[Job Adjustmentｓ Manifesto] RDM

[Ketaru]

You could say the same for BRD, as well.

Job traits have largely been hit or miss (mostly miss) for jobs ever since level 80. It's almost a lost cause to expect any particular job trait. If you're really serious about melee, it might be time to stop asking for things just to be consistent with a perceived job image, and start asking for things that are actually consistent with what the job has now.

If you want to frontline, you treat yourself like a 1hand weapon user like THFs or BSTs or NINs and you duel wield. Why not start suggesting something like:

Elemental Force JT
Increases Sword Enhancement magic damage and raises Magic Accuracy for the corresponding Sword Enhancement magic element.

There, a job trait consistent with inherent aspects of XI RDM, an existing archetype in Square Enix's JRPG series (we want them to put their foot down and just stick to a direction with the job already, but SE themselves are slow to let go of their "magical swordsman" image), and it serves both a frontline and backline purpose.

How about we start seeing things like that instead of traits most of us won't even have value for? But I know some of you won't like my idea because now you'll just have to start cycling Enspells to raise your magic accuracy for individual spells...Some of you have even asked for nerfs to our magical side of things.

[Quetzacoatl]

Job traits have largely been hit or miss (mostly miss) for jobs ever since level 80. It's almost a lost cause to expect any particular job trait. If you're really serious about melee, it might be time to stop asking for things just to be consistent with a perceived job image, and start asking for things that are actually consistent with what the job has now.

If you want to frontline, you treat yourself like a 1hand weapon user like THFs or BSTs or NINs and you duel wield. Why not start suggesting something like:

Elemental Force JT
Increases Sword Enhancement magic damage and raises Magic Accuracy for the corresponding Sword Enhancement magic element.

There, a job trait consistent with inherent aspects of XI RDM, an existing archetype in Square Enix's JRPG series (we want them to put their foot down and just stick to a direction with the job already, but SE themselves are slow to let go of their "magical swordsman" image), and it serves both a frontline and backline purpose.

How about we start seeing things like that instead of traits most of us won't even have value for? But I know some of you won't like my idea because now you'll just have to start cycling Enspells to raise your magic accuracy for individual spells...Some of you have even asked for nerfs to our magical side of things.

Eh, thought it was just worth a shot, y'know?

[Greatguardian]

we want them to put their foot down and just stick to a direction with the job already, but SE themselves are slow to let go of their "magical swordsman" image

Er, sorry, I just noticed this, but as far as I can tell, SE has fairly solidly put their foot down and said that Red Mage is an Enhancing and Enfeebling mage. The only reason they bring up melee at all is because so many people here post about it, and even then they clearly stated that they were looking to improve Red Mage's HNM-level party/group play and focus on its Enhancing and Enfeebling prowess.

It's a niche group of players who are keeping the "Magical Swordsman" archetype alive, that and a 10-year-old character blurb on a website that likely hasn't seen any updates to the old job sections in ... well, 10 years. Everyone else, SE included, is perfectly content with Red Mage as a Buff/Debuff master with a broad range of spells across both the light and dark spectrum.

[Ketaru]

Er, sorry, I just noticed this, but as far as I can tell, SE has fairly solidly put their foot down and said that Red Mage is an Enhancing and Enfeebling mage. The only reason they bring up melee at all is because so many people here post about it, and even then they clearly stated that they were looking to improve Red Mage's HNM-level party/group play and focus on its Enhancing and Enfeebling prowess.

It's a niche group of players who are keeping the "Magical Swordsman" archetype alive, that and a 10-year-old character blurb on a website that likely hasn't seen any updates to the old job sections in ... well, 10 years. Everyone else, SE included, is perfectly content with Red Mage as a Buff/Debuff master with a broad range of spells across both the light and dark spectrum.

Said niche group of players have been around just as long as this game has so you might also want to get used to the unpleasant reality that you share the exact same game with them. For a minority, they are extremely vocal and the ones that are vocal will get their voices heard. That is the entire point of having an Official forum.

People who post here for our magical side of things only do so only as a reaction to the people who want to push us to the front. Is wanting a melee update really so terrible? Would it be a problem to at least ask for a cost-of-living-adjustment sort of update? We did, after all, always used to have a wide range of gear selection to choose from. Did that gear selection really have to shrink after Abyssea? Is the fact that people stay so mum about our casting testament to our proficiency as a mage being A-OK? Maybe "perfectly content" is what's the problem here.

