What to change!
1. I ask for something very simple that should be balanced, please make the effect of the 2-hour last 3~5 minutes, SCH's Tabula Rasa & BRD's Soul Voice are both much like our ability however last much longer right now.
2. Please return the duration increase, and make it 50~100% extra duration for spells cast during this time.
3. Increase the potency for all spells a 50~100% boost across the board.
4. Make Enhancing Magic cast during the effect, unable to be dispelled
Why it is balanced!
With this, we still have many of our most potent spells such as Gain-Spells and Temper as self cast only, but have more time to buff party members. Balance is easily maintained as even with a Haste that gives 30% Haste, SCH & BRD can beat it. SCH has Embrava, which comes up to 30% Haste if I'm not mistaken, and lasts a max of 12.5 Minutes, which is roughly what the RDM 2-hour would make a RDM's Haste last, however Embrava can also stack with Haste, where as RDM's 2-hour Haste will not be able to stack with yet another haste. BRD also can Soul Voice Marches for a total of 40% Haste, which is yet again better than the double potency of a RDM's Haste, while they also have an ability as SCH does that allows for a double duration effect.
Many of RDM's best spells are self target only, meaning no one outside of the RDM would be getting these effects. Due to RDM being the only one to possibly get them, I think it would be fair for RDM to get an incredible boost in power for a good amount of time from spells like Gain and Temper, as they would be a great amount of DD power to put RDM on the front lines, or to use Gain-INT/MND for amazing nukes/enfeebles due to the higher accuracy. Phalanx would give even more damage mitigation allowing RDM to take more of a hit, another reason why it could be very useful, especially with how hard things hit now days, and if it were put with Phalanx II, you would get around -80 damage on party members with this ability, and with how hard things hit now days, that could be useful, not to mention the super strong effects Protect & Shell would gain.
Last is the un-dispellable Enhancing Magic, the reason for this is because like Embrava, the effect is wasted if a mob removed these. For instance if fighting a dragon they can wipe all buffs with a single TP attack. This alone, make the 2-hour lack balance, as said, a SCH may cast Embrava, something that is not the entirety of the 2-hours abilities, and it can not be dispelled, yet this 2-hour is able to be completely removed, and has no other benefits. Dragons are not the only mobs with this power, many can do it, and it ruins this 2-hour quite a bit if ever this were used on a RDM.
RDM 2-hour Merits?!
We have been told we are going to be able to merit 2-hour abilities, but we have little to no information on anything about it. However some of my suggestions relies on parts of this happening. I figure the Merit 2-hours will be a 3rd category in each jobs merit lists. I also think they will probably work alot like other categories, with 4+ different choices, and upto 10 merits placed into each job. So if this is the case I would like to give you my list of merits for 2-hours I would like to see.
Chainspell - Duration: With each merit, provides a 10% boost to duration. This should stack with the Augmented Duelist's Tabard +2 effect, so normally 1 merit would be +6 seconds of duration, and with this body, 1 merit becomes 8 extra seconds.
Chainspell - Accuracy: With each merit increases magic accuracy by 10 during the effect of Chainspell. This would allow better magic accuracy during Chainspell, so that less nukes, or enfeebles, are resisted during this time.
New 2-hour - Duration: Adds 10% duration to Enhancing Magic cast during the effect of the 2-hour ability for each merit. Earlier in this post I had the duration at +50~100%, that was for this. If this merit is put in, then it would be starting at 50%, and growing to 100% through merits.
New 2-hour - Potency: Adds 10% potency to Enhancing Magic cast during the effect of the 2-hour ability for each merit. Earlier in this post I had the potency at +50~100%, that was for this. If this merit is put in then it would be starting at 50% and growing to 100% through merits.
If this is not the plans for merits!
If merits are not like this we will need a 75~100% boost in duration/potency of spells during this effect, as I showed earlier, it is not unbalanced, many other jobs have effects much like this that are very potent and can even stack with the effect of the original spells, meaning theirs will still be more powerful even.
Please keep in mind, you are asking players to wait 2 whole hours to use these powers again, and 2 of these abilities we already have on other jobs are highly powerful, so much so that they are thought to be the only abilities worth waiting that 2 hours. I think it is fair for RDM to get these buffs, as it would make it a more potent job, and extend its power a little more in a party or solo setting with its various Enhancing Magics.
Thank you for reading!
Thank you for reading my post, and ideas. I hope they are given to the devs, and they can truly be looked over, and possibly implemented for RDM. RDM is my favorite job, but time and time again it feels like since the level cap was raised the job has lost its use, and this new 2-hour has some hope to get it back, but we do need the ability to be better than it is. Please look into this, and do it, so that RDM can have a place again, and so the job doesn't truly die.