FFXI Job Direction?? Dev Team, Please Respond.

[Eeek]

I'm sorry, but if you think meaningful RDM melee will spell the end of FFXI (It's not all about damage, if you've been paying attention to any ideas floating around), that's your problem. Bad players will be bad players regardless of what happens, but to be so vehemently against adding potentially useful tools for the good players to make them that much better just has me scratching my head as it conflicts with that sense of skill and efficiency you're trying to impose of the caster-only role. We're otherwise conveying added risk should yield added reward, not more party hassles just to get people angry because someone somewhere was doinitrong.

I dislike all the melee talk specifically because it encourages the Devs to place emphasis on RDM's unquestionably worst aspect instead of augmenting the things that RDM does well and what RDM's are generally expected to do. Melee should be a hobby on the side, not the core aspect of the job. I don't want SE to ignore what actually makes RDM good in favor of melee adjustments that ultimately won't matter because it's insane to give RDM the capacity to DD as well as the specialized DDs.

Melee RDMs often get hassled because they A) pull out their swords at the wrong time, and B) are generally not geared well enough to be effective. Someone on BG make a good point a few weeks ago: if in a pickup group doing something easy (like a +1 seal NM), and a RDM pulled out an Almace and high-end melee gear, would that bother you? I thought about, and yeah, I doubt I'd mind a RDM meleeing in that situation provided the group isn't debuffed to hell and dying. It's gotta be better than a full pink melee-thing, and I appreciate someone who can think and put real effort into their gear, macros, and playstyle.

So, while you might think Cure V a good addition ...

I never said such a thing. I said:

I do think Cure5 will happen by 99.

I said nothing about Cure5 being a "good addition." I merely said that I thought it would happen.

At current, a 99 RDM/WHM and a 99 SCH/RDM aren't going to be all that different. And in the game's current climate, neither job are particularly a first choice.

Thankfully, I don't think RDM and SCH will be too similar come 99 (I also think RDM should be /SCH, not /WHM). I think RDM will skew more towards support and enfeebling while SCH will be better at nuking and crowd control (AoE Gravity on a pack of mobs is a thing of beauty, as one example).

Exit Abyssea and a RDM won't be aggressively healing while throwing out nukes. MP just doesn't support it.

I've found out, by accident, that RDM's MP supply will still be fine while healing aggressively and nuking. I've done it by accident a few times in Abyssea after infusing Merciless Matriarch instead of Minikin Monstrosity. With a 7MP/tick Refresh2 (applied with Composure, obviously) and an additional 4MP/tick in my idle set, I didn't need to make any adjustments to my playstyle. I did have to use Convert 2 or 3 times over the course of a few hours, but I didn't come remotely close to riding the timer. I honestly thought I'd have more MP issues than I actually did.

SCH conflicts through Arts use, as well. RDM's simple distinction from SCH should be the frontline aspect ...

As I previously mentioned, I believe RDM's distinctions should be in the support and enfeebling departments as well as the capacity to cast a wide range of spells without the need, like SCH, to switch arts and use charges (although this does affect RDM/SCH to an extent). SCH's better capacity for crowd control and nuking is what differentiates it from RDM in my opinion. SCH's functional limitations by arts and charges are the limiting factor which pulls it back from 'overpowered' territory. It's not as speedy and flexible as RDM and needs much more forethought.

I've never been fully comfortable using stances in FFXI as I don't like the limitations that usually come with them. This is why I don't want to level SCH, and it's why I'll likely struggle somewhat to adjust to RDM/SCH when I eventually finish leveling that subjob to 49.

We, the players, unfortunately perverted that intent into brute force healing.

And I believe players did this because RDM frankly isn't very good at melee but is a very good mage.