On Red Mage melee...

[Karbuncle]

I don't think Subbing NIN was because of Shadows completely, its also the Dual Wield III that will massively boost your DPS when Dual Wielding

Just saying, If you can't figure that out you're the reason RDM melee gets a horrible name (outside of other things).

If you're going to Melee on RDM at least try to do it as right as possible, /NIN is a good start. Well, its the only start. No other sub job is going to make up for nearly 25% (?) Delay Reduction. If you're going to try and argue /SCH or something for utility (-Na Spells), and not using /NIN, I think you found the reason Melee RDM Suffers so much in the eyes of the community.

In order to become more effective in Melee damage, you have to give up something on your mage side (/nin or /mage)