User:Evelyn/Red Mage Guide

The lowly Red Mage is probably one of the most misunderstood jobs by those that don't play it. New players believe it is a fencer with spells to back up its DPS. Experienced non-Red Mages think its a Refresh/Haste machine only used because it needs to be. In truth, this is a multi-faceted "Jack of all Trades" job that is useful in almost any situation one can think of.

If you're a new player, please start at the beginning, as there is a lot of useful information you'll want to go over. Advanced players may want to skim down to section 7, as you'll probably know most of the information presented already.

How to Obtain

If you need this answered you need your head checked. You start with it as one of your 6 basic jobs.

Role Overview

Red Mage is a unique job in that we're the ones that keep a party moving smoothly and efficiently. A lot of people contend that Bards fill the same spot, but we're unique in the way we can deal with almost any sticky situation. A Red Mage can be thrown into almost any party setup, in almost any situation and instantly improve the party.

Between our abilities to enfeeble a monster, buff our party, heal and nuke when necessary, we are the ultimate tempo-control job. Monsters doing too much damage? Throw Slow, Paralyze and their ilk at it to make the fight easier. Melees not hitting it hard enough? Cast Dia on the mob to make it more squishy and pass out the Hastes. Nasty AoE hit everyone hard? Throw a couple Cure spells around. We have the ability to keep things moving smoothly enough that our resources can almost completely absorb any abnormalities in the party.

Our versatility even allows us to take on roles outside our normal support niche. We commonly take over main healing duties in usual party setups, and between our large MP pool, Refresh and Convert, we can become more efficient healers than even White Mages are, since we don't have to rest nearly as much.

Red Mages have even proven themselves in limited tanking roles. With good gear and spells like Stoneskin and Phalanx to back us up, Red Mages have been able to tank in XP situations and end-game monsters alike, even if we're not quite as effective as a Paladin or Ninja.

So really, even beyond our normal support role we can find legitimate use in a party But there is one role we find difficult to take on: damage dealing. Although we've got some of the best melee skills of any mage, and elemental magic to boot, we aren't nearly as effective at dealing damage as a legitimate melee job like Warrior or magic damage job like Black Mage. Our damage is mostly done to keep xp chains moving. If the party is taking particularly long to kill a mob, and our MP allows, we can hasten the fight a bit with an effective elemental spell. But much beyond that, a Red Mage simply doesn't stack up.

Job Abilities

Simple, as there are only two:

Chainspell - Recast: 2 hours - Duration: 1 Minute - Makes cast time for all spells 0. Note that this doesn't make them instantaneous, as you still need to go through the casting animations and there is still a slight cool down between spell casts. However, even with this, cast time for spells is almost non-existent compared to without.

Convert - Recast: 10 minutes - Switches the Red Mage's current HP with his current MP. Does not work when MP is 0 (the ability can't be used). Also, new HP and MP totals can only be aas high as your maximum HP or MP. Example: a RDM with 800/1000 HP and 600/700 MP, when he converts, will then have 600/1000 HP (total MP before) and 700/700 MP (800 total HP before, but caps at his max MP of 700).

Job Traits

Resist Petrify - First level at 10, additional at 30, 50, and 70 - Increases your resistance to the status effect Petrify. This works by increasing the chance you outright resist the spell and the chance that the duration is lower than normal.

Fast Cast - First level at 15, additional at 35, and 55 - Reduces Casting time and Recast time of each spell. At first level, Casting time is reduced by 10%, then by 15% and 20% total respectively. Recast time is lowered by 5%, 7.5%, and 10% respecively. Equipment, especially Warlock's Chapeau and Duelist's Tabard can reduce this further.

Magic Attack Bonus (MAB) - First level at 20, second level at 40 - Increases the power of certain magic spells. Affects most spells that have initial damage from casting the spell, like Elemental Magic, Dia, and Banish. Does not affect spells like Slow, Paralyze, and Choke. Does not stack with other versions of the trait. While exact bonus is complicated to calculate, first level is roughly +20% damage and second is roughly +24% damage.

Magic Defense Bonus (MDB) - First level at 25, second level at 45 - Decreases damage from magic cast on you. Like Magic Attack Bonus, this only affects initial damage from magic sources. Does not stack with other versions of the trait. Again, while exact effect is complicated to calculate, first level is roughly -10% damage, and second level is roughly -12% damage.

Clear Mind - First level at 31, additional levels at 53 and 75 - Increases the amount of MP gained while resting (hMP). hMP starts as 12 MP gained per "tic" resting (a tic being roughly 8 seconds). The first, and additional, levels of Clear Mind increase hMP by 3 each, maxing out at 21 for Clear Mind III. Does not stack with other versions of the trait.

Spells

I'm not going to go in-depth into each and every spell. For checking out each individual spell and the level you get it, check out Red Mage. I will however go over groups of spells, what they do and how to use them.

Enfeebling Magic

Ah, the Red Mage's bread and butter. Having the highest Enfeebling Magic skill out of all mage jobs, and the widest range of enfeebling spells in general, our most important job (even if it isn't always the highest priority) is our ability to enfeeble, or weaken, the monsters we fight. Each enfeeble we cast makes it that much easier on our tanks to take less damage, our healers to heal, and our damage dealers to hurt.

