ML's RDM 101 v2.0 Guide/Part III

The choice of subjob is probably the second most hotly debated subject when it comes to Red Mages. While your primary enfeebling/refeshing/dispelling functions come from your main job, support jobs add a bit of flavor to your playstyle in the way of extra spells, JA's, and augmented stats. The purpose of this section of the guide is not to tell you which subjob to use, or which is "best" (if there even is such a thing), but to give you what you need to make an informed decision. In an attempt to make the choice of subjob less intimidating for a novice Red Mage, I'll include suggested usage for each sub.

While the triad of widely-accepted subjobs is comprised of BLM, WHM and SMN, there are other options for Red Mage support jobs. Having WHM and BLM availible will suit you in almost every pickup party situation, but some of the following are useful in statics, HNM fights, solo, etc.

Dispel is a single-target enfeebling spell that will remove one beneficial buff from the target. It is RDM-unique, and gained at level 32. Many mob buffs are powerful, and can mean the difference between making or breaking an XP chain, so parties rely on Dispel to keep things going smoothly. Unlike other enfeebling spells, Dispel is rarely resisted, even on IT+++ mobs. In some instances, you will see people using /RDM as a sub for this spell.

The only other job class with the ability to do this natively are Bards, with Magic Finale. Dispel and Finale, though they have identical effects, act a little differently. Dispel costs 25MP, is dark-element based, and has a rapid cast/recast time (you can cast another almost immediately after the first). Finale is "free" (it's a song), light-elemental based, but has a long cast/recast time (recast time is 24 seconds). The elemental attribute is occasionally important for resists, RDMs have an easier time Dispelling certain mobs than BRDs, and vice versa.

Most RDMs will tailor their chat filters so that they can see when the monster is casting the buff (Robber Crab readies Scissor Guard) and/or when the buff takes effect (Robber Crab gains the effect of Defense Boost). Since the February 2005 update we have had the capability to specifically unfilter mobs that the party is fighting (red name), and this is probably the best set to use for Dispelling.

Following is a list of the types of buffs you will run into in the course of leveling. Note that it's not meant to be 100% exhaustive, just give you a general idea of what to look for. When you are fighting a new type of monster, it's a good idea to ask or research what sort of abilities they have, so you can decide how to deal with them. An excellent resource for this is the Things to Dispel FAQ, but here's a short list:

• Defense Boost (skills like Scissor Guard, or a spell like Protect) - These spells are generally high priority for Dispel, especially when the majority of your DDs are melee jobs. Some Defense Boost skills are incredibly powerful, and will reduce killing speed to a crawl.
• Evasion Boost (such as Rhino Guard, Water Shield) - Evasion boost is also a high priority for Dispel, for a similar reason: if the DDs cannot land hits on the monster, it will take too long for it to die.
• Magic Defense Up (Bubble Curtain, Shell) - This buff will generally reduce all magical damage by a percentage. MDU will seriously hurt Skillchains and shut down BLMs (along with your own Magic Bursts), so it can be important to remove.
• Stoneskin (Metallic Body, Stoneskin) - Essentially functions as our Stoneskin spell, and absorbs all damage until depleted. whether or not you need to Dispel depends on the strength: Metallic Body is typically so weak that a DD can remove it in one hit, before you get a chance to Dispel.
• Berserk (Berserk, Rage) - Berserk is a double-edged sword. On one hand, the monster is dealing more damage to your tank, on the other hand, all of your physical-damage DDs are hitting it harder. The choice to Dispel is situational. Note that there are some buffs that are a straight attack bonus with no accompanying DEF penalty, and in those cases a Dispel is probably warranted.
• Spikes (Blaze, Ice, Shock) - The spells hurt anyone hitting the monster in melee, usually a good idea to get rid of them as soon as possible. Ice spikes are particularly dangerous because they proc Paralyze, usually found when fighting caster-based undead.

There are other buffs, such as white-magic Haste, Aquaveil, various stat boosts, HP/MP regen, Enspells, etc, so keep an eye out.

