Red Mage Guide by Feauce/Job Abilities

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==Job Abilities==
Next, for our Job Abilities. Job Abilities are active abilities that you select and use, and have a recast timer before they can be used again. In fact, we only have three Job Abilities, but don't get too distraught. They are the foundation of our greatness, and each is incredibly powerful if used correctly.
===Chainspell===
:Our 2-hour special, and what a special it is. As you might guess, this is Hundred Fists for our spells. This lasts for one minute, and while it's active, our spells have a near-zero casting time and a zero recast. The possibilities for this one ability are numerous, as this applies to all spells, including Ninjutsu and Songs.
:Note: It is important to remember that spells cast before using Chainspell will not have their recast timers reset to zero.
===Convert===
:Our next Job Ability, and we get it fairly late at RDM40, but as they say, good things are worth waiting for. This definitely qualifies as a Good Thing™. Convert is instantaneous and has a 10 minute recast timer, which can be reduced with Merit Points. Strictly speaking, Convert exchanges your current HP and current MP while keeping your maximum values the same. In practical terms, when you are running low on MP, you use Convert, are left with very little HP, and drop a massive Cure (with Divine Seal if you have White Mage subjob) on yourself to bring your health back up, thus having nearly full HP and MP once more. This is how we are able to maintain a constant spell supply without needing to rest... much. I'll be going more in-depth on this ability later.
===Composure===
:Our latest Job Ability, and this has use both in the front and back lines. Gained fairly late at RDM50, this will give a decent increase to melee Accuracy (+15) and any White and Black Magic buffs we cast on ourselves (with a few exceptions) have their duration tripled. In exchange for this, the recast time on all of our spells is increased by 25%, much like Slow. Composure will last for two hours as long as you don't change zones, die, or get it dispelled, and its recast is five minutes.
:The recast penalty may sound steep, but along with our native Haste, this serves only to more or less negate the recast benefit of our base Fast Cast. Casting time is completely unaffected by Composure. This one ability allows us to keep ourselves buffed during prolonged battles (especially while solo), and frees up more of our time and MP for party buffs, debuffs, healing, etc. while in groups.
==Support Job Abilities==
Now lets get into some useful abilities that you'll see from your subjobs, and the levels you will get them as a Red Mage. As with Job Traits, I'm going to be covering mage-friendly abilities as well as some melee-friendly abilities. Again, levels listed will be for Red Mage main, and thus will be double the level at which the subjob(s) get access to these abilities.
===Divine Seal===
:Gained with a White Mage support job, and as stated earlier, this is perfect to combine with Convert, as they both have a 10-minute recast timer and using Cure IV with this ability will fill your hit points very well.
===Elemental Seal===
:Gained from Black Mage, this greatly increases the accuracy of Black Magic, and like Divine Seal, has a 10-minute recast timer. Best used for emergency spells such as Sleep spells, or having a guaranteed good return on Aspir. Be warned that Bind may not stick very well even with Elemental Seal depending on the situation and the opponent.
===Light/Dark Arts===
:Gained from Scholar, these abilities have a few beneficial effects that we can take advantage of. Similar to a Samurai's Hasso and Seigan, these abilities have a 1-minute recast timer. Unlike those abilities, however, they last for two hours, but will wear off if KO'd, when changing zones, or by using the opposite Arts.
:While these abilities are active, skill in the appropriate magics appear to be increased to a B rating. This benefits our Healing Magic and Divine Magic from Light Arts, and Elemental Magic and Dark Magic from Dark Arts. This aspect of the abilities has no drawbacks in reference to the opposing skills. It also appears to increase skills regardless of gained skills, in addition to increasing their rating.
:In addition, spells using the skills increased by these abilities (including Enhancing Magic for Light Arts, and Enfeebling Magic for Dark Arts, which are too high to gain a skill bonus) gain a 10% MP cost reduction. However, using spells of the opposing skill set will incur a 20% MP cost increase. This cost reduction is rounded down, so spells costing less than 10 MP will receive no benefit from this aspect. Unlike Conserve MP, this allows you to cast the spell if you don't have the full MP cost. For example, Refresh and Haste, normally costing 40 MP, cost 36 MP while using Light Arts, but will cost 48 MP while Dark Arts is active.
:These abilities also further reduce casting times by 5-10% and recast times by 10% for increased skills, but will increase casting and recast times for opposing skills by 20%. Adding in our own native Fast Cast traits, equipment, and Haste, this easily puts us close to the 50% recast reduction cap.