• Dia - Three tiers, at levels 1, 31, and 75 (assuming you merit it) - Decreases the monster's Defense and does a little initial damage and damage over time (DoT). Each version reduces defense by roughly 5, 10, and 15%. Damage over time varies, and increases with how much MND you have at time of cast. An extremely useful spell, this makes things die faster in general, leading to faster xp and less stress on the party in general, both in XP and in end-game. Be careful though, as this doesn't stack with Bio (explained further on), and makes it so monsters can't be slept (due to the DoT damage). Incredibly useful when used properly. There is a multi-target version of the spell, Diaga, however I don't recommend using it regularly since it has a tendancy to aggro or wake nearby monsters.

• Poison - Two tiers, at levels 5 and 46 - a water-element DoT spell. There is no initial damage with this spell like there is with Dia and Bio, so it is useful to apply to monsters that are under the Bind status (explained later) or for when your general strategy is to DoT a monster. However, for "normal use" applications like most xp and end-game things, theres little purpose.

• Paralyze - Two tiers, one at level 6 and one meritable at level 75. Paralyze occasionally makes a monster unable to act for a short period of time. When the spell is cast, the spell will occasionally "proc," giving a message "The (monster) has been paralyzed." When a proc occurs, it prevents either an attack round or a spell cast from occuring (it does NOT prevent Weapon skills or defensive maneuvers like Parry or Evade). Paralyze has a chance of procing multiple times, with the chance of proc increasing as your MND increases. Depending on the level and type of monster, along with your MND, procs can happen as little as never and as often as 100% while the spell is in effect, but most times a player-cast Paralyze spell will only see a modest proc rate.

• Blind - Two tiers, one at level 8 and one meritable at level 75. Blind lowers a monster's accuracy, making it harder for it to hit you or your party. It can be a useful spell, however you'll only see modest results unless the person being attacked is a Thief, Ninja, or has similarly high natural evasion. For general use, its a useful spell to cast, however it shouldn't take priority over other enfeebling spells.

• Bio - Three tiers, two at levels 10 and 36, and one meritable at level 75. technically this spell type is affected by Dark Magic, however since its the only Dark Magic spell set Red Mage gets naturally, and since its similar to Dia, I'm sliding it in here. Bio is the opposite of Dia, where it does a moderate initial damage, moderate DoT, and lowers the enemy's Attack stat. The DoT effect can be increased with more INT. This spell would be more useful if it weren't for its inability to stack with Dia. Although lowering a monster's attack can be great for making life easier on healers, Dia's battle-shortening Defense reduction is more desirable. Bio is noted for having a much higher DoT than Dia however, so it can be useful if you need to kite a mob while using DoT spells to kill it. See below for exact rules on how Bio and Dia interact with eachother.

• Bind - One tier at level 11 - Prevents a monster from moving for a short period. Bind is fantastic when you need to get distance between yourself and a monster. Keep in mind however that this is an Ice-based spell, so any monsters that resist Ice (Fire-based mobs, Ice-based mobs, Undead, etc) may have shortened durations or even resist outright.

• Slow - Two tiers, one at 13 and one meritable at 75 - Slows a monster's attack rate. Attack rate reduction can be increased with more MND. Hands down the most useful enfeeble we have access to. This makes it easier for any job to tank a mob, and makes life less stressful on the healers. Combine this with a good Paralyze and your tanks will love you. Fail to cast it and you'll find yourself in a very angry party.

• Gravity - One tier at level 21 - Slows a monster's walking speed and slightly lowers evasion. The speed-slowing effect can be a lifesaver when kiting a mob or when the tank loses hate, as it gives players more time to react. The evasion down effect, while small, does help melee party members connect hits, making the monster die a little faster. The only bad thing about this spell is its abnormally high recast time, 60 seconds (sans Fast Cast). When used at the start of a battle and when you mind the recast timer, you can find this a very helpful spell overall.

• Sleep - Two tiers, one at 25 and one at 46 - Prevents all movement and activity while in effect. An extremely useful spell in a pinch, this can be used to stop aggro or links in their tracks, and give you time to prepare to fight it or run away. Note that this spell will wear off when a monster takes damage, be it from an attack, a damaging spell, or a DoT effect. Make sure you and your party are careful not to wake a slept mob until you're ready to fight it.

• Dispel - One tier, at level 32 - Removes a random beneficial effect from a target. Depending on the monster, this spell can be anywhere from incredibly useful to unneccesary. Not all mobs can buff themselves, and not all buffs have enough of an effect to require dispel. However there are mobs that require Dispel to be able to kill it in a timely fashion, like Beetles and Crawlers. As a general rule of thumb, if you're not familiar with a camp, ask your party if they know of any mobs that need this spell, and what buffs you should target. Note that you can't choose the effect that is removed, so if there are multiple effects on a mob you may need to cast a few times before the effect you want is removed.

Enhancing Magic

If Enfeebling Magic is what Red Mages are good at, then Enhancing Magic is what everyone wants us for whether we like it or not. In truth, only one spell, Refresh, is something so groundbreaking that it changes the way Red Mage is played, and it falls in this category. Not all Enhancing magic is beneficial, but most is essential to the way Red Mage is played.

