RDM equipment at level 58+

[dang everything]

What equipment should i invest in, i currently have around 55k+ (more money on mule) and don't know what to buy...

My current equipment is
Rose wand +1 (Wize Wizards Analace for solo'ing/skill up)
Buckler (will get a spiked buckler or is it darksteel?)
Marion tathlum
Electrum hair pin (going to upgrade to Worlock's Champu(sp?))
Promise Badge
Onxy Earing
Enhancement Earing
Electrum Rings
Eremite's Rings
Saintly Rings
Royal Knight's Belt
Red Cape
Rest is AF

I was considering getting some +3 MND and INT rings but i don't know if their worth the money and trouble getting the money...

Also what would be a good way for a 58 RDM to get some money to buy all the equipment i need? Thanks for any help

[IsseyMiyake-]

Sorry please update your equipment ; ;
Saintly ring??
you should have +3 mnd rings and +3 int rings in your inventory

Morion Earrings? (Do you Have it) <-- at the minimum.. Phantom if you got the extra

perhaps you should stop level chasing for a while and buy at least the average equipment for your level

right now as it stands your using some of the worst equipment for your level..

yhou shouldve had Gold hairpin since lvl 50

Farm Farm Farm .. play your job like you mean it

[Walkir]

That all looks about right to me.

I am just about lvl 56 and have most of the same stuff.

Gold hairpin, not worth the money for an extra 5mp over electrum. Morions is nice for the int, but expensive.

I am finding as an RDM/WHM (and Elf) that MP isnt really an issue. It always seems that when I am about out of MP, my convert is up.

I rearly ever have to take a knee.

[Altruist]

The equipment is fine, rings are for low mp. After 72 you can do fine with just +mp equipment (notice errant gear). Secret is to use macros to switch gear. If your hume magic curisses (drop from KA) and hume RSE pants will give you +6 int and if you switch back to AF boots it's +3 mnd. You need a lot of mind for cheap buy a pair of devotee's mitts and throw another macro on.

The point is you don't need to spend a lot of money on equipment if you know how to use less expensive equipment well. I'm probably going to replace my saintly rings with the +4 72 rings, at 70 you also get a nice mind boost with ogre boots.

The hardest time to land enfeebs talking to most level 75 rdm's I know is 65-68, if you can land your enfeebs then your golden.

[MMan530]

I don't think that your equipment is really that bad, myself. Its not the best in the world, but it should work. I wouldn't worry too much about head gear, because RDM's AF hat is great. It all depends on your needs. If you feel like you need more mp, then go for an Astral Ring (or even a Serket Ring, heh). Anything that converts hp to mp usually works very well for your race. If you have more than enough mp, I'd recommend trying to up your int whenever its feasible. Elvaan need less +mnd gear and more +int gear, but it also depends on what you're doing in the party.

Buy a Fencer's Ring for farming.

I believe that a Spiked Buckler is the "+1" version of Darksteel. I could be completely wrong or have them mixed up, but they're almost the same thing.

[Altruist]

I have a darksteal right now, and will have till I can start PT'ing in kuftal. Suposedly it isn't too hard to get an astral apis, rare/ex.

[Alcueid]

I must agree with IssyeMiyake.

Your equipment is not good enough.

Here is what I am using currently at level 66.

Main weapon:
For parties
神代､ I dont know what the English name is.
+8 Int +8 Mnd staff for levels 65+ (Could not afford HQ 400k)
For Solo
Aramis Rapier (Solo sword is not a priority equipment for me,
but I plan on replacing this with the rank 6 sandorian sword after I get other higher priority equipment, maybe enhance sword if god be willing)
Garuda Dagger

Shield (I dont plan on getting any other shields)
Party
Astral shield: +2 resistance to all elements, converts 30hp to mp
Solo
Rank6 Bastok Shield 12 Def +3 Agi
Raising Skill
Balance Buckler +4 accuracy

Ranged weapon: Phantom Tathlum
+10 mp +1 Int
I don't plan on changing this

Rings: Astral Ring x2
I thought about buying +mnd +int rings to swap in when casting other spells. But I decided to not add any ring swapping macros due to fear of swapping astrals out when mp is almost full for a rather large mp cost.
So waiting for my vivian ring and serket ring.

