Red Mage - The Spell Weaver

[Keyah]

Finished my concept and design for Red Mage yesterday.

I can't go into the specifics like I did in the write up as I am unable to put all of that here. So I will leave this link here for those that wish to read the full design.

I encourage you to read the full design, with abilities, actions, traits and imagery examples:

Keyah's Red Mage Concept Design


The Red Mage

RDM [DPS] (Because "Support" isn't a category)

• 4 low potency weaponskills to generate combos to aid their spells.
• Weapon enchantments to increase the damage done (Since Red Mage would scale from Intelligence).
• Weapon enchantment, Weaponskill rotations and DoT's
• Access to potent utility, enfeebling and enhancing magicks
• Cross-Class: Thaumaturge, Arcanist
• LB3: Phoenix Flame (low damage AoE + Resurrection)

More in the full article.

Hope you enjoy it. I would love to hear what you think.

[Spayd]

I'll admit i didnt read everything exhaustively, but what I've noticed that buggers me a lot is the amount of dots it would have. You classed 5 skills that applies dots with a total potency of 210 potency/tick if all of them are applied. For references, SMN have a total of 4 applyable dots: Bio, bio2, miasma and miasma 2. These 4 dots have a total of 115 potency/tick, thats only IF you apply Miasma 2. Otherwise its 95 potency/tick. That's considering the fact that SMN is a job that heavily relies on DoTs for good DPS. And after reading, I see that you have an option to turn your enchantement into a DoT, and if i understood well, it takes the potency of the enchantement, which is 80 for most of the case. So 290 potency/tick. For Reference, its almost a Aeolien Edge from ninja, every single tick, while being able to do regular weapon skills. That would just completely break the balance. Also a lot of actions with 350 potency, which is roughly below a Dragoon Full Thrust, even tho their casting time is long (3.50 seconds). Also, you talk about a lot of elemental damage in your RDM concept, but it is no secret that elemental damage changes absolutely nothing in this game, even Foe's requiem was changed to reduce magic defenses instead of elemental resists. So it is a lot of pointless actions for nothing imo.

From what I saw of your RDM concept, it is very unbalanced, broken, with a lot of impractical/useless skills. Plus a lot of the skills RDM have would be most of the time useless against raid bosses, unless for some rare cases.

Unless I didn't understand something, let me know, was still enjoyable to read, but it isnt made for this game, which is very well balanced if I dare say.

[Darkstride]

The En- spells are redundant since there are no elemental resistances that matter in combat. Having multiple ability slots for various elemental enchantments would serve no purpose, unless I missed so.e other job mechanic that would make use of individual elements separately.

[Keyah]

Maybe should've prefaced saying this is an idea and not a completely finished and balanced work. I'm merely helping paint a picture of what I think it could be like.

The numbers are very general and you'll noticed that a lot of them (enfeebling particularly) have the same numbers. They're VERY unbalanced and in many situations completely broken. No TP or MP costs either because it's a balancing thing.

Maybe I'll go back and balance aspects.

This RDM concept is trying to deliver a Spell-Weaver. Utilizing of weapon-skills, DoT's, enchantments and enfeebling magic.

Red Mage's utility with master tier enfeebling would allow greater control over enemy states as well as being able to deal damage and buff the party. Brings a fair bit, maybe more than a Bard does if you think about it.

I mention it in the document but I would love for a "Support" category, because then it's right at home.

[Keyah]

The En- spells are redundant since there are no elemental resistances that matter in combat.

The Enchantment spells are to provide INT scaling damage to your blade, such that you aren't reliant on weapon skill potency. It helps to bring justification to a spell-weaving system where you have reason to use both your sword and your magic. Elemental weaknesses are a thing, and if SE aren't going to use them appropriately, I will. If they aren't going to use them, remove them.

Red Mage's elemental sword hits would be exclusive damage from outwith. Applying En-Ice to the enemy won't make BLM's fire damage greater, otherwise there'd be no point for half of them. In a similar fashion to Ninja's Elemental wheel from FFXI, this is to provide an extra layer of potential damage (subtle, but enough) to keep RDM catching up with damage outwith DoT's while applying other utility throughout.

[Eloah]

okay after reading this i have to say I agree that the idea as it is now is a bit clunky, but you have the groundwork for a nice idea. Now i wouldn't say you need a major overhaul but this does need a lot more work to become a balanced job in the games current meta.

