Red Mage: A detailed look.

Yes, This thread again.

Fair warning. This post is HUGE. Many have already complained about it and many more will. If you don't have the time to read the whole thing then just zoom down to the TLDR (which is still quite long but I think a few paragraphs are more acceptable to most people). Most of the text is spent describing and explaining the rotational significance of each ability. I am a sucker for details (as the thread title says).

Introducing Red Mage

A number of people have already brought this discussion to the table some weeks ago and while there were some very good suggestions and considerations in those threads, I feel the idea bears some revisiting. For those who don't know, the Red Mage has been something of an iconic asset featured in just about every single Final Fantasy video game, or Final Fantasy related title where a class based system can be found. It has always been a mainstay of the series, a "jack of all trades; master of none" that can swap roles instantly in a pinch and help fill the gaps if something in your strategy goes wrong. As such its defining trait has always been that it can cast Black Magic, White Magic, use a sword, and take a few punches to the face. Not so much that it exceeds the power of classes specialized to those other roles, mind you, but enough so that it can fill a gap if one of them falls.

However this organization of abilities poses some problems in XIV where they may not have been present in previous games. As MMO games tend to function around classes, the traditional Red Mage runs into some serious balancing issues as its "master of nothing" manner of construction would ultimately hamper its inclusion in a game where specialization is often more sought after in groups then hybridization. Ultimately two camps of arguments have arisen on this notion, the purist argument (which, yes includes a very vocal crowd from XI), and the new wave MMO argument. However, from my observations and personal discussions with staunch supporters of both positions, many aspects of these arguments share much in common when it comes to Red Mage. Both want complex rotations and both want to play a class that is easy to pick up yet extremely challenging to master. As such I believe I have arrived at a conception of the job that can satisfy both camps: an extremely complicated, difficult to master class and job that are capable of enhancing the overall DPS capability of the party while remaining primarily focused on dealing as much damage as it can as quickly as possible.

The Red Mage concept I have come up with focuses mainly on switching roles so that one always relies synergistically on the inclusion of the other. As many others before me have suggested, it uses the base class of Fencer (FNC) upon which Red Mage (RDM) becomes the job.

Fencer

As I have devised it, Fencer on its own focuses on the melee spectrum of things. It is a very complicated class and as such could fit in well as XIV's first advanced job. Its main weapon is the rapier, a very fine, long bladed sword designed for thrusting rather than slashing. While Fencers get attack spells early on, most will not use them regularly until around level 35 or so. This is because players will not have a significant need to so until they obtain "Ignite" a spell that, when cast with a combo bonus, enhances their weapon to inflict additional umbral damage. Once they obtain this spell they will find that in order to preform on a competent level compared to other melee damage dealers, they will need to have "Ignite" up as often as possible. In addition to this fencers also poses an innately low resource regeneration rate, meaning that thier MP and TP regenerates slower compared to other classes (remember that in ARR TP will refresh itself).

By growing along this path a Fencer, or by extension a Red Mage, that simply focuses on only dealing melee damage or only casting will always perform on a subpar level compared to the other DPS jobs he or she is stacked against. Therefore, RDM in my conception becomes less about being able perform a variety of roles in a pinch, but rather about deftly navigating a number of different roles simultaneously in order to enhance the next thing you intend to do. Executing careful planning while navigating a complex rotation is the key here and I have accomplished this mainly by building very specialized combo bonuses that a competent Red Mage can exploit to aid in both resource generation and damage enhancement while swapping between the front line and the back line. One of the tools through which I accomplish this, as mentioned above, is through limiting resource generation.

For both Fencer and Red Mage, MP and TP regenerate much slower than they do for every other class. As such, they need to rely on a number of other tools available to them in order to ensure that they will always be able to sustain a comparable level of damage. In this manner, resource generation, and switching tasks so as to not over use one in lieu of the other becomes paramount to succeeding as a FNC/RDM.

For example: While playing as a Red Mage, you will quickly notice that you do the most damage while casting. Casting, however, cannot go on indefinitely as you will always run out of mp sometime after two or three full rotations (about 2 minutes 40 seconds). Therefore a clever Red Mage will use this opportunity to combo into the aforementioned "Ignite" spell and dive into combat. A Red Mage will always want to have the "Enspell" effect afforded by "Ignite" active while in melee combat as the base damage on rapiers after level 40 tapers of somewhat compared to the weapons that other jobs possess. Since the "Enspell" bonus has a limited duration a Red Mage will want to return to casting once it wears off (3 minutes 30 seconds). Because the RDM's MP has been regenerating during this time when he returns to cast he has more or less a full pot to cast through. The main rotation continues in this vein until either the RDM dies or the target is killed.

Finally, Red Mage's two cross-classes are Conjurer and Thaumaterge, allowing it access to all tier 1 elemental nukes except blizzard (we have seen in screenshots from 2.0 that conjurer will have water), sacred prism, cure, protect, raise, stoneskin, sanguine rite, necrogenesis, dark seal, and resonance.

Before I go on any more about the specifics of the class and job I want to share with you the combo trees and micro rotations I have designed.

http://i1327.photobucket.com/albums/.../redmage-4.jpg

In the image above, weapon skills and spells that are red are part of the Red Mage job only. Underlined abilities can be cross-classed (I was somewhat conservative here). Black lines indicate combos that a Fencer can make and red lines indicate combos that only a Red Mage can make.

