How-To Guide: Red Mage

Jack-of-all-Trades: Red Mage
Like in all of the Final Fantasies, the Red Mage in XI can perform a lot of different feats. Red Mage does a decent job with any mage role, and has a decent proficiency in Sword and Dagger skills, plus a native trait in both shield and parrying skill. With all of these traits, a Red Mage still gets a number of things to itself. Refresh at a low level, Dispel at an even lower level, and a large series of Fast Cast traits allows Red Mage to be the literally ultimate soloer in the entire game by Lv.74. Where Red Mage really takes the cake though is with Enfeebling and Enhancing magics, and at least a little bit of every other magical skill. This means spells like Stoneskin and Blink become a lot more effective. Red Mage can even buff their weapons to give them a 100% additional effect that can deal a lot of extra damage, especially with a Beestinger or a Joyeuse. '''Please note: This is only a guide. Please add anything if it is needed, and take away anything that is either untrue or not needed.'''

Hume

 * This is where the Jack-of-all-trades meets its equal. Red Mage, being the versatile job it is, needs a large number of stats to keep it happy. Where it needs it most, mainly in MP, mind, and intelligence, Hume doesn’t back-down at all. Even with the lesser-needed stats like HP, dexterity, strength, and agility, Hume doesn’t lack at all. Humes also suit the Lv.60 artifact hat very well too. Best of all, if your race-specific gear is mostly all great for it. Truly a great job-race combination.

Elvaan

 * The Elvaan race is a very religious one, and as a result, have high mind. Believe it or not, mind is a very useful stat for Red Mages, as it will greatly help you land your enfeebles, as well as increase your weapon-buffing spells, and others like Stoneskin. What Elvaan lack in MP and intelligence can easily be made up by other gear, especially your race-specific line. You won’t have a hard time keeping alive with all your HP and vitality too. And soloing will go faster with your higher strength stat.

Tarutaru

 * Tarutaru enjoy the highest MP and intelligence in the world of Vana’diel, which really helps a lot. With naturally lower HP and that large MP pool, your job ability Convert won’t have any wasted HP, and you’ll easily outlast any other Red Mages in terms of MP. Intelligence will allow your Black Magic nukes and enfeebles to hit harder and more accurately, and high dexterity and agility will help you solo a lot better too. The only true downside to Tarutaru Red Mage is its lack of mind, which can be made up for with a plethora of gear, including a couple of race-specific pieces of equipment.

Mithra

 * You can’t go wrong with a Mithra Red Mage either. Mithra play a lot like Humes but with a bit more MP to make up for slightly less mind. The cats also enjoy their high intelligence like Tarutaru, and have large amounts of dexterity and agility to help them solo and skill-up and solo. Like with all other races, you definitely cannot go wrong with Mithra. One of the best things about this race is how amazing its race-specific hand and leg equipment, which is actually even better than the artifact armor at Lv.54 and 56. It makes up for the slightly lower mind, and boosts its already high MP by a large amount.

Galka

 * The big brutes benefit from high mind and average intelligence, plus the highest survivability among all the races with an enormous hit-point pool and vitality levels. They even get decent agility. The only downside to Galka Red Mages are their short MP pools. However, there is so much MP-increasing gear in the game, you can’t ever run out. With your full race-specific set and a pair of Astral Rings, Galka are right at home with possibly even more MP than Tarutaru at Lv.33. Best of all, Galka don’t have to worry about Astral Rings taking their HP to one-hit-KO’ing proportions. Have a hay-day and kick some tail.

