Melee Gear

first i know lol rdm melee, but im looking for for gear for my 90 rdm for when im playing with my sword.

Bookmark it, use it, love it.

You're on your own for an offhand

Sad that RDM can't wear Agasaya's Collar, or it'd be damn sexy for lolRDMmelee.

Replace w/ Torque i guess then

Offhand could be Joyeuse, Justice Sword, Double attack or 2-4 magians swords.

I'd probably swap in fencer's ring over mars's if activating it is practical.

If CDC isn't an option Twilight Dagger, Mandau (herp) or Blau Dolch are gonna be your best options for abyssea.

Here's a cheap, easy and decently efficient AH gear starting point I'm working with at the moment. I don't know what kind of endgame access you have, so here's just a basic setup I'm tossing out there.



I'm fairly clueless about a lot of the new Abyssea rare/ex gear, so I'll tell you this is not the best build by a longshot, but I have fun with it. Parties won't take a melee rdm seriously anyway, so just gear what's fun. Rings and earrings vary greatly depending on mood lol. No, I don't have a Joyeuse(I know, I suck); I only get to play maybe 2 or 3 hours at a time, and that makes it damn near impossible to try and claim a NM with a 24hour repop.

The Shamshirs vary greatly too, as I'm working on multiple sword trials for str/att, m.att, and finishing a m.acc sword tomorrow.

Get some haste up in that son. First 14% is easy as pie.

I knew I was forgetting something lol. The spell haste is usually good enough for me when soloing. I've been doing nothing but magian trials for a long time, and all those mobs are EP. If I were to do anything more serious(that actually allowed a melee rdm) then having some haste gear would be ideal.

Any situation where you're swinging haste gear is ideal.

Doesn't have to be anything expensive even basic haste gear like walahra turban and NQ dusk gloves will take you a long way.

I understand the importance of haste, and in no way shape or form am I arguing against it, but doesn't anyone else find it a bit sad that one singular attribute is so good, that any and all other gear(a vast majority in the game) gets completely tossed aside in favor of it? So many interesting builds and ideas get thrown in the trash over 1% more haste. It's like crack. I can just see this convo in the next year or so:

A: "I have a head piece that gives +15 to every stat, Acc +30 and Att +30, Store TP +20, auto regen and refresh!"

B: "That's gimp. Get a turban. Haste rules"

Is Chant du Cygne actually any good? I see it's a crit WS, but I still don't expect it to beat Evisceration.

Also for OP

What I've been using for skilling up:

TP

5acc augment on the mantle, 3% haste on legs.

Evisceration

Ugly as sin, I don't know what to get for body/head/hands (Tarasque mitts are the only AH-able option and none were in stock when I checked)

Legs should be Tumbler Trunks, not sure between DEX+4 on Goliard feet vs 10 attack on Ogre or Foragers vs Nifty mantle

Completely and utterly sad...

"Who cares if you can double your DMG output per hit, get haste so it takes two hits for the same DMG as the original one instead."

Is a silly way to do things.

You're completely missing the point. If there was a piece of armour that could double your damage per hit, you can bet your *** we'd all be wearing it (provided it didn't have some horrendous amount of slow on it or something). But as it stands, nothing comes close to haste in terms of potency, not to mention the increasing returns from stacking it.

Haste is not the end all be all of stats, for example, sacrificing a couple of points of haste is often worth it for a piece with store tp on it if it removes a hit off of your build. However, it's certainly one of, if not the, most powerful stat in the game, and most pieces don't provide enough other stats to be worth losing out on something with haste on.

Well, your set was mainly taking advantage of attack. Which on an EP mob, you'd be closer to capped attack anyway. So the more and more you stack attack on that build, the less useful it becomes. Same with accuracy, if you're already at 95% accuracy, adding more is a complete waste.

So, if you want an attack build for magian trials, then cap attack for EP mobs, then start adding other stuff. Don't overcap it, it doesn't do you any good.

In the same sense, if you keep stacking above true 25% haste, you're being wasteful as well. There is never a reason to overcap unless a piece is offering just too much good stuff to pass up on.

The reason RDM melees get a bad name is because they usually wear complete trash. There's no reason for RDM to suck as a melee in abyssea with the right gear. With the right atmas and gear, a melee BLM could easily outparse a SAM without atmas or good gear.


There are always attack and accuracy foods if you haven't reached cap on those yet. You can't cap haste with a food.

Ah, I see. I'm not clear on attack caps and whatnot. Where can I find info on caps so I know when I'm stacking too much?

