Shadowbringers RDM Wishlist

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Originally Posted by Ariel_Valmont

If they were to merge jolt and impact it would need to come with the removal of the timer on impact otherwise you would get into situations where the timer is going to fall off before the cast finishes and wouldn’t have access to jolt.

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No, it could work if you allow snapshotting on RDM. The only thing that comes to my mind is WHM Presence of Mind. If PoM falls while you are casting, your spell still benefits from PoM.
Same here, you could start casting Impact while Impactful falls, and it should not cancel your Impact cast.

I agree RDM has no problem with button bloat, but we might want to keep an eye on it regardless.
I don't get your "Skipping right to 3" ?

As it is now if impactful falls off it cancels the cast, so something would need to change for the merged button to be a benefit.

Forget the skip to 3 statement, I retract that one. I could accept the melee combo being merged.

I'm hoping that if they implement any combo merges, they do so on an optional basis (or conversely, provided an option to keep them as separate buttons.) I have a mouse with enough buttons not to worry about button bloat, but for people who do, it'd be a good way to reduce the bloat, provided that it did not apply on a blanket basis.

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Originally Posted by Ariel_Valmont

If they were to merge jolt and impact it would need to come with the removal of the timer on impact otherwise you would get into situations where the timer is going to fall off before the cast finishes and wouldn’t have access to jolt.

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Ignoring the fact that that's a bit of a niche case, it's no different than BLM has to deal with for Enochian and its IV spells, or any other proc like Freecure or Enhanced Benefic. If they can manage so can we.
But, for quality of life's sake, I will admit you have a point and it wouldn't affect our output too significantly to allow snapshotting as Mansion stated.

Granting that that leads to the rabbit-hole of "Why don't Verstone and Verfire snapshot", then other jobs trying to get in on it too...

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I also don’t agree with merging the melee actions. Skipping right to 3 has its uses.

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Good thing you already retracted this entirely baffling statement or many of us would have ripped it apart with all the glee of hyenas eating Scar.

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I do like your idea on crowd control but I think I would choose silence over heavy.

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The advantage of a Heavy is that Displacement already puts distance between you and the target, and when dealing with most non-caster enemies, Displacement could then be used to kite or at least buy time to get a couple casts off. Heavy isn't broken by damage, can have a variable duration and potency, and is one of the least resisted CC effects; put it on, say, 50% slow for 3-5 sec, and you've effectively doubled the gap you made.
By contrast, a Silence is only useful with specific caster enemies, most only last a second, and it would compel them to immediately narrow the gap making the backstep moot. Sure we already have Tether and Break, which would theoretically make a Heavy redundant, but each has a 2.5 sec cast (longer than any of our shortcasts meaning they'll will never be cast in combat), Heavy effects have multiple tuning knobs allowing for gradually stronger ones in one kit, and the former is broken by damage making it non-intuitive to pair with a brief, melee-range silence effect. A stun will do enough for interrupting enemies.

Now, if it was forced to a choice, I'd rather have Displacement reduce our enmity than any form of CC, like the Dragoon's Elusive Jump. But since DRG's has a shorter CD and removes Heavy/Bind anyway, I see no reason why we couldn't jam a brief impediment in there (especially one we could argue on the grounds of already having a similar effect in our kit).

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Originally Posted by Ariel_Valmont

I also feel that RDM doesn’t currently suffer from Button bloat.

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Quoth the raven,

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Originally Posted by Ariel_Valmont

I really think at this point they should be moving away from new actions and usin traits to improve the gameplay experience. That’s not to say we shouldn’t get any new actions. I just think using traits is the better way to keep from having to purge to keep button bloat down.

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... which in itself is ludicrous to suggest when you consider this is literally the first expansion after RDM's introduction, which is prime time to evaluate what has and hasn't worked so far for the job and address whether it meets and is satisfactory for encounter requirements. Unless they intend to trait in massive boosts to our defense, MP regen, and/or general mana economy, it's exceptionally early to start saying "pull back".

