Red Mage DPS Rotation, Openers, and Abilities — Endwalker 6.55

Last updated on Jan 20, 2024 at 05:53 by Argen 1 comment

On this page, you will learn how to optimise your opener and rotation in both single-target and multi-target situations. We also cover the use of your cooldowns, to ensure you can achieve the best use of them every time as a Red Mage DPS in Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker (Patch 6.55).

1.

Red Mage Rotation Guide

This page covers the endgame rotation for Red Mage. The base rotation for Red Mage is fairly straightforward, but it also has a lot of flexibility. As a resource-based job, your goal on Red Mage is to spend resources to put as much damage into buff windows as possible.

A video of basic Red Mage rotation principles being done can be found below:

2.

Casting Phase

The casting phase will revolve around casting short spells to proc Dualcast Icon Dualcast and then instantly casting long spells. Verthunder III Icon Verthunder III and Veraero III Icon Veraero III are your single-target long cast spells and should never be hardcasted outside of the opener. Jolt II Icon Jolt II, Verfire Icon Verfire, and Verstone Icon Verstone are your short cast spells you will be hardcasting throughout a fight. Jolt II Icon Jolt II is always available, while Verfire Icon Verfire and Verstone Icon Verstone have a 50% chance to become available after using Verthunder III Icon Verthunder III and Veraero III Icon Veraero III, respectively.

A dualcast pair should look like this:

  1. Verfire Icon Verfire or Verstone Icon Verstone. If neither are available, use Jolt II Icon Jolt II
  2. Verthunder III Icon Verthunder III or Veraero III Icon Veraero III

You should alternate spell casts to build both Black Mana and White Mana while keeping the difference lower than 30. Prioritize picking your long cast spell based on what proc you do not have available to minimize the amount of times you must cast Jolt II Icon Jolt II throughout a fight.

If there is downtime during a fight, Vercure Icon Vercure can be used to proc Dualcast Icon Dualcast and begin the next phase with an instant long cast spell.

3.

Melee Combo

Your melee combo costs 50 Black Mana and 50 White Mana. Once you have enough to execute a combo, your rotation will look like this:

  1. Enchanted Riposte Icon Enchanted Riposte
  2. Enchanted Zwerchhau Icon Enchanted Zwerchhau
  3. Enchanted Redoublement Icon Enchanted Redoublement
  4. Verholy Icon Verholy or Verflare Icon Verflare
  5. Scorch Icon Scorch
  6. Resolution Icon Resolution

Because a melee combo costs 50 Black and White Mana, and you can store up to 100 Black and White Mana, your melee combo is flexible and does not have to be used immediately. This allows you to take advantage of your melee combo to use it for mobility or to put more damage into buffs, which will be explained further below.

4.

Damage Off-Global Cooldowns

One of the strongest parts of Red Mage's damage is its off-global cooldowns. Fleche Icon Fleche, Contre Sixte Icon Contre Sixte, Corps-a-corps Icon Corps-a-corps, Engagement Icon Engagement, and Displacement Icon Displacement are all oGCDs that should be used as much as possible to maximize damage throughout a fight.

Fleche Icon Fleche and Contre Sixte Icon Contre Sixte should both be used on cooldown after the opener to keep their cooldown timer rolling. Because the cooldown on both of these is relatively short, it is easy to lose a usage of each through a fight or phase, hindering your overall damage.

Corps-a-corps Icon Corps-a-corps, Engagement Icon Engagement, and Displacement Icon Displacement should also be used as much as possible to keep their cooldown timer rolling, but these abilities are more flexible due to having two charges. Corps-a-corps Icon Corps-a-corps will cause you to jump to the boss, which can be taken advantage of when needed in addition to the damage it does. Engagement Icon Engagement and Displacement Icon Displacement both have equal potency and share a cooldown timer, so you will primarily be using Engagement Icon Engagement.

The order in which damaging oGCDs should be prioritized is as follows:

  1. Fleche Icon Fleche
  2. Contre Sixte Icon Contre Sixte
  3. Engagement Icon Engagement or Displacement Icon Displacement
  4. Corps-a-corps Icon Corps-a-corps
5.

Other Off-Global Cooldowns

Other off-global cooldowns Red Mage has as a part of its DPS rotation are Embolden Icon Embolden, Manafication Icon Manafication, Acceleration Icon Acceleration, and Swiftcast Icon Swiftcast.

