What would you want out of rdm melee gear?

[Crimson_Slasher]

Just to re-voice my opinion, because it is the bane of all melee arguments, we need gear to directly enhance our damage, preferably weaponskills, as its clear, no other job will care if we output double their DOT on the tp phase, if our weaponskills just dont cut it on the ws phase, it would take easily the DOT power of 3-4 heavy DD jobs to make it matter and unless we are to be the polar opposite of blu (who deals melee damage via spells) where we do magic damage damage via our autoattacks, or some hundred fisting monster job, we need a little more bite to our ws, bar empyrean weapon/ws. No matter what it always comes down to people saying WHM can hexastrike harder, brd can evisceration harder (with the right gear), and so-forth.

[Yandaime]

I still think its hilarious that a BRD can put on Hecatomb Gear and *THROW DOWN* if it wanted to and make up for any lacking of natural talent with Singing Abilities xD. Actually, WHM can do it too altho not as bad as BRD can. Could you imagine a little quire boy giving your DD a run for its money? Think I might risk leveling the slave job just for the chance to piss some DDs off now... xD Anyone been in an old ToAU DD burn in Bhaflau Thickets with a 3 BRD-DD Burn? They really do kick ass. I've also heard of 3 WHM-DD 2 BRD 1 RDM/WHM-Healer doing some serious xp back then too, would probably own shop in Abyssea.. (who wants to bet money the RDM was super upset?)

Sorry for the Derail but yea...
BRD Melee > WHM Melee > RDM Melee... Its so wrong but so funny as the same time.

[Hyrist]

Problem with that argument, even though I fully support better WS gear, is that we have absolutely no clue what WS adjustments Sword and Dagger are getting.

Once we know where Weapon Skills are headed, we'd have a better idea what gear to request to better it. Honestly, having BNS on Weapon skills most people won't care who melees until we get to the really hard mobs, but even then, people would just either TP on other mobs and go in to WS (taking advantage of whatever regain abilities DNC and COR have in this respect.)

If SE globally makes Skill Chains and Weapon Skills better a whole lot of the anti melee debates in general will die off.

[Crimson_Slasher]

I am glad brd has the option, this is a game where all jobs are/were ment to melee, and well...skillchain...but yeah i feel all jobs should have some sort of direct damage contribution in ffxi, whm clearly has weak nuking power, but passable melee, as does brd, rdm does outside of abyssea, but in those terms, its drk, point for point that is the best analog, outside, hits okay versus the other jobs, but inside due to lack of high-tier daggers(axes for drk) and lack of crit ws for main weapons it leaves some to be desired, and i have to try it, but i bet my ws gear with vorpal blade (and some DA only gear/atmas to see what dual wield damage would yield) would put us closer to brd, id also like to see a companion buff (or possibly accent) to temper, possibly granting an attack, or acc, or haste buff when under the effect of composure.

[Hyrist]

I'm of the mind that at 99 Temper as it is right now is designed to give us 15% Double Attack, which is fine by me.

Pair that off with higher WS numbers and better gear, and the possibility of meriting up Temper Rate and/or Enspell damage and I'd be in a comfortable place with it, so long as the limitations on Meriting would allow me to keep the things I currently have mage-wise.

Because, a lot of the problems about RDM melee stem from the exact same problems Swords as a weapon class have, and if that's adjusted to be comparable, then we improve with that. Factor in the use of Gain STR or Gain DEX and the impact of that on our WS/TP equipment, which will hopefully improve as the levels go up, and I don't see us being in a bad position, Melee wise.

[tyrantsyn]

Here's another thought, A set of gear or piece's that allows you to have multiple gain spells up at a time.

[Hyrist]

I'd rather that just as a job adjustment. We're only able to cast them on ourselves so why not allow us to have two on? Like STR and DEX or INT and MIND?

[tyrantsyn]

I'd rather that just as a job adjustment. We're only able to cast them on ourselves so why not allow us to have two on? Like STR and DEX or INT and MIND?

I thought the same, but it's a gear thread so just sticking to topic.

[Hyrist]

Well, gear wise in that department I'd rather have something like "Augments Enhancing Magic." An litterally have it be that general.

And what it does is modify the equation for our enhancing spells up so that it takes less Enhancing Skill gear to gain more potency, or adds a flat amount of potency to all spells.

With Enspells, Temper, And Gain spells that'd transfer back into our melee performance in spades. And if it was more general to add potency to our spells, could work with Refresh and Haste as well for others.

[Seriha]

I don't think you'll ever see multiple Gain spells active since it'll likely mean WHMs can do Boosts, too. WHMs aren't exactly slouches one Enhancing magic these days, and I doubt SE would be keen on basically 20+ all stats for everyone outside of Abyssea.

As far as our damage split in the TP/WS department goes, I'd actually like to see our TP phase get the biggest attention. Part of it is a gear problem, yes, as us going balls out Haste usually means lacking ATK/ACC. Part of it is a mechanics problem, like T2 enspells or the poor aging of enspells in general. And if they tweaked Death Blossom's added effect to be worth a damn, it might be worth something as a utility WS while those more concerned with damage can go for CDC. Either way, better the TP phase gets, the less ground the "TP Feed" detractors have to stand on.