Yet another redmage balance idea

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't believe the overall structure to RDM needs to change, rather that it needs to given some improvements to its utility and a slight boost to its damage output. With its pathetic MP regen options, RDM is still pretty limited if you're expecting to use it primarily for Dualcast Veraise. Now, I don't think RDM needs to do massive damage by any means, make no mistake on that: It should, however, at least be comparable to at least BRD's DPS potential, and should probably be given a bit more utility to make it comparable without being the same jobs save for the difference in Magic/physical properties. The healing/res utility is a good start, but it's still limited compared to what BRD can do, and Embolden is nice but fairly laughable. The challenge will be deciding what utility would be a good fit. I personally think some kind of OGCD for something like Verprotect/Vershell for a temporary defensive boost has potential, maybe give the effects a small TP/MP recovery as well, and using either one puts both on cooldown for the same amount of time, with no gradual degradation of the defensive effects. It could even be interchangeable with Verbravery/Verfaith for offensive boosts possibly, but honestly jobcrafting is not my field so these might not be great ideas. Either way, RDM needs more than just fast raises that leech off of limited MP resources.

If it's mp regen you want, I'd put that on the un-enchanted melee combo, akin to dark knight's Carve and Spit.

Really mp restores could be added to one of its skills like manafication or even acceleration
Similar to Aether flow since SMN has no MP issue

Really needs to be a more support class
We have BLM for big deeps and SMN as inbetween

Embolden buff needs to be at full strength the entire 20 seconds it's up
Id also like it to increase power of healing magic too

Verflare and Verholy need some secondary effect

@ buffs

embolden should just buff all damage, same for brotherhood (not just physical)..., its discriminating and tiresome..

same for contagion.., just lower that to 7% (and brotherhood increase CD by 20 sec; but dont nerf embolden when it buffs all...)

noone takes a class because it "only" buffs physical or magical, but its annoying for the classes that cant profit from them

@Rdm MP

and agree, let Verflare/-holly give Rdm a bit MP back, ... maybe a bit more than energy-drain does

What RDM could use is support as other's have stated. They should be able to compete with BRD's and MCH's.

1.) Composure: Increases own physical damage dealt by 10% and magical damage dealt by nearby party members by 10% Both effects are reduced by 10% every 4s. Cannot be used while Embolden is up. (Recast: 80s)

2.) Embolden: Increases own magical damage dealt by 10% and physical damage dealt by nearby party members by 10% Both effects are reduced by 10% every 4s. Cannot be used while Composure is up. (Recast Lowered to: 80s)

3.) Manafication: Doubles current Black Mana and White Mana levels. Additional Effect: Restores 10% of maximum MP.

4.) Enchanted Riposte: Damage Potency Increased to 250. (210 Original)

5.) Enchanted Zwerchhau: Combo Potency Increased to 320. (290 Original)

6.) Enchanted Redoublement: Combo Potency Increased to 500. (470 Original)

Now it has a similar level of support to the Bard, and their melee combo got a upgrade of 100 potency putting them more in par with them. And they also got the same mana utility as SMN, sure they have a 2min recast but their spells cost less mana than a SMN.

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Originally Posted by Brightshadow

What RDM could use is support as other's have stated. They should be able to compete with BRD's and MCH's.

1.) Composure: Increases own physical damage dealt by 10% and magical damage dealt by nearby party members by 10% Both effects are reduced by 10% every 4s. Cannot be used while Embolden is up. (Recast: 80s)

2.) Embolden: Increases own magical damage dealt by 10% and physical damage dealt by nearby party members by 10% Both effects are reduced by 10% every 4s. Cannot be used while Composure is up. (Recast Lowered to: 80s)

3.) Manafication: Doubles current Black Mana and White Mana levels. Additional Effect: Restores 10% of maximum MP.

4.) Enchanted Riposte: Damage Potency Increased to 250. (210 Original)

5.) Enchanted Zwerchhau: Combo Potency Increased to 320. (290 Original)

6.) Enchanted Redoublement: Combo Potency Increased to 500. (470 Original)

Now it has a similar level of support to the Bard, and their melee combo got a upgrade of 100 potency putting them more in par with them. And they also got the same mana utility as SMN, sure they have a 2min recast but their spells cost less mana than a SMN.

