6.0 Red Mage speculation

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Originally Posted by Duelle

What I suggested is a sword swing. Sword swings are restricted to melee because swords have a limited range. That's sort of how they work. And despite rumors to the contrary, Red Mages use swords (FFXIV's version of the job tends to use them as props instead of weapons, but that's neither here nor there). Also, for being touted as a "melee and ranged hybrid" (Yoshida's words, not mine), there's a lot more ranged than there is melee. Even without a redesign of the job on the table, I'd aim to correct that where possible.

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The issue with this is that we are a) a caster, b) balanced around being a caster, c) only in melee for short bursts which is a skill-tester for any caster when we're taking up a ranged spot and therefore expected to deal with ranged mechanics which put us at range, and d) a caster.

The fact that YOU believe that it's supposed to be some gishy sword-mage thing, despite that not being its actual identity except in that one MMO with wonky job design, doesn't make it so. RDM's always been about having -spell variety- at the cost of reduced raw spell power and charges, with auto-attacks as something the RDM can do between casts, though not with as great effectiveness as actual melee attackers.

Then, once FF5 hit, the 'turret' identity became solidified, with chainspell being the big thing it eventually brings to the table.

That's why RDM's identity is based around chainspell. Because chainspell's been what it's been about since FF5.

I hope Embolden gets looked at. It either needs to be split into two buffs (self & party buffs) so RDM can selfishly have the full 10% the entire time (and keep the party buff slowly dwindling down). It should also affect more than just "physical" for party members- it barely helps most of the cast! It's such an odd buff in the scheme of things.

Further on the topic of party buffs, RDM's main problem to me is the fact that their burst window can be so insanely out of sync with everyone else. In most raid buff scenarios, Scorch is hitting after everyone else's buffs have already worn off, sometimes even Verflare/Holy also. It simply feels bad. It's not too much of an issue usually to ask the DRG to delay Litany by exactly one GCD (outside of when they need to prepull it), but it feels bad for AST to delay Divination, Ninja to delay Trick Attack, etc etc. They just don't work with RDM's opener, which comes up a lot this tier since we have quite a few "reopener" scenarios in Eden 9-12.

Related topic as well: This entire expansion has solidified my need for RDM to take up a party's melee spot. There's too many fights where you have to gimp yourself at some point if you get put into a caster slot. I hope 6.0 doubles down on the melee/range aspect of RDM if they are going to continue to design raids/trials like this expansion did.

RDM was one of the few jobs that didn’t change much in SHB besides a tweak to acceleration and added AOEs and a alternative to Displacement. Which is a shame RDM is a great job compared to FF14 worst or most mundane but it’s just missing that final cherry-on-top Mechanic.

I’ve seen plenty of quality reworks and reimagining for the job so the love of the RDM mains are there and they do hope it has more engaging mechanics. I’m not a RDM main so idk where to begin when discussing new skills but what we DONT need is skills like Fleche or Scorch literal skill fodder unless they’ll be more integral to the kit. Imagine if RDM just gets Scorch II

I want to see the magic skills changed to have ranged sword animations

Similar to how the white mage updated to just use white magic and no longer use earth or wind

I’d like the red mage to update his magic to more darkness and light visuals but with a sword twist and maybe some cute flowers

As for additional skills.
I’d like an aoe sword skill that has the red mage teleport around damaging multiple enemies or if just one enemy hit that enemy multiple times

And a support skill that the red mage could cast on a single ally that buff their damage as they attack more. Not usable on self

I've personally wanted quite a few changes here and there. Changes to embolden, while also making our raising less. I would like it if we had 2 charges of raise, OGCD, that way we can stick to dpsing. Give SMN 1 charge with a phoenix feather aesthetic. Yoshi p has stated that he prefers the healers being the primary raisers.

