Red mage coming

[Gemina]

And some people prefer "faceroll" style play. Your style of jobs already existed, but theirs doesn't anymore.

On the other hand it shocks me how many people are against the level 50 start. Do you people realize that the leveling numbers are completely arbitrary? 50-60 takes about as much time as 1-50. You're still going to be taking just as much time going from 50-70 as 30-60. Yay for no more grinding low dungeons!

The levels are arbitrary, but experience is not, and I think people are worried about skill gaps, but this already exists. But you can now expect to have these 'badass looking' RDM noobs rolling around with you in 50+ content, and they will be wearing the same sheep's clothing as those who want to take the job seriously. The black Friday trilogy of South Park is coming to mind here.

[Isala]

But you can now expect to have these 'badass looking' RDM noobs rolling around with you in 50+ content, and they will be wearing the same sheep's clothing as those who want to take the job seriously..

You know. The serious ones did it with NIN, DRK, MCH, and AST, despite all the terribleness around them creating such horrible stereotypes. Anyone who seriously played those classes knew that the party was judging them the instant they zoned in, but they took it, and they OWNED it. And now, they'll get to do it again with RDM. I know that there's going to be 50 bad RDM, for every good one. I intend to be the good one. I've been waiting for this class for a very long time. It's been my favorite since the first Final Fantasy. It represents the way I am so very, very much. The desire to do everything, to be good at anything you set your mind to. And to look good while doing it. So I'm going to pick up my rapier with pride. And I'm going to show every party that I run with that I AM a good RDM.

[MistyMew]

RDM looks very cool, well worth levelling to test it out. Hopefully they designed it to be smooth combat wise not as clunky as some HW changes were.

Enjoyed rdm in ffxi, (not as much as blu or bst but...)but definitely looking forward to trying it out here too.

Starting at lv 50 is excellent imo.
There will be awesome rdms and horrible rdms, just like every other job in every other game that ever existed. Whether they begin at 50 or lv 1 is irrelevant, experience grinding is only so important, player drive and wanting to be good (or not caring at all) is much more what determines how "good" or poorly one plays their game.

[ErryK]

I think complaining about the class starting at Lv50 is stupid. While yes, it is a 10 level reduction compared to classes such as DRK, MCH and AST, which started at 30 and cap was 60... I honestly do not want to go through the slog of leveling them through ARR dungeons... especially when, personally, I will be leveling every other job as well.

I will be honest with my own prerogative, I personally dislike leveling as an activity, it's only fun when I'm enjoying myself but if I go through DF as a DPS leveling RDM, and get an under-performing tank or healer, it's only going to affect me negatively because while I am trying to learn my class, these lazy people would rather under-perform than learn to do their job. While this is an entirely different beast to deal with, it still affects the leveling process, and if I can personally have "less" of those types of situations, then I will be happy.

Starting at 50 is good because it is doing a service to people who purchase Stormblood, and as far as I know regarding what was said, it will be available in ARR regions, so you can begin the game with RDM available at Lv10 (unless you need a Lv50 job) or grab it and go begin the Stormblood MSQ after RDM is 60. Newcomers still have the entire MSQs of ARR and HW to go through, seeing as the MSQ jump pot will not be available until around 4.3/4.4. It is seriously a non-issue.

[Pomelo]

Ruined is a pretty strong word. Some of us actually prefer a non faceroll playstyle for our mains, thanks.

Agreed, I actually think Bard is so much better now.

[silentwindfr]

it make sense to get the red mage to 50, from now the game will go like this, i will not be surprised if while the expansion after stormblood the new job will start at 60 *shrugs* but i'm curious about one point, i do expect that get this jobs start at 50 make it unable to get from the start, meaning you need to be 50 for get it. or i will kinda angry.

[Neri]

It's going to be a bit overwhelming on the amount of skills available at lv50 though.

[Dualblade]

I have been looking forward to Red Mages eventually inclusion in this game. Even if it ends up horrible I will main it simply because I always thought it would ultimately be what my character becomes. Now I can see whether I have to hold up to the "even if horrible" part.

On the "level 30" vs "50" part...personally I only care in so much as the story questline is concerned, and our current track record is "2 seperate story lines at most per xpac." Old jobs get one storyline, new ones get 2. Course its barley a trend at this rate even and I'm not quite sure how Legacy worked with their class and job storylines, but going by ARR and HW "new" and actual new jobs get two storylines on introduction (counting classes for jobs in this case.) 50-70 gives enough space for two storylines even if they are connected to each other. Though if the storyline was fun I wouldn't mind starting at 30 for three seperate storylines instead.

Also remember unless someone uses a jump potion, newbies will still most likely need to beat Ultima Weapon to gain access to Red Mage and whatever other new jobs we get. So most of the "terrible" Red Mages you'll meet in the first new week are probably current/returning players. Aside from just figuring out how to do the job it probably won't be that bad.

[Gemina]

You know. The serious ones did it with NIN, DRK, MCH, and AST, despite all the terribleness around them creating such horrible stereotypes. Anyone who seriously played those classes knew that the party was judging them the instant they zoned in, but they took it, and they OWNED it. And now, they'll get to do it again with RDM. I know that there's going to be 50 bad RDM, for every good one. I intend to be the good one. I've been waiting for this class for a very long time. It's been my favorite since the first Final Fantasy. It represents the way I am so very, very much. The desire to do everything, to be good at anything you set your mind to. And to look good while doing it. So I'm going to pick up my rapier with pride. And I'm going to show every party that I run with that I AM a good RDM.

I wholeheartedly agree with you, and every bit as passionate about the job and its role in a group. I mean this is it, right? So many are a fan of RDM and SE now has a previous FF mmo, plus this one to evaluate exactly how RDM fits into the mmo scene. They have had years and years of feedback to develop this job into something special. I am overall very happy with many of the jobs I choose to play and feel SE did a good job developing them. I only ask that this continue with RDM and any additional jobs added.

[Duelle]

As a pre- and post-HW Bard main, I'll have to say changes for both Bard and Blackmage were necessary. As a Bard, I could just carry through entire fights of doing mechanics with nearly no DPS loss at all. BLM rotation was apparently really babymode in 2.x as well.

The problem with BLM is that Enochian was wasted on them, as Enochian is the type of mechanic you could build an entire job around instead of adding it as an unstable layer to the perfect and tight design of ARR BLM. Laylines and a mechanic involving Astral Fire/Umbral Ice ("spending" AF3/UI3 for an effect/spell, "locking" AF3/UI3 for some limited-time benefit to name two) would have been enough.

The BRD excuse is flimsy at best. BRD's DPS contributions had a ceiling due to being tuned inherently lower than everyone else plus damage penalties for resource recovery. The argument would have merit if BRD had matched BLM or SMN-level DPS post-nerfs. We also can't ignore that people actually liked the mobility and that it was one of the things that helped it stand out from the other ranged DPS. Lastly, the change was implemented as a bait-and-switch (because instead of doing a class and job overhaul, they just shoved the change down people's throats at lv52), and that's pretty much inexcusable.