Weapon

 * If Red Mage is your first job, you’ll be given an Onion Dagger. Get rid of it, please. Seriously, please! Buy yourself a nice sword and you’ll be happy for your early levels. On the other hand, daggers and knives give you a serious boost to your Enspells. Your damage with them doesn’t decrease with lower damage, so hitting more frequently will just give you a ton more damage. The swords Buzzard Tuck and Enhancing Sword (expensive as heck) will provide a nice bonus to your Enspells though, so keep both weapons at a decent level when soloing. You can’t go wrong with either. On the other hand, you’ll also want to buy your line of Elemental Staves at Lv.51. Buy all eight of them if you can afford it, though the only ones you truly need are the Light and Dark ones. Having all of them will allow you to stick your enfeebles and deal extra damage with your elemental nukes. HOWEVER, Red Mage doesn’t get a natural skill in staves, so you can’t engage battle with them. I had a guy once tell me that he has staff skill, so they do in fact have it natively. That’s just wrong, though. You get half skill from your support job (if it has natural skill). At any rate, though, you can’t skill-up with it.

Armor

 * Red Mage as a Jack-of-all-trades gets a ton of gear available. Basically, the only stuff Red Mages can’t wear are really heavy plate armor. With that said, you have a lot of options. Your best route, though, is to go with magic-buffing stats. You can’t go wrong with more MP, or if you need it, mind and intelligence. When soloing, having defense or evasion gear is nice too. Your Lv.52-60 artifact armor is quite beneficial to the job, even starting with your AF feet. However, Mithra and Galka get some race-specific armor that’s even better than some of the equipment. Also, if you’ve completed your Promyvion missions and have done the “It’s Raining Mannequins” quest, try and get your Mannequin Pumps, as they’re better than your AF boots too. Otherwise, your AF will last you until the relic or job-specific sets later. Your Lv.50 JSE is incredible too, possibly the best in the game. If at all possible, try getting that too.

Soloing 1 to 10

 * Unlike the two monochrome mages, you’ll have a much easier time soloing these levels. You get a plethora of things at your disposal. If this is your first job, I suggest trading in your Onion Dagger for a Bronze Sword. Or if you have the cash, get yourself a Wax Sword +1 and a Marine Shield. These’ll last you until Lv.11 and Lv.9 respectively. If you play your cards right, you can hit Lv.3 in no time at all. And at that time, you get the spell Cure, and can really start soloing well. Since you get decent fighting equipment as well as Cure, you can solo most monsters that other jobs can’t. Though it may not look pretty, using the Bronze Harness set until 7 will be good.. Switching to Leather at 7 is always nice.

Valkurm 10-20

 * Though there’s a ton of things Red Mages can do, you’ll probably start taking the role of support healer at this point. You’ll also have access to a large number of enfeebling spells such as Dia, Blind, Paralyze, and Poison. Unless you’re strapped for MP, it’s a good idea to open fights with a few of these, and then go onto using occasional nukes and throwing out some Cures here and there. Please, whatever you do, do not spam spells. Not only will your MP pool appreciate it, but your whole party will. It’s very painful if you grab hate by dealing too much damage. And if things go out of hand, you won’t have enough MP to do other things your party does need you to do. At Lv.15 you get your first of your line of job-specific “Fast Cast” traits. These will give your spells a perpetual Haste effect by lowering casting and recasting time by a small amount. Then, at Lv.16, you get Enthunder, which gives all of your attacks an additional effect that deals more damage to the target. Damage is greatly influenced by Enhancing skill. For these ten levels, I strongly suggest subbing White Mage, as the extra mind, MP, and job-specific spells will be a huge boon to you.

Mid-levels 20-40

 * At this point, you’ll have a decent idea how to use your MP efficiently. At 21, you get Gravity, which is a seriously nice spell to have. It slows the monster’s movement speed and slightly lowers its evasion. Use it once at the start of a fight, and pray it lands. I suggest still subbing White Mage until at least Lv.40. In these levels too, you’ll have Protectra and Curaga, as well as a large number of ailment-removal spells like Poisona from it. Scholar might be a good idea to start subbing too. Lowering MP cost, casting time, and recasting time for spells you want to cast. This might even be a good time to start using staves, since Grips will boost your HP and MP too, and you’re almost never going to engage battle anyway. At Lv.32 you also get access to a very, very useful job-specific spell called Dispel. This is a SUPER USEFUL SPELL that will actually completely remove one of a monster’s buffs. If a beetle uses Beetle Guard to give a supreme boost to its evasion, Dispel it and it’s as good as gone. A skeleton uses Ice Spikes, Dispel its Ice Spikes, and your party won’t have to worry about paralysis or unwanted damage. Almost any buff in the game can be dispelled, so be alert. Once you get this spell, make sure your chat filter that notes when a monster uses a move on itself is OFF so you can see when it uses it.

