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

I'm not seeing a lot of information about the Sword prime weapon for RDM. Is it any good? Or are you better off making a different REMA for damage?

Depends on the content in question. As a general rule, RDM's best REMA for damage is Naegling. If you're solo self-skillchaining, the prime is probably very nice. Might be hard to attack cap against difficult enemies as a solo RDM though, which makes the PDL insignificant, though the skillchain properties mean not using ***-tier WS in your chain.

My $0.02 as a guy without a prime sword

https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/30626/the-beast-within-a-guide-to-blue-mage/461#3754095


What that means in practice? Damage on it goes up pretty fast, but it maxes out significantly below Savage/Black Helo because you can't min max it that well by pushing WSC with MLs, Gain spells etc.

Arguably Maxentius, especially in WS wall scenario in group, but even without WS wall, with max buffs, MAxentius has higher dps. Naegling pulls ahead if the attack from it makes a difference.

Also if you want to SC i ussually pull out ullr to go with either naegling or maxentius.

Su5 obviously if you want to go with elemental ws or enspells.

I did make mythic for magic acc and its kind of cool what it does for convert not that i actually use that much and can't exactly recomend it given the cost and effort.

Personally, while solo, I use Excalibur and do three steps to kill most things that I fight. This is for mobs like RoE 4 and other mobs that you are doing solo. I find 3 steps do a good amount of DMG and is very satisfying.

Maxentius and Naegling when you are are in PT / WS spam content. For me Maxentius is normally the pick here.

So far the Prime is mostly been an idle piece for me, and it has the advantage of having 35 MND on it, which is the highest for that slot. Maybe once we work out better WS sets for it I will find more use.

Other weapons
Murgleis is nice for max magic acc, and of course convert, but I seldom use it for combat

SU5 if you are doing mostly magic dmg. Sanguine Blade can be really nice in certain situations.

Mpu and Mandau I very rarely on RDM

Sequence I never use, and Almace I am to lazy to make.

You missing out so much potential, thats the best one!.

haha I knew someone was going to say this...

My go to, for Limbus especially, has been Neagling, Diamond Aspis and Ullr. Using RDM/BLM for all of this for crowd control and MB boost damage.

Savage Blade> Chant du Cygne (Distortion)> Empyreal Arrow (Fusion)>
Savage Blade (Light)> Burst or CDC (Light)> Burst

This has for the most part been great for mowing down most mobs quickly. Using Enspell 2 and Burn to boost what ever burst damage im doin.

What is the best multistep SC (and with what weapons) for soloing Kei?

Today was my first try, but I am foreseeing that I will struggle with this fight...

And do I need to use MEVA gearset also for WS to avoid getting slowed?

With Excalibur you can do a five-step double light. I can't speak to soloing Kei, but that floors most things.

Savage Blade > CDC > Knights of Round > Savage Blade > Knights of Round.

Edit: there's also Black Halo > True Strike > Black Halo > Black Halo > Realmrazer for a five-step light for a four-step Fragmentation.

3 step is fine imo, can do empyreal > sb > cdc if no excal for a steady stream of damage, as if youre soloing you may not have the buffs to push for 4-5.

Ws doesnt need meva afaik, just want higb meva/barstone for slow spikes

Here is a video of one of Lute's Kei fights if you would like a more visual reference. This was done almost 4 years ago now just before master levels were introduced.

Burning Blade>Flat Blade>Savage Blade>CDC>Magic Burst was used for damage. They don't mention which weapons were equipped but are most likely Crocea path A (you can see auto-attacks from main hand are roughly double when "Chance of Double Damage" is triggered) and Gleti's Knife.

There isn't a "best" skillchain for this. It just comes down to playstyle, how comfortable you are with the fight and the equipment you have available to you.


Unfortunately, RDM does not get access to this weapon skill (^.^;)

Dang, Making Crocea path A for, I imagine, just this and maybe another fight, is an investment I am not ready to make.

Could be wrong but I don't think you need path A, at least not if you chose diamond aspis. With that thing you can multi step and even squeeze a spell in between steps and still catch the next SC, seen a video where it's been done with dispel and excalibur main hand on a crab IIRC.

Thank you all.

I was just thinking today about using Diamond Aspis too (not just for the SC prolongation, but also for the +30 MEVA) and go /WAR for provoke because I have issues keeping hate.

