Returning red mage need help

[Kilazar]

Okay after getting used to the fighting and targeting system again, I think I'm ready to reset up my red mage macro's (52 rdm)

But I am not sure what to keep on hand since everything is so limited.

Here is what I have (I am doing equip swaps, that is not my issue so just listing spell name) If anyone has suggestions dont be shy. I'm looking for a efficient grouping set of spells in my macro list and I am just not sure what is used nowadays.

So here is what I have for when I'm in a party.

c1 - cure3
c2 - cure4
c3 - regen
c4 - refresh
c5 - haste
c6 - slow
c7 - paralyze
c8 - Dia 2
c9 - Silence
c0 - Dispel

alt1 - magic burst
alt2 - empty
alt3 - empty
alt5 - Convert
alt6- Sleep
alt7 - bind
alt8- blind
alt9- gravity
alt0- Bio

Any suggestions for the two empty slots? Any spells I should take out/replace with other spells. This is my main pallette, I do plan on having a sub pallete for gear swaps and less used spells. This is a list of the spells I need the fastest access too.

Thanks in advance.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Returning red mage need help

- I recommend separate macros for Sleep and Sleep II; if one is resisted, you need to get the other one out fast. If the current monster will die soon, don't waste MP on a Sleep II, and just do Sleep instead.
- Bio is normally unnecessary.
- Curaga (for /WHM)
- Bar-element (for /WHM)
- hMP macro for resting (switching in hMP and MP gears)
- Some combination of macros for switching out hMP and MP gears into MND/INT gear.
- Poison II is probably your most MP efficient damage spell from the back line.

[Mhurron]

Re: Returning red mage need help

What does your sleep macro look like. You can take advantage of erroring out sleep spells by going

/ma "Sleep II" <stnpc>
/wait 1
/ma Sleep <t>

What will happen is if Sleep II is up, that will cast, if it isn't it will error and one second later Sleep I will cast on that same target.

Personally I don't have a convert macro so I can never accidentally hit it. I also go /blm a lot so in your empty slots I have Drain and Aspir macroed, if you don't you could also use them for just INT and MND gear swaps when you get enough gear. For parties I wouldn't bother macroing Bio.

EDIT: Ya, poison II is a great spell, I don't actually have Bind macroed so I guess Poison II sits there.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Returning red mage need help

What will happen is if Sleep II is up, that will cast, if it isn't it will error and one second later Sleep I will cast on that same target.

I toss Dark Staff, enfeebling, INT gear switching into both of my Sleep I and Sleep II macros. Plus, as I said, there are times when Sleep is better than Sleep II, if the party doesn't need the critter to be slept for long.

[Patchinko]

Re: Returning red mage need help

Depends what your subjob is and what enemies you'll be fighting.

For WHM,
・Appropriate -na spells. Erase if applicable.
・Appropriate bar-ra spells.
・Curaga spells.
・Divine Seal cures.

For BLM,
・Appropriate nukes for mob you're fighting (might fit in your "magic burst" slot)
・Elemental Seal nukes
・Sleepga
・Drain

You will want to replace Bio with Poison II because like someone else said, it's a ton of damage. Bio and Dia do not stack, and Dia II is the better spell.

Hope that helps. Good luck!

[ThreeFootMuse]

Re: Returning red mage need help

My suggestion would be to split your macros right now into two or more palettes, and integrate your own and others' suggestions into your main bar. My theories for the main bar have always been about reaching all of the abilities that are most essential, as quickly as possible.

I used the the first ten Crtl slots for enfeebles. I did not include blind in this, and leave only sleep 2. I've always found that a WHM or PLD's flash, or a Ninja's Kurayami is much more reliable and potent than my own Blind spell, though there have been parties where I switched out bio for blind.

I always try and save at least four slots to be dedicated to curing spells only, as at 75 you'll need at least access to Curaga II, Cure III and IV, and Regen. A dedicated spot on your main bar for a "/recast" macro would probably be a good idea too.

As far as gear swaps go, I integrated half of them into every macro itself, and then had the remaining gear swaps in two macros for "Int" and "Mnd" on my main palette. I used these two macros to swap most of the gear that remained static through most spells between INT and MND only. I also keep Haste and Refresh on the Alt bar as well, and while I EXP'd to 75 I kept my hMP gear swap macro on my main bar.