Your AF Weapon

 * Red Mage’s AF weapon is quite useful. It boosts your MP by 10, and intelligence and mind both by 1. This is a good weapon from the time you get it until Lv.51 when you get your Elemental Staves. It’s a fairly decent weapon in itself if you solo a lot too. Though if that’s the case, you might want to just buy a Buzzard Tuck- it’s not expensive.
 * To get your AF weapon, you first want to talk to Sharzalion in Southern San d’Oria’s tavern. Your next step is to go to Davoi and kill a notorious monster called Purpleflash Brukdok, who is approximately level 45 and can be easily soloed by anyone Lv.50 or higher. This includes yourself if you come as another job. He spawns at E-9. If he’s not there, just wait a short while and he’ll show up. Build-up TP in the meantime and just beat him to the ground when you can. After you get his drop (a key), go through the zone and hunt around for a spot called ‘Storage Hole’. This thing spawns all throughout the zone so you might have to search for a while. Trade your key to the hole, watch a short cutscene, and then go back to Sharzalion. Congratulations! You have your AF sword.

Mid-High Levels 40-60

 * With your AF weapon equipped ‘til 51, you’ll be on the road for bigger and better things. Like what, you ask? Refresh! Refresh is a Red Mage’s ultimately most useful enhancing buff in the game. It’s a single-target spell that will give its target 3 MP every three seconds. Using it on a Paladin can alleviate almost all need for curing anyone. Make sure to cast it on yourself, then your Paladin, then other mages. Leave no mage un-Refresh’d at any time. Though, Refresh is Lv.41, and who can wait that long? Why not get another job-defining ability at Lv.40!! Convert is a job ability that can be used once every ten minutes (real time) to completely restore MP or HP. If you’re about to die, it can save your life by swapping MP with HP. On a much more useful note, however, using it when your MP is near 0 and HP at max will refill your MP gauge completely. And since you can restore tons of HP for MP with Cure spells, you really don’t have to worry about your HP being in the red for too long. At this point, Red Mage becomes more wanted than almost any other job in the game. It can Dispel, Refresh, Cure, and do a lot of stuff. With Convert, downtime is almost zero. Then at Lv.48, you get Haste, which will make any Ninja tanks way better than before. Finally, at Lv.51, you get access to Elemental Staves. As I said earlier, pick up all eight if possible. At these levels, having White Mage, Black Mage, and Scholar all leveled can be useful. White Mage is for main healing since you get Curaga, Protectra, and ailment-removing spells. Plus, Divine Seal has a recast timer of 10 minutes like Convert, so you can fully restore your HP for even less MP when you use it. With Black Mage subbed, you get Conserve MP, a large boost to MP, as well as Drain, Aspir, and Warp. At 58 you get Escape, which can save your whole party, especially with Chainspell active. Scholar, on the other hand, gives you access to perpetually faster casting and recasting, plus even lower MP costs for all spells. During these levels, you get your AF too, which makes you and the whole party a lot more useful. If possible, pick up a Shaman’s Robe for use between 56 and 59. Your AF hat will be your best friend.