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Composure sounds awful, we have no real need for a physical buff and practically speaking it'd only work on healers and occasional pld burst phases

Composure is better than you think tbh. If you're in a Dual/Triple Caster comp the boost is massively appreciated. I'd like SE to actually put more magic damage/vul up buffs in the game to help compete with the NIN/DRG/BRD DPS trinity at the moment if they're not going to fix those classes, and I can tell you the boost from a Contagion in a NIN/SMN/BLM/RDM comp is absolutely what makes that party viable at all in the game's current state. Not good (3 mana shift spamming casters is as good as one ranged dps atm, if you only consider healer mana), just viable. Due to the higher weight of Tank vs Healer DPS contribution and higher saturation of physical vs magic DPS classes in general we do need more magic damage/vul up/elemental res down buffs, and they need to be higher potency to compete with the blunt/piercing/slashing/phys counterparts.

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Originally Posted by Grimoire-M

Composure is beter than you think tbh. If you're in a Dual/Triple Caster comp the boost is massively appreciated. I'd like SE to actually put more magic damage/vul up buffs in the game to help compete with the NIN/DRG/BRD DPS trinity at the moment if they're not going to fix those classes, and I can tell you the boost from a Contagion in a NIN/SMN/BLM/RDM comp is absolutely what makes that party viable at all in the game's current state. Not good (3 mana shift spamming casters is as good as one ranged dps atm, if you only consider healer mana), just viable. Due to the higher weight of Tank vs Healer DPS contribution and higher saturation of physical vs magic DPS classes in general we do need more magic damage/vul up/elemental res down buffs, and they need to be higher potency to compete with the blunt/piercing/slashing/phys counterparts.

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even a turd could be good if you dress it up nice, the idea of giving rdm a seperate skill for buffing magic dps instead of physcial just sounds terrible because of how burst windows work in this game. you don't want to have 2 abilities lock each other out when they're designed with your party in mind. Look at Contagion and Radiant Shield, contagion see's no real viable use outside of pet swap even though it would be phenomenal to have both it and the shield. people will always pick the better of the 2, and if you allow both of them to go up together, then just make one neutral buff. It's terrible skill design.

Double caster is trash, why would anyone in their right mind consider doing triple caster and on that note, we don't need more magic debuffs, we need more jobs that use magic as a point of their core kit, melee/tank/ranged support magic dealers that would allow for magic buffs to be viable. Contagion has the potential to be the most broken ability next to trick and disembowel but not enough jobs synergize with magic to allow for that.

what makes you think it needs to be balanced when its the weakest dps of the 3 casters, and arguably of all the dps jobs.

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Originally Posted by Wayfinder3

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I don't think you get why I made that swap in the first place, and you missed the greater point. If you're in a certain party, depending on everyone's skill level/flexibility, you do what's best for your group. Triple melee comp and your healers aren't struggling for mana? Bring SMN and use Ifrit. Radiant Shield + Devotion will beat out the BRD crit + Foes buff. Are your Healers struggling for mana in general? Then bring at least one BRD/MCH. Aggro issues on your WHM? Does someone like NIN? Ask if that player enjoys AST. Or ask your tanks what they're doing with Shirk/Tank stances. Hell, ASTs will feed their best DPS all of their single target cards in order to get the best edge when AoE cards don't line up.

Our party ran double caster initially because our party liked RDM/BLM and the RDM was new to XIV raiding. They were a carry over from WoW, and played a different role in that. RDM just made sense for them to play till they got used to XIV's combat. It's only because of our DPS disparity at the time that I swapped from BRD to SMN. Swapping out one of the bottom two DPS in the game to the top DPS that ALSO buffed the raid damage more just made sense within the party. Theoretically, if Composure existed, our RDM would be using that in our group too, for that reason.

If SE cared about all party viability they'd allow for all job combos to be played without Limit break penalties, and limit gear drops/weighting to what your composition brought to the raid/dungeon (which every static would appreciate the HELL out of, I might add), and either homogenize all the raid buffs, or add more options than we have currently to buff the raid in more conditional ways. If SE's not going to fix the NIN/BRD/DRG trinity by patching them directly, then I'd rather they attempt to unseat that trinity by buffing alternative classes/comps, including offering more ways to buff party members. The reason for the phys/magic split at all is to limit the power of a particular raid buff, and the reason for higher magic buff weighting is so when they do apply they can make up for the healer/tank/phys vs caster dps disparity. Hell, I'm for more magic based DPS in other roles too but ideally I'd rather have more freedom over what our groups are allowed to bring.

All of that is irrelevant to the discussion at hand, however. RDM in general needs love, regardless of those abilities. I feel that the best way to implement that Composure/Embolden idea is to keep the personal magic damage buff regardless of which raid buff you use for the party. You'll use the one that benefits your raid the most, which is what I did on SMN when I made that swap.

But that's future talk. Currently, RDM's raw DPS at the moment just needs to be pushed higher. And the only way to go about that is to buff potency values, or alter their mana generation to give them more melee combos than what they have currently.