[dev1024] Job adjustments - RDM

I was actually thinking the same thing as Krabuncle ;P

WHM always got -ra spells (barfira, boosts, etc) while RDM's are self target. WHM will probably get AoE Temper XD

Derp.

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Originally Posted by Scuro

If they wanted to see a spell like this ACTUALLY get used, they should of gave it to BLU, just saying. Cuz there is no way this spell will actually be used in a manner that benefits a party. I mean if they made it single target like Refresh and Haste cycles, wow would of sucked for some RDMs, but hell at least that would of made them more useful. Yet its a SELF-target.... really? /slow-clap

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BLU has more than enough, they're more or less stealing anything that belongs to RDM anyway, and now I hear they want Phalanx, Enspells and Composure..... Really!?!

I'm surprised I haven't seem: What!? DRK is getting an aura steal spell!!!!!! BLU should get that not DRK.

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Originally Posted by Gokku

but isnt this spell exactly what the rdm community melee party wanted a buff in any fashion even if it does nothing to help rdm as class at all?

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This is baby step #2 towards what the melee camp wants. We'll see if the remaining steps (streamlining of magic melee, increased weapon proficiency, increased access to WS, more gear having RDM in the list of jobs capable of wearing it, playing with numbers until the desired DPS comes out the other side relative to other jobs) are in the pipes for our job.

If you wanted to get insta-invites through buff-botting...idk sux 2 b u? No one has still answered why any of us would ever want another spell to cycle, by the way. Cycling spells suck. "Buff-share/copy" mechanics might be in the works, for all we know. That would actually go in place with the manifesto without pissing off the melee camp.

PS: You're acting like this is the end of the world. I'm sure the devs are working on further adjustments instead of scratching themselves or playing the WoW collectible card game.

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Originally Posted by Daniel_Hatcher

I'm surprised I haven't seem: What!? DRK is getting an aura steal spell!!!!!! BLU should get that not DRK.

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You know that's because BLU already has two such spells, right?

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Originally Posted by Lago

You know that's because BLU already has two such spells, right?

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That'd be it.. and Damn, I made a spelling mistake in the other post and didn't notice. :(

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Originally Posted by Duelle

No one has still answered why any of us would ever want another spell to cycle, by the way. Cycling spells suck. "Buff-share/copy" mechanics might be in the works, for all we know. That would actually go in place with the manifesto without pissing off the melee camp.

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Because I'd prefer to have a spell that can be useful in lots of content rather than get one that I'll only use when I try to farm Dark Rings.

Your complaints shouldn't be "DON'T GIVE US BUFF SPELLS", so much as it should be "Make buffs natively AoE and give them lengthy durations", that way everyone wins. Unless of course you really just didn't want to contribute anything to your party, in which case I don't know why you'd care if it was self-cast or not because you're clearly aiming to do everything solo.

So why is Temper, with its undefined potency and duration, a self-target only spell, while Corsair has access to a 25% Double Attack enhancement that affects the entire party?

I'm not exactly keen on yet another buff I need to cycle cast (RDM has the highest enhancing skill in the game; why are all our buffs self-target or single-target only?), but the claim that this would allow RDM to make players into demigods seems somewhat nonsensical when you compare Temper to Fighter's Roll and Ifrit's favor.

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Originally Posted by Zatias

I was actually thinking the same thing as Krabuncle ;P

WHM always got -ra spells (barfira, boosts, etc) while RDM's are self target. WHM will probably get AoE Temper XD

Derp.

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just like whm got phalanxara and enspellra.

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Originally Posted by hiko

just like whm got phalanxara and enspellra.

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Oh, you're right. That was smn. Hmm, wonder what they've got in store for Cait Sith. ;P

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Originally Posted by cidbahamut

Your complaints shouldn't be "DON'T GIVE US BUFF SPELLS", so much as it should be "Make buffs natively AoE and give them lengthy durations", that way everyone wins.

