Post 1.18, Conjurer Offensive Capability?

There's a lot of uh... stuff going on in the general discussion section of the forum, and although I'm sure there are very few who come this way, I hope placing this in the correct forum will get an answer or a bit of discussion going, since I've yet to see a clear answer sifting through all the nonsense that's been posted recently on the forums.

Through a majority of the posts I see regarding changes, its either talking about how "my THM can nuke just fine" or how "Conjurer is the dedicated healer with all its new heal spells".

What I want to know is, with a majority of elemental spells under its belt, can a Conjurer be offensive post 1.18? I played for a short while today for the first time in a long time, and while I am only level 19 I considered my damage to be acceptable against similar level enemies. However, if I were a higher level character, lets say Lv 45-50 in the new dungeon, is an offensive Conjurer feasible given someone else is in charge of being the main healer?

You'd still want to pull your weight healing (as the DoW should too, because they CAN), but playing on the Black Mage side of the spectrum is what I'd like to try more of.

Especially since the MP costs are comparatively low, I see little reason why I shouldn't be getting frosty with it!

Conj has to be capable of soloing, after all. My experiences in THIS department so far have been fun and fruitful.

Yes LOL, You are Sir, still a Nuker... but feel free to Heal whenever you'd like :P. (Pretty much the definition of the Black Mage Conjurer)

Real answer. Yes, CON is both a Nuking Mage AND the Main Healing Mage. Depending on party set-up you can do both or specialize in just DD or Healing. After the patch your Nuking spells should work more or less as well as they did pre-patch. I haven't noticed a gimp at all in my Nuking abilities. Some people might say they have, but I am basing this on normal mob damage not NM's or raid damage. (I haven't killed a NM post-patch as of yet). The only thing I can think of that might make nuking more challenging is that 1. Emulate (which I don't have since my Thm is 39...Con is rank 50) now lasts half as long as it use to. and 2. MANY people in the community now see Conjurers as White Mages.

But no, you don't have to equip a single cure/raise/buff spell if you please and you would still contribute to the party in a very solid way. (Also, I was never big on 'Darting' the mob...seemed retarded to me personally, but now unless you are standing WAY closer than you should as a mage in a party, you need to cast on a mob to damage it...dart is more for close range).

With Curaga, you *may* get pidgeonholed as a White Mage and healer if the forum mentality shows up in-game.

Studying up on an enemy's elemental weakness I believe is vital if playing a Conjurer offensively. Resorted to Scourge and Banish II with one elemental spell and cycle between the three until I get more elemental research done on even ranked targets.

I actually feel like I'm going even further towards the Black Mage role post-1.18.
In one full day of post-1.18 playing, I used Curaga only once.

Post-1.18 people seem to be taking more responsibility for self-healing because:
- Conjurers are much more judicious about healing due to the new MP costs
- most established players have learned some self healing abilities and can be self-sufficient
- healing others pulls an incredible amount of hate now
- self healing also spreads the MP burden around the party

So far I've been:
- doing more attacking, cycling through the basic attacks since their timers are pretty long
- using Radiance and Siphon MP whenever possible
- using Stoneskin II mid-fight every once in a while since the MP cost is much lower than heals (and seems to pull less hate)