Red Mage Abilities

[spelley]

From what we know I'd imagine it would have a split of damaging, BLM-inspired abilities and possibly more "utility" abilities tied more to WHM along with its own "signature" abilities. RDM in this game has also been called a "ranged DPS" with the Range being a bit fuzzy. This means likely serving at least some of the roles that BRD/MCH fill potentially.

Possibilities include (all speculation, mind):

RDM (FFXI) Staples
* Refresh - Some way to give other people mana regen is very likely. Would be nice if it also did TP. Implementation: Single target, oGCD, higher effect Songs/Promotions on a single target.
* Phalanx - Defensive buff that reflects damage. Implementation: party buff, could just be "can cast stoneskin" or something.
* En-[Element] - Gives your weapon a specific effect. Implemented: Monk "Fists of X" or Ninja poisons.
* Debuffs - Disabling abilities. Implementation: Could have access to things resembling Virus, Dismantle/Rend Mind, Trick Attack, Heavy/Silence/Bind along with DoTs obviously.
* Chainspell - Rapid-fire spellcasting. Implementation: Rapid Fire from MCH but for RDM spells (feel like this might have been talked about already?)

Other Guesses:
* Spells cost (large amount of?) mana, melee combos/attacks cost TP and replenish that mana thus ensuring you jump in and out.
* Medium-sized Cure spell (to check the RDM "can technically heal" box)
* Flare-clone that acts as a rotation finisher before you go into melee as it drains your MP
* Lots of DoTs to reflect the old "debuffer" style of play?

As I said, all of these are guesses now as we've seen basically nothing of their gameplay except for jumping in and out of melee, and a couple of small spells.

[TarynH]

When they first introduced it they said it will use "red magic," and kind of insinuated that it will be a new take on RDM. Basically not relying on the standard white+black model, from what I understood. I'm excited to see what it can do really. But just going off of what they said, I don't think it will have much in the way of healing. Maybe a mediocre cure? A Drain spell?

[Lambdafish]

Possibilities include (all speculation, mind):

RDM (FFXI) Staples
* Refresh - Some way to give other people mana regen is very likely. Would be nice if it also did TP. Implementation: Single target, oGCD, higher effect Songs/Promotions on a single target.
* Phalanx - Defensive buff that reflects damage. Implementation: party buff, could just be "can cast stoneskin" or something.
* En-[Element] - Gives your weapon a specific effect. Implemented: Monk "Fists of X" or Ninja poisons.
* Debuffs - Disabling abilities. Implementation: Could have access to things resembling Virus, Dismantle/Rend Mind, Trick Attack, Heavy/Silence/Bind along with DoTs obviously.
* Chainspell - Rapid-fire spellcasting. Implementation: Rapid Fire from MCH but for RDM spells (feel like this might have been talked about already?)

Other Guesses:
* Spells cost (large amount of?) mana, melee combos/attacks cost TP and replenish that mana thus ensuring you jump in and out.
* Medium-sized Cure spell (to check the RDM "can technically heal" box)
* Flare-clone that acts as a rotation finisher before you go into melee as it drains your MP
* Lots of DoTs to reflect the old "debuffer" style of play?

I don't think this RDM will draw too much from XI given that their purpose is very different. I think of those, we will only get refresh (because MP goad sounds great and fits right in). I think double-cast will fit into its finisher somehow given that it is an RDM staple (V, XI, Tactics), and this will be mixed with black/white magic such as flare and holy. I can also see an additional self-heal similar to second wind.

[Yorumi]

I'd say too don't get your hopes up for the letter. It sounds more like it's about changes to the battle system, not anything about rdm or sam. I would guess we're not going to learn much about rdm and sam until either the expansion goes live and we see the skills or they're patched in early for datamining.

That said I do hope rdm has a heal of some sort. Paladin does have clemency, so it wouldn't be out of balance to give red mage some kind of heal. Just make the mp cost prohibitive or give it a long cool down.

[Jonnycbad]

RDM traditionally used White Magic and Black Magic and they will in XIV too;however, not all White Magic is healing magic. So I can see them combing Aero/Fire, Stone/Thunder, etc. But I doubt they will have healing skills, being a DPS. They may have a self-heal spell akin to Second Wind/Life Surge that heals them for a nominal amount while dealing damage, maybe Drain Blade like RDM had in FF Dimensions.


No other DPS has healing other than SMN (Physick) but it's so weak due to low MND that it's hardly worth mentioning.

[Yorumi]

No other DPS has healing other than SMN (Physick) but it's so weak due to low MND that it's hardly worth mentioning.

To be fair though, tanks didn't have a useful heal before HW. I guess you could argue they had bloodbath + berserk + unchained + inner beast but that's a bit of a stretch and nothing like clemency. You could also argue combat res on smn is way more powerful than something like clemency. Not saying I've seen any evidence at all that rdm will be getting a heal, but there's no real good reason they can't.

[Jonnycbad]

Tanks having a heal makes sense. PLD has a special heal because they can cure others (and still heal themselves for 50%) but that's just to make it unique. Healing is preservation, so it fits thematically with tanks who are guaranteed to take damage. For everything except Extreme/Savage encounters, DPS should never take damage unless they make a mistake, or raid-wide damage (should never be enough to kill you outright though), therefore DPS having heals is to cover for a mistaken mechanic (hence long cool down, limited cure potency on Second Wind/Blood Bath/Life Surge)

[Yorumi]

Tanks having a heal makes sense. PLD has a special heal because they can cure others (and still heal themselves for 50%) but that's just to make it unique. Healing is preservation, so it fits thematically with tanks who are guaranteed to take damage. For everything except Extreme/Savage encounters, DPS should never take damage unless they make a mistake, or raid-wide damage (should never be enough to kill you outright though), therefore DPS having heals is to cover for a mistaken mechanic (hence long cool down, limited cure potency on Second Wind/Blood Bath/Life Surge)

Being able to heal fits thematically and historically with rdm too. As was said we already have dps who can battle res, something even a pld can't do despite having access to raise. We have various dps who can battle res, buff defense or magic defense, prevent debuffs, transfer enmity, and debuff the damage mobs do. A long cooldown, targeted heal, intended to be rarely seen wouldn't be anything remotely gamebreaking.

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

Just a guess but I'd wager that RDM will have a heal much like Paladin's Clemency, that will scale via their main stats and probably be prohibitively expensive to cast or have a cooldown. In this way the flavor of white magic is there but RDM cannot fulfill the role of a full time healer.

[Ferth]

My guess is that rdm won't have healing spells but will rather have elemental spells that currently fall under the preview of whm, like stone and aero. In the benchmark trailer you can see the rdm using what looks like a version of an aero spell and then a version of a fire spell...

I'm also wondering if we won't see the -ra and -ga spell suffixes return for rdm, the animations from the benchmark trailer don't match any fire or aero spells already in the game so I wouldn't be surprised if Rdm gets Aera and Fira.