As you can see, Red Mage here more or less sinks or swims based on how well the various tools used above are used. As I stated above, proper resource management is a huge part of their game play.

I want to take a few moments here to discuss each of these actions and explain what some of the more difficult to grasp abilities listed above can do.

The Spell Tree

The Spell Tree is by far the most complicated part of the class and is likely where most RDMs would start their rotations so I will begin here.

Chainspell (Red Mage)
This is possibly the most confusing ability on the chart above so I will address it first. Many of you will remember "Chainspell" as the Red Mage two-hour ability from Final Fantasy XI. In this incarnation, however, "Chainspell" functions very differently (and lives up a bit more to its namesake). Rather than allowing you to cast a series of spells instantly, "Chainspell" affects what spells you can combo with and, in conjunction with some clever combo bonuses, can be used to change the elemental properties of your higher tier spells.

Essentially you can use it to perform a combo between any tier-one attack spell you have set (including cross-class spells) and any other tier-two spell, or any tier two spell and a tier three spell and still retain the combo bonus. You will, of course, have noticed that the combo bonuses on the mid and high tier FNC/RDM spells allow the spell's elemental affiliation to be changed based on the spell cast before it. As Red Mage's two cross-class jobs are Conjurer and Thaumaturge this means that by using "Chainspell" a RDM could change the elemental properties of its higher tier nukes to match whatever cross class spells it has chosen to set (limited by "Chainspell's" cooldown, of course).

Applications for this grow increasingly complex further down the line as both RDM's most powerful nuke ("Reciprocal Gyre") and its primary self enhancement effect ("Ignite") can both benefit from the elemental attribution shift. I will talk about these further on.

Also please keep in mind before making your judgments that no RDM can set all five 'tier 1' elemental spells at once. Remember that the limit is five cross-class actions total. Red Mages will also want to take advantage of other abilities available to them as well so most will only be setting two cross class nukes on their bars at a time. These two will likely revolve around what they are fighting at the time. The fact that Red Mages will need to consider the elemental attributes of their enemies before battle and set spells accordingly is a subtle throwback to old FFXI solo RDMs and I hope the sentiment is appreciated by this crowd. Finally, "Blizzard" is locked to thaumatergy so "Reverberate" and "Reciprocal Gyre" can never be chained to deal lightning damage (BLM has this territory pretty well covered anyway), and "Ignite" cannot ever grant "Enblizzard".

Wist (Fencer)
Brings the Fencer's wit to bear in aetherial form. "Wist" is a generic first-tier nuke for Fencer. Useful in that it deals non elemental damage. Casting time is fairly short, 2 seconds. Can be cross-classed.

Reverberate & Oscillate (Fencer)
As mentioned above, both tier 2 nukes have the ability to alter their elemental properties based upon the aetheric residue of the spell cast before it. While in the midst of its spell rotation A Red Mage will want to switch between casting the two of these spells as often as it can in order to deal the most damage possible. Because "Chainspell" has a cooldown a Red Mage will likely only ever combo past these two spells when an elemental property can be reassigned. Oscillate also functions as the classes enmity dump spell. It is somewhat more effective than "Quelling Strike" but nowhere close to "Freeze".

Also please notice that "Reverberate" deals damage based on the opposite of the previously used spell, this refers to the polar opposite as shown on this chart. In this situation a lightning spell will become ice element, water will become fire, and wind; earth. This makes "comboing" the proper element into "Reciprocal Gyre" somewhat tricky and more or less requires two spells be set for a single enemy type.

The names used here stem from actions preformed by sound waves, reverberation is what causes an echo and an oscillation is a measure in repetitive variation over time.

Reciprocal Gyre (Red Mage)
This is Red Mage's largest nuke and will ideally be cast two to three times before a RDM begins to run low on mp. "Gyre's" main property is that It deals greater damage on a target based on the number of enhancing or enfeebling effects available on the target. The lore behind this spell is that it takes the aetheric energies that make up magical enhancing effects and turns them against their user for a split second, causing a great deal of damage. In this manner the effects of enhancing magic become reciprocated. I am on the fence about whether all buffs and enfeebles should stack for the damage bonus as poison is not necessarily a magical effect, nor is paralyze, and therefore would not have an aetheric property to manipulate.

Regardless, the special effect outlined above is more of a bit of flavor as even without the enhancing effects a single reciprocal gyre is about on par with "Thundaga" in terms of damage. (balanced by its higher cost and longer cooldown). In my mind the enhancing effects will increase the spell's performance by about 3% for each effect active (stacking to 30%, 10 effects) Damage can of course be further augmented by proper manipulation of "Chainspell" and the right elemental spell when available.

It has also occurred to me that the reciprocal effect of the spell (turning buffs against their users) might provide more interesting gameplay in PvP so I would be willing to concede the idea that in PvP the bonus effect from enhancing abilities active on the target could be extended.

The name here was taken from a particularly powerful (and situational) spell from Dungeons and Dragons 3.5e. It can be found in Complete Arcane. The spell in DnD deals 1d6 points of damage per each spell level of buffs on it (up to 25d6). It blows the holy hell out of caster types.

Ignite (Fencer)
As mentioned before "Ignite" is an extremely powerful spell in that it gives its user an "En-element" effect when cast. By using "Chainspell" a RDM can set the effect to be whatever element they need it to be (except Ice). Without "Chainspell" the effect granted will always be "Enumbral". The "En-element" effect will always be more potent then "Enumbral". "Enastral" is also possible to achive by 'chainspelling' "Reverberate" to "Ignite", this would share the same potency as the "En-element" effects.

