Red Mage Guide — Endwalker 6.3
Red Mage is a magical ranged DPS job in Final Fantasy XIV that casts spells to generate mana that they channel into their rapier to unleash powerful melee combos with strong finisher spells. Red Mage can be unlocked in Ul'dah after reaching level 50 and owning the Stormblood expansion.
What is Red Mage's Playstyle?
Red Mage is a magical DPS that primarily does damage by casting spells to build up its Black and White Mana gauges to 50|50, and then spends that mana to use an enchanted melee combo with powerful finisher spells. Compared to other DPS jobs, Red Mage stands out for its excellent utility which includes unique party buffs and clutch recovery spells.
In its casting phase, Red Mage takes advantage of its
trait Dualcast, which makes every other spell an instant cast and grants
Red Mage unique mobility in between casts. Upon building enough Black and White Mana,
Red Mage will spend these resources doing a melee combo comprised of three melee abilities
followed by three strong instant-cast finisher spells. The core of Red Mage gameplay is
maximizing the number of melee combos you do in a fight while properly utilizing these
combos for their mobility and more damage under raid buffs.
Red Mage has access to Embolden, a strong raidwide party damage buff.
In addition to this, Red Mage also has plenty of non-damage utility capabilities, such as
Magick Barrier, its raidwide party mitigation and healing buff. It
can also use
Verraise to assist healers with raises in relevant situations,
in addition to
Vercure, which Red Mage can use during downtime or
in progression scenarios to help keep itself and its party alive.
Red Mage is an intuitive job that is easy to learn and great for beginners, but it also has a high level of optimization available for people who enjoy a higher skill ceiling.
Red Mage Strengths and Weaknesses
Intuitive rotation makes it simple to pick up.
Excellent party support abilities.
Flexible burst timings.
Somewhat restrictive movement that requires planning for certain raid mechanics and melee combos.
Requires a strong party to output maximum damage.
How do you Unlock Red Mage?
Red Mage can be unlocked once you have reached level 50 with a Disciple of War or Magic job and have access to the Stormblood expansion. Once you meet these requirements, the quest to unlock the job, "Taking the Red," can be found in Ul'dah in the Steps of Thal (x:14,2, y:11,8). Completing this quest will reward you with the Red Mage job stone, and you will begin as a level 50 Red Mage.
Red Mage Gauge
The Balance Gauge displays your current levels of Black Mana and White Mana.

During your casting phase, you generate Black Mana by casting Verthunder III,
Verfire, or
Verthunder II. White Mana is generated
by casting
Veraero III,
Verstone, or
Veraero II.
Casting
Jolt II or
Impact will generate both Black
and White Mana. While casting these spells, you must keep the amount of Black Mana and White Mana
within 30 of each other, signified by the red crystal at the top of the gauge. If your
mana becomes unbalanced, the crystal will change color, and you will begin to generate
the lower mana at half of the normal rate.
Once you have accumulated 50 Black Mana and 50 White Mana, you can begin your melee combo.
Your melee combo begins with three weaponskills: Enchanted Riposte,
Enchanted Zwerchhau, and
Enchanted Redoublement. Each of
these weaponskills consume Black and White Mana and give you a Mana Stack, shown at the
bottom of the job gauge. Once you have three Mana Stacks, you can use your finishers:
Verflare or
Verholy,
Scorch,
and
Resolution. Casting
Verflare generates Black Mana,
and casting
Verholy generates White Mana. Casting
Scorch
and
Resolution generates both Black and White Mana.
Red Mage Video Resources
If you would prefer to watch a video that provides an overview of Red Mage, feel free to give the video below a watch. The video was provided by Julia Care, a member of the community on The Balance Discord server.
