On Red Mage melee...

[Varchesis]

I'll take En- III with 30~60+ per hit over Dia IV any dang day!! And that's being conservative. Improving RDM melee means hitting harder and/or faster. For RDM that means Enhancing Magic or... enhancing sword/dagger DMG. Not enfeebling magic.

Here are the opposing scenarios:

RDM: "Hey guys, I have Dia IV. We can hit much harder now!"
PT Leader: "Nah, but we can do without Dia IV. RDM hits for crap. We need a DD."
RDM: /cry

=VERSUS=

RDM: "Hey guys, I have En- III. I can hit much harder now!"
PT Leader: "Sweet. That'll work. RDM hits about as hard as other DDs now and can support the party, too."
RDM: "Great! Let me gear up."


Greater En- spell damage. Can I have it?

[Duelle]

Simply put enspells don't scale in abyssea like everything else does which means unless we get some enspells that scale don't expect them to really contribute that much inside abyssea, because for them to actually do a meaningful amount inside abyssea they would pretty much break the game outside abyssea.

Depends. I could see enspells scaling with attack power or weapon damage. Granted, weapon damage is not as big a factor in this game as it is in some other games, but is still an option. Enhancing skill could still be treated as a modifier of sorts, but no longer be the sole factor that determines enspell damage.

RDMs won't complain cause we have some notion of chivalry or fencing or Altana knows what... and the result is RDMs will be haste-healing-refresh slaves forever.

I disagree. We don't complain because our class is one of the two classes in all of MMOs that embody internal struggle between enthusiasts of different roles. For every one of us who wanted to melee there were 20 who would stomp on us because they were happy with their instant invites to cure/refresh/haste. The facts the devs have favored that crowd without giving the melee enthusiasts much of a glance says quite a bit on its own. Doesn't stop people like me from talking about it, though. =P

As for the fencing thing, that's been part of our theme, and I certainly would want to keep it. As I mentioned elsewhere, we have rapiers, wear tabards and have hats with feathers in them; a magical version of the french musketeers.

That being said, I am a proponent of creating role emphasis depending on what the RDM chooses to do. I don't feel right out-right locking things like magic types, though. I'm more for empowering certain types of actions depending on what role the RDM has chosen to take up.

[Varchesis]

Yeah, you're right, Supersun. Blast it all to high heaven.
Blast it all to high heaven!!

[Supersun]

I wouldn't consider CDC the norm and the twilight knife kills your enspells for that hit which for TPing at least is hard to justify an additional 7 weapon damage for 20-30 enspell damage.

[Protey]

your enspell overwrites the additional effect of twilight knife (if you don't care about getting additional hp/mp/tp from hits). and not to mention the 3% quad attack, it's not a lot, but it is extra damage.

[Supersun]

your enspell overwrites the additional effect of twilight knife (if you don't care about getting additional hp/mp/tp from hits). and not to mention the 3% quad attack, it's not a lot, but it is extra damage.

Do they? I wouldn't know myself since I don't have one (have a CDC sword myself), but the wiki at least says that the additional effect overwrites enspells (not that I put a lot of faith in the wiki now days, but still XD)

[Protey]

there, fixed the main page

[Protey]

yea i have both CDC sword and twilight knife. the main page is incorrect about enspells (as someone also mentioned on the talk page)

[Swords]

I'd really have to agree with you on the point that RDM has really gotten the shaft on alot of newer melee gear. Specifically I remember that they purposely excluded RDM from wearing any of the VNM sets specifically for fear of overpowering RDM when VNM was first introduced. What's even more perplexing however they've more or less excluded RDM from future releases of gear that they normally had access too like Doublets and Harness armors.

I know SE has claimed in the past they are trying to increase RDM's melee capacity so they can do more frontline work, but it's awfully counter-productive to nix RDM on any melee orientated gear updates and lock them into a spell orientated setup.

[Doombringer]

remember when an aj used to be more than novelty gear? now rank it among rdms melee bodies.. where is it.. 3rd place at the lowest? yah... just an example of how our available gear is laughably behind the times. it makes me not want to play ffxi anymore. rdm is no longer the job that was sold to me all those years ago.

i'm hoping the inevitable emp armor+3 remedies this.