Is Red Mage worth it?

[Pavrogold]

It seems to me that it only is usefull in early game because he can't use higher lever spells. Does the fisical damage make it worth it? Or I should switch to Black Mage for the big damage

[pedrojorge997]

its useful in the early game due to being the only one to equip the dead slayer sword. also red mage is a physical attacker and healer, dont bother with offensive spells since both his MP and Int. stats are low. by that i mean you should have a black mage at all times. red mage is outclassed as soon as you get the second set of jobs.

[Zsrai]

They are solid very early and start to fall off by about level 10, honestly. They are still useful because of the Mini dungeons (spell casters of any kind are good there) until you get the ship, then struggle until Tyrfings and then fall off a cliff by the time you get the Water Crystal. Overall, Red Mage is basically useless after you leave the Floating Continent, if not before then. The best weapon they get is Tyrfing, which is right before the Fire Crystal. You're stuck with that, or using Rune Staff as an item, for the rest of the game.

Interestingly enough, they get more spells than in the NES version; I swapped to one at about 45 just to see the spell counts and saw they had 5th level spells when they used to be capped at 4th level. They still don't compare to the spell counts of White/Black mage, never mind Devout/Magus or Sage. Never mind their average at best caster stats (Viking gets more Spirit, for example).

[Atomic Kid]

Very good until you get the next tier up jobs. By that point black mage has more spell charges and the red mage stuff drops off. But overall being able to phys hit when you have very low spell charges and have decent defense is the pros of red mage and I'd recondmend that in place of black mage until their spell charges catches up. Though, be ready to replace it and if you loved red mage there really isnt any mage that will eventually get good phys damage, not even sage.

[SC_Nikki]

The Red Mage could use a lot more weapons in the DS version, even Excalibur. Maybe they should have adopted that here...

[palladin9479]

Biggest benefit of RDM over BLM is early on when you have the Flame/Ice/Light staffs which cast the first tier nukes for free. BLM can't equip those so it's left spending MP on trash mobs or using defend where as RDM can just Light Staff everything.

[Zsrai]

Originally posted by palladin9479:

Biggest benefit of RDM over BLM is early on when you have the Flame/Ice/Light staffs which cast the first tier nukes for free. BLM can't equip those so it's left spending MP on trash mobs or using defend where as RDM can just Light Staff everything.

Yeah but I just have my WHM do that instead, and have more heals available. RDM real downside is their pitiful INT/SPI though; they have the INT of a Devout and the SPI of a Magus. In other words, really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bad.

[palladin9479]

Both RDM and WHM can equip those, so that's two free use's per combat round during a time when everything has low HP and your forced into a bunch of "mini" dungeons. Totally not worth it after the water crystal though.

[GatoMancer]

So much hate for Red Mage here.
I'm still rocking Red Mage from the start, lv 35+ [havent gotten the last set of classes yet].

Red Mage can use the canes AND equip the Black mage rods which boost the elemental damage of spells. Further, the canes' damage boosts in power the higher your level is. Having two characters that can spam use the canes i find very handy for many situations.

[Zsrai]

Originally posted by GatoMancer:

So much hate for Red Mage here.
I'm still rocking Red Mage from the start, lv 35+ [havent gotten the last set of classes yet].

Red Mage can use the canes AND equip the Black mage rods which boost the elemental damage of spells. Further, the canes' damage boosts in power the higher your level is. Having two characters that can spam use the canes i find very handy for many situations.

I don't hate them, I just find them lackluster (which makes me sad). At least in this version they get more spells than in the NES rom. They are more a victim of the game building certain classes to peak early on and be replaced with others, is all.

[palladin9479]

Originally posted by Zsrai:

Originally posted by GatoMancer:

So much hate for Red Mage here.
I'm still rocking Red Mage from the start, lv 35+ [havent gotten the last set of classes yet].

Red Mage can use the canes AND equip the Black mage rods which boost the elemental damage of spells. Further, the canes' damage boosts in power the higher your level is. Having two characters that can spam use the canes i find very handy for many situations.

I don't hate them, I just find them lackluster (which makes me sad). At least in this version they get more spells than in the NES rom. They are more a victim of the game building certain classes to peak early on and be replaced with others, is all.

Yeah RDM could of been so much better but it's part of the first set of class's we get and those all get replaced by upgraded versions. Fighter, Monk, White Mage, and Black Mage all have "upgrades". I actually think Sage is the "upgrade" for Red Mage, can access all magic but has less spells then the specialists Magus and Devout.

[Zsrai]

Originally posted by palladin9479:

Originally posted by Zsrai:

I don't hate them, I just find them lackluster (which makes me sad). At least in this version they get more spells than in the NES rom. They are more a victim of the game building certain classes to peak early on and be replaced with others, is all.

Yeah RDM could of been so much better but it's part of the first set of class's we get and those all get replaced by upgraded versions. Fighter, Monk, White Mage, and Black Mage all have "upgrades". I actually think Sage is the "upgrade" for Red Mage, can access all magic but has less spells then the specialists Magus and Devout.

Yeah, RDM just falls off a cliff after Floating Continent, so it's quite some time before Sage. Agreed that Sage is more of an upgrade to RDM though. It's a cool class but I wish it lasted longer, like how WHM/BLM can easily last you all the way to Devout/Magus.

[palladin9479]

I found the RDM a bit better in the 3D version, something with what they did with gear and attacks that let them be kinda sorta decent as a melee that could toss out heals and target elemental weakness.

[Zsrai]

Originally posted by palladin9479:

I found the RDM a bit better in the 3D version, something with what they did with gear and attacks that let them be kinda sorta decent as a melee that could toss out heals and target elemental weakness.

Yeah, if they could actually be a decent hybrid (maybe skip some of the Black Magic for support/healing and melee as time went on, with their lower INT) it'd be better in my opinion, but having to relegate them to back row staff user seems kind of counter to the point of the job. The last real melee weapon they get is the Tyrfings you can buy in the Dwarven Cave, ffs.