Spell Wishlist

[Zeargi]

BLU is heavily protected by game mechanics, which is why it hasn't been completely crammed into the role of healer.

BLU is actually as really good healer when needs to be.

All it would take is a mechanic in place to ensure the RDM is still there hitting things. On the topic of using an ability to land some sort of effect on the mob, you could probably make it a 10 second duration with time extentions on the effect being granted for ever melee hit the RDM lands. That'd be a decent starting place.

Like I've been saying... En-Spell III

Clear-cut options would prevent that. The further removal of excuses to not let a RDM melee would also go a long way.

Easy fix, start the party...No one can complain what you do if you're the party leader. Or just start meleeing anyway, and cast spells as you normally would. I mean, I can most definitely still cycle spells while I melee. Heck, I've been playing two characters at the same time for God only knows how long. Again, it's Player Views, you can't change them if you don't put forth the effort to do so. I love PUP, it's a great job. It's very much like the RDM in the fact is can be the Jack-of-All-Trades. Do PUPs get invites? Usually No. Why? Because people that don't play them, have no real clue what it is they can do. And often time it's the bad players of a job that prevent the advancement you want. Going back to PUP, during a party, the group was shocked at the fact that I was doing what I was and actually dealing some numbers. One even when so far as to tell me that he was leery of having one in the party because the last time one was there he did nearly nothing to help either DMG wise or support.

Irrelevant in a game built from the ground up on partying. Melee needs to become something more than just a solo toy.

I'm sorry, but if you're worried about the party then you shouldn't be complaining about being asked to cast spells over running a sword through something. BRD often times becomes a puller and a buffer; they run back and forth casting their songs on the party then jump in from time to time to hit for mediocre damage. At least with our en-spells we can still deal decent damage over the course of time. The reason why I pointed the fact out that RDM can solo was for a good reason. It's got the potential to do more, it's not really lacking too much. It can cast Protect, Shell, Phalanx: the same as a PLD, which mind you; does often times horrible DMG. It can heal and debuff the same as a WHM, and cast the offensive magic the same as BLM. Do we do all of them great? No, but we shouldn't be able to. A quick macro to swap gear will give a boost to healing and black magic, another swap to help with meleeing here and there.

As I mentioned in the melee thread, to build on enfeebling I'd want to see enfeebling tied more to melee. All Saboteur did was further reinforce back-lining. I misread that as similar to an idea I saw a while back that would allow certain buffs (Refresh, Regen, Haste) be castable on self as an aura effect for a set duration, thus negating the need to cycle spells. That's make for one less excuse to keep the RDM form meleeing, specially since it's not like you need specific gear to cast any of that.

You really think that it'll move you closer to the front if you radiate any of those? SMN can do this as is. They can give Evasion boost, Double Attack, Magic Evasion, Crit. % Boost, Def. Boost. All of which get stronger over time, do most of them use those? No, hardly. They use Regen, Refresh, Magic Acc. Boost, and Magic Att. Boost. And where do they stand... in the back with the mages.

There's a notable difference between gear that compliments what a job can already do and gear that helps a job do something to acceptable levels. Enhancing Sword and Chimeric Fleuret are a kick to the stomach to most Red Mages because both are stupidly difficult to get and are the only worthwhile swords that actually build on Red Mage melee. Enhancing Sword alone was more a status symbol than anything else because of the low drop rate and the fact it dropped from Bune. If there were a line of other swords that had similar stats built in (kind of like BLU and the ton of BLU-specific Kilij that were made just for them) this wouldn't be much of an issue.

If you believe that either of those sword are the sole reason you move up to "acceptable levels," then your faith in them is completely far too high. Shikigami Weapon is just as hard, if not harder to hunt than any of the other Job specific NM drops. And while Refresh, Blood Pact Delay -, and Avatar Enmity+ are nice, in the long run the Austere's set with it's BP Delay-, SMN Magic Skill +, and Prep -1 is still just as good and less of a hassle to get. As a SMN, for the most part and the longest time, you didn't even see that Refresh unless you had Carbuncle's mitts and all the other -Prep stuff. Which even then, was only for Carbuncle that you'd get MP back. All of the Elemental Swords from the Trial of the Magians can bolster a RDM in some form or fashion. If it's too much of a pain to fight Bune, SE has made it more than easy enough to go down a more casual route. A +5 or +7 on En-Spells isn't all that great in the grand scheme of things when you can get: +20 to ATT and +9 STR or +15 ACC and +9 DEX. The only really great perk of the Enhancing Sword is that you can equip it to get both ACC and ATT boost at the same time long before level 75. But a lot of RDMs have sub NIN so eventually you'll be about to do the same with the Fire and Lightning Swords from the Trial (Duel Wielding, baby!)