There we go, something I can get on board with. I've nothing against RDM Melee (I have a melee build myself for situational uses... albeit a work in progress) but honestly I'd like to enhance what we're most skilled at. This is just my opinion, however.

Anyway, regarding Karby's ideas:

JA1 - As it has been said before, I'd love to control this. Back before I had some better atma, I used Apoc for the Quick Cast, but as a result I started seeing nukes in my Fast Cast gear, or enfeebles in the same, and that always messed me up. Being able to control it would be nice, like for a quick raise or something. I would be the first to support this but everyone already beat me to the punch. :P


JA2 - For some reason I see this being named "Concentration" (since Focus was taken by MNKs, though the FFIX/X renditions had it as a BLM ability to boost magic damage). I like this as well, and it could be a nice compliment to Saboteur. However, I do see the potential to it being a bit overpowered if it's a constant effect for three minutes; it toes the line pushing RDM into nuking territory, and while we can do this to some extent, the 15% M.crit could potentially (and again I say potential because I'm not one of our mathers) be too strong. I do like the enhanced accuracy as well, but how does it compare to Elemental Seal, as a curiosity? Don't wanna necessarily push that out of usefulness either (even though we should be the better enfeeblers anyway and this would widen that gap).

I also used parentheses far too many times there.


JT1 - This one I like, especially since you can stack your more potent debuffs with Saboteur too. Would love to see Para/Slow II be more potent. Would this affect Bio/Dia too, increasing further their attack/defense down abilities? Would it affect their DoT, and on that note the Poison line as well? Just a curiosity. Because by expanding the duration and effectiveness of DoTs, it would really help our overall ability to aid in the battle by reducing HP faster (which makes a visible difference finally on these high HP mobs!) and further weakening the foe.


JT2 - Maybe just take Haste off of the list as well? I mean, I'd love to see a potency boost on Protect/Shell/enspells/Aquaveil/spikes. Though with the last two, how would that work? Would it be longer-lasting Aquaveil effect (i.e. more interrupts prevented), and more powerful spikes? Maybe a bit more elaboration would help this look more viable.


There was one other idea I was looking at, the one Duelle put up. While it might seem odd to put RDM into the double-element nukes, I like the restriction, and you could technically claim it to be "Red Mage Canon." Could be something like Dualcast/Doublecast (your choice of name) but focused on just making the dual-element nukes rather than being two rapid-cast spells. The only problem I immediately have with this is that while we have the restriction of being one tier down, it also pushes us more into BLM's territory; we're a flexible job, and while we're able to nuke, that should not become a defining role.

Maybe what I'd like to see for the dual-nukes is a further enhancement on what they're doing with skillchains; by casting these spells, you do a good amount of damage and reduce the enemy's resistance to certain elements very briefly. Yes this toes the line for NIN's line of elemental jutsu with their enfeeble effect, but I'm just tossing ideas out as I go.

Another thing that could be considered is a dual-resist drawback; each half of the spell could be subject to its own resists. As an example, let's name them after the skillchains for now, i.e. Fusion/Distortion/Gravitation/Reverberation... those would be cool spell names. Let's say you're fighting a fire mob and you cast Distortion. The water half wouldn't get resisted due to Water > Fire, but the ice half would be subject to severe resists. So let's say you get a full resist on the ice half, you'd put it down to 1/16 of its potency. The spell itself would end up having only ~53% of its potency. This would be a potentially relevant nerf to keep it from digging too far into BLM territory while still providing us with a good line of offense, especially a Dark (well dark/earth) and Light (Fire/light) nuke to give us a even more versatility.

Mind you, these are just random ideas that came to mind upon reading the whole dual-element bit. Pardon the rambling. XD