#just RDM things I guess

[berryzawati]

Of course I’d get a bingo here 😂

Player KOs: bingo card edition!

[ofdarklands]

Fear and secret for mitr'a cause I straight up can't guess what this guy would be afraid of

fear: What is your OC's greatest fear? What do they do when confronted with it? Are they open with their fear, or do they hide it away?

i don't think he has one big simple fear i can think of

there'd be the fear of a slow death being trapped or ill or wounded in the shroud. either someone finds you (unlikely) or you waste away. it came close a couple times, before arr. though this is now less of a worry with whm spells and the drk tricks and return, which add a lot of options

there's also the old worry about his clan's safety, and the novel fears over the twins and tataru and the scions. nothing debilitating but they do linger sometimes. he doesn't usually allow the thoughts much braintime; he knows they can take care of themselves

the silent dread of slowly losing his thoughts now, after shb

in more immediate fears, like being startled or during fights or high tension moments, his flight or fight instincts are so firmly stuck on fight he's not even afraid, he's just biting you because you startled him. and then the moment is past and he's fine. this is what happened in In From The Cold for example. he ended up Fucking Furious instead of afraid and then just frustrated. also he had not slept in like 2 days so some functions were turned off

.

secret: What's one secret your OC never wants anyone to know about them?

huh. i don't think he intentionally keeps secrets? he just doesn't think to mention things he's doing/done, to often hilarious results

at most he has things he would not say to specific people not because they're secrets about himself but because the specific person would not enjoy it. unless the person asks directly

like, he's not telling the twins about ameliance, he's not using his rdm skills in front of alisaie, or told g'raha about the unpleasant time between laying the soul vessel on him in the tower and him actually coming online. he generally avoids mentioning the keeper approach to relationships and sex in front of eorzeans because the confusion is boring by now

i guess one thing that counts as a proper secret during arr-ew is the exact location of his clan. absolutely not loosening his lips on that while there were ascians about. he didn't even visit during those 4-5 years. if anyone asked, his address was nowhere and he came up fully formed from the ground

anyway, he is fundamentally a pretty transparent person, as long as you ask the right questions. and if he's in the proper mood to answer; otherwise he might fuck with you for fun, not out of secrecy

[tcfactory]

sj thaumaterge or redmage. lqg paladin. sqh astrologian (he sees some shit in those stars bro). i forget which one is the one where a part of your psyche comes to life and says "dude this literally isnt fair what the fuck" but that one is yqy and sword. this is my personal contribution and offering

(Hello I had this in my drafts for uuuuh too long. I thought I posted this one already, rip.)

Black mage/thaumaturge rights for Shen Jiu, I think he would do great with a combat class that's all about standing still and casting Explosion!!!! at people. Very therapeutic. But also I can picture his demonic cultivator background as multiclassing into Reaper. It's one of his best guarded secrets, but if he's ever cornered fully, he can rely on his voidsent and Enshroud to fight his way out.

Liu Qingge could be a paladin (and the Confiteor combo would be a decent stand-in for his sword array), but I think he's more of a dps type - if anything, I would put him as a red mage. The class is more magic based than physical, but at the same time going in and stabbing the enemy is a core part of the class identity and some of the skills - Fleche and Contre Sixte specifically - are all about summoning swords to rain down on the enemy. Having a few 'support' spells fits into his role as the sect protector and (although not overwhelmingly powerful bc something something raise tax) RDM is known to be overwhelmingly flashy. Have you seen the RDM LB3? That's a goddamn nuke all right.

Yue Qingyuan is practically made to be a dark knight, yes yes. Even better if, after Shen Yuan transmigrates, his 'Fray' is literally just straight up Shen Jiu - "The next knight who bares steel, I'm not only going to kill him, but I'm going to kill his wife, his friends, and burn his godsdamned house down!" sounds like something SJ would say and mean every word of it. Maybe his soul got linked to Yue Qingyuan's after his 'death'.

Shang Qinghua is absolutely an astrologian and he keeps griping about his card luck. Not just the future sight aspect fits his character, but also the fact that AST is a healer that has little personal dps (even for a healer) but provides constant buffs. And when planned out correctly, its healing is pretty insane - Macrocosmos alone can bypass some mechanics that make other healers sweat blood.

Mobei-jun would either be a warrior (good tank, godly self-healing so basically unkillable in dungeons, very good team player in raids) or a dragoon (frankly I just really like the aesthetic for him, also Ishgardian job so it connects to ice and Qinghua's AST).

Shen Yuan as Shen Qingqiu would probably multiclass as summoner/scholar (hah!), but he would be kinda shoddy at both? He does enjoy having a bunch of critters to summon, so I guess that's something and let's be honest, Expedient/Desperate Measures is a skill made for Cucumber-bro, always rushing into his death to Binghe.

I have no idea what job Binghe would have tbh. He's the one I'm blanking on the most. XD I guess samurai would be the most 'powerful'/selfish dps, but it's also a class with a very rigid rotation I can't see LBH executing effectively (or maybe he could be one of those 'Ad-hoc' samurais who just do their own thing, adjust rotation on the fly and still pull incredibly high numbers. They are not always viable, but they were a thing with some iterations of the class).

Sha Hualing is a dancer. Nothing else needs to be said.

[calico-heart]

I have been thinking about hand and glove symbolism for I'lyrha with Rdm things.

Lyrha's already got a theme with “blood on her hands” symbolizing her past, and there's several scenes where X’rhun takes her hands and heals them or washes blood off them, representing that he sees what she is, and chooses to help her mend. He gives her a new start and a chance to forgive herself.

Trusting him enough to take his hand, the one with the Duelist’s glove and Red Mage ring on it, can represent her joining the cause.

In her first confrontation with the pirate captain who kidnapped her as a kid, she forgets all her training and attacks with the unbalanced, unfocused rage of a brigand. It goes badly. He crushes her hands to stop her from casting and the healers aren’t initially sure she’ll recover enough use of them to return to Red Mage-ing. Which also leans into that attempt to escape her past and feeling crippled by it.

But today it occurred to me I could also do stuff with her wearing gloves. When she dons the Red and puts her gloves on, she's a Red Mage first. A symbol. More than the bloody-handed past underneath it.