Embolden Icon Embolden is a raidwide 5% party buff that lasts for 20 seconds. It should be used on cooldown to align with other party buffs unless the full group is holding buffs for a specific purpose.

Manafication Icon Manafication gives you enough mana to execute a full melee combo and a 5% damage buff on your next six GCDs used. This means that we should always use Manafication Icon Manafication either before or during a melee combo to align our finishers and the 5% damage boost. While using Manafication Icon Manafication will break any existing combos, the game considers the melee part of our combo and our finishers to be two separate combos, meaning we can use Manafication Icon Manafication in between Enchanted Redoublement Icon Enchanted Redoublement and Verholy Icon Verholy or Verflare Icon Verflare. If being used in between these GCDs, the three buffed GCDs following your finishers can be used on either the start of a second combo or on three normal spell GCDs.

Because Manafication Icon Manafication has a cooldown of 110 seconds, this means using it on cooldown will drift it out of raid buffs. What is optimal will be fight dependent and killtime dependent. In fights where rushing Manafication Icon Manafication will allow you to gain an extra usage, this will be optimal. However, in fights where your killtime will not gain you an extra usage, Manafication Icon Manafication can be held for ten seconds every buff window to align with Embolden Icon Embolden and other party buffs.

Swiftcast Icon Swiftcast is a role action that causes your next GCD to be cast instantly. Acceleration Icon Acceleration is a Red Mage-specific ability that is functionally similar to Swiftcast Icon Swiftcast, but it has two charges and also guarantees a proc. Acceleration Icon Acceleration can only be used on Verthunder III Icon Verthunder III, Veraero III Icon Veraero III, and Impact Icon Impact, but these abilities should only ever be used on these spells for damage purposes anyway.

These abilities have two primary functions:

  1. Keeping uptime when you are moving and cannot stop for a cast
  2. Keeping your other oGCDs aligned

The most important way to use these abilities is to use them when you need to in order to keep uptime during movement-heavy mechanics. Keeping your GCD rolling is the most important basic of playing Red Mage, and these abilities enable you to do so even when executing tough mechanics.

The second way to use these abilities is to keep your other oGCDs aligned, primarily Fleche Icon Fleche, Contre Sixte Icon Contre Sixte, Embolden Icon Embolden, and Manafication Icon Manafication. A short explanation of this is that each of these ability cooldowns is a multiple of five seconds, and each of our dualcast pairs takes five seconds, meaning our oGCDs will become available to use again during an instant cast GCD each time. Our melee combo, however, takes around 12.7 seconds to execute, meaning our dualcast windows become swapped with each use. This will cause our oGCDs to come off cooldown during a hardcast and drift, which will add up over time and cause lost usages. Because Swiftcast Icon Swiftcast and Acceleration Icon Acceleration occupy a single 2.5 second GCD window, they achieve the same result of swapping our dualcast windows. This means we can use them to our advantage by using one before or after a melee combo to keep our dualcast windows aligned with our oGCD cooldowns.

A short video demonstration of this concept with timestamps can be found here:

6.

Opener

This is a general purpose opener that can be used for the majority of encounters. In specific fights where phasing requires you to use any oGCDs earlier to gain a use, this opener can be altered slightly to fit your needs.

  1. Precast Verthunder III Icon Verthunder III at five seconds
  2. Veraero III Icon Veraero IIISwiftcast Icon Swiftcast + Acceleration Icon Acceleration
  3. Verthunder III Icon Verthunder III → Potion
  4. Verthunder III Icon Verthunder IIIEmbolden Icon Embolden + Manafication Icon Manafication
  5. Enchanted Riposte Icon Enchanted RiposteFleche Icon Fleche
  6. Enchanted Zwerchhau Icon Enchanted ZwerchhauContre Sixte Icon Contre Sixte
  7. Enchanted Redoublement Icon Enchanted RedoublementCorps-a-corps Icon Corps-a-corps + Engagement Icon Engagement
  8. Verholy Icon VerholyCorps-a-corps Icon Corps-a-corps + Engagement Icon Engagement
  9. Scorch Icon Scorch
  10. Resolution Icon Resolution
  11. Verfire Icon Verfire
  12. Verthunder III Icon Verthunder III
  13. Verstone Icon Verstone
  14. Veraero III Icon Veraero III
  15. Jolt II Icon Jolt II
  16. Verthunder III Icon Verthunder IIIFleche Icon Fleche
7.

