Red Mage PvP Guide for FFXIV

The Red Mage, although classified as a magical ranged DPS, plays more like a high mobility melee. Red Mage offers a specific set of tools allowing them to be extremely effective at disrupting the battlefield with AoE crowd control chains, combined with single-target damage that goes through Guard and even support tools such as healing, damage reduction and damage buffs.

The job is slippery and hard to kill when played effectively with tools such as Forte (which is a great reactionary tool) and its combined 4 dashes all while being able to contribute significant damage even without going into dangerous positioning.

Red Mage however suffers from issues such as an mediocre limit break along with long-winded animations on certain spells, such as Scorch, which smart opponents can exploit in order to punish the player.

This page will focus solely on Crystalline Conflict, so while portions of it may apply to other PvP game modes, its intended purpose is that of Crystalline Conflict.

Red Mage offers a versatile playstyle with the ability of holding key attacks during a fair amount of time, allowing for the build-up of damaging skills on a target into unloading said burst on another. The job excels in pressuring targets in guard while disrupting the enemy team with debilitating crowd control effects. However, it struggles in killing, especially in targets that aren’t guarding as their damage can easily be recuperate-d off, preventing players from solo killing outside of fringe cases.

Due to this Red Mage plays very well around point and should always be ready to follow burst calls on target due to its unique toolset. In spite of this solo killing issue, Red Mage’s powerful AoE damage kit, featuring both AoE dots with Scorch and an AoE nuke with a small radius AoE heal Prefulgence, allows it to provide massive pressure to burn through resources, defensive and offensive buffs centered around the caster, and effective crowd control to support the team in various combat situations.

Red Mage should primarily be played around point when the player has resources available to them such as Recuperate/Purify/Guard, but can also be played behind enemy lines to disrupt pot attempts while being slippery with its 4 dashes.

Red Mage’s basic skill is Jolt III. This will be your filler attack within your kit, utilising it will grant you the Dualcast buff which for 15 seconds will turn your next Jolt 3 into a Grand Impact. Due to the fact that Grand Impact is tied to a buff it actually works as a “pseudo” combo, allowing you to use other attacks in between without losing it.

Jolt does unremarkable damage at 6000 while Grand Impact also does 6000 to the main target, with all surrounding enemies receiving 4000 damage instead. As unimpressive as the numbers sound this combo does have its uses, specifically Grand Impact; this spell has an long delay on damage due to its animation and we can use this to our advantage.

It takes around 1.5s for Grand Impact to deal damage, so it can be timed on Guard target before the slightly after the buff timer counts down to 2 in order to prepare some chip damage while keeping your GCD rolling to follow up with more damage. In spite of all of this we generally want to avoid using Jolt 3 as much as we can as it does not provide the same value as other components of our kit.

Important note: Don't start casting Jolt III when under a lot of pressure. Being stuck in casting animation, you can't use Recuperate! Use it as a filler from a distance!

These 2 abilities have 2 charges each and will be the main way you move around the battlefield.

Corps-a-corps will make you dash towards the selected opponent dealing 3000 damage and applying Monomachy , which increases the damage they receive from you by 10% while also reducing the damage you receive from them by 10%. While the duration is only 8s it's enough to cover your main damaging combo.

While it is your main engagement tool, It's always recommended to keep 1 charge available at all times either to interrupt enemy , reposition mid battle or chase down an enemy.

Displacement will instantly make your character perform a long backstep, based on your position relative to the enemy. It deals 3000 damage similarly to Corps-a-corps and it gives you the Displacement buff, increasing your next spell’s damage and healing by 15%. This ability should be used in conjunction with Red Mage’s highest hitting spells such as Scorch and Prefulgence.

Just as stated in the Corps-a-corps section It's recommended to always be keeping 1 charge of this backflip for emergency situations as it can be used for more situations in general. So don't only use it to gain damage, as it also can be a disengage tool!

When we are prioritizing the use of the Displacement buff, it looks like the following bracket; Prefulgence > Scorch > Resolution > Grand Impact.

With the way dashes work in this game, as long as the total distance of an ability such as Displacement would cover the full distance of a corner you will actually teleport across the full distance and not be stopped by terrain. This is one of the better ways to escape as a Red Mage as you will backflip away from the action while also breaking line of sight by “teleporting” through the terrain.

