Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better!: RDM Guide

Node 425

Safety Post
Things left to do:
Table of Contents
NM section-this is going to take some time-may be better off in it's own thread if I can ever get around to it.
Some more proofreading

If someone could DM me a way to set up a table of contents I would appreciate it. I am barely a bbcode novice

If you see any errors or things that need to be added let me know

I guess I'll put part 2 of this test in this thread. Updated original post in other thread:


Jhakri Ring instead of Freke Ring
MB Test: 57467
Jhakri Ring: 56793

Some extra testing:
NQ Ea Pigaches instead of Amalric Nails +1
MB Test: 56609
Ea Pigaches: 51733

NQ Jhakri Pigaches vs NQ Ea Pigaches
Jhakri Pigaches: 52107
Ea Pigaches: 51733

shout out to you and nuance been a big help in gearing up my rdm. Really nice job on the guide argisto

Thank you so much. This guide helps me tweak my DD RDM and nuking sets. I really appreciate the attention to detail AND the list of different weapon combinations at the end. (This was something I posted about a while ago. I can really be a challenge to decide which weapon combo you want to use with RDM, depending on what you want to do, for a given fight). Thanks again!

For the table of contents you'd need to adjust each header like this:
This was taken from my RUN guide and it was confusing at first. Hope it helps.

I am going to read through this guide and check it out, see if I can learn anything new about RDM. But I just wanted to point out that the title is disgustingly offensive and accurate :(

The body title definitely needs to be updated with those graphics

BLU: stun, tp reset, AoE non-wind elemental damage, Erase/ga, AoE cure, 10+ blink shadows, breakga, sleepga, MDB down, counters, drown (-65STR), Burn (-63 INT), Doomga, High Defense, native DW
NIN: Migawari, Enmity generation, native DW, high HP, Utsusemi shadows.

Just some things that RDM wont do better or wont do at all (Can try to do some with /whm, /nin or /sch, but still mostly worse).

is it just me, or are the enhancing self cast/other cast sets swapped?

"No You can't!"

"Yes I can!"

"No you can't!!!"

Yes I cannnnnnnnnn!"

(sorry, someone had to- but nice work. RDM forum needs a well-maintained sticky)

Thank you! I'll mess around with it tomorrow night when I have some free time.

Great guide so far. One thing I need to point out is the BG enspell formula for 500+ skill stops working after 600 skill.
At 641 going by the formula Floor[(400/3098)(Skill+3.65)] damage should be 83 plus any gifts and merits (121 for mastered and 5/5 merits), but in game 641 skill equals 82 base damage.

642 Skill


641 Skill


I'm master and 5/5 Enspell damage merits so subtract 23 for gifts and 15 for merits.

Full image dump for thresholds past 600 skill
Known about this for months and others probably have too but I never saw a post about it. Since this is a new guide better to fix it here.

(edit) 23 enspell damage from gifts not 24

3/25*skill + 6

fits for all those samples at least

Edit:

3*(skill + 50) / 25 might be a better form I guess?

Edit2:

Floored obviously, so floor(3 * (skill + 50) / 25)

Checked it with the old testing and it seems to hold true for everything > 500 skill. (at 500 skill exactly it's off by one so for 501+)

Seems like sample size was a bit on the low side for the old testing maybe?

Table of contents has been added, total Enspell gifts corrected, Enspell formula updated

Does Emissary have a place in the RDM weaponry hierarchy?

Maybe idle or fast cast piece for a very new rdm. Definitely wouldn't use it for dps or enfeebles as even kaja weapons are better for that.

Are they? They look ok to me. Not sure if anyone else is seeing this.

Didn't wanna comment in case you'd already fixed a potential mix-up, but sets seem pretty on point to me as they are right now.

Full enh. magic duration % for self. 4/5 empy(composure bonus) + AF+3 gloves for others.

Does anyone know the math behind Orpheus Sash versus Obi for elemental weaponskills? Primarly wondering about Sanguine Blade in Dynamis Divergence. I currently use my Orpheus Sash for the bigger spikes (The highest I've hit was 68k, regular average closer to 40-50k), but I only get a Wizard's roll and Malaise), but I've never really understood exactly how the Orpheus Sash modifier compares against the straight multiplier from obis.

On the same topic, what's a good benchmark Sanguine number in dynamis?

Short answer is day + weather or better obi wins for average damage.

