Red Mage

[Kotemon]

Going back to the original final Fantasy, Red Mage was always just a base line all around filler. At best it could only support offence, healing, and Arcana. It couldn't take as much damage as the knight, hit as hard as Monk, or have access to stronger spells of Whm and Blm. At best it was a middle of the road filler for anyone trying to form a 4 man party. With that said having a back up to help heal, attack, or spell spam was it's main useage.

Given the mechanics of FFXIV just because you want it doesn't mean it'll work. At best Rune Knight/Fencer/Sword mage/whatever, could also do what most folks associate with a Red Mage and is more likely to fit in the games structure of jobs. The same goes for Blue Mage, the learning mechanic is not possible but more likely it'll work as a mob/npc/boss only feature. On a sider note Gao/Gau wasn't exactly a blue mage like Gogo but his abilities were similar. Some jobs you'll just need to think them out side of the norm. Considering the abilities of Rdm are already split among the existing mages. Odds are any of the sword-mage types may likely be a support DD in FFXIV, but also the closest to a Red Mage hybrid. However for some, similar or close wont be enough. Even though RDM in origin was just a flexible support filler ment to support any of the main jobs with out being able to replace them.

yet shoehorned into doing nothing but casting a cycle of 2-4 spells and nothing else otherwise at risk of being ridiculed, kicked out of any group, etc, you can see how that leaves a bad taste for the FFXI incarnation of RDM to me.

Yet this in a way supports my stance that an Arcanist with 50/50 mods into int/mnd stats is basically a book toting RDM when compared to what the one in FFXI was like. Swaping to either Summoner or Scholar would have the same after taste most got from FFXI's Red Mage. Those who found ways to exceed it's limitations got it nerfed back to square one