What is RDM all about?

[saevel]

RDM is in a weird place right now. Well actually it's been in a weird place since 2004. It's not the best at anything, the job concept is you want one part WAR, one part WHM, and one part BLM and cram them together. What you get is a job that is capable of multiple roles but not the absolute best at any of those roles. Of course MMO's are about stat whoring and min/maxing, or at least there is a small yet vocal minority of the game who preach this as gospel. Previously the min/maxers figured that you could take a single RDM, couple them with a single BRD and throw in four melee's to get the maximum damage output and thus XP while having the minimum support requirements. RDM became this zombie healer that wasn't particularly good, but had the MP stamina and was "good enough" to get by with. Since the level cap has been raised, without Cure V we can't solo heal a group and the min/maxers see absolutely no reason to bring a second job that can cast "cure".

That pretty much outlines whats going on. RDM can deal damage but it requires lots of dedicated gear and swaps and more then good dose of common sense and judgement. The hybrid style of play has been discouraged so fervently since 2004/2005 that there never was a good guide written on it. And that's a different discussion all together.

Anyhow, play the job your most comfortable with. Contrary to the barking, RDM is not useless at "end game", far from it. "End game" now actually consists most of VWNMs and Abyssea. Abyssea being whittled down to four ~ six "useful" jobs total and VWNM's being fun yet unrewarding. In both events I tend to be ridiculously busy and constantly changing tactics / roles. It's not easy and it's not cheap but it's hella fun.