But then ALSO - a lot of times after her change of heart it’s kind of hard for her to just go ham killing brigands because she sees herself in them. She knows if she changed, then maybe others could too. Sometimes if she thinks someone’s uncommitted she might try to turn them away from their life of crime LOL

And I could do something there with her taking her gloves off to reach out to them, an inversion of her taking Xrhun's glove, where it essentially represents her saying look, under this garb I was/am like you, we’re the same, you can trust me and get out of the life, too.

Idk guys I'm just. Rolling around in the feels today I guess.

[mmorpg-escapism]

I have just enough energy in me tonight for my favorite solo duty. This one's a doozy, and the final thing that stands between us and Endwalker! ...which I'll start tomorrow. There are also some Thoughts on the expansion as a whole at the end under the cut.

For those of you who have been keeping an eye on this journey, thank you ❤ It's not over yet and is most definitely going to loop back to stuff I did before starting here: there will eventually be another run through ARR to current sometime after the graphics update hits every expansion, so likely late next year. I've got a hrothgal waiting in the wings for that one... and do plan to do this to Dawntrail on my main with appropriate spoilers tagged as well as the usual one. We shall see how that goes.

Now, into the duty!

Alphinaud's character growth is so very visible to us after Arenvald's pep talk. The kid is a natural-born leader, and despite his mistakes he has enough confidence to really use his gifts... after a little push from his friends and family.

And now, we fight! The Scions take the field in full force - first as a group, and then splitting up across the field to take charge of several enemies. Our first stop is us clearing the field of a LOT of tempered Imperials... then splitting up to find and deal with Lunar Primals wherever we can while G'raha holds the fort.

And now, the real fun: We get to cosplay as a few of the Scions! Starting with Alisaie! RDM is my favorite caster, and this simplified take on it is very much faithful to my experience with it itself. Lots of little enemies, one big one, and a very fun slice-n-dice playground.

Development: "Random" magical glyphs that are pointed at the heart of a massive "aetheric confluence" - which is just a fancy way of describing a spot where several aetheric currents meet - and Y'shtola's guess is that they're there to enable some seriously nasty disasters should one of the Grape-flavored Primals reach and destroy one. Cool, the stakes have risen.

Split #2 has us afield as Urianger's Astro, facing Lunar Odin - which I did NOT do in my original playthrough nor this one, so I had no idea what to expect. I'm not an Astro player, but after some experience with one of my static members being... particularly annoyed with it, this wasn't quite so bad. Odin down!

Split #3 is back to G'raha and Alisaie, but now we're playing as G'raha who is some combo of BLM and WHM, facing off with Lunar Ravana. Big stabby sword bug. Woo. He's just as cool as the original fight, if a little toned down for story and "2-man" reasons. Big stabby stuff, and even an excuse to use G'raha's Break spell! Bugman down!

Now, back to the WoL with Estinien and Alphinaud facing down the monster that crippled Arenvald: Grape Ifrit. This one's personal. And boy howdy wthat one was the most intense of the three. Fire everywhere, a big LB3-like thing out of Estinien, the works. But it's the last of the primals, and we're all still alive.

I love this duty so very much. Not only because we get to spend some time as our Scion friends. Not only because we get to fight primals in a more one-on-one style that helps me imagine how to write it when I get there. It's also because there are stakes going in - stop the crazy person with lots of power who's trying to end the world - that become more specific during the fight, and then when the evil plan is thwarted, they don't just gloss over the aftermath.

We get to see our friends being VERY human. Alisaie is exhausted and berating herself for not doing enough. Alphinaud cannot stand losing anyone, and we have to watch him fight that when his healing isn't enough to save the man in front of him. We see the Grand Company of Eorzea at work - city-state leaders and beastmen tribes alike working together to cure the tempered. We cannot save everyone, an Amalj'aa warrior reminds the Scions, but those we have saved would not have been if not for you.

"So please, hold your heads high." The entire bustling field stopped and listened. Every single country we have visited, from the Alliance to Doma, is represented here. Standing behind the Scions, who gave everything they had to win the day, despite the cost. The moon breaks through the clouds above, and one last time we hear the Shadowbringers main theme break through as everyone gathered stares up at it, and the credits roll.

================================================

As I sit and process this entire expansion one more time, it's clear... Shadowbringers fundamentally alters your brain chemistry. That's from one of the posts going around the week I wrapped this up, and it is extremely accurate. We started all the way back in ARR as an adventurer with a gift, but little else, and got used. We slowly turned into something else on our way into Heavensward ("What are you?" - Thordan VII after we beat him) and used the power we had to liberate two entire countries from the Garlean empire alongside our friends, then watched them get snatched away from us for some unknown reason.

And then we went to where they were and found ourselves embroiled in a world that flipped the script on everything we knew. Light was bad, Dark was good, and everything we thought we knew was wrong. Discoveries with ripple effects that will be felt through Endwalker and beyond were made, and two entire worlds were changed as a result.

I'm not that good at analyzing story, or at least I didn't think I was when I started. All I knew is that this expansion was The Best that FFXIV had to offer, and I wanted to find ways to articulate why I thought that. I think I've succeeded, at least a little. I'm very excited for Endwalker and Dawntrail and beyond. Maybe I'll even get some creative spark going and write more of ARW for your enjoyment and my own - I want to do more than think about my blorbo :)

One more Arenvald Appreciation post tomorrow, most likely, and then into Endwalker!

[farfromdaylight]

i have a 600 person queue to chew through, so let's make another post.

i'm level 95 and have finished the third solo instance, plus a few quests after it (but not that far.)

this expansion feels very political in a way that's different from the previous expacs. ff14 doesn't really hide its politics and never has; it's always been a story about the power of friendship overcoming the most terrible of foes. and in that respect, it's very simple and straightforward. a little basic, maybe, but the core theme of "you should actually listen to what other people want" is very honest and true to itself.

wuk lamat wants peace. and peace is a wonderful thing to want, but what does it actually mean? it means looking at how your society is set up. it means looking at who has advantages, and who doesn't, and why that is. and then when you find out, you have to do something about it. a truly egalitarian society is a pipe dream, but it's the thought that counts.

that doesn't mean it's not worth trying. and even if you fail, you'll have learned valuable lessons in the attempt. this, too, is a constant refrain of ff14: you have to try, even if it's hard, even if you're not sure you're going to succeed. you have to put in the effort.

