Samurai and Red Mage

[Claire_Pendragon]

I dont have much to say about SAM, other than it should be closer to BLMs DPS.

Personally as a RDM, I hear a lot of ppl say how much they like RDM for prog... but no one I know, who isnt a healer doing the prog, agrees.
Once you die, and rez up, you're not really learning how to optimize your rotation based on where you are in the fight anymore, as everything is now thrown off, and are essentially learning nothing.
Only if you're a healer, will you see little to no change in this. (EDIT: as a RDM I'm probably effected the least by this as well, but even then, something as simple as me being the designated Typhon pilot in 6S, then no longer the typhon pilot, changed my rotation enough it took me a few tries to figure out what was the best route to take my abilities. And being the slow learner I am, I still accidentally try to do what i did before, w/o really looking at my UI, seeing Im wasting potential DPS options by holding off like I did when I was still piloting typhon at that point.)

As a similar example, our SMN would ask for a longer countdown for aetherflow.
But the group refused to do it for "prog" since they just wanted to "learn"

Well, once they were ready to start using the countdown,t he SMNs DPS dropped drastically as he wasnt in the same points in his rotation as he practiced, and did or didnt have certain skills to rely on at certain mechanics.
They learned that you need to practice how to do it right, from the start, not later.

In short, there isnt really anything you need to learn in a savage fight, other than how to optimize your options, and when they will be off CD/ready for what mechanics, and when to hold off as well.
Learning how to dodge a red circle shouldnt be what you're "learning" in a savage fight.

So a RDMs "utility" isn't its raise.
It's the ability to lower its damage to be ranged, but not ruin its dmg (in the case of having 80/80+ mana during mechanics u need to range for a while) and or be in melee range for some mechanics with minimal dps loss in comparison to a BLM, use mana shift rather effectively (more so than BLM/SMN imo, but which ruins your rezzing potential a lot), and mostly Embolden, which isnt that great. (And Embolden is the only one that truly matters honestly, with manashift being 2nd place, but only helps if the healer really is pumping out enough DPS to go through the MP)