Jack Of All Trades: A Guide To Red Mage

If it had damage scaling with TP then it could be made competitive, but don't it's a static 4.0 with two extra hits.

Even if it did, you wouldn't be able to use it the same way people are using Savage Blade. The dual level 2 ws properties means it basically always causes a skillchain.

Edit: I could be misremembering but I thought I read somewhere on the wiki that the meva- effect also overwrites Frazzle, which sucks.

People really only specifically use Savage for non-SC on Bumba these days. On the vast majority of other monsters, making SCs often is a good thing.

Or when you know you won't be getting off consistent SCs to make up the damage (like an ambu or lowman with multiple WS going off at once). For much of what RDM usually does, making quick SCs is RDM's bread and butter for solos, tbh. Lute just put out a Teles solo video 4-stepping double darkness with Mandau. in like 7 minutes. It's such a powerful, underutilized option for RDM when you can make use of it. Everyone looks at SB and disregards the lower damage (but SC friendlier) options, but they have a very good place for what RDM can accomplish. You just need to know how to use it.

On a slightly related anecdote: I did a duo VD ambu with a RDM as BRD. He did CDC with Almace/Kclub non-stop. It was doing pretty insane damage compared to when he just did Savage Blade spam wiht TP bonus Offhand. I was amazed how strong it was in comparison

RDM has all sorts of horseshit amazing gimmicks, but their mythic ws is not one of them. Fragmentation/Distortion double property is completely lost when savage blade and cdc exist without having to consider which sword you're using.

Considering how many unique magical ws are in the mythic line, it's a real shame that RDM somehow missed the boat.

Savage Blade isn't even the best Fragmentation weaponskill RDM can use. Black Halo will be better provided your accuracy doesn't tank with Maxentius equipped.

Death Blossom is just, bad. A bad weaponskill, with a bad additional effect, and ws properties found on other, much better Sword weaponskills.

I say it because it's true. Did you perhaps misread my post and think I was saying that people only use Naegling for Bumba?

Calling it lazy is a bit of a copout, in my opinion. If you have more than 2 people hitting something, you're not going to be skillchaining, and a lot of things in the game now have some kind of elemental absorption gimmick to them. That means you want strong weaponskills, that don't skillchain by accident. So many jobs have access to Savage Blade/Naegling that it's the obvious and easy answer.

Even when you're solo, often times there's no practical difference between two Savage Blades or two CDCs + Light. If you're soloing Omen bosses or something then yeah, you're likely better off using Almace. But there are a lot of situations where the strongest raw weaponskill damage is the best answer.

The game moves thru evolutions, and not everyone gets the memo on the same day. Not all groups are relying on straight Savage strats against enemies that don't need it (where SCs aren't a problem)...they aren't doing "sAVagE aLL TeH tHinGs" any more- not with additions of things like Nyame gear's insane amount of +skillchain damage that doesn't require choosing between +WSD or +SCdmg gear, repetitive WS mechanics in some content, and just realizing that the game is about a lot more than just a WS number- its about the white dmg that occurs between those WSs and taking advantage of monster weaknesses and tendencies.

There's different content with different strats, always has been, always will be. Naegling allows groups who don't give two shits about that nuance to get their loot via brute force- and I for one have never wanted to play a game that relied on straight brute force vs tactics. All Savage, all the time, is just as lazy and cheatcode as AF/AC SMN burn strats are/were.

As someone else pointed out in another thread, it's not really a Naegling/Savage Blade thing. If it weren't so strong, people would default to the next easiest thing to exploit. Path of least resistance. So and so did it and that's how we are going to do it because I don't have to think about any other conceivable method. Because that would take effort. Basic human nature for most people to take what's the easiest/fastest.

Monk gets "fixed", everyone asks for Monk for literally everything. Kraken club ranger with Savage Blade/arrow build becomes norm because one person posts how good it can be when built properly. New ambu strat video features shooting setup as a way to clear, people only try that method. Don't bother asking for anything else, impossible to do. Need aeonics cleared? Use summoners. Why would I use melee jobs with five years of power creep for a 45 second fight? SMN or bust. Sakpata/Nyame comes out, don't bother changing to anything else, works for every single fight. End of story

There's really just two groups of players: the ones who set the "new meta", and those who follow the meta. The second group can't really do a single thing on their own without seeing the first group do it with success. This is why you have only one "proper" way to do Mboze. Every once in a while someone will throw out a strategy they created on their own and people might open up a little, but in general it's just a copycat game. Once the new Naegling comes out, people will just shift to that and completely leave Naegling out of the picture. Rinse repeat.

I'd love to play with murg over naegling to be completely honest. Even if theres a lower DPS. But, can anyone confirm if DB overwrites frazzle 3? That would be miserable.

TY in advance!

To be fair, you pretty much can use Sakpata/Nyame for everything outside of macro pieces that are designed to do one specific thing (enmity, SIRD, phalanx, etc).

Sakpata? this is the rdm guide. they get malignance, bunzi, and nyame.

You can use many sets for everything, if you really want to. The point is the no thought involved. Good enough to be good enough. Not anything to do with the gear itself. Goes to a mindset of the player.

I'm just not sure Sakpata is a great example of what you're saying though, because it's BiS for almost everything it can do.