it's interesting how the claimants each display different parts of this struggle. koana's lust for innovation is all well and good, but there's no depth to it. bakool ja ja wants power for the sake of power, to justify but not right past wrongs. zoraal ja — well, i suspect we'll be getting more into him soon. i do not think he will accept defeat so easily.

and wuk lamat is so clearly meant to be the victor. this entire setup is perfect for her, and while she's plainly struggled along the path, she's still tried. she's given it her all, and she hasn't backed down even when it's tough. it's admirable, i think.

on the whole, i'm really liking this expansion! it feels very reminiscent of stormblood, in that the warrior of light is kind of just There and not particularly integral to the actual story. but after all the drama of the past two expacs this is nothing short of a relief. god knows we needed a rest.

some misc thoughts:

how the fuck is kenteramm still alive, lmao. i stopped msq right before going to his house (sidequests spawned and i had to do them) so i guess?? we'll find out?? most HD roegadyn i've ever seen tho, damn

i can Feel a twist looming. with the rite of succession nearing its end, there's gotta be something beyond "search for the city of gold" to carry us five more levels.

on a gameplay note, i have no idea when to use vice of thorns. it seems as though i have the freedom to use it whenever, which is nice, but i like a slightly more rigid burst window... i suppose i'll just use it after party buffs go out. other red mage changes are v good so far.

i did a leveling queue as summoner this morning to try and keep pace with red mage and lucked into the level 93 dungeon (the top one i could do, nice). these dps queues tho. killer. (i'd comment on summoner changes but l o l)

THE VALIGARMANDA TRIAL WAS FANTASTIC. i did it in trust (what a surprise! i never thought they'd do a trust trial again) and died when the boss was at like 12% health because....... i was trying to RDM LB3 and the avalanche got me and none of the NPCs broke me out of the snowball. THANKS A LOT, ASSHOLES. went fine the second time though.

as a red mage main, alisaie as your trust healer is fucking hilarious.

this goes without saying but the game looks so beautiful, goddamn.

i still have 83 in queue but i've run out of things to say. LET ME IN

[dualcastimpact]

westward—towards adventure.

Pre-Dawntrail ramblings below the cut:

If you're familiar with Terncliff you'll know that he's technically looking southward here, but let's just pretend he's looking westward, yes?

Terncliff is actually my favourite place in the entire game; I'm fervently hoping for the day they revisit the whole Ala Mhigan-Ilsabardian rebuilding thing and we can do more with Werlyt. The architecture is so fascinating, it's nothing like any other locales available to us — I want to say it's Mediterranean, sort of Italian in a way? I dunno, I never studied architecture all that much but that's the vibe I'm getting and I wish we get more of it. When will Ilsabard get its day in the limelight...

Anywho, Raginmar's in Terncliff because aside from the fact that it's my favourite area, as an instanced area it's also pretty much free from congestion, which makes it perfect for logging out in preparation for a new expac! During Endwalker I had a good time just sitting there and practicing SMN to get used to the rework (while also grinding Paglth'an for the casting top, which is a whole 'nother story), so I'm foreseeing a similarly peaceful time logging in during Dawntrail too.

And well, speaking of Paglth'an — I'd grinded the casting top for Raginmar's SMN glam, which is a glam set I really really like but never used because the allure of RDM muscle memory is too strong for me to bother using other jobs, and I'd been talking elsewhere about how I might be using it for Dawntrail instead.

Ha.

Haha.

Yeah, not gonna happen. The Palaka casting top suits him so stupidly well, that's practically his trademark look now. It has a nice coat-like tail, it shows off his guns, it's got a great silhouette, it looks real good in Dalamud Red — I busted my ass getting the Augmented Lunar Envoy's Justaucorps of Casting because I thought the whole coat thing would make for a trademark Raginmar look but noooo, it's the dungeon gear from level 85 that finally does it. I can't even be mad because it looks so good.

It does, however, mean that I'm depriving the world from his sexy SMN glam:

Win some lose some, I guess.

I still haven't really decided what to do during Dawntrail early access, to be honest. Part of me wants to put off MSQ for a more (in)sane hour and play Marzanna (fem!Hrothgar! FINALLY!!) or Hyllizirn (VPR leveling go brrrr), but the thought of having to deal with congestion while logging in and out with different characters is making me second-guess that. I could just play Raginmar but like I said, I don't particularly want to rush into MSQ and it's not like I'm super excited for PCT, I'm only doing it for Raginmar for lore purposes (read: he's a nerd about anything magic, so he absolutely will want to learn it).

It's kinda sad that fem!Hrothgar and the DoH/DoL aspects are what I'm excited most about this expac, to be honest. A lot about Dawntrail doesn't mesh with Raginmar's character — hell, he doesn't even meet Wuk Lamat in his canon (I'm writing a fic about that during maintenance) — so I guess in my heart of hearts I'm a bit hesitant about the whole rite of succession and hunt for the golden city thing. He lives in the South Sea Isles, for god's sake, he doesn't need to be lured into helping out some princess from a unfamiliar royal family in an unfamiliar land and have it called a summer vacation! He can have a summer vacation adventure all on his own!

...well, we'll see how that goes.

[lookbluesoup]

Beginners Guide to Red Mage

I've had a frankly alarming number of people comment to me on various platforms that Red Mage is too difficult and confusing. Which - I know different classes vibe with different people. Sometimes a class just doesn't click with you, and that's ok! But I actually find RDM to be one of the easiest classes in ffxiv to get the basics down on, so I thought I'd type up a little crash course!

This is a guide to a basic rotation, without any eye-glazing acronyms, and a few tips on how RDM evolves at higher levels, hopefully in easy to understand terms for someone just starting out. It is not a min/max guide. It's not designed to get you Super Rainbow Diamond Parse. It will show you how to play red mage competently in Duty Roulette and MSQ and get through whatever regular content you want. (As long as you don't forget to keep your gear levelled with you!)

If you want to go MAX ULTRA DAMAGE UNREAL TRIALS mode there's plenty of other guides out there for that, a google search away, who can help you with more complicated, number-crunchy type rotations! My hope is that if you are new to RDM and want to get into that content someday, this will at least give you a foundational understanding to build up to that from.

And if you're a casual player, this guide will see you through just fine. You're who this is made for!

Full guide below the cut!

Red Mage is about balance, which means it's basically a repeating pattern.

There is a magic rotation to build up black and white mana in equal amounts, and then a melee rotation to spend that collected mana on high-damage sword attacks. Later, you'll get a second magic combo to use after your sword combo.

