Red Mage: Guide to Playing the Job

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Job Overview
Red Mages are called the Jack of All Trades by many, and this is an accurate description. Red Mages have the ability to cast white magic, black magic, and fight with swords and daggers. Though their healing, nuking, and fighting skills aren't as good as those of the specialists, White Mages, Black Mages, Paladins, and Thieves, they are still competent. Their real strength relies in their enhancing and enfeebling skills.
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Strengths

 * Highest Enfeebling Magic skill and Enhancing Magic skills of all jobs in the game.
 * One of only four jobs (RDM, BRD, BLU, SMN) with the ability to remove enemy buffs.
 * Posses the spell Refresh to replenish MP of the Red Mage itself or other magic users in party.
 * Unique job ability, Convert, which gives a Red Mage up to as much MP as it has HP every 10 minutes.
 * A powerful and flexible two-hour ability, Chainspell, which, depending on subjob, can guarantee a successful Escape or teleport from dangerous situations, or provide 60 seconds of continuous Stun casting to neutralize a very dangerous foe, among other uses.
 * Together with Convert and Refresh, an impressive array of different Enhancing and Enfeebling magic spells, including the signature spells Gravity and Phalanx, giving Red Mage many tools to outlast difficult enemies while soloing.
 * Flexible and adaptive with many native combat skills and magic skills, and a large selection of equipment and useful subjobs.

Weaknesses

 * Attack magic and melee abilities fall short of more specialized jobs.
 * Generally limited to a support/healer role in higher level exp parties.
 * Competes somewhat with the more popular Bard for support job role in exp parties.
 * High workload in exp parties; at a minimum, responsible for keeping up with a Refresh cycle and enfeebs; handle crowd control; and, help out with Haste cycle and backup healing (if not the main healer).
 * Although able to sustain higher rate of MP usage over time than other mage jobs, has a smaller MP pool to work with.

Race Selection

 * Hume
 * Humes want to be Red Mages because they can excel at all aspects of the job. Average stats means their Enfeebling, Enhancing, Curing, and Nuking will do well with proper equipment.  Good HP means they can survive a few hits if they pull hate, and good MP means they can last longer without having to rest or use Convert.


 * Elvaan
 * Elvaan want to be Red Mages because they excel at melee. High strength means they hit harder, and high mind helps their cures hit for more, and white magic enfeebles hit harder.  Lower intelligence can be remedied with gear, as can their lower MP pool.


 * Tarutaru
 * Tarutaru want to be Red Mages because they excel at anything magical. High intelligence means their nukes and black magic enfeebles hit harder.  Tarutaru have the highest MP pool, making their use of Convert the most efficient when at full HP.  If wanted, any physical weakness can be remedied with vitality and strength boosting gear.


 * Galka
 * Galka want to be Red Mages so they can dabble in magic, while still smashing monsters in the fray. High strength and vitality make their soloing ability impressive.  Comparable mind to a Hume makes their cures just as good, as well as their white magic enfeebles.  Lower intelligence can be remedied with gear, and their low mp pool will require them to rest more often without +MP gear.


 * Mithra
 * Mithra want to be Red Mages for the same reason as Humes. Their high dexterity and agility means they are more accurate in combat, and will evade more hits than a Hume.  Like for any Red Mage, additional boosts in MP make their Converts better, and additional mind and intelligence will help with their spellcasting.


 * Starting Stats

Support Job Options
The choices listed here are by no means the only ones available. Feel free to try out whatever combination suits your fancy.