Job Feedback: RDM

[Hyrist]

I said napkin math. You're not figuring in timing and damage windows.

A Black Mage needs a full 2 GCDs to cast two spells. This means, if a target runs out of range or line of sight in one GCD, they miss that second attack. It is much less likely for a Red Mage to do so - because of the mechanics of Dualcast.

So yes, it's two global cooldowns, but only one of which is required to be frontloaded by the Red Mage, who can spend the other dipping in cover or following up with an off global cooldown skill (such as a heal, bolt, shifting targets with monomachy etc.

Same goes for the Melee risk calculation. Red Mage's melee cooldown for the first two skills is 1.5s as opposed to the 2.18 of a traited spellcast. No other class has this truncated GCD. You asked why spare the time to use Flunge? Because it's ALSO on this truncated GCD and deals 1000 potency to its target. It dosen't interrupt anything, it hits as hard as Jolt II, and has a faster recast to boot.

Red Mage is all about exploiting damage windows. It's not a factor someone who does not play the job well can understand just looking at potency alone without and understanding of how that plays out in real time.

Yes, a Red Mage only gets 2750 at a time at range before 'risking' melee range, that's more than enough poke to execute someone before they turn the corner though, because the full of that burst happens at the 2.18s mark, not the 4.36s.

And a person who tries to close in on RDM to attack them, risks getting burst 9650 in less than seven seconds ( CaC > 1.5 >1.5 > 2.3 Displacement > Finish) and that includes a free retreat before the finish.

Can a Black Mage outdamage that? Sure, but he's stationary the entire time, must invest more time beforehand to access the full burst and susceptible to having to reinvest the cast time if he is at all interrupted before cast is complete. Meanwhile, each step in RDM's burst combo is instant, you could stun, sleep, and silence him sequentially and unless you were perfect in your CC timing or outright killed him, he'd still get the full combo off.

All these factors need to be considered before crying wolf that Red Mage needs further buffs. Its damage is very flexible and it has deceptively powerful burst, on top of the fact that it is highly mobile. Yes, as a necessity, but that makes it all the more difficult for enemies to keep track of. I'd say if anything it could use a bit more utility in its kit, though an AoE Weight on global cooldown that deals more than its base cast to the first target makes it difficult to chose what other utility to go for.