RIP RDM

[tyrantsyn]

Which is the exact reason it's now the job that's least played compared to it's previous standing. In fact it's only use is soloing slower than 95% of the other jobs.

And I agree with you, I got so bored with RDM after abyssea came out that I started to actually pass out while playing. It's a sad thing, we sit on our A+ skill and get JS to do with it.

[Koren]

They said GEO will be like BRD and COR so we're probably looking at 2, maybe 3 spheres with certain gear. So 2 debuffs, or 2 buffs or one of each is not so overpowering compared to jobs that can cast all their spells. Not to mention, unless these spheres have ridiculously huge ranges, GEO had better be pretty hardy or their spheres will be limited to mage buffs to keep out of range of danger.

The reason RDM is played less is because everyone have a plethora of jobs at disposal. When we only had one or 2 jobs to use, RDM had an advantage. If there was no healer the RDM could perform their duties reasonably. No tank, and RDM could do a decent job. If for some bizarre reason there were no DD, a RDM could also perform this role. Now everyone has a job for a particular role. Too many DD? Almost all of them have at least one mage in their job list leveled and geared. Practically no one is WHM only or WAR only anymore. In a game where players focus on efficiency, hybrid jobs like RDM which are designed to fill any role are left behind. Would you pick a RDM when you could have them switch to WHM when you need a designated healer? You wouldn't want to pick a perle WAR over a Empy WAR either.

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with RDM, when you look at it compared to other jobs, RDM is really quite powerful. But there are no events tailored to benefit a RDM. Fights are too short to really benefit from enhancing or enfeebling spells. Temp items are actually cutting down our need for healers. Each fight is isolated and people can go change jobs to benefit most from a battles weakness. One fight is magic resistant? Change to DD and zerg it down. Next battle is physical resistant? Everyone change to mage jobs and burn it down. Dangerous AoE moves next? Switch to 2-3 DD and buff the hell out of them and everyone else hit it from a distance or heal.

If you had an event that was built for the benefit of hybrid jobs things would turn around. Say a 1 party series of 3 battles. The monsters come one at a time but each monster will randomly be immune to all damage except either elemental/dark magic, melee, ranged, or holy/healing. You could get 3 melee weak mobs or one magic, one ranged and one healing weak mob. You can't warp out to change jobs or you have to start all over again with quite possibly a different set of 3 mobs. Suddenly hybrids are not looking so bad anymore compared to a WAR or a BLM who have a 1/4 chance of having use per fight.

[Concerned4FFxi]

Enfeebling Magic job trait for Rdm

Please give rdm this job trait SE, it would be similiar to thief where they get enhanced evasion job trait so that there evasion stands out among all jobs. This is needed for rdm bvecause, even with the re-make of enfeebling, rdm's rank is only slightly better than other jobs. And lets face it, there's a ton of enfeebling gear out for all mage jobs. If rdm is the primo enfeebler, having +15-20 skill over the competetion is not worth bringing a rdm. Please give rdm this job trait which gives rdm enhanced enfeebling. Perhaps it can increase the proc rate of enfeebling magic effects on a mob, or its like blm's native magic attack bonus trait, where it gives a specific amount of enfeebling magic skill/potency plus the job's superior rank.

[Badieh]

They said GEO will be like BRD and COR so we're probably looking at 2, maybe 3 spheres with certain gear. So 2 debuffs, or 2 buffs or one of each is not so overpowering compared to jobs that can cast all their spells. Not to mention, unless these spheres have ridiculously huge ranges, GEO had better be pretty hardy or their spheres will be limited to mage buffs to keep out of range of danger.

The reason RDM is played less is because everyone have a plethora of jobs at disposal. When we only had one or 2 jobs to use, RDM had an advantage. If there was no healer the RDM could perform their duties reasonably. No tank, and RDM could do a decent job. If for some bizarre reason there were no DD, a RDM could also perform this role. Now everyone has a job for a particular role. Too many DD? Almost all of them have at least one mage in their job list leveled and geared. Practically no one is WHM only or WAR only anymore. In a game where players focus on efficiency, hybrid jobs like RDM which are designed to fill any role are left behind. Would you pick a RDM when you could have them switch to WHM when you need a designated healer? You wouldn't want to pick a perle WAR over a Empy WAR either.

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with RDM, when you look at it compared to other jobs, RDM is really quite powerful. But there are no events tailored to benefit a RDM. Fights are too short to really benefit from enhancing or enfeebling spells. Temp items are actually cutting down our need for healers. Each fight is isolated and people can go change jobs to benefit most from a battles weakness. One fight is magic resistant? Change to DD and zerg it down. Next battle is physical resistant? Everyone change to mage jobs and burn it down. Dangerous AoE moves next? Switch to 2-3 DD and buff the hell out of them and everyone else hit it from a distance or heal.

