Quote Originally Posted by Duelle View Post
Red Mage was "intended" to be a generalist that could fill in needed roles in parties while sporting some semblance of versatility. That fell flat on its face when refresh entered the game, which combined with the groups that were already desperate for healers did nothing but sling mud on our job.
Healing is often a needed role in a group. Melee on the other hand... there's how many jobs that melee better than RDM *and* don't have the choice of doing anything else? Melee is basically never something a group needs more of, and if they did, they wouldn't look at a RDM for it even if it meleed better than BLU (which, unlike RDM, has an A sword skill, but would still be not that great a melee if it didn't spend MP on spells to add more damage). That's why it's important for RDM to have the option of nuking or healing decently, and not so important for us to have the option of melee (in group situations).

RDM melee is more of a solo/small group thing than something that should be attempted against VT and up, and it's pretty much always been that way for higher level RDM. Even at lower levels RDM melee is more of a bonus than something you would actually invite the RDM for. This has been our core job design since launch (in fact, since before FFXI existed at all, to the extent that the jobs draw on earlier FFs such as FFV's job system), there's really no excuse for people to try to substitute their own concept of the job for the devs' and just say it's "supposed" to be that way.

This assumes we wanted to be shackled to healing.
I don't want to be "shackled" to healing, I want to have the OPTION of being an adequate healer if that is what the party/alliance needs. That's part of the versatility of RDM. Just like I want to have the option of nuking, or the option of enfeebling (on mobs that aren't immune). Enfeebling isn't very meaningful at the moment, but SE is showing some signs of wanting to improve that in future content.

A game with 20 jobs shouldn't have only 1 of them being capable of being a viable healer for a group. That's bad game design and is going to lead to either way too many people playing the same job and the others being neglected, a massive healer shortage, or both.

On the other hand, I agree with whoever posted upthread that RDM enhancing is kind of weak compared to the real enhancing kings, BRD and COR. Not that RDM enhancing is insignificant, but it's not exactly pivotal (especially when it's made redundant by the much stronger Abyssea buffs). Maybe it could be improved, but BRD or COR level enhancing tends to become the whole job, and I don't really want that for RDM either.

P.S. Have you played any other FF games? RDM has never been more than second-rate, at best, at melee. For years, their signature ability has been to cast more spells faster than other mages, never anything melee-related. In FFV, for example, RDM doesn't have a single learnable ability that improves physical damage. The actual DD jobs are getting things like Dual Wield, Boost (the FFV versions of both of those are *much* stronger), Barrage (works a little differently but insanely strong), Jump for double damage usable every attack round, etc. There is no viable RDM melee build -- at most, you can give them a melee-supporting ability from some *other* job to give them something to do that doesn't cost MP. IIRC, pretty much the same is true in FFIII. I have no idea where people got the idea that RDM were ever supposed to have first-rate melee abilities. First-rate melee jobs don't have a B in their primary weapon.