Jack Of All Trades: A Guide To Red Mage

On the topic of cheap cure set, it might also be worth considering Failnaught as an alternative to Esper stone+1, with enmity -5 on it too (but it's a bow so it's a bit less practical).

Regarding enspell dmg, what do you guys think of Enriching sword ? That stats aren't that bad (some acc, att, maacc) but it's obviously less good than all the other options already mentionned. However, the +30 enspell sounds good given the boost seen with ayanmo hands.

Now let's just imagine the last step of Kaja is customizable and there's an option to add some enspell dmg to it. Would be sick.

Enriching Sword +1 looks decent on paper, but the higher Delay compared to daggers probably reduces the benefits gained from the Enspell+ damage by a lot. It essentially slows down Crocea hits, and Crocea is the only weapon that gets the +500% Enspell damage.

And given that the upgraded version of Kaja Knife will most likely have something like +40-45 Magic Accuracy on it will probably make it our best offhand weapon just to keep resist rates on Enspells low. And that's in addition to all the MAB, MDMG and low Delay.

The more I play with Sequence/Ternion vs Murg/Sequence the more i realize that Sequence isn't a good offhand unless inflating your delay is attractive. With AM3 up, Murg/Seq can sc an unreasonable amount. But that really only matters when playing as solo SCer with a nuker buddy. Alternate setups will still kill things faster with less coordination and the ideal situation for that kind of thought process just isn't practical or common.

The other thing to factor is that this RDM enspell build is viable from the tank party. It doesn't need extra outside buffs to work because there aren't any that are particularly relevant to enspells. People are advocating Kaja Knife because they want their Sanguine Blade damage to be as good as it can get with only a Malaise that was intended for the COR/RNGs. I'll happily sit in a DD party for MAB buffs, but then I won't be refreshing the tanks and will feel bad for not being helpful. I don't think a COR swap to the tank party would be warranted since I would be the sole beneficiary. (Until they overhaul PLD to keep hate with Holy damage in my dreams)

Again, thanks for the more in-depth breakdowns of sets and reasoning, and in particular the direct discussion of diminishing returns on MA.

I guess I just forgot what +50acc on a +269 skill weapon would do for the overall build and allow in other slots. I typically melee right now in a RP4 Sequence/Ternion+1 build, although as a Murg owner (also RP 4 at the moment- the curses of refusing to buy crystals and having too many toys to upgrade) I do plan on finishing it up to R15 for the dual purpose of meleeing and a killer enfeebling weapon choice. So the additional accuracy on all these weapon choices does seem to open up many possibilities for us that I haven't valued, such as bringing back some of my old Taeon gear. Nothing wrong with maintaining a standard acc and a highacc set as the need arises.

In terms of my comment about "running with standard DD buffs"- the group that I do my runs with uses standard melee DDs over pure ranged strats, meaning we don't have magically buffed parties of RNGs and CORs but rather DDs buffed with your typical bard songs/cor rolls that vary in acc needs depending on wave (adding one madrigal for wave 2, and a 2nd madrigal for wave 3 for a simplified example). While presence of a RDM outside the "tank" party does mean you can't refresh3 anyone in that party who would need it more, it does allow maintaining Haste2 across the alliance on key members (Tank and DDs), freeing up a song slot, so its certainly far from useless. Definitely agree the viability of a RDM in the tank party using this concept of contributing to the overall alliance is likely the best option, just not necessarily the only option.

One last question- is a Vitiation Sword enspell build worth it for those of us spreading our wealth across multiple jobs, or is it really something only viable with a Crocea Mors? I'm not a fool, I know it'll never compete, just curious how quickly it would fall behind and by how much, or would it still be something worth having in the arsenal.

Considering how well RDM can perform with pure physical, I'm not sure if going the Enspell/Sanguine route is worth it unless you go all in with Crocea.

But Vitiation Sword fills the same niche as Crocea, which is dealing decent Enspell/Magic damage vs. enemies that aren't resistant to it (or are immune to physical) without interrupting skillchains. It comes down to how much you want to be able to do this.

This...

I'm actually about to update the node saying pretty much exactly this.

Updated the Guide:

To include:

-Dynamis Weapons
-REMA section is now called "DREAM" section.
-Updated the descriptions of some weapons to give more accurate depictions of how the weapons perform.
-Added Kaja Knife, Kaja Sword, and Kaja Bow.
-Changed weapon layout to have more spacing so it would feel less congested.

We did pure DD parties as well until we got to the point that we were doing 8 fetters and then watched the CORs go from decent additional DDs to topping the parse with just malaise being thrown out and the CORs buffing themselves. It's certainly not the only way, but it works pretty well if you have some good CORs.

Murg is a solid choice so long as enfeebling remains relevant. If they go away from it, I'll probably cry a little.

