Subs and Gil

First I'd like to wish Jixxi the best of luck in their Maat fight. Thank you for the comment, I'm glad you liked my guide. I hope you don't let Maat get to you. I know he nearly made me re-think my job choice several times. Infact I know some on our server who never did beat RDM Maat fight and ended up leveling another job. I know a few that are 0/22 on him as well lol. Eventually you'll beat him and when you do, you'll end up laughing and wondering why you never beat him before. Really hes just a cheating old man who can have a /mnk sub, use back to back weaponskills, and even when he does use chainspell half the time he wants to chainspell bio over and over. And you'll feel pretty good about yourself once you do beat him. And when you do win know that you won one the hardest Maat fights in the game.

Speaking of that, I hear that the BLU LB5 is pretty evil too. Someone told me that the guy you fight pretty much has a verison of chainspell on him at all times. Sounds like fun!

So lately my goal has been to get my subs finished. I've been trying to level RDM up as well, im currently at 71, but it takes almost forever to get leveled! Almost makes you wish for the levels where it took only 5k XP to get to your next level. Now it takes 40k. And then you got to add in the fail parties you get, deaths, and whatever else comes and at some points your ready to beat your head against a wall. But atleast you know you earned your level when you get it. And that your ready to stab the person who may get you killed and cause you to delevel. Anyways I finally got both WHM and BLM to 37 and im glad to be done with both of those. Next on my list is to get NIN finished, then SCH, and finally DRK. Though im wondering if RDM/DRK is as needed now thesedays. I know Chainspell Stun comes in handy but lately it seems that people don't want a chainspell stunner anymore. Or maybe its just RDMs don't bother leveling DRK and people work around it lol. Either way I'm working on trying to get all my subs ready before I hit 75.

Speaking of fail parties, I had one the other day. Seriously I understand that when your trying to setup a party sometimes its hard to find the job classes you want. But im my case I always kept searching for something similar, I'd ask my friends or LS mates, and even ask non-seeking people if I have to. I've never tried to get mutiples of one job class and just hope for the best. Now in some situations I could see that working. But why...why for the sake of Altana would you want to invite 3 RDMs to a party. What are we going to do, take turns with Refresh? Its silly. You can't tell me they couldn't find a single SMN, SCH, BRD, WHM, COR, BLU, DNC, or whatever seeking? 1 RDM is enough for main heal in most 60+ parties. I know that for a fact because thats what I end up doing every 60+ invite I get. I main heal, we usually have a brd or a cor, and the rest is your DD and tank. So why would you ever want to get 3 RDMs is beyond me. And the worst part was the guy tried to say he couldn't find anybody. Funny thing is after I disbanded from that failure, I was able to setup my own party from the people seeking and had absoutely no problem finding people. If you can't find the job you want, settling for less is good somedays, but mutiple RDMs is just fail.

So lately I've been doing sky runs with Mini Mart. Which by the way if your in the need of a good social friendly LS on Shiva then just give me a /tell and I'll try and get you a pearl. This LS is always doing something, missions or quests, NMs, BCNMS, and now they have a seperate LS for endgame stuff. So as I said I've been going with them for Sky and im actually enjoying it. Sadly though SE wasn't very much in the gift giving mood when it came to RDM Sky Drops. Some of the stuff is nice but isn't anything I'd /drool over. We've mainly been doing Genbu and Suzaku. We tried Byakko awhile back but we weren't quite ready for that yet. So far im the only RDM that goes up there. There are 2 others that occasionally show up, and of course most the people who go up there have a RDM 75 (which they've retired), but right now im the only one who usually goes up there most the time. Its an interesting learning experience in going after the gods. By the way am I the only one who finds it weird that Suzaku is considered a RDM/BLM type mob, but most of his drops are not really anything a RDM would want....

Anyways so its been fun going up there with MM for sky. The guys really make that LS feel like family, and their always joking and cracking up on vent. So far I figure I'll go for getting Genbu's shield and the Zenith Mitts Abjuration. My first time at Genbu I had no points and so I couldn't lot on the mitts, but the Shield went for free lot. Woot! Except for the fact that im a failure at lotting apparently lol. Which is okay because since that shield always goes free lot im sure to get it at some point. The 2nd time we went after him he was stingy though which made me sad because I had points to spend. So here's hoping hes a little more in the giving mood the next time we're after him.

