•Unbridled Knowledge (Lv. 99) RDM

[Jeez]

It's always been my thought that it was because of RDM complaining that eventually formed BLU, DNC, and SCH. Physical attack spells? TP to do things other than ws, maybe cure? Shift more into either leg of magic depending on the situation? All of these things were RDM suggestions years ago. Since RDM itself has never been modified in such a fashion as to have that great "fighter mage" image as is suggested by everything in the game except for the way the job can be played effectively, they keep complaining. That should be obvious.

Yes, I know that attack magic is what BLU has done in previous games, which is probably why it was chosen to be recreated here. In fact, it's because BLU is everything that RDM wanted that I play it. Even though my melee damage was better than the PLD (had Enhancing Sword), that strong desire to see me standing around doing nothing prevailed. (Most people haven't heard of /ma "Cure IV" <st> apparently, and I never needed Convert) I do wish to see RDM have their complaints answered after so long even though I have little intention of playing it any more.

I thought the complaint was that it was simplistic and useless, so why are you using that as a reason to say that it shouldn't be fixed?

[Swords]

If you want complexities, play PUP or BLU, now that takes some know how, when it comes to RDM, I refresh, I haste, I cure, I regen if possible, I paralyze (II), I slow, and I blind if possible (oh and maybe pop of a nuke or two just to feel like I'm contributing other then sitting there with my thumb up my arse). I basically just nutshelled the role of a RDM, at least in Abyssea. And for those that say "Well thats Abyssea!", of course, because thats the only content that people are playing, and until that becomes obsolete, there is no point in discussing other content that I can practically solo on my 90 BLU or low man.

That's kind of an Oximoron, saying one jobs over the other simply because it's has a preconceived playstyle that differs from RDM or any other specialized job. RDM can be as complex or simple as you want it to be, same goes for BLU, PUP, or any other job.

Problem is many jobs have a predesignated setting within a group, not because of efficiency but because most players want to take the easiest route (this might coincide with efficiency but is not always the case). Once that becomes a norm, anything that goes outside of those preconceived notions instantly sends up a red flag usually with "wtf you doing" or "ur doing it wrong". RDM has fallen into this setting due to ToAU and many of even the pro-magic crowd have become bored with the drollness of cycles, and want something to spice up their gaming experience from the stagnated state that has befallen RDM (just not through melee). However, it's hard to break away from the preconceived notions without being met with opposition in one form or another.

Don't think I'm just talking about melee RDM either this goes for the mage side and can be applied to other jobs as well. In fact FFXI has had a long history of this. There was a time it was mandatory for melee's to have /THF leveled, all /NIN ever got anyone was called a "n00b", haste WAS considered negligible, and BLM's were the kings of endgame. Of course it took alot of opposition, trial, and error, but those people who stepped out of the norm eventually figured out better methods that eventually became the new norm. Even when SE came out swinging the nerf bat, players never went back to old methods they usually took on or adapted a new form of the current method even if it was more inefficient because it was the "preconceived norm".

Edit: I forgot to mention a noteworthy time when it was considered "optimal" for RDM's to come /BLM to Chainspell > Escape.

[Covenant]

Redmages ARE fighter-mages..yet early on SquareEnix has kept the, restrained by using mp pool, lowered skill levels, and constant casting cycles. They eventually gave RDM's a break with composure. However, this job has been extremely closely watched and nerf repeatedly.

Most RDM play styles are the same... Conserving MP means we are not using our tier III and IV's despite these being stronger than the few wacks of our swords and or occasional weapon strikes. We let ourselves become haste/refresh bots in normal play areas(NON-Abyssea).
Our nukes are just as strong as a bluemages, if only because we don't suffer from the same dangers of TP gain and enimity gain. Sure, a blue Mage can spam 2-4 physical spells and do over 2-4k damage but good luck getting a mob off him.

I would like to see more RDM self spells though. Not necessarily haste II(issues after all). But, things like "Magic Arrows", Phalanx III(target cast), Enspell III(think Rune/MP consumption per swing), "Magic Phalanx", etc.

[Concerned4FFxi]

I love BLU, its my first full +2/empyrean weapon job (even though Im whm4life, no point in doing empyrean on whm ill just get a k-club one of these days and use it on drk too) so I want you all to fully understand how much I love the job- with that said BLU should NEVER EVER get RR, raise, and even protect-like spells we are BLU not RDM WHM SCH.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

Redmages ARE fighter-mages..yet early on SquareEnix has kept the, restrained by using mp pool, lowered skill levels, and constant casting cycles. They eventually gave RDM's a break with composure. However, this job has been extremely closely watched and nerf repeatedly.

