[dev1102] So what is the Ultimate Spell for RDM?

[ShadowViper]

Maintaining your self buffs is pretty easy with Composure + Emp+2 feet and cape. The only part that sucks is when they go, they tend to all go at the same time. Murphy's law being what is it, it will always be the absolute worst time for them to fall.

I would absolutely love giving others my super buffs. I would absolutely loath spending all my time staring at recast numbers counting seconds till I can spam the next buff on generic melee DD #4. Cycles suck the fun right out of the game.

I dont mind the cycle if its a variety of spells to improve the group the problem with the cycle casting that I have is we are constantly waiting ont he recast of the same spell so we can cast it on the next person, even though duration has improved its still cast on each individual player till they have it so you eat up a few minutes or recasting 1-3 spells (fitting spells in between the recast of another). Having AOE buffs of some sort, aura, self cast applies to surrounding, or target another member and apply to their surroundings) is the best way to solve this issue and looking at the format set for the other starting mages it also makes sense for the rdm to do this.

One of the most frustrating things about the job years ago for me was when buffs started going down and because you cured someone or raised or ssomething and your cycle was off a few seconds someone would have to remind ya that it just went down, even worst when your back to the cycle and haven't made it to that person and your waiting on the recast of the spell and they are complaining about not having it. Or your fighting a mob that has dispel haven't finished your cycle onto all dd of haste then then someone you already casted says they were dispellled and need it again and they dont get your still casting on others.

Alot of rdms get mad that sch was added, I think it was a much needed job, more of a pure mage closer to whm or blm than rdm which would allow rdm to melee more and be closer to what a blu is but instead of DMG focused fighter be more of a support focused fighter, the problem though is now sch can AOE are self cast buffs with proper sub we still can't do it naturally due to lack of 'gas of those spells.

Cycles do suck but it sucks when its a cycle of the same spell just to get it onto every member.

The thing that is most missed with RDM is we are truly the only job that is defined by our sub which is a horrible concept. WHM can go w/o a sub or w/ a dd sub and its still able to heal and do its job. DD can have any sub including a mage sub and its still a dd may not be as effecient but its still doing its main role. RDM now more than ever is so dependent on sub that if you come /whm you have already told the group your a healer you come /blm your there to help nukes or stun, /sch to be a bit more flexible but still most /sch ask what role they are needed as to set light/dark arts any /dd and you came to melee, but yet non of that has anything to do with our top skills of enhancing and or enfeebling. Every other job subs help enhance their group role or add more utility, this includes other hybrid jobs.

[Duelle]

Maintaining your self buffs is pretty easy with Composure + Emp+2 feet and cape. The only part that sucks is when they go, they tend to all go at the same time. Murphy's law being what is it, it will always be the absolute worst time for them to fall.

Problem is really that the more important buffs go down together. Enspell, Haste, Temper, Phalanx and Spikes all have the same duration. The reason I like renew so much is because it would solve that problem with ease, as it is a self buff that resets the duration of buffs on you. I would obviously tweak it (have it not affect Blink, Stoneskin, Protect, Shell, Reraise for one), but it would certainly make the prep period we need to buff up less of a hinderance in terms of upkeep.

[Kristal]

Protect, Shell and Reraise (long-duration buffs) aren't affected by Composure, so Renew wouldn't work on them either. Blink, Aquaveil and Stoneskin aren't a problem, because it would only affect duration, not remaining charge.

Bit off-topic:
Maybe RDM could get unique tier II enhancing spells like we did with Phalanx II:

Blink II : absorbs more attacks, aoe only consumes one shadow
Aquaveil II : absorbs more hits, regenerates over time (+1/tick, unless hit for >0 damage in last 3 seconds)
Stoneskin II : absorbs more damage, regenerates over time (+25/tick, unless affected by slip damage)

[Daniel_Hatcher]

Protect, Shell and Reraise (long-duration buffs) aren't affected by Composure, so Renew wouldn't work on them either. Blink, Aquaveil and Stoneskin aren't a problem, because it would only affect duration, not remaining charge.

Bit off-topic:
Maybe RDM could get unique tier II enhancing spells like we did with Phalanx II:

Blink II : absorbs more attacks, aoe only consumes one shadow
Aquaveil II : absorbs more hits, regenerates over time (+1/tick, unless hit for >0 damage in last 3 seconds)
Stoneskin II : absorbs more damage, regenerates over time (+25/tick, unless affected by slip damage)

Problem with this is unless they are party targetable it's a waste of a spell slot when these should just be the benefits of enhancing skill on the main spells.