Then I made two additional sets, one below and one above. Above, I put personal defensive spells, Status repairs for /whm, and job abilities, such as convert and related macros, divine/elemental seal, etc. Below the main bar I have my nukes, bar'elemental spells, and and my /blm spells, with all of the sleeps and drains, etc, and gear swap macros for them.

It might sound a little excessive, but it was the only way I could logically split up all of the spells I used at any given day. It's become a rather intuitive process to shift between bars though, and if you've a mind to do this anyhow, now is a good time to start =P!

-Auremir

[Taskmage]

Re: Returning red mage need help

I've been wanting to talk about this for a while, too. Any pointers from other rdms on my macro organization?

Standard/Backline palette:


I've replaced the regen slot recently with a Kamae macro which equips my standing set for damage -%, mdb, and auto-refresh. The hMP macro also equips some int/mnd pieces such as Jet Seraweels because there is not enough room in my nuke macros for all the gear swaps I want. ><; So when I nuke I hit Ctrl-7 Alt-9. Ctrl-0 is /target <bt>. The sleep macro in this set is Sleep II only plus gear swaps.

Solo/Frontline palette:


Pretty straightforward here. Ctrl-5 is melee gear swaps. Alt-5 is /recasts for Utsusemi, Bind, Gravity and Convert. Sleep here is Sleep I only, so if I want Sleep II when soloing I Alt-down Alt-7 and the reverse for Sleep I when I'm backlining.

Dynamis-specific palette:


Tweak of the backline palette. Again, Regen has been canned for Kamae since the screenshot. Stoneskin folded in for easier quick access. DoTs removed as well as most enfeebles since the other rdms in my shell cast stronger versions than I have faster than me anyway. In their place are drk sub options. Nukes and enfeebles in this set swap in MCBs where appropriate instead of Yigit Gages and also Anrin Obi on dark elemental spells. Ctrl-0 on this palette is /assist (Caller).

Problems:

No room for Regen, Curaga or Fire III. (The latter seems to get resisted less often by demons than Blizzard and Thunder, and is useful for dumping damage quickly without Chainspell. Curaga I get around by leaving my cursor on it in the magic menu, and using my Cure IV macro on myself while the Curaga is casting to equip appropriate gear swaps. The relative slowness of using the menu is generally not an issue since I rarely want to use this quick during combat rather than to patch up after a nasty fight.

Having the hMP macro double as an INT macro is a hack fix for not having enough room, and rather less than optimal. But what else can you do without windower macros if you want to swap in head, body, legs, hands, waist and staff gear, and possibly ring, earring and cape in the future? It's also a pain when I want to nuke while kiting, since I'm usually on my solo palette which does not have a hMP/INT macro, resulting in excessive palette swapping which slows me down, especially on PS2. I think the solution I need to implement for this is to split my solo set into seperate sets for kiting and for melee, possibly breaking the melee set into multiple sets depending on sub.

Bind and Blind being on the same hotkey is problematic. I don't notice I'm on the wrong palette when kiting more often than I'd like to admit. -.-;

I have no -nas macroed since such a macro would need to be edited even more often than my Bar- and En- macros. I opt for using Ctrl-M and cursor memory to access -nas, though it can be a trifle too slow in cases where more than one -na is needed, such as Skoffins. It's also an issue if one of the needed status removal spells is Erase, but I could fix that by manually sorting my spells.

I might consider canning my Convert macro to get more space. I've never had a problem accidentally hitting it, but my convert ratio is good enough naturally that I macro almost no gear for it, and it's easy enough just to hit Ctrl-J for it. I'd lose the /p {Convert} {Just used it.} line, which I've kept to reduce heart attacks for whms and so they know to Cure V me if they're that type of helpful whm, but it seems like nobody pays attention anymore anyway.

Edit:

Oh, also .. I haven't gotten to play with tanking much yet but I intend to create another palette for that. Any suggestions as to what spells to include and how to structure it?

I did not include blind in this, and leave only sleep 2. I've always found that a WHM or PLD's flash, or a Ninja's Kurayami is much more reliable and potent than my own Blind spell, though there have been parties where I switched out bio for blind.