• Bar-spells - Thirteen different spells, obtained between levels 5 and 43 - Bar-spells referrs to a class of spells Red Mage has that increases your resistance to different elements and enfeeble effects. There is one spell for each element (except Light and Dark), and one each for the effects Sleep, Poison, Paralyze, Blind, Silence, Virus, and Petrify. Each spell follows the naming convention Bar(effect), like Barstone, Barfire, and Barsilence. These spells can only effect the Red Mage casting them (White Mage has access to AoE versions of each of these spells), and are slightly more effective than their White Mage counterparts until they get access to AF2 armor and Merits. Bar-spells are designed to increase the chance of partially or completely resisting their appropriate effect. While the Bar-element spells like Barfire are useful against monsters with AoE elemental abilities, the Bar-status spells like Barsilence are less useful. However with any of these spells, you will notice an effect when used properly. Note that only the most recent bar-element and bar-status will take effect, for a total of two bar-spell effects.

• Protect - Four tiers, obtained at 7, 27, 47, and 63 - Increases target player's defense by 10, 25, 40, and 55 respectively. This is a single-target spell, and like Bar-spells, White Mages gets access to a multi-target version, which costs the same MP, has the same effect, and lasts just as long. If theres a White Mage in your party, let him worry about Protect, and its sister spell Shell. If not, cast this on anyone that takes damage on a regular basis, especially the tank.

• Aquaveil - One tier obtained at level 12 - Decreases spell interruption rate when taking damage. A crap spell overall. When played effectively, a party Red Mage should not be taking damage that would drastically affect your interruption rate. A solo Red Mage should be using Stoneskin and Phalanx effectively to reduce or negate damage he's taking. I honestly can't think of a decent situation where this becomes of life-or-death importance. If you have the extra MP and you're being attacked on a regular basis while casting party-saving spells I guess this could be of use, but otherwise just get the spell to complete your list.

• Deodorize/Sneak/Invisible - Three different spells obtained at levels 15, 20 and 25 respectively - Decreases the chance of a monster detecting you. Certain monsters aggro you by sight or sound, and track by sight, sound or smell. When these spells are cast, it will prevent those monsters from aggroing you. Deodorize is useless on almost all monsters, however Sneak and Invisible will prevent 95% of the monsters in this game from attacking you if they would otherwise. Note that certain monsters, especially NMs, are considered "True sight" and "true sound" aggro, and will attack you whether or not you have these spells up. Also note that duration is random, but you will recieve three notices when each spell is about to wear, allowing you to get to a spot where you can recast safely. When going to a new area, take care to learn what monsters will aggro you and how, then use these spells to make moving around them easier.

• En-spells - Six different spells, obtained between levels 16 and 27 - When active, these spells will deal a little elemental damage when you hit a monster with a melee attack. Damage increases with higher Enhancing Magic skill. Six versions, one for each element except light and dark. Follows the naming convention "En(element)", like Enfire. Great when you melee solo to increase damage output, and useful in early levels when you can still get away with meleeing. Make sure you use the spell that the monster you're fighting is elementally weak to to get lower resist rates.

• Shell - Four diffent tiers, at 17, 37, 57, and 68 - Reduces magic damage taken when in effect. Each version reduces damage by about 9%, 14%, 19%, and 22% respectively. Like Protect White Mages have an AoE version that does the same thing. Useful in parties where magic damage is an issue, but in many xp situations this spell isn't needed. Useful in almost all end-game events. If you don't have a white mage, make sure to keep this up on everyone in your party until you know who needs or doesn't need it.

• Spike spells - Three different spells, at 20, 40, and 60 - A term used for three different spells: Blaze Spikes, Ice Spikes, and Shock Spikes. When in effect, any time a monster hits you he will take damage and, with Ice and Shock Spikes, may get an additional effect. Blaze Spikes does roughly twice as much damage as Ice or Shock but has no additional effect. Ice spikes has a chance to Paralyze the enemy, and Shock has a chance to Stun the enemy. Damage per hit can be increased by raising INT or MAB upon casting. Damage each hit can be resisted, and resist rates can be lowered with higher Enhancing Magic skill. In party and end-game situations you shouldn't be attacked to have these make a difference. In solo situations where you're tanking the monster they can be beneficial when using the appropriate spell. Blaze is useful when you want more damage, Shock when you want to get hit less. Ice spikes are only useful if you're too lazy to cast Paralyze.

• Blink - One tier at level 23 - Creates three shadows that each absorb a single melee attack directed against you. Unlike Ninja's spell Utsusemi, each attack has a random chance of being absorbed by a shadow while blink is in effect. Note that if you are hit with an AoE attack, Blink will be negated and you will be hit for full damage. Useful in a party if you think you'll pull hate for some reason, otherwise you can probably skip this spell. In solo applications, when straight-tanking a mob the MP cost, cast times, and recast timer are all inhibitive of repeated usage. When sleep-nuking or dot-kiting a mob this spell can be useful in conjunction with Stoneskin and Phalanx.

• Phalanx - One tier at level 33 - Reduces damage taken from melee attacks while the spell is in effect. Reduces damage taken per hit by a specific number based on Enhancing Magic skill (formula in the Spell Formulae section). Damage reduction from Phalanx is calculated before anything else. Useful in solo situations, especially when straight tanking mobs that hit often for relatively low damage, or mobs that are much lower level compared to you. When used with stoneskin in this situation, usually makes monsters hit for 0 so long that stoneskin will wear off before it takes full damage.

• Stoneskin - One tier at level 34 - Absorbs damage taken from attacks. Spell absorbs up to 350 damage from any source, based off of Enhancing Magic skill and MND. Takes a while to cast, and has a semi-long recast timer, but is great for reducing damage you take, and is a cheap spell compared to the MP it would take to heal that. Works even better in conjunction with Phalanx when used to negate physical attacks.

