[Job Adjustmentｓ Manifesto] RDM

[Supersun]

The idea of hitting more things with more swords being the direction the job should go because of what the job was in single-player games a decade ago, however, confounds me.

Well, let me ask this. What makes a Final Fantasy, a Final Fantasy?

It's not simply just sticking on the Final Fantasy name on a game. I mean there's a few games out there that brandish the name Final Fantasy yet a lot of people probably wouldn't consider them one.

A lot of what makes a game part of the Final Fantasy series is the shared expectations behind the genre, some basic commonality of the lore itself that people tend to expect in a Final Fantasy game.

Red Mage's not being proficient with the sword is probably the biggest breech of lore in XI from what's expected of the Final Fantasy series.

Now, the importance of lore varies from person to person and what each person considers an unforgivable discrepancy is different, but just because you don't consider it important doesn't mean plenty of other people do.

People bring up that Red Mage wasn't very good at melee in previous titles, but that's not an entirely accurate statement. Sure, specialized DD jobs like Mnk and War would outperform Rdm, but Rdm actually did better then other light DD jobs like Thf and *gasp* Blu.

Now I'm not saying that just because Rdm could do more then a Blu in previous FF titles that they should do more now. XI's version of the Blue Mage added a melee twist to it's backstory where it's more fitting for its stronger prowess, but this is a case of adding to the history of a job as opposed to taking away from it.

Red Mage on the other hand has only lost its history as time has progressed in this game. If you look carefully at what Red Mage had at launch and the appearance of its AF there are very strong hints that tie it into a Magical Musketeer. The Rapier and dagger specialty with the marksmanship skill along with the more formal looking garb with items named Fencer and Duelist all backed this idea of a Musketeer themed job.

This was a unique twist to the XI Red Mage. All previous Final Fantasys set as groundwork was above average white magic, above average black magic, above average melee...well, and Fast Cast. Red Mage certainly didn't obtain the rapier as the iconic Red Mage sword from other Final Fantasys and Sorcerer/Mystic Knight was the mystic swordsman.

When Red Mage was revamped though it lost all the XI specific backlore that made it special. Convert and Refresh are instead just thrown at the job with no real rhyme or reason. Nearly every other job you could ask the SE developers to map within the lore why specific jobs have specific updates and they could give you a clear and concise answer, but if you asked why Red Mage has convert and refresh I'd be surprised if they could give you a decent answer.

This is really odd considering that even now every other job is delegated buffs and abilities because they fit withing the theme of the job. I mean how many times have you read those job manifesto posts and their response is that an idea is better suited for another job or they don't want the job in response to compete with the specialist.

The problem is nearly every other job is more fitting for just about any other type of proposed idea because Red Mage has no thematic backing to claim anything as its own. The only thing that Red Mage can even attempt to claim is enfeebling, but even then SE is too scared to actually release powerful enfeebling spells that make a noticeable difference compared to what other jobs can contribute.

While they say that Enhancing is our role as well, frankly, I'm afraid that we'll only be left with the scraps after Brd, Cor, Smn, Whm, and Cors are done claiming what should be theirs and all we'll be left with are single target spells that we are expected to keep on the party of already pre-existing spells that other jobs already have more potent or AoE versions of.

I mean for crying out even Bard is getting delegated the idea of a Magic Defense down song before Red Mage.

This is ultimately the problem. You may say you are optimistic of SE's vision of the future, but let's actually look at the past. Red Mages have been clamoring for ANY sort of change over the last 5+ years and have received virtually nothing. If we continue to receive the hand me down of spells that other specialized classes have outgrown, Red Mage will be in a sad spot when content leaves abyssea.

Everything will be fine and dandy if they follow through with their manifesto post and revolutionize the job with new enfeebling and enhancing spells. You might debate whether that is Red Mage or not, but at least it will have its own lore and things to claim its own. SE's track record has shown that their bark is bigger then their bite and more often then not they under balance jobs as opposed to overbalance them. I'm going to remain skeptical of anything they say until I can see the results with my own eyes.

I'll be realistic, the only way I can see SE fulfilling their demi-god creating manifesto post for Red Mage is if they give us Haste II exclusively.

If they do that I'll be hanging up my feathered hat for good. I refuse to be put through ToA all over again.

[Duelle]

Red Mage on the other hand has only lost its history as time has progressed in this game. If you look carefully at what Red Mage had at launch and the appearance of its AF there are very strong hints that tie it into a Magical Musketeer. The Rapier and dagger specialty with the marksmanship skill along with the more formal looking garb with items named Fencer and Duelist all backed this idea of a Musketeer themed job.

This was a unique twist to the XI Red Mage. All previous Final Fantasys set as groundwork was above average white magic, above average black magic, above average melee...well, and Fast Cast. Red Mage certainly didn't obtain the rapier as the iconic Red Mage sword from other Final Fantasys and Sorcerer/Mystic Knight was the mystic swordsman.

The class would have been rather plain if it had nothing more than just auto attacks with some white and black magic. Console FFs didn't require actual synergy between different aspects of each class because the way combat was set up didn't permit for said synergy and was trivial given the way console FFs' battle systems are set up.

Looking at RDM, its versatility actually hurt the job more because, again, the different aspects of the class were not working in synergy with one another. Rather than design the class in a way that these different trades work together to help the RDM earn their spot, the devs gave us a job that for all intents and purposes was as close to a carbon copy to the console RDM as you can get from a design perspective...with shortcomings that were trivial in console games but make or break your game in an MMO.

When Red Mage was revamped though it lost all the XI specific backlore that made it special. Convert and Refresh are instead just thrown at the job with no real rhyme or reason. Nearly every other job you could ask the SE developers to map within the lore why specific jobs have specific updates and they could give you a clear and concise answer, but if you asked why Red Mage has convert and refresh I'd be surprised if they could give you a decent answer.

If you want to talk about the lore, I can tell you this: our job has next to nothing as far as XI is concerned. Someone tried to bring up Rainemard in the melee thread, but the AF story has next to nothing about RDM itself, and instead talks about a guy named Rainemard who happened to be a RDM, was an excellent swordsman and got quartered and stuffed in a box for sticking his nose where it didn't belong. That's not much to go by, really.

This is really odd considering that even now every other job is delegated buffs and abilities because they fit withing the theme of the job. I mean how many times have you read those job manifesto posts and their response is that an idea is better suited for another job or they don't want the job in response to compete with the specialist.

The main issue here is that as is so clear, we are not unanimous on what the theme of RDM is.

While they say that Enhancing is our role as well, frankly, I'm afraid that we'll only be left with the scraps after Brd, Cor, Smn, Whm, and Cors are done claiming what should be theirs and all we'll be left with are single target spells that we are expected to keep on the party of already pre-existing spells that other jobs already have more potent or AoE versions of.

This is just another example of concept and practice clashing. We wouldn't have this problem if the job was called something else and was built around a different archetype.