Red Mage Actions
Action Name |
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Effect |
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Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 280. Additional Effect: Grants a Mana Stack Balance Gauge Cost: 20 Black Mana Balance Gauge Cost: 20 White Mana ※This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar. |
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Delivers an attack with a potency of 130. Action upgraded to Enchanted Riposte if both Black Mana and White Mana are at 20 or more. |
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MP Cost: 200.0 Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 170. Additional Effect: Increases both Black Mana and White Mana by 2 |
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MP Cost: 300.0 Deals lightning damage with a potency of 360. Additional Effect: Increases Black Mana by 6 Additional Effect: 50% chance of becoming Verfire Ready Duration: 30s |
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Rushes target and delivers an attack with a potency of 130. Maximum Charges: 2 Cannot be executed while bound. |
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MP Cost: 300.0 Deals wind damage with a potency of 360. Additional Effect: Increases White Mana by 6 Additional Effect: 50% chance of becoming Verstone Ready Duration: 30s |
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MP Cost: 400.0 Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 120 to target and all enemies nearby it. Acceleration Potency: 170 Additional Effect: Increases both Black Mana and White Mana by 3 |
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MP Cost: 400.0 Deals lightning damage with a potency of 140 to target and all enemies nearby it. Additional Effect: Increases Black Mana by 7 |
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MP Cost: 400.0 Deals wind damage with a potency of 140 to target and all enemies nearby it. Additional Effect: Increases White Mana by 7 |
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MP Cost: 200.0 Deals fire damage with a potency of 330. Additional Effect: Increases Black Mana by 5 Can only be executed while Verfire Ready is active. |
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MP Cost: 200.0 Deals earth damage with a potency of 330. Additional Effect: Increases White Mana by 5 Can only be executed while Verstone Ready is active. |
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Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 150. Combo Action: Riposte or Enchanted Riposte Combo Potency: 340 Additional Effect: Grants a Mana Stack Balance Gauge Cost: 15 Black Mana Balance Gauge Cost: 15 White Mana ※This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar. |
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Delivers an attack with a potency of 100. Combo Action: Riposte or Enchanted Riposte Combo Potency: 150 Action upgraded to Enchanted Zwerchhau if both Black Mana and White Mana are at 15 or more. |
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Delivers an attack with a potency of 180. Additional Effect: 15-yalm backstep Maximum Charges: 2 Cannot be executed while bound. Shares a recast timer with Engagement. |
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Delivers an attack with a potency of 180. Maximum Charges: 2 Shares a recast timer with Displacement. |
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Delivers an attack with a potency of 460. |
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Ensures the next Verthunder III, Veraero III, or Impact can be cast immediately. Duration: 20s Additional Effect: Increases the potency of Impact by 50 Additional Effect: Ensures Verthunder III and Veraero III trigger Verfire Ready or Verstone Ready respectively Maximum Charges: 2 |
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Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 130. Combo Action: Enchanted Zwerchhau Combo Potency: 500 Additional Effect: Grants a Mana Stack Balance Gauge Cost: 15 Black Mana Balance Gauge Cost: 15 White Mana ※This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar. |
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Delivers an attack with a potency of 100. Combo Action: Zwerchhau or Enchanted Zwerchhau Combo Potency: 230 Action upgraded to Enchanted Redoublement if both Black Mana and White Mana are at 15 or more. |
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Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 130 to all enemies in a cone before you. Additional Effect: Grants a Mana Stack Balance Gauge Cost: 20 Black Mana Balance Gauge Cost: 20 White Mana ※This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar. |
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Delivers an attack with a potency of 60 to all enemies in a cone before you. Action upgraded to Enchanted Moulinet if both Black Mana and White Mana are at 20 or more. |
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MP Cost: 500.0 Restores target's HP. Cure Potency: 350 |
