Jack Of All Trades: A Guide To Red Mage

Well, aside from a higher delay offhand slowing down Crocea's Enspell damage, using Daybreak also means you're losing DEX+15, Accuracy+40, Attack+30 and 64+22 skill compared to Tauret. Not a huge deal due to Malignance gear, but purely from a physical standpoint it's a pretty significant downgrade (-127 offhand Accuracy).

It obviously still comes out ahead, but Daybreak is indeed a pretty meh melee club in context.

Actually I will agree with you there on content. I tried to use it on a Omen boss (Kyou) and normally don't have acc issues. And with club off hand. I just gave up meleeing because even with distract 3 it wasn't worth it.

Maybe with Mali gear (like you said) would it be worth using on higher end content. I forgot to use it in my wave 2 farm in dynamis. But I will give it a go my next go around. Someday I'd like to see how it performs in wave 3 volte. But that's gonna require Mali gear to have a hope to hit.

Malignance doesn't have especially higher Accs than other options. (Only 5ish more than Ayanmo+2, and that's the basic of the basic)

If you're having that much of acc issues, is it that you're not getting the right buffs?

It has far more Accuracy than Taeon head/legs and Carmine feet+1, which were our strongest TP options previously not counting Volte (and Volte had no Macc).

Ayanmo head+2 had too little gear Haste to cap (therefore Taeon head), Ayanmo legs+2 had no melee stats aside from Acc/Macc (hence Taeon legs for TA+4%) and Carmine+1 had a lot more DA/STP than any other option, but barely any Accuracy.

Also, for those of you saying its stats are good for sanguine/red lotus, did you forget about the ammupuri shield with its 38 magic acc/38 MAB/+13? int/mnd. (Daybreak is 40/40, +0 int, +30 mnd)

Along with the fact it doesnt screw with your attack rounds by being a low accuracy offhand.

The only thing daybreak is good for is mainhand casting, offhand seraph blade, and healing.

Anything else has an alternate option that is more effective for what you are trying to do.

Uh, hold on there. I was on your side so far, but there's no way Ammurapi would beat Daybreak for Sanguine/RLB because you would lose a massive amount of Magic Damage+. And, more importantly, you would lose Dual Wield altogether and therefore would be unable to reach minimum delay.

With single wield your TP speed simply suffers far too much and the majority of RDM's DPS still comes from WSs, even if single wield benefits Crocea's Enspell damage considerably. And no offhand boosts Sanguine/RLB/Seraph more than Daybreak.

I should have included a "depending on content level".

If your offhand weapon is not hitting, then its worthless I am pretty sure.

Also, not sure on the math, but someone would have to parse out the DW belt vs the Orphous's Sash as well. +15% enspell damage ontop after all other damage has been calculated is pretty nice.

Even then though, the Tauret provides substantially more acc and a much lower delay, and should hit frequently. Its only downside being the loss of about 20 MAB. (Which when you are WSing in +hundreds of MAB isnt the biggest deal ever. Its a damage reduction but not as sharp as just not hitting with your offhand)

Unfortunately, you quoted me while I was still revising my post. I forgot to add in the loss of Magic Damage+ when using Ammurapi Shield over Daybreak. That's another big factor for WS damage.

And if your offhand isn't hitting there are many ways to address that without giving up DW entirely (yes, Tauret is an option; Ammurapi isn't=. Especially if you are still missing Malignance gear.

Several months ago I (very roughly) parsed out Orpheus's Sash/Ayanmo hands+2 vs. Reiki Yotai+DW Taeon+Dedition (instead of Eabani). The damage to Enspell they added resulted in a +80-100 DPS increase. And that was before we got all this new MACC gear and Enspell merits.

What about using orpheus's sash/ayanmo hands +2 along with Suppa/Eabani?

You might not hit haste cap that way, but you are only a few % off. (Like 3% i think?)

There's no point in using Eabani/Suppa when you can simply get DW+10 on your Ambu cape and be only 1% below cap. You're also not giving up Dedition/Sherida earrings which give +13 STP/+5% DA vs. a possible +10 STP on cape.

Thats a fair assessment.

Do we really need sTP on earrings anymore when between 4/5 Malignance and earrings (both of the double attack earrings), and rings (chirach+1) you have something like +60~?

I know using the Dedition would net you 7 more sTP over brutal, but the loss of 5% DA, not sure but id expect that to parse pretty close when you are already talking as much sTP as malignance provides.

