{Red Mage} {Hmmm.} {/think} {Can I have it?}

[Aeni]

Re: {Red Mage} {Hmmm.} {/think} {Can I have it?}

Why are people using wands? Post-51 shouldn't you have a staff equipped 100% of the time?

No. Depends on the race. As a mithra, I used wands exclusively up until level 62, when my lack of MND became less of an issue and where staves benefits started to shine more. I guess there's an equilibrium or a "breaking point" if you will with many jobs/races. At level 52, I was getting mad resists with staves, but better sticking and proccing with wands. That started to change somewhere after I hit 60...

[Icemage]

Re: {Red Mage} {Hmmm.} {/think} {Can I have it?}

If the rest of your gear is enough to ensure a reasonable (90%+) stick rate on your enfeebles without a staff, you can certainly forgo the staff and tack on a +INT/+MND wand to increase spell potency.

For enfeebling magic, staves just increase accuracy - they don't do anything for your spell potency, while some spells like Slow get stronger in effect as your MND score increases.


Icemage

[Draco Dagon]

Re: {Red Mage} {Hmmm.} {/think} {Can I have it?}

Micro equip macro guide (sort of ) :

First the equip slots.


main sub range ammo

head neck ear1 ear2

body hands ring1 ring2

back waist legs feet


To use an equip macro all you gotta do is type

/equip slot "name of the item"


To equip a promise badge you'd have to type something like this:

/equip neck "Promise Badge" <- (You can use auto translator to get the name of the item right, it's the same with spells and everything else.)

Note that if the item's name has more than one word you gotta use " " or the system wont recognize it.


Then you gotta use the limited space you have in each macro (6 lines) the best way possible.

Name
/equip main "Casting Wand"
/equip ring1 "MND ring"
/equip neck "MND badge"
/equip ring2 "MND ring"
/equip hand "MND mitts"
/ma Paralyze <t> <----could be <bt> <stnpc> etc.

<bt> It attacks the last beast target (is that the actual name?) you or your party attacked, this can be dangerous if you just slept an add because you might end up casting on the wrong mob.

<stnpc> This and <stpc> are used so an arrow appears and you can tab between targets, either all non player characters or player characters.

<t> Normal targeting, it will perform the action on anything you are targetting the moment you press the macro. (it can be dangerous if you are targeting something you shouldn't )



For resting you might wanna change all your + hmp gear and if it's full rest maybe macro some +mp gear too.

Name
/equip main "Dark staff or hmp wand"
/equip ring1 "MP ring"
/equip waist "HMP belt"
/equip ring2 "MP ring"
/equip legs "RSE with +mp"
/heal

There are many other commands you can use and include in your macros, but I'll list the ones I use the most. You can check the full list of comands by typing /?

/heal To rest
/recast "Spell or ability name" Used to display the recast time of an ability or spell
/ja "ability name" <me> or <t> To use an ability
/ma "Spell" <me> or <t> To use a spell


Now, if you need to change more than 5 pieces of gear at a time you might want to dedicate a macro for general stat items, and then in the actual spell macro add the things that are specific to the spell you are casting.

(I wont talk about other ways to use macros because I have no experience with 3rd party programs)

Example: Paralyze, MND based spell, Ice based, enfeebling skill based.

Macro 1 (Generic stat gear, INT, MND, MP etc.)

Name
/equip ring1 "MND ring"
/equip legs "MND slops" <
/equip ring2 "MND ring"
/equip neck "MND badge"
/equip hand "MND mitts"
/ma feet "MND boots"

< I placed something between the 2 rings because if both rings have the same name the system might not recognize the 2nd ring change (it happens a lot), and gives you a msg about being unable to equip.


Macro 2 (Spell specific stuff)

Name
/recast "Paralyze"
/equip main "Ice staff"
/equip body "Enf skill stuff"
/equip neck "Enfeebling skill stuff"
/ma Paralyze <t>


And that's it for the equip macro basics (I think...)


You'll spend a hours tweaking and getting used to your macros but once you get em right you'll see how much easier things become, and how much it will enhance you gameplay.

It's a lot of work at first, but once you are done and see that you cast an INT based spell with +30 INT and next you cast a MND spell based spell with +30 MND and both stick for a long time everything will be worth it.

