RDM concept

Duelist – The Red Mage

This is a support DPS concept for RDM that focuses on sword enchantment that makes use of the excess elemental energies from spell casting. Like a classic RDM, this job hybridizes spellcasting and melee; white and black magic. It is not numerically balanced per se; numbers are present as estimations only. I've done what I can to dial down complexity. When I stand back and look at it, it doesn't meet the usual quota of junk skills but there are a few.

A classic RDM design would have them do most of the lower tier of spells that BLM and WHM do, yet wear better armor and wield a stronger physical attack set. Their damage would fall somewhere around 70-85% of a true DPS. Following FFXI's MMO implementation of RDM, they would have some powerful/unique buffs, be mostly rooted in single-target casting, and have a strong debuffing toolkit. However, FFXIV is really not setup for that kind of RDM. A lot of the challenge with RDM design is giving them enough of the toolsets of a caster dps, healer, and melee dps, and still staying within the allowed number of abilities and traits. Then its about dialing the damage be appropriate and not having the whole thing come off either too weak or too overpowered.

My concept for Red mage works up an en-spell buff that I call Spell Blade, by casting spells of certain elements. This provides a damage boost to melee attacks as well as a beneficial status effect or on-hit debuff that varies by element. Several abilities use Spell Blade energy and have different effects depending on the RDM’s active Spell Blade element. Because Red Mage's borrowed heavily from Thaumaturgy, the same general laws that govern the use of fire/ice elements still apply. RDM's using Ice get Umbral Ice, and when using Fire, they get Astral Fire, but at a weaker level than BLM's do. Before I get too far into explaining the way Spell Blade and Astral Fire/Umbral Ice interact......

Limit Break: Unique tier III (my inclination is to make it be a party-wide buff that does all 3 Aetheric Burst effects at once), healing tier I & II like BRD. Ultimately whatever SE does with BRD's level III, RDM's would be similar but different animation.

Cross class skills: RDM may set additional skills from CNJ and THM: Surecast, Swiftcast, Cleric's Stance, Blizzard II, Aero, Cure, Protect, Raise, Stoneskin. At level 60 they pick 6. There could be more possibilities from level 51-60 skills.


Skill List:

1 Quick Cut
120 potency, 70 TP
Spell blade damage bonus applies.

2 Poison
Potency 50, Cast time 2.5s, single target ranged
Duration 21 seconds.
Damage over time potency 30

4 Attaque Au Fer (Attack the Steel/Blade)
110 potency, 80 TP
Inflicts Damage Penalty 10% for 10s.
Spell blade damage bonus applies.

6 En Garde (On Guard)
Instant.
Skill Speed and Parry +10% for 20 seconds
Recast 80 seconds.
Boosted to 20% by trait

8 Frost
170 potency, cast time 2.5s, single target ranged
Creates one stack of Spell Blade: Ice. Cancels Spell blade Fire/Lightning.
Inflicts Heavy.

10 Prise de Fer (Take the Steel/Blade)
Potency 140, 80 TP
Inflicts Pacification 4s.
Spell blade damage bonus applies.
Combo Action: Attaque Au Fer
Combo Bonus: Pacify Duration 6s

12 Sleep
Same as THM spell w/o trait

15 Conversion
Instant.
Recast 5s.
Next action that produces a Spell Blade stack converts the current stacks to that element.

18 Shock
Potency 150, cast time 2.5s, single target ranged
Creates one stack of Spell Blade: Thunder. Cancels Spell blade Fire/Ice.
Combo Action: Shock Blade
Combo Bonus: Potency 220

22 Raise
Same as CNJ spell w/o trait

26 Burn
Potency 110, cast time 2.5s. Circular AOE.
Creates one stack of Spell Blade: Fire. Cancels Spell blade Ice/Lightning.
Astral Fire damage bonus applies.
Combo Action: Red Lotus Blade
Combo Bonus: Potency 140
(Basically Fire II)

30 Riposte
Potency 150, instant, duration 20s
recast 90s
Spell Blade damage bonus applies.
Successful parries result in taking 0 damage and reflecting damage on the attacker at 150 potency..