Here's my hotbar setup synced down to level 50:

And here it is at level 90 with some upgraded skill icons:

Because I'm very visual, it's set up to keep related abilities close together so that I can quickly input combos.

If you take a look at your spells, you'll notice Veraero and Verthunder (the green and blue buttons) do high damage but take almost 5 seconds to cast. A really long time. They also only increase either white or black mana, though by a significant amount:

Jolt, the red one in the middle, only takes a remarkably short 2 seconds to cast and gives both black and white mana, but does much less damage and doesn't increase either color very much:

This might initially seem clunky and frustrating.

But here's why.

Every second spell a Red Mage casts is instant.

Jolt is your ticket to flinging spells around like a dog with a roman candle.

The goal is to start with a short-cast spell, and then follow up with a long-cast one, which will hit immediately instead of taking those agonizing 5 seconds.

So, if you are fighting a single target, that's Jolt, followed by Veraero or Verthunder. (Or, if like me your eyes want to glaze over with the fancy names for everything. Red, followed by Green or Blue.)

And how do you keep your black and white mana balanced? Easy. Each time you do your combo, switch up veraero and verthunder.

You basic magic combo is literally just Red, Green, Red, Blue, Red, Green, Red, Blue. If you set up your hotbar with these in convenient places, you can just get your fingers into a rhythm and eventually won't even have to think about it at all.

If you end up off balance with too much of one color, just repeat the other color a few times in between Jolts until its back close together.

The AoE Rotation, Though?

Since you know why the cast times vary so much between spells, you can probably already guess how this works! They're inverted! That's all! If you're fighting 3+ enemies at once, you should switch to your AoE set which damages all enemies around your target. Your basic magic combo is still just Red, Green, Red, Blue, Red, Green, Red, Blue. But you start with Green or Blue first!

--

When its time to stab things

While you can use your melee skills at any point, in any order - there's a pattern here, too. And its easy!

This is your mana bar when you enter a fight:

And this is your mana bar as you build up black and white mana through casting spells:

The white side, predictably, is white mana. The blue side is black mana. The gem on the top will light up in red when you have enough of both collected to perform a melee combo (which is 50 white and 50 black). It maxes out at 100 of each.

While your sword skills on your hotbar will color change from purple to red earlier than this, do not succumb to the allure. Wait until you get your magic red button. Every "Enchanted" sword strike you hit with will deplete your mana, so you need to make sure you have enough to do a full combo of all three attacks.

An Enchanted combo does MUCH more damage and it is absolutely worth waiting until you can combo them. Start with Riposte, the one that costs 20, and the others will light up in order afterwards to show you the correct steps.

Once you're too low on mana to run a full sword combo, go back to casting spells until your red gem lights up again!

AoE Rotation

It's not even a rotation, it's one attack - Moulinet. However, it should be noted that at later levels, when Mana Stacks are added, you'll need 60 black and white mana to get a full three mana stacks by using your AoE sword skill, instead of the 50 needed for single target sword skills.

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Imbalanced Meters

If you cast too much of one color without the other, your gem will change to reflect the imbalance. You get a penalty to gaining mana if the bars are off balance, so make sure to give the other color some attention until your gem turns red or clear again.

--

Free Damage Buttons

Fleche, and its AoE version Contre Six, are free damage. They don't share any cooldowns with your regular spells/sword skills, and cast instantly. It's free damage.

Corps-a-corps is a gap closer, another attack that shares no cooldowns with any other skills. It's a great way to start out your sword-combo when you have enough mana collected, because it will put you in range of your target and deal damage in the process. A lot better than losing seconds to running up to them manually, during which time you can't attack.

It has two charges which refill over time, so in a short period you can use it twice if you need to. Like if you target the wrong enemy the first time. Whoops.

Engagement is another free stab button, but it shares charges with Displacement, which is your run away button, so make sure to save a charge if you're going to need that!

Displacement is a good way to end your sword combo (or, later, end your bonus spells combo.) It is also a good way to escape an enemy's attack if you stood in one place just a LITTLE too long and don't have time to run out of range. You will leap backwards immediately and quite far.

Once in the Crystal Tower raids I used this to evade an AoE and landed in one of those paralyzing electric traps on the corner of the arena, where I remained trapped, in shame, for the rest of the fight. Check behind you before you jump.

--

(Slightly) More Advanced Rotation

If everything above feels like a lot to absorb already, you can ignore this section for now. Get a handle on the basic basics, and then start weaving the rest of these in later once you're more used to your patterns.

Occasionally when casting a spell you will get "Verstone Ready" or "Verfire Ready" These can be woven in at your discretion, they have short cast times. But generally they should replace your short cast spell for one cycle. For example, use one of these instead of Jolt, and follow up with a Green or Blue spell after. They both give you a specific color of mana, but not quite as much as a regular long-cast spell, their benefit lies in how fast you can cast them and their high damage.

Acceleration can be used to quickly rebalance your mana if something goes awry, or to deal heavy damage quickly. It's another tool that allows you to cast any of your main long-cast damage spells instantly. As an added treat, it makes your next Red AoE do significantly more damage, or ensures that your next single-target Green and Blue spells will give you a Verstone/Verfire right after.

Manafication will instantly grant you 50 black and white mana both. It's best to use it between Enchanted sword combos! Once you hit 50 on your own, perform a sword rotation, hit Manafication, and do another sword rotation. Or, when Mana Stacks come in, use Manafication after completing your bonus spells to get another Sword-Spell rotation combo in right after.

Embolden is a damage buff for you and close-by party members. There's a lot of ways to use damage buffs, but if you time it right, you can get two buffed Enchanted sword combos in by pairing this with Manafication. Later, with Mana Stacks, you can get a sword and bonus-spell combo in, with a little extra room.

Mana Stacks

At higher levels, you'll get Mana Stacks. These basically add a third pattern after you use your spells to build mana, and your sword to spend it.

By completing an Enchanted Sword combo (the red ones, that cost 50 mana to complete) or casting 3 of the Enchanted AoE Moulinet in succession (which costs 60 mana), all your Blue and Green spells will transform into Verflare and Verholy:

You get to cast ONE of them. If you perform just about any other action, including manafication, you will lose these. Make sure to cast them when they appear. They do not, however, run on a short timer, so if the dungeon boss is at 0.1% hp you can hold your actions and just use these on your next ad pack.