As you might have guessed "Ignite" is designed to be a transitional spell. By taking all of the RDM's remaining MP pool and granting an enhancement to melee damage it functions as a 'not so subtle' hint that the Red Mage ought to stop casting and start moving into melee range. It is also worth pointing out here once again that staying out as a caster forever is not feasible. RDM's slow resource regeneration makes sustained casting very difficult (if not impossible) for much more than three minutes. When MP gets low, use "Ignite" to give yourself a damage boost in melee. The damage boost makes your melee chains the higher DPS option while it is active so casting at this point is a bust anyway. The duration of the "Enspell" effect lasts for 3:30 minutes.

Row Change (Fencer)
This is the second main transitional ability and is very much tied to the Fencer class as a whole."Row Change" instantly moves the player either 12 yalms forward or 12 yalms backward depending on their proximity to the target. There are a number of class traits that work with this ability, most notably is "Versatile" which gives the Fencer a short duration buff based on whether the player is moving towards or away from the target.
When moving toward the target the FNC gets a short damage absorption effect for 8 seconds. At level 50 this absorbs a total of 380 damage. This is to offset some of the difficulties that might be incurred by charging in on a monster that uses AoE abilities (like Garuda) or cleave attacks.

When moving away from the target the Fencer gets a short duration refresh effect (equal to refresh +6). This is to ensure that when moving into casting mode the FNC has enough MP to do at least 2 full rotations of "Reciprocal Gyre" before charging back into combat again.

The cooldown for "Row Change" is three minutes long and ideally each combat phase for Fencer should last about three minutes and twenty seconds.
The idea for "Row Change" comes from the combat command found in many of the older Final Fantasy titles that allowed you to move one character from the back row to the front row or vice-versa. The name is tentative (read: awful).

The Melee Trees

Although much simpler then the magic tree, the melee combos still bear some explinations, mostly with regard to "Red Moon's Appel", "Checkmate", "Thousand Flurry", and "Enkindler".

Red Moon's Appel (Red Mage)
One of the Job's two signature melee abilities. Using this weapon skill the Red Mage makes a stomping approach against his target that forces its enemy to see images of the Red Moon Dalamud. This skill functions as a spell interrupt when used and as such cancels any spell being cast by the target. When used in PvP it also removes all combo buffs from the target.

Because the nature of interrupt abilities require the player to activate them instantly and on demand I have designed "Appel" to offer some options in how to use it. The player can choose to 'hardcast' the ability which has a high cost but also offers no appreciable cooldown . This option will be extremely useful in PvE bit not PvP due to the HP cost. The other option is to combo into it and avoid paying the cost. "Red Moon's Appel" can function as a third tier combo from either tree. When used through a combo "Appel" deals significantly more damage (but not a huge amount of damage as the alternative method deals almost none) and the recast time is increased to 45 seconds. This is to keep the attack from being spammed. "Appel" can be used to interrupt other melee players in PvP as well by breaking their combo bonuses.

I should probably take a second here to explain what I mean by "interrupts" before moving on as "Red Moon's Appel" is more indicative of greater design changes than any other item I have suggested here. The idea behind this ability more or less relies on SE designing new bosses or creatures in the future that have the ability to activate damaging, but interruptible abilities. When a Red Mage player sees that a spell is being cast then, by design, they have the ability to interrupt it if they are paying close enough attention. The sort of spells that can be countered with "Appel" in PvE are, by necessity, somewhat limited as it needs to be a non-instant-cast spell, weapon skills and monster abilities don't count.

One example from the current game that comes to mind is "Mognesia" during the Moogle primal fight. If "Mognesia" (the AoE MP drain) goes off in front of the RDM it is going to seriously hamper his ability to contribute meaningfully to the fight. Therefore the RDM needs to watch closely for the animation and hit his Appel button as soon as he sees the cast begin, preventing the ability from going off altogether. "Pom Flare", on the other hand, would not be able to be interrupted as it is technically a monster ability. Running out of its range is also a major part of the fight and trivializing it with an interrupt is not quite in the cards. Ultimately the relevance of this ability outside of PvP would rely on SE to introduce some new fight mechanics. In the current game this ability does not have much relevance.

The name here comes from a tactic used by real world fencers. An appel is an approach that a fencer may make to throw his opponent off guard by stomping his foot. Sort of like a physical kiai. The Red Moon portion of the name comes from associated lore.

Featherblow (Fencer)
Opening attack for the frontal combo tree. Can be cross-classed. The "Enhances Accuracy" bonus lasts for 10 seconds. In proportion to the growth of other abilities this skill deals more damage in earlier levels then it does in later levels.

Name comes from a skill used by the Fencer job in Final Fantasy Tactics A2.

Swallowtail (Fencer)
Second tier skill for the frontal combo tree. Melee AoE ability centered around caster like Steel Cyclone, or Leg Sweep. The "Additional Effect: Heavy" property makes this a very potent utility skill for PvP. May have some specialized applications in future PvE content as well. The Heavy effect sticks at a rate of 40%. With the "Enfeebling Accuracy Up" buff from 'comboing' the rate is closer to 70%.

Name comes from a skill used by the Fencer Class in Final Fantasy Tactics A2.