Your Artifact Armor

 * Like all mage jobs, your first piece of equipment is your boots. These boots are quite useful, and not much is better than them except relic boots or Mannequin Pumps. They boost your MP, and that’s something you can’t go wrong with. They also boost your shield skill, which isn’t useful unless soloing, since you’ll be using Elemental Staves. Next are your AF gloves, which give a slight boost to MP and dexterity, as well as parrying skill. I’d only suggest Humes and Tarutarus use these, since the other three races’ RSE are better. At Lv.56, you get your AF legs, which are useful as well. They boost your MP and mind, but that’s not the major thing. No, they also boost Healing and Enhancing Magic skills. The Healing is useless, but the Enhancing boosts your Enspell damage, Phalanx protection, Stoneskin durability, and other things like Barspell potency. Next is your AF body which gives you a large boost to your Enfeebling Magic skill. If you have a Shaman’s Cloak, it might be more beneficial using it until you can use your AF hat at 60. Your AF hat is amazing, though. It gives a heavy boost to your MP, intelligence, and most importantly, Fast Cast. On top of which, it’s really cool looking. Known throughout the game as the “pimp hat”.

High Levels 60-75

 * With your pimp hat and other Warlock armor equipped, you’ll be going throughout these last fifteen levels with ease. It shouldn’t take long to find parties, since Refresh is so useful and only a few jobs get Dispel. Of course, since Red Mage is just so efficient in parties, you should level quite quickly too. Don’t take all this for granted, though. You still have to do your job. Continue enfeebling at the start of fights and keep the whole party perpetually in Refresh. At 70 you have to battle Maat. He won’t be easy. It’s sad though. If you lose to him, you’re losing to an old man, but if you beat him, you just beat-up an old man. And since you’re wearing that awesome hat, it makes it even sadder hehe.

End-Game

 * Red Mage’s two-hour ability, Chainspell, coupled with a Dark Knight support job allows Stun-gunning. Meaning rapid-fire Stun to keep a monster perpetually immobile and disabled. If you have a number of Red Mages in a Dynamis party, you can keep the boss stunned for a long period of time, making it useless. (Please add information about Dynamis, Limbus, Salvage, merit parties, etc.)

White Mage

 * This is a great support job at any time. It’ll increase your MP and mind stats, and give you a number of useful spells you won’t learn on your own. Spells like Curaga, Protectra, Shellra, and the ailment-removal spells. At 30, you’ll get Divine Seal, and at 50, Auto-Regen. Truly a super choice. Divine Seal’s best use is in conjunction with either Curaga or Convert. This support job is your best bet for the early levels, and makes you a super-great main healer in middle and higher levels. One of the best benefits from this support job is that at Lv.66 you get Reraise, which can save you and the party a lot of time in certain scenarios.

Black Mage

 * This support job is great by even Lv.30, since it gives you a really large boost to MP and also boosts your intelligence for landing your spells. It also gives you Clear Mind a whole single level before you’d normally get it. Since you have high Elemental Magic skill on your own, you can also use the elemental enfeebles, which are quite useful. On top of all that, you also get Drain and Aspir for keeping your HP and MP high, though Aspir’s situational. Another benefit is Warp, which can save on travel costs, and since Invisible and Sneak are already Red Mage-learnable, you can solo a lot of travel-related quests and missions. Escape can save whole parties if used properly, especially since Red Mage gets Fast Cast and Chainspell. One of the nicest boosts this support job gives, though, is Conserve MP, which can occasionally cut MP costs down an enormous amount. One of the most prominent uses for a Black Mage support job, though, is Elemental Seal, which increases the accuracy of your next spell. Used in conjunction with Sleep, you can save your whole party. Just be aware of its 10-minute cool down timer.