30 Frost Blade
Instant, but costs mp like a spell
Conjures a Blade of Ice that does auto-attacks and sword skills for the Red Mage so that he may stay at range.
Caster’s auto-attack is disabled, but he still can Parry.
Creates one stack of Spell Blade: Ice. Cancels Spell blade Fire/Lightning.
Cancelled if caster loses Spell Blade: Ice.
Spell Blade: Ice damage bonus applies to the Frost Blade’s attacks.

34 Heal
Cast time 2.5s
Potency 450.
Basically Cure II.

35 Red Lotus Blade
Potency 110, TP 110, cone AOE.
Spell Blade Fire damage bonus applies.
Creates one spell blade: Fire stack. Cancels Spell blade Lightning/Ice.
Combo Action: Quick Cut
Combo Bonus: Potency 130
Combo Bonus: Inflicts magic damage vulnerability +5% for 10s.

38 Aetheric Discharge
Instant/Off GCD.
Consumes one Spell Blade stack (trait eventually makes it free)
Effect varies by Spell Blade element.
Spell Blade damage bonus applies.
Astral Fire damage bonus applies to Detonate.
Recast 10s.

Ice: Deep Freeze. Single target, ranged. Potency 240. Causes Bind, duration 6s.

Fire: Detonate. 130 potency circle AOE centered on player.

Thunder: Bolt. Ranged, single target damage over time 50 Potency for 9s, ranged.



40 Thunderstrike
Potency 120, 70 TP
Creates one spell blade: Thunder stack. Cancels Spell blade Fire/Ice.
Spell Blade Thunder damage bonus applies.
Combo action: Quick Cut
Combo bonus: Potency 150

42 Phalanx
Cast time 2.5s. Single target
Damage Immunity equal to 1/4 RDM's INT.
Duration 60s.

45 Aetheric Burst.
Cast time 5s, consumes a big chunk of mp and 2 spell blade stacks, duration 15s
The RDM does not receive a buff from his own Burst.
Effect varies by Element.

Ice: Menphina's Gift. Aura status conferred to party members. Limit Break guage fills much faster. MP recovery boosted to 2x natural rate. (+2% mp per 3s for 15s)

Fire: Azeyma's Rage. Temper status conferred to party members. +10% damage boost. HP natural recovery boosted to 2x natural rate. (+2% hp per 3s for 15s)

Thunder: Energize. Haste status conferred to party members. Skill/Spell Speed +10%. TP recovery boosted to natural rate +50%. (+30 per 3 seconds for 15s)



46 Coupe de Grace (Blow of Mercy)
Potency 180 +20 per spell blade stack.
Spell Blade damage bonus applies.
Becomes available when enemy hp < 20%.
Recast 15s. Does not interrupt combos. Off GCD/instant

50 Refresh
Cast time 2.5s, single target ranged
Recovers mp +3% for 15s


50 Doublecast
Instant
recast 60 seconds
Double potency for next spell, also double mp cost.
Works on DOTs, Cures, and Nukes.
Enhancement spells' potency are doubled... can make a 20% hp Stoneskin, 2x stronger Refresh, etc.
Sleep becomes AOE 5y as if the RDM had the BLM trait.
Any spell that creates a Spell Blade stack will create 2 stacks when Doublecast.

54 In Quartata (An evasive action in fencing)
Instant.
Recast 60 seconds.
Evasion & Block & Parry +30% for 10s.
Successful dodges (only dodges) reset the cooldown.

55 Runic Blade
Instant.
Duration 20s
Absorbs Magic Damage and converts it to mp at a 4:1 ratio.
Max damage absorbed = 50% of RDM's max hp.

58 Circle Blade
140 TP, Potency 180 +10 per spell blade stack. AOE 5y radius
Consumes 2 Spell Blade stacks.
Spell Blade damage bonus applies. Astral Fire damage bonus applies.
Combo Action: Pris De Fer
Combo Bonus: Potency 220 +20 per spell blade stack
Combo bonus: May inflict slow 20% for 10s (ice), blind 20% for 10s (fire), or Paralyze 10s (thunder) depending on Spell Blade element.

60 Chainspell
Instant
Duration 5s
Recast 180s
Spell GCD and recast drops to 1 second.
Next 4-5 Spells cast instantly. Practical uses: Burn AOE spam, Heal spam, Frost spam, Shock spam. Excellent way to switch spell blade elements or to dps check.