It’s not contradictory, RDM can be on the low end of the spectrum of button bloat, but most of the other jobs suffer from it, and I stand by my thoughts on using traits to develop jobs from here on out. I’d rather not see RDM get to that point. (And you conveniently left out the part about role actions)

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Originally Posted by Ariel_Valmont

It’s not contradictory,

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It is if you try to have your cake and eat it too. "We're not far enough gone to remove buttons, but we are at the point we should consider limiting ourselves to traits," is fairly contradictory in my book, when the reality is the two should be swapped; jumping straight to "add nothing" leads to design stagnation, since traits can only go so far with the available tools before they cease to compel gameplay.
If we are on the low end of the spectrum then there are multiple avenues to consider long before we end up at as bloated as, say, Astrologian or Bard. Even if we were at the point where bloat was an immediate issue, the devs would absolutely consider purging the excess before limiting advancements to traits, because flashy new spell effects are easier to show off in pre-expansion videos and more satisfying to obtain/use than... passive traits that boost potencies or give extra procs.

Spells sell.

And again, RDM's just been introduced, so such limitations are likely the last things on the devs' minds for us.

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(And you conveniently left out the part about role actions)

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You're right, I did! Because

1) Criticisms concerning role actions are universal. Literally every job gets 10 role actions, we're not unique in that regard so it's really not our issue to claim. If it's an issue for us, then it's an issue for everybody, and the devs would need to consider changing the role action system at its core before they need to consider changing RDM specifically to accommodate it.
Not to say it isn't an issue, just that this really isn't the place to be seeking change to it. You yourself literally said, and I quote, "that's a whole different topic."

2) Casters literally don't even use all of our role actions anyway? I think we're specifically the role that is inclined to use the fewest.
When was the last time you touched Break or Drain unironically? Probably not in a while, not just 'cuz we have Tether and Vercure, but generally because they're weak and nigh useless outside of leveling; consciously casting Drain could be considered an insult to your healer. Having access to them is arguably a trap, since I've seen far too many new Arcanists and Red Mages trying to roll them into their rotations during roulettes.
Addle, Apocatastasis and Erase are useful in higher-end content in the hands of experienced players during niche scenarios in highly coordinated groups... but the other 95%+ of the time, the casual player will only use them when they're confused into believing their shiny new toys are meant to be spammed on cooldown (and even then they're not as vital or gamechanging as the stuns and silences afforded to other roles, rather stepping on the toes of healers).
Hell, if we're actually talking about issues unique to RDMs, the fact we don't have any innate MP regeneration makes us less inclined to slot Mana Shift, and the bad interaction between Dualcast and Swiftcast makes it virtually optional for us too.
Which leaves Diversion, Lucid Dreaming and Surecast as "must haves" -- and even now I would argue for Diversion and Lucid Dreaming's enmity reduction effects to be shuffled into one action, particularly when the latter has a dual purpose for covering our MP needs and the former is redundant by comparison.

I'd like to see potency removed from displacement, just so we don't see so many red mages yeeting themselves off the boss room... haha.
Other than that i haven't had enough time playing it to have a wishlist

So, my current wishlist in approximate order of priorities:

• Improved MP regen, either via trait or new spell/cooldown, so that we're not completely reliant on Lucid Dreaming outside of emergencies
• A new defensive skill to shore up our survival in melee
• Expanding our AoE rotation beyond Scatter-spam and Moulinet
• Removing potency from Displacement and Corps-a-corps to promote using them as movement skills (and perhaps minor utilities) over oGCD contributions to damage
• Evolving the base rotation, specifically by accelerating Mana generation so we can Verfinisher more frequently
• Ice and Water magic representation, maybe a Black opposite to Vercure
• Maybe adding an instant attack for mobile periods
• Maybe adding a new group utility

Note that many of these could potentially overlap.

A random musing on MP regen...

What if...

... Casting a spell that achieves Black/White Mana balance caused you to regain some MP.

That way you will naturally get some MP back doing your normal rotation... But in a pinch, you can sac some DPS to use some more Joltpacts over Verfirones to force more equilibriums for more burst MP regen.

With it also being thematic because "Muh balance!"

An alternative could be "After achieving balance, your next spell cast that causes you to become unbalanced restores MP" if you wanted to prevent Scatterspam from being an easy way to get a bunch of MP regen.

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Originally Posted by Archwizard

Ice and Water magic representation

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Question:

Is Ice magic just Water magic that's cold?

Or is Water magic just Ice magic that's warm?

:confused:

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Originally Posted by Kalise

Question:

Is Ice magic just Water magic that's cold?

Or is Water magic just Ice magic that's warm?

:confused:

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My own headcanon:

Fire, Ice and Lightning are 'energies'
Electricity, heat and an absence of heat.

Wind, Earth and Water are 'matter', physical manifestations, or kinetic energy imparted on them.
Hence 'Conjury', you're conjuring something physical.