Let's discuss Red Mage

[Garrick]

Hopefully, revamping the battle system will allow SE some extra flexibility with the holy-trinity job system. Red Mage is jack of all trades, master of none. Having it any other way would be silly to me.

[Radacci]

that'll definitely work. it's not going to compete with White Mage or Black Mage at what those 2 jobs are good at.

i would probably hate a RDM DPS or RDM Healer but w/e i don't have to play it, i just need to see that Hat in the game.

then it sounds like they aren't going to do that....

WHM and SCH already are somewhat hybrid DPS/Heal. What we have today is not far from having an ACTUAL hybrid.

So... a melee DPS/healer with cleric stance (since it'll be a role-tied skill according to other points discussed). Like AST, it'll probably be a complementary healer, with buffs (enchant weapon?) and some original mechanics, and a nice arsenal of offensive skills.

no they aren't, in that case mnk is a hybrid tank.
they just have some basic DPS, so they won't be useless, solo.
would you use a sch as a DPS instead of a DPS? would you use a sub-healer-rdm, instead of a real healer?
you can't have a real hybrid job, in this game, unless they are planning to change that for 4.0

I'd go with melee caster. using blm for attacks, and whm for buffs and some self heal, maybe party buffs like battle litany, or mantra, etc.
but a dps with party heals, is to OP. and if it's like BLM using Physick as cross-class, then it's useless anyway. At best you'll get something like second wind.
it's only going to get something like equilibrium, if it's a tank role (and RDM is going to just fill 1 role, so take your pick

[Atlaworks]

I'd like to see Red Mage as a melee DPS(With a new tank and healer that'd bring us up to 4 tanks, 4 healers, 4 melee, and 4 ranged) that uses two separate GCDs for instant-cast magic and fencing. That'd make playing them very frenetic to manage, make skill weaving a main class mechanic, and make them I'm pretty sure the only class to use both MP and TP- with the main drawback being resource management, giving them no direct way to recover it.

Making them tanks just makes no sense to me personally, and if they were healers they'd essentially be what white mages are already(Offensive-focused healers). To me they make the most sense as a quick, fast-paced fencing DPS that tosses out magic in between attacks so that they do low damage with each hit, but hit more than any other class.

[Shurrikhan]

I would honestly like to hear what about Red Mage appeals to you guys.

The possibility of rework to an otherwise rutted trinity system necessary to really pull RDM off.

[Aamalthea]

The possibility of rework to an otherwise rutted trinity system necessary to really pull RDM off.

I was going to say just this.

[Powe]

I like to see red made as a dps that has 3 types of stances, one is healing stance. They would have just your basic healing spell and a AOE heal with a esuna and maybe stat boosting skills. A int stance what let's fling magic spells and a str stance which let's it poke the bums of the enemies with a pointy sword

[Synikal]

Redmage could work as a tank pretty easily. Different elemental stances than have various effects. For example fire stance you get Enfire and Fire Spikes. Enfire adds fire dmg and increase threat generation while Fire Spikes does a decent amount of damage to those that hit the mage. Water stance's Enwater could be for replenishing mp/tp while the spikes reflect less dmg but increase parry. Wind stance could be the dps stance with the En increasing attack speed and reduce threat while the spikes increase evade. Then you have other attacks that change based on what elemental stance you are in. Like Elemental Assault, if you are in fire stance you do a cone attack for decent threat but in earth stance you do maybe a stunning aoe centered on yourself.

[AlexionSkylark]

no they aren't, in that case mnk is a hybrid tank.
they just have some basic DPS, so they won't be useless, solo.
would you use a sch as a DPS instead of a DPS? would you use a sub-healer-rdm, instead of a real healer?

Erm... WHM and SCH are a capable healer with sub-DPS capacity (Id say they ammount to something between 1/2 and 2/3 of a DPS). That's what I mean.
And yes, lots of people would take a sub-healer RDM if the other healer is strong and well equipped, if said sub-healer would be able to pump up significant DPS.

Redmage could work as a tank pretty easily. Different elemental stances than have various effects. For example fire stance you get Enfire and Fire Spikes. Enfire adds fire dmg and increase threat generation while Fire Spikes does a decent amount of damage to those that hit the mage. Water stance's Enwater could be for replenishing mp/tp while the spikes reflect less dmg but increase parry. Wind stance could be the dps stance with the En increasing attack speed and reduce threat while the spikes increase evade. Then you have other attacks that change based on what elemental stance you are in. Like Elemental Assault, if you are in fire stance you do a cone attack for decent threat but in earth stance you do maybe a stunning aoe centered on yourself.

Add in some self-healing capabilities (I'd say wind stance could be the mp regen stance (RDMs wouldn't use TP imho) and water could be healing stance - fire already covers DPS neatly for soloing) and you got yourself a very original, and functional tank, too, who's very much in line with the RDM main concept of it primarily being a WHM/BLM hybrid.

[Tanat]

MP, TP using class...no direct way to recover it....sounds awfully similar to DRK, aside from they have to manually recover it with skills. :P

[TheCurls]

I've said it a few times but I'll add it here for posterity. What I'd like to see from Red Mage is pretty specific:

A stance-dancing dps with-
Melee physical damage Stance. All skills obviously work within 5y of the enemy. They consume TP and restore MP.

Ranged caster damage Stance. All skills work only when 10y or further from the enemy. They consume MP and restore TP.

There should be a Shoulder Tackle-esque skill to gapclose into Melee Stance and a Repelling Shot-esque skill to put distance between you and the enemy to go into Caster Stance.