And after I saw your answers, I re-cheked Lute's videos and found one more recent (3 month ago) where he uses Diamond Aspis and /SAM for Store TP and Flash Nova.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXDEuYDewd4&t=13s

I think he is using: Burning Blade > Fast Blade > Flash Nova > Flash Nova > Flash Nova

Hello all.. I was wondering if anyone has a good stun set for rdm/drk.

I'm using full Macc. I don't know about Dark Magic Skill though..

Murgleis/Ammurapi
Ullr
Viti. Chapeau +4
Atrophy Tabard +3
Leth. Ganth. +3
Chironic Hose with Macc+41 in augments
Viti. Boots +4
Dls. Torque +2
Acuity Belt +1
Lethargy Earring +1
Regal Earring
Stikini Rings +1
Aurist's Cape +1

It depends on the purpose of the Stun set, but I prefer to cap Fast Cast in my set. Chances are if you're looking for stun to be effective, you want it ready asap as well. I'd swap out Murg for Crocea and use AF+4 Hat over Relic+4. Relic has far less magic accuracy than Artifact anyways, plus Artifact synergizes with Regal Earring for the bonus. Whatever magic accuracy you lose from Crocea over Murg is practically recovered with that change. You gain 44 Fast Cast, 2 over the cap with native traits and whatever the difference of magic accuracy is. IMO a very worthwhile adjustment. However, if you are trying to retain TP without the weapon or ranged slot, then consider using a Fast Cast cape like JSE or Unity, and then get the other 10% from accessories slots (Malignance Earring, Kishar Ring, Sapience Orb).

Null accessories might be worth swapping into (neck, cape), but the spell is already highly accurate so it's probably overkill. You definitely don't need JSE neck in that slot though since it's far less magic accuracy than Null.

Quick Draw and Enfeebling Magic Part II: How it actually works

Earlier this year I posted some findings regarding Quick Draw's effect on Enfeebling Magic. In this entry I wanted to explore if/how other types of magic that inflict the same negative status effects are affected.

Some very old testing linked previously found that Filamented Hold was affected by Quick draw. I went out to Ceizak Battlegrounds as a RDM/BLU along with a COR main and did some testing on Twigtrip Lapinions. Like previous testing, I cast Blue Magic on the rabbit and used an Absorbing Shield to transfer its slow effect to myself and checked potency by casting Impact with only Twilight Cloak equipped and noted recast times. Just as a refresher, Impact recast time is 2:00. As a job master RDM with 38% native Fast Cast Impact recast time is 1:37.

Filamented Hold

Impact Recast	+ Earth Shot	+ Earth Shot x2
2:01	2:10	2:11

Sprout Smack

Impact Recast	+ Earth Shot	+ Earth Shot x2
1:51	2:01	2:10

As can be seen above, both Filamented Hold and Sprout Smack are affected by Quick Draw with similar increases per shot up to a certain threshold similar to previous testing.

Next up, Summoning Magic. Same test as before but changed to RDM/SMN and used Leviathan's Slowga.

Slowga

Impact Recast	+ Earth Shot	+ Earth Shot x2
2:06	2:11	2:11

Once again, we can see Slowga is affected by Quick Draw with potency being boosted up to a certain threshold.

Next, I did some testing with my buddy Gessho. I let the trust cast Hojo: Ni and used Earth Shot as RDM/COR.

Hojo: Ni

Impact Recast	+ Earth Shot	+ Earth Shot x2
1:56	2:05	2:11

Again, similar increases per shot up to the threshold.

Now, how about negative status effects inflicted by means other than spells? I acquired a Diabolos's Pole (Slow) and Blind Dagger (Blind) for some more testing. For Blind Dagger samples, I set a baseline equipset with an accuracy value of 1080 and checked accuracy changes with /checkparam.

Diabolos's Pole

Impact Recast	+ Earth Shot	+ Earth Shot x2
1:52	2:01	2:11

Blind Dagger

Accuracy(Potency)	+ Dark Shot	+ Dark Shot x2
1065(-15)	1055(-25)	1050(-30)

The potency increases from Quick Draw can be seen to enhance the additional effects from these weapons in similar ways when compared to spells that were cast via different magic types. From the recast times listed above it can also be inferred that the Slow effect from Diabolos's Pole is a slightly higher x/1024 value than that of Sprout Smack. I also checked some affected spells that did not reach the potency threshold with two shots during this and previous testing and verified that no further potency increases were found beyond two shots.

