Seriously, RCD, drop the whole "Anyone can sub RDM and be just as good a healer!" line. Nobody's subbing the job for that purpose.

We've been over why before, and at best a 99 BLM would be imitating a 75 RDM. A MNK/RDM isn't landing enfeebles on fodder to help mitigate damage. Most other jobs are still limited to a light staff for cure potency boosts. /RDMs won't be curing statuses unless they're WHM or SCH. Non-MP jobs will have a pitiful MP supply for endurance. Shell V is still better than Shell II, last I checked.

It's rather short-sighted to say the mage side has been ignored, too. T2 merits weren't always there. Staves were there for a long frickin' time without even the slightest competitive martial counterpart. Yigit set, Goliard set, Morrigan's set, Teal set, Emp set, and myriad other stray pieces all promoted mage a lot better than being left off Pulawhatever, Enkidu, Aurore, and other "light melee" pieces that BLUs at least show up on. Comparatively, sub-76 spell growth for other older jobs didn't really change much, either. It took the WHM update to introduce Cura, Esuna, and Sacrifice to them with the corresponding JAs. They also helped to boost WHM's popularity while Composure did very little for our community perception. Hell, much like some feel Temper wasted, others felt the same of Composure's ACC+ element. I can't say I blame them, either, with all the collective issues that have added up against RDM.

But hey, hide behind the epeen defense, too. It's not like melee could never offer a wanted utility element. Not at all. Wait, is this where you tell people to level DNC now? Of course, the RDMs wanting to hit for more than single digits at the same time isn't a crime, either. "You're better off nuking!" "Stop feeding the mob TP!" "RDM isn't a real DD so don't bother!" Pick your flavor of BS, we've been there, done that. Melee's needed more help than mage. After all, we've had some mage aspects (in)directly nerfed. That certainly wouldn't have happened if they sucked.