Piercing Lunge (Fencer)
Second tier skill for frontal combo tree. As anyone who has attempted Darnus Hard can attest, dispelling effects from the boss is crucial to achieving victory. If this is indicative of future content, having more classes that can perform this task will be important.

Name is derived from a skill used by the Fencer Class in Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (a piercing lunge makes much more sense for fencers then a piercing blow. Do some research SE, geez).

Checkmate (Fencer)
Third tier weapon skill for the frontal combo tree. Three-fold attack that grants the player enfeebling accuracy up when 'comboed'. Damage is slightly lower than "Simian Thrash". "Enfeebling Accuracy Up" effect is very useful for beginning the rear combo tree or for ensuring "Heavy" sticks when using "Swallowtail". The buff effect lasts for ten seconds.

Name comes from a skill used by the Fencer Class in Final Fantasy Tactics A2.

Shadowstick (Fencer)
Opening attack for the rear melee chain. Can be cross-classed. "Blind" is a very potent debuff for an opening attack however the rate at which it sticks naturally is about 15%. When the Fencer has the enfeebling accuracy up buff from checkmate on the rate is closer to 55%. Usually a Fencer will not begin the rear combo until after the front combo for this reason.

Name comes from a skill used by the Fencer Class in Final Fantasy Tactics A2.

Nighthawk (Fencer)
Second tier weapon skill for rear and side melee combo. 2-fold attack. The rate for inflicting "Slow" is about 50% natively. With the aforementioned "Enfeebling Accuracy Up" buff the rate is 100%.
Name comes from a skill used by the Fencer Class in Final Fantasy Tactics A2.

Thousand Flurry (Fencer)
7 fold attack. Deals damage on par with "Chaos Thrust". The "Defense Down" effect triggers at a rate of 50% natively. With the aforementioned "Enfeebling Accuracy Up" buff the rate is 100%. It may be difficult to combo into "Thousand Flurry" with the bonus from Checkmate still active but should be doable with some practice. The "Defense Down" effect is fairly potent but not unbalancing, overall it should equate to a 4% boost in damage dealt per second on average (across the melee fighters). Since much of the Red Mage's talents lie in increasing the damage output of its group mates in addition to its own, being able to lower a target's defense fits in nicely. The debuff lasts for 20 seconds.

Enkindler (Red Mage)

Removes any weapon enhancements ("Enfire", "Enaero", "Enumbral") active and grants them to any party members within seven yalms. If there is no weapon enhancement active then this ability will not be available.

Much like "Ignite" this is designed to function as a transitional ability. A Red Mage will use this ability when his weapon enhancement buff is about to wear off, dropping his melee performance significantly. Rather than allowing the weapon effect bonus to dissipate, a RDM can elect to voluntarily give up the bonus seconds before, giving it to all nearby party members for 25 seconds instead. While this does indeed inflict the RDM with TP bleed as a side effect it won't matter much because the RDM will at this point be switching to the back line. The TP Bleed effect lasts for 25 seconds.

This is one of RDM's major group DPS enhancing abilities, a role that the class is secondarily positioned to perform. While it at first it seems like this ability may be extremely powerful please be sure to examine the cost it takes to perform. Being able to apply this bonus to a party every six minutes will take a significant amount of practice and skill, and at times will require the RDM to sacrifice his own damage potential in order to enhance the group as a whole. This also raises the amount of communication the Red Mage must make to the rest of the party as melee damage dealers will likely want some advance notice to prepare.

Enhancement

Hastega (Red Mage)
Red Mage's fifteen minute ability. This is a burst DPS skill. It increases the casting speed, attack speed, and resource regeneration of everyone within range by 25% for 25 seconds. It will also slightly increase the damage that limit breaks deal however activating a limit break will end the "Hastega" effect early so groups will want to communicate to get as much out of this ability as possible. It does not reduce recast timers.

If a RDM were able to stack the "Defence Down" effect from "Thousand Flurry", the group "Enspell" effect from "Enkindler" and then perform "Hastega" (with the limit break effect timed perfectly) then, by design, overall group DPS performance should be increased by close to 50% at the very maximum for about 25 seconds, making Red Mage an extremely potent all around ally. Actually achieving this feat, however, would be very difficult to accomplish. On average a RDM performing "Hastega" equates to about a 35% DPS increase group wide by design (the numbers may or may not add up perfectly as they were acquired using "math" but this should be taken as the designers final intent).

When players receive the effects of Hastega they also obtain a "Winded" debuff. "Winded" prevents the player from receiving the effects of Hastega again while the player suffers from it. It lasts for eight minuets and can only be removed by death.

Phalanx (Fencer)
"Phalanx" is a self only, instant cast ability that reduces damage taken by 30% for 5 seconds and prevents the user from receiving any debilitating status effects (effects that are specifically designed to function solely as PvE boss mechanics may prove exception to this). It has a two minute cooldown. While under its effects the player cannot take any offensive action or cast any spells. Can Be cross-classed.

This ability is in the Fencer's library to give them some much needed survivability during large damage pushes in PvE content (astral flow abilities, megaflare, etc) as they do not have access to sentinel, second wind, or the damage reduction trait for sanguine rite.

Refresh (Fencer)
Whenever I shopped this whole thing around to my LS mates and friends they always told me that refresh was missing. Now it's part of the design but you may not recognize it. I am probably going to catch some flak from FFXI vets here. Rather than have "Refresh" as a skill to be cast over and over again on every MP user whenever it is available I have decided to transform it from a pseudo passive skill into an active skill.