Traits
8 Enhanced Intelligence
14 Enhanced Intelligence II
16 Enhanced En Garde (+10% skill speed and parry)
20 Enhanced Spell Blade Can stack twice, damage bonus is 10%. Base action damage +10%
24 Jack of all Trades. RDM's STR and MND effectively get a bonus of 1/2 their INT. Stronger Cures and Parry/Block. Certain Healer or DoW armors that RDM's can wear will count as having INT instead of MND or STR.
28 Flurry Spell Blade: Ice gives the status Fast Cast. Spell Speed +15%
32 Enhanced Intelligence III
36 Inferno Spell Blade: Fire gives the status Temper. Damage +5%
40 Enhanced Spell Blade II Can Stack 3 times. Ice/Fire now grant Astral/Umbral at 2 stacks. Spell Blade damage bonus is 15%. Base action damage +20%
44 Lightning Reflexes Spell Blade: Thunder confers an additional status to the RDM. Combat Movement Speed enhanced
48 Enhanced Raise Raise in combat
52 Enhanced Aetheric Discharge. Discharges no longer consume Spell blade stacks. They are limited only by their recast timer.
56 Enhanced Intelligence IV
60 Enhanced Spell Blade III. Can stack 4 times, damage bonus is 20%. Base action damage +30%.


Animation:

Spell Blade- Sword glows with element's energy, colored orbs circle the RDM like Astral Fire/Umbral ice, number of orbs = number of stacks
Quick Cut - a horizontal chop
Posion, Raise, Heal- Standard CNJ cast.
Attaque Au Fer- A lunge/stab
En Garde- A sword salute
Frost, Sleep, Shock, Burn, Frost Blade- Standard BLM cast
Prise de Fer- Veritcal chop and lean on enemy with sword for a second
Conversion- similar to Transpose
Red Lotus Blade- An overhead chop that delivers a triangular explosion of Fire on impact
Detonate (Fire discharge)- Extend sword toward enemy, circular explosion of Fire
Deep Freeze (Ice Discharge)- Extend sword toward enemy, huge ice crystal drops on enemy
Bolt (Lightning Discharge)- Extend sword toward enemy, arc of electricity between sword and enemy
Aetheric Burst- Hold sword skyward, crackle with energy of the element, then explodes outward. Party members surrounded by element briefly.
Thunderstrike- similar to Red Lotus Blade, but makes a flash of light and clap of thunder on impact
Circle Blade- sort of a combination of Holy and Circle of Scorn. RDM spins around with sword extended making a circular tracer of light, jumps and strikes the ground with a circular explosion of elemental energy
Phalanx- WHM cast. A white version of Protect that is shield-shaped flashes on the target
Refresh- WHM cast. Blue dots/bubbles float up around the target brielfy
Coup de Gras- Sword lunge deep into target. RDM (or his Frost Blade) appear to stab through target, then Blinks back to where he started. This doesn't actually change his (or his Frost blade's) position.
In Quartata- slight step back to present a narrower profile to enemy. shield arm forward, sword pointed down and back
Runic Blade- Hold sword vertically in both arms, clutched to chest. Purple energy glow.
Doublecast- Similar to Swiftcast. Spellcast animation is sped up and appears to happen twice
Chainspell- a yellow clock face & swirling energy surround the RDM, and his casting animation is sped up




Fleshing out some of the details

Weapon damage: Unlike other mages, RDM weapon damage is low for both physical and magical attacks (about the level of a BRD’s physical damage). This is because RDMs auto-attack, and their place is on the low end of the DPS spectrum. So while ability potency's tend toward the high side, the actual damage done is still low. They have 2 single-target combos, 1 melee range AOE combo, and have the means to continue meleeing while standing back from a fight and casting. To help conserve ability slots, two their combos share the same opening move and are finished with a spell. Their party buffing move and off GCD attack both have 3 different effects depending on which Spell Blade element the Red Mage is using.

I'd consider adjusting physical and magical damage rating on their weapons to favor magic slightly if needed, since spell blade provides a damage bonus to melee attacks. There needs to be a balance achieved such that single-target damage doesn't surpass MNK/DRG/NIN, and their AOE damage doesn't surpass BLM.

