Red Mage Guide

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

Shadowbringers Red Mage

Retired Content

• The subject of this article was retired or removed from the game in patch 6.0, 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 Shadowbringers era guide. It now partially obsolete.

Lv. 50 mechanics

• Every second cast you have is a Dualcast, meaning it has no cast time (but still triggers the normal Global Cooldown, which is around 2.5 seconds.)
• You should always use Dualcast on a spell that normally takes more than 2.5s to cast. These include   Veraero,   Verthunder, and (for multi-target)   Scatter.
  • To be more specific, the spells that have a normal 5s cooldown should all be used with Dualcast to achieve a 0s cooldown.
• You should never "regularly" cast (hardcast) the above spells, except possibly before boss pull.
• For single-target, your hardcast should be   Verfire or   Verstone if they're available, and   Jolt if they're not.
• For multi-target, your hardcast should be   Veraero II or   Verthunder II.
• Use all of your skills that don't trigger global cooldown (oGCDs) -   Fleche and   Acceleration.
  • Even your movement skills,   Corps-a-corps and   Displacement deal decent damage.
  • Do so as much as possible, but without delaying your global cooldowns ("clipping") by using too many together.
• Your spells generate black and white mana.
  • Keep them within 30 of each other, or you will get an invisible debuff that reduces black/white mana generation.
  • Once they're both above 80, launch your melee combo: Enhanced versions of   Riposte,   Zwerchhau,   Redoublement, once each in that order.

Lv. 51-80 mechanics

•   Moulinet (Lv. 52) should become how you spend your black/white mana against multiple targets.
• You get some extra oGCDs as you level, which should all be used on cooldown if possible:
  •   Contre Sixte (Lv. 56) is extra damage.
  •   Embolden (Lv. 58) is a buff for you and nearby physical damage party members.
  •   Manafication (Lv. 60) doubles your mana - it should be used as close to 50 mana as possible. It also refreshes your movement abilities (more damage) and gives you a DPS buff.
• Your "melee" combo lengthens as you level:
  •   Verflare (Lv. 68) or   Verholy (Lv. 70) should always be used after   Redoublement, depending on which mana is lower (black for Verflare, white for Verholy).
  •   Scorch (Lv. 80) replaces   Jolt II after Verflare/Verholy, and it should always be used as well.
• You will get some good party utility:
  •   Vercure (Lv. 54) is a heal, but you generally should not use to heal unless healers are dead.
  •   Verraise (Lv. 64) is great since you can always Dualcast it, ensuring you never have to stand still. An excellent bulwark against wipes.
• You get some situational skills:
  •   Engagement (Lv. 72) is an alternative to   Displacement if you cannot jump back without screwing up a mechanic/jumping off the ledge.
  •   Reprise (Lv. 76) should only be used if you must move and do not have any instant casts to spend.

Basic optimization

• Swiftcast is a straight dps increase for you, even without movement, because you can trigger an extra   Veraero/  Verthunder with it.
• Be extra alert with Embolden cooldown as it should generally be used immediately to avoid shifting the damage window, and also note its small range.
•   Vercure can be used to proc Dualcast when the boss is away.
• Read other Red Mage guides for further optimization techniques.

Older Guides

• Red Mage Guide/Stormblood