The role of "Refresh" in this iteration is to help patch up your parties MP whenever issues occur. If a WHM is down on MP and you know a big healing push is coming you can give him/her "Refresh" to aid your group's survival. Likewise, if you know a big DPS phase is coming and one BLM is going to need an extra oomph you can toss out a "Refresh" to keep them going. Finally, if the RDM wants to delay his melee phase for another Reciprocal Gyre rotation, "Refresh" will allow him to do so. All in all, the idea here is to take a spell that could have been cast by a robot in the past and transform it into something that needs communication and a close eye on the battlefield to use successfully. In this way it becomes more of a rolling cooldown to use when its needed rather then something that needs to be cast on everyone at all times.

"Refresh" grants a friendly target the effects of refresh +20 for 15 seconds (something like 110 mp per tick I think, I am not sure of actual refresh stat numbers). When cast on oneself the potency is doubled (Refresh +40, 220 mp per tick?). It is instant cast and has a three minute, thirty second cooldown.

Passata Soto (Fencer)
This is a skill to give the Fencer slightly more survivability when in melee range. If this skill is active on a Fencer and he is hit by a cleave or some other AoE attack the FNC will automatically evade it and counter with his own. The counter attack would return extra TP in the current version. In 2.0 it simply gives the player 100 TP. Can be cross-classed.

The name comes from a maneuver used by real-world fencers. To execute this maneuver the fencer ducks underneath an incoming attack and counters with her own.

Sacrifice (Fencer)
Remember this one? it's a bit different here.

This spell sacrifices the Fencer's own hp (and mp) in order to perform a light cure. This is by no means an effective self heal ("Phalanx" and "Passata Soto" already provide more than enough damage mitigation for solo play and PvP) but can be used as such if no other option is available. Because of the cooldown and the HP cost it will not be very attractive in PvP.

The big reason to cast Sacrifice is its associated trait. Once the trait has been learned the target of the heal is also given a "Stalwart Constitution" buff and becomes immune to the next generic status effect for five seconds. This includes poison, paralyze, bind, and slow. Once a single status effect is negated the buff goes away. "Stalwart Constitution" lasts for eight seconds.

If I were to cut any spell from this list, "Sacrifice" would be the first to go.

Final Remarks

Throughout all of this I have kept a tireless eye on balancing, both with regards to PvE and PvP and as such I am keenly aware that PvP will be an upcoming feature in XIV (something that a lot of job speculation posts forget). While I believe I have been very cautious with my balancing there are a few aspects of the class that I think might appear at first glance to be extremely powerful. Please try to remember that the "Enspell" feature is factored into the Fencer's late game DPS and as such is less of a concern than it appears. Rapiers have a lower base damage by default and this gap is made up through proper management of job mechanics. "Enkindler" may also appear to be somewhat powerful, however the bonus only lasts for a short time and can only be reapplied once every six minutes, it will also take a certain amount of skill with the job to be able to pull it off regularly.

The only aspect of this I have not tried to account for for is the logistics of building stats and gearing, While the main stats for Red Mage and Fencer should probably be something like Dex (auto attack) and Int (weapon skill) there is an issue with regards to stacking secondary stats. Balancing magic accuracy and accuracy will be a concern as players will likely need to stack both in late game play. One could get around the issue by introducing a trait that adds 20% of accuracy to magic accuracy as I have seen done in other games where similar concerns are raised, however I am not especially fond of this solution.

Regardless I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed creating it. Please feel welcome to discuss whether or not you believe this class job combination would be a good addition to the game in both its current form and in what we know of 2.0.

TL;DR

For those of you short on time or unwilling to read what has become a veritable novel this part is for you. What I have designed here is a class that takes the best of both worlds in terms of classical conceptions of the Red Mage and modern MMO standards. Rather than create a hybrid class that can excel in a few independent areas at one time the Red Mage is capable of excelling in multiple areas synergistically with one another. What this means is that its ability to cast magic is intrinsically related to how well it can execute its melee phase, and likewise, its ability to attack is directly related to how well it can execute its casting phase.

Resource generation will always been a constant concern for Red Mage players as the base class natively regenerates MP and TP at a slower rate than other classes. This is done more or less to force a shift rather then allow the player to stay on one task for too long. A Red Mage who stays out casting will always run out of MP and be ineffectual compared to other dedicated casters. Similarly, a Red Mage who spends all of his time in melee without "Ignite" active (grants an "Enspell" effect) will always do sub-par damage. The key here is learning how to strike a balance, switching between both activities in a single fight and manipulating the job's enhancing tools to help increase the overall damage output of the group at the right time.

This is very much designed to be a challenging and complicated class to play and I hope that you might take the time to read over the rest in the future.

Very detailed, you must REALLY REALLY REALLY want Red Mage

That is a TL;DR? OMG O_O

btw i really hope in new awesome classes like RDM DNC or THF :))

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Originally Posted by Angelas

you must REALLY REALLY REALLY want Red Mage

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It's more that I had a really cool idea for it that I wanted to share. I have been working and balancing this in my head for a few weeks now. Now that I am not spending as much time in game I decided to write it all out. I had a lot of fun doing this, I may try to do more in the future.

so...this thread again...

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Originally Posted by myerg

so...this thread again...

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by JDR388

Yes, This thread again.

