The Melee Mage

[SpankWustler]

You mean like how a war is crucified for using a one hander and a shield..... Maybe because of things like that.

I'm not sure this is the best comparison, unless your point is that somebody dumb is out there somewhere trying to Stun something awful while armed with a whacking device instead of an Apamajas II.

That guy is definitely out there, just waiting for his big chance to make the world a worse place; but fighting difficult monsters isn't the only situation in FFXI these days. There are a lot of low-level monsters out there, some of them just waiting to drop currency or alexandrite.

All Warriors always have the goal of killing a monster in mind, or at least should, so using worse weapons only moves toward the same goal more slowly and more horribly.

If a mage's goal is to provide twice the Box Steps to help a !! magically appear over a giant mushroom's head more quickly, standing at 20.1 distance isn't going to help much with that.

[Nawesemo]

Just because I "can" tank any given abyssea NM on Whm doesnt mean I should. Rdms want to melee fine and dandy, but they do it wrong given the situation, and yes they will get the "wtf" attitude, I know some of the best rdms around, f'in elvaans at that, and they make all sorts of noise with their swords, but if given better options for melee dmg, I or anyone for that matter wont choose a rdm over a well geared war for that last dmg spot, .......anything else, yeah gear how you like, but rdm spot isn't up front all that often, yes they "can", but given better options, ....... Yeah this been brought up and shut down so many times..... Pld has More to complain about the glorious rdms on damage alone..... There isn't anything wrong with the cog that fills all holes, other than there being better cogs made for those holes.... Love red mage, but it still is a support job that can dd well. Be happy with that.

[Demon6324236]

Just because I "can" tank any given abyssea NM on Whm doesnt mean I should. Rdms want to melee fine and dandy, but they do it wrong given the situation, and yes they will get the "wtf" attitude, I know some of the best rdms around, f'in elvaans at that, and they make all sorts of noise with their swords, but if given better options for melee dmg, I or anyone for that matter wont choose a rdm over a well geared war for that last dmg spot, .......anything else, yeah gear how you like, but rdm spot isn't up front all that often, yes they "can", but given better options, ....... Yeah this been brought up and shut down so many times..... Pld has More to complain about the glorious rdms on damage alone..... There isn't anything wrong with the cog that fills all holes, other than there being better cogs made for those holes.... Love red mage, but it still is a support job that can dd well. Be happy with that.

The reason RDM can not easily fulfill a front line role easily is because SE never gives the melee side much attention. It shows all throughout the job, and is sad because it is meant to be a mix of melee & mage. A quote from a post I made earlier today...

Would it kill them to give us at least some job traits for melee? I mean seriously if you look down our current list we have...

Magic Attack Bonus I~III
Magic Defense Bonus I~III
Fast Cast I~V
Clear Mind I~III
Shield Mastery I~II
Resist Petrify I~II
Magic Burst Bonus I~III
Tranquil Heart

But thats kinda sad when you look at a job meant to be a fighter and a mage in one, because there is only 1 slightly fighter like trait in the list, and its defensive, not to mention we first get it at level 87! I think we should get some melee traits as well...

Look at our job abilities as well...

Chainspell - Allows instant cast and recast of magic.
Convert - Swaps the users HP & MP.
Composure - Enhances our Enhancing Magic.
Saboteur - Enhances our enfeebling magic.
Spontaneity - gives us 1 instantly cast spell.

The only ability in this list which is possibly melee or front line oriented is Convert, because you can keep your MP back and use Convert for an instant, last ditch effort, to heal yourself. However unless silenced, you would have absolutely no reason to do so as using a simply Cure IV will likely give you just as much HP for much less MP.

From level 1 all the way until 99 we have at most 2 front line abilities or traits, there is a reason why we seem to be more of a support job, however if SE did what they should, and changed this, RDM would be much better off. I think that also follows the idea of this thread seeing as its about helping mages melee, and should not be only in gear, but in other aspects as well. Admittedly giving BLM Attack Bonus or WHM Dual Wield is not what I am talking about, but for RDM specifically, the job which was meant to be a hybrid job to fill all roles, it should have a few more traits to boost its abilities in a front line role. You said RDM is a support job that can DD well, honestly thats not what it should be, or have ever been, it should be a hybrid that can do everything well, but not be the best at everything either.

[Garota]

Martial Mages Mortal Mashfest Nobody else seems to like the idea. I personally added 5/5 Shattersoul and I use it often when I'm on SCH doing low man stuff such as Salvage, Limbus, Nyzul and other smaller scale events. But that's about as much fun as I get as a melee mage.

[Demon6324236]

Martial Mages Mortal Mashfest Nobody else seems to like the idea. I personally added 5/5 Shattersoul and I use it often when I'm on SCH doing low man stuff such as Salvage, Limbus, Nyzul and other smaller scale events. But that's about as much fun as I get as a melee mage.

I am under the idea that if you have a good enough SCH, you could probably go do Neo-Nyzul and events like it that love Embrava, but do it with the SCH DDing as well. For instance if you have a NNI group and everyone can keep themselves up without needing cures, throw some Haste gear on the SCH that doesn't stay at the lamp, with their Regain, Haste, and Embrava, they can do a great job beating things to death with a stick, especially if you have a good enough Shattersoul build!

[Nawesemo]

Red MAGE. IDK What your going on about, rdm can use a sword one over many other MAGE, rdm en spells, phalanx haste 2, .... Yeah, rdm melees fine. Aside from not being able to out parse real dd.

[Demon6324236]

Red MAGE. IDK What your going on about, rdm can use a sword one over many other MAGE, rdm en spells, phalanx haste 2, .... Yeah, rdm melees fine. Aside from not being able to out parse real dd.

Blue MAGE has access to alot of gear we don't that is on the melee side and makes the very powerful, stop trying to use the name of the job to say it should suck at DDing. If you rather I can go get myself 20 pieces of gear with BLU and not RDM on them that show just how much stats they can get off gear that RDM doesn't, even though they are a MAGE.

You probably don't get what I'm saying because your not paying attention.

[Nawesemo]

And Blu can't spam their entire list of spells having instead to pick and choose the ones hes going to use, i feel they are overpowered, and all that don't get me started on that, if rdm gets more melee gear why pick any other job, everyone could just be avesta and solo everything.... Rdm is fine does fine and should be as you say ok at a lot of things, great at none, but slow 2 etc.... It is still what it was ment to be. Unique.

Edit: and that makes a lil sense even.... Blu more physically gifted, rdm more magic.... Still not magey enough for me but what ever, Rdms playing with swords.... Meh... Have at it.

[saevel]

Demon you can't win. Nawes is a troll and is just trying to stir up more sh!t. We'll add em to our ignore list and sometime next month another one will appear to take his place.

Their all just mules from various posters who want to stir the pot for fun.

[Karbuncle]

Yah.. When i fight Qilin, I tend to keep Fools up unless i know im going to be the main tank (Which i avoid at all costs).