Quote Originally Posted by Tzain View Post
Man, I thought I was the only one who wondered about that!
I mean, if you look at the ability progression and the lore it reinforces the idea of going 'melee -> Caster -> melee' rather than 'caster -> melee -> Caster'.
I still think that SE's way of 'balancing' red mage dps is going to be related to the frequency with which we do our melee combo ('Burst type damage playstyle'). Increased Frequency = more damage, decreased frequency = less damage. Right now, given that the job is so young, It's my honest belief that they are opting to keep it on the 'low side' so that any 'balancing' will be embraced as a buff.

That being said, having us as melee->caster would put another body in melee range, which is a bit crowded. So I'm ok with our default being a spell slinger from a mechanics/balance perspective. It just feels unbalanced because you spend too much time in 'slinger' mode compared to the 'sword' phase.
In my overly simplistic view, Corps-a-Corps is the limiting factor at 40 seconds. In theory we should be able to generate enough W/B to do the full melee combo (Corps, melee combo, displacement,ver-finisher) each time corps comes off cooldown.
Also, I'd like to see Embolden's mechanic get inverted, so that it becomes more powerful during it's duration instead of less powerful since the burst damage combo is so 'back-loaded'.
Personally, I usually just Corps-a-Corps and Displacement on CD for the free oGCD damage, and try to ensure they've just been used before Manafication's refresh to each, so they've never really struck me as necessary book-ends to the melee combo. The main oddity to me is just that it feels like it might as well all just be Flare or any other ranged finisher, except that we're spending 1.8 GCDs prior via instant melee range skills prior. As both resource generation and spenders, especially, are so one-dimensional, nothing about it feels different or even like it needs the sword, even when slashing people with it. It just feels ornamental.