[Rase]

So im gonna make a rdm/bkm i herd it is the most recommended for a good amount of magic damage. with the expansions do ppl still use this combo?

[Balfree]

That is a great combination however the "magic damage" bit will not last, it will be good for the first half of your levels and after that it is only average and will not be your most important role 90% of the time.

Unless you really want to though...

[DakAttack]

We're having a conversation in another thread about Black Mages that like to "blast". I don't remember which, though. The gist is, don't be all about the numbers, or the blast. Think more along the lines of a gentle rain with the occasional strong gust of wind. The rain will make people wet, but that gust will knock trees into their power lines and trailer homes, and they wont even try to kill you for it.

[Rase]

Thanks guys you two are helping this born again newbie get his bearings back lol

[Mog]

If you level rdm, you're not really going to be nuking much. It's more of a support job, meaning you're going to be curing and enfeebling a lot.

[Sabaron]

Solo game for RDM is big, too. We can do a lot of things that other jobs can't handle solo. In order to fully explore the full nature of RDM, I recommend using and properly gearing the following combinations:

1. RDM/WHM (Pink Mage Main Healer): One of our most powerful support roles is as a main healer and refresher.

2. RDM/BLM (Crowd Control & Attrition): Sleep/Sleep II/Sleepga for Crowd Control, Gravity/Bind/Bio II & III/Poison II with occasional nukes and sometimes Elemental DoTs. This is one of the ways a RDM solos very powerful monsters. Control or restrict the mobs movement and gradually dink it's health down with Bio and poison (because they cast really fast, are cheap, and last a long time).

3. RDM/NIN (Solo Melee versus blinkable mobs): The combination of Phalanx, Stoneskin and Utsusemi: Ni/Ichi is extremely powerful against many enemies. RDM also has good natural haste and access to some fairly nice Haste gear as well making this combination quite powerful. Dual wielding Ceremonial Daggers with a tier I enspell can be used to deal significant damage to mobs without giving any TP for mobs with devastating TP abilities. There are so many ways to use this combo, it would be very difficult to explain them all.

4. RDM/BLU (Solo melee or party melee): Most useful against mobs that use small quick attacks (Multi-Attack, MNKs, etc.), or that frequently use AoE TP moves to wipe shadows making Utsusemi useless. Cocoon/Phalanx/Stoneskin is very strong. You also get access to Vorpal blade and as a bonus, get highly efficient curing from Wild Carrot and Healing Breeze. The latter of which is an AoE self-target cure--BLU is the only job besides WHM that RDM can emply to gain AoE curing power. Since Healing Breeze has no soft cap and is highly influenced by MND, a RDM can get very good power out of it.

5. RDM/DRK (God of Stun): Chainspell + Stun (repeatedly) is the closest you can get to the Stop spell in FFXI. For one minute, you can lock down almost any mob--preventing it from taking most actions. This is very powerful against extremely strong boss type mobs that need to be killed quickly but that have devastating abilities that need to be carefully controlled. This attack usually generates far too much hate and will eventually breach the enmity generation of Invincible. RDMs employing this technique usually die shortly after.

RDM is many things. It is a versatile job, and you will be happiest with it when you start using it as intended instead of trying to get it to fit into a specific hole (e.g. nuking).

[Yellow Mage]

Originally Posted by Sabaron

RDM is many things. It is a versatile job, and you will be happiest with it when you start using it as intended instead of trying to get it to fit into a specific hole (e.g. nuking).

This. Good Lord as much as it pains me to Thank Sabaron of all people, he pretty much nailed it with this.

[Raydeus]

Is it the turban? (Keffiyeh?)

[IfritnoItazura]

Originally Posted by Sabaron

1. RDM/WHM (Pink Mage Main Healer): One of our most powerful support roles is as a main healer and refresher.

Even when not main healing, it's often good to have a RDM/WHM in alliance as backup healer and help out with status removal.

Depending on the situation, RDM/SCH can be a better main healer than RDM/WHM with Light Arts's time/Mp saving and Regen II.

RDM/SCH would also be very nice for solo/duo farming Aura Statues nuke/sleep style, except for the lousy drop rate--merit party like set up with a THF in it is much better for that. Should be good in general for nuke-sleep things which don't hit through SS in one attack round.

Originally Posted by Sabaron

3. RDM/NIN (Solo Melee versus blinkable mobs): The combination of Phalanx, Stoneskin and Utsusemi: Ni/Ichi is extremely powerful against many enemies. RDM also has good natural haste and access to some fairly nice Haste gear as well making this combination quite powerful. Dual wielding Ceremonial Daggers with a tier I enspell can be used to deal significant damage to mobs without giving any TP for mobs with devastating TP abilities. There are so many ways to use this combo, it would be very difficult to explain them all.

It's not just for melee'ing; RDM/NIN also quite handy for soloing/duo'ing things like Zipacna and Despot, nuke/DoT + Bind/Gravity style.

Originally Posted by Sabaron

4. RDM/BLU (Solo melee or party melee): Most useful against mobs that use small quick attacks (Multi-Attack, MNKs, etc.), or that frequently use AoE TP moves to wipe shadows making Utsusemi useless. Cocoon/Phalanx/Stoneskin is very strong. You also get access to Vorpal blade and as a bonus, get highly efficient curing from Wild Carrot and Healing Breeze. The latter of which is an AoE self-target cure--BLU is the only job besides WHM that RDM can emply to gain AoE curing power. Since Healing Breeze has no soft cap and is highly influenced by MND, a RDM can get very good power out of it.

/DNC has AoE cure and single target status removal. TP for Waltz is usually more efficient than MP for Cure in situations where you can TP reliably.

Originally Posted by Sabaron

5. RDM/DRK (God of Stun): Chainspell + Stun (repeatedly) is the closest you can get to the Stop spell in FFXI. For one minute, you can lock down almost any mob--preventing it from taking most actions. This is very powerful against extremely strong boss type mobs that need to be killed quickly but that have devastating abilities that need to be carefully controlled. This attack usually generates far too much hate and will eventually breach the enmity generation of Invincible. RDMs employing this technique usually die shortly after.

Don't need CS to make Stun useful, plus Drain and Aspir can be quite helpful as well. RDM/DRK is my favorite campaign setup, and for melee'ing critters with dangerous but stunnable AoE spells/moves. (SCH AF fight, for example.) It has Vorpal Blade, too.