On Red Mage melee...

[Trangnai]

TBH only reaching 80% of a true DDs damage with a +25% piercing bonus speaks volumes of how far RDM is ACTUALLY behind.

If wern't using a piercing weapon weapon on Colibri something is wrong. Rdm or not, any other weapons didn't really make the cut unless your job couldn't use piercing. But war, sam and drg owned the ToAU era as DDs thought most jobs like blu that could easily deal as much dmg due to there spells were overlooked.

My issue isn't as much as dealing damage as it is making front lining a valuable choice. A job that was designed to be a hybrid should be able to fill all roles, while never being able to equal a master of that role. This means that we should be the goto guy of any role if that role cannot be filled. we don't do the best job but were workable. The problem is our efficiency is TOO low. The lack of gear available to use doesn't help the fact. Even more so the fact of the high need to swap gear in this game requiring us to be able to get gear sets for every role we wish to play. And considering this game has one of the worst inv systems i've ever seen... you can expect that to fill up quickly. Our lack of new gear for curtain roles like meleeing is another issue.

[Duelle]

My issue isn't as much as dealing damage as it is making front lining a valuable choice. A job that was designed to be a hybrid should be able to fill all roles, while never being able to equal a master of that role. This means that we should be the goto guy of any role if that role cannot be filled. we don't do the best job but were workable. The problem is our efficiency is TOO low.

The name of the game for front-lining hybrids has always been a numbers game. There have to be insane extenuating circumstances to allow a hybrid to take a non-optimal front-line position when the group is better off having that hybrid heal and/or support. Even utility takes a backseat to damage at the end of the day.

Even more so the fact of the high need to swap gear in this game requiring us to be able to get gear sets for every role we wish to play. And considering this game has one of the worst inv systems i've ever seen... you can expect that to fill up quickly. Our lack of new gear for curtain roles like meleeing is another issue.

Glad to see I'm not the only that takes issue to overt gear-swapping.

[Trangnai]

The name of the game for front-lining hybrids has always been a numbers game. There have to be insane extenuating circumstances to allow a hybrid to take a non-optimal front-line position when the group is better off having that hybrid heal and/or support. Even utility takes a backseat to damage at the end of the day.Glad to see I'm not the only that takes issue to overt gear-swapping.

Its not as much the swaping as it is the inventory system, if you really want to play a rdm or any cast job correctly (this also includes rdm as a front line role) you need alot of sets of gear. Playing the front line role as a rdm i use 60 of my slots just in gear. This includes TP setup, WS setup, Enfeebling, and Enhancing Sets, as well as a dark magic set for Bio III. This also dosent inculde the ammount of gear sotred in my mog house/safe that i may need to use for the roles on occasion or when using curtian sub-jobs or my back line gear.

Jobs like nin also suffer due to needing tools ontop of casting/WS/enmity etc.

Curtian fixes could be obviosuly making sets that we won't need to swap (Hybrid gear etc.) or making it so we can swap gear for other invs we have available to use via macros (like Mog Sack/Satchel).

Most jobs got decent full time gear via AF3 but rdm still lacks a decent full-time set. and jobs like blu got there gear split 60/40. Red Mage got a Ghetto blm setup or something unless your using AF3+2 you don't even get most of the buffs to what a rdm is primarly used for. In fact exculding anything +2 the only pieces i personally find useful for rdm for me is the feet and cape.

[Duelle]

Its not as much the swaping as it is the inventory system, if you really want to play a rdm or any cast job correctly (this also includes rdm as a front line role) you need alot of sets of gear. Playing the front line role as a rdm i use 60 of my slots just in gear. This includes TP setup, WS setup, Enfeebling, and Enhancing Sets, as well as a dark magic set for Bio III. This also doesn't include the amount of gear stored in my mog house/safe that i may need to use for the roles on occasion or when using certain sub-jobs or my back line gear.

This makes me go back to my comment about streamlining certain aspects of the job. I can understand swaps for WS from TP (I do have melee jobs leveled, after all), but I've taken issue to the fact that some mages need individual sets per spell they cast.

Certain fixes could be obviosuly making sets that we won't need to swap (Hybrid gear etc.) or making it so we can swap gear for other invs we have available to use via macros (like Mog Sack/Satchel).

I'd rather make it baseline and native to the class. I've never been a fan of fixing things through gear. Not to mention that things like Corselet have been tossed at me when discussing hybrid gear, and I cringe both because of the price and the fact that the hybrid in question would still be stuck waiting to hit the level reqs for such a piece of gear.