MithraPride

OK, here's the pie.



a la mode, to boot!

Now...hey! Stop eating and listen to me!

OK. so I really really need a break from WHM and decided that now would be a good time to level RDM. Here's the RDM gear I have available to me for my level 42 RDM:

Weapon: Solid Wand, Pilgrim's Wand, Fencing Degen
Head: Electrum Hairpin
Neck: Beak Necklace, Holy Ampula, Black Silk Neckerchief
Earring: Black Earring x2
Body, Hands, Legs, Feet: Mithra RSE
Back: Black Cape. White Cape, Red Cape (43)
Waist: Qiqurn Sash
Rings: Electrum Ring x2

So, is this OK? If not, what should I get gear-wise?

Also, at 48 I have a Rose Wand +1 and at 51 a Light Staff, Dark Staff, and Ice Staff waiting for me. Anything else I need for the weapon slot?

Finally, what AF should I get, what can I wait on, and what should fill the slots that aren't occupied by needed AF?

Any other advice or anything I forgot you want to mention, please let me know. Its been over a year since I last played RDM and I've forgotten a lot about the job that I used to know.

I humbly thank you all for your assistance and...*Gets trampled by kitty RDM's going back for seconds on the pie*

*Stares at your signature*

Spend three days. Eight hours a day. LFP and in Whitegate. And get up WHM to 75.

Its tough, I know. But once you hit 75. Guess what.

YOU'RE 75!!!

/licks ice cream off her spoon

Sorry about that

Your gear looks pretty good for the next little while. Accesories look fine. There's the Powerful Rope at 44 that you can quest that really helps with Converting, but its not necessary.

Hands and legs are good for a looonnggg time- I still use legs for converting. May want to think about getting a new body piece- but there's not much selection just yet. If you can, get a Glamor Jupon at 50. Its the best body piece RDMs can wear from 50-58 and has its uses for nuking and Drain/Aspir for well beyond that.

A very very good set of boots if you can get it would be the Mannequin Boots. They're quested only and a pain in the ass to get (need a mannequin to trigger the quest, involves running through the Aqueducts to see a cs and an easyish nm fight at the end) but they're by far the best mage boots RDM can get until after 70 or River Gaiters- whichever comes first for you.

For AF, the next piece is the AF boots. They're ok-decent at 52 if you don't have anything else to wear and good for soloing. Easy quest, just a lot of running around.

Gloves are the Dark Spark fight- again, they're ok, but really more for soloing. Can skip those if you want.

The wonderful and sexy Tabard is 58 and a coffer hunt in Castle O. Bring along some friends who want to break their latents/skill up and should be easy enough to get a key.

The even sexier hat is two levels later- 2NM fight quest and I'd strongly recommend bringing at least a few people for Miser Murphy. A full party would be better. The Gaurdain Doll NM is both easier and more annoying to get too. MM is just a long walk through B. Glacier. GD is behind the first banishing gate and while he doesn't cast- he has one hell of a lot of HP and does all the annoying Doll moves. He can be taken down small party style.

Oh almost forgot staves- Dark, Ice, Wind and Light are extremly important, Earth and Water less so with Thunder and Fire being last.

Some people switch around the priority a bit and I didn't get them in that order (I got water and fire before earth) but I can honestly say I wish I'd had Earth earlier. Would've made the B.Bay levels much easier.

Bah- did forget to mention accesories 50+. Antivenom and Insomnia Earrings are available at 50 and I strongly recommend picking them up either through assault or just buying them. They're the best earrings we can wear for MP by far. Also- the Moldy earring is a good one to get for nuking.

If you're really serious about doing RDM right- I highly recommend picking up MND and INT rings. The HQ versions of the 30ish level rings will last until the 70+ ones or you can use NQ ones until the mid-50 set become available. I'm not sure which ones are a better deal on your server.

That's all I can think of for now

Just a personal suggestion from my experience. Take your WHM, and a friend who has either NIN75 or something that's good with /NIN at 75. Duo Miser Murphy. This cuts down on two complications. Massive healing needed with the hate going everywhere, and keeps Miser Murphy from being able to massively heal himself via the AoE HP absorb move. Plus a NIN75 or THF75 should have NO problems taking care of him. I helped a fellow kitty on Alexander with this as PLD/NIN before I even had access to Utsu:Ni.