Scholar

 * Red Mage seriously benefits from Scholar in that it’s a dual-mage subbing dual-mage. Don’t sub this prior to 20, though. But once you hit 20, Light Arts will seriously benefit all of your White Magic with a cut of 10% to MP costs, casting time, and recasting time, and Dark Arts will cut 10% MP, cast time, and recast time of Black Magic. All this further increases your casting/recasting speed, as well as makes up for the loss of Conserve MP from Black Mage support job. With this subbed, you get access to Stratagems as well. At Lv.20, you can cut the MP cost of your next Black or White Magic spell by half, allowing for even more MP conservation. At Lv.50, you get a different stratagem that you can use to halve the casting and recasting time of the next spell you cast. This is especially useful for Raise, especially if it has to be cast on several people. At Lv.74, you get Regen II, which is otherwise completely unusable by Red Mage, and will make your job even better. Casting that and Refresh on a Paladin will probably completely alleviate the need for you to use Cures.

Ninja

 * The ultimate soloing support job. Subbing this at Lv.74 or 75 will allow you to solo almost any monster in the entire game, including some of the hardest ones in the game. With Fast Cast and Haste, your Utsusemi spells will have very short casting and recasting times, and Dual Wield with an En-spell can deal a ton of damage. Coupled with Refresh simply allows you to completely out-last almost any monster in the game. If MP looks grim, you can use Convert after Utsusemi and Stoneskin and refill it completely. This support job is almost completely useless in party scenarios, but soloing, it is literally the ultimate combination.

Blue Mage

 * It doesn’t have the benefits of other support jobs, but it can be useful for soloing in lower and middle levels, prior to when Ninja becomes useful. Blue Mage gives a number of benefits that other jobs simply can never give. including large buffs and enfeebles. The best use is with Head Butt to consistently stun your opponents (especially because of Fast Cast).

Dark Knight

 * Red Mage subbing Dark Knight has only one purpose. Stun-gunning end-game bosses. At Lv.37, Dark Knight gets Stun, which is before Black Mage, and is far more accurate than Blue Mage’s Head Butt, since Red Mage does, in fact, get a native Dark Magic skill. Stun is instant cast anyway, but normally takes a whole minute to re-cast. With your two-hour Chainspell active, you can keep the monster perpetually stunned for a whole thirty seconds.

Your Two-Hour Ability

 * Chainspell is a great two-hour ability. It has very limited usage prior to Refresh and Convert, but afterwards, it’s supreme. What it does is completely eliminates any casting and recasting time for spells for a whole thirty seconds. This means you can spam Raise, Cures, nukes… The best use, though, is Escape or Warp. Subbing Black Mage can allow you to save the whole party with an instant-cast Escape, or when doing something on your own, instant-cast Warp. It’s still possible to be interrupted, but you can be smart and use it at a proper time. Another huge use is subbing Dark Knight for Stun in end-game scenarios. Spamming Stun is incredibly useful.

Job Abilities

 * Convert is a Red Mage’s only other job ability without the help of a support job. All it does is swap your current HP with current MP, allowing for a quick re-fuel of either in the case of emergencies. Once you get Convert at Lv.40, party downtime is all but completely eliminated. On top of Refresh and this job ability, you will never run out of MP unless something really bad happens. Another, much less-used purpose for Convert is giving you HP. Since it’s a job ability, it’s instant-use and cannot be interrupted at all. If it means saving your tail, you could possibly use it to convert your MP into HP to survive a few extra hits. However, since every MP is effectively multiplied by about 3.75 to make HP with the use of Cures, it’s best used to convert HP to MP. With Divine Seal, it means you can use one Cure III to re-fill your HP afterwards, or if used in place of downtime, you can simply cast a Cure II and hit yourself with Regen.