Neck:
For when converting
Spirit Torque +10mp +5 evasion
For casting enfeebling spells
Enfeebling Torque +7 enfeebling magic skill
For casting elemental spells
Elemental Torque +7 elemental magic skill

I would say that enfeebling and elemental torques are must have equipments for rdm above 65. RDM really need the enfeebling torque to reduce resists to enfeebling.
The elemental torque is very important since RDM has elemental skill C+ which means even MB gets resisted a lot without it.

Head:
AF
I am thinking about swapping in my gold hairpin when converting for the extra mp, but if I do that I will have to remove the auto-cure portion from the macro.

Body:
AF
IMO the usefulness of a vermillion cloak to rdm is debatable due to the godliness of rdm body and head AF.

The only use I can think of it would be for when casting Refresh. At higher levels one redmage needs to cast refresh for 5 people in your party, since the recast for refresh is a tad short of the time needed for the first tick of mp heal, I usually end up standing when distributing Refresh to the party. So wearing a vermillion cloak could be useful for when doing this, but even then you lose the extra fast cast from the hat which is painful. So maybe vermillion cloak has no use at all for rdm?
But once I hit 72 the body armor for errant set would be better for mp healing while sitting, and casting elemental spells.

Hand:
AF no swap
Why is the mithra racial gear hand armor better than RDM AF hand armor? Maybe I should use that instead?
After 72 errant hand armor is better than either for party play.

Back:
Enhance cape +10mp +10hp for when converting
Red Cape+1 for all other times.
Sticking to rainbow cape as soon as I hit 71.
Should I get an enpower cape as well for the extra 10mp boost for when converting?

Belt:
Sandorian rank 5 belt, +2 to all stats.
Not enough money for lvl 50 racial belt ; ;
Saving money for lvl 70 racial belt. No swap in parties once I get lvl 70 racial belt.

Legs:
AF
Mithra racial gear leg armor has a larger MP boost and Mnd bonus.
But the AF has +15 enhance magic skill and +10 healing magic skill.
... I should probably use the racial gear since enhance magic skill is only useful during solo and when casting barelement, and healing magic skill is not useful.

Feet:
AF
Does anyone know a better alternative for RDM feet armor?
Replacing with Errant feet armor at 72.

Earrings:
Enhancement Earring
Morion Earring
This is the armor piece that I am most concerned about.
From 68 Phantom Earring and Molbadite Pierce would probably be the best combination. But Molbadite Pierce is only useful for swapping in during nuking macros, and really the same goes with Molbadite pierce. Is there anything else useful that I can use?
The only alternative I see is Death pierce for the +10mp to swap in for molbadite when converting, and I suppose I could swap it in for phantom as well but the +2mp probably isn't worth the extra slot in my bag.

The problem is, AF2, rare/exe NM drop equipment, and HNM equipment is very difficult to get for casual players...

[Xien]

Originally posted by IsseyMiyake-
Sorry please update your equipment ; ;
Saintly ring??
you should have +3 mnd rings and +3 int rings in your inventory

Morion Earrings? (Do you Have it) <-- at the minimum.. Phantom if you got the extra

perhaps you should stop level chasing for a while and buy at least the average equipment for your level

right now as it stands your using some of the worst equipment for your level..

yhou shouldve had Gold hairpin since lvl 50

Farm Farm Farm .. play your job like you mean it

Please, the equipment isn't that bad. IMO, most of the equipment you posted was extra. The only one I really reconmmend is the +3MND rings.

The usefulness of +2 int from the morrions are really debateble. Refer to the BLM thread about the Resist vs. Int argument. At MOST this will raise your nukes 20 dmg above normal (if that high). Since most of us are busy with backup cures, enfeebles, and refreshing, we can probably only Nuke during MBs.

Same goes for the +3 int rings. I find at 60+ I rarely nuke outside during MBs since resist rate is high (our elemental skill is C+). We don't have much MP to play with (compared to WHM, BLM , SMN) so Nuking can take quite a chunk out of your MP.

You should get the gold hairpin if your'e not close to the Hat AF though. It's cheap enough that the cost isn't really an issue.

Here's my current equip:

Main: +7 int, +7 MND wand. Or WWA for farming, RG Fleuret for skillup. Darkstaff for sitting.

Shield: Hard shield. (I like the look. DS buckler looks ><) I use the lvl 40 +6 atk hield for farming.

Head, body, arms, legs, feet: AF.

