On Red Mage melee...

[Rayik]

Well that's because every player has the potential to reach that level of proficiency, and then the rest of the game unravels as an army of Red Mages conquers every challenge in the game with ease. It's a valid concern regarding the game balance, even if the scenario I laid out above was always extremely unlikely(or even somewhat inaccurate).

Right, except for the part where the game has changed, although RDM has not. Mobs are now immune to the very enfeeble's that were exploited. NM's have ridiculous amounts of regain, rage sooner, etc. The nerf-bat has been swung and it was a grand slam; when was the last time you ever heard of a RDM soloing any significant NM since then? RDM's have a hard enough time staying alive outside of trash xp mobs these days.

Ninjas and Dancers, on the other hand, can solo all day and night with no worries. So really, it's not 2005 anymore. It'd be nice if SE maybe took their boot of RDM's neck a little bit.

[cidbahamut]

Right, except for the part where the game has changed, although RDM has not. Mobs are now immune to the very enfeeble's that were exploited. NM's have ridiculous amounts of regain, rage sooner, etc. The nerf-bat has been swung and it was a grand slam; when was the last time you ever heard of a RDM soloing any significant NM since then? RDM's have a hard enough time staying alive outside of trash xp mobs these days.

Does the guy who soloed Yaanei count? There's a fairly sizable list of NMs in Abyssea beyond that, although what all constitutes "significant" in Abyssea is up for debate.

[Rayik]

Does the guy who soloed Yaanei count? There's a fairly sizable list of NMs in Abyssea beyond that, although what all constitutes "significant" in Abyssea is up for debate.

That is impressive, but how many NM's are Ninjas and Dancers soloing on a regular basis?

[cidbahamut]

That is impressive, but how many NM's are Ninjas and Dancers soloing on a regular basis?

A fair number, but I suspect the lists of NMs soloed aren't the same for them as they are for Red Mage. That is to say, there's some NMs that Ninjas can tackle that'll trounce Red Mages, and there are NMs that will eat Ninjas for breakfast that Red Mages can curb stomp.

[Rayik]

A fair number, but I suspect the lists of NMs soloed aren't the same for them as they are for Red Mage. That is to say, there's some NMs that Ninjas can tackle that'll trounce Red Mages, and there are NMs that will eat Ninjas for breakfast that Red Mages can curb stomp.

Any examples? I'm not disagreeing, I'd just like to get a better idea of what RDM can solo. I've truthfully solo'ed very few NM's, and I'd like to test myself and try some.

[cidbahamut]

Any examples? I'm not disagreeing, I'd just like to get a better idea of what RDM can solo. I've truthfully solo'ed very few NM's, and I'd like to test myself and try some.

I'll trying to root through my notes and put together a list for you when I get home. My soloing resume isn't the most impressive on the block, but off the top of my head I've done Long-barreled Chariot, Ironclad Executioner and Mictlantecuhtli.

The chariot is pretty straight forward. Keep Slow applied and /NIN for shadows.

Mictlantecuhtli is a bit of a gamble, since if you get hit with charm it can ruin your day, but other than that it's a simple task of keeping enfeebles applied and shadows up.

The Ironclad Executioner just requires some Movement Speed+. If you don't have some go-faster pants(I don't), just /SCH and get yourself some Desert Boots. Just kite it in the valley by the Bastion battles and nuke while out of range.

[saevel]

RDM can't solo some of the DNC / NIN solo's or even MNK due to evasion being too low. Most of those guys solo is just stacking massive evasion / counter and letting the NM whiff at you all day long.

[Duelle]

I really get the feeling like they are scared of what potential would be unleashed by RDM if they got really creative with it. It feels like they're handling RDM with hazmat suits, while they just toss whatever overpowered trick and ability at other jobs without a care. It just feels like every little thing we get is like a sample-sized bite, while other jobs get entire 3 course meals.

This is one of those issues that I believe stems from the fact the job has access to everything out of the box. This by itself is not much of a problem provided proper balancing mechanics are in place, but is made much worse by the fact that you can *improve* potency of whatever you do because you can swap gear mid-combat. Being in melee gear hitting things, tossing out a Cure with baseline potency and tossing out nukes at baseline potency is very different from being in melee gear, switching to a cure potency set whenever you cast cure, switch to an ele staff and MAB gear if you cast a nuke, change to FC set to get your buffs off, switching to your stoneskin set for max stoneskin potency, etc.

[Rayik]

You know what's hilarious, is over at FFXIAH.com, there's one single RDM melee topic.

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/17622/melee-gear/

And in that thread, they only lol for a couple posts, and then it's on to gear and strats. That website has some famously bad trolls, but even they can have a civil conversation about melee RDM without the holier than though finger wagging this forum has. Even non-RDM's join in with ideas and input. Just throwin that out there.

[Zippey]

For those of you complaining about lack of weaponskills, primarily Vorpal Blade due to the crit modifier, you should really thing about subbing Warrior. You get a nice Str boost as well as Berserk, Warcry, Aggressor and Vorpal Blade. I've done that before, even tanked as Rdm/War in level 60's colibri parties and it worked rather well. Just my 2 cents on the issue though. ^.~