Job Traits

 * Resist Petrify is one of the more useful in the line of Resist spells for jobs. However, it’s only useful in cases of soloing or the odd time you steal hate against a petrifying monster. Of course, AoE petrify like from Anticans is a pain too. What it does is give you a very, very slight resistance to petrification. If it doesn’t fully resist it, it will make petrification’s duration a lot shorter. You get your first tier at Lv.10, up to a fourth at Lv.70.
 * Fast Cast is your most prominent job trait, and completely Red Mage exclusive. Starting at Lv.15, it will shorten casting time of spells by a whole 10%, and shorten the recasting time of spells by 5%. You get a number of tiers, and your artifact hat will boost it as well. By the time you get your third tier at Lv.55 and your AF hat equipped, your spells are reduced a whopping 30% cast time and 15% recast time. Just begin to imagine the huge benefit of this.
 * Magic Attack Bonus effectively adds a multiplier to your overall magic spell damage, increasing it by a vast percentage. Red Mages get the first tier of MAB at Lv.20 which increases spell damage by a vast 20%, and a second at Lv.40 for another 4%. This means if you hit a spell without this trait for 100 damage, it will boost it to a nice 124. Perfect for any Red Mage magic bursting or trying to deal any more damage with spells. There is also a bunch of gear that boosts this job trait even further. I suggest picking it up if possible.
 * Magic Defense Bonus is similar, but for the most part, the opposite of Magic Attack Bonus. What it does is cuts down damage by a specific percentage. Consider it like a perpetual Shell effect. Since you will generally be a party’s main healer later in the game, having this extra survivability can ultimately lead to the whole party’s survival in the grand scheme of things.
 * Clear Mind is a trait all mages share, and it’s a trait all mages love. At Lv.31, you receive your first tier of three Clear Mind traits, which increase the amount of MP recovered while healing. What it means is less downtime for you and your party, and a lot easier time soloing if the need arises. Without this trait, the amount of MP recovered while healing is minimal. You start off with 12 and it increases in increments of 1, meaning when you start resting, it gives 12, then 13, 14, 15... However, with Clear Mind, you get 15, then 16, 17, 18... MP. The Dark Staff increases the base by 10 MP, so having it is a must.

Spells

 * Enfeebles are a Red Mage’s main thing, which is prominent in that it’s Red Mage’s first spell. I will go into further detail with these for Red Mage as I have with White Mage and Black Mage as a result.
 * Your first spell is Dia. Dia is a very useful spell that deals light damage, takes the target’s HP down every three seconds, and also lowers its overall defense. You get Dia, Diaga, Dia II, and can eventually merit Dia III at 75. All of these have the amazing power of 100% accuracy in almost any scenario. Dia should be used at the start of every fight, especially in early levels.
 * Bio is a spell very similar to Dia. What it does is deals dark damage and also deals slight damage per tic, but instead of lowering defense, it lowers attack. Bio will always overwrite Dia if its tier is higher or equal to it, but should only be used against monsters with already low defense, and shouldn’t be used when the main tank is Ninja (since he or she won’t get hit anyway). There’s Bio, Bio II, and eventually Bio III if you merit it at 75. Like Dia, it’s 100% accurate.
 * Paralyze is actually a lot like Blind, in that it may make the target completely miss-out on an attack. However, Paralyze can also act on spells, job abilities, and weapon skills (the latter two for against other players only). The spell is relatively accurate, so should be used at the start of every fight. You can merit a Paralyze II at 75, which is even more accurate and potent than its low-level counterpart.
 * Blind is a low-level spell that really doesn’t have a lot of use. On top of it being very inaccurate, even when it does land, it usually doesn’t make the target miss any more than normal. However, it has a short casting time and only consumes 5 MP, so it’s not bad. I suggest trying to land it, and if your tank is Ninja, you definitely should attempt a few times at least. You can merit Blind II at 75 for more accuracy and a much more potent effect.
 * Slow is another useful enfeeble. It does exactly as its name implies: slows the target down. It slows the target’s attacks, and increases casting/recasting time for spells. It’s also relatively accurate, and definitely should be cast at the start of any fight, especially if the main tank is a Ninja. You can merit Slow II at 75 for more accuracy and a more potent effect.
 * Poison is as it is in every Final Fantasy- it lowers the target’s HP every turn, or in this game’s case, every three seconds. Unfortunately, like Blind, Poison is quite inaccurate, generally doesn’t last long, and worse yet, deals a very impotent amount of damage. It helps, but don’t spam it numerous times if it doesn’t land the first. You eventually get access to Poison II. Unlike all the other enfeebles, though, there is no meritable Poison.
 * Bind stops its target in its tracks, like “Immobilize” or “Don’t Move” in other Final Fantasies. However, Bind’s accuracy is quite hard to rely on, and its duration varies enormously. It can really help with when a monster looks too tough, and you can Bind it so everyone can run for safety. Another use is Binding a target while soloing so you can enfeeble and nuke it until the effect wears off.
 * Gravity slows the target’s movement speed and lowers its evasion slightly. The movement speed-down is quite noticeable, however, and should be used at the start of every fight once acquired. If your tank loses hate, it gives him or her more time to get it back, especially if all of the mages are far off to the back. Gravity has an alternative purpose to allow for kiting. Kiting is a form of notorious monster killing that involves the Red Mage Gravity’ing the target (and occasionally Binding it) to slow it down while other party members kill the other monsters.
 * Sleep is a very useful spell and should never be taken for granted. It puts its target to sleep, plain and simple. However, it does not always land, and if it lands, it does not always last a long amount of time. Also, if anyone attacks the target, physically or magically, it will wake up. If the target has a damage-per-tic ability like Poison, Dia, or Bio, it will wake up when the next tic occurs. Make sure if you can’t take the target to not cast any spells like that on it at all. Sleep can also help for soloing by putting it to sleep and resting, or sleeping the target before enfeebling it with non-damaging enfeebles. If subbing Black Mage, use Elemental Seal before this spell to increase accuracy and duration.


