Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better!: RDM Guide

Argisto I've got a very naive question that I've been holding since your very useful Frazzle 3 test.
Why do you use a spell cast on a target to verify its level?
Can't you use one of the many available addons and use /check to verify exactly its level?

It's one of the data available in packets, even though it's not normally displayed on clients (only the Very Easy / Very hard etc message gets displayed, but this message uses the information contained in the packets that get sent to the client when you perform a /check)

I'm sure there's something I'm missing here but I can't say what

I do not use Windower.

I'm new to Mlvl RDM. I've set myself a goal of trying to solo Odin in Stygian Pact. I can solo it on THF at VE but want to try higher levels on RDM (but will lose TH of course). Normal would be my aim, anything higher a real bonus.

I enjoy making up the sets but looking at the last set for Enspell damage I have some n00by questions:

How important is the Orpheus sash? That piece is out of my league right now. I have the gil for it on my server, but it would clean me out.

Also I see there are pieces with Sword enspell damage on them. I have seen this before, but does this work with other weapons? I have the Aern dagger and Aern dagger +1. I notice the posted set is also using daggers. Just confused me a bit.

Apart from the O Sash that set is very manageable for me, as I am done with Lilith. Currently working on my Empy set, but will only be able to reach +2 realistically as I don't get to do Sortie very often. But when I do it's usually around 25K a run.

EDIT: Also my relic pieces will be +1 max for the forseeable, as I've not unlocked RDM in Dyna. Will this be an issue?

This is a medium term goal for me as I want to take advantage of Cornelia before she depops :p She will help enormously I would guess?

Important but not vital.
I soloed Odin D (and that's several years ago) without it, easily.
Arguably having a good macc/duration set for Silence could prove being more important. You truly want to stick that Silence fast and make it last as much as possible.
Remember that once per fight you can use Stymie, and you can use a special silence-sticking set when using Stymie, focusing exclusively on duration and ignoring macc.

Head and Feet for sure are gonna be important. But for Normal Odin I'm sure you can do without.
Legs are also important if you want to use them for enspell damage (need specific merits for that), I did my Odin kills without them.

Definitely does help a lot!



The flow of the fight is pretty easy.
Might take you a few wipes to learn how to do it but I'm no uberskilled player and managed to do this fight easily years ago before Master Levels and before Odyssey and Empy+3 boons, so I'm sure things are gonna be even easier now.

Sechs nails down a lot of your other questions quite well, no sense in re-inventing the wheel when one is sitting on the front porch ;)

But this little bit is just some terminology clarification and overall familiarity vs. specific rdm-based needs of information, so here goes:

1. "sword enspell" has zero do to with sword specifically, its just the combined words for the translated to english terminology for "enspell damage"- the weapon type is irrelevant, it works on anything.

2. the Aern Dagger and +1 versions are just super accessible 1dmg, low delay weapons ideal for when in a fight where you want 0 physical damage dealt so that all damage can be TP-free enspell damage paired with zeros. There are other options in 1dmg weapons that work quite fine (Ceremonial Dagger comes to mind).

3. +damage gear, of any form outside of the raw enhancing skill, must be equipped at the time the swing is dealt. The only thing that matters at the time of casting the Enspell are Enhancing Magic Skill and Duration. Things like Hollow Earring/etc that apply direct +enspell are calculated at time of swing, as are weather bonuses like Orpheus's Sash.


----Unrelated to Enspells----

RDM is a job that's super-dependent on its JSE gear, and gains a great deal from it. Its completely understandable early on that you can't just +3 everything overnight and be done...but +3 JSE gear should be a primary goal long-term for you RDM. I know its slow and expensive, but don't be looking for what to avoid +3'ing, just look for what should get done first.

On top of what everyone else has said so far. When I was doing all my Odin fights on my RDM, I also made engaged sets that broke the DW cap. Doesn't matter since your not getting TP anyways, it really sped up the fights for me. Be something to keep in might while Cornellia is around

Even when Cornelia is not around, for the purpose of getting closer to the attack delay cap when not capping magic haste which, spoiler spoiler, you're not capping solo without Cornelia.

(BRD trusts would allow that but they die pretty fast on D and VD fights)

So yeah, useful in general but not at the cost of sacrificing too many defensive gear. You really need that stuff even for other solo RDM BCs like Shinryu (which is a bit different since there you're not aiming for zero damage and riding enspell damage exclusively, but still... I'm sure you get what I mean)

Thanks for all the input guys.

What would you suggest for the neck piece? I'm not dropping 45M on a duelist's torque +2. And I wouldn't get it augmented any time soon anyway. Something to aim for medium tern for other RDM stuff ofc.

The MAcc of course helps without any augments. Does this help the Enspell dmg on melee attacks? What else would you suggest there? Does MAcc trump double/multi attacks on pieces for this particular fight?

