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Originally Posted by
Karinya_of_Carbuncle
You think healing, enhancing, enfeebling, CC, and possibly also nuking are "the short end of the stick" and "demeaning, to say the least" and yet you expect to be taken seriously on how to design and balance a hybrid?
When your class is sold as a hybrid, implying choice in roles and flexibility, and said hybrid turns out to be nothing more than a support bot and healer instead, it indeed is the short end of the stick. When you're told your class is part caster, part melee, and then you find yourself casting cures and buffs as they are the only thing of value in a party, that is indeed demeaning.
I would be fine if RDM A (geared and set up for melee) got to stand in the front and swing and RDM B (who enjoys a different playstyle and gears for it) gets to cast and support. I'd be ecstatic if RDM C, after getting the needed gear for it, got to tank. And even more if RDM D, with the proper subs and gear, got to focus on nuking (you know, like SCH gets to do should the player choose to). That's how you design a hybrid. Not with half-powered traits, next to no JAs, casting limitations to create busywork, the mother of all bad gimmicks to create a party slot for the class (refresh), and more than just a handful of oversights in design that go unfixed and uncorrected for the sake of passing them off as class "features" (genbu-soloing).
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If you want a DD job, there are lots of them.
Turning your eyes away from the problem does not make the problem go away. Doesn't work in real life, and certainly doesn't work in-game.
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If you level BLU you can swing a sword and also do lots of damage.
Monster magic and a scimitar don't equate to magic fencer. It was a poor attempt to fill the void without actually fixing the problem. Then it turned into its own thing, as we so clearly see now.
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If you level DRK you can swing an even bigger sword and do damage with even less spellcasting.
DRK is a completely different beast and should not be part of this exchange of words. Hell, as a DRK main I'm a little offended to see it included in the context of Red Mage.
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RDM is not a magic swordsman. You know how I know that? I've played FFV. A game in which there is an actual magic swordsman job (it's even called "magic swordsman" in Japanese, IIRC).
RDM is also not an enfeebler. I know that because FFTactics had a real enfeebler class that was called Oracle/Mystic/Ying Yang Mage. RDM is also not a buffer, because Tactics Advance 2 (and XII to an extent) had a buff-focused job called Green Mage. See where I'm going with this?
You're trying to argue semantics based on names rather than looking at the archetypes. The console FFs love filling themselves with classes based on other classes or splitting archetypes into pieces because console games can afford to do that sort of thing. This goes back to my "certain things that work in console FFs don't work in MMORPGs" bit.
Speaking of which, 魔法剣士, or Mystic Knight as we know it here, was basically a black mage replacement with a sword and a limited spell selection. Not exactly anywhere close to a flexible hybrid, rather a BLM without the cast times. It's already been used and debunked as part of the anti-melee camp's argument against the melee camp, so please let us not go down that route.
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I actually kind of wish that job existed in FFXI, but RDM isn't it and never will be (and can't be -- there's a reason magic swordsman has no other magic except through the equivalent of subjob). The weak enspells that exist in this game are nowhere near the power of real sword magic, but at the same time, RDM is nowhere near as sword-focused as FFV sword mages.
We're not asking for the ability to cast Flare through a sword. I'm also aware of the damage V's version of Spellblade was capable of, and how that wouldn't fit into a hybrid's design without some toning down and limitations--which I am perfectly fine with.
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Your idea of what you want RDM to be is not what RDM is, ever has been (in this game or any of its predecessors), or most likely, ever will be. Please accept that and find a job more suited to what you want to do and stop trying to ruin a versatile magic-oriented (and endurance/control-oriented) hybrid job for people who enjoy playing it.
Based on what evidence? Fighter and Black Mage weren't bitching at Red Mage for swinging his sword in FF1. Bartz the Red Mage wasn't getting kicked from the party for not spamming refresh and haste because he spent his attack turn swinging in FFV. Ingus the Red Mage was not getting grief from Luneth for not being a dedicated healer so that Refia and Arc could go Monk and Black Mage respectively in FFIII. And none were crying about how the Red Mages' melee hurt their exp/hour and fed the mob TP or some other asinine argument to stick them to the back.
You're fine with the way the class currently plays. I can respect that, but also keep in mind that you are basically dismissing the melee camp despite the fact we're also playing the same class. We could be mutually supportive, but respect and acceptance goes both ways. Stop by our boards and read some of the discussions. Some are livid to see White Mage and Bard match or out-perform us in melee. Others want melee buffs or utility tied to melee, and then you have crazies like me that would not mind a full redesign if it meant the melee camp and the backliners both got what they wanted out of the class.
Hybrid implies choice in terms of class design. The choice isn't there, and has not been there since CoP.