 * Cures are one of your most useful lines of spells in the game. Simply put, they heal the target’s HP. Red Mage learns its Cure spells slightly later than White Mage does, but that’s not a huge problem. You get four of the five tiers of Cure, each more potent than the last. When the soft cap of each healing spell is reached, the Cures heal about 3.75x their MP cost for HP. Cures are the number-one most effective way to keep anyone alive in Final Fantasy XI, so these spells cannot be neglected for any reason whatsoever. This is especially since you’re going to be main or sub-healing all throughout your career.
 * Barspells seem useless at first, but can help your overall survivability. Though Red Mages natively only get Bar-spells that can target themselves, subbing White Mage gives access to area-effect versions. There are two types of Bar-spells, there are bar-element and bar-ailment spells. Bar-element spells protect from their respective element in terms of adding a temporary magic defense bonus to that element. This is especially useful for Goblin’s Bomb Toss or a Damselfly’s Cursed Sphere, which are fire and water elements respectively. Your bar-ailment spells protect against certain ailments. Though they rarely completely protect the user, they can also greatly lower the duration of the effect. The most prominent being Sleep. Using Barsleep on yourself prior to fighting a Mandragora can allow you to wake up faster after it uses Dream Flower, which then you can start casting Cure on other sleeping members.
 * Elemental ‘Nukes’ are your way of saying “say hello to my li’l friend”. These spells are devastatingly powerful, especially with Magic Attack Bonus. Though your nukes aren’t as powerful as Black Mage’s, you can still deal some nice damage with them, especially on a magic burst. If a monster has a ton of defense, but is almost dead, drop a few of these on it to finish the fight. They may cost a lot of MP, but they’re quite worth it. Starting with Stone, your spells progress to Water, Aero, Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder. Each more powerful than the last, but each a different element. With that said, it’s more MP-efficient to use the spells most effective versus a certain type of monster. The game doesn’t go wacky with its elements- casting Thunder on a fish is going to be super effective, and casting Fire on a plant is going to be high-damaging too. Don’t cast something like Stone II on a worm just because you just got it, so it’s the most powerful. It’s going to be resisted hard. Red Mage gets three of the four tiers of elemental nukes by the end.
 * Protect and Shell are nice enhancing magics for Red Mages. They increase their target’s defense and magic defense respectively. Unfortunately for Red Mage, though, it doesn’t get the area-effect versions that are White Mage exclusive. You have to either use it on all six party members, or use your highest-tier one on the people who normally take damage, and with a White Mage support job, cast the area-effect lower-tier on the others. Shell is very situational and doesn’t need to be cast in all cases. Just versus monsters that use magical spells or the like. Protect is an absolute must in any party scenario, however.
 * Spikes are nice bonuses to the soloing Red Mage. They’re learned literally twice as late as Black Mage, but are worth it. They cover you in magical spikes that deal damage and may cause an effect when anything lands a hit on you. There are three types of Spikes: Blaze, Ice, and Shock. Blaze Spikes is learned at 20 and deals the most damage out of the three. Ice Spikes is learned at 40 and can occasionally Paralyze its target. Shock Spikes can occasionally Stun its target for a short time after it hits you. The spikes you use are situational, and are rarely if ever used in party scenarios.
