best low level ring setup?

[711rocks]

Not sure if this was in the sticky somewhere I have never read the whole thing. If it is mods may delete this thread if they want.

I was thinking of playing rdm for a bit, I have no idea when I am going to start it, but what was wondering what rings to use at level 10 or so.
I know astrals are great, but was wondering if I should wait before using them till I have more HP? I was thinking 2 eremites +1, because there are other ways to get +mnd stuff at low level, (mist silk cape, justice badge) However; would 2 saintly +1 along with a JBand MSC be better with food like pies to get my dose of +int? I think I'll use wands +1, my sword and dagger would be capped from thf for awhile, but I don't know how much I'll melee. I guess I'll bring daggers, swords, and wands and switch between them. Also, what food would be the best? Would pie or roast mushroom be better, and if pie what kind? Thanks in advance.

[Silkiv]

http://mysterytour.web.infoseek.co.j...food/05int.htm
Int foods charted by Mystery Tour

http://mysterytour.web.infoseek.co.j...food/06mnd.htm
Mnd food charted by Mystery Tour

Just pick something within your budget. Good mage food will give +mnd, +int, +mp, +mp while healing. Almost any food is better than no food

I think I went mostly mp and Int until I got out of Kazham and into Garlaige and Kazham.. The reason were my enfeebles almost always stuck. I subbed /blm and always loved to magic burst or nuke occasionally if the melee couldn't set up a skillchain.

Later on I'd suggest going for mnd and/or swapping int, mnd, and mp gears since us Mithra and Tarus Rdm lack mnd and getting resists can be discouraging.

[Zempten]

Depends on how far you are going to take your RDM.

Astrals are great if your PT has a good idea of what they are doing. Usually I would watch them for 30 mins ( I like to call this a Trial) to see if they meet the standards of me going full way, such as equipping Astrals and eatting food.

In the lower levels you can fulfill 2 roles: a mage and a meele.

The Mage:
As a mage (the best of enfeebling) you do not have to worry about MND that much as you will pretty much always land your spells. I think it was at 30 or even higher was when I first saw resist to my spells. So what is mainly important is that you have the MP to exp chain as long as you can. For this, I would suggest Astral Rings and Melon Pies ( MP, MND, and INT).

The Meele:
First off, I want to say RDM meele sucks, like really badly after around lvl 30, this is usually the point where you stop meeleing and play as the support mage that you are. Anyways, you can still meele from 1 - 20 decently( to me it seemed from 20 to 30 where my meele just wasn't cutting it). Your equipment can be either regular meele equipment or regular mage equipment or even in between. Of course you will have to eat food as well, usually it would be Meat Mithakabobs. The equipment your going to have to decide for yourself on what you want. It doesn't even matter that much at the lower levels. If you want you can get Battle Gloves, nomad mantle, or whatever if you have the gil.

The truth was that from 10 to 20. I was tanking. Yes, I know RDMs aren't tanks, but I have same weapons and equipment that even a PLD can wear from 10 to 20 ( mostly the same ), the only thing I lack is the JT defense boost and some HP. I can make the defense up thru Fish Mithakabobs (Sure the PLD will still have more, but at least I can tank). I like to think of ourselves as the miniture version of PLDs. We have access to Cure spells ( which is the reason how most PLDs keep hate, curing themsleves) and we can enfeeble some and we have Provoke with a WAR sub. I did this approach because back then, most people didn't even know how to hold hate. So I went to the PLD sections and I figure we could do the same job as a PLD but with a bit less defense that could be made up by food.

However, like I said it depends on how far your taking your RDM. Our roles can be flexible and sometimes it changes completely. I believe that 30 and 41 is a big time when the RDM changes. 30 because our meele just isn't up to par and 41 because we begin to understand how much Refresh can give us carpal tunnel syndrome. ^^

BTW, hate to say this but a good friend of mine in game became a RDM tank that could pull in 4 to 5k exp. He was a Galka RDM and well......I just want to know...has any other galka RDMs done this before? I mean I trust my friend, but I'm just wondering if other Galka RDMs have done this before. I believe he was a lvl 43 RDM or somewhere in the lower 40s. Sorry, this is kind of off topic ;;

[WishMaster3K]

From my experience, I never needed Astral, nor will i want to get them. Not to blast those that do, but with Taru MP, I'd rather spend the 400k i'd drop on both of them on some gear that increases stats.

Mithra... Hmm, I think to be the BEST, you need to strike a balance- which means: Using MP Rings and switching to stat rings when the extra MP is used up.

At the very least, but yourself some Eremites or Saintly. I dont think the +1 version are needed, but if you can afford em now, there is no prob. I myself was gonna get another Yew Wand +1 for when I sub NIN and solo, but i realized that I'm about 2 lvls away from Solid Wand. In the same sense, I could have bought one of the Saintly or Eremit +1, but I'm going to guess that I'm not too far from gear that does the same thing, or a ring for a lvl 30 that is already a +3 or +4 in MND or INT.

Basically, if your gonna buy big, do it asap or not at all. No use buying Yew Wand +1 for 9k or whatever when your lvl 32, and can get a (forgot the name, but Solid Wand is the +1 version) for about 4k.

Oh, and I used Melon Pies and Apple, but Taru INT wasnt what I needed to raise

So if your worried about MND, sub WHM and buy +MND food for a decent balance.