Pre-50 RDM Gear-Swapping Poll

[Evion]

Well, as it has come up as such a touchy subject, I thought I'd drop a poll and use the results as advice for future RDMS and myself.

Does a RDM pre-50 NEED to have gear-swapping macros or is this a bit elitist?

Thanks for your posts,

Evion

[IfritnoItazura]

As I said in the other thread, macros are good for:

- Convert (Lv.40): MP gear
- Resting: hMP gear/food, like Pilgrim's Wand (Lv.10), Mohbwa Sash (Lv.20), Ginger Cookies.
- Spells: INT/MND; such as wands (to switch out Pilgrim's), rings, neck, etc.

Macros become really useful Lv.10+, and I recommend any RDM beginner who is not used to macros to have a look at my Red Mage Macro Tutorial.

[Taskmage]

Don't forget Devotee's Mitts and melee gear if you're the type to melee. It's possible to do your job adequately without them, but to excel yes, they're necessary.

[TheGrandMom]

If you can afford the extra gear then by all means DO IT! My husband played for quite some time without any swapping macros and did his job very well.

[Sabaron]

As far as I remember there's really not much to swap at lower level. Having both MND and INT rings and a nice set of Convert Gear is good. Solo gear is optional. Wand swaps (Pilgrim's/Stat) pre-51 for resting/casting. Once you hit the 70's though, the amount of gear you'll want to swap will balloon immensely.

As far as it being "elitist" to require it, I'm not really a fan of people who call "elitist" on anyone who expects their compatriots to be prepared. I don't consider it required by any means, but it makes you better than the next guy. If that's elitist then so am I.

[Aksannyi]

I personally didn't start swapping gear until 51, but that was because I didn't know how effective it actually was. You should swap gear as early as different gear sets make different spells more effective.

[IfritnoItazura]

I still don't get why anyone would think "Buy bunch of (mostly) moderately priced gear and make effective use out of them in party" is somehow elitism at work. >_>

Red Mages should be using Macros by Lv.10, because that's when we get Pilgrim's Wand and INT/MND rings.

[Ellipses]

There are like two thousand miles of gray area between "needed" and "elitist."

[Raydeus]

Yes, specially in the 40-50 part of your RDM career when mobs start resisting your enfs (until you get staves to help you out).

But it all depends on how much space you have, gear swapping takes a lot of room and new RDMs (without full gobbie bags) will have to choose what they are bringing very carefully.

But if it's a player leveling their 2nd+ job to 75 there's no reason to skip gear swaping, for at least rings, neck, back and earrings depending on the spell, that's kinda the minimum requirement.

[ioshua]

The purpose of this thread, according to the OP, is to give advice to RDM. It's likely that anyone on their 2nd+ job to 75 doesn't need the advice. It'd be for people on their first trip to the top. People who may not have enough bag space to accommodate a metric ton of swap gear and foods.

I voted No. It isn't "needed" to be "effective" pre-50. It's good but you can easily get by without it. As the game progresses fights get more demanding, players get more critical and gobbie bags get bigger. Then it matters more but when you're fighting an economy of space you have to make cuts where you can.

[IfritnoItazura]

It'd be for people on their first trip to the top. People who may not have enough bag space to accommodate a metric ton of swap gear and foods.

This is often used as an excuse, but it just doesn't fly.

Players start off with 30 inventory. At 16 equipment slots, assuming both a grip and Morion Tathlum, that means 15/16 slots filled. (No ranged weapon can be equipped in slot if a tathlum is in Ammo.) Inventory count starts at 15.

Assuming 4 spell casting rings total (MND x2, INT x2), that means at any point there are 2 other rings. Toss in an Empress Band, that's three unequipped rings. So far, 18 items in inventory.

Before staves, a Red Mage needs just two "weapons": an INT/MND wand, and Pilgrim's Wand. That's one unequipped at all times, so 19 items total at this point.

I mentioned neck piece in the other thread; just INT and MND, really, before torques. So, one must be unequipped at all times, and that makes 20.

Then 2 more inventory used for Ginger Cookies and Mohbwa Sash for additional hMP. Another for Instant Warp scroll. Maybe one more for Instant Reraise scroll. Four more, so 24 total.

That's sufficient for pre-Convert, and a player with NO GOBBIE BAG quest done still has 6 slots open for drops, and likely better set up than 75% of RDMs I saw in the lower levels.

Inventory space is not an issue for macro gears at lower levels, if a player doesn't keep junk in his/her inventory. Before Lv.40, you really can have macro gear and live within 30 spaces.

* * *

Before anyone start complaining about no room for shield, sword, and melee gear, let me say that RDM should mind mage duty first--spell casting, spell accuracy/potency, and having enough MP for spell casting--so those extra equipment can wait in the mog house and come out for solo occasions only, until one has done a Gobbie Bag quest or two.

[hongman]

There are like two thousand miles of gray area between "needed" and "elitist."

QFT

We can all just "get by" - that called being gimp. Gimp's just "get by".

If you have any pride and take enjoyment of doing your job to be best/fullest, you should be swapping out gear as early as you can for max effectiveness, even if it just 1 gear swap for hMP.

At 40-50 I would EXPECT at least INT/MND rings to be swapped and hMP.

[Karinya]

I voted no, but forgot about hMP gear (because there wasn't any worth mentioning when I was a low level RDM). That's worth getting and swapping; otherwise, I have no problem with someone who wears a balanced int/mnd setup all the time. The amount of int and mnd you can swap for at low levels is pretty small, and the effect on your spells unnoticeable; and you basically can't get any of the *really* valuable stats (skill, m.acc, MAB) until af levels and beyond.

Staves and torques really matter to your performance; rings don't matter that much, not really even Tamas (which you would never swap out anyway).

[nanatsu]

It's kinda silly. A person can take pride in being RDM while enjoying the fact that they've put some work into creating a balanced INT/MND setup at lower levels. I'll admit that some things are not good to do without. hMP gear and Elemental Staves come to mind, but to lump anyone who doesn't gear swap at lvl 10 into someone who doesn't take pride in their job is pushing it. This is coming from someone who did gear swap that early.

To be honest, my opinion is that the difference between having MND+4 and INT+2 /MND+2 in your ring slots isn't enough to spaz out over. I definitely don't see any problem with a balanced setup. But another person's opinion may be that micromanaging every single slot at all times is what makes them better. That's fine. Two different playstyles.

Myself? When I ran through RDM a second time on another character, I stopped gear swapping by 30, not noticing any real difference in my performance. By the time I got to level 41, I was pouring on every single bit of MND I could get my hands on and only used INT in spots where I couldn't put MND. The only gear swap I had was an hMP gear swap for resting. I was heavily MND skewed and I thought it was great. And you know what? I still did my job better than a lot of RDMs I came across.

To me taking pride in your job is knowing how and when to enfeeble, knowing how to backup cure, and knowing how to assist with nuke damage to help end fights. All while conserving your mp and keeping the party moving without downtime. I'm not saying gear swapping at low levels is elitist. But by that same token it doesn't make sense to say that not gear swapping means something is wrong with the way you play.

I've seen quite a few RDMs these days who are SLOW when it comes to casting things and they wonder why they can't keep up. Aren't RDMs supposed to have Fast Cast? I'd rather have them focus on casting than gear swapping, and I'd rather have them focus on learning those casting skills at a lower level. And worry about gear swapping when it actually matters. After lvl 50.

[WishMaster3K]

Grendal told us that we should. That's reason enough.