Flash and Blind stack to good effect, though I think you're right that Kurayami: Ni is more effective than Blind I if you have a nin that's good enough to cast it. Blind is probably our least effective enfeeble in most situations so I can't really blame you for skipping it, but consider that for a mere 8 mp, even if this spell only causes one additional hit to miss every few fights, it's saved you a good deal of mp on Cures.

[Kilazar]

Re: Returning red mage need help

What does your sleep macro look like. You can take advantage of erroring out sleep spells by going

/ma "Sleep II" <stnpc>
/wait 1
/ma Sleep <t>

What will happen is if Sleep II is up, that will cast, if it isn't it will error and one second later Sleep I will cast on that same target.

Personally I don't have a convert macro so I can never accidentally hit it. I also go /blm a lot so in your empty slots I have Drain and Aspir macroed, if you don't you could also use them for just INT and MND gear swaps when you get enough gear. For parties I wouldn't bother macroing Bio.

EDIT: Ya, poison II is a great spell, I don't actually have Bind macroed so I guess Poison II sits there.

I sub whm, and I'm only 52 I decided before anyone posted to go ahead and do a mnd gr and int gr swap in my open two slots! Glad I was on the right track.

I'm mostly just looking for what spells should be removed /replaced. Since I have not grouped in a long time. I do my gear swaps mostly in macro, and I do have a heal gear swap on another pallete, just as I have all my buffs on another palete. The main bar for me is all about what needs to have the quickest access.

Thanks for the input everyone it has been very helpfull!

*edit* so replace bio with poison 2, and move bind to a sub pallete? The barra spells I'm quick enough to use from the magic menu. But I could make a singel bara macro and change out the element depending... And completley forgot about erase. I don't think I have access to it with my current level.

[ThreeFootMuse]

Re: Returning red mage need help

Taskmage:

I've run into many of the same problems. For a while, I was hellbent on not using windower macros, and had to find a way to stuff everything into two button presses. What I did, was seperate the gear categories into items that are swapped and only to produce more INT or MND, such as feet or hand armor on my main bar, or rings and earrings. I then would put more specific gear swaps, like head, body, neck etc, into each specific macro. But for even my most basic set, I then would need a second and third bar. So I would duplicate the INT and MND specific macros and say for nukes, replace the hands with zenith, or whatever was appropriate. I reached a point where I could get every gear piece I needed in by pressing the int or mnd button before the spell or ability itself. There were a few exceptions that required an extra press.

But when it came down to frontline stuff, where I started to get asked to maintank on RDM, I quickly realized that I had to create another two full bar sets.

My suggestion would be to expand your backline macros to two or three bars (finding room for dedicated status repairs will help immensely, even if it requires you to be tabbing through bars, imo), and either do the same for the following sets, or, add a third bar that can go inbetween the Solo/frontline and dynamis specific bars that hold many of the macros both sets share, such as stone, silence, stoneskin etc.

Now with the expanded macro books, this becomes much easier! It was nothing short of a pain, before.

[Mhurron]

Re: Returning red mage need help

I toss Dark Staff, enfeebling, INT gear switching into both of my Sleep I and Sleep II macros. Plus, as I said, there are times when Sleep is better than Sleep II, if the party doesn't need the critter to be slept for long.

My sleep macro goes -

/equip Main "Dark Staff"
/equip Sub [some strap]
/ma "Sleep II" <stnpc>
/wait 1
/ma Sleep <t>

I have a separate macro for 6 other INT gear changes, and there is one extra in that sleep macro if I get another piece. I choose to have on sleep macro for 2 reasons, there's only one to hit, and I save a macro slot for something else.

I can see why having two would be handy, and for a while (IIRC) I did have two. The pressure of a lack of macro slots made me change to the one.

I probably now have to (again) redo my macros with the recent changes.

[Icemage]

Re: Returning red mage need help

Standard/Backline palette:

If this is your backlining setup, lose the Poison II and Blind macros. The only tank that needs Blind is Ninja, and they're typically using Kurayami: Ni anyway. Unless you merited Blind II, I guess, but I can't imagine why any RDM would do so when there are better available options.

Add in a second Sleep option, an Erase option, and/or keep one open to be modified on the fly as needed (such as Paralyna).

