Red Mage - Everyone's Little Beyotch

Delicious Red Magey Goodness
So as many of you have read in other Red Mage guides, there are reasons that we have the spells and abilities that we do. I'm sure many guides have weighed the pros and cons about sub-jobs and race specifics. Some may even help you with all that fantastic gear that you wish you could get to solo things that should have no purpose being soloed. In this guide, I will offer up an alternative that no one wants to touch base upon. In many parties, your job as a Red Mage is to be everyone's little beyotch.

Buffs: The Reason You're In A Party
Let's face it. You weren't invited to a merit party for your good looks. Put that sword away. Odds are, you're going to need to keep your party hasted. You think a Bard can do it all? Sure, they can march the party, but to a DD, that's never enough. Ready to start casting? Hold on, Cowboy. Forgetting something? Always, always, always buff yourself first. Of course there are good ways and bad ways to approaching this, but I personally as a rule of thumb immediately bust out a Composure followed by Refresh. Because of this new ability, a spell that would drop after a minute now lasts for 3 or 4 (on yourself only), giving you a much needed respite from constantly worrying about your refresh and allowing you the chance to concentrate on cures and buffs for the rest of your party. That Refresh should quickly be followed by your own Haste because a downside of Composure is its horrific effect on casting cooldown timers. Okay, so you're 'freshed, Hasted and ready to go. Time to start on your party members. First up: Protect and Shell. You could go the cheap way as far as MP is concerned and start off with a Protectra II (assuming you're /WHM), but the difference between II and IV is a lot, especially against TP moves like Pecking Flurry. Do your party a favor. Protect IV, please. There's more you can do for extra defense, but I'll touch upon that later.

Lists: Not Just For Grocery Shopping
If you've done a significant job leveling as a Red Mage, you should probably already know about buff lists. But, if you spent more time doing your nails in Exp yielding parties, you should probably review this article before picking a fight with Kirin. When done correctly, buff lists can SAVE YOU TIME AND MP! On top of all that, a list can also ensure that the same party members will always get the right buffs and will receive them in a timely fashion. It also has a chance to backfire in the most embarrassing ways. I can't tell you the amount of times I've given a DD Refresh. This of course leads me to my first point about lists.

Know your party members. If you're in a party with nothing but Black Mages, Haste should not be your first priority. The same goes in a party full of DDs. If I see anyone throwing a Refresh on a Samurai, I'm gonna slap you. Unless it was an accident. Then I might let it slide.

Next, know the casting time and cooldown time of all of your buff spells. You don't have to be accurate and be surrounded by stop watches, but after a while you just start to get a feel for your timers. This will come into play with your list, and help your efficiency a ton.

Remember when I told you about that extra defense for your DDs? Now, I'm not going to tell you how to use your merits, but I absolutely adore my Phalanx II spell. To those of you who don't see the point in getting the spell, I implore you to click on the following link: CLICK ME! Someone took the time to write down the benefits and even a nice formula which should hopefully change your mind. Go, take a look at it. I can wait. ... Hey, you're back. Hopefully, that changed your mind. If not, that's cool too. I'm sure you can keep your party alive without it. You'll need more cures, but se la vi. Anyhoozlebees, you are now ready to start your list. For this example, the following made up names will have the following jobs: Pencilpusher - 75 PLD, Barbarastreisand - 75 THF, Sandiegozoosilverbackgorilla - 75 SAM, Heylookapenny - 75 DRG (ugh...), Givememoneynotrmtiswear - 75 DRK and yourself: Everyonesbeyotch - 75 RDM. What do you do? What DO you DO?! If it were me, it would look something like this: Everyonesbeyotch- Composure, Refresh 1, Haste 1 Pencilpusher- Phalanx II 1, Refresh 2, Haste 2 Barbarastreisand- Phalanx II 2, Haste 3 Sandiegozoosilverbackgorilla- Phalanx II 3, Haste 4 Heylookapenny- Phalanx II 4, Haste 5 Givememoneynotrmtiswear- Phalanx II 5, Haste 6, Occasionally Refresh 3 Of course, once you finish with yourself, you won't need to be hasted or refreshed as much of the rest of them, so after my initial buff, the list would continue without including myself on the next run through. Afterwards, a good way of knowing of when to start casting again is to wait one in game hour from when you first casted on the PLD. Another way of telling is if you see in your chat log that it had worn out. Refresh will always be the first to drop, so that should be a good indication. After a while, you'll get a feel for it, and it'll become second nature to you.

Curing: Hey, White Mages! Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better!
Okay, so I'm sure you've gotten the point on that whole Buff thing. Next up, Curing! Now don't get me wrong. I may have pushed buffs a little in the beginning, but let it be known, Cures always must come first! Repeat that with me. Cures come first. Cures come first.