In my case I have one macro palet for each sub, some macros repeat in all the pallets while sub specific change.

Try to keep all the macros you need for a determined sub in one palet, if you have to toggle because you are using more than 20 macros at a time you'll have a lot of troubles in tough battles (although it can be done).

Sounds fun...

Okay, another question: how should I level my enfeebling skill and how often purposely? (Not that I have much of a problem leveling it yet, but there will eventually come those times.)

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: {Red Mage} {Hmmm.} {/think} {Can I have it?}

^_^;

If you're RDM, is it possible that your Enfeebling Magic skill can fall behind?

[Raydeus]

Re: {Red Mage} {Hmmm.} {/think} {Can I have it?}

Sounds fun...

Okay, another question: how should I level my enfeebling skill and how often purposely? (Not that I have much of a problem leveling it yet, but there will eventually come those times.)

Don't worry after you get used to equip macros they are great... and then you'll use em for everything heheh.


There's no way your enf skill falls behind, you will always cast at least 3 debuffs per mob so there's no chance you'll fall behind.

Enhancing is easy because of Refresh and Haste so it will lvl almost as fast as your Enf. skill.

Dark magic on the other hand will fall behind if you dont Bio, Drain/Aspir often.

Healing and Divine will be way slower though, specially Divine but since there's only one spell we can use that uses that skill (Flash) and it isn't a big deal really.



Edit> I just noticed I didn't include Banish in divine but... does anyone use that? Most of the time I completely forget it's there

[Aeni]

Re: {Red Mage} {Hmmm.} {/think} {Can I have it?}

^_^;

If you're RDM, is it possible that your Enfeebling Magic skill can fall behind?

Yes it can. If you're in a party with another RDM and that RDM is designated as enfeebler and nuker and you're stuck with main healing duties because you have /WHM but the other RDM doesn't.

sux2bme

[Draco Dagon]

Re: {Red Mage} {Hmmm.} {/think} {Can I have it?}

Don't worry after you get used to equip macros they are great... and then you'll use em for everything heheh.


There's no way your enf skill falls behind, you will always cast at least 3 debuffs per mob so there's no chance you'll fall behind.

Enhancing is easy because of Refresh and Haste so it will lvl almost as fast as your Enf. skill.

Dark magic on the other hand will fall behind if you dont Bio, Drain/Aspir often.

Healing and Divine will be way slower though, specially Divine but since there's only one spell we can use that uses that skill (Flash) and it isn't a big deal really.



Edit> I just noticed I didn't include Banish in divine but... does anyone use that? Most of the time I completely forget it's there

As of Level 46, these are my magic skills: Divine 85, Healing 122, Enhancing 96, Enfeebling 140, Elemental 128, Dark 42.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: {Red Mage} {Hmmm.} {/think} {Can I have it?}

My Healing Magic just broke 190, but only because I've been Curaga and Cure 3 Spamming in Melee PTs and powerleveling like mad -.-

Not sure how Aeni got away with it, but the general gear selection sucks postAF and preJSE/Errant, so I kept AF on anyway. But oh well, different strokes

I had straight RSE on until AF (Cause Taru's are MND Starved ;. But i noticed other races use RSE1 long into the game, basically until RSE2.

And AENI!!! Shaaaaaaame! Have you learned nothing? Don't waste money on the ST, wait a level and get the Enfeebling. The Spider Torque is for lowbies and wome-

Oh, nvm >.>; (haha, j/k)

In any case, it's true that MND and INT affect the duration and strength of a spell once it lands, but if your spells can't land, then you'll need Accuracy and Skill. It sounds hard, but when put into layman's terms, it's quite simple.

A Boxer can't land a punch without having the skill. A boxer also needs strength to further increase his punch damage once he can land them.

Just think about that next time you're resisted. At my level, with merits and staves, I more or less don't need to use any Enfeebling+ Gear for spells that are dependant on stats to boost proc rate and duration (Like Slow and Paralyze.)

I'm not sure if spells like Gravity and Blind benefit from having more INT over Enfeebling (assuming, of course, that you can land them), but Apple Pie has said that spells like Poison have a damage ratio based on your Enfeebling skill at the time of landing.

Staves and such are close, but still a world away. Focusing on your current gear and not getting ahead of yourself is fine.