Ehhh uhm, Sanctity Necklace maybe? It's multipurpose, all jobs, bit of everything and it's free!

So wondering about BLU vs RDM in general.

I've been working on both (still haven't got malignance but farming JSE), still on Jhakri+2/Ayanmo+2 and Naeg/Thib. BLU has 1200jp, RDM has none.

So far the pros and cons are as follows, but would be interested in hearing more from others since I'm still very mid/low geared.

BLU Pros

• High damage with dual wield sword right off, without also needing a subjob like NIN or DNC.

• Has a few unique curing options e.g. winds of promy, has erase with geist wall

• Flexible spells for different occasions and AOEing

• Unique Tenebral Crush defense down

• Probably doesn't need as many gearsets as RDM in every situation? e.g. it won't need a set for phalanx specifically, or barspells, it'll probably need a TP/WS/buffing/magic-fruit/MAB set.

RDM Pros

• Though it has no flexible trait slotting, it already has spells to buff its defense and attack such as phalanx, protect, barspells, shell, haste, gain-???, temper, en-elements. Combined with composure, you won't need to be refreshing buffs every few minutes.

• Has all those enfeebling spells

• 
  

• Has more curing options and sets that cater for it. Also can wield shield for defense and seems like more is available to cater for spell interrupt resistance.

• Can cover all elements without needing to slot them in as necessary

I've missed a lot more. This is specifically for soloing / lowman mind you. I'm sure in endgame RDM works better since it has its enfeebling and can act as a full on support for parties, etc.

But yeah would like to know how RDM vs BLU might've been to you guys if you've played both and how you feel about them.

My current Frazzle/Distract set at ML23 (similar to guide but missing Waist and Snotra Earring, Empys at +2, Neck at +1 and Stikini Rings NQ) results in 436 MND with Naegling+Daybreak, 406 MND with just Naegling (no weapon change), 575 Enfeebling Magic skill, +53% Enfeebling Potency.

I will be getting Snotra Earring in a few days after collecting more Domain Points, but I'm not close to getting the Obstinate Sash (would need to break some RP Amp charges to get it soon, and it doesnt seem that good if it's not augmented) and I'm thinking of replacing it with Luminary Sash or Rumination Sash. +2 Empys will become +3 when I get more Starstones. I've only gotten one so far and used it for feet (WSD+12% is quite nice lol), and HQ Stikini Rings are a insanely expensive atm. Same with +2 necks.

My main concern is landing Frazzle/Distract in Sortie Basement , especially the bosses (havent done any yet, but may do some soon). Not sure how to far do I need to go towards the BiS set in the guide from where I am right now.

In general you can Stymie Frazzle III 2 bosses a run. Distract is fairly easy to land (can always equip Ulr for more MACC). I have rare resist when trying to land Distract III in my enfeebling set:

I play them both and I like it. Luckily you play FFXI which means you too can play them both!

Lets correct some misconceptions in your post:

• Cures - Both BLU and RDM have one Cure set, with Magic Fruit being more efficient than Cure IV. As a RDM I almost never cast anything other than a Cure IV.
  

• 
  

  spicychai said: »

  Unique Tenebral Crush defense down
  Tenebral Crush is not unique (it doesn't stack with Amror Break, Agnon, Tourbillion, etc...) and Tourbillion is a lot better. Dia III is the same amount of defense reduction as Tenebral but also stacks with all other defense down effects.
  

• 
  

  spicychai said: »

  Also can wield shield for defense and seems like more is available to cater for spell interrupt resistance.
  Nope. When I play RDM it is 90% of the time as /NIN or /DNC. Shields are not for defense, at least for a RDM and should be viewed as stat sticks. Spell interruption is its own set and you need to go all in with a 102 SIRD or not bother at all (stick with Aquaveil). SIRD sets apply to BLU as well but Carcharian Verve is normally enough
  

Each have their niches, such as Cleave for BLU and 0 TP feed for RDM. Solo wise, I generally prefer BLU. Lowman situations are predicated by what other jobs are with me. If we have a DPS job, RDM, if not BLU.

Wow this is interesting, thanks!

The applications of BLU and RDM at endgame are a little different too, if that matters to you. BLU can cruel joke segments for much better farming than a normal job can do in odyssey. BLU is very useful for some of the worst Odyssey NMs because of TP denial from spells, BUT RDM goes to almost every bad fight because their job is to lock down adds. RDM/DRK is a meta job combo for Sortie runs that fight Aminon, BLU is probably a stronger solo than RDM for early runs of Sortie against Dhartok, though both are much better than most so it's a good choice either way.
--
The line about shields is mostly true, but if you decide to gear RDM with a Sacro Bulwark with some kind of hate spell like flash or stun, you can easily function as a tank in lowman situations. Sacro Bulwark is the only size 3 shield you have access to for actual damage mitigation and is significantly better than a size 1 or 2. Your damage will be heavily impacted because your 1h physical setups without a tp bonus sword are bad compared to dw options and you shouldn't be using magical WSs on anything that you need to keep hate on for a while because they don't generate enmity well. This is very niche and doing it at a high level requires you to build things like moonbeam capes and moogle platinum belt into all your sets so you aren't constantly losing HP.