This is roughly what im thinking (mind you, cant show malignant yet lol). If ACC becomes an issue id then replace the umuthi hat for the 4th malignant. (As it stands, +8 enspell damage ends up becoming +73 enspell damage per swing main hand)

ItemSet 368180

With 33% TA Temper Brutal would only add roughly 3.3% DA as it procs at lower priority. It would certainly help with white damage and not losing Accuracy would be welcome, but given that most of RDM's damage still comes from WS I have my doubts whether it would win. Keep in mind that stacking STP and TP overflow have no real downside with Seraph Blade as it has excellent scaling.

Honestly, the difference between the two would be so miniscule anyway it'd be nearly impossible to parse a difference. Only an updated spreadsheet that accurately tracks Enspell damage would be able to answer that question with certainty.

And that set looks fine, but I personally wouldn't give up Malignance hat for Umuthi under any circumstances (unless you only included it temporarily). The Enspell+ simply can't make up for the massive loss of DEX, Accuracy, Magic Accuracy, Store TP, DT-% and Magic Evasion.

Eh, i figure if im not having acc issues, using the umuthi adds a ton of white damage (or well, 70 damage a swing for a single gear slot isnt bad anyway.)

That said, do you find yourself just using seraph at 1k TP as well? You mentioned TP overflow, but I found that the fTP mod of seraph was very low unless you are in the 2k~3k range.

(And do any of those options actually beat out savage blade as far as WSes go?)

Well, on weaker stuff then Enspell damage+ is certainly useful. But you just said yourself you had Accuracy issues on Kyou--he's pretty evasive even with decent Acc gear and buffs, so it's likely you weren't even capped (99% Accuracy) with Crocea.

I would never use Seraph Blade at 1k personally as TP speed is far too quick with Samurai Roll and 2k TP Seraph has more than double the fTP in comparison.

Best weapon setups in this order of priority:

1. If Sanguine/Seraph work: Crocea/Daybreak

2. Buffed enough to be able to multistep: Murgleis/Thibron/Ullr

3. If solo and Light SCs are good: R15 Almace/Tauret

4. When zerging with full physical buffs: Maxentius/Thibron

5. Magic damage sucks + too underbuffed for Thibron + can't make Light SCs: Crocea/Tauret with 1750+250 TP Savage Blade

Untested: R15 Excalibur/Kclub

Black Halo beats Savage Blade thanks to Temper 2, so there's no real reason to use Naegling or Sequence on RDM anymore unless you're Attack-starved.

Oh yeah, Black Halo is disgusting. Not sure what they were thinking with Maxentius lol (Then again, no idea what they were thinking with Naegling either. Hello Corsairs with TP gun not shooting ever. lol)

I imagine ill still do better offhanding tauret if seraph blade is just not that effective/the acc demand is too high.

Offhanding daybreak is fine if im beating up things that just have no evasion.

I know last night I was dropping about 15k Sanguine Blades (and my weapon is only at +25% elemental WS damage so far). Seraph was far weaker but i was also not offhanding daybreak.

What does your gearset look like for seraph?

I haven't looked into what the full set of Malignance is going to do for jewelry, cape options, etc in a particularly precise way, yet, but I'll say that if you add a whole lot of any particular stat, the general rule is that adding more of that same stat again is far less valuable than it was the first time, and adding something else instead will have its value increased.

There's obviously cases where a particular stat is so over the top in value that there's no real conceivable way for another stat to surpass it, even if their value does increase.

Anyway, each melee stat's exact DPS contribution changes with every addition or subtraction of any melee stat. If you were to evaluate one point of mab within Sanguine at 57 damage per point of mab per sanguine, but then added something like malignance earring which brings base stats of int/mnd to the table, then the value of each point of mab within sanguine is likely to bump up to 58 or 59 points per mab instead of 57. mab per point becomes more powerful as a result of adding mnd or int. The point with this paragraph is not to suggest that a full mnd build that totally disregards mab will somehow outshine an mab build for sanguine, instead it's to showcase that the value of a particular stat literally changes with the additions of other stats.

Full Malignace's Store TP combo is going to devalue Dedition Earring's extra Store TP on top of what Malignance already brings, and will increase the value of multi attack, which Malignance clearly lacks.

By using Malignance Body, you lose the DA on Ayanmo body. By using Malignance Hat, you lose the TA on a Taeon hat, by using Malignance feet, you lose the DA on Carmine feet, etc.

There's trade offs, for sure, but something like Full Malignance set + Sam Roll is NOT going to really need something like Dedition Earring.

Also, if you can manage it, you're probably best to use carmine+1 legs and suppanomimi as that will cap /nin attack speed with capped spell haste while providing to you an always-on movement speed advantage. Getting to your next target faster isn't a totally unimportant component of destroying your target, afterall.