And yeah, that set is pretty trashy, mostly cheap AH stuff. I honestly just grabbed at stuff with lots of att so I could do more dmg with each sword swing. I was honestly oblivious to their being a cap.

It's hard to tell. Harder to tell than haste and accuracy. If you eat an attack food with no other stats and notice your damage doesn't increase per hit, or if it increases very little, then it's likely you're at or right at cap.

I definitely agree with you there. So far, on EP mobs my sword hits do between 50-145 dmg per hit. I'll try att/str food and see if it changes up any. I'm still tooling around making a Savage Blade macro, stacking str and mnd, still getting wildly different results; with 100 tp, it'll sometimes do 200 dmg, sometimes 770. There's gotta be a consistent middle ground somewhere.

I haven't seen it personally, but from what I hear, it's up there with blade: hi and victory smite.

Alrighty, took your advice and am seeing some better results. Here's what I'm rolling with at the moment. Again, rings change a lot and mine are honestly gimp, so they're blank:



Obviously if you can afford the +1 versions of the Dusk items, those would be better, but this is what I tp in for now. Combined with the Haste spell, I notice a nice increase in swing speed. I haven't noticed much of a change in damage, so I must've been somewhere close to attack cap with all the ogre gear I had on before.

Get a better WS set for it then, Even Evis can do better than that in mostly Death Blossom Gear since I don't have many dex pieces.

To above: look into getting tiphia sting if acc uncapped/Smart Grenade if acc uncapped, Astrolabe but the drop rate is a ***.

Obviously try to aim for the gear Tiger suggested though, as far as I can tell it was pretty nailed on for the best melee RDM gear.

I will say though that you should do your utmost to get a Swift Belt, it's no longer a challenge to get anymore just have to spend the time building fomor hate and hope it drops.

Nashira legs is certainly something to stride for as it is the only RDM leg piece with haste aside from the ASA legs if you choose the haste augment.

I won't state the case for a RDM melee set as i've never gone out of my way to make one, first and foremost if I want to do something solo I prefer to do it on PLD.

Haste and movement speed is a nice combination for ASA legs, unless you already have Wlegs.

I'll find out about CDC on RDM in a few days, currently 12/30 coins. WoE is surprisingly enjoyable so far.

OK, got retardedly lucky in WoE (2 pouches in place boxes gave me 9 and 10 coins) and finished it this morning.

Running RR/VV/A&O atma, did a party in bat country (tahrongi canyon). Bison steak.

Average CDC, 2841 with a high of 4969
Average DB, 1265 with a high of 1956

I'm really pleased with this. My set for it is pretty shitty, too.

A "Melee" set should be really simple, however you have to consider all ends, TP gear, WS gear, Enfeebling Gear, Enhancing Gear etc.

First and foremost is weapon itself, theres alot of times I see rdms running around with swords like Wise Wizards Anelace or other swords, commonly in af gear/mp gear. people like these are what makes lolrdmmelee exist.

I prefer dagger over sword personally, Evisceration has always done a good deal of dmg for me. Blau is still probably the best choice with have that is easy to come by, and is more affordable then it was back in the 75 days.

If you really want to go sword, Obviously Magian's Trials is where its at. A fully completed fire path or thunder path sword would be your best bet. You could also go WS sword for the additional dmg on Death Blossom.

Off-hand should be 2-4 Khanda, Joy if you don't have the time/effort to put into the trials. despite its low dmg it allows you to stack TP and enspell dmg.

As for gear, TP in Haste/Acc

WS in dex, atk, acc, crit rate. for evisceration. atk, str, acc for Death Blossom.

Some simple suggestions are if just starting off some pieces like ogre gear are really cheep on AH and work really well even now. Tumblers or if unable to afford them dusk legs are good as well not as good, but still good.

Dusk Hands and Feet are pretty obvious tp pieces, as well as turban.

Enhancing and Enfeebling are obvious, excluding staff macros, of course. If you have AF3 feet and cape these are nice items due to the fact that the less you have to stop to cast/recast buffs the more DoT you can deal.

Atmas in Abyssea areas are dependent on your situation and what you have available to you. Razed Ruin is Godly for Evisceration and other WSes like it. Simple DD atmas should serfice, but possibly having a mage/hybrid atma equipped just in case is a good idea as well.

Don't forget MND for Death Blossom! 50% mod is worth checking out when RDM has access to so much MND gear.

I guess its considerable once you've capped fSTR, but all my attamepts with mnd on DB havent changed the dmg enough to be as noteable as str and atk.