[Job Adjustmentｓ Manifesto] RDM

[Aequis]

As I said in my post on the main manifesto discussion, I was confused as to why exactly we were being referred to as "Support specialists who excel at transforming their allies from mere mortals into demigods with their enhancements". Corsair, Bard, Summoner and even White mage have more enhancing capability than we do, so this statement shows just how little SE understand their own game and how distant they are from the playerbase.

To be honest, I am a true support Red mage and an enfeebler. Have been for seven years or so since I started playing FFXI and it was my first Lv.75 job. To all of you that enjoy melée or tanking, all power to you and continue to push our job to its limits. That's one of our strengths; the flexibility. SE does continue to confuse us by doing such things as showing off the Sagasinger with a Red mage.

What I personally would ask for though, are more enfeebling and enhancing spells. Addle will no longer be exclusive at Lv.96, as White mages will be able to use it then. What most of us don't want is to just get recycled stuff from other jobs - we want our sense of identity back, and for Corsair, Bard, /rdm and Scholar (especially bloody Scholars) to stop being gifted things that were once our forté.

I had an idea similar to the one mentioned about aurae, but it would work like Avatar's Favour. The issue I think the original poster of the idea didn't realise is that, if you want to be freed from the backline, having a Refresh aura for example, isn't going to let you do that. It's going to have to be some other effect like a mini Fast Cast aura, spell interruption rate or any number of other crazy things you could imagine. This would put us back into Abyssea parties, and would also give us something new that other jobs don't have (yet).

SE have already used this same code with items like Mextli Harness and the "Sphere" system. Depending on what your role and your playstyle are, there could be a few different aura spells. We have the fortitude to stand frontline - even temporarily - and give a Paladin their aura, for example.

[Doombringer]

well, the way i look at it.. we have more melee related buffs than mage. so i'd see an rdm aura'ing haste, phalanx, enspell, and gain-str or dex. then maybe regen2, refresh2 (in case you have any blu pld or drk around, but mainly cuz you'd be casting it on yourself anyway, so... free refresh aura) and a bar or 2 if needed.

i know that sounds like a lot but considering we're using composure, and we'd only have to cast on ourselves anyway, it's not a particularly heavy load.

then all any mages really need from you is refresh2, and that's assuming the aura range is to short for them to safely be within it.

sure it hasn't completely eliminated cycling, but it has SEVERELY cut it down.

[Seriha]

I had an idea similar to the one mentioned about aurae, but it would work like Avatar's Favour. The issue I think the original poster of the idea didn't realise is that, if you want to be freed from the backline, having a Refresh aura for example, isn't going to let you do that. It's going to have to be some other effect like a mini Fast Cast aura, spell interruption rate or any number of other crazy things you could imagine. This would put us back into Abyssea parties, and would also give us something new that other jobs don't have (yet).

Yeah, an aura alone is not a solution. A nicety in cutting cycle blah, yes, but from the support perspective, it basically translates to saving X amount of MP by merely changing where you stand.

As is, my take on it was that the aura range would pretty short, like 5 yalms in any direction, for a total of 10 from the farthest points. Short of huge mobs, this would be more than enough space to his everyone else swinging with Haste, Refresh, Phalanx, Regen, and an Enspell. However, "melee" is a still missing ingredient in this, to which some have felt TP should be a cost in perpetuation (1-3 per tick), while I look at at it more as possibly using TP to further buff the buffs, so maybe 20% from the Haste spell is possible, Phalanx could get another 10 -DT or even straight up -DT%, and so on. The concept could also apply to debuffs and nukes, basically giving us a potential stance system where you could be playing more defensively while offering your offense, or going all out to further cripple a mob and do a bit more damage.

[cidbahamut]

Aura is actually pretty terrible from a support perspective, because if I'm filling a support role I want to be out of AoE range, and I somehow don't see them giving us an aura that hits players beyond spellcasting range.

[Seriha]

Aura is actually pretty terrible from a support perspective, because if I'm filling a support role I want to be out of AoE range, and I somehow don't see them giving us an aura that hits players beyond spellcasting range.

Then you just cast from range if that's the concern. Overall, the idea offers some MP savings, gained timed to swing without relying on a full set of gear, and the ability to plant buffs on others we either can't or would need a specialized sub for. Distance is, and has been an advantage for a long time. It technically doesn't need "more" to maintain an advantage.

[cidbahamut]

Then you just cast from range if that's the concern.

So basically this will never be useful on anything that matters then.

[Seriha]

So basically this will never be useful on anything that matters then.

By all means ignore the perks with consideration of current spells and mechanics, but as a piece of an overall greater update? Yeah, get out from under that bridge.

[Swords]

Well there would have to be some sacrifice or drawback, and really there is not anything you can do with RDM that does not step on someones toes in terms of mechanics or gameplay.

[Supersun]

Well they sure aren't going to be giving us hastega. Besides, something like this is more naturally aimed for monsters where enfeebles aren't as needed.

[Hyrist]

Necroquote:

That's just the thing, though. What is so wrong with simply getting full AF3+2 to increase buff duration? Job fixes and enhancements don't have to be universal. There has to be a legitimate difference an awesome, well geared RDM and a full AF1 RDM that doesn't use macros.

Nothing wrong in getting it, it just defeats the purpose of scaling.

You mentioned Blink Tanking Vs Paladin and used Ochain as a refrence on making them an awesome tank.

But you forgot the unilateral adjustments to Paladin to Sentinel, Rampart, and all the other tweaks and toys they've given to Paladin in hopes to close the gap verses evasion/blink tanking. O-Chain may seal the deal for many, but it wasn't the grand total of what they gave PLD.

RDM, however, has been in a drought of buffs to their primary role. With the only thing before the level cap increase we received was Composure, which assisted ourselves great but did nothing else for the party. And EnII, which was too little, too late for melee debates, as the only level range EnII's are actually effective is 51-70, before the bottom drops out beneath it due to horrible mechanics.

Saboteur was nice, except that it doesn't work on NMs the way it should, and most NMs are still near fully or fully immune to the debuffs Saboteur would matter on. Refresh II, however, is expendable. If anything all I've seen between Refresh II and Abyssea is that players are unlearning how to control their MP expenses. Not that I don't mind the extra MP to give away, but it's no game changer.

No there really needs to be a reworking of Red Mage to make it into the image they're advertising now. I don't care so much about the Melee aspect as much as I do about the general functionality of the job. Melee can be (and likely will be unavoidable to be) included in this aspect, especially for use in low-man content, where I believe it should be applied. But that can be a part of a more global revamp for a job that just seems to be given the scraps at this point.