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lol'd /10char

Well done. This sounds like a really interesting, challenging, balanced version of RDM. I think it sounds pretty fun too. I'm hoping devs see this and pass it on.

Quote:

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I apologize in advance if this goes on too long. I will include a TL;DR section at the end for those that don't want to read a full article.

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Your TL;DR is "too long, didnt read". -_-

I always liked RDM tho and looking towards the implemention of it.

I liked this thought-out description. My one question is this; with your synopsis on Red Mage, why will it not be able to utilize Blizzard? Is it because of Ignite?

MOAR LYK READ MAGE, AMIRITE

(Dun worry, it'd be economic suicide to not add RDM eventually... it just got so much playtime in XI that we're kinda hoping it's fun more than essential, late rather than early, and tactical rather than a GOD.)

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...wpV-L9TjljwXjA

Red Mage, a more detailed look ↓↓↓

http://www.ffcompendium.com/jobimage...agerefia-a.jpg


:p


In seriousness, I'd like to say that the OP has laid out a very comprehensive outline for RDM. I'd also say that it's likely that the Devs have preliminary plans for RDM that are a bit off the wall from what we'd expect.

Wait and see I guess.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JDR388

Yes, This thread again.

I apologize in advance if this goes on too long. I will include a TL;DR section at the end for those that don't want to read a full article.

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I started to drown in the Main text... So I went to the TL;DR section and I started to drown again O.o

I'll attempt to read later after I catch my breath :P

(sorry I just couldn't help myself hehe, for real I will come back later to read and really post perspective :))

The tldr needs a tldr.

I give you credit for simply making a very long detailed version of your RDM =)

I definitely think RDM should not be missing in the game especially in an MMO such as FF. The job is complicated in terms of having to balance it's job since it has the ability to melee and cast magic to buff/debuff and shared some of black magic.

I think RDM will be one of the most challenging job to implement since the job/class mechanics of FFXIV in my opinion has a big flaw. But I believe Yoshi-P and his Team can get RDM right.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JDR388

<<everything>>

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http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u...3858026394.jpg

Weaker attack than a melee DD, weaker attack magic than a black mage, weaker heals than a white mage, inability to do high level spells or heavy armour. Thus, Red Mage. So long as it doesn't break these rules then I don't mind what happens with RDM.

I think the real problem (for Rdm ) right now is that you can switch jobs on the fly. You can adjust your party setup right before the next challenge, instead of having one party setup that has to withstand multiple different challenges back-to-back. A Rdm is handy when you need your party to be versatile, but when you can tailor the partysetup for each fight, there really is no point to having a Rdm.

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Originally Posted by myerg

so...this thread again...

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This comment again.

Sorry for my tunnel vision here... But row change is absolutely awesome. A hilarious throw-back to a classic FF staple. If they don't implement anything else Row change should happen somewhere for something.

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Originally Posted by Naraku_Diabolos

I liked this thought-out description. My one question is this; with your synopsis on Red Mage, why will it not be able to utilize Blizzard? Is it because of Ignite?

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This is because blizzard is a Thaumaterge only spell. It cannot be cross-classed. Considering it really only creates one hole that is conveniently covered by Black Mage I am not to worried about it. Not being able to do Enblizzard is a bummer however in this situation Enumbral will be a decent cover.

I hear everyone's comments on the TL;DR section. I will try to tone it down tonight while I am waiting for the world to end.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KumaAkuma

I think the real problem (for Rdm ) right now is that you can switch jobs on the fly. You can adjust your party setup right before the next challenge, instead of having one party setup that has to withstand multiple different challenges back-to-back. A Rdm is handy when you need your party to be versatile, but when you can tailor the partysetup for each fight, there really is no point to having a Rdm.

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If there were enemies with dramatically different phases in which you couldn't escape the fight (and thus couldn't change job) then a RDM would be perfect for switching between offence and defence.

This is a very well thought out and creative solution to Red Mage. I would gladly play and hope to master this class. My only reservation is that I honestly believe that Red Mage should have the Ability to Combo Melee skills and spells. Other than that I think your solution is completely solid and I hope SE takes the time to Read up on player's class Idea before they do anything to ruin this class.

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Originally Posted by Kiote

I honestly believe that Red Mage should have the Ability to Combo Melee skills and spells.

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I thought about this as well. The problem here is casting times. It seemed odd to do an instant cast weapon skill to only to follow with a spell that had a 3-4 second cast timer and an MP cost. Instead I elected to keep it as separate phases so that the player is only managing one critical resource at a time.

Your TL;DR is too long.

All the devs have to do is don't make NM's immune to enfeebles and red mage will be amazing.

Interesting ideas, novel take on red mage. Nice to see someone put a lot of thought/time into these things. :)

Here, you may need these:

Fencer
Red Mage

Was gonna make another one but I'm too busy standing vigilant by the Gates of Judgement.

I have addressed the issue regarding the TL;DR. It's not a one sentence delineation but it should be efficient enough.

I really like this idea on RDM. Thanks for sharing it.

Bump

:D

I am bumping this because it deserves it.

Wow, a self-necrobump "because it deserves it." o.o

Actually I really hope Red Mage makes it into the game soon. It seems silly that one of the starting jobs in almost all of the FF games with a job system hasn't seen any attention. Obviously I see more requests for NIN and SAM than anything, but I hope they do Red Mage soon so they can work out the kinks ASAP.