 * Regen is a super-useful spell that can alleviate a lot of healing if used on the tank at the start of fights. It restores 5 HP per tic on its target. For 15 MP, it has the best HP-MP ratio in the game. Using it can help the tank out a lot and save you from spamming unnecessary Cures.
 * Blink and Stoneskin are the best defensive spells in the game. They can seriously add survivability to any mage that pulls too much enmity, and are even better for soloing. Blink surrounds you with shadow images (invisible to the player) that may or may not absorb an attack directed at you. With Blink, you’re given two shadow images, so you can absorb two attacks. The higher your enhancing magic, the higher chance they have to absorb faster. Stoneskin, on the other hand, basically gives you an invincible paling shield for a certain amount of damage. Enhancing Magic skill and the stat mind affect the amount of HP that Stoneskin will protect you for. In short, it gives you a hidden max HP boost that reads that you take “0 damage” until it takes off that HP boost and starts taking away your normal HP.
 * Dispel is a hugely successful Red Mage-exclusive spell. It lowers any single buff a target enemy has. If it has Protect, you can remove it. Stoneskin, remove it. Evasion boost, remove it. Literally any buff in the game can be successfully removed from a target if you want to. It’s 100% accurate on non-boss monsters too! And the MP cost to use it isn’t very much at all either.
 * Phalanx is another super-neat enhancement for soloing or otherwise and also Red Mage-exclusive. What it does is lowers the damage taken from any physical attack by a certain amount. No, it doesn’t increase defense and/or vitality, I mean it directly reduces damage taken. Say, for example, one monster hits you for 28 points of damage and another hits you for 106. Now put Phalanx on and let them hit you again. The first monster hits you for 24 points of damage, and the second hits you for 102 damage. Now you go to a low-level zone and a bee hits you for 4 points of damage. Put Phalanx on, and now it hits you for 0. Do you get it? It reduces the number of HP taken per hit by a specific amount. How cool is that! When fighting fast-hitting monsters that deal little damage, Phalanx and Stoneskin can seriously let you outlast anything. What’s cooler is at Lv.75 you can merit Phalanx II, which can be cast on other party members!
 * Refresh is every mage’s idol and king. Everyone wants Red Mage at Lv.41 when they get Refresh. Why? It regenerates 3 MP per tic on the target, that’s why. If people conserve their MP and have Refresh on, plus are smart with resting and whatnot, there is literally no downtime in party scenarios. Casting Refresh on a Paladin basically allows you to focus on other possibilities, since you’ll almost never have to cast a cure spell on anyone again. The only downside is it costs a lot of MP to use and has a fairly long re-cast timer. Until later levels, you may spend all of your time and MP casting that spell exclusively while your other mages keep up the rest of the work. I know I had to do that for one party… it was composed of five MP-users, so I had to keep the Refresh cycle going the whole time. The spell lasts just a little bit longer than one Vana’diel hour, so it’s easy to know when to start re-casting too.