Blink could be 3 shadows (as you can see I upped it to 3 of the bat) upto 300 skill then change like so:

4 @ 350
5 @ 400
6 @ 425
7 @ 450
8 @ 475
9 @ 500 (cap)

I'd also have AoE absorb upto 4 shadows and block the damage.

Stoneskin's cap should be upped to 450 upto 550 with Gear

Aquaveil is an odd one as I don't currently know the limits.

For me as far as RDM goes it should go: Tier I (the strongest) is self-target only, Tier II (the weaker version) should be party-targetable, so as I said Stoneskin II, Temper II etc... Should be party targetable with a semi-long duration but a bit weaker effects. (10~ DA) (350 StoneSkin) and so on.

[idx1]

The ability to change job on the field to something more useful.

[Duelle]

For me as far as RDM goes it should go: Tier I (the strongest) is self-target only, Tier II (the weaker version) should be party-targetable, so as I said Stoneskin II, Temper II etc... Should be party targetable with a semi-long duration but a bit weaker effects. (10~ DA) (350 StoneSkin) and so on.

The issue I have with this line of thinking is that the moment we get it it becomes our responsibility. Since these are buffs and could possibly work with Accession, we then become handcuffed to /SCH, which means bye bye melee gear and melee sub. I'd rather both options become useful before we start getting spells like that.

[saevel]

The issue I have with this line of thinking is that the moment we get it it becomes our responsibility. Since these are buffs and could possibly work with Accession, we then become handcuffed to /SCH, which means bye bye melee gear and melee sub. I'd rather both options become useful before we start getting spells like that.

And offensive buff that is other target-able but not aoe is going to shackle RDM back into cycles. SE won't be giving RDM any such buffs.

I'd hope any "ultimate spell" would be some bad a$$ nearly broke enfeebling magic. Impact was actually a good idea, -20 to all stats. Attaching it to a piece of gear for "every mage" and making it ridiculously expensive while leaving it underpowered is what kills it. They could create a single spell that needs to be case under Sab and inflicts -40~50 to all stats.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

The issue I have with this line of thinking is that the moment we get it it becomes our responsibility. Since these are buffs and could possibly work with Accession, we then become handcuffed to /SCH, which means bye bye melee gear and melee sub. I'd rather both options become useful before we start getting spells like that.

These would be RDM only so they wouldn't work with Accession, SE already said we wont get AoE, but we have spells like Haste and Phalanx II so the argument they don't want us to self-target buff goes out the window as much as I hate Cycles.

[Asymptotic]

The issue I have with this line of thinking is that the moment we get it it becomes our responsibility. Since these are buffs and could possibly work with Accession, we then become handcuffed to /SCH, which means bye bye melee gear and melee sub. I'd rather both options become useful before we start getting spells like that.

"I don't want spells that give players motivation to invite me because I want to melee."

[Duelle]

These would be RDM only so they wouldn't work with Accession, SE already said we wont get AoE, but we have spells like Haste and Phalanx II so the argument they don't want us to self-target buff goes out the window as much as I hate Cycles.

Which means we're stuck on cycles again. We should move forwards, not backwards.

"I don't want spells that give players motivation to invite me because I want to melee."

More like "I'm sick of RDM only being about casting stuff on others all the time with little else to bring to the table, especially when taking into account that the job is a hybrid and not a one-trick buffbot". If RDM had the option to tail one other DPS, use haste (or refresh, if you're into that sort of thing) on them while I melee, WS, toss some off-heals, remove status ailments off both of us (/DNC) and had some way to weave nukes in there, and said gameplay was open for more than just duo/campaign/abyssea parties, then I might be a little happier with where we stand. It isn't because of "lolmeleeRDM" and due to not being "efficient" (DPS, proc systems being RDM-unfriendly). You fix melee RDM to mean more than just solo toy and abyssea show off and then I can start giving suggestions on what to do in terms of support. Up until then, give me self-buffs, a way to easily maintain said self-buffs and fix our job (gear, skill proficiencies, WS access, etc).

With the way things are now, I'll be happier the day we get self-cast Enflare (as suggested on the JP forums for our "ultimate spell", by the way) than the day we get <insert crutch buff to force parties to invite a RDM for events>, if only because it gives us more of the same crap instead of actually fixing anything.