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Notice my complaints are entirely fueled by the knowledge that RDM's theme is less skill at magic than WHM and BLM in exchange for skill with the sword. This means that AoE spells are instantly out of the question if it can be avoided (notice how past Diaga we have no AoE native to our job). That's why I'd be in favor of a buff copy/share mechanic if it comes down to it. Also, if you actually paid attention to what I've said in the past, I've mentioned buffing should be trivial to cast and maintain. No significant part of my combat time should be consumed by buffing when I'm in the front lines...hence my constant mention of "cycles have no place in front line play". I've argued for removing buffing altogether when front-lining during earlier iterations of the debate because, frankly, I know SE will never make Refresh and Haste instant cast or natively AoE-able. They chose the wrong job to try to attach the buffbot label, and in situations like that it easily shows.

I even concurred with the mention of Greater Blessings from WoW earlier in this very thread as an example, because I don't mind buffing at all...provided my entire gameplay is NOT centered on just casting buff spells or involves any cycles. On my pally all I had to do was set pally power to whatever buff I was assigned to keep on the raid by the raid leader and away I went; 30-minute duration buffs that were instant cast, thus not interrupting on the amount of time I spent hitting things with a light-imbued hammer and focusing on DPS. And a second Refresh (Replenishment) that stacks with my class' version of Refresh (Greater Blessing of Wisdom) that affects the raid only if I use one of my signature attacks (Judgement) on a mob. That is how a sword & magic hybrid with buffs is supposed to play. Not like a "cycle mage" that stands in the back line "supporting" the healer and mezzing, neglecting an entire third of the job's concept, build, and archetype.

Please level another job and stop trying to fit a square into a round hole, wtf.

This thread is hilarious.

RdMelee got a buff. A decent buff. OAT on Almace? Nice.

Broheims got a problem with Melee-only buffs? Maybe make your presence known here outside the 1% of forum time devoted to complaining about updates. Red Mage got Temper because, aside from maybe 5 Magical Red Mages who post here, all of the posting on this subforum is Melee-oriented.

You have people like Duelle quite literally calling for massive casting nerfs to Red Mage. Removal of spells, reduction in casting ranges, even Addenda-esque stances which have been the bane of Scholar since its inception.

If you give a crap about the direction of your job, maybe you should show up and make your feelings known more often. When all the Devs are seeing is a huge melee camp sitting around asking for sword updates, with a mouthpiece or two even demanding nerfs to casting and only the same 4-5 posters refuting that nonsense, we're going to end up with things like Temper.

With that said, the update doesn't really bother me. Everyone knew the day Addle was released that White Mage was also on the spell (.DAT mining, etc). A quick-magic JA is pretty darn awesome, and will definitely see use. Overall we didn't really gain much (outside the melee faction), but we didn't lose anything either. Red Mage is not exactly in an overly poor position to begin with, outside of Abyssea. With any luck, 95-tier Endgame content will become relevant enough for people to really start to move out of the Abyssean midgame.

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Originally Posted by Duelle

Notice my complaints are entirely fueled by the knowledge that RDM's theme is less skill at magic than WHM and BLM in exchange for skill with the sword. This means that AoE spells are instantly out of the question if it can be avoided (notice how past Diaga we have no AoE native to our job).

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Ruling out AoE is foolish. SE may have settled on that as a design choice but that doesn't make it ok.

Folks are stamping their feet about not wanting another buff they can cast on others because they'll have to cycle it.
SE's refusal to allow us AoE buffs means whatever buffs we can cast on others will have to be cycled.
The solution isn't to make all our buffs self-cast only, the solution is to address the need to cycle buffs.
This is accomplished by making buffs AoE and giving them lengthy durations.

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Originally Posted by Shiyo

Please level another job and stop trying to fit a square into a round hole, wtf.

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Whenever you post on this site remember this:

You're a troll.... GO AWAY!!!

You never even levelled RDM before Abyssea so what the hell do you know.

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Originally Posted by cidbahamut

Ruling out AoE is foolish. SE may have settled on that as a design choice but that doesn't make it ok.

Folks are stamping their feet about not wanting another buff they can cast on others because they'll have to cycle it.
SE's refusal to allow us AoE buffs means whatever buffs we can cast on others will have to be cycled.
The solution isn't to make all our buffs self-cast only, the solution is to address the need to cycle buffs.
This is accomplished by making buffs AoE and giving them lengthy durations.

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Even duration when AoE isn't bothersome. Casting Haste, Refresh and Phalanx II as an example everytime it's due just once is better than it is now.

Uh, I was level 61 RDM in 2003 before I quit for WOW for 3 years? It was my first job.