On the other hand, BLU can be a very decent tank in low man situations with a lot fewer trade offs. Lots of hate spells, lots of a white wind and winds of promy. It's just not popular because most things can die fast enough with DPS specs to not worry about a tank.
--
A fully geared RDM is 3 full Wardrobes+. A fully geared BLU is less than 2. I 100% drink the koolaid on RDM but also enjoy BLU.

You forgot RDMs best trait.... 30-37% Triple Attack!

They're both useful honestly, RDM in the current game is just generally more useful.

Blu can't reduce a mob's evasion/magic evasion by 200+, can't reduce their movement speed by 60+%, slow them down or paralyze them to the same degree.

40% TA at ML 48 with max gear for RDM

BLU has subduction and it's completely good for a gravity 2 substitute and is AoE.

RDM pro:
- is RDM

BLU con:
- blu stinks

I mean they can learn bad breath and stinking gas. So probably.

Pro (for both):

Red Mage\Blue Mage or Blue Mage\Red Mage = Purple Mage

Just wear malignance


It is actual in-game, canon lore that blue mages stink quite a bit.

What are the chances of immunobreak happening and are they dependent on mob level, and different for NM vs mobs?

How can we know what immunobreak chance +15% from group 2 merits would actually add? Is it base rate +15%, or base rate *1.15?

These are some great questions!

There has been some testing regarding this. To answer your first few questions, it depends. The chance for an Immunobreak depends on
your total Enfeebling magic skill, not total magic accuracy. Immunobreak chance also varies from enemy to enemy, and even varies between each Immunobreakable status effect on the same enemy. It also differs between old/new areas.

As for your last question, Immunobreak merits are added to your Immunobreak rate. Immunobreak chance augments were tested while they were still on the relic gloves and were also found to be added to your Immunobreak rate. This needs to be retested since the merit augments were switched to the relic boots.

Feel free to review the links below:

Dev post stating that Immunobreak chance relies on Enfeebling magic skill.

Confirmation of Immunobreak chance relying on Enfeebling magic skill.

Immunobreak merit point/Relic augment value testing.

Some Immunobreak resistance observations.

Hard to read the poor translations. tl;dr any point in meriting Immunobreak or not known? Thinking of going 5/5 Macc 5/5 Enfeeb duration. Currently 5/5 duration and 5/5 immuno.

Enf duration is a must imho.
My personal take on the other merits is:

1) 5/5 Macc - can be useful in theory and synergyzes well with Enf duration (since you're gonna cast most enfeebles with Relic hat). How much is that +25 (bit more with hat) gonna make a difference for you? Especially at high ML I feel like 25 macc is hardly gonna be a difference. I feel on stuff where you have a hard time sticking debuffs you're gonna fish for immunobreaks to efficiently land them. Macc is incredibly important, but when you have BiS gear and high ML I feel +25 macc might not be a noticeable difference for those debuffs you're having a hard time to land

2) 5/5 Enha duration - This is a much weaker choice, but I personally love it because getting BiS enha duration gives me ***. It's QoL but hardly makes a difference in endgame.

3) 5/5 Immunobreak - There are some fights where Immunobreak are incredibly important, so you'd be leaning to say that this is a very helpful category, but unable to exactly quantify what that +15% Immunobreak chance really does, I don't know what to say

4) 5/5 Spell damage - Niche use, can be nice for some solo strat fights like Odin and Shinryu

5) 5/5 physical Accuracy - Worthless, imho. RDM gets a lot of acc in general thanks to Composure (that alone is ~70 acc?) and Malignance.

REDMAGE THE MASTER JOB OF 2024

enf duration/immunobreak is my go-to once you get a solid macc set, much rather have more immunobreak procs if its something you have to drop a few tiers to land

Realistically I kinda concur.
Granted Macc works on everything, Immunobreak only on stuff that can immunobreak.

But as I said before, I get the strong feeling that once you have high ML and very good gear, that ~25 macc is hardly gonna make or break for stuff you have a hard time to land.

Would love to hear more opinions on that though.

I have mine at 0/5 with the rationale that in order for me to benefit from it, whatever I'm fighting would need to survive just long enough for my un-merited debuffs to wear, but not survive so long that they would still wear if merited; else I'm still having to recast debuffs anyway. It's just not a situation I find myself in often

Edit: Wandered out to go test my durations. Thinking I will revisit my merits to better line up with saboteur recast

I love the qol of enhancing duration though, considering the sheer number of buffs RDM keeps up at any given time