Good News/Bad News time. Let's do bad news first, because I'm a pessimist. Until they change the level cap, the best cure we can do is a Cure IV. It does the trick, but it takes more enmity and cures for less than a Cure V. That's the bad news. Now for the good news. With the right gear, (and even without), your Fast Casting abilities almost ensure that your cures will get the person that needs it first faster. So, while a White Mage is busy casting their one Cure V, you could have already gotten off a Cure IV and halfway through your Cure III. Because of this speedy recovery ability on top of an almost endless font of MP, 4 out of 5 times a Red Mage will be chosen over a White Mage in a party.

I should warn you now, however. Don't get cocky with this power. Don't think that you will have power to decide who lives and who dies. Oftentimes it's people who feel that their prowess gives them an advantage on the battlefield and feel that their company requires a little extra compensation that gives the rest of us hard working Red Mages a bad name. Use your power to your advantage and ALWAYS CURE FIRST!

To Enfeeble Or Not To Enfeeble: The World Of A Sexypants Red Mage
Your party is sufficiently healed and buffed. Excellent. You have some extra MP and it's just staring at you, saying "Use me... UUUUSSSEEE MEEEEEE..." No? Maybe it's just me, then. At any rate, we have more we can do, and it could very well save our party's butts in a pinch. I refer of course to the power of Enfeebling Magic. We happen to have the best stats for Enfeebling Magic in the game, and it is our one and only A+ skill. Don't be afraid to bust out a Paralyze or Slow when it's deemed necessary. By the way, to all you haters out there who love trash talking Paralyze, if you put enough Merits in your Paralyze II spell, it has a chance of canceling out a lot of the mob's abilities. Stun? Who needs it?

DoTs are nice, but in many parties, they're pretty unnecessary. There is one that I do love to use though, and it helps out the DDs just that much more. There are advocates for Bio II and it's good in some situations, but I say Phooey! Dia II is infinitely more useful in a party. The less defense a mob has, the easier it is for your DDs to blow them to smithereens. However, as many things within this game, everything is situational. The world of Vana'diel is all about trial and error, and don't be afraid to try things out. Or, you could always listen to any bossy person who writes a guide about playing a job.

...

What do you mean, go look in a mirror?

By the way, what should always come first? Say it with me. ALWAYS CURE FIRST!

Useful Gear That Won't Break The Bank
You want the best gear. Hey, me too. But, with great gear comes great deficit. Here's a couple of items that won't sap your hard earned gils but still make you a better Red Mage for your moneys.

This here's some of the sexiest gear for a Red Mage, and the best part is, IT'S FREE! As for the hands and the feet, once you get them, you can promptly toss them out. They're okay if you want to go around with your sword and smack some stuff, but even then there are better items. As for the rest, each one of these items are good for macro pieces, and no self respecting Red Mage would be caught dead without having their Tabard on them. The Chapeau is good for getting your cures out faster because of its Fast Casting capabilities, and those moments where your Nukes are necessary, I guess the Elemental Magic skill could help. As for the tights, they are a must for cures and honestly they're amazing for your Phalanx II setup. These staves are an absolute must. Light makes your cures more potent, Dark help with your rest macros (+10 MP while healing is nothing to sneeze at]] and is also good for your sleeps and other Dark elemental Enfeebling magic setup. The rest are amazing for your enfeebles, and when you get a chance to upgrade to +1, do so ASAP. Some think I may be out of place by not recommending the Thunder or Fire staves, but I'm writing this for Red Mages on a budget, and they can always Catch 'em All at a later time. And yes, I know the Thunder Staff is great for stuns and eventually when you get your Dark Knight sub job, you'll probably have the chance to do a Chainspell Stun strategy, and a Thunder Staff will make that hugely effective. Moving on. Oh, Errant gear. So reliable. So genius. So... CHEAP! You want bang for your buck? You can stretch your gils longer with this terrific set. The Houppelande is great for nuking and resting, the slops are amazing for enfeebles, and the cuffs and pigaches (pronounced PI-gash-es, not PIG-akes... although pigaches pronounced the latter way sound like an amazing breakfast food, hmm? Pancakes made from bacon... just saying) are stupendous for everything, and are a terrific replacement for those crappy AF hands and feet. By the way, did I mention that they're ''' FRIGGIN' CHEAP?! ''' I did the math for you. That whole set will set you back on average a meager 87,000 gil (based on Bismarck prices, prices may vary in other servers) You can't get better than that, plus you're helping out your fellow Clothcrafting pals. The rest is up to you, but I'm sure you're smart enough to figure it out.

Buh Dee Buh Dee Buh Dee, That's All Folks!
I'm sure I can think of more, but for now this guide is about ready to burst. Thanks for reading, and if you remember anything from what you read here today, it's that you should ALWAYS CURE FIRST! Also, just play it smart. Try out combinations and macros in certain situations, and in no time you'll be one of the best Red Mages on your server. Know your place, but stay humble. For a party to work, sometimes you have to play the role of Everyone's Little Beyotch.