If you hate cycling buffs, also, please, level another job. If you want to be a herpa derp DD who can afk and just do nothing, level MNK.

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Originally Posted by Rorrick

So why is Temper, with its undefined potency and duration, a self-target only spell, while Corsair has access to a 25% Double Attack enhancement that affects the entire party?

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It's only 24% at the very most. (When XI is rolled and WAR is in the group or commodore tricorne's effect proced.) Yet COR is also pretty shunned in Abyssea, so, well, yeah. I don't think having Temper castable on other members would really help anything in that regard.

Ahh, Red Mage...maybe it's time that job got a small overhaul of sorts. Having Temper is a step in the direction of the...more interesting. In my very humble opinion, I think Red Mage SHOULD receive better close-combat abilities. They are meant to be jacks of all trades, no...? Versatility is supposed to be the name of the game, you should be able to nuke, heal, pull out your weapon or whatever you choose, but mostly everyone regards them as a WHM clone (and frankly that's just a tad boring, if you wanna stick to strict healing that badly, why not just level WHM?) - and, if you really think about it, how does that make them any different from SCH, who can also cast both schools of magic?

The difference is in the potential dagger/swordplay, or at least its meant to be. While strict player-based pigeonholing and unwillingness to attempt the more unorthodox aspects of gameplay is certainly a problem, SE has done little to reinforce the ideal RDM image. Perhaps that will change soon, though.

Perhaps the following will come across as the "right ideas." They're uh...kinda lame though~

-Grant RDM the Accuracy Bonus trait.

-Allow RDM to self-skillchain, at which point they can, ideally, magic burst off themselves. (If BLU can do it...)

-Grant RDM access to the more coveted weaponskills, such as Vorpal Blade, and Dancing Edge for daggers.

-New, unique lines of enspells(which, by all good reason, should be one of RDMs selling points.) Change tier-II enspells to work with both multiple hits and off-hand weapons. As they are, they provide nothing that the original enspells didn't. Aside from lol10magicevasiondifference. Certainly no justification for allowing a RDM to get to the front lines.

-Add potency bonuses to the damage enspells do, as well as giving RDM the ability to augment them to enfeeble an enemy as well, possibly via a new JA of some kind. Enfire = Virus, Enblizzard = Paralyze, and so on.

Those are just a few lame ideas on how the job's versatility can truly be expanded upon. If you want RDM to be a less-effective (and slightly more stylish) copy of WHM, then by all means...continue. Should their roles expand in different directions, however, I hope people learn to appreciate and enjoy it.

(P.S: Many people seem to be forgetting Composure. Which not only lengthens durations of buffs on yourself, but enhances your physical accuracy. Composure + Temper = ????)

(P.S.S: The above are strictly opinions of a crazy person, try not to lose your...Temper, over it. *snark*)

I was fine with cycling 2 spells. 3 was a bit cumbersome. 4 would be ridiculous. More is not necessarily better. I mean, I like ice cream but I'd hate it if I never got to eat other things.

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Originally Posted by Stylin

We will be able to do that with the coming update, close a skillchain and nuke with Spontaneity. That job ability is going to be so much fun in it's uses.

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I think you mean double MB with Spantaneity, sir. ;3

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Originally Posted by Lago

I think you mean double MB with Spantaneity, sir. ;3

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That too. I meant to delete that when I saw "RDM should self-SC" in there too. In my defense I just woke up and missed that detail. lol

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Originally Posted by Ahrana

And that's when you're replaced with a bard or a white mage. On the plus side it gives you plenty of time to post cool stories on forums.

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You missing the point but whatever and when I am posting on forums i am usually at work with some free time after completing tasks in transition to new tasks as details get hammered out. It really doesnt matter anyway because u miss the point of having the SCROLL OF WARP meaning I already have left anyway to go back to soloing. Being smart and being a smart a$$ arent the same things, you should learn the difference.

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Originally Posted by Shiyo

Please level another job and stop trying to fit a square into a round hole, wtf.

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The irony, it's almost hurts.

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Originally Posted by Nefertiti

-Add potency bonuses to the damage enspells do, as well as giving RDM the ability to augment them to enfeeble an enemy as well, possibly via a new JA of some kind. Enfire = Virus, Enblizzard = Paralyze, and so on.