• Refresh - One tier at level 41 - Gradually gives the target MP. Congratulations, by getting this spell you've become the second most wanted and second most hated job in the game, next to Bard. Its important enough to devote an entire section to (with haste, but it will be utilized similarly in a party), so check out the Refresh/Haste section for how to best use the spell.

• Haste - One tier at 48 - Increases target's attack speed and lowers target's spell recast timers. This spell is as essential for melee jobs and tanks as Refresh is for spellcasters, but the only reason why this spell isn't on the same level as Refresh is that White Mages get the same spell 8 levels earlier.

Healing Magic

This is the thing that parties expect us to do when we're not casting Refresh or Haste, because apparently we have our thumbs up our asses when we don't. It is useful to help heal and take some load off the main healer, and we can even main heal ourselves if we have the right support behind us.

• Cure - Four tiers at levels 3, 14, 26, and 48 - Restores target's HP. The basic healing spell set of the game, Cure uses up some MP to restore HP. The amount of HP each spell cures depends on your Healing Spell and MND. If you need more explanation you need to have a lobotomy. Something that should be noted is that each spell has a "soft cap;" once a cure tier can heal a certain amount, its much harder for it to heal more. Cure soft caps are at 30, 90, 180, and 360. Until each tier reaches its soft cap (which takes a few levels), its not as effective for its MP cost as some of the lower-tier spells.

• Regen - One tier, at level 21 - Gradually restores target's HP. Technically an Enhancing Magic spell, but its used for healing so I threw it in here. Restores a static 125 HP over 75 seconds. An incredibly useful spell early on since its the most MP effective heal in the game. Only drawback is that it heals over time, so timely Cure spells will still be needed. This spell becomes less effective at 44 when White Mage gets access to [[Regen II], and later Regen III. Even though they have a significantly higher Mp cost to HP healed ratio, higher-tiered versions of the spell heal much faster and much more than the one we get.

• Raise - One tier, at level 38 - Revives a KOd character. When a character's HP gets to 0, they get Knocked Out and lose XP. The Raise spells bring the character out of KO and restores some of the XP lost. Until level 51, Raise gives the same xp back that [[Raise II] and Raise III (White Mage exclusives again) give. At level 51 and above, [[Raise II] and Raise III restore much more xp, so While Mages are usually desired. If someone is dead, it's usually polite for a Red Mage to ask if the dead player wishes to have a Raise 1. If you're dead, it's usually polite to take a Raise 1 if finding or getting a White Mage to raise you is inconvenient.

Elemental Magic

Unlike other sections I'm not going to split up the different spells here since they all act similarly. There are 18 Elemental Magic spells, or "nukes" that we have access to, learned from level 4 all the way to level 75. There are 6 different spell sets, one for each element (except light and dark), and three tiers for each set.

Each spell has a different damage equasion. For a rule of thumb, higher tier spells do more damage, and in the same tier, damage follows this pattern:

Stone < Water < Aero < Fire < Blizzard < Thunder

So our lowest damage nuke ends up being Stone, and our highest damage nuke is Thunder III.

It should be said that our Elemental Magic skill is low compared to Black Mages. Where as Black Mages have an A+ Elemental skill rating (same as our Enfeebling Magic one), we have only a C+ rating. We also don't have access to as powerful nukes as they do (they get a fourth tier, and high-damage AoE and Ancient Magic nukes as well). So a Red Mage definitely needs to use their nukes wisely. In the later leveling sections I'll talk about exactly when and how to use Elemental Magic, but for now, back to mechanics.

When using nukes, you need to keep in mind two things: Elemental strengths and weaknesses of the monster, and the relative strengths of each spell you have access to. I'll use a few examples to better explain:

Lets say you're a level 60 Red Mage, so you have access to nukes up to Thunder II, and you're trying to decide what to use against a Crawler-type mob. First, crawlers are elementally strong against Earth-based magic, and weak against Ice, Thunder, and Dark. This makes our choice easy: use Thunder II.

Now lets say you're level 67, and you have access to Stone III and Water III in addition to all the ones before. You're fighting against a Crab, which is strong against Water but weak against Lightning and Ice. Obviously you shouldn't use Water III in this case since the Crab is strong to it, and Water III would be resisted a lot. Here however you have a dilema: you can use Stone III, which the monster has no strength or weakness against, or Thunder II which is a weaker spell but exploits the Crab's weakness. This is something you will have to decide personally, if it is worth it to cast Stone III with a slightly higher chance of resist, or if you should cast Thunder II for the sure, lower damage. There isn't a right call here, your choice will depend on how much you're being resisted.

Dark and Divine Magic

I'm lumping these two skills together because Red Mage has no natural Divine Magic spells and only one set of Dark Magic spells: Bio. In ages past, the Dia spells were originally Divine Magic, however sometime between the Beta and NA release Dia spells were changed to Enfeebling Magic without changing Bio as well or removing the then-useless Divine skill from Red Mage. Even the Bio spell sets don't rely too much on Dark Magic skill, as they're almost impossible to resist normally and their attack down effect never changes.

Having these skills does work to our advantage with specific subs however. The subjobs Black Mage and Dark Knight both give us the invaluable spells Drain and Aspir, plus DRK gives us access to a few Absorb spells. The subjobs White Mage and Paladin give us the Banish spell set, and PLD gives us the useful Flash spell. All these spells have uses, and I'll go more in depth in the subjob section.

