Quote Originally Posted by Silverquick View Post
You sound more like you wanted a Melee based Mage with only a little bit of spellcasting... well as usual with Final Fantasy games... the Red Mage is the opposite of that.

It's always been that way too... even from the very first Final Fantasy game back on Nintendo.

The power of the Red Mage was always in his spells... not his melee.
You can forgive a barely used tool as an 'option' in a single-player game in which a RDM was designed as a job for high mid-game flexibility and growth, but ultimately replaced by endgame for optimal performance.
Not in an MMO.
No job ought to tie in an such a seemingly integral aspect only to make ornamental use of it.