Shadowbringers Updated! A guide on the basics of Red Mage! RDM unlocking & requirements, why play a Red Mage, and other FAQ’s
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Raring to be a Red Mage? Rest assured you’ll read up about the RDM job, basic information and FAQs in our Red Mage Basics Guide. Read on if you’re expecting to learn about unlocking RDM, Red Mage Job Identity, trait and skill list, crafters and gatherers related to RDM, and link to other important Red Mage info!
Red Mage is a Ranged Magical DPS job (“caster”) released in 4.0 Stormblood. RDM’s came out alongside Samurai in the same expansion, and were preceded by two other casters, Black Mage and Summoner. While their in-game role is strictly caster, they do have melee combos – essentially making them the first hybrid class playstyle wise.
How to become a Red Mage? Unlocking RDM:
Unlock and become a Red Mage by doing the quest, “Taking the Red”, which is found at Ul’dah – Steps of Thal (NPC: Distraught Lass). The only requirement is having a level 50 Disciple of War or Disciple of Magic leveled.
Unlike the Heavensward classes, I’m almost certain you can rush into using RDM once you have the level requirement – and is not locked behind unlocking Stormblood content.
Note that, upon completing the quest you MUST EQUIP the “Soul of the Red Mage” to actually formally BECOME a RDM.
Rushing to or want to know how to unlock a certain class? Learn more:
FFXIV Job Unlock & Requirements Guide.
Red Mage Playstyle & RDM Job Identity
If you’ve asked yourself, “Why play, try, or choose Red Mage?” – here’s my attempt at selling you the RDM class.
Red Mages are, thankfully, on the simpler side of the caster DPS spectrum. The White and Black mana system is pretty cool – you have to generate both as “equally” as you can, while keeping into account your procs. While you can “mess up” and be punished by building up too much of one color… it’s not something you’ll run into after you get your chops.
And RDM’s have a melee combo to spend your carefully built up mana – which is damn cool. They’re also BY FAR the most mobile caster class (and pretty damn mobile compared to all jobs in general) – with the infamous rush, and backflip (of which you’ll fall off the edge at one point in your career). You can heal in a pinch too, heh.
Aesthetically and thematically, the FFXIV Red Mage borrows heavily from the greater Final Fantasy Red Mage allure. The versatility, mobility, jack of all trades feel, the rapier… it’s a hybrid caster and melee DPS with flair (not Flare, that’s BLM). Sounds great? Then RDM is for you!
DISCLAIMER
DISCLAIMER: This is not meant to be a blurb that aligns with the current meta. That changes from patch to patch. Our goal here is to provide you with an idea of what the job is trying to be, getting cues from both the Developers’ concrete decisions on job design, as well as our own feedback.
What Crafters & Gatherers should Red Mage level?
While it’s common in MMORPG’s to think you want to craft your own gear as you level up your RDM… I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT.
Leveling up your DoH and DoL jobs should be thought of as a different activity completely. To be honest, if you’re a newer player, simply ensure that you DO NOT OVERCAP Levequests (always have less than 100).
The only relation a combat job has to a crafter or gatherer class is “which classes do you need to repair your gear”? My advice, ultimately, is pretty much all or nothing – level up all DoH classes in tandem. As a separate project, level up all DoL classes in tandem (with the optional Fisher).
What’s the best race for Red Mage?
Racial stats are (was?) a thing. However, I highly recommend not caring about it. The difference in performance between the “best” and “worst” race for you is not even 0.1%.
My advice? Pick for aesthetics. Will you stay the same job forever? If you change mains, will you race change? Ultimately, the difference is so microscopic that I cannot in good faith tell you that racial stats are an integral part of your character.
I won’t even link the Racial Stats Guide, as I haven’t checked up on this in a while – and I don’t want to cement the idea that the “best race” really matters.
Related Red Mage Guides – Read More!
Here are s a few useful links for you:
Upcoming Odds and Ends
Here’s a few things we’ll be adding on here in the near future:
- Adding a “links to further resources”, we’re doing a site restructure so once those links are set, they’ll go in here.
- Human-readable, newbie-friendly skill and trait list.
> I used to have the in-game skill list here, but I found it useless as the in-game one is better… I’d rather have a new player friendly rundown. - More descriptive job identity? Pics?
> I dunno… pictures of the job gauges? A gif of some flashy skills? - Feel free to suggest anything else via comment or socials!
Summary & Outro
Well that’s about it for a really, really basic guide that hopefully points some lost souls in the right direction, or answers some of your questions regarding Red Mage.
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