Races

In FFXI, any race can play any job effectively, and the same holds true with Red Mage. While some races are better suited to the job than others, as long as the player minds his race's weaknesses he should be fine. A quick blurb on each race, and what each player can expect:

• Hume - This race has the easiest time playing Red Mage. Hume statistics, while not excelling in any area, are well rounded enough to play the job well. Most humes will find they need a good boost in MP for good Convert ratios, but otherwise shouldn't be concerned.

• Mithra - My personal choice, Mithra are as good as Humes in everything but one area - MND. Mithras have the unfortunate distinction of having the lowest MND score in the game, however its easy enough to come by, so your spells won't be greatly affected.

• Tarutaru - These damn midgets have MP that most races would die for, and will have close to perfect HP/MP ratios for Convert. Their naturally high INT scores also help with nukes and some enfeebles, though the best ones work with MND, which falls somewhere between Humes and Mithras. Mind the HP when setting up convert gear, pick up an extra MND piece, and you should be fine.

• Elvaan - Dhalmels have the highest MND rating in the game, which is useful for all the best stat-based spells RDM has. Their problem is their crappy MP, which will require lots of effort to match what even Humes can get reasonably. INT is also lower than average, but RDMs don't have to worry about that stat as much.

• Galka - Remember what I said about every race being good? I lied. Galka Red Mages are for sadists and sadists alone. Their MP pool makes baby Jesus cry, and a MND score of infinity wouldn't make up for it. If you have to play a Galka Red Mage, have fun. Its possible, and I've seen the occasional good Galka, but getting the MP needed to function is a chore in itself.

Statistics and Attributes

Red Mage has the fantastic benefit of not requiring too many attributes at the same time. Instead, many of the Red Mage's jobs require different sets of attributes that can be maxxed and macroed in. To get an idea, I'll list a few different areas and give a priority for the types of stats that should be included.

Healing, Resting and Converting

Here, HP and MP is king. When healing, you don't need huge amounts of any specific stat except as much MP to play with as possible. At 51, Light Staff is the single best piece to increase the amount healed. Armor slots that don't or can't have MP should have MND to increase the HP healed a bit, but otherwise there are no stats that have a significant impact on how much you cure for.

When resting, again you'll want to max out MP, but you'll also want to look for MP recovered while healing (hMP) stats. This equipment increases the amount of MP you get while resting, and is incredibly valuable, since Red Mages don't have much time to rest in a given party. Good equipment with hMP includes Baron's Slops, Errant Houppelande, Heirarch Belt, and the almighty Dark Staff.

Converting setups require a bit more finnesse. You'll want a Light Staff if you're over 51, and as much MP as you can get while keeping your HP higher. The point of converting most times is to regain as much MP as possible after using it all, then healing yourself a couple times to get your HP back up. So, you'll need to start out with HP at least as high as your MP. As long as your HP is higher than your MP, stock up on as much MP as possible. Tarutaru have a better time with this than most, and Galka will probably find it a huge challenge.

Enfeebling Magic

First, let it be known that there are two types of enfeebles: White Magic and Black Magic. The easiest way to tell the difference is to check the icon next to the spell in your Magic list, or check your white magic and black magic lists. White magic spells (like Cure, Paralyze, and Slow) will have an Ankh in the circle (the color doesn't matter), while Black Magic (like Blind, Bio, and your Nukes) will have an eye in the circle.

For White Magic, the prevaling stat is MND, while INT is the governing stat for Black Magic. Otherwise, your enfeebling setup will look the same:

Next thing is to determine wether or not the spell is a static effect or a variable effect. Variable effect spells are those that have a unwavering, "on/off" type effect. For example, you can't be partially Silenced, nor can you be somewhat asleep. They're either working or not. Spells that fall into this category are Silence, Gravity, Sleep, Bind and Dispel. Variable effect spells, Slow, Paralyze, Blind, Poison, Dia, and Bio, have increased potency when boosted with their appropriate attribute, so you'll need a more balanced approach, which I'll explain.

For static effect spells, the answer is really simple: you want to load up on as much Enfeebling Magic skill, then as much Magic Accuracy, as you can. As a rule of thumb, if you ever have to choose between a similar amount of the appropriate magic skill and magic accuracy, choose the skill. Beneficial equipment will be things like Elemental Staves, Warlock's Tabard, and even the hated Wise Braconi if you don't have access to Nashira Seraweels.

For variable effect spells, the choice isn't as clear-cut. You'll need to find a balance between Skill/accuracy and INT/MND, which will depend on the level of the monster you're fighting and how much you're being resisted. For most xp situations up til 50, you'll be alright with just a capped enfeebling magic skill. After 50, I reccomend using at least Warlock's Tabard, Enfeebling Torque, and Enfeebling Earring for skill. If you still find yourself having trouble landing enfeebles, switching from an INT/MND wand like Rose Wand to the appropriate elemental staff, like Ice Staff, will usually be enough. After filling up your equipment with as little skill and magic accuracy as you can (but still retain enough to land spells reliably), fill the rest of your slots with INT or MND, whichever is appropriate, to make your spells as potent as possible.

Keep in mind that if the level difference between yourself and the monster you're fighting is too great, all the Enfeebling skill and Magic Accuracy in the world may not be enough.