The first thing I will say that I think you did an awesome job doing is crafting the abilities in a listed and stylized manor, I can't even do that yet since I don't have the right programs... yet. Though I would suggest making the RDM symbol their iconic hat over a sword with flames, seems more fitting.

Secondly, the main thing to provide balance to the job is to keep things simple. Though, Yoshi-P said that he feels the HW rotations for each job are hard, they are quite simple to understand and execute, the only flaws are usually player error do to lag, time constraints, or controller vs Keyboard. DPS's and Tanks usually have a set rotation, or a standard one, that is flexible when the moment hits. Right now I see no "standard" rotation or excess abilities to be used as OGCD moves. Wanting the RDM to be primarily a spellweaver is fine but you have to make the skills/spells used have a main purpose. Sadly En-spells and debilitation abilities serve no purpose in this game in its current form. And, while I understand your reason for adding the En-spells the scaling with Int is usually build into a job, just look at DRK, a decent portion of their skills are spells. Also having 6 spells/skills that are basically the same thing is rather pointless, condensing them into one "En-spell" or ability, sounds like a better idea.

As for the combos you tries to create, having a "unique" branch as you currently have it seems okay, but i would recommend creating it similar to the mudra system where each finishing move has its own additional effect; adding too many effects can become confusing, especially if they are tied to main weapon skills. Plus you need to create a reason for the RDM to switch between using Magic or Melee attacks, push either a little too far in one direction and people will just spam that one set of skills, especially if they can augment them in other ways. The best suggestion I can give it is creating a job mechanic that encourages player to swap between the two like BLM does with Astral Fire and Umbral Ice. having a stacking mechanic that boosts the current arts power then allows for the use of a certain skill of the other art would encourage swapping. Start with a melee stance which increases str by 10% per stack, and once you gain, maybe 3 stacks, lets say a combo finish creates a stack, you can use a massive spell only available when you have those stacks, similar to warrior. Then once you use this spell it places you in mage stance, and the process repeats, build stacks by casting spells, then may chain or not, then once you have 3 again you use another skill and it places you in melee stance again. (this is my idea but feel free to use it in yours as well)

Hopefully everything that has been said encourages you to create the best RDM you can make, happy job-crafting, XD

[Keyah]

I tried more in the design, it was cluttered and didn't stand out.

I weep for the future if our Advanced Jobs stay as simple as they currently are.

you have to make the skills/spells used have a main purpose.

They do, weapon skills enhance spells if they are cast immediately after. Enchanting rotation, weakening enemy for more damage and longer DoTs.

Sadly En-spells and debilitation abilities serve no purpose in this game in its current form.

Look for what the game can be, not what it is.

i would recommend creating it similar to the mudra system where each finishing move has its own additional effect

Weapon skills already have unique effects.

you need to create a reason for the RDM to switch between using Magic or Melee attacks

Weapon skills enhance magic, magic enhances weapon skills.

[Xaikara]

I'm assuming you're trying to go with an XI approach just by looking at some of the skill names though, we can use that but some stuff you could really get creative with. Protect on this game already gives magic defence too. How would your Shell work with protect would they stack? Since Shell has an extra ability.

We know elemental resistance -can- be used on this game, due to lost city hard modes second boss, if you want XI why not copy XI's Ninja but with your en-spells? En-Fire can increase auto damage by let's say 80 potency for the duration, make it a stance. make it lower Ice resistance on the target. So Red Mage is swapping through their different En stances. You could even copy some of XIV's Ninja and make different debuffs based on your current en-spell. Just like how on XI lower ice resistance made it easier to paralyze.

Also didn't see Refresh if you were going with the XI approach, which would obviously just be like Ninja's goad on this but MP not TP.

[Keyah]

Um...

As listed in my document:

Shell will stack.
Refresh is on the list.
The En-spells work exactly like XI's ninja rotation.

[Xaikara]

Oh, I'm not sure how I missed Refresh being on the list. Lack of sleep maybe!

Well thanks for clearing that stuff up, the only thing I'm wondering now then is, endgame (as it stands your RDM is a PvP monster)
I'm trying to not look at stuff like recast timers etc. But I didn't see anywhere about Blind / Paralyze doing anything but that. Most Raid boss are usually immune to a lot of that kind of thing, would you give your RDM a way around that or would they just have a lot of enfeebles that nobody will use in those instances? (i.e: DRGs pretty much never having to use feint)