I want the theme of "balancing" since it's often told at but not utilized. Even in the job quests and the theme of it all. At least, do your main rotation quicker, do melee or new spender method, use verholy, then do your rotation again and use verflare. After doing both, go into a "balance of the aether" type thing where you go in a red magic phase. Having a different rotation for that for a short period before finishing with scorch, or you have the option to do the melee rotation which is quicker , reduced down to two buttons(get rid of riposte). Something similar to that. I like the idea of getting to the Balance red phase faster than what we currently do.

I'd like the melee rotation to be 15y range. Still Melee-ish but given extra range due to being "magic enhanced". Also, I'd enjoy it if they made our melee rotation function like GNB's where you can start the phase, but can also go back to casting if you need to, then go back into melee to finish.

With reprise being changed to a "spell" on a 30sec CD or so that procs dual cast. It needs to be more mobile with more ways of getting dual cast. Also increasing the B/W mana cost to about 10-20.

Another thing i'd enjoy would be veraero II and verthunder II replacing the basic versions of them, then our AOE turning into Verfreeze and Verflood. With Impact replacing Jolt II.

dualcast QoL ,reprise and scorch give dual cast
big things i want

I’d like a proper AoE melee combo into a finisher instead of just spamming Enchanted Moulinet, as it’s really not satisfying and doesn’t feel fun or rewarding like the single target melee rotation does. I also second what Duskane said about Reprise and Scorch proccing Dualcast, which would be a brilliant QoL. Also, some spell upgrades to Aero/Thunder/Fire/Stone to reflect our RDM’s higher power.

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Originally Posted by Duskane

reprise give dual cast

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This would increase our mobility too much. Currently, the mobility bought by Reprise has a marginal direct DPS cost and a mana cost. If you let Reprise proc a dualcast, it would be an immdediate refund of the mana spent and it would do more DPS than Verfastspell-Verslowspell. This would be OP.

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Originally Posted by Duskane

scorch give dual cast

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This wastes a proc if you go into your combo with a proc. It's one thing to use a single proc before going into your combo, but if you have both procs before starting your combo, clearing both is going to waste time and/or cause an overcap. So Scorch triggering dualcast will force you to choose between wasting mana before a combo or wasting a proc after a combo. For that reason, Scorch should not ever trigger a dual cast.

Tbh I'm really not expecting much
In SB I was expecting a mobility button and some sort of red finisher after verholy/flare (but requiring the alternate use of both)
We got a mobility button and a boring red finisher

In term of gameplay the rdm is in a very good place and I can't see what could be added to fill a glaring hole in the job design

However I do see a few things

Rdm has no transition tool to either bring back mana around 40 or above 80
In the same department we can't consume proc before a boss leaves
Some sort of skill intended to be used before a boss leave or to burn any access mana above 40 so we could use manafication would be welcome. (This could be a melee skill)

The ogcd crystal sword department could see a newcomer to make us press more buttons

We still have no aoe finisher so there's that too

After that what could we get?
Trait reducing/improving a few ogcd.. that's it

The job is well design, it's a bit like the BLM... What else do we need ?
(There are the obvious rank up but I don't Rly count these)

The only thing I'd like to see would be a trait that hasten the gameplay by a lot
Basically the trait would reduce the recast time of verthunder/wind to 1.5s
That's something I'd really like to see but at the same time this would impact our mobility substantially.

I’d like to see verblizzard as a third black mana spell, it could proc off of verfire. And to pair, I’d like to see veraqua proc from verstone. Each of them would grant 13 mana. Or maybe they’d be aoe’s than only proc from the other aoe spells unless used with acceleration. In other words, acceleration>Veraero>verstone>veraqua. I also want some other cooldown or trait that makes the job just a little more optimizable at endgame. Something to give the job just a bit more of a skill gap. Sort of how dragoons have to delay their first life of the dragon cycle to better align with dragon sight. Something that newer and more casual players don’t think to do but something that is really rewarding at endgame. Perhaps a way to extend the mana gauge so you can do two melee combos and finishers right after another?