And now for the other half of what I've been working on. I'm trying to find something decent to farm. I usually prefer farming stuff I can NPC over AH, unless its something that AH for a decent amount and sells pretty fast. So lately I've been testing out different farming ideas I have found from ffxifarming.blogspot.com. Some of them work, but the others aren't good anymore thanks to all the updates NPC prices. It makes me kind of sad that all the things I really want to try farming require a 75 job to do it decently. Or atleast a very kind THF friend to tag along with you. And being RDM with a gimp THF sub isn't fun lol. Lately though I've gained a new respect for THF. I use to just think of them as some silly job that used daggers. But after watching a few THF friends kick some mobs asses where others would go down, im starting to respect them more and more. And im actually considering taking it to 75 myself. Mithra THFs are just plain awesome anyways. So anyways im going to keep trying to find something thats worth farming so I can share with you guys. If you have any suggestions feel free to leave it in a comment in my blog and I'll test it out.

Well time for me to end this rambling blog. I have to head to work soon to farm for irl gil. Too bad I couldn't just camp a NM in RL and sell their drop lol.

p.s. I've been trying to find a decent sized picture of Shikaree Y for my boyfriend. I need something thats 500 x 500 pixels or bigger. We want to make a background out of her picture, but the only picture we could find online was barely 400 x 300 which was too small for what we needed. If anyone has a good picture of her, or can get me one I'd greatly appreciate it. If not her, if you know of a NPC thats a female DRK let me know. Thanks!

~Nindo

Red Mage Maat Fight - 1/8

*Keep in mind this is just merely a guide that worked for me. Each RDM may find their own way that works and I wish them the best of luck!*

Tips:

• First off before you go in make sure you have at least Enfeebling capped. I'd highly recommend also capping Dark, Elemental, and Enhancing as well but thats up to you. In this fight you'll need all the help you can get.
• I suggest going in at 70 since once again you need all the help you can get from your magic skills.
  
• Setup your macros and practice them before going in. My first mistake on the first fight was never practicing them. I went in and freaked out and couldn't figure out where any of them were at. Also make sure to check that you did them correctly xD. 2nd mistake was I forgot to check and my Sleep II macro didn't work.
• I recommend practicing on the Ruby Quadav. Now keep in mind the fight with him and the fight with Maat will be entirely different in some ways. You're expected to silence Ruby, where you can't with Maat. Theres also no time limit and you can use a sub job. But nonetheless its a chance to practice and understand the sleep/nuke method. It also helps to learn your timing in spells. Basically all your doing is going in, putting on Stoneskin, Blink, Phalanx, and Refresh. Then you cast on Ruby Quadav, and run near the zone because more than likely you'll link the other 2 in that area. If so just sleep Ruby near the zone and then run through. When you go back, he'll be there and the others will either go back to the area they were in or will have disappeared. Either way as long as you keep Ruby in the hallway your safe from aggro. Now you silence him, bind him, paralyze, nuke, and sleep. And just repeat that process over and over. Once you get the hang of it you'll finally be able to understand the sleep / nuke method. And best part about practicing on Ruby is that you get a chance of a Testimony dropping!
• When going to fight Maat you have a choice between 2 days that will benefit you the most during your fight. Now you can go any day you want, and I know some who have and won. But going on Darksday or Windsday can improve your chances a little. Darksday will effect your sleeps more, giving you a better chance of having them not resisted. Windsday will improve your Nukes and Gravity more. I won on a Windsday.
• If you have sky access, have a 75 friend (THF helps) go up there to kill Sprinklers for you. They practly hand you testimonies.
  

Macros:
These are the macros I went with that worked for me best.
Light Staff Macro, Wind Staff Macro, Dispel, Bind, Paralyze, Aero 3, Slow, Stoneskin, Sleep, Sleep II

Stone Staff Macro, Blink, Chainspell, Convert, Dark Staff, and Gravity

Each the spells above I made sure had a staff to go with them. And I made seperate staff macros so I could switch out to rest or cure myself.