There are a few things to take into consideration when you're casting Dispel. First: some mobs will come to the camp pre-buffed. Caster-beastmen will certainly arrive with buffs, but sometimes melee beastmen will get freebies from mages they are with, so be prepared to remove Protect, Shell, etc. Second, sometimes you can let a pointless buff slide (such as Aquaveil), but you have to be careful that it doesn't come back to haunt you. If the monster later casts something that's important to Dispel (like Protect), it may take you twice as long to get rid of it, because now it has two buffs. Third, if you have a Bard in the party, it's a wise idea to let them Finale whenever possible. Dispel is more reliable (generally), but it costs you MP: Finale only costs a BRD time. Fourth, be wary of timing: a Defense Boost right before a skillchain (or Shell right before the Magic Burst) will seriously hurt the damage output of your party. Dispel should take priority except in dire emergencies. Refresh, recasting enfeebles, and Hastes can wait a few seconds. It's a good idea to expect the worst when it comes to Skillchains, and be prepared to Dispel at a moment's notice.

Finally, it's important to understand how monsters use their TP for skills. When they are above 25% HP or so, they will randomly use them, but when they are under 25%, they will use one whenever they get 100% TP. That means that the last few moments of combat are when the monster is most likely to cast abilities that need to be Dispelled, so you need to be more alert than usual. If you are the only dispeller in the party, this means your opportunities to rest at the tail end of fights is diminished, keep that in mind.

The fact that an entire section is dedicated to this one spell ought to be an indicator how important it is. This spell is the reason that people will invite you in the post-41 game. That being said, remember that you are only one person in a party full of people: nobody likes a prima donna Red Mage.

Some facts about Refresh:

• Single-target spell that costs 40MP
• Can be cast on any member of your party (not alliance)
• Provides 3MP every 3 seconds for two and a half minutes (150 MP total)
• Has a 4-5 second cast time, and 18 second recast time (subject to Fast Cast)
• Generally you can cast at least two standard spells between Refresh recasts
• Enhancing skill has no impact on Refresh's effect or duration
• Neither does MND, INT, or elemental staves

When you first get Refresh, it's exciting and daunting at the same time. You'll be expected to not only keep yourself Refreshed, but to put it on any party members who use MP, in order to keep experience flowing. Most successful RDMs go through two stages with this spell.

When you first get it, it's easier to keep a hard and fast "order" of casting. First you Refresh yourself, cast a couple spells, Refresh someone else, cast a couple more, etc. When you're done, there's a small window of downtime when you don't have any Refreshes to do: you can use this time to rest, or catch up to anything that's falling behind. The most painless way to do this is to use the Vana'diel clock (hit "/clock on" to get it on your screen). One in-game hour is approximately equivalent to the duration of Refresh. Here's an example situation:

8:00 - Puller is coming back with a crab. Begin casting Refresh on yourself. You'll have enough time for two spells here, so you can cast something like Dia II and Paralyze.
8:09 - The recast timer is up, start casting Refresh on the Paladin. Paralyze was resisted, so recast that along with Slow.
8:18 - Put Refresh on the White Mage. Again, you have time to squeeze two more spells in here.
8:27 - Final Refresh being cast on the Black Mage. The crab used Scissor Guard while you were casting, so you Dispel it right away.
8:30 - You have 30 Vana'diel minutes to kill. You can finish your enfeebles, use Drain/Aspir, help with curing, Magic Burst, etc, while watching for Dispels. You can also try to catch a tick or two of healing.
8:55 - get ready...
9:00 - Your Refresh is about to wear, so start casting it on yourself again.

You get the idea. Sound complicated? That's because it is. Refresh is one place where the good RDMs are separated from the mediocre. Once you have this spell you're likely to be juggling half a dozen things at once, and it can be overwhelming. Keeping a static Refresh order and using the clock to help you can make it manageable. You don't need to keep a specific priority in this situation, because everyone will have Refresh always. Start from the top of the party list (that will be you), Refresh everyone in order from the top down that needs it. For players who don't need Refresh all the time, like a Dark Knight, just eyeball their MP once you finish the main cycle, and drop a Refresh on them at the end if they are getting low.

