On Red Mage melee...

[Aleste]

Bit of blurb - Whitemages are pretty decent equipped to front line as it currently stands, they've plenty of relevant gear to do so, and a couple of spells designed specifically around front lining, also got access to mystic boon and spirit taker which rely on a whitemage not to rest, but to build TP to use.

And yet sensible whitemages don't front line (on the vast-vast majority of mobs), mostly due to the fact that it is:

A - Less efficient to do so (example: loosing out on staff m.acc bonus on your enfeebles)
B - More of a drain on mp resources (taking damage will require to be healed at some point)
C - Most mobs are not 'caster friendly'. Using heavy AOE and ailment-ga or even potent aura effects.

So, honest question (if you don't believe so, then at least humour me):

Do you honestly believe that if given a few toys that promote front lining, that it'll change how the playerbase views the job? Nay, that suddenly you'll get to front line?

Some jobs are capable of it, but don't. Perhaps it's worth a thought as to why they don't.

At the end of the day, it comes down to this:
If they give you some potent melee damage, it'll still be safer and more efficient to back line.
If they give you some nice front line aoe ability, you'll just be expected to run in, use it and run out (akin to auspice and bar-spells).
If they give you some sort of buff that helps reduce the damage you (and nearby party members) take, then your soloing capabilities will drastically improve; and that is something we've seen SE dislike in the past.

I think the trouble with redmage is that it's difficult to accurately balance a job that's meant to be a 'jack of all trades' without overshadowing the specialized jobs, and without overpowering the job itself. Personally if they did give RDM a melee buff, then it'll get used rarely.

--Edit--

Honestly, RDM would require some sort of weapon with decent damage, with a stupid amount of m.acc to match out loosing out on an elemental stave. They would then require some sort of ability for mitigating or reducing damage further than they currently have in their arsonal and also some sort of ability/spell that stops them getting screwed over by AOE-ailment moves.

Ontop of that, they'd have to carry additional relevant gear to TP and WS in...

and that's what it would take for me to be content with a redmage meleeing...