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Camate already said the devs weren't going to do this. :/

Eh, I think folks are getting a little too bent out of shape over this. People are acting like they were truly expecting SE to hold out on their promises after all these years when they damn well knew better. Besides Temper isn't exactly news, SE said over a year ago they had made plans to increase viability in the front lines, for all we know this spells been in the works well before the job manifesto was released and they were just waiting for this level cap to implement it. Will it increase our abilities to the point where we can melee regularly, doubtful. Will it give RDM back it's niche in a party setting, no. Will this be the last update RDM ever receives for anything, definitely not.

I would just cool your jet's, wait for the game to move out of that n00b hole called Abyssea, then all of you can go back to your previous life like the ToAU days. If Temper doesn't offer anything to RDM then it's essentially unchanged, just ignore it like RDM got absolutely nothing at all. Really everyone would have been like "Big Surprise..." if RDM didn't get anything anyways, but they're sounding like their dreams stomped on because of a melee buff that "wouldn't change anything" or they "would never use".

On a side note however, I am finding it very ironic that people are so driven to put down the original RDM archtype, but take the new one given in the manifesto so seriously when SE even stated at the bottom that these ideas were not set in stone.

Wow, what did everyone eat for breakfast?

The only thing to worry about when it comes to Temper is if it will not even be worth it from not working in the offhand, enspells, not working on WSs, something weird, etc.

This whole wave of "this is a joke", "get Devs who play the game", "RDM is not a melee", "what are they even doing over there", etc. Is really just uncalled for and completely ridiculous. So how about you get nothing next time and let RDM have more of a reason to sit in your MH. You have enspells for meleeing, and just because YOU do not like to melee on RDM or feel it should not does not mean the Devs or the rest of the community needs to cater to the current perception of the game and take them away since "RDM DUN MELEE GUIZ1111". Overall, reading a few pages from when they said it was RDMONRY I have to say the responses from you people (yeah! you people!) was rather pathetic and you should be a bit embarrassed.

INB4 'adjustment manifesto said blah blah blah'. SE has said a lot of things about RDM over the years, and just because they recently said they envision (best enspell ever!) them making others "demigods" does not mean anything else they ever said goes out the window.

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Originally Posted by Camate

To answer your questions about the new red mage spell Temper...

This is going to be a self-target spell only and cannot be made into an AoE spell via SCH's Accession.

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That is some seriously epic fail...

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Originally Posted by Malacite

That is some seriously epic fail...

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Beeeeecause..?

I'm pretty sure anyone who isn't completely insane can realize why it's epic fail.

Thank heavens for the block user function.

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Originally Posted by cidbahamut

Ruling out AoE is foolish. SE may have settled on that as a design choice but that doesn't make it ok.

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Tell that to the developers, not me. It may not be the same guys that took years to realize "hmm, maybe call wyvern as a 2 hour ability was a bad idea after all...", but their influence certainly lingers, and the fact that there's been changes in the developer team yet nothing of substantial change outside of more jugs for BST, avatar favors and abyssea as a whole tells me they're sticking to their guns. They're not going to suddenly say "RDM should get AoE versions of their buffs" (which is as likely as DRK getting getting changed into a tank job); at least, not in -ga or -ra form. Hence my support for the buff sharing/spread/copy idea.

On a personal note, -gas and -ras don't make sense on RDM. Again, the concept of RDM shows it forgoes higher tier spells in exchange for martial prowess. -gas and -ras easily fall into that category.

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Originally Posted by Daniel_Hatcher

Thank heavens for the block user function.

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OMG thank you, I didn't know it even existed.

Just added Shiyo and will add more as they appear.

I'm up for a healthy discussion with anyone, will ever debate the pro / con of just about anything. But I will not waste my time with trolls. I find the best way to deal with them is to ignore them and deny them the attention they crave. If everyone just ignored the trolls they'd eventually die off and go away.

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Originally Posted by Shiyo

I'm pretty sure anyone who isn't completely insane can realize why it's epic fail.

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This is not a case of a certain someone saying they are too good to change gear. That is real fail, and this is down to opinion at the moment. So I am not sure why that makes those who are not opposed to this being single target insane and epic fail.

Then again I guess I lost my mind a long time ago.

