The Melee Mage

[Ophannus]

RDM has gotten a few residual pieces for haste but nothing really amazing. TP pieces are even worse, though not as bad now that we have Dux Head/Body which is a decent upgrade from freakin' Antares Harness. We still lack a lot of attack though. Need some kind of 15-20% self target Attack Boost/Accuracy Boost spell based on Enhancing Skill; call it Saber to match Temper(from FF1)!

[Economizer]

However, as a Red Mage, I just want to mention how insulted I am personally whenever we get front line equipment grouped together with BLM, BRD, SMN, SCH, and (to a lesser extent) WHM and not BLU, because it's as if to imply that our front line capabilities are supposed to be on par with BLM, BRD, SMN, SCH, WHM . . . and not BLU.

White Mage has weapons that are purely designed for melee as a weapon class just like Red Mage does, and at lower levels they were included on more light melee gear like Red Mage did.

Being insulted by the Rubeus Spats isn't really right, because Red Mage should get access to both mage gear and light melee gear. What a Red Mage should be insulted by is that there isn't as much new high level melee gear that is either Red Mage exclusive, light melee with Red Mage on it, or even just certain subcategories of gear that Red Mage is traditionally on.

Red Mage has gotten some nice bones thrown, like the easier to get Brisk Mask, or placed on gear like the Brego Gloves, or the Dux Scale Mail Set. White Mage is roughly in the same boat, with sidegrade level gear like the Iuvenalis Mittens. What both jobs need is more stuff like the Dusk Set, the Ogre Set, the Assault Jerkin, the Blessed Set, Holy Breastplate, and Reverend Mail.

What is nice about Red Mage is the varied access to gear that allows more roles to be carried out more easily, but of course, it would always be nice to see an exclusive set, or maybe a set made for either Sword users (PLD, BLU, RDM), or one handed melee casters (BRD, BLU, PLD, RDM, WHM), or melee white magic users (PLD, RDM, WHM) or some combo not listed here.

What would also help Red Mage a huge amount would be higher tiers of Dia, or even a attack boost skill, job trait, or even gear that has a large latent (such as gear that gives a percentage attack boost as long as enspells are up).

Personally, I'd prefer higher tiers of Dia with a Red Mage merit revamp that boosts it instead of granting the spell - Dia III can go to RDM at 61, with the spell going to WHM before 99, and then Red Mage can get Dia IV at 76~81, and Dia V at 99. Assuming the spells go up 5% per tier (with merits possibly boosting this 5% more, or increasing duration or DoTs damage), this would give Red Mage a 25%~30% attack boost to all party members, with a 10~15% advantage over White Mage and a 15%~20% bonus over subjob users of the spell tiers. Alternatively, White Mage and Red Mage could get gear that boosts Dia effectiveness, with it giving a larger boost for merits in Dia.

SE has been recently reluctant to give higher tiers of Dia out to Red Mage though (despite it being Red Mage's most powerful enfeeble) so something else might be more likely unfortunately.

[wish12oz]

unless all the Wars and Drks are afraid the Mage is going to not heal them as they do 10x more damage than the mage.

fixed that for you.

[Karbuncle]

Dat excuse!

So long as the enemy doesn't petrify or sleep, (or horrible AoEs when not considering VW with Fanatics, And with that said, Petrify Screen annuls the Pet requirement in VW.), A good Mage can Melee on most anything... Without risk of Getting raped, Or Failing to keep people a live.

Key Word: Good.

Until someone wants to explain to me how FFXI is hard or TP Feeding is bad, Going to maintain a Melee-Mage set would be fun for the situations, however slim, that they may be useful for.

Though sh*tty Mages who melee instead of doing their job need to gtfo. <3

[tyrantsyn]

There's no reason why there can't be useful melee gear for mage classes that don't normally melee. In most cases this gear would only be used in low man situation where its appropriate.

The fact that RDM has been left out off so much melee gear over the years is just sad. And really needs to be corrected.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

There's no reason why there can't be useful melee gear for mage classes that don't normally melee. In most cases this gear would only be used in low man situation where its appropriate.

The fact that RDM has been left out off so much melee gear over the years is just sad. And really needs to be corrected.

Yup, and lord almighty they have to be added back to light-armour. Seriously, I'm all for melee gear for both RDM and BLU, but if any job historically was all cloth armour it was BLU.

[Plasticleg]

gear swapping is a ban-able offence, you criminal scum

[Demon6324236]

gear swapping is a ban-able offence, you criminal scum

We need to have every BLM on the game banned immediately then, and RDM as well, and SCH. Probably most DDs, and WHMs, and don't forget BSTs. So I guess just about 90% of the games player base is deserving of bans.

[tyrantsyn]

gear swapping is a ban-able offence, you criminal scum

I get jokes

[Demon6324236]

I get jokes

Well I would have seen it as a joke if I had seen anyone in this thread popping out with the normal spew of "Gearswaping is the act of the devil >:O" kind of posts, didn't see any so the sarcasm seemed less likely.