If your black and white mana are not perfectly balanced when you get these spells, that's a good thing. Pick the spell that matches your lower color. If you have less black mana, cast Verflare. If you have less white mana, cast Verholy. This will guarantee that Verfire or Verstone, mentioned above, become available to you:

If you pick the "wrong" one, don't worry! You still have a chance at getting your stone/fire spell. And if not, you can use Acceleration to quickly cast for whichever color you need to rebalance your mana.

A little down the line, you'll get a third bonus spell. Scorch replaces your Red spells and appears after casting Verflare or Verholy. That's a lotta damage!

And again, further down, you'll get another red spell to follow on the heels of Scorch, Resolution. To really help you finish off nuking everything in front of you.

--

So in short - magic combo till you have 50 of both mana colors, sword combo, bonus spell combo, rinse and repeat.

And there you go! You can Red Mage!

--

But wait! There's more!

Saving the Party from a Wipe

At level 64 you get Verraise. And since you know all about dualcast now, you know that 10 second cast timer doesn't mean anything to you, a Red Mage.

While you should generally let your healer(s) handle raising so that they don't waste their swiftcast trying to get someone that you might reach first, if you notice multiple people go down close together, or the healer is low on spells/having to work really hard to keep the party alive, or the healer is dead... you can resurrect someone every 2 seconds. Do not be afraid to help save the party from a wipe. It feels very powerful.

Your healing spell, Vercure, also has a 2 second cast time, so you can give party members a little hp boost in between shoveling them off the floor.

[vermanaward]

.

the worst part i think is that like. we were back on sunday after a brief hiatus while people played xvi and i. actually felt vaguely optimistic after a while of stewing in being mad and frustrated. we oneshot p9 (after the previous week taking half a lockout on it) and twoshot p10 (again after. spending entire evenings previously trying to rekill the thing). we saw p11 enrage, even if it was a bit frustrating we didnt kill.

and then. reclears yesterday were a shitshow. n pulls to kill p9. two lockouts to kill p10 (though i take, and took, full responsibilty for one of the wipes). then after the instance and we were deciding whether to go for p11 or not, i asked the dnc - who has never liked me, and i neither know nor care why - to pls stop running into me during spread mechanics, he blows up and shouts that im "fucking stupid" and was out of position in the first place (which. if he hadnt moved, and he had no reason to, everyone would have been fine. and moreover if i hadn't been where i was then id have suicide-bombed the main tank. although at least he wouldn't have yelled at me that im fucking stupid i guess! but i digress)

followed by an awkward silence, an awkward rc on p11 which i let time out because i was still trying to process getting my head ripped off, an even more awkward conversation where someone tabled the motion of whether we just wanted to call it quits there altogether bc, you know, the mood has been in the fucking gutter all tier, and one vote later we're disbanded 🙃

which, you know. i did turn down another static to play with these assholes. even if that static poofed into thin air for probably unrelated reasons. and on finally having the energy to vod review - yeah i was oop but as noted above my other option would have been murdering/being murdered by the mt so like. whatdo. not that im trying to defend my questionable decision making ig, just. there are no winning moves in this scenario. but hey, im just an rdm, not like i do any dps anyway

(not that they are all assholes. some of them are okay, im potentially doing the next crit dungeon with a couple of them which should be fun. they're mostly decent guys, just. yeah)

idunno! shit sucks. could i have handled htings better? probably but i was also on the point of unilaterally bailing and frankly the writing has been on the wall for a while now lmao.

oh well. at least i can spend my coffers and tomes on non-rdm jobs guilt free i guess! i might gear up sam and live my best sword enjoyer life. or doom it to getting nerfed into the ground next patch, one of the two.

[zanshlou]

Been a while since I’ve posted something related to XIV so here’s some Carmina. There was something about next patch using portraits for more dungeons and stuff or something? I dono I don’t really pay attention to announcements and just skim patch notes for stuff I care about when things actually come out but I heard something about this and decided that I needed to go in and make portaits for every class. This also resulted in me tweaking a couple glams and making a few new ones. Sadly I use two of my glam plats for my Crafter and Gatherer glams so MNK/SAM and DRG/RPR have to share outfits for now. PLEASE SE I just need 2 more glam plates (though also like a nice rounded 5 would be nice to keep holiday outfits separate on). Anyways random details about all the tweaks and new outfits (along with some of my general long winded ramblings) below the cut I guess.

So SCH, RDM, MCH, and NIN got completely new looks. My old SCH was too close in color and used a lot of the same pieces as my SGE look I put together for story this expansion so it had to go. RDM used a top that I had modded and so didn’t look right anymore. The top it has WAS originally on my new MCH look but I had shifted that to be more pirate-y and still wanted to use the top and it looks great in red. NIN was going to get a modified version of a Cait Sith cosplay I put together for a group Halloween shot my FC did but then I realized when lookig through stuff that I had the Neo-Ishgardian top and that plan went out the window as I decided I had a need to work around that top for the look.

Meanwhile... BRD continues to get stuck with my holiday look whatever that ends up being. So for now it gets to support my Christmas gear. Maybe after the holidays I’ll change it but the look is solid on its own holiday season or not so it may just stay.

For more minor changes... My DNC used to sport a hat, I might even have some screenshots somewhere on here from the past where it still sports that hat. The look was built around an old old glam from the HW days that I made that was very... tap-dancer-esque. These days the new look has kind of been a Mina default look and is what I base a lot of my art and designing around but I always leave out the hat so decided I’d switch it with glasses. They might not stay but I do always love the look of glasses on Mina. Second only to hair flowers (I just didn’t feel I had any good ones on hand to go with the look).

MNK/SAM got new earrings and DRG/RPR got new nails. These were both super minor style changes. I wanted some earrings that were lowkey and that I didn’t really use much (instead of my usual heart earrings) for the MNK/SAM look. That look has always been a staple of my wardrobe since at least early HW if not sooner than that. It’s simple and effective and was built entirely around the gloves and going “what else can I make black that has gold accents?” The DRG/RPR look is similarly an old classic of mine, built completely around the Maelstrom coat. I used to have the sharp beastly nails on the look and I just switched those out for the like regular painted nails. Super minor change for a look that has never stopped being amazing. The way the Y’shtola HW boots pair with that coat is too dang powerful.