Just like how malignance, apart from gloves when going for enspell dmg, is nearly always going to be the best TP option for RDM. I'd rather make the conscious decision to save inventory space than have marginally better options for niche scenarios.

Some of these aren't "no thought involved," but rather cost/benefit analysis.

My dps is so much lower with Murgleis I only use it as a swap piece for enfeebling.
Naegling makes Savage Blade so strong nothing compares to it (I don't own Almace, i'd be curious to test it out, and pretty sure Crocea/Seraph will/can outparse Naegling).
I'm a big fan of skillchains, but when my savage blade does 40k and my CdC does an unstable 20k + unstable SC 10-20k, I usually try to close with SB only. I don't regret making Murgleis, I'm pretty sure the macc helps but i'd love to have a comparable dps with it vs naegling, considering the time and effort that was needed to obtain.

I would love to see Savage Blade/CdC/KoR/Death Blossom/Seraph Blade's WS set from other players tho. I'm convinced there's much place for improvment in my sets ^^

But should they get Bunzi? Regen potency feet and the rod is all i can see myself going after. And I'm honestly not sure how im going to sucker people to stay around for the feet.


I think i have more than 2 full wardrobes of mostly RDM gear. I jump at the chance of any small improvements, but the improvements i jump at the fastest are the ones that let me dream i can carry more than 3 jobs without needing to store one to get another out.

Saving inventory space is a delightful change of pace for SE.

Bunzi and Agwu sets should've been available to BOTH SCH and RDM, not one for the first and the other for the second.
They acknowledge inventory issues and then make stupid mistakes like those, bah.

For every Malignance they put out they will have 4 sets of taeon you had to carry before that it replaced. The important thing is that you're on gear, I don't want to go back to the pre-ilvl days were there is almost nothing that can make me competitive and no path to get there.

SCH not being on Bunzi for the Regen potency stings and you have my condolences. RDM being on Ea+1 makes Agwu less of a pain point. I would have been ok with SCH being on both pieces even if it was the only job to do that. You'd still have to farm points on both sets so seems fair enough to me.

This isn't specific to just RDM, but worth bringing up considering the Naegling / Savage Blade discussions -

You can absolutely get away with doing fights with different approaches / setups. It's a matter of finding like-minded players that also have the job composition to make using the alternative to Naegling / Savage Blade worth it. Let's be honest, the vast majority of players have melee DD so it's a lot easier to plan and build around the plentiful melee DD to make using the alternative worthwhile. People are more interested in saving a couple minutes off their ambu run than to try different approaches or less than optimal jobs.

Few fights contain a DPS check these days. And with gear creep, bringing sub optimal setups isn't the death sentence it is often considered.

As an aside, imagine putting in the effort and work into the Bumba fight to only have people completely circumvent the MAIN mechanic lol.

Has anyone done the math on Crepuscular vs R20/R25 Gleti vs R15 Ternion as an offhand for Savage or CdC?

For Chant du Cygne:
Gleti should pull ahead in low buff situations, but should be about equal to Crepuscular. (when maxed out, Crepuscular should win out)
Ternion is the weakest for here.

For Savage Blade:
Crepuscular should be a little better than Ternion.
Gleti's the weakest here.

Namely depending on your gear. I'm assuming 5/5 R25 Nyame B for your Savage Blade set, which depreciates the potency of Ternion's contribution to the damage.
This should also be true @30 because of how mild the difference the weapon augments are compared to the growth in the gear augments.

What are the real-world use case scenarios for R15 Contemplator +1/Enki vs Crocea/Ammurapi? I just recently made the unity weapon and am looking for a place to fit it in my sets, but I can't find any situation is favorable over croc/shield. Any ideas? I had a few conversations about this same topic and I didn't really get that the unity weapon was needed for much nowadays, but enlighten me if I'm missing something.

Unless its going to resist, my go-to is still Contemplator/Mephitis otherwise I personally swap in Murgleis/Ammurapi.

Currently at mlv20 allowing more freedom of swaps away from skill and towards mnd/macc while maintaining Frazzle/Distract tiers.

I just want to verify I understand this correct:
RDM ML20 casting a stymie + saboteur'd frazzle III in:
ItemSet 374997
r15 staff, r0~15 belt

Potency

floor(floor((Base Potency × Saboteur) + {dStat Modifier}) × (Enfeebling Magic Effect+ Gear))

(([6/21(554-205)]*1.37){0,10})*1.54)={207,222}

Duration

((Base Duration × Saboteur) + (6s × RDM Group 2 Merit Point Level) + (3s × RDM Relic Head Group 2 Merit Point Level Augment) + RDM Enfeebling Job Points + RDM Stymie Job Points + Gear that list Seconds) × (Augments Composure Bonus) × (Duration listed on Gear) × (Duration Augments on Gear)

just gonna assume floor at every multiplication
((300*1.37)+30+0+20+20+0)*1.35*1.25 = 811s or 13min 31s
So w/ this set a stymie saboteur frazzle3 should last an entire gaol fight assuming there is time spent buffing/pulling at all.

or did i screw up somewhere and frazzle won't last nearly that long?
oops, forgot that 1.45 includes a different hands equip.
fixed.

Something like that on lower ones (didn't check the actual math for your set), but T3 have an automatic 50% resist on darkness magic (except for possibly if you have triple darkness Rayke up), which means that duration is halved.

Pretty sure they auto-wake once w/e move triggers aura is used as well.