If you had an event that was built for the benefit of hybrid jobs things would turn around. Say a 1 party series of 3 battles. The monsters come one at a time but each monster will randomly be immune to all damage except either elemental/dark magic, melee, ranged, or holy/healing. You could get 3 melee weak mobs or one magic, one ranged and one healing weak mob. You can't warp out to change jobs or you have to start all over again with quite possibly a different set of 3 mobs. Suddenly hybrids are not looking so bad anymore compared to a WAR or a BLM who have a 1/4 chance of having use per fight.

Well said.

[Luvbunny]

That's the problem with RDM, it's a hybrid job with no exclusive defining magic or job ability. Scholar is a hybrid job but it has some really awesome abilities that really define the job and make it shine, the healing capability trump RDM skills. Blue Mage is also hybrid job, with damage, enfeebling and buffing capabilities that dwarf RDM skills. On the soloing part, many other jobs pretty much destroyed RDM capabilities to solo now, namely: ninja, dancer, thf, blm/rdm, sch/rdm. SE has not update RDM on par to all these other jobs past 75. Adding a few crapy spells and job abilities are not what you call good update and balancing this jobs. And now the 2 new jobs basically taking away things that could have been RDM's slew of possible unique capabilities. What a sad turn out from one of the best job pre abyssea and 99.

[CapriciousOne]

Greetings everyone! I have finally returned from Japan and somehow managed to avert jet lag this time (I hope...).

As far as party support goes for geomancer, you can imagine it to be somewhat like the roles for bard and corsair. We would like players to utilize geomancy in conjunction with currently existing spells/songs/roles so that each effect supports the party more and more.

Also, there are some players who are concerned that by having enfeebles that are not resisted, red mage and other enfeebling magic will be useless moving forward. This is by no means the case since the development team is planning to make geomancy and currently existing enfeebling spells stackable. Instead of worrying about which one to use, players are encouraged to use them together to create a more powerful effect.

Additionally, in exchange for geomancers possessing an advantageous field that cannot be resisted, the effects themselves will be weaker than the effects of enfeebling spells from red mages and other jobs.

Is it just me or this read like: " Red mage will now be dependent on Geomancer to do the job it was intended and designed to do at average proficiency" ? LOL

[Kristal]

Is it just me or this read like: " Red mage will now be dependent on Geomancer to do the job it was intended and designed to do at average proficiency" ? LOL

To sum it up:
RDMs wanted more melee power, so SE added BLU.
RDMs wanted more magic power, so SE added SCH.
RDMs wanted more unique enfeebles, so SE gave RDM unique spells to WHM and PLD.
RDMs wanted real aoe enfeebles, so SE added GEO.
RDMs wanted better enspells, so SE added RNK.

[Luvbunny]

Perhaps the new man in charge can do something better in positioning RDM in the current game state and do the big revision similar on how they revamped WHM, SCH, DRG and PUP in the past. It is about time he does this and overturned the crappy legacy of the unmentionable who no longer in charge. Hopefully the new direction will be far better than the old school crap that has been shoved down our throats...

[CapriciousOne]

To sum it up:
RDMs wanted more melee power, so SE added BLU.
RDMs wanted more magic power, so SE added SCH.
RDMs wanted more unique enfeebles, so SE gave RDM unique spells to WHM and PLD.
RDMs wanted real aoe enfeebles, so SE added GEO.
RDMs wanted better enspells, so SE added RNK.

I couldn't put it better myself LMFAO. I swear what I wouldn't give to be able to put my foot up somebody at SE arse.

[CapriciousOne]

Perhaps the new man in charge can do something better in positioning RDM in the current game state and do the big revision similar on how they revamped WHM, SCH, DRG and PUP in the past. It is about time he does this and overturned the crappy legacy of the unmentionable who no longer in charge. Hopefully the new direction will be far better than the old school crap that has been shoved down our throats...

Well I certainly hope so because every since I started playing the offline versions from 7 to 12 I have been pretty happy overall with the series, storylines, jobs, pretty much everything. Now that I played this MMO however, if I knew they was going to do the game like this I might not ever been bothered with this game at all. Maybe my expectations were too high. In any case, since there is new management I guess I will give the new guy his fair shake and see what he is going to do about the current situation. I would say that he can't do much worse than the last guy but history has a way of making me eat those words so I wont say it.