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Delivers an attack with a potency of 360 to target and all enemies nearby it. |
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Increases own magic damage dealt by 5% and damage dealt by nearby party members by 5%. Duration: 20s |
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Increases both Black Mana and White Mana by 50. Additional Effect: Grants 6 stacks of Manafication Manafication Effect: Increases magic damage dealt by 5% Duration: 15s All combos are canceled upon execution of Manafication. Can only be executed while in combat. |
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MP Cost: 200.0 Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 310. Additional Effect: Increases both Black Mana and White Mana by 2 |
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MP Cost: 2400.0 Resurrects target to a weakened state. |
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MP Cost: 400.0 Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 210 to target and all enemies nearby it. Acceleration Potency: 260 Additional Effect: Increases both Black Mana and White Mana by 3 |
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Deals fire damage to target and all enemies nearby it with a potency of 580 for the first enemy, and 60% less for all remaining enemies. Additional Effect: Increases Black Mana by 11 Additional Effect: 20% chance of becoming Verfire Ready Duration: 30s Chance to become Verfire Ready increases to 100% if White Mana is higher than Black Mana at time of execution. Mana Stack Cost: 3 ※This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar. |
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Deals unaspected damage to target and all enemies nearby it with a potency of 580 for the first enemy, and 60% less for all remaining enemies. Additional Effect: Increases White Mana by 11 Additional Effect: 20% chance of becoming Verstone Ready Duration: 30s Chance to become Verstone Ready increases to 100% if Black Mana is higher than White Mana at time of execution. Mana Stack Cost: 3 ※This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar. |
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Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 330. Balance Gauge Cost: 5 Black Mana Balance Gauge Cost: 5 White Mana ※This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar. |
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Delivers an attack with a potency of 100. Action upgraded to Enchanted Reprise if both Black Mana and White Mana are at 5 or more. |
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MP Cost: 400.0 Deals unaspected damage to target and all enemies nearby it with a potency of 680 for the first enemy, and 60% less for all remaining enemies. Combo Action: Verflare or Verholy Additional Effect: Increases both Black Mana and White Mana by 4 Jolt II and Impact are changed to Scorch upon landing Verflare or Verholy as a combo action. ※This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar. |
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MP Cost: 300.0 Deals wind damage with a potency of 380. Additional Effect: Increases White Mana by 6 Additional Effect: 50% chance of becoming Verstone Ready Duration: 30s |
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MP Cost: 300.0 Deals lightning damage with a potency of 380. Additional Effect: Increases Black Mana by 6 Additional Effect: 50% chance of becoming Verfire Ready Duration: 30s |
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Reduces magic damage taken by self and nearby party members by 10%, while increasing HP recovered by healing actions by 5%. Duration: 10s |
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MP Cost: 400.0 Deals unaspected damage to all enemies in a straight line before you with a potency of 750 for the first enemy, and 60% less for all remaining enemies. Combo Action: Scorch Additional Effect: Increases both Black Mana and White Mana by 4 Scorch is changed to Resolution upon landing Scorch as a combo action. ※This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar. |
Role Actions
Action Name |
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Effect |
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Lowers target's physical damage dealt by 5% and magic damage dealt by 10%. Duration: 10s |
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MP Cost: 800.0 Puts target and all nearby enemies to sleep. Duration: 30s Cancels auto-attack upon execution. |
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Gradually restores own MP. Potency: 55 Duration: 21s |
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Next spell is cast immediately. Duration: 10s |
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Spells can be cast without interruption. Additional Effect: Nullifies most knockback and draw-in effects Duration: 6s |
Red Mage Traits
Action Name | Acquired | Effect |
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Lv. 1 |