BLU got a spell that allows them to temporarily increase the Attack and Magic Attack Bonus. Where are the requests for a similar spell that allows us to raise the Accuracy and Magic Accuracy of a fellow player? Why don't we take a cue from Abyssea and ask how a spell that raises Critical Hit Damage might work? Or hell, why don't take SE's intent on giving more jobs endgame roles the whole way and get some spells that directly enhance a player's pets? We ought to be expanding the amount of jobs we can work well with instead of this systematic nonsense of excluding pet jobs simply because they don't get the full benefit of player enhancements.

Even ignoring new spells, we've still got a situation where Saboteur is problematic in how it doesn't guarantee an Enfeeble will land. That's fine, but how about at least making it so Saboteur doesn't get consumed until an Enfeeble is successfully landed?

[Manque]

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[saevel]

I couldn't care less about Fencer.

Making new enspells sound good, hopefully they fix the old ones too.

If they allow us access to more WS's that alone will fix lots.

New enfeebles that actually matter, I seriously want these.

We'll see how they go about this. Knowing SE they could screw it up badly, really badly. But their actually taking feedback and communicating now, so there is a chance whatever they implement won't be broke.

[Greatguardian]

ITT: Red Mage is a bad mage that isn't unique or user-friendly, that can and should be simply replaced by any of the myriad other mage jobs for whatever content they are doing.

ITT: Red Mage's magical aspect is a haste/buff bot with no personality or activity.

ITT: Scholar is a better mage than Red Mage.

ITT: Red Mage is only powerful during solos, which also don't count because they're cheesy.

ITT: Final Fantasy 1 epitomizes Red Mage. Oh wait. Didn't Red Mage melee suck in FF1? I guess this one was actually pretty spot on.

Seriously, all I'm getting from a lot of posters here is that they plain aren't good at Magical Red Mage. Not to worry. Most people aren't.

Camate's Manifesto response looks pretty solid, and put things a lot more delicately than I would've. I'm looking foward to Gravity II and group-oriented magical buffs.

[Seriha]

I'm still wondering about this glorious party play style that seemingly doesn't involve casting buffs or cures, because we know you're not meleeing.

[Greatguardian]

Doesn't involve buffing or curing? Absolutely not.

Limited to Haste/Cure/Refresh botting? Hardly.

Personally, I find it amazing that people can both complain about the monotony of Red Mage magical play while at the same time complaining that they're doing too much. Casting basic party buffs is such an easy task that every single good mage I know doesn't even think about it any more. It's better to apply the brainpower to the magical play that matters. If you can't find something to do between Hastes, you're not looking hard enough.

[SpankWustler]

I'm still wondering about this glorious party play style that seemingly doesn't involve casting buffs or cures, because we know you're not meleeing.

Any party play style that didn't involve casting Haste here and there or the odd Cure IV would be a pretty awful play style. They're not there for decoration, they're in the spell list so they can be cast when needed.

Also, a party play style that consists only of casting cures and buffs would get old after a bit, wouldn't it? I guess that's why spells like Dia III, Blizzard IV, and whatnot are also available to SpankWustler. Actually, I think it could out-damage Black Mage and Scholar over time for a brief time between updates/level-cap increases. Between levels 85 and 90, maybe?

New enhancing and enfeebling magic would definitely make SpankWustler more interesting to play, but even at this very moment, you have options other than being a pure healer or scampering up to a monster to flip it's Frankenfurters.

I don't understand why so many SpankWustlers who want to flip Frankenfurters think the only other option is to cast the same three spells over and over. It's not. You have many things you can cast at things.

Along those lines, more things to cast at things would certainly liven the job up a bit. Since that's exactly what SE seems inclined to add to the job, given what's been said so far, I choose to be optimistic for the future of SpankWustler.

It doesn't sound like the ability to flip Frankenfurters is being completely ignored, either. Maybe the new en-spell will be more helpful than the tier II line, which was basically "Additional Effect: Drop the Frankenfurter on a profoundly unclean floor, hope nobody notices, and put it back on the griddle quickly and covertly."

So don't worry, some poor dude at SE definitely knows you guys and your perceived need to flip Frankenfurters exists.