But it's a sword.

[Duelle]

I still think that my answer was appropriate considering that the thread is entitled "But it's a sword."

"I have a sword, so my auto-attacks should be powerful!"

You're mischaracterizing the OP's post. The OP is basically saying he wants the sword to see actual use in combat, hence "poking the enemy between spells". He said nothing about the auto-attacks being powerful.

I brought up the weak auto's to illustrate that by design the job is built to discourage melee when not 80/80. Which I feel is a problem when the job is supposed to be a sword & spell hybrid.

The main characteristic of a Red Mage is that he can use Black and White magic. Wearing a fancy hat and a sword as a catalyst doesn't make you a swordmaster. Especially if your main stat is INT.

The sword is a a main characteristic of RDM, otherwise the job Sage would have never been invented. The job is able to equip swords for the purpose of hitting things with said sword. The catalyst thing was only made up because the devs were looking for something that was a staff but wasn't really a staff.

As for sword mastery, I agree that swordsmanship alone wouldn't carry a RDM, but that's why they have spells. Combining spells with melee swings would not only underline the fact that the job is a hybrid, but also help that RDM close the gap between themselves and a musclehead melee like a fighter.

The INT thing can easily be worked around by allowing melee strikes to scale with it. Dragon Age's Arcane Warrior basically works under that principle (INT to STR scaling). Other examples of hybrids that follow a similar rule are WoW's enhance shaman (spells scale with Agility) and retribution paladin (spell effects prior to Legion scaled with Strength).

The sword and the crystal are both used as a catalyst for casting magic. Because Red Mage is a mage.

And thus you use the "lol it has 'mage' in the name" argument, but worded differently.

Jack-of-all-trades, master of none is what defines the Red Mage.

And if we really were to go by this, RDM would be sent straight to the bench for EX primals and Savage. Which is why the job was rightfully implemented as DPS with some utility.

It already have powerful melee skills. Can't have everything.

You're missing the point. Sword use is restricted to mana being at 80/80, since using it at any other time is basically a DPS loss. The OP, much like myself, wants the sword to see more use. This isn't so much about the raw power of the sword, but how the gameplay outright discourages its use. And that has always been counter to the idea of a RDM, which is why we had the flame wars and name-calling back in FFXI for the same damn reason; instead of having to spam Cure/Refresh/Haste, now we're spamming Jolt/Verfire/Verthunder/Veraero/Verstone until we get the mana bar's permission to get into melee.