Be careful with using this technique on The Volcanic Heart, as most corners on this map will prevent you from doing this cause of little pillars. Other maps like The Palastria do not have objects in these corners and allow you to "clip through" when done correctly.

Red Mage’s core identity and arguably most defining part of the kit is its melee combo, initiated by Enchanted Riposte. This 3 part combo will deal 5000 to 7000 damage ignoring effects of Guard, and provide you with a stacking 4000 potency shield, totalling to 12000 extra HP.

In spite of being a combo you are free to use any other skills in between hits and you will not drop the combo, allowing for versatile mixing and matching. While the numbers don’t sound impressive at first, we need to couple this by saying that the GCD speed during this combo is enhanced to around 1.5s between each hit allowing you to dish out this Guard piercing damage at a much faster rate than usual.

By applying other buffs present in our kit (such as the Corps-a-corps and Corps-a-corps) we are able to amplify this damage even further, bringing us to the main point of Red Mage and its kill condition; getting people into Guard and apply penetrating damage.

This weaponskill chain only has a 16s cooldown and finishing it unlocks a use of Scorch and it’s the main way you will be scoring kills on Red Mage.

While Scorch is directly tied to the melee combo the versatility of this button warrants a separate section.

Scorch when utilised will deal 8000 damage centered around an enemy target while also applying a DoT that will deal another 8000 damage over 2 instances of 4000. This spell is fantastic to pressure opponents, burst them and you are also able to hold it over a decent amount of time making it unexpected in a lot of situations. Its high raw value of 16000 total damage makes it a prime candidate to buff via Displacement, Corps-a-corps and Embolden, dealing a total of 21858 damage over its duration in an ideal scenario.

While the value of this button is undeniably high it comes with its negatives. Firstly it has an extremely long application time of around 2.1 seconds and an obvious animation with sound queue, making it extremely easy to react with defensive buttons such as Guard. Secondly it suffers from extremely poor frame data, as soon as the Red Mage presses this buttons it will be locked in animation for around 1.2s which will prevent you from hitting key abilities such as Recuperate, Guard or Displacement, so key positioning by the Red Mage and danger awareness are key to mastering the use of Scorch.

If your connection allows it, With low enough ping you will be able to utilise Displacement after Scorch and have the buff apply right before the damage would register, making it better to catch the opponent by surprise.

Resolution is a relatively low cooldown (20s) long range, area of effect Silence that hits in a line from the caster to the selected target. Once it hits it will deal 8000 damage and silence any targets hit in its path for 2 seconds. Like a lot of the other skills it has a delay before it hits the target, this one being around 1.5s and like those other skills we can use this to our advantage either by timing it on a Guard running out or by utilising Corps-a-corps after casting it and angle-ing it to hit the desirable target/more targets.

Due to its high value you will typically use it as your first GCD in the first engage, I recommend targeting a key enemy such as an Astrologian (Astro used here as an example due to its impactful heal spam but any enemy with a fight defining CC is a fine target as well) and then using Corps-a-corps on the marked enemy. Using this strategy, we will at least hit 2 targets with our damage + silence, burning purifies and even possibly scoring a kill if the healer/support that got hit in the backline is not paying attention.

Embolden is Red Mage’s buff, a combined 8% damage amplifier with an 8% mitigation buff on the party lasting 8s which also grants us Prefulgence Ready for 15s. It has a 24s cooldown making it the longest cooldown in our kit. It’s an extremely powerful buff due to the sheer value that it provides and should be used in every engage and the reason why Red Mage is such a strong team player.

Prefulgence is only available after using Embolden and it’s arguably Red Mage’s strongest button. It deals 10000 damage in AoE centered around the selected enemy target while also healing the Red Mage and any allies around the enemy target for 10000 healing. Both the healing and damage are buffed by Displacement making it our highest priority to buff. It’s important to note that while the raw numbers aren’t as high as Scorch, Prefulgence deals it’s entirety of damage on hit making it a better suited candidate to burst.