Playing into Buffs and Potion

The flexibility of Red Mage's melee combo allows you to play into buffs efficiently. Keeping Embolden Icon Embolden aligned with other party buffs will allow you to maximize your damage during buff windows. Your basic goal is to fit one melee combo into every buff window. If you do not need an extra melee combo elsewhere for mobility, it is also possible to fit an extra three finishers into 20-second buffs, including your own Embolden Icon Embolden every buff window. To accomplish this, you must have a minimum mana count of 92|81, or have enough for a full melee combo and Manafication Icon Manafication if you are not using it on cooldown. Begin your first melee combo five seconds before Embolden Icon Embolden comes off cooldown, and weave Embolden Icon Embolden after Enchanted Redoublement Icon Enchanted Redoublement. By doing this, you will be able to fit the following into buffs:

  1. Verholy Icon Verholy or Verflare Icon Verflare
  2. Scorch Icon Scorch
  3. Resolution Icon Resolution
  4. Enchanted Riposte Icon Enchanted Riposte
  5. Enchanted Zwerchhau Icon Enchanted Zwerchhau
  6. Enchanted Redoublement Icon Enchanted Redoublement
  7. Verholy Icon Verholy or Verflare Icon Verflare
  8. Scorch Icon Scorch
  9. Resolution Icon Resolution

Keep in mind that while Embolden Icon Embolden only affects our personal magical damage and therefore does not affect our oGCDs, our oGCDs are still buffed by other party buffs. Therefore, it is ideal to fit at least one charge of Corps-a-corps Icon Corps-a-corps and Engagement Icon Engagement into buff windows when possible. If unable to start a melee combo five seconds before buffs, doing so one second before buffs and using Embolden after Enchanted Riposte is also acceptable.

For our potion window, our priority is to fit two full melee combos under a potion. If holding Manafication Icon Manafication for each buff window, it is possible to fit three uses of Scorch Icon Scorch and Resolution Icon Resolution into a potion for a small potency gain. To do this, you must have 73|73 mana and Manafication Icon Manafication available for use. Start your first melee combo when there is around 17 seconds left on the cooldown for Embolden Icon Embolden, and use a potion after your first Verholy Icon Verholy or Verflare Icon Verflare. An ideal potion using this method would look like this:

  1. Scorch Icon Scorch
  2. Resolution Icon Resolution
  3. Enchanted Riposte Icon Enchanted Riposte
  4. Enchanted Zwerchhau Icon Enchanted Zwerchhau
  5. Enchanted Redoublement Icon Enchanted RedoublementEmbolden Icon Embolden + Manafication Icon Manafication
  6. Verholy Icon Verholy or Verflare Icon Verflare
  7. Scorch Icon Scorch
  8. Resolution Icon Resolution
  9. Enchanted Riposte Icon Enchanted Riposte
  10. Enchanted Zwerchhau Icon Enchanted Zwerchhau
  11. Enchanted Redoublement Icon Enchanted Redoublement
  12. Verholy Icon Verholy or Verflare Icon Verflare
  13. Scorch Icon Scorch
  14. Resolution Icon Resolution
8.

Multi-Target Rotation

The multi-target rotation is very similar to the single target rotation, with some changes to the abilities used.

8.1.

Two Targets

  • Hardcast Verfire Icon Verfire, Verstone Icon Verstone, or Jolt II Icon Jolt II
  • Dualcast Impact Icon Impact
  • Use single target melee combo
8.2.

Three or More Targets

  • Hardcast Verthunder II Icon Verthunder II or Veraero II Icon Veraero II
  • Use Impact Icon Impact
  • Use Enchanted Moulinet Icon Enchanted Moulinet x3 for melee combo
9.

Changelog

  • 20 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 6.55.
  • 05 Oct. 2023: Updated for Patch 6.5.
  • 28 May 2023: Updated for Patch 6.4.
  • 14 Jan. 2023: Updated for Patch 6.3.
  • 20 Apr. 2022: Updated for Patch 6.1.
  • 14 Feb. 2022: Guide added.
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