RDM + Sword = Question

[Bluecat]

ok I am kind of confused about something at the moment, I am currently using a Bee Spatha at level 13. I was wandering, should I use a Bilbo? Or Something else? I know its a dumb question but just thought I would ask :P

Also I have soloed all this way, is that a bad thing? I cant seem to find a party in the dunes around my level they are all 18+ which I kind of think is odd...

[Nuriko]

The Bee Spatha is fine, you don't need to upgrade a weapon just because there's another available ... in fact, the Bee Spatha is a BETTER weapon than the Bilbo for the jobs able to use it.

It's really not surprising that you've soloed this much ... parties seem to be a bit harder to find at lower levels, and PLs (power-levellers) are positively rampant in the Dunes, giving a healer not much to do. For that matter, you'll probably be better off getting to level 14 solo and picking up Cure II before trying to keep a PT alive.

RDM is billed as being able to do some of everything, but in party play, meleeing sort of goes away after a while, and things change more later on.

[IfritnoItazura]

Lv.9 Willow Wand +1
Lv.18 Yew Wand +1
Lv.32 Solid Wand

If partying.



If soloing, then:

Lv.11 Bee Spartha (+1)
Lv.18 Fire Sword (Flame Sword)
Lv.19 Auriga Xiphos (probably not...)
Lv.30 Centurion's Sword

[Bluecat]

The Bee Spatha is fine, you don't need to upgrade a weapon just because there's another available ... in fact, the Bee Spatha is a BETTER weapon than the Bilbo for the jobs able to use it.

It's really not surprising that you've soloed this much ... parties seem to be a bit harder to find at lower levels, and PLs (power-levellers) are positively rampant in the Dunes, giving a healer not much to do. For that matter, you'll probably be better off getting to level 14 solo and picking up Cure II before trying to keep a PT alive.

RDM is billed as being able to do some of everything, but in party play, meleeing sort of goes away after a while, and things change more later on.

Yeah I guess thats most likely why I havent got any party invites xD.




Lv.9 Willow Wand +1
Lv.18 Yew Wand +1
Lv.32 Solid Wand

If partying.



If soloing, then:

Lv.11 Bee Spartha (+1)
Lv.18 Fire Sword (Flame Sword)
Lv.19 Auriga Xiphos (probably not...)
Lv.30 Centurion's Sword


Oh ok thank you for this list xD. I didn't know rdm's could use wands LOL!

[LadyKiKi]

You can use daggers too. Sword will yield more damage her hit, but not as fast. Dagger is the opposite. RDM have the same skill in both weapons.

Check out the following which I recommended, especially when you get your first Enspell (Stone?)

http://images.wikia.com/ffxi/images/e/ed/Beestinger.jpg
http://images.wikia.com/ffxi/images/7/7d/Platoondagger.JPG

It will allow you to strike quite fast compared to a sword. Add an Enspell on it and you'll rack up a lot of damage in a short space of time (each hit landed will produce an additional effect (hit), Enstone goes some stone damage).

NOTE: To everyone else, I am only talking in the low level perspective.

[IfritnoItazura]

You can use daggers too. Sword will yield more damage her hit, but not as fast. Dagger is the opposite. RDM have the same skill in both weapons.

Check out the following which I recommended, especially when you get your first Enspell (Stone?)

http://images.wikia.com/ffxi/images/e/ed/Beestinger.jpg
http://images.wikia.com/ffxi/images/7/7d/Platoondagger.JPG

It will allow you to strike quite fast compared to a sword. Add an Enspell on it and you'll rack up a lot of damage in a short space of time (each hit landed will produce an additional effect (hit), Enstone goes some stone damage).

NOTE: To everyone else, I am only talking in the low level perspective.

Enthunder is the first spell, I think, at Lv.16.

Even with capped Enhancing Magic (which is rather unusual unless already leveled other mage jobs), that amounts to a maximum of 5 damage per hit from effect or so, and less if there's resist or on Earth day/weather.

Beestinger has DPS of 1.60, while Bee Spatha has DPS of 3.35 (+1 version is 3.70). Even if En-spell doubles the damage output of Beestinger at Lv.16, I'm not sure it can match Bee Spatha or Bee Spatha +1.

Can't hurt to test it, but only if the OP has capped Enhancing Magic or is willing to spend time capping it.

[LadyKiKi]

Just introducing the OP to the fun of fast stabbing :P, statistics and overall efficiency are exempt.

Besides mobs don't have much HP at those levels until around Level 40.

BUT! If you wish to mention that, I'm throwing in critical hits into the argument!!! More hits = more chances of critical hits = more damage over time ... :wasted:

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj3/kikidash/moredots.jpg http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj3/kikidash/moredps.jpg

Adapted from: YouTube - Onyxia Wipe Animation

[Deeke]

Stick with swordy swords for increased overall damagey damage.

Before the later stages of RDM, dagger really has only two uses: killing Elementals with faster Enspell procs and a decent AOE weaponskill. Other than that, sword is typically always going to do more for you.

(Dagger, versatile little shit that it becomes, really only shines much later in the game. And it does shine.)