Don't RDM just buy one of everything and juggle it somehow?

Thanks for the assistance so far and about the staves: Why so many?

How do I use them all? I figured Light for Cure, Dark for MP recovery, Ice for Nuking, and the rest...

As for gear I'll start working on my mannequin. I just need the head, body, and hands from BCNM's and then find someone selling the legs and I've got my mannequin and can then get the pumps.

Finally, what's wrong with +MP rings and is it OK to wear all my AF?

Keavy wrote:Finally, what's wrong with +MP rings and is it OK to wear all my AF?

Alright. Here's the deal about +MP ringers versus stat boosting things.

RDMs are Enfeeblers at heart. What that means, is they need a good amount of INT to even have the debuffs land on the targets.

Now, if you were a WHM. You'd want to stick with +MP rings. More MP = more cures. And as for BLM. +INT for stronger spells/less resists

Keavy wrote:Thanks for the assistance so far and about the staves: Why so many?

How do I use them all? I figured Light for Cure, Dark for MP recovery, Ice for Nuking, and the rest...

Light: Dia, Banish, Cures
Dark: Drain, Aspir, Bio, Sleep, Blind, resting
Ice: Paralyze, Bind (Thanks Scarlett I forgot that one!)
Earth: Slow
Wind: Silence, Gravity
Water: Poison
Thunder: just nukes until you can sub dark knight for stun at 75
Fire: Just nukes

You're basicly ok with just light and dark staves if you want to play cheap.
However elemental staves will help you a great deal in landing these spells.

Also the white enfeebles need MND for a better landing rate (slow, paralyze, silence) and the black need INT (Poison, Gravity, Sleep, etc.)
Also higher int makes your nukes get resisted less.

A little advise on how to check the element of the spell you cast is to look it up in your spells list, the color of the icon next to it betrays the element of the spell letting you know which staff benefits the spell you use.

Shirai wrote:Also the white enfeebles need MND for a better landing rate (slow, paralyze, silence)

Oh, seriously?

My mistake >,<

I'll tackle staves first since they're easier to explain and Shirai already covered most of it

As mentioned Ice for Paralyze (and bind)- but also for the huge elemental skill boost for us- which by far makes the Blizzard line RDMs most accurate nukes to use.

Earth, Wind are nearly as important- Slow is one of the best enfeebles in our arsenal, Silence is incredibly important and Gravity does double duty with controlling mob movement and giving all the DD what amounts to basically a P.Charm for 21 MP. I'd say Wind is/should be a higher priority than Earth, but both are important.

Poison II is our best DoT spell, its cheapish and doesn't deal initial damage to the mob so no added TP there, and as an added bonus- doesn't overwrite Dia

Fire and Thunder- nukes, stun (at 75 with /drk), but also for the elemental enfeebles if you end up subbing /blm and have a reason to use Burn and Shock. Either way- you can wait on these for awhile, whether or not you get and use them will depend on if you actually plan on using RDM or retiring it after you reach 75.

I won't say having a full Elemental staves set is a must have for RDMs...but most RDMs end up picking up the entire set at some point.

Ok, easy part over with- now for rings.

MP- MP is good, MP lets us cast- but after its used up, that MP giving item is just so much wasted space. MP items used primarily for macroing in for Convert and the first heal(s)- and then swapped out for the real casting stuff. Can also be switched back in when your resting.

MND/INT- Fiye nailed it by saying RDMs are enfeeblers at heart and that several (not all) enfeebles are modified by one of these stats for added potency. INT and MND also have a small effect on accuracy for less resists.

MND- increases the amount Slow reduces Attack Speed, how many times Paralyze procs, how much HP Stoneskin absorbs, as well as its effect on Cure spells which I'm sure you're already familiar with.

INT- increases the amount of damage nukes do and the potency for Blind. Silence, Poison, Sleep and Gravity are all pretty much go/no-go spells. They either land or they don't and any accuracy boost they may get from INT hasn't been confirmed as far as I know.

