They can heal, nuke, buff, debuff and deal physical damage. And they can do all of those things pretty darn well. As such, their subjobs often revolve around pushing many of these facets to the forefront, making them excel at one thing in particular. So if you’re playing as a red mage in FFXI, which jobs can allow your fanciful mage to prosper?
5. Black Mage
This job has remained situational since the 75 days, but still an option for a red mage to consider. Red mages are highly famed for their high levels of Fast Cast. This often means they’re one of the most reliable stunners in the game—a spell granted by this particular subjob. There may be a fight where an enemy needs to be effectively locked down with stuns. And red mages will be at the forefront of such a task. That’s where this job combo truly shines, especially with Chainspell. Elemental seal is also incredible for increasing the accuracy of the next debuffing spell cast, often making it land with certainty. In addition to this, red mages also get access to Sleepga, Drain, and Aspir if they go with a blm subjob. Sleepga in particular is great for crowd control. Access to utility black magic such as Tractor, Warp, and Escape are also worth mentioning here. They aren’t used too much nowadays, but each have their own situational advantages.
4. Dancer
Now this is a very popular subjob for dual wielding red mages. This’ll mostly be used by newer players who are in solo situations. But dancer is also used by high levels players at endgame! This combo grants access to some melee utility in the form of steps, and offers 5% job ability Haste thanks to Haste Samba—though Sambas don’t work with en-spells! And this combo also offers some spicy traits to enhance a red mage’s repertoire; Skillchain Damage Bonus has the potential to increase a player’s DPS substantially by the efficient use of skillchains. Plus Accuracy Bonus provides some much needed accuracy, which works well with their Composure accuracy effect. And Subtle Blow to reduce the TP they grant enemies with auto attacks. Waltzes give red mage the capability to heal or AoE heal, which can also be situationally handy to wake the entire party if they’re all put to sleep. Plus since this combo can use TP to heal instead of MP, it also means they aren’t worrying about wasting much on cures, which can whittle away at their MP pools as a fight drags on.
3. White Mage
The white mage subjob is a huge asset to a red mage who’s on backline support. This combo is most predominantly used for Stona, but also has access to all other valuable –Na spells too. They’ll also gain access to Erase to help with the removal of debuffs, and also learn Curaga spells which are mostly used as a way to remove sleep from the whole party at once. Repose is an often underestimated spell, but grants any red mage access to both light and dark elemental sleeps. Repose is massively effective against undead, who would normally shrug off regular Sleep spells. Divine Seal is a situationally useful tool that’ll convert –Na spells into AoE forms, or make the next Cure into something that fully heals the target. But because of its long recast, Divine Seal is often saved for emergencies. Still, good to have.
2. Ninja
A ninja could be subbed by the more advanced damage dealing red mages who are looking to invalidate the damage they receive, instead of just healing it. With the use of Utsusemi shadows, this only lends to a red mage’s already incredibly powerful self-sustaining capabilities. With shadows and buffs like Stoneskin, a monster has to really bite down hard to pierce their defenses. A ninja subjob also offers a red mage the highest level of dual wielding available from a subjob. This can give you some serious auto attack potential, which works well with en-spells; capable of some exemplary damage over the course of a fight. While red mages have access to Blink, it’s not always reliable enough, as the chance to evade attacks isn’t guaranteed. So it subsequently falls to Utsusemi to provide safety by reliability. This subjob is just fantastic, and it’s known to be used by solo red mages in Final Fantasy XI to tackle content that would otherwise take a full party!
1. Scholar
If you’re running a red mage, then scholar will likely be the best subjob in party situations. This is due to its immense capabilities that are only heightened by the red mage themselves. Many red mages in the current meta will be adopting the role of primary debuffer with support and healing capabilities. And this job allows them to quickly fulfill both roles with the use of Light Arts and Dark Arts. With intelligent use of Light Arts and Addendum: White, a red mage is able to keep up with the healing abilities of a white mage, while still subbing a scholar. Moreover, with the use of Accession, they can effectively function as backup healers and supporters. They’re granted access to Erase and all -Na spells with this job combo, except Stona in particular. And they’re even able to use Sublimation for access to a veritable burst of MP, should they need it. Dark Arts and Addendum: Black don’t give red mages many new tools to use, but this does give them access to AoE dark magic such as Drain and Aspir. AoE Aspir can be especially helpful in situations with a ton of enemies, just to fully top off your MP. It’s also worth noting that red mages have a very respectable reputation as offensive casters, and a scholar subjob grants the ability to cast Helix spells – which can deal huge amounts of damage in the form of DoT ticks, if they’re able to magic burst them.
