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 and is no longer available. It was removed in patch 6.0.

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