How is Temper being single target only not a total failure, especially after SE going on about how RDM was going to be master enhancers?

Of themselves? Yeah, because that's oh so useful in a party situation. It's not the Accession clause (that I don't mind, it's RDM only after all so it shouldn't AoE) it's the self-cast only that's complete nonsense.

So hurray for yet another trash spell to "help" frontline RDM in lieu of addressing RDM's actual problems in that area.

Square gives jobs things to make them more rounded at times, even if they dont make sense, the difference, is while this doesnt help YOUR party setting, its by FAR more useful than some blunders they have been guilty of. So quickly we forget shield mastery with our D,E,F defensive ratings. But i guess you prefer the willy wonka approach, rather than being thankful you got another nuke, and possibly more traits, and the recent buff to fastcast, you all just see this as getting nothing. So it makes me happy to say it this way. "ITS ALL THERE, BLACK AND WHITE, CLEAR AS CRYSTAL! YOU GET NOTHING, YOU LOSE! GOOD DAY SIR!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5QGkOGZubQ

Now that we can get over the crying, im going to say this. You get nothing aside from a new nuke and an extra raise. However your ability to play a mage rdm has not been altered in any way, because as you all say, you dont want to melee anyway, and this did not take anything out of the mage side to implement. Its a waste of mp to cast? waste of gil to buy? Heres a thought, dont buy it, dont cast it, and certainly dont complain that they had atleast the thought to give you a gift and to not retire your job or its functions as you like. You kind of people are the ones that complain at getting a gift-card for your birthday, well we all would like money, its the thought that counts. They saw some of the community unhappy, felt it was a justified desire, and improved it, now granted now, other memebrs of the RDM community is unhappy, but not everyone is unhappy. Honestly all i got to say is if you want to be a buff job, go bard, and if this is the changeover to start the reign of rdm melee glory, then allow me to be the first to say it in anticipation, its been a long time coming and i know a lot of the pro-melee croud want to say it, but im saying it now.

Shut up, nobody cares if you want to mage better, its been a long time since redmage got anything mage related for content, clearly they dont care about your woes, and you should just go level another job and leave us to play our job right.

That felt good, that may not be the case right now, but with substituting of mage for melee, its something ive heard too many times, how does it make you feel to read that line? well you are mad now so im betting it pissed you off. Let it sit quietly and fester a few years, they said you can buff, but you cant do that, they gave you access to enhancing gear and nothing to use it on, you should throw out that gear and level brd or cor.

All im doing is treating the anti-melee croud the way we have been treated for years, how about you take that promise to be a buffer, like we took the promise that we would be able to use our swords, and sit on it, wait a few years, maybe then they will chose to acknowledge you. Rant over.

Too many people in here are bitter and out for vengeance rather than intelligent game design. Take your personal vendettas and collectively shove them.

Just look at the people making the snide / trolling comments, seriously. You have BLU's, WAR's, MNKs, NINs, DNCs and every other job in the spectrum crying and throwing a hissy fit that they aren't getting temper *cough* I mean RDM isn't going to be able to cast it on them. They point and blame the older RDM's for it, so guys be prepared for some real back-lashing going on in-game after this update. I'm come to the conclusion that these people would prefer SE to delete the job RDM from the game then for SE to buff the melee aspect of RDM. Once your faced with that kind of ignorance you can't rationalize with them, just click ignore and go on your way, not worth the effort to respond anymore.

I know, it hardly makes sense that people are this adamant about Temper being self-cast only when not even us receiving shield mastery got half as much attention.

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Originally Posted by Malacite

How is Temper being single target only not a total failure, especially after SE going on about how RDM was going to be master enhancers?

Of themselves? Yeah, because that's oh so useful in a party situation. It's not the Accession clause (that I don't mind, it's RDM only after all so it shouldn't AoE) it's the self-cast only that's complete nonsense.

So hurray for yet another trash spell to "help" frontline RDM in lieu of addressing RDM's actual problems in that area.

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Generally people who don't like something will actually present an argument instead of "FUX MAN DIZ SUX!" and then the opposite opinions might say something.

The spell is not even out yet so you can't call it trash with any justification or creditability. Stop being so ignorant for five seconds and we will all thank you for doing something right.