What does all of this data mean? In my assessment, Quick Draw does not seem to care how a negative status effect is inflicted. Instead, only the potency of the applicable negative status effect is checked and enhanced if possible up to a certain threshold. It is very likely that the effects of Blind, Slow and Paralyze from all sources are affected by Quick Draw as long as potency falls below a certain threshold. In terms of game mechanics, it seems to work like this:

-Blind accuracy down potency is enhanced by -10 per shot up to a cap of -30 accuracy, caps after two shots.
-Slow potency is enhanced by ~10% per shot up to a cap of ~35% slow, caps after two shots.
-Paralyze potency is increased by ?% per shot up to a cap of ?% (It is very unlikely that I will attempt to find these values due to the sheer amount of time needed to accrue enough samples to distinguish between single digit percentages)

Given how these potency increases seem to operate, I am suspicious of the Quick Draw increases for elemental debuffs and find the different values between first and second shots listed on BG a little odd. I'll leave that for some other time.

Edit: I'll make changes to the Quick Draw page this weekend when I have time.

Quick Draw and Enfeebling Magic Part III: Paralyze Enhancement


So, it turns out I was lying to myself.

I went out to Sih Gates as RDM/COR and cast Paralyze on level 127 Apex Jagils (222 MND, monster stats here) at different potencies and number of Quick Draw shots. Using an Absorbing Shield, I transferred the effect to myself. Then, I repeatedly cast Barfire and recorded the results. Given prior testing, we know that each shot will increase Paralyze potency a certain percentage up to a certain threshold.

Paralyze

Potency	Successful Casts	Paralyzed	Total
182 MND	500 (93.80...%)	33 (6.19...%)	533 (100%)
182 MND + Ice Shot	514 (90.01...%)	57 (9.98...%)	571 (100%)
182 MND + Ice Shot x2	486 (85.41...%)	83 (14.58...%)	569 (100%)
222 MND	462 (85.55...%)	78 (14.44...%)	540 (100%)
222 MND + Ice Shot x2	407 (74.67...%)	138 (25.32...%)	545 (100%)
262 MND	416 (75.77...%)	133 (24.22...%)	549 (100%)
262 MND + Ice Shot x2	401 (70.35...%)	169 (29.64...%)	570 (100%)

While there are not enough samples per data set to determine the exact percentage, it should be enough to make the patterns between them fairly obvious. Ice Shot appears to increase the effect of paralysis by 5% per shot up to a maximum of 30% potency.

Edit: Fixed table header

with 2 shots having an cumulative effect on other debuffs I wonder if it also applies to dia with 2x shot

pretty certain they explicitly said after the dia/bio changes that they will only go up 1 rank

I'm guessing paralyze has the same issue as the other enfeebles wherein a full strength sabo para II + enfeeb potency gear hits some kind of cap where quickdraw does nothing?

That's correct. When comparing the potency effect between the 222 MND/222 MND + Ice Shot x2 data sets (about +10% increase to 25%) to the increase between the 262 MND/262 MND + Ice Shot x2 data sets (about +5% increase to 30%) we can reasonably deduce that the threshold for paralysis potency enhancement is 30%. For any paralysis effect over 30% Quick Draw will do nothing.

Thank you. Also, am I misremembering the testing or does para proc rate have its own nm nerf of around 50%?

This is something I was planning on looking into at some point. These sources I have come across (Source #1, Source #2, Source #3) came to the conclusion that the Paralyze line spells cap at 50% on normal monsters and around 33% on NM's. If anyone has a link regarding a 50% paralysis cap on NM's I'd be interested in reading it.

Sorry, it seems I was definitely misremembering. Somehow I had it in my head that nms halved the efficacy of whatever degree of para you could reach altogether. So if you had a 50% rate, nms would only have 25%. The testing you linked makes it clear that's not the case. It does suggest that if you meet the +40 mnd threshold on para ii for an nm, that enfeebling potency gear does nothing though, which is rather unfortunate.

Those sources do not disprove the existence of an overall 50% cap on paralysis effects from all sources for NM's as the effects of the Paralyze line spells and Geomancy are considered separate effects that stack. Source #1 established 100% paralysis is possible on normal monsters with Paralyze II+Geo-Paralyze. Source #3 only tested certain spells individually on NM's to find potency caps. Unfortunately, I do not have any data to give a definitive answer for an overall cap.