Practical Soultions to Issues with RDM.

[Mageoholic]

With Enhancing magic we have to look at what RDM brings to the table VS. other support classes. Yes RDM can heal, haste, cast high level shell/protect, and Phalanx 2 but is this really worth a spot when you could get a WHM to pre-shell/protect and have a SMN,COR, or BRD not only support heal/DD but provide much better performance Enhancements?

You need to look beyond the basic buffs you see at face value. Yes WHM can AoE the same buffs we have and no we are not capable of competing for a party spot based on that. What a WHM can not do however is provide individual buffs that can be job dependent. WHM can boost STR, we can gain DEX, WHM can boost INT, and we can in turn Gain MND them. Not everything in this game is cut and dry one buff fits all jobs equally. A COR or RNG for example would gain more from Gain AGI, then say boost STR, if they were in range of the buff at all.

To the second paragraph, this is why enhancing magic buffs (all of them including haste) need to scale with Enhancing magic skill, if a RDM can provide a 20% haste vs a WHM's 15% haste that is an automatic invite. Currently the enhancing magic skill boost is limited greatly to personal buffs only, there are some that can be AoE'd /SCH but the big one (haste) can not. It is in the same vein as healing magic is with /Cure IV base power being the same as a main jobs cure 4. The issue is compounded further when the best buff in the game is also granted via subjob at full potency, meaning BRD's and SMN's can cure as well as a RDM and provide its most useful buff at the same level.

Lastly I agree that RDM does need more diverse spells to use, but in retrospect we kind of already have the tools that most jobs have Dia III is a 17% attack increase Bio III is a 17% defense increase, Gravity II (if they ever let it land) is a 10% ACC increase, Blind II is a 15% evasion increase. These are similar effects to BRD and COR buffs (madrigal, minuet, mambo, minne, Chaos, Hunter's, Ninja.) and all of these stack with each other.

Again the issue is not that we don't have the tools it is that the tools are either severely limited in application (such as gravity) or are capable of being provided from /RDM (haste, DiaII + Light Shot, Bio II+Dark Shot) or equally represented by other jobs (which do not stack with us) such as NIN's level 44 Kuryami Ni.

So once again it comes back to making RDM the clear cut choice for providing these party wide buffs (or debuffs if you want) currently it is not. (with the exception of Dia III and Bio III which a COR can then extend further than Dia II or Bio II).

I do think RDM does need some other unique buffs, such as fast cast bonus, macc bonus (currently tied to Death Blossom however). But as i said earlier adding things to a shaky foundation is iffy at best.

Here is a comprehensive list of buffs and indirect buffs (debuffs) RDM has for comparison to other jobs

Dia - Attack +
Bio - Defense +
Blind - Evasion +
Gravity - Accuracy +
Haste - ATK speed up
Refresh - MP restoration
Phalanx II - Damage Reduction (magical and physical)
Gain Spells - Single Target Stat +
Temper- DA rate +

All of these stack with similar buffs that jobs like COR, BRD and SMN can provide, however until SE makes these spells work for the whole group, and on current content RDM is left with Refresh II, Dia III and Bio III, everything else can be replaced by another job.

(also just to touch on the AoE aspect, I feel Bar and Pro/Shell should remain WHM AoE only, they have to merit these spells to be better then a RDM and as such it would be sad to see WHM have 2 more useless merit options, It is a similar gripe I have against Kuryami being the same potency as a 5/5 Blind II merit spell.)

Id love to see new buffs/debuffs and secondary abilities (for healing/melee/nuking). But until the foundation of the job is fixed to the point where we are wanted for a group the toys people want to see are gimmicks, that will still likely not get us invites. As you said both go hand in hand, but you need to have the foundation poured before you can build the house.