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Originally Posted by Supersun

I know, it hardly makes sense that people are this adamant about Temper being self-cast only when not even us receiving shield mastery got half as much attention.

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A lot of the new job traits have been given out seemingly at random, and most are useless even on the "right" job, so that probably just felt like par for the course for most folks.

Also, this topic isn't even a discussion about game mechanics or anything else anymore, just people yelling nonsense at each other. It's less than startling that Red Mage received a new self-cast spell to enhance it's melee damage. Even if Temper is 100% Double Attack, it won't be the ridiculous buff that some of the Coalition for Hitting Things with Things while in Red Trousers members would like to see.

It would have been neat for this spell to work on party members, but this outcome was way more likely. Almace users just got a cool spell. Good on them. I don't see what the fuss is about.

To be quite honest, my stance on the whole RDM Melee situation is, I'm neutral to it. And after looking into Temper being self-target only, it made me contemplate a few things, especially in my outrage thinking that we still won't be getting a spot in abyssea because of our lack of buffing options on the backline.

I'm condensing a bit of this in hide/show boxes to reduce "tl;dr" syndrome and "ZOMG WALL OF TEXT" disorder. I don't want to double-post, so I provided a summary at the bottom if you want skip the big details. In any case, I doubt the Community Reps want to spend the time to read this post in particular, but you know what? To hell with it, I'm doing it anyway.

Foreword

I used to be all about it in the level 75 years, especially when I did campaign, experimented with party grouping, and areas where it would be beneficial with minor risk. And yes, a few degrees of soloing. Before abyssea we were presented with many opportunities to do it, with a respectable selection of gear to use for it, even when the stigma of the idea of a "magical swordsman" wasn't optimal for the endgame side of the game. In fact, 80% of the time, when we see a rapier-wielding, classy-suited figurehead point their weapon at a gigantic fiend, a group of heavy-armored soldiers would laugh at this person. And that's really the big problem- the more seasoned players will always find a way to optimize the specialties of all the jobs that are laid out to them. So, this Estoqueur in Red is probably smirking. Why?

The Duelist has a few tricks up their sleeve- Crippling the monster with debilitating Enfeebling Magic and the ability to magically Enhance their prowess of their own abilities and allies. Normally their weapon would break, trying to pierce the stiff hides of these abominations. So they have this magic to fall on, on top of a few things they learned from a few White Mages and Black Mages. Hell, they even concocted some of their own exclusive spells. Spells they wish they could use more effectively in the frontlines, too.

Issue Number 1:

Spontaneity is a good start in the right direction, though I honestly doubt it will be a stand-alone JA that doesn't wear off after a spell is cast. The key word in the description would be "occasionally" reduces casting time if it were so. Not to mention, Red mage is a job that has a long casting cycle of enhancing magic to cast on party members. This answers the call to RDM having some form of faster casting stacking on top of, and the icing on the cake in terms of removing the cap on Fast Cast.

Too much time casting = loss of DPS which = lower damage output. The less time casting means the more time you can get to doing something else- like nuking. And that also rules out the Melee option, since Estoqueur+1/+2 gear has now given RDM more Magic Attack Bonus options through gear. And that brings another thing- Melee gear selection.

Issue Number 2:

Red Mage is not expecting to outclass a Warrior or Monk in physical damage (Elite Melee RDM vs Naked MNK anyone?). Let's be real with that. But with the Advent of Almace being used, we can certainly see some potential to at least add in something extra. Mainly, as the other side of the coin to Blue Mage. Blue Mages throw out their High-power Physical Magic and drop on magical healing magic that rivals most support healing, while Red Mages take advantage of their Enfeebling and Enhancing Magic to turn the tide. The big concern here, however, is feeding TP to the monster. While BLU or any other sword user is widely viewed as an exception to the TP-feeding stigma, RDM ultimately suffers from it.

Because of the ratio in which subtle blow is applied to a Melee hit, it is often considered undesirable as usually more unnecessary Melee hits would give more TP to a monster that would possess dangerous special attacks. There isn't an easy answer to this one, except perhaps...adding a degree of subtle blow to Composure? Even if the bonus is small, it would do more to prevent TP spam, especially in this scenario:

If a RDM is doing 500-something on a Chant du Cygne in Abyssea...okay, they're clearly doing it wrong, because they're wearing gear suited for the Backline role. Personally, I'd look at a minimum of 2200-2500 damage on Chant du Cygne to be decent in Abyssea. But it's not like RDM wants to do it wrong. This issue is where meleeing on RDM gains its overwhelming notoriety. The job just has such a small selection of gear to support its ability to deal respectable damage.