===Stratagems===
:Also from Scholar, there are two abilities we gain. Penury/Parsimony, which reduces MP cost by 50%, and Celerity/Alacrity which reduces the casting and recast times by 50%. These reductions appear to be their values unmodified by Light/Dark Arts, so Refresh and Haste would cost 20 MP using Penury.
:Addendum: White gives us access to several status cures that we would otherwise only get from White Mage (all except Viruna), however Addendum: Black gives us nothing to date that we don't already have natively.
===Sublimation===
:Gained from Scholar at 70+, I mention this ability primarily because on paper it sounds wonderful. However, in practice it isn't quite there. This ability has a 30 second recast, and when first used will give a self-inflicted 2 HP/tick DoT effect. The HP drained from the player is placed in a pool that, when this ability is used a second time, will be added directly to the player's MP. You can store up to 25% of your max HP in this manner (before including Convert HP to MP gear), giving Elvaan and Galka a bit of an edge. Charging will stop when this limit is reached, or when the user's current HP drops to 50% or less of their maximum HP, whichever comes first. This ability is also completely incompatible with Refresh, including from drinks, however Ballad and Evoker's Roll works perfectly well with it.
:Sublimation offers what amounts to a pre-paid Convert, in the amount of 2 MP/tick, which is lower than our native Refresh, can't be used with said spell, and will stop charging if we take too much damage. The good news is that Stoneskin and Regen, both of which we have access to natively, will stave off the HP loss and Stoneskin will even allow us to rest while this is active. The DoT effect Sublimation inflicts will also wake us up if we fail to resist a Sleep effect. The charged MP also stays with us when we change zones, though it will stop charging if we enter a Residential Area.
:Refresh is a very potent tool in our arsenal of MP efficiency, but it doesn't do it all. Where it lacks is the fact that if you already have full MP, every clock tick of Refresh is 3 MP wasted from its potential. What Sublimation allows us to do is in situations where we don't need to be spending constant MP but still need not to stop moving, we can use Sublimation (most likely in conjunction with Celerity and Stoneskin) to store MP in reserve, wait until we've used enough to recharge our pool, then start charging again once the timer wears off. This will allow us to use a "Convert in a can" every few minutes to keep our MP high while we're out and about, but not necessarily casting spells all the time.
:Alright, so what does all of this mean exactly? Well, primarily it means that this ability is very situational. Sublimation is probably not going to help very much in an XP party situation, although having a Scholar subjob in general most likely will. I see this ability being most useful for quests and quest-type missions, for use while assisting in lower-level events, not for larger-scale missions or battles. Bear in mind also that by the time we're able to use this, most likely it will take 5-7 minutes to fully charge this ability. All in all, this isn't a bad ability to get, however it certainly lacks in usefulness if the situation starts getting a little demanding.
===Blood Pact===
:Gained from Summoner, this is one of two abilities they gain to command their Avatars and Spirits. Blood Pact: Ward uses various curative and enhancing abilities, while Blood Pact: Rage is mostly attacks. The latter being of little use at subjob levels outside of farming or questing. The key abilities for Ward are: Shining Ruby (Carbuncle); Aerial Armor and Whispering Wind (Garuda); Frost Armor (Shiva)
===Boost===
:Gained from Monk, though you don't have to use Hand-to-Hand weapons to utilize this ability, nor a Monk support job in general. In fact, all you lose from using your sword with a Monk support job is Martial Arts, which will leave you with a higher delay than your sword or dagger anyway. Boost combined with a weapon skill is effective for melee damage, especially while solo.
===Dodge===
:Also gained from Monk, this ability increases Evasion by 20, has a duration of two minutes and has a five-minute recast timer.
===Focus===
:Another Monk ability, this will increase Accuracy by 20, and, like Dodge, has a two minute duration with a five-minute recast timer.
===Chakra===
:The final Monk ability available to a Red Mage, this will restore double the user's VIT in hit points. In addition, Chakra will heal the user of blind and poison status, and like Dodge and Focus, has a five-minute recast timer.
===Steal===
:A Thief exclusive, this five-minute ability lets you nab items from your enemies. This can come in pretty handy while you're farming, depending on what you're going after.
===Mug===
:Another Thief ability, which has a 15-minute recast timer, Mug lets you steal gil straight from your opponent's pockets, assuming it's of a type that carries gil. Mostly this is restricted to Beastmen, though certain NMs carry gil as well.
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