Damage type: RDM damage is piercing and magical. If Spell Blade is up, it all counts as magical. If its not up, auto-attacks and Attaque Au Fer/Prise de Fer are piercing. Because of a level 24 trait, STR and INT are one stat for a RDM, which simplifies gearing and lets melee and magical attacks have the same amount of main stat. Boosting both stats on the same piece of gear with materia will not work.

Armor: When armor is not job-specific, RDM's make use of Caster sets and a few Light/Mid DoW/MNK/DRG armors. RDM can use small shields and a few mid-sized ones. SE will need to add new shields to the game since there are practically no high ilvl ones that aren't Tower Shields meant for PLDs. Alternately, they could add parrying daggers.




Primary mechanic: Spell Blade

Spell Blade description: Though the origins of Spell Blade are unknown, it is widely theorized to be the result of studying Beastmen tribe "enspells" by Thaumaturges. Lost to dusty tomes, "Spell Staff" just wasn't considered a safe or efficient means for a Thaumaturge to best his foes. It turns out it was the Thaumaturges' choice of weapon that was the problem. I'll leave the rest of the story to SE's Lore team, but it probably should involve a haughty Thaumaturge and a cavalier Duelist who loathed each other....

When casting elemental magic, the Red Mage's sword is his focus and becomes a temporary reservoir for elemental energies. Spell Blade harnesses residual energy from spell casting and attaches it to a weapon. This elemental energy in the blade increases melee damage by 5%. Spell Blade becomes enhanced by traits and gains additional damage boosts of 5%, up to a total of 20% at level 60.

This damage boost applies to auto-attack, melee skills, Circle Blade, and Aetheric Discharges.

Spell Blade accrues as stacks of energy. These stacks do not have anything to do with the amount of Spell Blade’s damage bonus; that is either on or off at its maximum power as determined by your traits. A few abilities let you spend Spell Blade stacks to produce damaging or enhancing effects. If you use all of your Spell Blade stacks, Spell Blade is cancelled and you lose its damage bonus until you take an action that creates at least one stack of Spell Blade. Spell Blade stacks will also wear off after 10 seconds if you are not taking any actions that renew them.

Ice: In addition to bonus melee damage, Spell Blade: Ice gives the status Umbral Ice, which enhances mp recovery and decreases the cost of Fire spells. The trait Flurry gives you a spell speed bonus while using Spell Blade: Ice, known as Fast Cast.

Fire: In addition to bonus melee damage, Spell Blade: Fire gives the status Astral Fire, which raises Fire damage & mp costs. Astral Fire increases damage only for Burn, Aetheric Discharge, and Circle Blade.

Lightning: In addition to bonus melee damage, Spell Blade: Lightning inflicts the status Dia on melee hits. Dia has a 5s duration but constantly reapplies itself as long as a RDM is meleeing. A trait also increases in-combat movement speed after level 46 while under the effect of Spell Blade: Lightning.


Changing elements: Spell Blade elements cannot co-exist on your sword. If taking an action that changes elements between Fire and Ice, Spell Blade is cancelled and so is the Astral/Umbral bonus (just like what happens when a BLMs does it wrong). Early on in your career you learn Conversion to make element transitions smoother. Its similar to Transpose.

Conversion is an incredibly useful ability. Much like Transpose, its lets you switch elements quickly. Unlike Transpose it makes the next Spell Blade generating Fire/Ice/Lightning skill convert the current element's stacks to the new element. It does not grant a stack and change elements the way Transpose does. So it preserves the Spell Blade stacks you have. Umbral Ice and Astral Fire will also change when using Conversion between Fire and Ice skills.

Astral Fire and Umbral Ice will linger if you use Conversion and switch to Lightning because Lightning doesn't have any effect on Astral Fire or Umbral Ice; the same as it is for Black Mages. Astral/Umbral will naturally wear off after 10 seconds. the way they do for Black Mages.


Abilities that trigger Spell Blade:
Ice: Frost, Frost Blade, Blizzard II
Fire: Red Lotus Blade, Burn
Lightning: Thunderstrike, Shock


Does this mean RDM's have a Fire/Ice cycle like BLMs? Sort of, yes. RDM's can usually conserve their mp pool for quite a long time though because their combos use TP and MP, so they are drawing from 2 different resource pools.

