On Red Mage melee...

[Seriha]

It's an option, yeah. Could also just pop one, then any spell cast in a 10s window could have the appropriate buff. Obviously if you're munching through fodder mobs, you probably won't need to use it every single fight, of which point extending your buff durations for everyone might be more beneficial. I just look at is as something to offer spice without simply being about MOAR DAMAGE.

[Bjoern]

With daggers mentioned... We've been left out of that equasion with new gear released.... Red Mage is equally skilled in dagger but have been forgotten when trial weapons were introduced.

[HFX7686]

I have no interest for more melee skill on my RDM. I'd like to see more usefulness for Enfeebling Magic before melee skill. I find meleeing dull. While others may like to see this, this kind of enhancement would do nothing for my personal game play style.

[Genralzod]

playing since May 2005, RDM was my 1st Job & my 1st love in this game. I melee'd in every party from dunes to 75 (before composure & enspell2's) I had several repeat invites to PT's & many compliments on my ability to keep up the enhancing/enfeebling, all while scoring decent dmg (using enspells to exploit mob weakness & capitalize on weather/day is key). and yes there were those ppl that would endlessly complain & complain, but I chose to perform as front line RDM & did a damn fine job at it. (& composure makes this even easier)
So I say all the power to any RDM that wants to do so, as long as they can multitask. Some ppl just have a hard time multitasking up there, but I actually found it easier to dispel when I was up close.
The only time I backlined RDM was on Anticans & Imps, silencega is the worst.
Currently my RDM is 90 full merits & good gear, & I always look for opportunity to get in there & swing.
in closing, some of the best RDMs I've seen are those who embraced their Melee skills, not just the Mage skills.

[Imole]

It really wont help much outside abysea... But even with a crappy garudas dagger i was able to drop well over 1k aelion edges on RDM with standard nuking atmas.

[Supersun]

If you ever are using Aeolian Edge, use a Martial Knife. Nothing else even comes remotely close.

[Duelle]

So I say all the power to any RDM that wants to do so, as long as they can multitask. Some ppl just have a hard time multitasking up there, but I actually found it easier to dispel when I was up close.
The only time I backlined RDM was on Anticans & Imps, silencega is the worst.

Multitasking is fine, but there's only so much that can be done once you start to focus on the front line (specially if you're crazy like me and used Flat Blade to interrupt casts or TP moves). I'm perfectly fine with landing the occassional cure. I'd help deal with status effects if I could baseline (I go /DNC because Healing Waltz is a wonderful thing to have because of silences and other nasty effects that need to come off ASAP). That's totally different from having to run a buff cycle while front-lining.

That's kind of why I had that idea about splitting roles. You melee and enfeeble with occassional cures while in the front, and heal/buff while in the back.

[Cryptic]

I think that if we are masters of fencing, then we should be able to dual wield. If red mage had dual wield besides going /nin or /dnc, we could choose other subjobs that could enable us to WS selection.

It would also be cool if RDM had a way of casting -aga version of buffs, in a way similar to sch, then we could be front of the line, and still buff and enfeeble. Boom, I've solve the problem on how to fix RDM.

I have a Khanda+2 OA2-4, and i am working on another at the moment. Outside of Abyssea when i am in yellow hp, i equip the fencers earring [ latent effect: +5 enspell dmg under 100tp] and get atleast +100 additional damage on top of my initial attack as RDM/DNC. When i have too i'll have the potential of doing +200Add.dmg, on top of an initial, lets say, 200-400 dmg for a total of ~600 dmg. No atma, and depending on the mob.

I think Red Mage should get gear that adds damage to en spell, similar to how the fencer earring works, except without the latent effect. Would even be cool to get a trial weapon that added +25Add.dmg to your enspell.

[Supersun]

That's the Fencing Ring that adds +5 enspell damage.

Also, just to stop you before you get any further...The Khanda +2 is rare, you can only have 1.
While your idea does sound nice and all are you really losing that much damage comparatively by replacing one of your weapons with a dagger and actually getting a good weapons skill?

Now if we happened to get an elemental sword WS natively that would be a whole different story on the other hand.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Just sub nin like a good boy and dual wield the new and old anhancing swords.