Solo/Frontline palette:

Pretty straightforward here. Ctrl-5 is melee gear swaps. Alt-5 is /recasts for Utsusemi, Bind, Gravity and Convert. Sleep here is Sleep I only, so if I want Sleep II when soloing I Alt-down Alt-7 and the reverse for Sleep I when I'm backlining.

You can save some space here by adding Cocoon to your Ni macro (assuming you have another line or two free, which you should). You're never going to be in a situation on RDM where you're using both, and they're both your primary method of defense.

Ditto for Ichi/Stun as above.

I would add a weaponskill macro to this set if you're frontlining for TP. Also consider a macro for Refresh and one for Cure IV for oshi- situations too.

specific palette:

I'd drop both Absorbs and Thunder III in favor of some of the following:

Sleep I/II/Sleepga (if you ever use /BLM instead of /DRK)
Bio III if you have it (specifically for those pesky Monk types that like to Hundred Fists, Bio III works pretty well against them)
Blink (part of the "fun" of casting sleeps is what happens once they wake up...).


Icemage

[Taskmage]

Re: Returning red mage need help

Good points. I'll move Blind to a tanking palette and just keep it adjacent in case I want it for some reason. Combining ichi/stun and ni/cocoon gives me room to bring Refresh and Haste back to the palette. When I split the melee and kiting macros I can move the melee gear macro down to where the recast macro and have Cure IV in Ctrl-5 in any situation. I generally fire WS from Ctrl-W and I don't have any WS-exclusive gear so it's just as well.

Absorb-VIT seems kinda nice to me. Sticks well enough on Valk mobs and adding 12 to everyone's fSTR on that mob seems like a pretty fair use of 33 mp. Absorb-MND and Thunder III probably would not be missed, but I'm not sure what I'd slot instead atm. No Bio III, and Blink is convenient enough on an adjacent palette. Sleep on that palette is Sleepga. I don't like to tier II sleep because our shell's blms are pretty on the ball with Sleepga II and I don't want to have one mob wake up early because my Sleep II hit before theirs.

[Patchinko]

Re: Returning red mage need help

Should you remove Poison II? It seems like a pretty solid source of damage, especially since the RDM is generally too busy buffing/debuffing/healing to cast nukes to any great degree. Is that a general statement, or does that apply at level 75 or what? Thanks.

Anyway, I noticed a few people mentioning problems with not being able to fit all equip swaps into a macro.

Can the new /macro command fix that?

For example, you write your macro and the last line would immediately direct your selection to a second macro, which would be set up to complete the equipment swap. I haven't had the chance to try it, but it seems like it should work and would just add a second click during the macro. The last line of the second macro could return you to the original macro using /macro as well.

If someone wants, they could test it. I won't get to until I come back online next week. (Sorry!) I am very interested in how the /macro command may be able to optimize our macro efficiency though!

Just as an example, I was thinking something like the following, but have no idea if it would work:

In macro set 1:

/ma Cure III <stpc>
/equip Ring1
/equip Ring2
/equip Earring1
/equip Earring2
/macro set 2

In macro set 2:
/equip Main Hand
/equip Hands
/equip Waist
/macro set 1

Anyone know if this is the right syntax and stuff?

[Taskmage]

Re: Returning red mage need help

I think /macro set 2 just sets your active macro palette to #2 in the book. I'm sure it doesn't fire a macro for you.

Poison II is fairly useless in any good merit party because the kills go fast enough that it doesn't get a chance to achieve its full damage. It's still good for odd missions and farming and other small group activities that I might backline for, so I keep it handy.

[Patchinko]

Re: Returning red mage need help

I think /macro set 2 just sets your active macro palette to #2 in the book. I'm sure it doesn't fire a macro for you.

Like I said, I imagine it would take a second click to activate the second macro.

I had guessed that it simply moved you to the macro set you've put in it and left the cursor at the same position as it was in the original set. Someone can confirm or deny that.

That would remove the need to switch position in your macro set, as well as removing the need to put the rest of the equip switch macro in the same set.

To me, if it works that way, it's a boon, as I use a controller to play and access my macros with shoulder paddles and a d-pad. I do not know how it would affect keyboard players, but it would seem to me that it would have as much value there as well.

And thanks for the feedback about Poison II. Makes sense for Meripo. I haven't ever done any of those yet, so I didn't realize the fights were so fast.