Elemental Magic

Unfortunately for us, the Red Mage's Elemental Magic rating is at C+ -- bad enough that we need to rely on Skill and Accuracy to help us get low resist rates. That doesn't mean we can't throw an effective nuke here and there on XP mobs when needed. However, in end-game, nuking is almost a joke. Most times I can get well over 600 damage Thunder IIIs on xp mobs. End-game, I'd be happy with three digits.

For gear setups when we do need to nuke, if you're over 51 you need to start with the appropriate elemental staff. After that, load up on as much skill, then accuracy, as you can get, especially if you're looking at end-game nukes. Warlock's Chapeau, Elemental Torque, Wizard's Earring, and Master Caster's Bracelets are all useful pieces. Finally, fit as much INT and MAB as you can in the leftover slots.

Subjobs

Red Mage is strange in that it benefits from a wide variety of subjobs. In fact, almost all jobs are useful to sub in one way or another.

XP subs

• White Mage

Benefits:

1. Increased MP pool
2. Status cures
3. Curaga line of spells
4. Divine Seal

Drawbacks:

1. Nothing to help a party run from a bad situation.

This is the best sub to use when you're the main healer in a party or when you're XPing on mobs that have lots of status attacks or AoEs. Divine Seal is a great ability to use in conjunction with Convert to get the most healing with little MP, or to be able to throw out quick, 180 HP Curaga IIs. Being able to help the main healer with things like Paralyna and Erase is very useful, although you must remember you don't get access to Stona like White Mages do. So while xping on Cockatrices is out, almost anywhere else is available, even if the party doesn't have a White Mage.

• Black Mage

Benefits:

1. More MP than White Mage, plus Conserve MP
2. Access to Aspir and Drain
3. "Shit hit the fan" spells Escape, Sleepga, Tractor
4. Warp. Seriously, gil-free Warp is awesome.

Drawbacks:

1. Almost requires a White Mage in the party

This sub is king of MP control. Between the extra MP from the subjob, Conserve MP, and Aspir, you can get some serious mileage out of each convert. More MP means more enfeebles, being able to take more load off the White Mage, and even being able to throw the occasional nuke on a hard mob. This also gives a lot of utility spells like Sleepga and Tractor, and the ultimate "we're fucked" combo of Chainspell Escape. The problem with this sub is its nearly impossible to perform all the duties of a good main healer without utilizing status cures and such. So if you've got a White Mage, or some other main healing job in your party, go with this sub. If you're stuck main healing, stay away.

End-Game Subs

• Dark Knight

Benefits:

1. Almighty Chainspell Stun combo
2. Access to Aspir and Drain, even earlier than Black Mage
3. Access to EX Sword Weaponskills like Vorpal Blade

Drawbacks:

1. Low MP bonus compared to a mage sub
2. No good melee abilities like Warrior or Ninja

This sub is one of the most seen choices during end-game events. On monsters like Dynamis Lord, entire strategies revolve around the Red Mage/Dark Knight's Chainspell Stun combo. It allows monsters to be almost completely pinned down for 60 seconds, making them unable to attack or use abilities. Most strategies using CS/S utilize multiple Red Mages overlapping each other so as to re-stun as quickly as possible once it wears. Even without using Chainspell, Stun is an incredibly useful spell to disrupt enemies' spellcasting, abilities, and more. Its also a nice spell to get a little bit of hate if you're trying to pull a mob off of a mage. Just like Black Mage, this subjob also gets access to Aspir and Drain, and at an earlier level to boot. That makes it a decent subjob choice from 40-50 if you're fighting mobs that can be aspired. This can also work alright as a solo melee subjob, but the lack of solid offensive and defensive abilities make choices like Warrior or Ninja a better option.

• Summoner

Benefits:

1. Large MP pool
2. Auto-Refresh
3. Group buff Aerial Armor

Drawbacks:

1. No useful spells or abilities for most situations

This is a really specialized sub. Auto-refresh does slightly outweigh Conserve MP over time, especially against mobs you can't Aspir. However, with this choice, you're going to be missing the solid spell selection that make White Mage and Black Mage so great. The one useful benefit comes from choice use of Aerial Armor. When used on tanks that can't abuse Utsusemi it allows for a slight respite in healing until the shadows give out. Anymore you're not likely to see this situation, with the evolution of Paladin/Ninja and Ninja/Dark Knight tanks, but there was an era where most tanks took damage instead of mitigating it entirely. Still useful sometimes, but if you're not in the tank party or all your tanks have shadows, stay away.

• Ninja

Benefits:

1. Utsusemi.
2. Dual Wield lets you use two weapons and swing faster to boot.

Drawbacks:

1. Nothing useful to help our mage role.

Fantastic subjob choice for use when soloing or when you need to kite mobs (like Odin's summons or Ouryu's elementals). Between Utsusemis, Fast Cast, Stoneskin and Phalanx, we can solo well and even take damage almost as well as a Paladin if we're geared right. Don't get me wrong, you won't be a satisfactory replacement for a tank. Tanking effectively with this subjob is quite busy to keep buffs up, so you'll have little time to keep hate against serious players. However this choice gives us the ability to effectively hold monsters most jobs couldn't. This is also a great melee subjob choice, with Dual Wield increasing our melee output substantially. Again you won't replace a serious DD job, but you'll kill much faster than you would otherwise.