I can provide links to some enfeebling tests/better explanations if you want them, but that's the basics.

Edit- Just realized I skipped over the AF tights in my earlier post. They're a coffer hunt in the ever annoying Garliage Citadel. Good steady piece for healing and enhancing skill- I still use mine for cures and SS but you'll want to macro in for MP and/or MND/INT.

Keavy wrote:Here's the RDM gear I have available to me for my level 42 RDM:

Weapon: Solid Wand, Pilgrim's Wand, Fencing Degen
Head: Electrum Hairpin
Neck: Beak Necklace, Holy Ampula, Black Silk Neckerchief
Earring: Black Earring x2
Body, Hands, Legs, Feet: Mithra RSE
Back: Black Cape. White Cape, Red Cape (43)
Waist: Qiqurn Sash
Rings: Electrum Ring x2

Also, at 48 I have a Rose Wand +1 and at 51 a Light Staff, Dark Staff, and Ice Staff waiting for me. Anything else I need for the weapon slot?

Finally, what AF should I get, what can I wait on, and what should fill the slots that aren't occupied by needed AF?

Weapon: If you are going to be meleeing at all, Buzzard Tuck.
Earring: Morion, Morion +1, Cunning. INT is the trick here, but only because MND earrings are a ways away.
Body, Hands, Legs, Feet: The RSE gloves and pants are good, Engineer's Gloves or Garrison for the star boosts, Garrison Boots likewise. There are no good RDM feet for us for a long time. AF is acceptable, but only acceptable. @ what was it, 47? Magic Quises for casting.
Back: Make that a Red +1 at 43. It will last till the Prisim.
Waist: Qiqurn Sash for resting, but something with more INT and MND for casting.
Rings: Electrum Ring x2 is good for Convert. You need 2X MND and INT as well.
Staves: Ice for Paralyze. Dark for Blind. Wind for Gravity and Silence. Earth for Slow.
Get the whole AF set for show. Gloves and Boots are melee pieces, the boots have MPs enough to make them acceptable in parties. I still use the hat, tablard and tights at 75.

Food: Either Sweet Rice cakes or Cookies for resting with Bretzels for Convert.

In general: put on all your MND stuff for Paralyze, Slow, and Silence, put on all your INT stuff for Gravity, Blind, and Dispel. Yes, Dispel can be resisted. Put on all your MP stuff for Convert, if you have enough for two macros, all the stuff with -HPs goes in the second.

Kintrra wrote:Just a personal suggestion from my experience. Take your WHM, and a friend who has either NIN75 or something that's good with /NIN at 75. Duo Miser Murphy.

Only problem with that is you need to be a RDM to get MM to pop. He'll only appear if a RDM with the quest open enters the room.

Really? He won't pop if you've activated the quest and changed job?

Nope, its one of the more annoying AF quests because of that. He'll only appear if a RDM with the quest active enters the room.

ScarlettPheonix wrote:

Kintrra wrote:Just a personal suggestion from my experience. Take your WHM, and a friend who has either NIN75 or something that's good with /NIN at 75. Duo Miser Murphy.

Only problem with that is you need to be a RDM to get MM to pop. He'll only appear if a RDM with the quest open enters the room.

Hate to argue, but dead wrong. You just have to have the person who has the quest active with you for him to pop, then make sure you get to the center room before he despawns or aggros someone. This is how me and my friend ended up duo'ing it. She needed to get him dead, and she had WHM75, so she went WHM and I went PLD/NIN, and there he was.

I stand corrected

Every walkthrough I've read of the quest specifically said that he'll only appear if a RDM with the quest active is in the room so that's what I was going on.

Thought as much ^^; there are very few that actually require you to be on that job to spawn the NM(s). DRG AF3 comes to mind as you need your wyvern out, think PUP AF3 is the same too.

Its funny, from a purely story/role-playing point of view I kind of like the idea of having to be that particular job to complete the various AF quests, but as someone who would much rather solo just about everything- I like being able to complete the quests without having to be that job. Makes things so much easier.

/looks at SMN AF1 quest