And go back to the Red Cape, arguably, Red Cape +1 is one of the best capes RDMs can buy, then you keep that until the 70s when you can buy the Rainbow Cape. If the Grammary Cape had a +2 or a +3 to Magic Accuracy, I'd use that, at your level, but I'm still debating if the +1 is worth buying at all for anything.

[Draco Dagon]

Re: {Red Mage} {Hmmm.} {/think} {Can I have it?}

Well, I just reached lvl 50 tonight with RDM and I'm getting used to equipment macros right now too.

[Karinya]

Re: {Red Mage} {Hmmm.} {/think} {Can I have it?}

Don't waste money on the ST, wait a level and get the Enfeebling.

Wow, prices on your server must be very different. On mine, Spider is 500K, Enfeebling 3.5M. Unless you're obscenely rich or fighting gods regularly, there's no reason to spend an extra 3 million for 2 more skill. If you're only moderately rich, there are better places to put it, and if you're not rich at all you don't even have that much.

On top of that, you can camp your own Spider solo; you'll need a party and a bunch of seals to try for Enfeebling.

Unless you have hundreds of millions of gil, you need to *think* about what provides the most value for the gil that you do have. Spending everything on one or two of the shiniest super-expensive toys is not necessarily a good idea.

[Murphie]

Re: {Red Mage} {Hmmm.} {/think} {Can I have it?}

Seriously. You can just camp your own Spider Torque if you want, so I don't see why you wouldn't at least give it a try.

Not that the enfeebling isn't really nice. I'm just saying. I generally always choose something I can do myself over something that I need help with or that I just buy my way through.

[Kirsteena]

Re: {Red Mage} {Hmmm.} {/think} {Can I have it?}

If you are using rdm endgame, then yes, go for the enfeebling. If you have seals to burn, try for it, however, spider torque will serve you in the short term, or even long term if all you are doing is using rdm for merits.

[Raydeus]

Re: {Red Mage} {Hmmm.} {/think} {Can I have it?}

Well, I just reached lvl 50 tonight with RDM and I'm getting used to equipment macros right now too.

(Congratulations!)

Not that the enfeebling isn't really nice. I'm just saying. I generally always choose something I can do myself over something that I need help with or that I just buy my way through.

+2 skill isn't worth 3 million gil unless you are doing gods or stuff like that, heck even the +5 from spider is barely worth it at that lvl.

RDM enf. skill is really high, so +7 skill at lvl 65 is 3% increase or so (and the benefit decreases as you level up), which really means nothing unless you are fighting mobs way higher than a normal xp mob (not to mention you already have +15 skill from your AF body at that lvl).

From my experience the resist rate at those levels is more dependant on how much can you boost your INT/MND than it is about skill. So equip macros and elemental staves should be all you need, I'd take +5 MND from Promise and +3 INT from Philomath stole over enf. torque any day.

Now, if you fight gods and mobs that are a much higher lvl compared to your current skill (around 10 lvls) that's when you should focus on +skill. Those are the fights where having +7 from the torque, +15 from AFv2 Chapeau and another +15 from AF body is really sweet.

[Murphie]

Re: {Red Mage} {Hmmm.} {/think} {Can I have it?}

That's why I wouldn't spend my gil on the Enfeelbing Torque at that point in the game. I'd just camp a Spider Torque for now and sell it later when I wanted to upgrade.

[Aeni]

Re: {Red Mage} {Hmmm.} {/think} {Can I have it?}

And AENI!!! Shaaaaaaame! Have you learned nothing? Don't waste money on the ST, wait a level and get the Enfeebling. The Spider Torque is for lowbies and wome-

H4X!1111

But seriously, ST's are good enough for me. I've been stuck at 64 for a while now, trying to save up money for an Enf. Torque though. And no, I haven't gotten an ST yet either. Was about to, then saw it jump to 1.2 million from 600K in one week. Then saw Enf. Torque edge down about 2sh. Now all that's left is to procure funding.

Yes, I'm weird people. I stopped leveling DRK at 60 because I wanted to get my Haubu. For several months. At least this time around I have enough experience and several crafts to accelerate my down time. Plus, I'm enjoying leveling other jobs too, so it's a good break.