As one last random aside, BLU continues to be my most extra look. I have tried to make it over the top and extravagant in ever incarnation I’ve made of it. This one is decidedly less silly than it’s first main glam (which I should dig up some old pics of) but it still has that very loud, “LOOK AT ME” showmanship to the design. Every time I make a new outfit for it I have a lot of fun with it. The only look that I think brings me more joy from the sillyness of it is my blindfolded “I can’t read” SMN look.

[undergroundsurgeon]

Just a doctor doing his best!

Shinra Kishitani! In the flesh! Er... On the web

» This is a sideblog and cannot follow back!

» This blog is not approved for chronoMinors, as there will be NSFW content

I am IRL Shinra Kishitani - and good timing, too! Looks like there's nobody really out here to refute me, or come for my title. Chronologically I am an adult, though I'll probably end up perma24 once I pass that (which is close!). I'm technically an alter, so everything I say is real and true (to me), but why stop there? Every part of my identity is important to me, and why shouldn't I be allowed to have that? Because I share now? I didn't ask to!

I'm radqueer because it seems fun and free and that's basically all. Oh, I guess I'm also technically a particular type of paraphile if you squint, but that gets into the logistics of what makes someone(/thing) living, and honestly, if it walks like a duck, so on so forth. I mean, I guess if she were really dead... But if it's Celty I don't care what the situation is. We're meant to be no matter what! Is there a term for that?

I'm proship because I have a brain. And most things are more complex than they seem. No more surface level readings! I'm tired of it!

Anyway! I feel like a lot of people in a lot of places are stuffy and uptight, and this area of the internet seems much more relaxed. I don't want people telling me "but Shinra! You're not REALLY [x]! Remember?" Who cares and kill yourself probably! (That is a joke. I am joking. Do not commit suicide, it's bad for your health and your juju.) Life is short and I'm here to have a good time! Not a stuffy uptight time dictated by people on the internet I don't know!

Is this rambly? I feel like this is rambly. Onto the identities!

╰┈�� For starters, I consider all of these PraetransIDs!

ׂ╰┈➤ transDoctor / transSurgeon because I don't wanna have to go to med school! I didn't before, why do I have to now?

╰┈➤ transHarmed - I like to think of myself as permaPatient / permaCareRidden, if only because Celty likes me most bandaged and beaten (⸝⸝ᵕᴗᵕ⸝⸝) (it is not for anyone else!) Specifically, I am permaNearDeathBeaten

╰┈➤ transHarmful

╰┈➤ transSnuffed

╰┈➤ transDissector

╰┈➤ transAmputee from just below the knee down!

╰┈➤ transProstheticUser

╰┈➤ transWheelchairUser

╰┈➤ transGlassesWearer

╰┈➤ transBraces (like for teeth!)

╰┈➤ veroJapanese

╰┈➤ cisASPD, yandere / OLD (RDMS), permaInLove, DID, BED, anxiety, selective mutism, stutter, pervert

╰┈➤ Obsessio-spectrum, Nimiusaroace, Aplatonic. Unless it's for Celty I don't want it!

╰┈➤ Puppy Regressor (sfw&nsfw)

╰┈➤ forcetransOmega

There may be more but these are what I can think of right now!

╰┈➤ Cultrophilic, Haematolagnia, Piquerism, Teratophilia, Sadomasochist (heavier on the masochism), conabuse and probably many many more!

Okay! I think that's everything I want you to know about me! Bye!

[why-raven]

Endwalker, hands down. The Manderville Weapons were the only set of relics I actually bothered to complete for all jobs while they were still relevant.

It's really refreshing to make better use of the time to do a variety of contents in game rather than mindlessly grinding for just one thing... for hours or even days. I absolutely despise grinding, because I want to maximize my limited playtime rather than wasting all that on something so... mind-numbing and it didn't worth all that effort at the end of the day.

Aside from the straightforward system and efficient upgrade steps, I also enjoyed the side story attached to the weapon quest―that's what I call a real summer break from saving-the-universe shenanigans. Just goofing around on misadventures with the gentleman inspector and getting into all sorts of wacky chaos... actually did make the usually stoic Yiuno crack a grin from time to time.

You can't deny that Hildy's mom is hot. Both literally and figuratively. Also Godbert is best man. Playing as him in one of the instanced battles was so fun!

Cyberpunk aesthetics is my kind of shit. The DRK weapon is pretty cool because it's actually an oversized whip, ha.

Eureka and Bozja were a mixed bag for me:

Eureka Weapon designs, at least up to Pyros, are dope.

Some of the NM mechanics are interesting, I guess... when you consider the trend of fight designs in Stormblood. Ozma is still one of the coolest mounts in the game.

Fuck the maps. Especially Pagos. Fuck those sleeping dragons.

Resistance Weapon designs initially started out really good... but ended up being absolute trash (save for RDM).

The dungeon fights were fun and challenging when they were still fresh and uncapped stats... But now that it's optimized to death it's just another brainless grind all over again.

Anima is only easy when you can solo and cheese most of the steps now, or unsync and complete the grind quickly within an hour or two. I can imagine it being a chore when the relic was still relevant in Heavensward.

Zodiac? It's forever the worst, both in terms of the grind (fuck the books) and the amount of gil you need to get through certain steps. (Easier for me to just farm UWU and get all those weapons with better glow, lol.)

I forced myself to finish the Yokai Watch event when they rerun it a second time with inclusion of GNB and DNC weapons, back in Shadowbringers. While I don't understand why the devs brought it back again in Endwalker and there weren't any new weapons for RPR and SGE, at least I didn't have to go through all that hell again; just talk to the NPC to collect some adventure plate thing I'd probably never use at all. I cannot comprehend people who enjoy this kind of torture, but hey, I respect that this is fun for you, just not my kind of fun.

