[Job Adjustmentｓ Manifesto] RDM

[Rayik]

I advocate melee RDM because it is a living, existing facet of this HYBRID job. Currently, a facet of the job is not working, so I am here voicing my opinion.

I love our mage-side. I am in no way calling for any kind of nerf to our magic, nor am I in any way trying to say that we should be melee DD's 24/7. RDM is a versatile hybrid job; not a pure mage, not a pure DD, a hybrid. One thing most of us can agree on, is that one part does not work in a group setting. Hence, the cries of the pro-melee side for a fix, since our magic is already fairly group-friendly.

Being a Pure-mage RDM is completely ignoring much of the job's versatility and the fact that it is a hybrid, and not a pure mage. If you're content to play this way, you're the one with the screwed up "vision" of the job. Play what you like, but don't fool yourself into thinking you're some kind of expert if you can't acknowledge one of the major parts of the job. Melee is there, it's in the game, it's our lore, our AF/Relic/Mythic/Empyrean/Magian weapons, it's right in front of our faces, and it doesn't work as advertised. Stick your fingers in your ears and go "lalalalala cant hear you" all you want, but it's there. If you choose not to acknowledge a sizable facet of the job, you can in no way say your "vision" of the job is correct.

Just because you happen to enjoy one side of it, doesn't make the rest of us wrong for enjoying the other. That's why I advocate fixing melee without hurting the magic.

I don't want "Overpowered", I just want "functional."

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

I think it's clear at this point even the developers don't know what the job is. Whoo, Enhancing Magic ftw.

[cidbahamut]

I advocate melee RDM because it is a living, existing facet of this HYBRID job. Currently, a facet of the job is not working, so I am here voicing my opinion.

I love our mage-side. I am in no way calling for any kind of nerf to our magic, nor am I in any way trying to say that we should be melee DD's 24/7. RDM is a versatile hybrid job; not a pure mage, not a pure DD, a hybrid. One thing most of us can agree on, is that one part does not work in a group setting. Hence, the cries of the pro-melee side for a fix, since our magic is already fairly group-friendly.

I'm think I'm ok with this so far. Magic side's doing ok, melee side not so much.

Being a Pure-mage RDM is completely ignoring much of the job's versatility and the fact that it is a hybrid, and not a pure mage. If you're content to play this way, you're the one with the screwed up "vision" of the job. Play what you like, but don't fool yourself into thinking you're some kind of expert if you can't acknowledge one of the major parts of the job. Melee is there, it's in the game, it's our lore, our AF/Relic/Mythic/Empyrean/Magian weapons, it's right in front of our faces, and it doesn't work as advertised. Stick your fingers in your ears and go "lalalalala cant hear you" all you want, but it's there. If you choose not to acknowledge a sizable facet of the job, you can in no way say your "vision" of the job is correct.

This is where I start to take issue. Melee is not and never has been a "sizable facet" of the job. Red Mage has be capable of engaging enemies, but that's not quite the same. Red Mage's claim on melee is limited to outdated and broken enspells, composure, and the names their AF sets bear. Red Mage in FFXI has never had the tools to put itself on the front line and simultaneously make the claim that it is providing more there than it would in the back. No amount of lore can change the unpleasant realities of the game mechanics, design, and the metagame that inevitably arose from them.

My vision of the job isn't any more right or wrong than your own, it's simply based in the reality of the here and now rather than the fuzzy ideals of "what Red Mage should have been"; And much is it may surprise you, I do maintain a melee build, it's just that I've found I can always do a lot more in just about every situation if I'm geared strictly for maging it up. It's not that I don't care about melee, I've simply come to terms with the limitations it has and have accepted that the mage side overwhelms it so completely that it may as well not be there. Red Mage's melee capabilities are vestigial at best.

Just because you happen to enjoy one side of it, doesn't make the rest of us wrong for enjoying the other. That's why I advocate fixing melee without hurting the magic.

I don't want "Overpowered", I just want "functional."

I just don't see how they can be made "functional" to the satisfaction of the Red Mage community without crossing the line in "overpowered". For the most part Red Mage melee is already "functional", it just has no place in the metagame because it's so inconsequential when stacked up against what Red Mage can do in full mage mode.

How would you change Red Mage so that it would be viable on the front lines without being required? Because I can't think of any way to pull it off that doesn't result in serious balance issues or fundamentally changing the job.