Situational/Solo Subjobs

• Warrior

Benefits:

1. Use of EX Weaponskills like Vorpal Blade
2. Berserk and Defender
3. Slightly higher melee stats.

Drawbacks:

1. Only useful as a solo job.

This is my sub of choice when I go off to melee mobs up to about Even Match. Use of Vorpal Blade over Savage Blade is a vast improvement, and the use of Berserk and Defender, when needed, can speed kill times or reduce damage when your buffs go down simultaneously. This has no place in end-game or xp setups however.

• Thief

Benefits:

1. Treasure Hunter
2. Flee

Drawbacks:

1. Little useful help for melee capabilities.

Sub of choice when farming, but not much help beyond that. Steal rarely works against worthwhile mobs, Sneak Attack and Trick Attack just don't give us the modifiers that we'd need, and Red Mages evade like rocks. Flee can come in handy in certain situations, or if you're hanging around town and want to move faster.

• Paladin

Benefits:

1. Flash spell
2. A horde of defensive JAs
3. Access to EX Sword Weapon Skills
4. Minor Banish-line spells
5. Auto-Refresh

Drawbacks:

1. Not enough useful spells to make it better than White Mage in most cases.

This subjob is an interesting choice. Its better than Warrior or Dark Knight if you're looking for melee capabilities while still keeping some MP. Also can be useful for tanking in small-party situations on low-level mobs. This can also be an interesting choice in xp areas like King Ranperre's Tomb where you're fighting lots of undead. These parties usually have two Red Mages or a White Mage and a Red Mage, plus a Bard to top things off, so status cures aren't always necessary. Here, you'd use Banish to help DDs deal damage against undead, and Auto-Refresh to help keep up with the loads of healing. I have not personally tested this since I don't have the job leveled, but it may be an interesting choice for xp in this one situation.

• Beastmaster

Benefits:

1. A Pet. Really, thats all you need.

Drawbacks:

1. Can't charm quite as well as the real thing
2. Nothing to help mage roles

This is a really interesting choice. Due to game mechanics, for some reason Charm always works as well as your total level in Beastmaster, even if you're currently using it as a subjob. The only difference between the Main or subjob Beastmaster is the lack of Charm and CHR gear. So a 75 Red Mage/Beastmaster will charm almost as proficiently as a 75 Beastmaster. This lets us charm monsters that will help immensely with our solo ability, and thanks to the recent pet level patch, so long as the pet is the same or lower level than you it won't affect xp. This is another sub I personally haven't used, but I have seen others use it to great effect during solo outings.

• Bard

Benefits:

1. You get to play a single, half-powered song for party members.

Drawbacks:

1. Not near as helpful as the real thing.

Another interesting, situational xp sub. The idea behind this is that you get your Auto-Refresh in the form of Mage's Ballad, while still being able to help the party with your sub. The melee songs are really meh when subbed, but in mage-burn situations (like partying with 5 black mages) this can be the most useful sub you get. A Red Mage/Bard in a mana-burn situation is more useful than a Bard, and if you have both, it can allow the bard to give the Black Mages yummy Etude songs. Black Mages for the most part will be able to heal their own status abnormalities in this situation, so you don't require the spells from White Mage. In a "standard" party though, this subjob's lack of utility makes the combo fall flat on its face.

• Ranger

Benefits:

1. Sidewinder
2. Helps us with our natural Archery skill.
3. Widescan

Drawbacks:

1. Our Archery skill is pathetic against worthwhile mobs.

This setup gets a lot of action in Ballista 60 cap, and assorted solo situations. The whole idea is that the sub gives access to Sidewinder, a high-damage Weapon Skill (when it hits) and a small accuracy boost to boot. However, without access to high-damage bows, badly needed ranged accuracy gear, and a decent Archery skill rating, this sub doesn't go far beyond the gimmick stage. Widescan can be useful for hunting some NMs, but Beastmaster can use it too.

• Blue Mage

Benefits:

1. Cocoon
2. A real MP pool
3. EX Weapon Skills

Drawbacks:

1. Not enough useful spells to have use beyond solo

The only real mage subjob that can give us access to Vorpal Blade. It also gives the spell Cocoon which makes our defense jump by 50%. Unfortunately since they are affected by a magic skill we don't have, other spells just aren't effective enough in a realistic solo situation, but equipping spells can help in the stats department at least.

Etc.

As gimmicky as some of the subjob choices I've listed above are, the jobs Monk, Dragoon, Samurai, Corsair, and Puppetmaster just don't work for Red Mages, or many jobs in the first place. The combination of few useful abilities and half-level status just leaves these in the dust.

Interaction between Dia and Bio, plus Elemental Enfeebles

Dia and Bio are both quite useful spells. Dia reduces a monster's defense, while Bio reduces the monster's attack, and both cause a Damage over Time (DoT) effect. Problem is, they don't work simultaneously. Dia and Bio stack like this:

Dia < [[[Bio]] < Dia II < Bio II < Dia III < Bio III

So, if Dia II is on a mob, Bio will have no effect (beyond the initial damage, which always happens), but Bio II will cancel the Dia II effect.

Note that there is a school of thought where the DoT aspects are independent of Defense/Attack down effects, so say if Dia II is on the monster, Bio II will cancel the Defense down effect while leaving the DoT effect of Dia II in tact. I personally haven't seen enough evidence either way, and would love to get some hard information.

Also note that Dia and Bio effects on a player do not interact this way. A player can have full effects from Dia and Bio simultaneously.