Long answer:

Ok first I will assume you are as close to the mob as possible for the full .15 affinity from orpheus, it is often possible to still melee but not get the full effect. Affinity and weather effects are separate multipliers to magic damage so as long as we are only concerned with orpheus and obi can cancel out rest of formula as a constant. Weather has a 1/3 proc chance without obi

We want to find the weather bonus needed for obi to win based on how much other affinity you have before orpheus. We expect the more other sources of affinity we have the less weather/day bonus you need for obi to be better than orpheus. Then we just need to find the points where we cross .25 weather bonus (double weather) .20 weather bonus (day + weather) and maybe look at .15 (double weather -day) and keep in mind you should have at least .28 affinity for pixie +1 for sanguine at least .50 from daybreak for seraph.

(1+a+.15)(1+w/3) = (1+a)(1+w)
or dusting off some algebra
w = 3/(((2 +2a)/.15)-1)

Double weather is 0.25 weather bonus and we find that for all positive values of affinity obi is better with double weather bonus since it is above the line. At 0 other affinity the crossover point is 0.243 weather bonus which is between .25 and .2 so with 0 other sources of affinity you'll want to use obi for double weather or better and orpheus for day + weather or worse. The next important point to consider is when weather is 0.20 which is day + weather, we find that at .20 other affinity, so for greater than .20 affinity from other sources you'll want to use obi for day + weather as well. If you have less than .20 other affinity you'll want to only use obi for double weather or better. For both Sanguine and Seraph blade you should have more than .20 affinity from other sources when you are using them so use obi when you have day + weather or better. Dynamis has double dark weather so Obi should be better on average for Sanguine by a decent amount unless its lights day.

Seraph blade with daybreak and weatherspoon ring +1 actually has enough affinity obi should be worth using even with double light weather and darks day for .15 weather bonus since its over .58 other affinity.

Even longer answer involves then scaling the .15 for different distances but that's more of a concern for cor, rng and for nuking and you then have to consider mab waist options which adds a lot more of the formula having to be considered.

I dont really have a good benchmark I'm usually getting physical buffs.

There is even longer answer :O

Part of improved avg damage for O. Sash comes from big spikes that comes from improved damage from affinity with random weather proc on top. Improved avg from Obi comes from damage improvement on every Sanguine, but there is no spikes.

So while both avg might be close, O. Sash will have lower base and higher ceiling.

For example O. Sash will do 45k, 45k, 54k (avg 48)
While Obi will do 48k, 48k, 48k (avg 48)

So avg is the same but in practical scenario if trash mobs has 40-50k hp I think in wave 1 and slightly more in wave 2 and you want to one shot them to avoid SP going off, its far easier to do this with predictable and consistent damage with Obi vs irregular damage with O. Sash.

Does anyone have a strong opinion on whether Thibron is a better offhand for Aeolian (and other magic ws like Red Lotus Blade I guess)than a club like Daybreak or Maxentius? I'm not really sure how the Magic Damage+ stat works in the offhand or if the MAB/MACC from an ilvl offhand outweighs the TP bonus from Thibron.

I use tauret / daybreak for AE. Tons of mab, magic damage, macc, and don't need to swap weapons to land enfeebles. The damage bonus from 1k to 2k is nice but not as huge as it is for savage blade. In wave 3 it does around 30k pretty consistently.

I've been rolling dark matter and received some WSD augments. Should I use them for Savage Blade, or should I stick to Jhakri head and Ayanmo body? My very unscientific tests seemed to put the augments ahead, but I'm not confident on my results, as I'm losing a good amount of STR and attack to the augmented pieces. What do you think? I apologize if the answer should be obvious.

Chironic Hat
- Aug: Acc+4, Atk+12, WSD+7

Merlinic Jubbah
- Aug: Atk+10, WSD+9

Many of you are overthinking this. If you have SCH weather it overwrites negative effects from zone weather.

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Weather

As you said, you are losing a lot of STR and attack (and accuracy!) using those augmented pieces. I would venture to say it all depends on if you're getting the appropriate buffs to make up for those losses and what your target is. Also would help to see your overall Savage Blade setup.

Added obstinate sash, Sakpata's sword and Bunzi's rod to some relevant gear sets. Will add other Odyssey gear as new info/testing becomes available.

Added Gleti's knife (not sure how I missed that before) and bowl of oden to relevant sections.