[Pipe Dream] Revamping Red Mage Merits

[tyrantsyn]

The problem I have with meritable spells is that it works for certain jobs, but RDM being a hybrid happens to not be one of them. It simply doesn't fit given the dual nature of the job.

It works well for SMN because you can kinda of show which Avatar you lean toward or preffer. It kind of works for BLM because of elemental alignments and whatnot...until you realize almost every BLM goes 5/5 Elemental Seal Recast and either 5/5 Ice Potency or 5/5 Lightning Potency to compliment 5/5 Freeze II or 5/5 Burst II because that gets you the most bang for your buck when it comes to merits (which means Flood II, Flare II, Quake II and Tornado II are wastes of space, as are Fire Potency, Water Potency, Wind Potency, and Earth Potency). They had the right ideas, but the system they built the merits on top of was not a good system.

Nothing is written in stone. And there really isn't any reason why we couldn't have both spell's and merit-able melee trait's/abilities added in. But you lost me on the whole merit~able spell not working for RDM. The current spell's don't work, but something original and native to just RDM could bring out some shine to the job. And if done right, could bring some use to the job in party/alliance situation's.

[saevel]

No spell should be meritable, instead you should have meritable enhancements to those spells.

Make Slow II a scroll, the spell would have the same potency as 1 merit upgrade. Change Slow II merits into "Enhances Slow" with each enhancement giving +3 mag.acc +3% potency. Thus you will always have all your spells, but merits would enhance them further and the enhancements would apply to all spells of that family. SE could then create Slow III / Paralyze III and so forth, the merit enhancements would still apply to them.

Phalanx II could turn into a scroll with a 3 min duration (standard for all RDM buffs), then turn the merit into "Enhanced buff potency" that would increase the potency of enhancing skill based buffs (Enspell / Phalanx / Stoneskin / ect..) by various amounts. This way you would still have Phalanx II as a spell, but also have a method to raise the potency on all your variable enhancing magic spells (not Haste / Refresh / Regen).

WHM and BLM should get the same treatment.

[tyrantsyn]

No spell should be meritable, instead you should have meritable enhancements to those spells.

Make Slow II a scroll, the spell would have the same potency as 1 merit upgrade. Change Slow II merits into "Enhances Slow" with each enhancement giving +3 mag.acc +3% potency. Thus you will always have all your spells, but merits would enhance them further and the enhancements would apply to all spells of that family. SE could then create Slow III / Paralyze III and so forth, the merit enhancements would still apply to them.

Phalanx II could turn into a scroll with a 3 min duration (standard for all RDM buffs), then turn the merit into "Enhanced buff potency" that would increase the potency of enhancing skill based buffs (Enspell / Phalanx / Stoneskin / ect..) by various amounts. This way you would still have Phalanx II as a spell, but also have a method to raise the potency on all your variable enhancing magic spells (not Haste / Refresh / Regen).

WHM and BLM should get the same treatment.

I agree, with the way the spell's are currently set up they suck. The idea to be able to apply a bonus to the spell after it's base stats would be a step in the right direction. But were still dealing with SE ideal's of enfeebling magic cause's game balance to explode and I'm not so convince that applying bonuses to enfeeble's would jive with there way of thinking. It's a really nice idea tho. And would push RDM into it's master en feebler role.

Edit: In super wonderful land, it would be nice if we could just merit enfeebling magic over all. While individual spell's are great, being able to apply a bonus of 3% potency and Macc to spell like Bind and Gravity on top of slow and para would be super sweet. Instead of just marrying us to the one spell.

[Duelle]

Nothing is written in stone. And there really isn't any reason why we couldn't have both spell's and merit-able melee trait's/abilities added in.

As I see it, it's firslty because of limited space. Secondly because you can't take the same approach to BLM merits and expect it to work for RDM. It simply doesn't. Thirdly it's because our job borrows things from other jobs, so unique has no real place in it and instead merits should focus on application of what we borrow and support of our individual playstyles. My suggestions keep all of this in mind because I know there are guys who wish to get casting boosts, just like I would want additional melee boosts.

But you lost me on the whole meritable spell not working for RDM.

The idea was that other players were supposed to say "gasp, that Red Mage merited blind II. We could call him a specialist in Blind!". Instead it's "put points in Slow II, Para II, Dia or Bio III, and Phalanx II or GTFO".

To close, spells in merit categories supports caster RDM and ignores the melee camp. I'll never get behind that type of design.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Eh, Blind was just useless on stronger mobs and not really needed on weaker ones. -accuracy from blind would need to be increased drastically, similar to Blind from Wyrms, or maybe half that.

[Duelle]

Eh, Blind was just useless on stronger mobs and not really needed on weaker ones. -accuracy from blind would need to be increased drastically, similar to Blind from Wyrms, or maybe half that.

What I was getting at is that people were supposed to ooh and ahh at the merit choices, but instead said choices were ignored and only the best of the best was picked. Or, in the case of RDM and BLM, the best bang for your buck.

[Sarick]

Category One
Augments "Composure" - Increases duration of enhancing magic on party members by 10% per merit upto a maximum of 50%.

Convert Recast (you all know this)

Enspell effect - Increases enspell damage by 5 per merit upto a maximum of +25

Fastcast Effect - Increases Fast Cast by 2% per merit upto a maximum of +10% Fast Cast.

