Red Mage defensive

[ffxititanplayer]

Sorry if this has already been posted before (x amount of times) but personally i would love a raise to parry and evasion skills. There is no reason for us to have such crazy low ranks in these. We should at least be on par with blue mage for these if not warrior. While we are at it, can we at least have shield skill equal to white mage? With slightly higher shield skill we might get a little use out of shield mastery...maybe...

Anyways the point is if we could get some more more parry and/or evasion that would be awesome. If you agree like my post.

[Crimson_Slasher]

We used to have shield skill more on par with warrior, who is the #2 for shield skill, Course apparently that made us too strong, running around with our shields, tanking everything under the sun, making us giggle as monsters bounced off us... Wait this isnt the paladin forums! Satire aside, i agree i think we need higher parry by a lot, being fencer based and all. And i would like our shield restored to prior "glory" too, even if it isnt likely to be a big improvement. Course likely we would get that too common "TOO POWERFUL!" response because skills are so unbalanced and no job has more than 1 A rated skill Except for the 11 or so that do, that said, i made a list of total skill points on each job.

Total skill values for each job at level 99! This is assuming no subjob, all skills capped.
WAR 6064 (1st!)
MNK 2621 (14th)
WHM 3308 (11th)
BLM 3553 (7th)
RDM 4802 (2nd)
THF 3537 (8th)
PLD 4605 (3rd)
DRK 4525 (4th)
BST 2863 (13th)
BRD 3521 (9th)
RNG 2912 (12th)
SAM 3367 (10th)
NIN 4477 (5th)
DRG 2521 (16th)
SMN 1793 (20th)
BLU 1931 (19th)
COR 2319 (17th)
PUP 2604* (15th)
DNC 2252 (18th)
SCH 4448^ (6th)

*Automaton not counted.
^Dark/Light arts skill maximums.

Now what this illustrates is having multiple mediocre skills or even "mid range skills" does not make an overpowered job. Blue mage is 2nd to last, and yet easily outclasses rdm (#2) in almost all fields. So i see no reason not to raise a few skillcaps for rdm, and possibly other jobs on the list. Not to mention we would need to go out of our way to skill those up anyway.

[Neisan_Quetz]

I have no problem with raising skillcaps, but offensive > defensive, easily, especially something like parry/shield.

[Mirage]

And even with all those combat skills, war's survivability is still miles behind rdm.

Now i'm not saying rdm couldn't need a buff, but I seriously don't think it's in their defence their weakness lies.

[Neisan_Quetz]

If survivability was an issue people would be bringing paladins, so defensive skill buff is nothing more than superfluous.

[ffxititanplayer]

I understand what you guys mean, its really more for sake of why the caps are so low compared to other jobs. We should have at least the parry and evasion of blue mage. I agree it's rather low priority but I would love to have square take a look at it .

[Ophannus]

RDM's defense is through magic primarily rather than defensive skills. BLU is a completely frontline mage whereas RDM was build to be kind of 50/50 backline/frontline indicated by only a few of BLU nukes being more than 10' range. RDM also has Stoneskin,Blink,Phalanx,Protect5/Shell5 all at once but BLU has to set those spells and keep them up which are MP intensive and inefficient duration.

Also RDM shouldn't have their weapon drawn unless solo because in hard fights or in a party they should be in pdt/mdt gear when they pull hate or when damage is inevitable. Most RDM don't use sword/shield except in rare cases; usually because dual wield is better for solo as /NIN (pdt swordx2 it up if going for survivability) only situation where sword+shield or dagger+shield is better is if you're RDM/BLM and AoE aeolian edging shit down with protect and cocoon up against multiple mobs(like soloing the Taurus BCNM).

tl;dr

RDM is extremely durable due to their gear selection(pdt/mdt) and spells(phalanx/stoneskin/protect5/gain-vit/blink/icespikes/bio III) probably one of the most durable jobs in the game, second only to PLD and only if they have relic/emp shield. Arguably more durable than MNK since MNK can't counter TP moves and when they don't counter they get hit hard as hell whereas a RDM/BLU could easily get over 1.3k defense, insane VIT, 50%PDT/25% MDT and ShellV to cap out MDT, MDB traits, 450+ Stoneskin, -35 damage from phalanx, potent paralyze from icespikes.

[Sunrider]

Doesn't really matter whether you're solo or not, no reason a B-rated sword/dagger user shouldn't have better Parrying and Shield. They could be bumped up to a C or B without harming anything.

[Ophannus]

Since when does having a B or C skill necessitate having better parrying/shield? WHM has B+ club which is better than our B- sword/shield and they have D in shield and NO parrying. RNG has B- in axe and B- in dagger and they have neither shield nor parrying. Your argument is weak.

[Sunrider]

I'll agree it isn't the most solid of premises, but of your above examples, WHM's specialty doesn't necessarily imply parrying (though I suppose it is possible to parry with a club), and while I totally support a better shield rating for WHM, it is still a job less associated with melee activity, and so might not be expected to have improved shield skill (but as I said, I fully support it). RNG might have B- axe and dagger, but it's primary function involves ranged attacks, in which neither shield nor parrying come into play.

Parrying is implied with sword (and dagger) use, both of which are associated with RDM. S-E's made as fair an attempt to offer us shield selection as any other melee gear, so an increased shield skill would follow as it's already a known function of the class.