RDM Balance ...

[ShadowViper]

Yup another one of those threads, as someone with every mage job 90 now its obvious RDM is falling behind quickly.

First what is a RDM, according to SE its the "Jack of All Trades.. Master of None". This sounds good and all but really is this what the job became. This job more so than any other job is defined by its subjob. This actually takes away from the "jack of all trades", on the battlefield. This wouldn't be an issue really if it wasn't for two newer jobs that have taken what rdm was originally designed to do and have taken it a bit further leaving RDM in an abys of uselessness. These jobs are BLU and SCH. Heres a quick list of pros of these jobs vs. RDM.

Blue Mage- Closer to the "Jack of All Trade"
Melee- Higher Sword Skill, access to more WS's, Self SC, better equipment
Healer- has better natural healing spells, also has some removals naturally
Tank- Has a variety of natural defence spells, variety of equipment
Nuker- Both Physical and Elemental based spell dmg
Enfeebler- can do alot of the same enfeebling, most with dmg on top, natural stun abilities, few new enfeebs (tp down)
Enhancer - Alot of self buffs, the ability to aoe self buff naturally

Scholar - More of a "Mage Jack of All Trade"
Healer - Ability to AOE, All removals, higher tier regens
Nuker- Higher tier spells, Helixes, Ability to increase mab/macc
Enhancer - Natural regain, enmity control spells, storms and a couple more common, Can Aoe most
Enfeebler - Few spells naturally, can AOE most black magic enfeebs

With regards to the above jobs, thats what they can do naturally w/o subs. SCH with rdm sub for instance gets most our party buffs minus Refresh 2 and all our enfeebs minus merits and Addle (give addle time since whm getting it). And with its ability to increase its accuracy with storms and strats can enfeeb almost as well as a a RDM. Blu in almost every category as good if not better than a RDM again minus Refresh 2 and more so can do it w/o depending on any particular sub allowing it to change up roles in a group.


Most of the abilities and spells that make a RDM what it is are pretty much available to any job as a sub (especially when 99 comes). The only unique spells we have are Refresh 2 (not so unique since other jobs have new refresh abilities) Composure and En2 spells. This basically gives us one benifit to the group Refresh 2, granted enfeebles are nice on some mobs but whm, sch, blm can cover most of them if we weren't there.

So what does a RDM regardless of sub shine at, Refresh 2 and Enfeebling and honestly I don't recall the last time I was asked to come to something because we needed more enfeebling. Making us really a one spell wonder, again.

Suggestions to try to balance us out with the above jobs.

Overall Melee-

• Give us same sword skill and WS's as BLU (blu will still be better melee dd because of self SC ability and variety of traits)
• Give us fencer so we aren't so reliant on sub to melee
• Improve En-spells
• Adjust composure ACC to adjust with lv or base it on % instead of straight 10 acc (good at 75 wont be as good at 99)

With the above we still wont be a true dd but we won't be so far behind that even WHM's have more melee potential than us. Also this would allow us to put to more use EN2 spells and death blossom both underated because of our overall melee capabilities.


Overall Mage-

• Give us more unique spells (only mage that has 0 unique spells- spells that aren't done by someone else or with similar effects)
• AOE versions of enhancing and enfeebling spells (having spells like haste and refresh single target forced rdms into a cycle casting mage keeping us from being "jack of all trades")

Noticed I didn't mention Cure5, With above adjustments we wont be taking away from any other jobs it will just make us more effecient at what we do which should be doing everything with out making us a master of anything. Giving RDMS aoes such as blindga/sleepga/hastega/REFRESHga2 and a few others doesn't take away from jobs such as whm or blm because those jobs already have a main job to do. SCH can also aoe most of these spells anyhow so not taking away from it since it still has alot of its own uniqueness with storms/helices.

Gear -

• Give us back our light mail
• Quit putting us on Archery Gear

Pretty self explanatory, we used to be on gear then at some lv we can no longer use certain classes of gear, doesn't make alot of sense. Again comparing with blu, blu's get to be on a variety of both mage and melee gear where rdm is on a very selected pieces or some that make absuletly no sense (archery gear).

General Spells
Not just a RDM only issue but spells like refresh 2, haste, en2, higher tier regen should be still used with sch stratugems.
Haste just simply needs to be done, yes you could aga haste an outside group but how is this game breaking, if low lv group have effects weakened/shorter (shorter i am sure does that already), again this is to break cycle casting from jobs that shouldnt' be doing it - aka not true support jobs.
2+ tier spells, for continuity just because the sch can't do it doesn't mean the function stops working.
Strats have a built in balance feature with subs from recharge time 2 min downtime making them unreliable for a constant use but nice to have to mix things up.

In the end the above would make RDM more useful regardless of sub not truly allowing us to catch up to WHM's, BLMS or pure DD's but bring us closer to BLUs and SCHs. Blu's would still outdmg us and still have their own utility with cures and such, SCH's who should get cure 5 would still get not as high of tier spells as main counterparts but we wont be so far behind them in usefulness.

ADDED-
A new ability/trait that would allow buffs we casted on ourselves to effect those around us, basically giving us an aura of that buff. As an ability would allow next spell used on ourself to become an aura. As a trait could be when weapon is drawn an aura of possibly multiple buffs (though since we can have alot of self buffs on us the effects would have to be lessen if it was multiple).