Seems we will probably see RedMage when Ishgards' gates open up to us.

http://www.yare-yare.com/rdm.jpg

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Originally Posted by Momita

That is a TL;DR? OMG O_O

btw i really hope in new awesome classes like RDM DNC or THF :))

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Yeah I got down about 1/16 of the way and was like "when does this end?" I stopped reading because it was too long lmao. Nice post, though.

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Originally Posted by Rustyhagun

Seems we will probably see RedMage when Ishgards' gates open up to us.

http://www.yare-yare.com/rdm.jpg

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I think that was made be a player around the same time that Summoner/Arcanist leaked out.

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Originally Posted by Pwnagraphic

Yeah I got down about 1/16 of the way and was like "when does this end?" I stopped reading because it was too long lmao. Nice post, though.

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Thats a shame. Many hours of work were put into this. Essentially I wanted to design a class that needs to micromanage moving between casting and melee to perform effectively. I am a sucker for details which is why it is so long. Please try to enjoy it when you have some time.

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Originally Posted by Yrusama

Wow, a self-necrobump "because it deserves it." o.o

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I have always been a bit bummed that I chose to first post this during the last day the 1.0 servers were up. I had hoped that people would look at it as they were waiting for things to happen but really it only got buried by 1001 posts about the servers crashing. Please excuse my insolence as I try to resurrect it now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rustyhagun

Seems we will probably see RedMage when Ishgards' gates open up to us.

http://www.yare-yare.com/rdm.jpg

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As much as I wish it were so, I was the one who made that back when SMN and ARN were "leaked" (made one for Fencer to go along with it, too). Which in itself was made as a response to a crappy 'shop of that page involving Musketeer. At least it looks real enough to tickle the imagination. XD

And now, an incomplete suggestion for RDM:

Class

Fencer: Considered outliers among their peers in the art of the sword, fencers utilize a fighting style developed around fluid movement and quick attacks. Where gladiators and marauders bring pure strength to the fray, these shifty combatants prefer to wear their targets down and win battles by attrition, waiting for the opportune time to close in for the coup de grace.

Originally a recreational combat style of the Ishgardian nobility, the fencing repertoire has expanded as more individuals took up the rapier, foil and epee. Crippling techniques and blade enchantments eventually became common among practitioners, allowing the fencer to close the gap with their brute force-focused counterparts that finesse alone cannot fill.

Concept: Front row fighter that can cripple opponents with sword techniques. They are also adept at bypassing their enemies' defenses by utilizing brands; sword enchantments that deal magical damage in addition to the blade's own damage.

Mechanics: Fencer can only keep one brand active, and is limited to two elements (Thunder, Earth). The activated brand reduces the Fencer's max MP by 15% until cancelled.

Sample Abilities
Earth Brand: Toggle effect. Your auto-attacks deal additional earth damage. Increases your damage resistance by 2% and your chance to parry an attack by 5%.
Thunder Brand: Toggle effect. Your auto-attacks deal additional lightning damage and ignore up to 10% of your target's armor.
Lunge: Delivers a melee attack.
Reprise: Delivers a melee attack. Can only be used if an attack misses.
Flick: Delivers a melee attack. Combo => Lunge: Slows target enemy's movement by 50% for 15 seconds
Sting: Delivers a melee attack with a poisoned blade. Poisons target enemy.
Reveal: Delivers a physical attack that reduces target enemy's defense by 4%.

Notes:
- The point of brands is to create a reasonable price to pay for the extra damage. Not quite sure how brand damage should scale.
- The enfeebling attacks like the snare from combo Flick, Sting and Reveal are merely samples and not all the job should get.
- As far as why I limited the class to two elements...well, you'll see in a bit.

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Job

Red Mage: Armed with enchanted rapiers and combat-caster instincts, the members of Ishgard's Order of the Crimson Blade are as recognized within the city walls as the dragoons are recognized outside its borders. Employing refined fencing skills and a slew of combat spells, these garish "magic fencers" have taken their chosen art to new levels, proudly serving as capable front line combatants with more than just a few tricks up their sleeves.

Where a traditional mage would prefer the safety of range, the red mage's talents shine in the thick of battle, swiftly crippling enemies with their blade before taking them out of the fight with a burst of magic or heal wounded allies. It is this versatility that has made them known not only for their ability to handle any situation, but to also bring things to a resolution.

Concept: Front row fighter-mage with some extra tricks and toys to bring into battle. While dealing less damage than a fencer, the Red Mage has other ways to make up for the lack of physical damage through being able to activate an additional brand along with abilities like Magic Sword and their spells.

Mechanics: Equipping the RDM crystal reduces the MP reduction from brands by 5%, and allows you to activate a second brand. Brand effects enhance weapon skills as well as auto attacks.

Sample Abilities
Fire Brand: Toggle effect. Your attacks deal additional fire damage and place the debuff "Burn" on your enemy.
_Burn: Deals X% of weapon damage on target enemy over 15 seconds. Can stack to 3 stacks and is refreshed by all attacks while Fire Brand is active. Increases damage taken by enemy from your attacks by 5% per stack.
Double: Quickly use the same weaponskill or spell twice in a row, invoking a doubled cooldown on that weaponskill or spell.
Stun: Incapacitate target enemy for up to 4 seconds.
Chant: 4 second cast time. Sacrifice HP to restore twice the amount sacrificed to an ally.
*Magic Sword: 4 second cast time. Casts an elemental spell on target enemy based on the most recent brand activated.
-OR-
*Magic Sword: Instantly casts an elemental spell on target enemy based on the most recent brand activated. Combo => Reveal: Increased damage.
Combat Casting: Passive proc. Your auto-attacks have a 25% chance to grant you Combat Casting, allowing your next Chant or Magic Sword/spell to be instant cast.
Unfair Advantage: Passive trait. Increases the effect and duration of Sting's poison debuff. While the poison is active, target enemy takes more damage from magic.