Ranged: Morrion Tathlum

Rings: Two astrals, switch out with Saintly rings +1. After using astrals for 10+ levels, I'm still myahhhh about the difference between electrum and astral. Personally, these are only good for lvling pre-40 subs and status.

Earrings: Phantoms (lvl 60). Thinking of selling these as these are really kinda crappy. Definately selling one of these after I get moldavite.

Neck: Promise B.

Belt: RK belt. (I want that Jungle stone but no one sells it ><)

[macross_sdf1]

You're a red mage, no one cares what gear you have. As long as you have refresh and dispel you'll get a group over a decked out super melee with 20million gil in gears. If you get low on mp, simply convert.

A sucky rdm is better then no rdm.

[Chucklez_1]

wow...and i only have 80k in my pocket...how the HELL am i going to get those things? :mad:

Would electrum rings be a good substitute for astral rings?

[Sukashi]

Electrum Rings and Astral Rings aren't really that much different... only a matter of -10HP and +10MP :S, easily counteracted with food or ... Fencing Degen -.-

As said above, the only explicit advantage that Astrals have over Electrums is that Astrals can be equipped at 10, while Electrums are at 40; other than that, is it really worth it to fork over... 260k for a pair of Astral Rings (current prices on Midgardsormr is 130k each, I think), than a much more affordable 40k pair of Electrum Rings?

You can definitely use that potential 220k for other things.. I have a pair of Electrum Rings right now, and they work fantastic. However, when/if I ever get to be a rich RDM ; ; I plan to switch to Astrals ^^

[Altruist]

If you have 80k I would advise that you buy the following things:

Head: Gold or Electrum hairpin
Neck: (+MND, +INT, when you can spider or enfeeble torque)
Back: RedCape or RedCape +1, Rainbow cape only gives you 9mp over RedCape +1
Feet: RSE (AF = useless for exp PT unless your RSE has no +mp)
Ranged: Phantom or Morion Talthum (do the ore, drop rate isn't bad)
Hands: RSE, and devotee's mitts (make sure you macro the mitts though, -3 int is bad for nukes ;
Legs: RSE, AF, and if you have the extra cash magic curisses (sp?) for +int on legs (note: no MP bonus so macro with lower mp)
Body: AF
Shield: Anything really (Astral shield is a bit expensive 900k on my server)
Weapon: Any, in EXP PT use a wand rose, ebony, mythic, whatever is the best for your level (all cost below 10k, unless you want +1)
Rings: Electrum, +2mnd or +2int at least, (+4 means you have way too much money because there are a lot cheaper ways to get mnd and int)
Earring: Enhancing, Moldavite, Morion, Phantom

[Gman]

Ah, the joys of being a Taru RDM... most of the equip strategies don't apply to me, so I have more flexibility to equip what I want.

I don't have to bother with +MP gear at all, so that frees up my ring and head spots for stuff that is actually beneficial like +MND and +INT gear...

I know it's quite a bit different for the other races that have lower MP-HP ratios.

Right now my equips at level 21 could be better, but they are ok...

Bee Spatha +1, Aspis
Bug Eye Circlet
Beetle Harness
Scentless Armlets
Black Slacks
Light Soleas
Justice Badge
Cotton Cape
Friars rope

Windurst Ring, Saintly Ring
Amber Earring, Toumaline Earring

Total + stats

+6 MND
+1 INT
+13 Evasion
+2 Accuracy

I don't get hit much

[Dierdre]

I'm using a red cape +1, an enhancing earring, a black earring (IIRC), dual astrals, and a royal fleuret ... I do wicked melee damage (at lvl 60) and can usually go a full chain 6 with only getting 4-5 ticks in while keeping the entire group going ... as a hume I don't find a need for more mp than this. I'll probably be swapping to phantoms when I get the required level (65?) and I'll be holding onto my darksteel buckler a while.

If you capitalize on the red mage melee skills then the RDM AF is actually really nice.

[dang everything]

Thanks for all the replies

Right now i have a bit of money (im lvl 59 and im going to get my RDM AF hat today, hopefully)

So the electrum hairpin will go, the rings i guess i need...i have enough money for maybe two rings, but the marion earings are but a far dream...i plan to get an enfeebling torque from BCNM60 if it isn't to hard...

Macross, im not a sucky RDM if you're talking about me, what i lack in equipment (for now) i can make up for in skill, which is why i don't have much trouble getting a party...thanks to everyone else though!