Most RDM play styles are the same... Conserving MP means we are not using our tier III and IV's despite these being stronger than the few wacks of our swords and or occasional weapon strikes. We let ourselves become haste/refresh bots in normal play areas(NON-Abyssea).
Our nukes are just as strong as a bluemages, if only because we don't suffer from the same dangers of TP gain and enimity gain. Sure, a blue Mage can spam 2-4 physical spells and do over 2-4k damage but good luck getting a mob off him.

I would like to see more RDM self spells though. Not necessarily haste II(issues after all). But, things like "Magic Arrows", Phalanx III(target cast), Enspell III(think Rune/MP consumption per swing), "Magic Phalanx", etc.

Phalanx is both magical and physical.

[Scuro]

Redmages ARE fighter-mages..yet early on SquareEnix has kept the, restrained by using mp pool, lowered skill levels, and constant casting cycles. They eventually gave RDM's a break with composure. However, this job has been extremely closely watched and nerf repeatedly.

Most RDM play styles are the same... Conserving MP means we are not using our tier III and IV's despite these being stronger than the few wacks of our swords and or occasional weapon strikes. We let ourselves become haste/refresh bots in normal play areas(NON-Abyssea).
Our nukes are just as strong as a bluemages, if only because we don't suffer from the same dangers of TP gain and enimity gain. Sure, a blue Mage can spam 2-4 physical spells and do over 2-4k damage but good luck getting a mob off him.

I would like to see more RDM self spells though. Not necessarily haste II(issues after all). But, things like "Magic Arrows", Phalanx III(target cast), Enspell III(think Rune/MP consumption per swing), "Magic Phalanx", etc.

That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, I'm sorry I don't care how much you THINK your elemental magic does, but no way in hell is your Tier IV is going to ever rival my BLU's Q.C or Goblin Rush. With or without TP. No nuke from a RDM can rival a BLU's, I'm sorry but either that BLU is doing it wrong, or your simply exaggerating lol.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Pretty easily inside aside from CW, outside is another matter.

[Covenant]

@scuro... I did say that blue can pump more damage, but for greater threat. Physical spell are limited by the mob your facing though. High defense/evasion can effect your damage. Though, magical resist can also affect RDM's. I DO see blue as the more "damaging" of the Mage jobs..at least physically. But all it takes for a Bluemage to go down is a silence spell and a dispel or two...the same for any Mage jobs. Physically, I think blue are more squishy then RDM's. Without /nin, a blue would drop fast, being that nearly all of their solo buff spells take forever to cast.

Really it's flavoring or play style that makes ALL jobs interesting to me. I play and level them all.

[Scuro]

I strongly disagree unfortunatly, we have Occultation which enduces a shadow like effect that is stronger then a RDMs blink. So with out /NIN we are still a better DD class and is even more apparent when /NIN is removed. Silence is remedied as all other mage classes silena, or a curing waltz. Which a BLU can easily use /DNC and use as an alternative style instead of /NIN and is actually very beneficial. Saying that is a weakness is pretty apparent and is still the same exact weakness as a RDM, so I'm not sure if thats a good argument and such. Also we do have the capability to swap into a mage nuker and I'm willing to argue, from what I've seen and done, a BLU's nukes will out-do a RDM's any day. Honestly BLU is just a balanced DD all around, magical or physical. Of course if you are going against something with magical resist, you go physical, if you got physical resist, you go magical, and we have the capability to swap to what is ever needed and do it effectively, not great, but very effective. And no they do not, Cocoon is a .5, Occultation is a .5 and animating wail is only a matter of seconds, I'm not sure what spells you are looking at to make such a claim, perhaps Voracious Trunk? Not much of a buff but it does absorb them.

[saevel]

I recently browsed through the BLU forums and wow. Just about every troll from here is a regular poster over there, guess we know where the hate's coming from.

On top of it ... their complaining about how they don't have enough damage spells and that SE should give them more offensive power. Heavy Strike is 32MP 2 set points and is 100% crit hit with a high damage fTP. Basically it's a perma SA VC for anyone who's played BLU/THF before. It was overpowered on the test server so SE altered it by giving it a accuracy penalty similar to sidewinder / slugshot, meaning its unreliably but high damage attack. And wow talk about some QQing, complaining that they can't out damage Ukon WAR's and Fudo SAM's on VWNM's now. And that SE now hates them.

Seriously ... talk about some pampered babies. They sound like the old school RNG after the nerf, or all the SAM's after abyssea was introduced (which happened to be the same set of people).