And I'll definitely echo that you really want to go all in on RDM as far as gear goes. Crocea isn't cheap on my server but I'm only aiming at it instead of it's lower tiers because RDM just doesn't have wiggle room like other jobs do in order to stay competitive. A top geared RDM is a solid contribution to many setups, but that slips away very fast the further you get from the top.

I'm still hoping that if SE releases R25 REMA augments (to make them superior to final stage Ambu weapons), they will add Enfeebling Magic Effect+10 to Murgleis to cement it as our ultimate enfeebling weapon.

And maybe a reasonable MND bump just for posterity.

I think that would be cool too, but the more people think about R25/R30 REMAs, I think people don't consider how expensive that would be :/

Usually RP costs double every 5 levels, so you'd be looking at a cost of around 600m for R25, and 1.2B for R30... which means most people would only be able to build one... I personally don't like that. I'd prefer they just outright change them to be more competitive.

Like part of Murg's problem as a DPS weapon, is that Death Blossom itself isn't a very good WS. It's not the worst ever, but it's hardly competing with things like Expiacion or Insurgency.

Well I think SE will update the limit to R20 then later R25, but only after they introduce another source of the RP items, like Vagery or whatever provides Emp +3 gear. The prices are where they are at because the supply is so restricted.

I have been using su4 sword until my su5 one come's out the oven and it's pretty impressive in itself and the one I am using is only at RP7. I think if you find one cheap enough it's very much worth it, since you have so much built around it.. I think you too will also be pleasantly surprised!

I would say, inside Dynamis, because of the constant double darkness weather, Vitiation sword can probably pull off some decent damage. Lately in dynamis I've been going on RDM/NIN doing enspell/sanguine to pair with COR leaden salute, and honestly, the people who weren't familiar with Crocea were pretty blown away at how much damage it ends up doing. Of course at this point I have it R25, but even at R20 it was doing pretty good damage, and R20 Crocea and R20 Viti sword aren't drastically different.

So I'd say it can be worth doing, especially if the groups you play with are a little green behind the ears. A good DD won't beat a stellar DD, but a alliance supportive job that is also a good DD when paired with a bunch of slightly below par players can have huge impact.

SE might nerf the costs/requirements of everything REMA/Dynamis-related when the new content comes out, similarly to how they improved Omen canteens when Dynamis was introduced.

I'm not sure that's what is best for the game though, this constant appending of carrot and sticks on to ultimate weapon discourages people who don't want to spend every waking hour on the game from making more than one or two REMAs. Aeonics had temporarily leveled the playing field for people who were serious enough to build them, but then even those people are kinda getting slapped in the face if they will eventually have to Detritus it to R25~30 or be uncompetitive with Ambuscade weapons or wth ever weapons... Kind of like it was back in early delve era when Oatixur and Tsurumaru were pretty much unbeatable. I mean sure, they fixed it eventually, but that should have never happened off the back of 2 expansions that focused on Ultimate Weapons (ToAU and Abyssea).

Isn't the whole point of Ultimate weapons to keep people playing and paying, though? At least now SE is offering an alternative for people who don't want to spend as much time on them--they can instead get ambu weapons pretty easily now and stay very competitive.

You can argue whatever you like. It's just the whole system of requiring yet another paygate per Ultimate weapon is like a slap in the face to everyone that got multiple REMA weapons and geared out those jobs. Because you COULD argue the whole point of playing a game where you can change jobs is to not be pidgeonholed in to just one of them.


It's like
"Oh you used to be relevant, but now everyone will shout for R15, so now you can go on those 2 jobs." kind of mentality... Those who aren't on Asura just don't get what it's like here.

I'm not trying to argue, just making observations. And Asura PUGs are and always will be awful, no matter what.

So for a almace Rdm like me. Could use others insights on what to make here.Is Tauret pretty Bis for offhand? As well as being our best dagger mainhand. Both in boosting Cdc from stats and hoping the Crit hit boost isn't locked to Main hand only. Or theres the Bow Ullr. Its a upgrade to more macc enfeebs for one. Would the bows 15 Str and Dex beat out Yetshila +1 on Cdc. I dont mind giveing up ginsing and locking Ullr for tp phase as the 3 stp wasn't doing anything for my xhit.

Is CDC worth it on RDM though, even with R15 Almace?
I thought R15 Sequence spamming Savage Blade was better?
Or even the new sword (with TP Magian sword offhand maybe?) should be better than CDC spam with Almace?

For your question, Tauret looks pretty nice, gives a small boost to CDC and to acc, but you lose the TA from Ternion Dagger, which goes really well with Temper2.
Tauret might be better but I'm not entirely sure. Think that, either way, they should be pretty close to each other?