Due to its multifaceted-ness there are situations in which Prefulgence can be saved to heal a key target such as a teammate on the receiving end of a Monk limit break, Meteodrive. By targeting the Monk we are able to provide a possibly life saving heal and swing the fight back in our favour.

For the last basic ability in the Red Mage’s kit we have an extremely versatile and responsive button, Forte. Forte provides us with a very small 4000 HP shield but it’s real value comes in the fact that while the shield stands we receive a flat 50% mitigation on any attack that hits us, this includes Limit Breaks such as a Marksman's Spite from a Machinist which would be reduced from 36000 to 18000 and with the shield will be further weakened to 14000 damage.

Using Forte as a reaction to seeing a dangerous ability heading your way is encouraged.

The perks of this ability don’t end there as you will receive the Thorned Flourish buff when the shield is fully depleted by damage (not by running out of duration). Thorned Flourish allows you one usage of Vice of Thorns, a long range instant AoE stun lasting for 2 seconds while also dealing 4000 damage.

The enemy team is actively punished for hitting into a Red Mage with Forte active as there’s no other way for the caster to use Vice of Thorns outside of this situation. A 2s duration area of effect stun is extremely dangerous in any kit but it’s amped extremely by the presence of Resolution in the kit of the Red Mage, allowing the caster to chain the silence of Resolution (2s) into an instant stun from Vice of Thorns for a total of 4s of crowd control, perfect for setting up kills.

Due to Vice of Thorns being an oGCD/ability I recommend utilising Resolution first to roll the GCD and using Vice of Thorns right as the silence runs out to maximise the amount of damage dealing GCDs we can put into the 4s window.

Vice of Thorns is also a great defensive tool to help teammates get distance from chasers and will usually end on burning enemy Purify which can later turn into kill opportunities.

For our Limit Break we have Southern Cross, after an animation delay of 1.5 seconds it will deal 12000 damage twice, totalling to 24000, for the main target and any others directly in the intersection of the cross. All other enemies not hit by the center of the cross will take 12000 damage instead in a single instance. Southern Cross however also has a secondary effect, as allies hit by hit will instead recover 12000 health points, recovering 24000 if they are in the intersection of the cross.

Southern Cross has a 90s charge timer and can be thought of as a stronger Prefulgence. Due to its animation delay it’s quite easy to guard and its damage isn’t stellar; it has its uses though! Due to its delay we can press it right after a Prefulgence, Scorch or Resolution and the damage will come out at around the same time as the other spells, maximising the burst we can do.

There are also fringe cases where you can use your Southern Cross to keep an important team member alive as the 24000 healing is nothing to scoff at, we can give an example of an Astrologian with Limit Break available getting targeted by a Monk's Meteodrive. Keeping this player alive in order for them to use Celestial River has very high value.

In spite of this for solo queue it is recommended to use your LB primarily as a killing tool.

While Red Mage’s burst isn’t the best in the game you will ideally play very reactively, hitting the targets marked by either yourself or your teammates, keeping track of Purify to chain crowd control. As soon as you see someone go into Guard that’s when you shine and can go for the kill utilising your melee combo. Below are some general “guidelines” you can follow for bursts, engages and such.

We will mention however that Red Mage is a very free form job and you can mix and match all the skills mentioned below in order to match the situation better.

As a reminder when it comes to Resolution, we talked about how to line this up in its chapter. We want to target a key enemy player, while dashing towards the marked enemy who we are gonna burst. Resulting into 2 targets hit at mininum!

1. Embolden
2. Resolution
3. Corps-a-corps
4. Prefulgence
5. Displacement

You are free to start the melee combo as soon as you see Guard pop up or even earlier, as you play Red Mage more you will be able to make these decisions and understand which buttons are stronger depending on the situation.

Ideally for this sort of situation you will have a Scorch saved up, remember that as a Red Mage you want enemies to go into guard so you can shred them with your melee hits.

1. Embolden
2. Resolution or Scorch
3. Corps-a-corps
4. Enchanted Riposte combo
5. Prefulgence

Feel free to swap any attacks mentioned here with a Resolution to apply silence, making your chances to kill much higher.

Ideally you have Monomachy from Corps-a-corps applied on the target and the Displacement buff for your spell.

1. Embolden
2. Resolution or Scorch or Prefulgence
3. Southern Cross