Also, keep in mind that 5% delay reduction is like 5.26% increase in attacks, 50% delay reduction is like a 100% increase in attacks, ~67% delay reduction is like 200% increase in attacks, 75% delay reduction is like a 300% increase in attacks. And 80% delay reduction is 400%. That's how big those last few points are.

So at the very beginning levels where you first get the haste spell or a single piece of haste gear, those pieces or spells are a lot closer to 1% haste = 1% increase of attacks, but as you get to the last five percentage points of delay reduction, they each are worth ~20% increase (over base) in attacks on average with that very last single % of delay reduction being the most powerful.

The reason to use Malignance gear isn't solely because of Store TP. The set is good because it adds a ton of Accuracy, Magic Accuracy, MEVA and DT-% beyond the STP, which matters a ton more in endgame content than a little bit of DA+%. Especially when you need Accuracy for a non-ilevel weapon like Thibron.

If you're just fighting trash mobs (imo this doesn't even include Dyna trash) then obviously there are better choices for raw damage. But trying to parse as high as possible on irrelevant mobs is largely wasted effort outside of CPing. However, being able to reliably resist Amnesia/Paralyze/Slow on endgame mobs? That's a huge, huge improvement.

Regardless, whether Brutal or Dedition wins, the difference is extremely miniscule as I said before. I do agree though that uncapped DW might be a considerable DPS loss given our white damage, even if it's just 1%. It's possible Eabani Earring might be the best earring option even if it means overcapping (plus more HP/MEVA are always welcome).

I think 79% -> 80% ends up being a 5% increase in number of attacks, if my quick and dirty math is right.

That said, you give up a lot using carmine +1 over malig pants.

Your options for haste cap are
DW back + DW earring (over capped DW) but lets you use malig tights.

DW earring + carmine cuisses (exact cap DW) but lets you use a double attack back.

So you are at 10% double attack vs the sTP/Magic acc/Magic Evasion/etc the malig provides.

That's why I said, "If you can manage it". The set has advantages for survival that are leaps ahead of any other gear set we can wear, and I do fully get that.

But if you're talking about optimizing small things like earring vs capes for DW, I just *had* to point out just how important those last points are.

Honestly, though its less DPS, im leaning towards malig pants + offhand daybreak + eabani earring, if only because thats a ton more magic evasion.

Pushing like 700+ in gear.

That requires giving up the +17 enspell gloves though. (Or about 150 enspell damage a hit after effects)

I'd still use Ayanmo+2 over Malignance hands when using Crocea/Daybreak. Sure the loss of STP/MEVA/DT sucks, but we still have vastly more MEVA/DT than many other DDs with 4/5 Malignance and Daybreak's MEVA+30. And Enspell+17 is a significant DPS boost whereas STP is strongly devalued due to other gear/Sam roll.

In any case, Ayanmo hands+2 are very close to Malignance in terms of Accuracy/Magic Accuracy, but Umuthi Hat offers less Enspell+ and no other bonuses. Hence the different treatment.

Plus the Malignance hat looks way better ;)

But overall, thats where im leaning.

4/5 malignance + ayanmo+2 gloves.
Sherada (sp?)+Eabani
2x Crirach+1 rings
Orph Sash, JSE back with dual wield
Anu/Sanct torque based on acc needs.
daybreak/tauret based on acc needs.

Ginsen/Ullr (honestly, i lean ullr with how much sTP we have now thanks to malig)

It's not 1% tho

We need 36% DW with 67.85% haste because that gives exactly 80% delay reduction.

35% DW will not result in 79% delay reduction tho, but with 79.6875%

Last 1%DW will increase total attack speed by ~1.54%

Using Ullr means you can no longer swap Ammo for WS, though.

As a follow up, whats the suggested WS set for Seraph Blade?

Sanguine i have basically, but is it just the addition of the +1 MAB hat over the pixie hairpin and a MAB/WS ring over the archon ring?

Its been a constant battle for me in that thought too, BUT, since we are using magic WS it prevents resistance on that regards too. (I think magic WS can be resisted, right?)

SoA ring with 11 light affinity wins by mile, but its a SoA ring, so you might have a different one. Pair it with Epam. If you dont have SoA ring use Freke+Epam. Actually I wonder how close Freke is to Epam. I might have underestimate that 10INT.

Int doesnt do anything for Seraph Blade, iirc.

There are like 2 seraph sets, literally, one page back

I think Ullr with that +15STR is closer to Pemphredo Tathlum than you think. Red lotus and Seraph has 40%STR mod and Sanguine has 30%. Not to mention Empyreal Arrow has also Transfixion property, so you can do Arrow > Seraph for Distortion.



True, I was thinking about sanguine and Red Lotus.
I'm 100% after Ullr myself. That +40macc is very good for everything on RDM including magic WSs at high endgame content.