During this stage, you may find it helpful to put "/recast Refresh" in your Refresh macro to let you know how much time you have before the next cast. It will assist you in learning how much time you have to spare. However, don't pigeonhole yourself into a rigid system. For example, in the timed situation above, if you need to Dispel a buff or drop a heal on someone at the same time as a Refresh, let the Refresh slide, at least for a few seconds. Another 3-6 MP might not break a chain, but a Bubble Curtain cutting the BLM's nukes by 50% probably will. Be flexible.

The second stage of Refresh duty comes when you are comfortable casting the spell, usually in the late 50's. You don't really need to look at a /recast to figure out when the next Refresh is coming. Players are starting to have bigger MP pools, Dark Staff and Clear Mind III have entered the picture, more powerful equipment is available, and you have a little bit more flexibility. Many Red Mages at this point will prioritize certain jobs for Refresh:

1. You. If you don't have Refresh, you can't do your job.
2. Paladin. They have a small MP pool, can't rest in combat, and need Cures and flash for hate.
3. White Mage. WHMs can rest in combat in a limited fashion, but Refresh gives them the MP they need for Hasting and curing.
4. Summoner. They can do a great deal of good for your party with Blood Pacts and avatars. Although they have a high Clear Mind skill, they can't rest with an avatar in play and often will be called on to heal.
5. Black Mage. In the grand scheme of things, 150MP doesn't mean much to a BLM dropping Tier III nukes and Ancient Magic, particularly since they regen a lot of MP while sitting and have many opportunities to do so. However: Refresh is like a standing Dark Staff to them, so they should be included unless you are overtaxed. A BLM can do more with 150 MP than you can with 40.
6. Dark Knights. Encourage them to use their party-assisting Absorb spells, and discourage nuking outside of Magic Bursts. They won't need Refresh often, but they are melees and cannot rest, so they're going to rely on you to keep the MP flowing.
7. Bards. If they are subbed /WHM or /RDM, Refresh gives them more MP to work with for healing and status cures. Generally they will have Ballad at least part of the time, but since they'll be cancelling the effects when they put songs on the melees, keep an eye on their MP.
8. Everyone else, as needed.

Understand that turning 40 MP into 150 for someone else is a excellent investment. Refusing to Refresh someone when you have the MP reserves to do so is not a good idea. The only time that priorities take effect is when your MP pool is almost empty and you won't have enough to Refresh everyone before Convert is up. In those situations where the XP chain is hanging in the balance (rare, but it happens), glance at the MP totals, and quickly decide who can use it the best. Use the list above as a rough idea, but know that the best Red Mages understand that the situation dictates the appropriate action, not a guide like this one.

Haste is a spell that we share with White Mages. It's similar to Refresh in many ways: it has a fixed duration (three minutes exactly), costs 40 MP, and has a fairly long recast time. It will cut weapon delay by about 12.5%, and reduce recast timers by around 15%.

Haste is useful for:

• Increasing the damage over time done by heavy melee DDs (including DRK, MNK, SAM, DRG, etc).
• Helping players who are slower at accumulating TP, so they keep up with skillchains.
• Reducing the recast timer on spells, which is especially important for keeping hate (Flash) or damage mitigation (Utsusemi).
• Cancelling the effects of and giving immunity to Slow (except in certain cases, like Spider AOE slow).

However, Haste does not cut the timers on ranged attacks, so you don't need to put this on Rangers unless they need to swing their knives faster for some reason.

The first problem with Haste is MP consumption. Over-hasting can run you dry of MP in a hurry, and cause downtime. Refusing the Haste is nearly as bad, especially in the case of Ninja tanks, who require Haste in order to effectively tank. The trick is to find a happy medium, the optimum level of Hasting that will increase your party's chaining potential without draining your MP reserves.

