500. This puts Stone V at a base damage of 700, less than half the value against Dhartok. If you add 100 INT (or lower Gartell's INT by 100), that brings Stone V's base damage to 1300, an 85.7% damage increase. Because your dINT is so much lower, adding INT is a much bigger bonus than on Dhartok.

Sortie's bosses have a particularly large INT variance, with a couple of the mobs having among the highest INT in the game, so how much INT helps varies wildly depending on what you're nuking.

Well there is a hard cap on int, but it's something ridiculous like dINT 500 or something, which you'll never get to on anything that matters.

So I just picked Medada's Ring from TVR (INT+10 MAB+10 Macc+20 FC+10%) on one of my characters who generally uses mage/support jobs. Currently I'll probably get more use out of that than any other reward ring, most notably due to regularly using jobs like BLM SCH GEO and nuking on stuff like Sortie and Gaol NMs. I didn't pick it with RDM as my primary motivation, but it's obviously also a nice ring for RDM nukes and INT enfeebles.

Beyond that... how does Medada's compare to Epam. Ring's WSD+5%, for the second ring on Seraph/Sanguine Blade (paired with Weatherspoon or Archon)? I'm assuming Epam still wins, but would be interested in any thoughts on potential utility for MAB helping a bit for damage and a substantial chunk of Macc to avoid resists.

TBH, it's too bad they didn't stick both MND+10 and INT+10 on there. Would have been nice both for MND enfeebles and MND-modified WS.

Hi Guys, is merlinic shalwar (augmented via oseem with MACC , still a must for enfeebles or does empy set +3 is enough to get rid of it?

Only thing from reisen I’m using on enfeeble is Chironic Hose for the Imunnobreak+1

Hi everyone, anybody got experience tanking on RDM/RUN in Sortie in mage setups? With ML45+ of course for Foil.

What's your experience? Which set do you tank with?
I was trying to set up a midcast set for stuff like Flash and Foil

ItemSet 392683

Some notes on this:
1) Can R15 Shield, body and Neck, not huge differences but they add a little bit more of survivability, given their base defensive stats aren't really ideal
2) It's "only" 33% DT and 53% DT. Which is sorta good but I was thinking about lack of shell for Gartell, hmm...

The set grants 75% more enmity. Paired with Animus Augeo with get to 85.
Which could arguably considered 95 if you take into account Accession/Perpetuance Animus Minuo on everybody else.
Would this be enough to keep enmity from the mages? I think so?
Recasts shouldn't be that bad either with 22% gear haste, HasteII and ~40% FC in midcast.


Some some further considerations on this...
A RDM would bring Frazzle3, Haste2 and Refresh3 for everyone. That's good of course, but the loss of Gambit and Rayke would be massive, and even if we consider RDM another (weak) magicburster to add a small amount of further damage, that won't compensate, especially with the nuke wall being there, without Rayke.
I mean, Frazzle3 in itself is not bad of course, but I don't feel like I'm getting frequent resists with high enough ML so... moot point.

So I don't know. It would be fun to have a slightly different setup for to break the boredom of repetitivity, but I don't see a mage group doing 8 bosses runs with a RDM tank. Opinions?

At least you can use Chainspell and Spontaneity for spaming Foil. Might even get some normal Quick Magic procs.

I assume you wouldn't engage and that your 75 count includes Enmity merits?

Unless I miscounted 75 counts gear I displayed in that set.
With a magic setup, that generates way less enmity that other setups, I doubt keeping hate on the rdm would be the main issue.

I'm more concerned about kill speed without gambit and rayke

Only thing to think about really is you’re fighting against tranquil heart.

You bring Gravity II, which is useful on most bosses so long as you don't have trouble with hate. The only other thing you're going to bring is the ability to extend all SCs vs a RUN. That's a longer window, but F and H can really only target 1 element at a time so the nuke wall will definitely creep in and longer windows also means longer times between the nuke wall being reset.

ItemSet 392687

That's 49 Subtle Blow and 5 Subtle Blow II if you're interested in engaging. You can NQ the cape if you want and still be 50DT.

