Red Mage Guide/Stormblood

Retired Content

• The subject of this article was retired or removed from the game in patch 5.0, and is no longer available to players.
• Retired items may still be kept in inventory but can no longer be renewably obtained. Tradable items may still be obtained from the Market Board or directly trading with other players.
• The information in this article is kept and maintained for historical purposes.
• This is the Stormblood era guide. It now completely obsolete.

An up-to-date Red Mage job guide is provided by The Balance.

Red Mage Rotation

Your spells can be divided into "verquick" spells, which have a faster cast time but lower potency, and "verslow" spells, which have a slower cast time but higher potency. For optimal DPS, you want to cast a verquick spell first and immediately follow it with a Dualcast-buffed verslow spell.

• Your "verquick" spells: Jolt, Scatter, Impact, Verstone, Verfire
• Your "verslow" spells: Veraero, Verthunder.

It is highly recommended that you take advantage of Red Mage Macros to assist you in casting the best spell available as quickly as possible to get the best rotation.

CASTING PHASE

This phase is when you accumulate your balance job gauge.

--Verquick (Jolt/Impact/Verstone/Verfire) - Begin with Jolt to activate Dualcast. If Verstone, Verfire, or Impact are activated during your rotation, replace Jolt with that spell.

--Verslow (Veraero/Verthunder) - You will cast one of these spells anytime you have Dualcast activated; they hit like a truck but have a long cast time.

Basically the idea in this rotation is for you to accumulate enough Black and White mana for a full Enchanted melee phase as fast as possible by alternating between verquick and verslow spells. Once you have accumulated at least 80 mana of each color you can proceed to the melee phase below.

MELEE PHASE

When you have at least 80 Black and White mana, you can perform the basic melee rotation:

Corps-a-corps --> Enchanted Riposte --> Enchanted Zwerchhau --> Enchanted Redoublement --> Verholy/Verflare --> Displacement (watch for arena edges!)

More advanced melee rotation:

Corps-a-corps --> Embolden --> Enchanted Riposte --> Fleche --> Enchanted Zwerchhau --> Contre Sixte --> Enchanted Redoublement --> Verholy/Verflare --> Displacement

If done correctly, the advanced rotation will take the same amount of time as the basic one, since the additional actions are all off of the GCD ("global cooldown"). When your mana is spent, return to the casting phase.

ADVANCED/MISC

• Begin every boss fight with Diversion to minimize enmity. You do NOT want to pull aggro off of the tank two seconds into the fight.
• Buffs like Acceleration and Manafication are not on the GCD, so only cast them while your spells are on cooldown to avoid losing any time that could be spent dishing out the pain.
• It is recommended that you use Fleche/Contre Sixte immediately after a verslow spell or inbetween melee strikes, as they are off the GCD and will deal extra damage while everything else is on cooldown.
• Since the buff from Embolden begins to wear off after the first 5 seconds, it is recommended that you cast this during the melee phase immediately after Corps-a-corps. This should give you enough time to land all three strikes and a Verflare/Verholy before the buff begins to diminish. If Fleche/Contre Sixte are available, you can weave them inbetween strikes during this period for some insane damage.
• Scatter is the obvious spell of choice when you can hit as many as 5+ targets, but when there are only 3-4 and your tank/healer are struggling, you may want to consider a "focus fire" strategy by sticking with single-target spells. Doing so may slightly lower your total DPS, but it will pick off individual enemies faster and ease their burden.
• Everyone loves you because you can insta-raise and back-up heal in an emergency.