Items:
Now the items you choose to use are up to you. I tried various items each of my fights and had some amount of success with each. For the most part I used Melon Pies +1, but I also tried out Apple Pies +1, and a Cream Puff. Both worked well for me. I also tried out various potions. Each worked but problem I had with ones like Hi-Elixirs where that they take too long to use. In the time your waiting for it to work, Maat could wake up and hit you. So in the end I went with an Vile Elixir +1. Its 30k on my server, but it was well worth it. Also Intelligence Potions are handy and relatively cheap. Yagudo Drinks are useful, but keep in mind they don't stack with your Refresh spell and only last a minute.

Equipment:
Ice Staff, Wind Staff, Earth Staff, Light Staff, Dark Staff (Using HQ Staves can help especially the Wind and Ice)
Raptor Leather Strap +1
Phantom Tathlum
Warlock's Chapeau
Enfeebling Torque
Moldavite Earring
Phantom Earring
Warlock's Tabard
Cobra Unit Cuffs
Genius Ring
Hale Ring
Red Cape +1
Penitent's Rope
Warlock's Tights
River Gaiters

How to beat up an evil old man:

Now first I want to say before you start this fight, don't worry if you lose. If you do, that doesn't make you a bad RDM. It took me 8 attempts before I finally won. And out of those fights 4 of them he killed me so fast that I didn't even have time to blink. As I said before, practice with your macros and try and go in as calm as possible. Also, tell your LS buds and all your friends your doing this, just because their support will help during the fight. If it wasn't for my friends I'd given up on the fight after the 5th death. I had good friend's that backed me up and kept me cheered up and gave me a reason to keep going and trying.

Now, before going into the actually area of the fight you can go ahead and eat your food. All other buffs will disappear when you trade your testimony, but your food wont. As soon as you go in, run up to the edge where you can see him buff. He wont attack you or aggro so your safe to stand and buff near him. While watching him, cast refresh, stoneskin, blink, and phalanx. It's important to see what buffs he puts on. Now your more than welcome to sleep him and then buff, but my reason for never trying was the fear that if he had blink on, or just resisted my sleeps then I'd be without any buffs to keep me from dying. If he does have blink on, just cast something quick like Fire til its off. Never use any DoT's such as Dia. Also never use silence on him. The last thing you want is Maat to spend most the fight chasing you down trying to melee you. Also make sure to keep a good amount of distance between the 2 of you during this process as if he does wake up it gives you time to re-apply any spells. After you sleep him, make sure above all else to dispel off his Shell 3, Stoneskin, and Phalanx. Those 3 are the most important spells you don't want him having. Now bind him, paralyze him, slow, and gravity as well. If gravity is resisted thats fine, as long as you make sure before nuking that hes bound. The spell has been changed so there is a chance when nuking him that he will become unbound, which is why you need him paralyzed and slowed and hopefully gravity as well. Now throw out Aero 3, and immediatly follow up with a Sleep II. Put back on any buffs if he manage to knock off any and reapply the enfeebles. Repeat the same process 2 more times. Always make sure to keep up blink and stoneskin. On the 3rd time of doing this process make sure you atleast have 200 MP or more. My reason being that Aero 3 costs 106 MP, Sleep II is 29, and Sleep is 19, which totals up to 154 MP and if your sleeps are resisted you need any mp to make sure you can bind him or anything til you can cast sleep again. Also because you'll need some mp left for the next step.

After your 3rd nuke, he should be near 50%. As I said before, make sure hes asleep, bound, and paralyzed. Convert and pop your vile elixir +1 and then throw on a Cure IV. If you have to make sure your buffs are good. Now for the fun part. After your sure all enfeebles are on him and your well buffed, let loose your Chainspell and Aero 3. Now during that process he might become unbound which is why I had my bind macro ready to use and hit if he did. Its also why I had blink and stoneskin macros ready incase he did manage to knock them off I could quickly reapply. You only have to get him down to 15% before he gives in and says just how awesome of a RDM you finally have become.

So congratulations if you did win! You've beaten one the hardest fights in the game. And now you have something worth bragging about to all your friends.

If you didn't don't worry like I said it doesn't make you a bad player. Just try again til you finally get it. Also a tip, make sure to atleast take breaks in between attempts so you don't wear yourself out trying to beat him, or like me wear out your gil and end up near broke lol.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. I hope this guide helps. And good luck to those who attempt Maat!