If there is any Auspice to be had then the belt can be changed to anything. The ammo and head can be switched for Bunzi Head and Staunch Talthum +1 if you're ok with -7 enmity on the hat for better TP returns.

It's all DT so you don't need Shell. It has extra HP, which you'll need even with MLs. If you don't value Subtle Blow, then lots of it can be changed.

If you don't have a mode to increase your HP in your sets, you'll find your HP goes all over the place. I generally use the Moonbeam cape or Platinum Moogle Belt to offset it with combine statements.

Wouldn't be relying on curing for enmity in any case so tranquil heart really shouldn't matter.

I wouldn't think you'd have much issue keeping enmity from the SCH/BLM SC+MB kind of magic setups, on RUN you really don't have to do much at all to keep enmity in those setups. Granted, RUN probably has a fair bit better enmity retention than RDM. But in those setups I feel like the gambit/rayke are just too strong to realistically replace in the first place if you're worried about efficiency at all.

If you have COR or RNG closing skillchains for big dmg that's probably pretty rough to keep hate from.

Not sure what setup you want this for, but if using the typical RUN/SCH/SCH/COR/GEO/BLM I think it makes a lot more sense to replace one of the SCH and have a RDM help extend skillchains or something to help preserve stratagems instead, while still bringing those buffs/debuffs ofc. Like you mentioned though, all the mages probably have their sets geared around hitting enough macc without the need for frazzle3 anyway and are unliky to have "low macc" swaps, so it's mostly the buffs I guess.

The RUN will love you for 10+ mins phalanx at least, just coordinate them keeping their phalanx+ gear on when you cast it ^^

Need Excalibur for Fusion property though. Unless you mean to use Empyreal Arrow.
I wonder how the hit rate would be... But I'm not overly concerned. RDM got access to lotsa good Acc+DT pieces, it gets >70 Acc from Composure and you have Distract3 which probably lands nice on all basement bosses so... yeah, acc shouldn't be an issue I guess.

That's nice but I'm still concerned about the lack of Gambit and Rayke, those are huge increases. I don't see my group killing Aita without those honestly.


In light of this maybe it's better to have RDM close range meleeing as an extender to save stratagems. That would be a cool setup but... intense, and way less space for possible errors. Still, something "new" for us to break the boredom.

On F and H only in right elemental mode, unless with Stymie.

Even with Sabo Frazzle3 already up?
And I guess elemental seal makes no difference?

Oh man, TIL that Tranquil Heart only affects healing magic. :D

Frazzle3 seems to greatly improve landing rate on G. I usually have problems landing it without Frazzle III (Frazzle III lands easily tho) and I can't remember missing it with Frazzle III up.

Now Frazzle III landing rate on H and F is floored, so you can only realistically put it up with Stymie.

I haven't tried elemental seal, because I haven't ever fought bosses /blm or blm/

Yep and caps at 500 healing magic skill for 25% reduction outside of the regular 50% reduction cap.

Was wondering what people are offhanding for there Murgleis. I'm split between Sakpata's Sword R20+, Taurant/Naegling , and Daybreak. I also thought about Sequence because of its high base dmg. and Mandau for its 60+ Atk. Let me know your thoughts?

Are you meleeing with Murgleis? Isn't it really terrible? Does the scenario call for Death Blossom specifically?

I don't have one, but I'd assume with Temper II offering so much TA, the AM3 from Murgleis would be really ineffective, and AFAIK Death Blossom does really terrible damage and doesn't scale with TP.

If you are meleeing with it and can't use/don't have another weapon, maybe Gleti's Knife?

Tauret/Naegling offer nothing except minor acc/atk/matk boosts, which if you're using magic WS you won't use Murgleis, and Gleti has more acc and atk.

Mandau attack doesn't apply to mainhand (if it's being wielded in offhand)

Sakpata's sword has...fast cast and DT? Refresh? Seems like a worse version of Gleti's Knife IMO.

