As I have watched how Red Mage has developed with the post 75 cap updates, some questions have come up that I cannot for the life of me divine an answer to. My hope is a response that, while not explaining everything, will perhaps give me an idea about the future of my first 75, now 90 level job.
The first and perhaps my most important question is as follows:
At the 75 cap RDM had equivalent skill in both dagger and sword, having access to both relics as well as both trial weapon skills and a modest array of weapon options for both. Our mythic was a sword but considering that every job had its own, having one but not the other was understandable. At 90 however, it seems that this balance has become skewed. Our new weapon skill is a dagger, but outside of the twilight knife, no new weapons, not even the dominion augments, nor the Magian daggers.
We can use the Magian and dominion augment swords, but were passed up for the new sword weapon skill. However, our Empyrean is a sword. As someone who has little or no chance at attaining the Almace, at least for the foreseeable future, I cannot help but wonder why. While it seems balanced, it has made it very difficult to be competitive with other light DD jobs, especially considering we were somewhat deficient to begin with.
Another item that has me confused was granting RDM with Shield Mastery when RDM has a native Shield Skill of F, capping out at 90 at a 229, a far cry from WAR, whose C+ shield skill caps at 315. Another aspect is that both a shield and shield mastery only come into play when one is being attacked, which for RDM means solo. The only time I have pulled hate in a melee position was when the THF tank allowed me to pull hate so they could sneak attack, or use evisceration or Mandalic Stab after my Death blossom for either Darkness or Light respectively.
This leads to my next question. RDM is considered to be a jack of all trades correct? Would not tank be part of all trades? If so, then why have you, indirectly or otherwise, removed our hate tools? First it was the reduction of the Enmity of bind, blind and the sleeps, and now the new Curing trait that just so happens to have a RDM button. I maybe entirely out of line with this thought process. If so, please inform me.
Onward to the next thought.
I have heard repeatedly Blue Mage having been grouped by the community with RDM as the omni Melee mages. Assuming that is true, then why is there such a vast difference in the overall performance of these two jobs? I understand that they should have different means of doing things, but parse data suggests that a melee rdm will only do about 80~% the damage that a blue will. That is overall, not per minute.
This extends to the gear comparison of RDM versus BLU. At 75 RDM could wear cloth like the Errant Houppelande set, which BLU can use, as well as light armor such as the Crimson(Blood) Scale Mail Set and leather in the Dusk Jerkin Set, which also has the BLU button. In Limbus gear, however RDM is limited to the mage set, Nashira Manteel Set, where BLU, our fellow melee mage, has access to both the Nashira Manteel Set and the Homam Corazza Set which as an RDM, i would have loved to use. The trend continues in Abyssea where BLU can use both the Teal Saio set, as well as the Aurore Doublet Set where RDM can only use the Teal. It makes me wonder, again, why this is so.
Another curiosity to me is while BLU must set spells for job traits, as well as stat bonuses, which is balanced by the limit of available at any given time, RDM has no melee traits of its own, but a massive list of mage traits. Personally, i would gladly give up the higher tiers of Magic attack bonus and Magic Defense bonus for melee attack and defense traits.
And to wrap up this list of questions, our best skill is in Enfeebling magic, but with new notorious monsters, both before and after the level cap increase, I have noticed a continuing drop in enfeebles that can actually affect my targets. For example, the other day, I found myself in a group killing Orthus, and with an enfeebling skill of 422, plus stat gear and magic accuracy gear, could not land any enfeebles I attempted. I cannot help but wonder if our enfeebling is slowly becoming obsolete and useless.
I would like to reiterate that while clear answers explaining everything I have asked about would be appreciated, my goal is for at least vague answers that will allow me to draw somewhat accurate conclusions about my future as a Melee RDM. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Tassidaru Morinestri
Tarutaru RDM 90 COR 83
Quetzalcoatl Server