RDM's will tend to use Lightning and melee for single targets. If their mp or tp gets low they can swap to Ice. They have the option of using Frost/Deep Freeze for single target ranged damage almost like how a BLM wields Fire/Firestarter, and will never run out of mp when doing so, but it isn't quite as effective as meleeing with Fire or Lightning. While casting Ice Spells, a RDM isn't using TP, so he recovers it naturally. RDM's can AOE with every spell blade element by using Circle Blade, but it quickly uses up his spell blade stacks. Its more efficient to use Fire skills at melee range along with Circle Blade for the most effective and sustainable AOE.


Style: RDM’s learned their black magic from Thaumaturges and adapted it to fighting with a sword. Each element has a purpose. Ice is for backline fighting and resource recovery. Fire is offensive and has AOE applications. Lightning is good for single-targets, and offers a lot of versatility. When Spell Blade energy is Discharged/Bursted you can see this style/element mirroring. Like it is with THM’s, Ice enables resource recovery and kiting tactics. Fire enables high damage and AOE. .

Fire and Thunder Spell Blade elements have a gimmick to increase party damage. Fire combo has a combo bonus for a 10 second magic damage taken +5% debuff and effects multiple targets. Spell Blade: Thunder adds Dia-on-hit to a RDM's Sword and applies a +5% damage taken debuff on a single target.

Use of Spell blade stacks: Aetheric Discharges produce extra damage as off GCD attacks (much like BRD's Bloodletter). Aetheric Bursts provide a buff to the party and cost the RDM both damage potential and mp. Circle Blade is a strong AOE attack that can be used with any Spell Blade element. Its potency diminishes when a RDM is low on Spell Blade stacks. All of these consume Spell Blade stacks. Its up to a RDM to balance their use with his generation of Spell Blade stacks. Running out causes Spell Blade to fade and drops DPS.



Enhancing/Enfeebling Magic: Delving into both Conjury and Thaumaturgy, RDM’s devised or modified several spells or effects from these schools of magic to fit their fighting style. Red Mages prefer to fight smart by crippling opponents and shielding themselves from harm.

Sleep is taken straight from the spell books of Thaumaturgy or was it conjury?

Heal is very similar to Conjury's Cure II.

Burn is basically Thuamaturgy's Fire II, but combo enabled. Red Lotus Blade is similar but delivered on the tip of a blade.

Phalanx is a field of force RDM's weave to protect themselves or others from harm.


Poison is a water-based damage over time attack.

Aetheric Bursts convert Spell Blade stacks into status bonuses imparted to nearby allies including Temper, Aura, and Haste. Bursts take a lot of mp and reduce a RDM's damage temporarily.

Aetheric Discharges release Spell Blade energy as instant attacks.

Circle Blade: Although unable to master advanced Black and White magics like Flare and Holy, RDM's have devised a sword technique that unleashes Spell Blade energy to a similar purpose.

Playstyle:

Ice Maging: You can backline by using DOTs and Ice-based spells. Frost's damage is slightly higher than other elemental nukes and you get a trait to cast it faster.

Frost Blade allows you to backline without losing your auto-attack. You can even do the melee/enfeebling combo with a Frost Blade. Discharges are similar to a BLM's Firestarter, but are on a cooldown rather than a proc. Burst can push the Limit Break guage. Your Frost blade can AOE for you with Circle Blade, or you can run in to use it (if Frost blade isn't up). This is a play it safe mode and your resource recovery mode. If you just cast DoT's, Frost & Discharge, you will recover TP while you're back-lining because you aren't spending any. Umbral Ice even at just level 1 or 2 will fill your mp pool very fast.


Frost Blade > DOTs > Frost spam mixed with Discharge and/or Circle Blade. You can support cast Heal, Refresh, and Phalanx.





Fire AOE Combo: Fire excels at AOE damage. Fire discharges are instant and AOE. Its Burst confers damage boosts to party members. Fire state is a mode of heightened damage for a RDM, and his combo provides a small damage boost to other magic DPS. Fire spells cost the most mp, and AOE skills cost more TP as well. The fact that you alternate between TP and MP helps make the combo a little more sustainable, but this is still a mode where you can easily run low on TP, MP, or both.

