Red Mage Guide by Feauce/Support Jobs

Support Jobs
Alright, is everyone ready to really learn how to bring the best this job has to offer out? Here's where it is. Depending on the support job you select, your role in or outside of a party will change drastically. Let's get started on a few.

White Mage

 * One of the two basic mage jobs, and a solid choice for a healer-type Red Mage. Gains access to exclusive White Magic, including status cures, Erase, and Reraise, the Banish series to improve Divine Magic and the Job Ability Divine Seal, which conveniently has a 10 minute recast timer to match our native Convert.  Also, this subjob will add a slight bonus to HP compared to RDM/BLM, and gains Auto Regen at RDM50/WHM25.  Much later, at RDM72/WHM36 and higher, you gain access to the Teleport spells (Holla, Dem, and Mea).  Lacking somewhat in offensive ability, as we are left with only our own elemental and enfeebling spells and the Banish line, which leaves much to be desired in personal experience.  This is primarily a healer-support subjob, and won't typically leave much time for anything else in an XP party scenario.

Black Mage

 * The more hostile of the two basic mage jobs, and it shows. You gain the elemental "enfeebles" (Burn, Frost, Choke, Rasp, Shock, and Drown), Drain, Aspir, Warp, Escape, and the Job Ability Elemental Seal, which can assist with making sure an emergency Sleep or Bind will stick, as well as being useful for making sure you get a good profit off of Aspir.  Gains the trait Conserve MP at RDM40/BLM20, which I personally think is of dubious utility.  Good when it goes off, but don't rely on it to save you much MP.  Gives more MP and INT than a White Mage subjob.  This is a good general purpose mage, solo, and offensive mage subjob.  Gives no bonuses to White Magic of any kind, so this isn't a good choice if you need a healer, but it will fill a support/backup healing role rather well.

Summoner

 * No need to go into details here, this subjob is all about the MP. Summoner gives the best MP in the game while giving roughly equal MND and INT bonuses, as well as offering Auto Refresh at RDM50/SMN25.  You get access to all your Avatars, which also give access to their Blood Pacts according to your subjob's level.  With half skill, the various Avatars' attacks will be less accurate and the buffs will have a shorter duration and/or lesser effect.  If desperate, a RDM/SMN could possibly manage to Avatar-pull, but this would be unlikely.

Dark Knight

 * This is a strictly physical offensive subjob, offering Attack Bonus, Last Resort, Souleater, some Absorb spells, including Drain and Aspir, which it shares with Black Mage and Scholar. Also gives access to the exclusive Sword weapon skills, along with Warrior, Paladin, and Blue Mage.  This subjob has one unique aspect, however, which only shows itself after RDM74/DRK37, and that is access to the Black Magic Stun.  Combined with Chainspell, this is used to great effect against certain Stun-resistant NMs.

Bard

 * An alternative for a support-mage role, this offers a wide range of abilities, including an array of AOE buffs, and some offensive options, such as the Light-based Lullaby songs, and (for what it's worth) Resist Silence. Most significant is access to Mage's Ballad at RDM50/BRD25, giving an extra 1 MP/tick Refresh to anyone within range.  Similar to the Summoner subjob, with half skill, songs such as Magic Finale and Lullaby will be more likely to be resisted, as well as lacking an instrument leaves you restricted to only one enhancing song active at a time.

Ninja

 * A primarily solo subjob, though widely considered to be one of the best. Primarily used for Dual Wield and Utsusemi, this offers a lot of survivability.  Offers INT on a rough par with Summoner, though being a melee job, obviously offers no MP.

Scholar

 * This job offers to replace Black Mage as a general purpose subjob, offering not only Drain and Aspir, but also gives access to Regen II at RDM74/SCH37. Light Arts and Dark Arts will selectively improve the majority of our magic skills, and at the same time reducing the MP cost of our spells.  Using the appropriate Arts grants a 10% reduction in MP cost (rounded down, so minimum 10 MP to gain a benefit), while at the same time giving a 20% increase in MP cost for the opposing type of magic.  The only two Stratagems that are able to be used with Scholar as a subjob are Penury/Parsimony and Celerity/Alacrity, reducing the MP cost and casting/recast time by 50%, respectively.  Unlike Conserve MP, these abilities will lower the actual cost for your spells, allowing you to cast them when you otherwise couldn't for lack of MP.

Blue Mage

 * This job adds some MP (less than RDM/WHM, about as much as if we could use RDM/RDM), as well as exclusive Sword weapon skills, and allows faster access to Auto Regen (BLU16 vs. WHM25), but honestly speaking aside from that I don't know much about how it pertains to Red Mage as a subjob.