Will SE ever shine light on RDM again, will SE even answer us?

[Hyrist]

Throva, if you need convincing of Red Mage not being as bad as you're pressing upon it, I suggest you go to FFXI AH and talk to the people there, in particular Portrey, who I don't think posts here anymore. It is best heard by people who are there frequently.

However, even you admit that up to 132 Red Mage is fairly incredible. Though there are some points I'd like to snip at as far as your posts go, the issue can be summarized by this statement of yours:

Rdm is a buff/enfeeble job and fails miserably at that in today's content due to the meta nm's and meta jobs.
The proposed correction: Red Mage is not a Buff/Enfeeble job. It is a support role job, similar to Corsair. The difference in diction means all the difference in function on the field. Our Enfeebles and Buffs are part of the whole that makes up our support function. It can, and in my humble opinion, should, also include all the other functions that you ruled out due to not being as good as the specialists in their field. In situations in which an additional skill-chain can mean another round of bursts from mages, I'd recommend against being too critical of the idea that a class that does not do optimal damage should outright not do damage or is not worth the slot.

But the true crux is the underlined - which is the culprit of all of this: The current meta. A lot of the current meta rely upon mechanics that are fundamentally broken, have been since years ago, and are at the peak of its struggle with players now. For example: the fact that Geomancer's Debufs have no level correction function at all, due to being unresistable, is a major flaw, especially considering their max potency.

Additionally, skill-chains were meant as a Melee function to co-ordinate with Melee as teamwork with Mages and other Melee. Scholar's ability completely bypasses this - how it got past balance checks is beyond me but it should have never existed, in my opinion.

Every other issue is describing what every other Melee has been suffering from, Accuracy, AoEs are general problems that, when addressed, Red Mages benefit from. Red mage doesn't suffer from TP generation issues - it can self-skillchain continuously if well geared. It's damage drops off due to the level correction on attack, which, if accuracy isn't a critical issue anymore, will get buffed due to more party emphasis on it.

The danger in the front lines is another issue that hits everyone - honestly, that can be something we, as a support, could address: If Square Enix balanced checked the enfeebles they weakened.

But first, again, a couple corrections this time, to the general RDM populace:
Blind II has been considered a waste of merits for many years now, that won't change with nm acc.
You know this statement to be situational at best. The condition in which Blind II is useful was niche (In situations where Evasion was neither capped or floored.) And that's why people called it useless. It was great for working with an evasion tank, and just one Merit outclassed a single percentage of Slow II when dINT dMND are equally capped. It takes quite a bit of Delay increase for Slow's scaling to outpace 40-60 additional accuracy loss above Blind I and Kura-Ni respectively and in cases where you can evasion tank, that's typically overkill, or inaccessible. That made Blind II great for low man groups on non-accuracy capped content.

I'd speculate that we need to rethink testing on Blind II's effectiveness overall due to the addition of RUN, and the increased percentage of monsters who spam attacks with internal delays not effected by slow. It would make sense that the Niche would have widened in these circumstances.

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To be clear, I do agree that the class needs a buff. However I would impress upon you to reconsider the route in which it is done. A lot of the problems about Red Mage in your eyes stem from the idea that Red Mage MUST be a specialist comparable to the ones you listed or it has no purpose, and I respectfully disagree. I've found that my experiences with the class run parallel with your statement that before ilvl132, we preform very well. I don't believe that performance should be degraded down to one or two gimmicks that justify our slot in a world where there is a lot broken with it that needs to be fixed first. If we're a part of the solution to that, or ease that solution, then we find our party slot.

Some pointers on my suggestions for Red Mage:

Phalanx II pales in comparison to Phalanx until max merits where it becomes equal at high Enhancing levels. However with Ascension there seems to be no point in the use of Phalanx II in compassion to Phalanx. Instead, I'd recommend that Phalanx II be changed from flat damage reduction number, to Damage Reduction percentage, capping at 15% at 500 Enhancing skill and 5 Merits, (tentative, that may be a little high). Balance factor is that it could count as Gear Damage Reduction and thus subject to cap. This would make it Unique to Red Mage due to being a merit spell, and address the outgoing damage output issues without messing too hard with what is pretty much considered Job Exclusive buffs.

Similarly, instead of correcting accuracy/evasion stastic, we can have Blind II add a static evasion chance calculated by dINT and enfeebling skill, up to a cap determined by Merit level. This will remove the 'overcapped accuracy' issue most NMs have due to level difference scaling and blow the niche of Blind II wide open.

As far as Slow II, it should effect all internal delays of 'TP move' normal attacks, and always should have.

Dia's line could be adjusted to include Magical Defense down. If we are concerned by the use of it through other classes, a Trait that makes this change on Red Mage (Level 51) could keep the balance between other classes in check, and give Red Mage a reason to use Dia above other classes. I also feel that Dia III's potency should grow with the number of merits, starting at 15% and growing to 19 or 20% at max merits. Alternatively, Saboteur affecting Dia's Potency would also work.

I am not comfortable with the idea of Temper line being something that can be shared with other classes. I'm sorry but they're effectively a trait a Red Mage has to maintain, not a superior version of a Corsair's roll. And 26% Triple attack does not feel like something I feel should be shared given the level of double and triple attack classes already have at their disposal. This is effectively our catch-up skill when it comes to melee performance. While I feel this may boil down to a difference in opinion However, - I do not believe Red Mage should be regulated to back-line position except when individual circumstances call for it. Making this a party buff would once again solidify Red Mage being in the back line by default in all party situations and would immediately result in me unsubscribing once again. I just flatly don't want this to happen, sorry.

There is not much else I feel needs adjusting here. Red Mage on the melee end really only suffers from attack starvation statically. We have access to the best WS and most of the gear necessary to abuse it. Yes, Taeon is weak in comparison to Herculean, but, like other jobs, we gear around our own abilities, and our spells help close parts of that gap. The rest is knowing what pieces to get where, and FFXIAH has a lot of info on that.

I strongly suggest reconnecting with people there. I can only share what I've found in my research and what little testing I've found. But the confidence exuded by those who are actually on those boards is infectious, as well as the solid data that backs it. There is still a lot that needs to be fixed. But a lot has changed for the better for the class, in my opinion.