[ofdarklands]

level 90 at last!

so! about black mage

i've been thinking how to describe playing black mage, and i think the simile i used this morning in chat works well enough:

black mage feels like trying to run with a pot full of boiling water in my hands. with other jobs i feel light and agile, but black mage plays like how seeing emet selch as solus run would feel. look at that guy go. i didn't know spines could do that! you can hear his knees crunch, also

mechanically, it's really not nearly as bad as i feared it to be, even though i don't think i'd managed to figure out a decent rotation myself on the first or even third try so, thank you internet people for the guides!

anyway, the boiling pot wheezing trot sensation is not unique to it, though it is the most noticeable of all the casting classes i've played. i'd say rdm>summoner>whm>>blm in increasing awkwardness

so, while i acknowledge that blm is an optimizer's paradise to get the Biggest Booms, probably, playing it feels like it's almost fighting against the game instead of flowing with it and due to that it's just not very enjoyable, for me. it's got the same inflexible rotation that makes dragoon my least played class despite it being very canon for mitr'a

and from a physical perspective my fingers are not very precise on the keyboard, so i tend to fuck up the routine by accident quite often and then i have to correct it or start over and eeeehhhhhh. and my can't-remember-to-click-despair situation. dunno what the problem is with that one, to be quite honest. brain said no i guess :( that one's on me

woops this got longer than i thought so have a readmore

the good:

aforementioned big damages, when i manage to keep the rotation on track. sadly not as much of a plus for me, personally, but it's relevant still

against one enemy, getting immersed in the rotation can be pretty fun, until the 5 aoes come, the boss leaves the arena, and i sigh deeply while creakily running around, not casting

lasso spell goes brrr. it's got a very funny sound effect, in my heart

the 'return to leylines' spell is also great. i've used it mostly to instantly dodge when there's more than 2 sequential aoes. you can play around with these two spells

shoutout to the simplified job gauge for letting you actually understand anything about it. sure it's 3.5 things to keep track of, but for 2 of them you get informed about their readiness with convenient sounds and flashing borders so whatever

big staff to hit people with

cone hat funny

big lb meteorites. very good very cackling

the bad:

moving feels heavy, even when using the instant cast abilities. i keep lagging behind the group even in normal content, and sometimes clicking the right person to yeet to can be a bit hard in alliances or wall to walls. this class needs to do some cardio

clicking fire IV 3 times, then 1 fire I then fire IV 3 more times is. very boring. sorry. rotation 40 years long and rigid like the brutalism. the funnest parts are the thunder procs and the ice phase before going back to fire and the occasional instant cast. oh you sneezed and misclicked and dropped your fire badge thingies on the floor? sorry idiot you get to start over from the top, but sadder this time

this one i only noticed here at the end, but i feel it's very important, maybe more than the rotation: the best and biggest animations it has are the ones for the ice spells, which you use the least. xenoglossy, foul and flare are also good. amplifier, manafont and triple cast feel nice and dramatic to use. paradox i just got but it's also nice with the color mix. the rest i don't even remember, had to go cast them on a dummy. it's fireballs and fire columns it's all fireballs! the blm animations have a lot of boom but they need more heft, if that makes sense? more flying shit going from you to the target, shit shrapneling from the target, rings of fire, fiery eldritch runes, anything. if rdm can shoot 50 explosive roses at a guy for some reason and drk can summon shields of runes, blm can do something fancy also. casting a finisher skill called 'despair' should look like i'm sucking their souls out through a straw

also more casting positions. summoner has a lot and they're pretty different! they got floating symbols and shit. blm has 'slightly crouched' and 'staff held high' in variation 1 and 2, and that's about it from what i can tell besides the selfbuff ones. add some evil runes at least. the paradox wide armed one (i think you float a little?) is a good addition though

anyway, final verdict: it's a good class, but it's very rigid and inflexible to get Big Damages, which is not an exciting exchange, for me. i prefer to be nimble and do less damage but have a more varied and forgiving rng based rotation. also more utility skills! i miss peloton or having a group shield or heal, or even rdm's rez; makes me feel actually useful instead of being just a giant cone hat that produces flamethrower on command. i don't think i'll play it too often, i'm afraid, even though it's a perfectly alright class, and i'm sure i'll get better with time

HOWEVER. if dawntrail allows blm to throw meteorites outside of lbs i might reconsider. they can be small! even magical molotov cocktails if we must. but i want physical flamming objects to hit my enemies and i want to see the animations do that with some flair. just ole fire and spite booms and a couple icicles is not enough. i want to flatten them

[shizucheese]

So Fenfest weekend is over. The absence of my FC mates that couldn't get tickets was sorely felt but i got to spend one of the best weekends of my life with one of my best friends who also happens to be one of the people I've known the longest in the game. I'm currently sitting at the airport with the sniffles, 2-3 hours in to a 4-5 hour wait for my flight because my friend drove here and had a 7 hour drive ahead of him.

I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about this weekend.

I'm excited for Dawntrail. I'm excited to find out what the beginning of our next, what, 10 year journey? Is going to be like. I'm surprised they didn't announce female Hrothgar at this fanfest since Viera were originally announced at the 2018 NA fanfest but I feel like the fact that there are Hrothgar native to Tural all but confirms it, and maybe they're waiting until JP fanfest to officially announce it since that's when they originally announced male Hrothgar back in 2019. Also maybe where they are with the graphics update has something to do with it, because when we *do* get that progress video, you *know* it's going to be with the new graphics, because why bother making it with the old ones?

On the subject of the graphics update, I'm super hyped. When we finally get the benchmark trailer it's going to ruin the live version of the game for me for the rest of the expansion until 7.0 comes out. I'm planning on turning off all of my ReShade filters before servers go down when DT releases and then the first thing I'm doing when servers come back up is turning them back on one by one and seeing which ones I even need anymore. (In an ideal world, I just wouldn't need any of them anymore, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here, especially since my current filters help with my photosensitivity and I don't think anything has been said about improved antialiasing?)

I'm excited to find out what the new jobs will be. My prediction for months now has been a caster DPS and a melee DPS that uses scouting gear, because right now NIN is the only job in the game that doesn't share gear with anyone and DRG not sharing gear with anyone was the rational they gave for RPR using maiming gear.

My personal guess is the caster will be Geomancer. Back before Stormblood released, Yoshi-P did an interview where he mentioned that they had been considering an "Onmyoji-like" job before settling on RDM instead. At the time, the interviewer thought it might have been Oracle, but then SB came out and the the Geomancers in the AST job quests are onmyoji in all but name, so I'm pretty sure that's what the scrapped job job was. And the devs have a history of taking scrapped ideas and implanting them at a later time: Samurai was originally considered to be the tank in Heavensward (iirc the went with DRK at least in part because Yoshi-P didn't want SAM to be a tank). They considered Viera for the new race in HW (this is part of why people were so upset when we originally only got female Viera, because we knew concept art for male Viera existed and had seen it years before), before they decided to go with the FFXIV-original race of the Au Ra instead. So it wouldn't be surprising at all if the new caster ended up being that scrapped job from SB that sounded an awful lot like GEO. Assuming the TMNT shirt is hinting at the melee job, maybe it'll be something using nanchaku?