[nanatsu]

I only gave thanks because of the clip, not your post, Kiki. :p

[Bluecat]

LOL, Kiki I love your post of the stick figure, but as stated above, I think I am going to stick to swords till I get high enough. I have tried using daggers, and they suck..at my level...

[Armando]

When in doubt, look at the DPS of the weapon. You're almost always better off with the higher DPS weapon if neither has a significant amount of additional stats.

If the DPS of the weapon isn't listed in whatever site you're visiting, or you're in-game and can't access your web browser for whatever reason, you can calculate a weapon's DPS with this formula: DMG*60/Delay.

The DPS number on its own won't tell you much, though. To put things in proportion, find the % difference between the DPS of both weapons. I.e. DPS of weapon 2/DPS of weapon 1. This'll give you a much more practical number to work with (e.g. this sword does 4% more damage over time than this other sword.)

[locus]

BUT! If you wish to mention that, I'm throwing in critical hits into the argument!!! More hits = more chances of critical hits = more damage over time ... :wasted:


NO. Just no. I'll make this easy for you to understand - a critical hit with a low D weapon isn't going to do the same damage as a critical hit with a higher D weapon.

If you look at the Platoon dagger, it's a D8 weapon. That's still a rank zero weapon (divide by nine), so you'll be doing pitiful damage on criticals because of your horrible horrible fSTR caps and it honestly won't be much different from the Beestinger. If you use this on crabs or other things with defense up, you are very likely to start doing 0-1 damage hits without food, and zero damage hits don't give you TP, not to mention you're feeding the monster much more TP than you would with a lower damage weapon, because you don't have subtle blow. (Enemy TP gain per hit = your tp gain +3.)

There's a reason people that want to level quickly avoid using daggers until level 30ish. And yes, this includes thieves.

[Deeke]

Can't help but think that the emboldening and the snarky 'i'll make this simple for you' comment were a little unnecessary there bub.

Interesting sentiment in your signature too, by the way..

[LadyKiKi]

The OP doesn't even have a subjob, and you're bringing all that maths junk into it already?

Not trying to mean the "my money I'll play it how I want" but isn't it good for the OP to play around a bit, experiment, and stuff? Rather than try to mould the OP into shape this fast?

IfritnoItazura made a remark about some maths on those weapons, so I decided to use a sarcastic tone and throw in other random silly factors into the equation. That is all. I am aware of the DPS stuff. But I feel the OP does not need to get overwhelmed by that yet.

[IfritnoItazura]

Before the later stages of RDM, dagger really has only two uses: killing Elementals with faster Enspell procs and a decent AOE weaponskill. Other than that, sword is typically always going to do more for you.
Actually, there are other specialized uses like BS20 Crustacean Conundrum (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Crustacean_Conundrum); RDM/NIN Dual Wield 150 delay daggers should shine in that. Daggers may even be good for other NMs like Bloody Coffin (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Coffin),which I had a difficult time soloing (http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/red-mage/63625-mis-adventure-not-so-great-solo-er.html) (as RDM64).

[Deeke]

Damn you Ita, I was honestly considering mentioning Crusty Crabs! :biggrin:

(Best BCNM ever that one. My seals don't touch anything else^^)

[Bluecat]

I honestly don't like using daggers, I mean they are faster but they are just so damn week especially when you are soloing. I think only a RDM/NIN should use a dagger, but that is just me from recently trying to use one at level 13.

[Murphie]

Later on they are much better. But at your level you'll likely prefer swords over daggers by quite a bit.

[Armando]

IfritnoItazura made a remark about some maths on those weapons, so I decided to use a sarcastic tone and throw in other random silly factors into the equation. That is all. I am aware of the DPS stuff. But I feel the OP does not need to get overwhelmed by that yet.No offense but most sites already list DPS, and the math behind calculating and comparing DPS isn't very overwhelming unless you can't handle multiplication, nor is it time-consuming unless you can't work a calculator. It's not very hard...at all.

I see where you're coming from - the OP is new to the game and there's no need to bog her down with lots of math. But you're kind of blowing the math out of proportion, and either way I think saying "you want the higher DPS weapon" is faaaaar more useful than saying "with daggers you get to watch fireworks go off on the mob much more often, even though they're a grossly inefficient weapon at your level."

[locus]

Can't help but think that the emboldening and the snarky 'i'll make this simple for you' comment were a little unnecessary there bub.

Interesting sentiment in your signature too, by the way..

I like text formatting, rarely used as it is, so sue me. If the pretty fonts make anal-retentive people's heads explode, all the better. Your comment/criticism of me adds nothing relevant to the discussion, you realise? But I guess if it makes you feel vindicated and righteous, go ahead, you can be the dazzling defender of justice and I can be the mean old horrible troll.

And no, LadyKiki, it wasn't obvious to me that you were trying to be sarcastic. I'm saying that your reason about critical hits was very silly (even if it supposedly was a joke), and stated clearly my hypothesis that daggers are worse than swords while giving my reason why I believe this to be the case. If the OP still wants to go and play around with daggers, he's more than welcome to, and the entire reason I said "I'll make it simple for you" was addressed to the OP so that he wouldn't have to deal with all the (zomg complicated) math, or waste his precious money/time spending gil on a dagger (although he's welcome to).

If he wanted to experiment around and find what weapon worked best for him, then why does he need advice from forums?