What Red Mage may be in 4.0

[Kurogaea]

Cool video but nothing in it screams Red Mage.

Isn't Red Mages just sword mages? I think that fits the bill personally, but still no sure how they'll add this class into 14 yet with this 3 role set thing. Its just to strict to BE a redmage. Dancer on the other hand....

[MiniPrinny]

Isn't Red Mages just sword mages? I think that fits the bill personally, but still no sure how they'll add this class into 14 yet with this 3 role set thing. Its just to strict to BE a redmage.

There's nothing really stopping the Job from being in Final Fantasy XIV. Red Mage can and could easily fit into game as an offensive support Job, not unlike Bard or Machinist. I even took the time, inspired by this thread, to write up a thought experiment showing off what a potential Red Mage could be in the game's current system and level cap as it stands. Most likely, 4.0 will have some sort of modification to the systems in place, due to skill bloat and the current system becoming stale for many of the older players. Please remember, this is just a thought experiment, numbers and the like aren't meant to be entirely balanced or perfect, but just as a "proof of concept." I'm hardly a professional game designer, just someone with too much time on their hands.

[Alahra]

There's nothing really stopping the Job from being in Final Fantasy XIV. Red Mage can and could easily fit into game as an offensive support Job, not unlike Bard or Machinist.

Honestly, it would be workable as all three roles. It all depends on what they focus on. Truthfully, Red Mages have never actually been Jack-of-All-Trades in any Final Fantasy title except for (arguably) the first one (where they were borderline overpowered). In most of the Job-system games, Red Mages tend to be good at two things out of their three skillsets (melee, White Magic, and Black Magic). In some of the games, they're only really good at the magic aspects, while in others, the melee is more prominent, but they're weaker in one of the two magical aspects.

If the developers want to emphasize all three, they can make Red Mage a tank (which would of course require some lore to explain and all of that, or some means by which Red Mages could tank in caster gear instead of tank gear, which isn't impossible). If they instead want to emphasize, say, melee and Black Magic, Red Mage fits right in as a melee DPS. Melee and White Magic? They'd make an interesting melee support DPS. This one could conceivably have elements of all three, since their AoE abilities would likely still be Black Magic. If they de-emphasize the melee aspects, Red Mage fits in as a healer relatively well (perhaps its DPS options would include some melee abilities, but nothing that would require it to be in melee full time).

There are also more "off-the-wall" possibilities which, though unlikely, are not absolutely outside the realm of possibility. Red Mage itself could be a base class, with two (or even three!) Job Crystals, not unlike Arcanist, and each Crystal would fulfill a different role.

There's no real reason Red Mage can't work in a Trinity game. All it takes is some creative application and re-imagining of their classic abilities. They've already done this with Dark Knight—they could quite conceivably do the same with Red Mage.