I know a lot of people are speculating Corsair because of what we've seen of Derplander so far in the trailers, and the whole the idea that he's one of the new jobs to mark the beginning of a new adventure is valid (and the fact that his outfit is being hidden by a robe the entire trailer lends credence to this) I think it's important to remember that the only expansion where he has ever been a job newly added to the expansion, it was also the only expansion where he was two jobs, the other one being one that had been in the game since ARR. What we've seen of his outfit may not even be a hint, because it reminds me a lot of his 6.1 outfit that we got as glamour. Based on the fact that we saw him fighting with a sword and no shield, I want to guess RDM (I know Alisaie is already our resident RDM, but...), but it's also entirely possible that when the full trailer comes out we're going to see him toss aside the sword and pull out a different weapon entirely (of the tanks, the only one he hasnt been yet is GNB, which I think would be a good fit for this expansion because of the Hrothgar connection. The only two melee DPS he hasnt been are NIN and RPR, which Indont think fit so well, but maybe he'll step out of his melee comfort zone and give magic ranged or phys ranged a try? Aesthetically I could see MCH being a good fit for this expansion...) The next 6 months are going to be very interesting.

Two Dyes! Two Dyes! Two Dyes!

(I wonder of us being able to use two dyes will affect what new gear looks like. Crafted leveling gear and some dungeon gear, like the first dungeon of the expansion and the dungeons added on even numbered patches, has always included gear that was reskins of previously added gear; in the past the could get away with this because it would dye a different part of the outfit or the color of the undyable part would he different. It'll be interesting to see how this gets handled going forward.)

I'm excited for next patch. I think people are overblowing the impact the change to alliance raid roulette will actually have. Like...yes, it'll prevent people from ilv cheering, which will be a huge help. But there are still a lot of people who only have the Crystal Tower raids unlocked because it's required for MSQ.

I can't wait to dump cash shop stuff into my aromoir; unfortunately until they make it so we can dye items in the armoir and *keep* them that color, it's largely going to only be items that can't he dyed and stuff that I don't actually use that goes in there. Should still be a huge help though and it'll open up some retainer space, since that's where I currently keep cash shop items I don't use.

I'm excited to see where MSQ goes (I'm willing to bet money we're going to take all that light aspected aether on the First and Dark aspects aether on the Thirteenth and find a way to connect the two worlds to balance things out. Did Zero turn herself into a Memoria crystal and we just carried her to the First in our pocket?)

Also very excited for the new Varient dungeon. I'm willing to bet money that Asura is actually one of the bosses from the Varient/ Criterion Dungeon. This might even be why people found the fight so easy, because it was effectively an 8 person version of a 4 person fight. I'm kinda having flashbacks to Protoultima and the expectations vs reality of that.

Then again, she had voiced lines, so maybe I'm way off and this is a second 6.5 trial (the first one being Zeromus). I just hope this isn't a repeat of Yojimbo with her being tied to Hildibrand. Then again, as my friend pointed out, she does have multiple arms...

The piano concert was great. Amanda Achen has pipes. I spent the last two years wondering what zone's music Soken was going to adapt to otomoton and now I'm kidding myself because the answer seems so obvious.

The Primals concert was great, but I wish I'd brought ear plugs. I've been expecting a Primals version of Hic Svnt Leones ever since I first heard it and it didn't happen, which shocked me. What we *did* get was a Primals version of Scream and now I'm torn, because Koji's version was incredible, but I would also kill to hear a Primals version of that song where Amanda does the singing.

We were also lucky enough to get tickets for the Eorzean Symphony and it was amazing. I cried. Back during the digital fanfest I mourned because I thought I'd never get a chance to hear the ShB music performed live, but last night they played Shadowbringers and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and now I feel...idk, healed? I cried ugly tears during Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Maybe it's because it's my favorite song in the entire game, or maybe it's because of the cold, but I'm getting a bit weepy right now even just thinking back on it.

Overall, it was an incredible weekend. I'm glad I went, and hopefully two years from now, I'll be able to go again (preferably with more of/ all of my FC). Or like...we'll all take a FC vacation together or go to to someone's house and watch the stream together while eating pancakes. We'll see what the future brings.

[tekutiger]

We've come to the end of another Patch Day! \o/ and with it, a new V&C Dungeon 😊

I had thought this the last time we got a Variant and Criterion Dungeon, but I love how much Tataru, and now Hancock also, has all the trust and faith in the world in us (the WoL).

They just decide it's completely okay to enter some creepy, sketchy and dangerous dungeon with us, with unforeseen creatures, and we're their only bodyguard. Meanwhile they hang back and watch us handle all the bad things, lol 😅

I guess it looks better if you're going in with an actual party. I'm over here going in solo cause I prefer to, haha.

👆🏻 You can see Hancock hanging in the back there. He's like 'nope nope nope, you got dis~ I'll wait here.' 😄

I've only ran 2 routes so far, but I guess I'll be doing this for a while when I get more time. The rewards are -grabby hands- 💓 amazing, awesome, I have a great need. I guess I need 75 Rokkon Potsherds for all the things I want? If I tallied it all up correctly. And that's just on my main. I need to rinse and repeat on my main-alt afterwards 😅🫠

At the very least I did upgrade both Tobi's and Mari's GNB gear. I feel RDM and GNB are my favorite classes for these type of solo'ing things 💖

The routes I completed were 8 and 9. I feel like 8 was easier than 9 for some reason, I don't know why. There was most definitely an added mechanic in 9 but it was an easy one. The placement of the silly orbs felt different in 9 also, but I could just be imagining that. The DDR game had different widths too. Curse that DDR game lolol. If you don't know what I mean, you'll know when you see it and you'll likely despise it as much as I do 🙃 ajdhsajkhd.

It's been a long day and I'm tired 🥱💤

[heretic-altias]

By any chance has anyone out there seen a video from the media tour that showcases the new job gear on a female character model? I've only been able to find dudes, and while I like a lot of the sets I want to see them on a woman to make sure some of them don't decide to have model differences that I dislike when I actually try them on ingame.