Refresh Effect - Increases Refresh Effect and Duration

• Adds +1 MP per every two merits and a 20 second duration increase.

Phalanx Effect - Increases Phalanx Effect and Duration

• Adds +3 Damage reduction per merit level upto a maximum of +15

Augments Enfeebling Magic - Enfeebling magic occassionally activates with 100% accuracy and augmented bonus's.

• +10% accuracy per level upto a maximum of +50% chance. Spells are randomly augmented as such.
  • Slow - Occasionally grants a temporary STOP (like Terror)
  • Paralyze - Occassionally grants a temporary Amnesia.
  • ETC

Enhances "Composure" Effect - Increases melee accuracy and adds a Haste effect.

• Adds 3 Accuracy per merit level upto +15 and 2% JA Haste upto +10% Haste Effect.

Category Two
Renew - (JA) Restarts all active spell duration timers. (Recast: 3.00) - Additional merits increase duration by 10 seconds per merit.

Runic Blade (JA) - Absorbs the next spell into the blade for later use (Recast 5:00 - Additional merits increases damage by an additional 10%.

• Absorb the next spell cast by the enemy into your sword which then can be expelled in one of the following:
  • MP Recovery (Converts DMG that would have been delt ignoring any reduction items or traits into MP. (DMG / 12)
  • Magical Potency (Doubles the damage/potency dealt by the next spell) (works for Enfeebles as well)
  • Enspell Damage (Enspell damage is improved temporarily bdoubling damage until the Temper charge is consumed)

Temper II (Spell) - Grants the ability to occassionally double attack. (Party Targetable) - Additional merits increase potency.

Faith (JA) (Duration 1 minute - Recast 3 minutes) - Increases magic Accuracy and Potency - Additional merits increase magic accuracy by +3 and MAB by +2 per merit.

• Base stats: Magic Accuracy +10 Magic Attack Bonus +10 (Can not be used with Bravery and shares a Recast Timer)

Bravery (JA) (Duration 1 minute - Recast 3 minutes) - Increases Accuracy and Attack - Additional merits increase accuracy by +3 and Attack by 2% per merit.

• Base stats: Accuracy +10 Attack +10% (Can not be used with Faith and shares a Recast timer)

Previous spells will become Scrolls.

I like category 1 but category 2 no thanks.

These two are better suited for category 2.

• Phalanx Effect, (replaces Phalanx II)

• Augments Enfeebling Magic

Too much stuff in category 1, Frankly category 2 is a mess IMHO.

Runic Blade would be better off as a trait that enhances magic potency and magic accuracy with a sword or dagger equiped. The main issue I have with RDM enfeebling etc is the mage needs silly staves. If the dagger/swords we use could be enhanced by a trait to make them as good or better on main hand no one would be forced to use staves on RDM again. The problem is all the accuracy and potancy lost if we equip a sword or dagger.

Come on SE there needs to be a low level trait that makes it worth equipping swords or daggers on a red mage over staves or wands. We're kinda gimping ourselves in the mage part if we have a sword or dagger equipped. Likewise, equipping a staff makes melee compatibilities garbage.

[Sarick]

No spell should be meritable, instead you should have meritable enhancements to those spells.

Make Slow II a scroll, the spell would have the same potency as 1 merit upgrade. Change Slow II merits into "Enhances Slow" with each enhancement giving +3 mag.acc +3% potency. Thus you will always have all your spells, but merits would enhance them further and the enhancements would apply to all spells of that family. SE could then create Slow III / Paralyze III and so forth, the merit enhancements would still apply to them.

Phalanx II could turn into a scroll with a 3 min duration (standard for all RDM buffs), then turn the merit into "Enhanced buff potency" that would increase the potency of enhancing skill based buffs (Enspell / Phalanx / Stoneskin / ect..) by various amounts. This way you would still have Phalanx II as a spell, but also have a method to raise the potency on all your variable enhancing magic spells (not Haste / Refresh / Regen).

WHM and BLM should get the same treatment.

I agree with 10000%

[Duelle]

Runic Blade would be better off as a trait that enhances magic potency and magic accuracy with a sword or dagger equipped. The main issue I have with RDM enfeebling etc is the mage needs silly staves. If the dagger/swords we use could be enhanced by a trait to make them as good or better on main hand no one would be forced to use staves on RDM again. The problem is all the accuracy and potancy lost if we equip a sword or dagger.

I whole-heartedly agree here. This should have really been implemented when the level cap was first raised, if only to save the people who toiled away at the magian staves the time they spent. Wouldn't really be detrimental to me, as I suffer from staff allergy.

Come on SE there needs to be a level 50 trait that makes it worth equipping swords or daggers on a red mage over staves or wands. We're kinda gimping ourselves in the mage part if we have a sword or dagger equipped. Likewise, equipping a staff makes melee compatibilities garbage.

Edited and bolded for emphasis. Well, as a baseline trait. Doesn't really fit as a merit.

[hideka]

You can have my Phalanx2 merits when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.

phalanx II is horrible >_> if your in a situation to phalanx II someone you should be /scholar, and if your /scholar you should be AOEing Phalanx 1.