Notes:
- With the current GCD, Double would make you wait 6 seconds instead of 3 to reuse the WS or spell in question. Unsure on how to go about it.
- Part of why RDM is only getting Fire Brand is because I don't want to give room for "brand-twisting". As in "Start in Fire Brand, do WS then cancel Fire Brand and activate Lightning Brand then do two WS then Switch back to Fire Brand" etc.
- Magic Sword and Combat Casting are not finalized. Depending on whether RDM were to get access to spells from THM or CNJ (primarily the elemental spells), Combat Casting could instead affect these elemental spells, allowing Magic Sword to instead be an instant-use ability.
- I'm not too sure on the "allowing RDM to activate two brands" thing, either. I was originally thinking of having RDM get to use rapier and main gauche, thus justifying the job being able to use two brands at once.
- There were other things I wanted to give the job, including having Magic Sword give the group a buff called Resonance when used that increases MP recovered over time for 10 seconds, and giving Lunge a debuff based on the brand active. Not too sure on any of those, though. Even less so now that I've heard jobs still give you 5 abilities to use.

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Job

Mystic Knight: Though Red Mages embody the ultimate marriage between martial prowess and magic, there are others who bend the concepts behind magical combat to different ends. In the case of the mystic knights, the end is protection of their allies and surviving the onslaught of their enemies.

Forsaking the lighter side of fencing, these individuals instead ensorcel their blades and now-famous "gants", allowing them to use a very basic, yet effective, level of magic to the benefit of those around them. Though basic, the magic used on the mystic knight's armaments are more than up to the task of protecting their allies and ensuring the enemy does not stray from them.

Concept: Tank that uses brands and gant enchantments to shield themselves as they keep the attention of their enemies.

Mechanics: Equipping the MKT crystal allows the player to have a second enchant called a "gant" (glove). While brands still reduce your max MP by 15%, gant enchants reduce your max MP by 5%. Assuming no buffs, your second activated brand will become your gant enchant. You cannot have a brand and gant of the same element.

Sample Abilities
Ice Brand: Your auto-attacks deal additional ice damage and increases enmity generated by all actions by 35%.
Riposte: Delivers a melee attack that generates additional enmity. Can only be used after you parry an attack.
*Gant-Lightning: Increases your parry rate by X%
*Gant-Earth: Increases defense by X%.
*Gant-Ice: increases resistance to status effects by X%
Backhand: Delivers a melee attack with your offhand that generates high enmity but low damage. Grants an additional effect that depends on the gant enchant you have active.
Arcane Shield: Spend your gant enchant to reduce all damage taken by 50%.
Improved Reveal: The defense debuff from Reveal can now stack up to three times. Increases enmity generated by your attacks by 33.33% per stack.

Notes:
-I originally wanted Gants to be a separate piece of equipment, but I know the devs have a rule against special equipment that is completely different from what the classes can equip. To illustrate the point with Gants, I would design the MKT AF gloves to reflect this by having the off/left hand be covered by a bulky gauntlet while the main/right hand is wearing a thinner glove to facilitate movement.
- The way activating brands works with MKT is that the first brand will affect your weapon like normal. The second and all following brands will affect your Gant.
- In the event GLA is one of MKT's support classes, I would think shield abilities from GLA can be used while a Gant enchant is active.
- Gant enchant effects (marked with *) are not final, as I'm not sure how to go about it.
- MKT gameplay should ideally involve blending Gant abilities with sword WS.

Nice to see so much passion about a single class. I'm sure they will incorporate red mage into the game soon enough. And when they do, I hope the OP is around to give pointers on how to play the character. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Duelle

And now, an incomplete suggestion for RDM:

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I actually really like this suggestion, especially the fact that it adds a second job for the fencer class. The upsides/downsides of using the brands are interesting and I like that the particular elements don't just turn your damage into a new color but also add a unique mechanic to go along with them.

Also it is far more concise than my monster.

YES! All I can say is Yes! Between JDR388 and Duelle I think the two of you have come up with some amazing ideas that would make rdm not only interesting to play, but very accessible for FFXIV:ARR. I LOVE the whole "lore" behind the fencer/red mage/mystic knight. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Redmage and this seriously just made my day! thank you so much for this. read the WHOLE thing... people need to stop bitching about it being to long... there is a disclaimer in the beginning if you can't read a few paragraphs you'r in the wrong forum xD

Well, I just hope someone on the dev team has taken note of this and the other two threads that have talked about RDM.

That sounds really nice and all but it would mean a lot of work to add it in and would most likely end up waiting for the first payed expansion. A simpler way to do it, now that we know there will be more than one Job per Class, would be to have the following GLA30 + CON15 + THM15 = Red Mage then just have your EN-spells and Haste stuff as Job abilities.

I really like your in depth idea but I just wanted to throw that out there. I worry about people who put this much intense thought into something, inevitably they will be disappointed to a degree when the real thing comes out.