[ShadowViper]

*Reserved may break up above*

[Daniel_Hatcher]

RDM's Enfeebles are better than BLU's, also I'd go so far as to say defensively RDM still beats BLU...

As a side note, SCH has two enfeebles naturally, Sleep and Sleep II.

[ShadowViper]

SCH gets naturally dispel and Break also, thus few spells naturally.

RDM enfeebs tend to be better but blu can do just about all the enfeebs we can do while doing dmg at the same time. As for defensive, naturally w/o looking at subs blu has 2 versions of blink ( one being 7 shadows), pdt, lower quality stoneskin and a few others spells while also can set traits to help it defensively.

[Crimson_Slasher]

Most of this i agree with. Though i would LOVE to see us get some more JA too along the way personally, nothing drastic, but could be helpful, though if these went through, id like to see sch get a buff too along with this so when we get our improvements, we are further distanced from them.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

SCH gets naturally dispel and Break also, thus few spells naturally.

RDM enfeebs tend to be better but blu can do just about all the enfeebs we can do while doing dmg at the same time. As for defensive, naturally w/o looking at subs blu has 2 versions of blink ( one being 7 shadows), pdt, lower quality stoneskin and a few others spells while also can set traits to help it defensively.

Ah, forgot those.

BLU can't do all that, they are really so ridiculously limited when it comes to spells when you factor in that they must set spells they don't use just for traits.

SCH was the biggest insult, what they got should have went to RDM, WHM and BLM rather than add another job.

[saevel]

Ah, forgot those.

BLU can't do all that, they are really so ridiculously limited when it comes to spells when you factor in that they must set spells they don't use just for traits.

SCH was the biggest insult, what they got should have went to RDM, WHM and BLM rather than add another job.

Well lately SE's been in the mood to give BLU spells that are good and make nice set traits.

Auto-refresh is flashga + erasega
Dual Wield is Haste and super heavy damage spell (Q.Cont)
Attack Bonus is kinda old, cheapest combo just adds more STR / DEX
Accuracy Bonus is one of the best offensive spells in the game (Diss) and a cheap moderate damage spell (V.Dive)

DA is a toss up, useful spells cost more points, but you can get it really cheap.
With what's on the test server, store TP will be cheaper and BLU's get a crazy high damage, cheap spell that has the accuracy of sidewinder but can be spammed every 15s or so.

So yeah, of all the jobs in the game right now, BLU and MNK are probably the two more overpowered. Thankfully the games no longer about who can put out the most damage or zerging stuff down. It's about procing and getting drops, and while that tends to be class picky, its more open then back in the HNM days.

For the OP, most of what you wrote is a really good idea. Nothing too game breaking, nothing that doesn't already exist in the game. And everyone of those idea's will have the troll's in here shortly to start yelling on how we should play WHMs.

[ShadowViper]

@ Daniel - The thing about Blu is yes they can't do all those things at any one time, but what they can do is swap up playstyle/role in a relatively quick manner (1 min timer roughly for spells/abilities to become active), so BLU's aren't dependant on SJ if the group changes up what they are fighting or strat. A good blu can see what is needed during a fight reset its spells/abilties and now can cover a variety of roles nearly on the fly.

As for the trolls, if you noticed never said I want Cure5 to become better healers, I am content with 4 on RDM, SCH though should get 5. Keeping us from not getting Cure 5 Keeps us from over taking WHM roles in groups. Yeah if SCH got Cure5 they would run the risk of taking over WHM roles but again SCH is closer to WHM And BLM roles than RDM is, which we should be fine with since we are suppose to have a melee aspect also which SCH lacks.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

@ Daniel - The thing about Blu is yes they can't do all those things at any one time, but what they can do is swap up playstyle/role in a relatively quick manner (1 min timer roughly for spells/abilities to become active), so BLU's aren't dependant on SJ if the group changes up what they are fighting or strat. A good blu can see what is needed during a fight reset its spells/abilties and now can cover a variety of roles nearly on the fly.

As for the trolls, if you noticed never said I want Cure5 to become better healers, I am content with 4 on RDM, SCH though should get 5. Keeping us from not getting Cure 5 Keeps us from over taking WHM roles in groups. Yeah if SCH got Cure5 they would run the risk of taking over WHM roles but again SCH is closer to WHM And BLM roles than RDM is, which we should be fine with since we are suppose to have a melee aspect also which SCH lacks.

SCH really shouldn't get Cure V over RDM... We get them earlier which means we're more adept, it'd be a kick in the teeth if they gave it to SCH but not RDM, and outside of that even with Cure IV SCH isa much better a healer than RDM with Rapture, which turns a 450 cure into a 600~700.

[ShadowViper]

With cure 5 we become once again more of a Healer/support job as we once were before lv increase and nearly as strong as a WHM in that role. This would mean when ppl need main heals they would be looking for RDMs also which shouldnt be the case. With 5 we could easily become highly in demand again for main healing which should of never happened. Personally I would rather see us get Regenga with higher tick rates than what we currently have to allow us to help support w/o truly taking over someone elses role.