Just as a rough idea of damage numbers, I estimate in i130 gear a BLM hits for 600 and crits around 1000 with a Fire II. RDM's AOE's would hit around 300-450 and crit around 500-700. But he is still auto-attacking, and doesn't have downtime of cycling to Umbral like a BLM does. Just one move in his combo is single target, and he can easily get off ~10 AOE's (including Detonations and Circle Blade) before having to swap to Ice to recover mp.

Early on you just have Burn, which you can cast 3-4 times before running out of mp.
It then becomes Quick Cut > Red Lotus Blade > Burn repeat... with Circle Blade and/or Discharge thrown in once you learn them.

Because the rotation alternates as single target TP > AOE TP > AOE mp skill > spell blade stack use, you can repeat the rotation a few times before being out of TP & mp. There are trade-offs no matter what you choose for Spell Blade stack usage. Discharge should be your default choice. Circle Blade makes you run out of TP faster in an already TP-heavy combo, but does more damage and inflicts enfeebles.



Lightning Combo: Shock combo puts Dia on a target and is your best single-target rotation thanks to Shock doing critical damage from its combo bonus and Shock Discharge's DOT damage.

DOTs > Quick Cut > Thunderstrike > Shock
Discharge/Burst, Circle Blade, and Doublecast Shock as timers/stacks allow.
Do 2 combos, then renew DOTs.
You may alternate the enfeeble combo or just use Circle Blade by itself.

Between good single target damage, transitions from Ice with lingering Umbral Ice, Haste Burst, faster movement, and en-Dia Lightning is your go-to rotation.


The enfeeble combo:
You can use 1, 2, or all 3 parts of it depending on your needs. You can freely use these moves without impacting your spell blade. They are normal melee attacks, and benefit from Spell blade's damage bonus. The enfeebles inflicted are: damage penalty > Pacification > Slow, Blind, or Paralyze. All of these moves can be proxy'd by a Frost Blade, so this combo can be done at range with a Frost Blade up. Its not too bad on DPS, and cripples enemies. Circle blade costs 2 stacks, and this combo doesn't generate any, so be prepared to lose all your stacks after using it.

Attaque Au Fer > Prise de Fer > Circle Blade



Coup De Grace is a move like Mercy Stroke and Misery's End. Damage varies a little by how many Spell Blade stacks you have.



Phalanx and Refresh are powerful support spells, but using them takes a GCD and yields no damage, which is never good for a DPS job. Be cautious about over-using them. Along with DOTs, they can be a good filler option to cast when recovering mp in Ice cycle or good between dungeon pulls.

Well this is a lot to review, why don't I have a computer instead of just this tablet, critiquing these would be so much easier.

Now the basic idea seems nice, and very organized though I have yet to look at every detail. I will say that although redmages can cast white magic, they shouldn't really focus on it since I doubt that would work in this kind of game. I will see if I can look at this mor in depth tomorrow.

One thing I will say that I've notice in both yours and another persons RDM concept, is the way you are chaining skills. Remember skills need to chain down, as you level up, so you cant learn a skill that begins the chain after learningnthe skill that is within said chain. So, Balesta should be learned before Prise de fer.

Also what is with all of the deleted posts?

Forgot about beating the forums' 1000 character limit boss by editing posts until it was too late.

I re-worked the original post quite a bit. I reordered skills, tweaked potencies, and changed/replaced several skills. You were right about Balestra. I replaced it and ordered its replacement correctly. I really wanted a close distance and a jump back move, but there just wasn't room to fit them in. I settled for a combat movement speed bonus trait add-on for Spell Blade: Thunder.

Classic Red Mage is probably like Conjurer/Thaum up to Cure II/Thunder II, plus a Fencing Sword and a Bard hat. Basically, their outfits would be a cross between Casters and Bards. What you have, the French thing with Fencing might go well in France. The stacks are bit a mechanic tweaky, but I guess the Ninja is a bit tweaky too. Planning on powers for level 60 is a bit cumbersome since we don't really have a point of reference for scale. Like, I think Summoning Odin, Ramuh, and Bahamut should eventually be possible, but what level?

I went off the existing skills per level progression from 1-50 when I wrote the build, so 2 job skills, 2 class skills, and 3 traits. From recent dev disclosures we're getting several new skills from 51-60 that are quested.

My guess is 1 every 2 levels, and I hope we will still get a new trait or three.