Also of note here are elemental enfeebles (so named since they're governed by Elemental skill, yet work similarly to other enfeebles) Shock, Rasp, Choke, Frost, Burn, and Drown. Each of these spells do Damage over Time and also reduce a stat: Shock with MND, Rasp with DEX, Choke with VIT, Frost with AGI, Burn with INT, and Drown with STR. These also interact, but they do so much differently than Dia and Bio do. Elemental enfeebles interact like so:

Shock < Rasp < Choke < Frost < Burn < Drown < Shock

A given spell will not interact with a spell touching them in that list. For example, if Burn is on a mob, Frost will have no effect, and Drown will overwrite Burn.

These interactions lead to groups of useful spell combinations:

This set is useful to spell casters and high-accuracy DDs: Shock - MND Choke - VIT Burn - INT

This set is useful to high-attack DDs and Tanks: Rasp - DEX Frost - AGI Drown - STR

Also, spells on opposite sides of the list, like Choke and Drown, can be cast simultaneously if nothing else is in effect.

Why do Red Mages need to know this? Since we commonly use Black Mage sub, and don't always have a Black Mage in the party, we're often asked to cast these spells as well. While they're not a huge benefit to the party, they are noticeable effects. If you have time in your spell casting you should definitely keep the appropriate spells up.

Refresh and Haste

I'm keeping these spells separate from the rest for a good reason. Refresh, and to a slightly lesser extent Haste, start a Red Mage down a path that he'll be seeing for the rest of his career. Everyone wants "free" MP, and everyone wants faster attacks and cool down timers. So most everyone will want these spells. Problem is they wear quickly, about 2.5 minutes each. So you'll find yourself needing to recast and recast throughout the party. Thus the need for a separate section on how to juggle the jobs.

Refresh is a spell we get at level 41, costs 40 MP, and gives 3 MP about every 3 seconds for 144 seconds. Every MP user adores us for this spell, since we give them free MP regeneration. Problem is its only free to them. The hardest part about this spell is keeping track of who needs it, who has it on, and where you left off. To help this, most people keep a refresh order, and theres a couple ways to set it up:

1) List by lowest MP%. This makes it so the people with the lowest relative MP holders get the spell the fastest. Problem with this is just because the user has low MP doesn't mean they need Refresh the most. A good example would be a Dark Knight versus your main healer. I tend to push for one of the other two methods.

2) Create a priority list based on job and party role. Heres a good priority list you can adapt based on who you have in the party:

1. Yourself. If you don't have MP, the party can't get Refresh in the first place. Also useful for keeping track of when Refresh wears.
2. The tank(s). Usually this is gonna be made up of Paladins, but Ninja/Dark Knight tanks need regular refreshes as well. I'd include Warrior/White Mage here but I haven't seen the combo used in years, since the Utsusemi tanking boom. Pretty easy: no MP, and your tanks won't keep hate off you.
3. The healers. Usually this is a (few) White Mage(s), but Summoners, or even you yourself, can also take this role. You obviously don't need yourself on here twice though. If your main healer runs out of MP, you're screwed.
4. Support jobs. Largely gonna be a Bard here if you have one, or possibly (doubtful) a Corsair or Puppetmaster subbing White Mage. These guys are basically using MP to take stress of the healers. Keep in mind these jobs won't always be using their MP fast, so take a look at their MP% before you cast. If its high, don't bother and skip them on this round. If its below about 75% when you eye-ball it they need Refresh.
5. The magical damage crew. This is made up of Blue Mages, Black Mages, and bored Summoners. These guys require MP to do their job effectively, but low MP totals aren't gonna screw over the party like a tank or healer would.
6. The surprised-they-have-MP crew. Pretty much only Dark Knights, but also support job types that are too dull to use their MP. These guys don't rely on MP to be effective, so should only need spot refreshes. Keep an eye on them though.

I used this method for a long time, roughly until I got to end-game. Its great for situations where you can't get refresh back on immediately for whatever reason (better be a good one!), like dealing with adds, being on stun duty, and such.

3) Work down the party list. Since you're highest you'll be casting on yourself first (like the priority list). After that, its just work your way down the party list, casting on all the magic users. This may seem inferior to the priority list, but so long as you're keeping up on refreshes, the order that you cast them will rarely matter. This is also easiest to remember. This is my personal preference when I can play pure support, and don't have to worry about other things taking my attention.

Refresh lasts 2:24 minutes. That means in a MP-heavy setup you may find yourself casting or waiting on refresh for most the party. However, I can't stress enough how important it is to keep refresh going on all the party members that need it. BY end-game, people will rely on your refresh casts for their MP pools, and shorting a refresh or two can make people run out of MP faster than they want. So long as you keep casting refresh on yourself first, and then cast it on needy party members as fast as the cool down timer allows, you should be fine.

Haste is the other spell we get where we'll have to give regular castings. First thing to know is we (luckily) share this spell with White Mages, so usually we can split Haste duties with one if we have one in our party. However, there will be times where you'll need to take all the Haste responsibilities, especially if the White Mage is burning through MP too fast. You'll want to make a cast list similar to the one you have with Refresh. Roles that need this spell are the tank, melee DD jobs (except Ranger, since ranged attacks aren't affected by haste), the Bard for faster recasts, then any mage that requests it (but most should be just fine without it). Lucky for us Haste lasts a whole 3 minutes, so you shouldn't have to worry about casting it as much.