Grants the effect of Dualcast upon casting any spell with a cast time. While under the effect of Dualcast, your next spell will require no time to cast. Effect is canceled upon execution of any action other than an ability. Auto-attacks do not cancel effect. Duration: 15s |
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Lv. 20 |
Increases base action damage and HP restoration by 10%. |
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Lv. 40 |
Increases base action damage and HP restoration by 30%. |
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Lv. 62 |
Upgrades Jolt to Jolt II. Also increases the potency of Verthunder and Veraero to 360, and the potency of Verfire and Verstone to 300. |
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Lv. 66 |
Upgrades Scatter to Impact. |
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Lv. 68 |
Adds a Mana Stack to your Balance Gauge upon landing Enchanted Riposte, Enchanted Zwerchhau, Enchanted Redoublement, or Enchanted Moulinet, up to a maximum of 3. Upon gaining 3 Mana Stacks, Verthunder and Verthunder II are upgraded to Verflare. Upon learning Verholy, gaining 3 Mana Stacks also upgrades Veraero and Veraero II to Verholy. |
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Lv. 72 |
Increases Displacement and Engagement potency to 180. |
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Lv. 74 |
Reduces Contre Sixte recast timer to 35 seconds and increases the potency of both Verthunder II and Veraero II to 120. |
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Lv. 78 |
Reduces Manafication recast timer to 110 seconds and adds an additional effect that increases magic damage dealt by 5%. |
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Lv. 82 |
Upgrades Verthunder to Verthunder III and Veraero to Veraero III. Upon gaining 3 Mana Stacks, Verthunder III is upgraded to Verflare and Veraero III is upgraded to Verholy. |
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Lv. 84 |
Increases the potency of Enchanted Riposte to 280, Verthunder II to 140, Veraero II to 140, Verfire to 330, Verstone to 330, Enchanted Zwerchhau to 150, Enchanted Redoublement to 130, Jolt II to 310, Impact to 210, and Enchanted Reprise to 330. |
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Lv. 88 |
Allows the accumulation of charges for consecutive uses of Acceleration. Maximum Charges: 2 |
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Lv. 90 |
Increases maximum stacks of Manafication to 6. |
Red Mage Lore
On the eastern edge of Abalathia's Spine lies the mountainous region of Gyr Abania.
It is in these elevated lands that people took shelter, when a burning star guided them away from the Sixth Umbral Calamity's treacherous floodwaters. The survivors gathered from near and far, and amongst them were refugees of the sorcerous cities of Mhach and Amdapor.
These sworn enemies buried their history for the sake of the future, and cast aside their vestments of black and white. Upon the remnants of their arts a new discipline was built, and the first red mages stepped forward with rapiers in hand to fight back against the rising tides of destruction.
Changelog
- 14 Jan. 2023 (how to improve page): Updated for Patch 6.3
- 14 Jan. 2023 (rotation page): Updated for Patch 6.3
- 14 Jan. 2023 (Leveling page): Updated for Patch 6.3
- 14 Jan. 2023 (gear page): Updated for Patch 6.3
- 14 Jan. 2023 (melding page): Updated for Patch 6.3
- 14 Jan. 2023 (this page): Updated for Patch 6.3
- 20 Apr. 2022 (Asphodelos page): Updated for Patch 6.1
- 20 Apr. 2022 (how to improve page): Updated for Patch 6.1
- 20 Apr. 2022 (rotation page): Updated for Patch 6.1
- 20 Apr. 2022 (gear page): Updated for Patch 6.1
- 20 Apr. 2022 (melding page): Updated for Patch 6.1
- 20 Apr. 2022 (this page): Updated for Patch 6.1
- 03 Apr. 2022 (Leveling page): Guide added.
- 31 Mar. 2022 (Asphodelos page): Guide added.
- 15 Feb. 2022 (how to improve page): Guide added.
- 14 Feb. 2022 (rotation page): Guide added.
- 14 Feb. 2022 (gear page): Guide added.
- 14 Feb. 2022 (melding page): Guide added.
- 14 Feb. 2022 (this page): Guide added.
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been cowritten by Lana White and Argen Yin.
Lana is a Red Mage theorycrafter and began playing in early Stormblood. He has played Red Mage since hitting level 50 and unlocking the job and began raiding during Eden’s Gate in Shadowbringers. He became a mentor and guide writer for the Balance during Eden’s Verse, where he can be found hanging out and answering questions in the Red Mage channels. Lana occasionally streams raid on his Twitch account, and often posts fight videos and other helpful content on his Youtube channel.
Argen has been playing since Alphascape, but got involved in higher-end raiding during Eden’s Verse, where he helped the community learn about Red Mage’s often overlooked optimization potential. He has been blessed by enough RNG to achieve top 10 rankings in multiple raids, become a Red Mage mentor at the Balance discord, and not get forced to play another job in any of his statics. Argen can also be found in Elemental DC party finder or on his Youtube channel.
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