Daybreak is good for Seraph Blade, but if you're using Seraph Blade you should never be using Murgleis

Sequence is awful and offers nothing but STP. Your offhand white damage is completely meaningless

My understanding is Death Blossom is a MND based physical weaponskill, so assuming I maximize MND I would then start stacking on STR then Atk.? I have a Murgleis I like to play around with so was just curious what people are using for there offhand.

Some other thoughts:

Thought it would be fun to have a something like Gleti's Knife since it auto's with Murgleis as piercing (I know that DB is still considered slashing WS), but it has no MND and Atk unlike Tauret*. Daybreak I though would be cool since it has 30+ MND but no Atk. Just recently, I thought maybe Croc Mors might be good because of its 180 base damage but I guess that doesn't matter? I wasn't sure.

Murgle as a DPS option isn't all that great unfortunately, blossom has no scaling so like relic it's pretty solid at 1k with R15 but as soon as you go beyond that it loses quickly which for many jobs is pretty common given high MA, and that's before something like say SAM roll which muddies that further. Add in that TP bonus off-hand exists on a job that can actually fix its acc issues depeding on target(distract) gives SB such a hefty lead over other phys sword WS'.

The OaT murg provides also got greatly diminished when rdm got temper then further when temper II got added, will still be a DPS increase just not near as much as it was before those 2 spells.

As for maximizing WS while DB has a higher mnd mod you're still aiming for high str apart from perhaps accessories, and you can drop tp bonus pieces since there's no scaling. As to OH, probably ternion+1 max aug

Your off hand should be determined by what WS you'll be primarily using.

Spamming Death Blossom? Use Gleti's knife it has 30 Attack w/o any augments which is what you'll need more than 30 MND also has 6 TA to help spike damage more

Spamming Savage, or making SCs that close with Savage, or even Seraph and RLB for some 3 step fun times? Use TP Bonus

Spamming CDCs for easy Lights? Back to Gleti's

Having 30-40 TA doesn't negate AM3. Its diminished for sure but you made the weapon go have fun with it. You'll have effectively 50+ TA on your main hand

So, I guess maybe Sakpata's Sword or Tauret would be fun options. It's totally a solo/passion project for me. I typically try to solo stuff with my RDM and having convert as a potion is fun for those situations!

Sure, having TA doesn't negate AM3, but for perspective if you have 40% TA (ML50 RDM with bis gear) then instead of having 20TA/40DA from AM3, you effectively have 12TA/19DA added by your AM3. Sure, it's not nothing, but you also wasted 3k TP to get it and have to refresh it every 3 minutes, by using a weapon skill with zero TP scaling and subpar damage; it's not like you get the AM3 for free.

Hadn't considered the MND of the offhands, that's maybe not totally insignificant. I'd recommend looking at the DPS calculator program that's floating around and comparing builds. My guess is that the TA/acc/atk/crit from the Gleti would out-do the extra WSD from having MND in offhand, but that's just a guess and possibly affected by bias. I tend to lean towards getting WS off faster rather than improving the WS themselves, at least when it comes to Offhands (obvious exceptions being Daybreak or TP bonus where the WSD boost is massive)

R15 Murg was a blast for spamming sanguine blade or savage blade, but then Naegling and Crocea Mors took their cake and ate it too. It was really good for 1h builds before we got Malignance if you were /SCH for Breakga in Dyna D. Beating mobs to death with your MND migrated to Black Halo, which does very well if you have the accuracy for it.

It's still a great piece for m.acc and worth dropping tp as a convert macro piece if you have one.

When I was using it for Death Blossom, I'd pick the heaviest offhand to boost damage because TP overflow does nothing. At the time it was Sequence, but now it would be Maxentius. From my understand of how dual wield works, it averages the delays of both of your hands and make each hand give the same TP return. The slower offhand actually increases the tp returns of your mainhand that has an outrageous amount of multi attack. That way you can more easily reach 1000+ TP in WS+2 rounds instead of WS+3 rounds and can just spam it out non stop.