The bow is nice instead. Grants 15 STR (and 15 attack) and 15 DEX, but that's it. Better than Ginsen? Maybe.
But then you lose Yetshila+1. Will DEX+15 be better?
It's different for Sequence MH, you don't need Yetshila so the STR+15 is a clear boost for that and you can probably let go of Ginsen.

Yes it works out fine though RDM's limited DEX gear is somewhat saddening. R15 doesn't give Sequence much more power then R0 cause Req sucks but Savage is a decent enough WS, again RDM has issues getting the right gear for it. With Gain-DEX and decent gear (RDM doesn't have great DD gear) I've done some pretty nice CDC's in a CDC spam situation. TA works incredibly well with CDC because it's the perfect number of hits to allow an extra 2 TA procs to happen, it's just not very consistent damage wise.


This isn't true, if anything the presence of Temper II lowers the relative value of the TA on the dagger diminishing returns being what it is. The Quest Weapon is more of a situational offhand, I'm more interested in it's performance as a main hand since Evis isn't a weak WS.

Ya savage blade is amazing and i'll never talk bad about it. But it boils down to am i making light SCs with the current DDs i'm going to CDC. Thats around 50% the time in my experience since its quite SC friendly. If theres so much ws spam going on i cant sc and i have att buffs i'll put on Aeonic sword and savage it up.

I'm skeptical if rdm can reach good enough acc levels to make tp bonus offhand sword work if i'm frank. We are not like Blu and Dnc where they have amazing acc gear (Like those wtf +2 necks), traits gifts. You drop 50-70 Dex from almace and 55 gain dex when you swap to savage spam.(I think they buffed compsures acc we gain a touch with the recent update to but i could be wrong.)

I guess you have sabo distract and sabo boosting impacts land rate so if you can make it work more power to ya i'd like to hear from you all (Be interested for Ambu VD and Dyna wave 1,2). Should be noted the 2k-3k mark isn't doing as much to savage blade. Going off at 2750(With sequence moonshade and tp bonus sword) if your perfect i just see the overflow from a round putting you above 3k from a lucky temper proc on swings. Bow is offering 15 str and dex for acc Vs Floestone's 3 str 10 att for savage as well. I only have one glowy weapon atm so not sure what to upgrade. Swords Tempting but i dont cor a whole lot lately.

Not sure how accurate it is, but my modified BLU spreadsheet says Yetshila+1 should beat Ullr for CDC with low and high Attack buffs. Same goes for Tauret, which beats Ternion+1 regardless of buffs.

Mind explaining this with more details?
I remember reading that it's after 50% TA that you start getting diminishing returns from further TA and that until that point each 1% TA produces more or less the same DPS increase.
This might be wrong though?
Supposing it's true, I'm not at 50% personally. I only get 32% from Temper2, then a small bunch here and there from gear but definitely nowhere close to 50%


Probably worse than BLU and DNC, but still probably better than many other jobs?
It's true you don't have A++ skill, but you get like what, ~90 acc from Composure?
Then, at a small DPS cost you have Ayanmo+2, which might not be BiS in every single slot, but overall it's pretty good and gives a ton of accuracy.
Then there's the Ambu sword that, by itself, already gives a ton of acc.

Last but not least there's distract 3. Supposing you can land it on what you're currently fighting, you can count on it being up on every single monster you fight, whereas for other DDs that might not always be the case.

With all of this being said, I think it might be viable in more content than you think.
Not Wave3 probably, but everything else should be ok or close to ok?

I'd believe both of those comparisons. 6 crit damage is hard to get elsewhere and ambu knife is just a better knife than most in offhand for lots of reasons

Marginal decreases in +MA effectiveness start after 1 MA.

I don't feel like making my own graph, so here's an ancient one for DA and it's essentially the same thing.



Diminishing returns after X amount only applies to stats involved in piecewise functions, such as enhancing skill for Phalanx.

I can see it work if you can land sabo distract 3 on top of normal acc buffs. Rdm also doesnt suffer as much as some other jobs with acc swaps since majority of MA came from spell, not gears.

Thanks for sharing that Kyte!

There is no fixed value where TA stops being effective, just each incremental amount reduces the effectiveness of all future incremental amounts. A "free" 4 TA is always better then "nothing" but in FFXI there is rarely "nothing" and you end up deciding between two or three different stats for a slot.


100 swings with 30 TA gives us 160 hits for and 1.6 average attacks per round. Adding 4 TA to that gives us 168 hits and 1.68 average attacks per round. 168/160 = 1.05, a 5% increase.

That same 4 TA added to 0 TA gives us 108/100 = 1.08, 8% increase.

Going from 50 TA to 54 TA is a 4% increase. At 50 TA is where the incremental value of TA hits 50% of it's value at 0% TA and where Store TP will really start taking over for damage.