Hello once more, today is a busy day with this being my 3rd post today alone! Well the subject of Redmage melee has been debated for a long long time. You always get two groups that say the same things. Group A says "RDM iz mage, u cast rfrsh nao". Group B says "I can swing a sword! Lemme at em!" In my eyes, both sides are right.
So where does that leave us? Split in the middle. But thats the thing, redmage makes quite the useful job! The problem is the skills and spell available to them dont work well with each other. And thats why im about to propose the following...............
New job abilities (because you know, RDM only still has about 4, including two hour)
First off, Fencer. Yeah thats right, RDM SHOULD NATURALLY HAVE FENCER. But not just 1 rank of it, no no no no........ they need at least 3 ranks of it. Maybe more. Critical attacks are just that important to making a redmage more than a lolswordsman.
Next would be a jobtrait that works with En-spells. I would figure casting an En-spell on self would create a DMG bonus to the RDM based on enhancing magic skill. Yeah thats right, instead of just getting that smidge of damage from magic, this should be a physical bonus to the weapon in your main hand. En-2 spells should have a GROWING damage bonus based on how far along the elemental damage bonus is. This would add some pep to damage.
Finally i would think a set of job abilities that actually have to deal with swinging your sword and casting are in order. Something along the lines of formless strikes. But for weapon skills. Like so.
A: Job ability: Piercing Blows: Next weapon skill performed by the user deals non-elemental damage instead of physical damage (only works with physical weapon skills, sorry sanguine blade) Recast: 2 minutes
B: Job Ability: Arcanic Assault: For duration, increase users attack by reducing users magic attack bonus completely. Recast: 5 minutes Duration: 1 minute (maybe 2, idea is like berserk)
So far thats about it. There are probably more ideas I am thinking, but these would have direct impact on Red Mages and would make them considerable damage dealers. Somewhere.
~Chuk