At the very least, the game should let RDM share some of the gear that jobs like THF/BLU/DNC could use. I'm already snickering at the thought of my RDM wearing Loki's Kaftan. While this certainly doesn't seem like an option in the eyes of the players, if RDM were able to get these goodies, its competition will always pull ahead as its competitors should. As long as RDM has the ability to keep up with enfeebles and enhancements, what would it hurt except monsters?

Issue Number 3:

As for the topic of Enspells, it's an often relied on series of spells that support their melee output. However, even with what could have been a beneficial perk, the Enspell II line and its effect of lowering elemental resistance had proven unfavorable in the means of using multi-hit weapons. Perhaps there is a solution to this, with word that there is a new line of Enspell coming soon.

Instead of adding Enfeebling effects to Enspells, as the suggestion was thrown out the window by the developers, why not turn it the other way around and make it so they lower Enfeebling resistance? Fire would reduce Addle Resistance, Ice would reduce Paralyze/Bind resistance, Wind would reduce Gravity/Silence resistance, Earth for Slow, Thunder for Thunder-based enfeebles (if there are any that isn't Shock), and Water for Poison. Each Melee hit would lower resistance by a certain percentage per hit, depending on the elemental resistance of the monster, and while enhancing magic increases the potency of the enspell damage, Sword Skill could be necessary for the resistance effect to add up. It would provide that middle ground between providing a niche that stacks with other spells that lower elemental resistance, while giving an expanded use of Temper and being able to Melee on the frontlines when it works best for the strategy.

In short, There needs to be a sort of middle ground to encourage switching between frontline and backline duties, and most of all an incentive that will allow seasoned people and endgame groups to say, "bring your Melee weapon too, we'll need you using [insert ability here] for this beast." Therefore, we'll have to see a lot to put into Red Mage to make frontline capabilities actually desireable.

Abilities like Spontaneity and Fast Cast give Red Mage slightly more room to breathe after finishing their enhancing magic cycles of Refresh, Haste, Phalanx 2 and so forth. If done right, Red Mages should be able to do more than just stand around waiting for the next round of Enhancing Magic cycles for the party.

Then, to add support damage on the front lines, more Light-Armor DD Gear variety is needed to push its currently low Melee output into respectable but not overpowering damage. Some of the pieces RDM gets are often outdated for the level 90 era to be worth using much of, so a little more freedom of gear choice could help. We shared a good amount of gear with BLUs, THFs, NINs, and DNCs, so why not this time?

Finally, Enspells need a major overhaul in which they function, like adding the ability to reduce Enfeeble Resistance with them. If we want to be able to see them used, they should fulfill a niche that's worth taking advantage of on the frontlines. I don't know what SE was thinking when they made the Enspell 2 line single-hit only, but its limits are detrimental to their relevance. Making the Enspell line provide some kind of niche practical enough to be worth using in an alliance situation should be something to consider as well. If it doesn't, well, clearly it's just there to deal damage, and any other damage dealer can provide that.

So if all this can be implemented somehow, we could see some potential. Otherwise, I'm just going to sit back with the other mages, cast with my Elemental Staves, and just go whack at something as either another job, like my Caladbolg DRK, or solo on Red Mage at the end of the day. Because that's always more appropriate than just poking your sword at Orthrus, Alfard or Apademak, while hardly making a dent.

And Going semi off-topic, but in mentioning thunder-based enfeebles, I would like to throw in an idea for a new exclusive Enfeeble: Seizure. It should be Thunder Elemental, and it could provide some interesting use- "Sends the target into a self-inflicting mental shock." We haven't really seen a stand-alone enfeeble that is thunder-based and would make a target hurt itself. You have to admit, though...it would be pretty hilarious. I wouldn't mind it having a 20%-25% base proc rate, personally. Not to mention, it's something that could add some support damage if the RDM decides to Melee. It's an idea to consider for the 99 update.

I typed all this on my cell phone going on a road trip today too, lol.