The second problem with Haste is timing. It's a 3-minute spell, meaning that if you are running a Refresh cycle, it will be displaced by 30 seconds every time. Eventually, that's going to cause a conflict. You can either deal with the conflicts as they arise, have the WHM take care of Hasting (they get it at 40, you get it at 48, WHMs should be used to it by then), or delibrately short-circuit Haste's duration by re-applying it earlier than usual. It's important to communicate with your party members and find the best way to deal with Haste timing.

There are several other corner uses for Hasting, such as hasting yourself in a party. If you have 5-6 people to Refresh, Hasting yourself will cut the recast timer of Refresh, allowing you to squeeze more "free" time at the end of the cycle to rest for MP or do other things. Whether this is worth the MP cost depends on the situation. Remember that if you do it once, you have to keep doing it, otherwise Refreshes will start falling before you can deal with them.

It's not a bad idea to think about Haste the same way that you do free-nuking: they are both ways that Red Mages can directly speed up the flow of experience by spending MP. By the time you get this spell you'll already be well-acquainted with Convert and Refresh, and ought to be able to make a judgement call whether it's appropriate to spend the MP to cast. Every melee wants Haste, but only experience will tell you when they actually need it.

Convert is one of the JA's that make us the envy of other mage classes. It's on a 10-minute timer, and will swap your current HP with your current MP. The primary use of Convert is for a "free" MP heal. Essentially you do all that you can with your pool of MP, and when you are down to the last few points, Convert. You'll wind up with a few HP and most likely a full MP bar. Cure yourself out of the red, and you're ready to go again.

There are a couple schools of thought when it comes to Convert. Some people will do their best to try to run out of MP just as Convert is availible, and use it to extend chains. Others save their Convert for emergency situations. Whichever method you choose to follow, there are a few things about Convert that you'll want to keep in mind:

• Convert will fail if you have 0 MP. You need to have at least 1MP left, or Convert is burned with no effect. Know how long Refresh has been up if you're going to Convert.
• If you Convert with an HP-draining status effect, such as Bio or Poison, you're likely to die. Either put up Stoneskin, or get it cured first.
• Most undead will aggro to low HP, and they have a large detection radius. Be careful about Converting when you're around them.

Dying after a Convert with full MP is pretty embarassing, so try to be aware of your surroundings before you use it. Having 4 hitpoints and standing next to an XP mob with an AOE attack is an accident waiting to happen. You either need to Convert outside of battle, or run out of AOE range before you Convert. With a weak AOE like a crab's Bubble Shower, casting a fresh Stoneskin will keep you alive. Against powerful AOEs like a Goblin bomb or a Cursed Sphere from a Fly, Stoneskin will not absorb it all, so you MUST run out of range.

Something to remember when you heal after a Convert: dumping back-to-back Cure IV's on yourself might get you to full HP, but it will also get the monster's attention. You have 10 minutes to get yourself back to full, so unless you are in real danger of dying, it's OK to slowly Regen or Drain your way back to full after an initial Cure to come out of the red. If you think that there is any possibility of getting aggro, it's a good idea to put up Blink for a chance to absorb a hit. You may want to ask the WHM to give you a Regen II, if they have it.

It's also possible to do a "ghetto Convert", which is when you use Convert with full MP in order to heal your HP. If you're on the run, can't stop to cure youself, and need a quick heal, it's a valid strategy.

When you Convert, it's a good idea to equip all of your +MP items before you do. Most RDMs have more HP than MP (though Tarutaru can get a perfect 1:1 ratio fairly early), and you can use the MP immediately on spells that don't require +stat or +skill equipment. Good uses for the extra MP are healing yourself/others, Refresh, Haste, Dia II, etc. If you have a Convert macro, you can put the equipment swaps right into it, to make things easier.

The final useful thing to note about Convert is that if you can run far enough from your party's monster you can avoid that Cure IV grabbing its attention if the mob is not visible in your mob radar. This knowledge also allows aggro free resting for those few spare moments you get.

Source of guide:

• RDM 101 v2.0 --- Stays Crunchy in Milk, Makes Julienne Fries

Allakhazam Red Mage Forum:

• Red Mage Forum