Red Mages need some love

[Popotato]

Also backed up by at least 50 people from my FC.

Ask your FC why they think it’s bad. There is a case to be made that BLM is weak right now, and it’s not the reasons you gave.

I also don’t understand what this guy has against people giving cohesion to the mess he wrote in his paragraph. He said the same thing to me on another thread, the difference being the way I divided the quotes was literally paragraph by paragraph. He broke it up himself. If anything, breaking his post up makes his arguments look better than they actually are since they’re actually clearer.

Anyways, I feel like we owe RDM players some actual discussion of their job after derailing so hard. RDM feedback inc.

This might’ve been touched upon before, but one of the main problems with RDM is the lack of predetermined burst phases. A RDM burst phase, the melee combo + Verfinisher, has such a variable timeframe that it feels like it never aligns with raid cooldowns, which is the core of endgame speed runs.

I think giving RDM some reliability in when it can execute its burst will give a good boost to its power and desirability. What I’m thinking is that instead of Manafication doubling current mana, it’s gives a flat 60/60 boost to current mana, with the same cooldown as now. That way, RDM burst is practically guaranteed every two minutes, and this will align with things like Trick Attack and Hypercharge. I feel like this also has the least impact on the opener, and if anything might make it so the and Embolden actually aligns with other raid buffs in the opener. While we’re at it, Embolden is a bit shit as a buff right now. For a non-selfish caster, RDM needs Embolden to have some desirability in a party. I think have a less frequent decay rate is probably the best solution.

[HyoMinPark]

Anyways, I feel like we owe RDM players some actual discussion of their job. . . .I played primarily RDM at the start of Stormblood until just before 4.2. The main thing that made me drop

I play RDM semi-frequently; I’ve flexed it in Savage before for groups, but usually not in a very serious context. I think it really could use some potency buffs. I know SE wants to keep its damage down because of the raise utility... but that utility goes away once a group finishes progging a fight, and once the fight is on farm. Buffing Embolden could also help; and maybe changing the way the buff’s decay works. Right now, it’s only worth it to line up important buffs, or to snapshot important buffs (BRD main, here), during Embolden-5. Embolden-2 and Embolden-1 are incredibly weak. I honestly think it would be better, if they wanted to keep the decay design, to just do Embolden-3, Embolden-2, and Embolden-1, and adjust potencies on those three.

[Popotato]

I play RDM semi-frequently; I’ve flexed it in Savage before for groups, but usually not in a very serious context. I think it really could use some potency buffs. I know SE wants to keep its damage down because of the raise utility... but that utility goes away once a group finishes progging a fight, and once the fight is on farm. Buffing Embolden could also help; and maybe changing the way the buff’s decay works. Right now, it’s only worth it to line up important buffs, or to snapshot important buffs (BRD main, here), during Embolden-5. Embolden-2 and Embolden-1 are incredibly weak. I honestly think it would be better, if they wanted to keep the decay design, to just do Embolden-3, Embolden-2, and Embolden-1, and adjust potencies on those three.

Actually, the talk about snapshotting makes me think that maybe instead of a decay or even a potency, changing the effect to a ramp up would give it a good buff to its utility. That way, other jobs will want to snapshot during that brief 20% buff. This would also have little implication on the RDM itself, and could even be a light form of skill expression to align the verfinisher right has Embolden hits 20%

I don’t play much RDM anymore though so if there’s any obvious negative I’m missing let me know.

[Dualgunner]

Ask your FC why they think it’s bad. There is a case to be made that BLM is weak right now, and it’s not the reasons you gave.

I should amend that I'm in no way saying Black Mage is perfect, and my position is the same as Popotato's; the imperfections being pointed out aren't the real problem.

I also don’t understand what this guy has against people giving cohesion to the mess he wrote in his paragraph. He said the same thing to me on another thread, the difference being the way I divided the quotes was literally paragraph by paragraph. He broke it up himself. If anything, breaking his post up makes his arguments look better than they actually are since they’re actually clearer.

I break things up for a lot of reasons; it helps me compartmentalize what I'm responding to so I can make more sense with my own posts, and it makes it easier to digest for readers. I'm not really sure his issue with this either :/

Anyways, I feel like we owe RDM players some actual discussion of their job after derailing so hard. RDM feedback inc.

Happens more often than you think lol. Every caster discussion inevitably has the other two come in and screech for a bit.

This might’ve been touched upon before, but one of the main problems with RDM is the lack of predetermined burst phases. A RDM burst phase, the melee combo + Verfinisher, has such a variable timeframe that it feels like it never aligns with raid cooldowns, which is the core of endgame speed runs.

Complete agreement here; a big problem with its damage is that it can't reliably hit its stride every 2 minutes. Actually, it can't even take advantage of even the initial opening burst; it can save embolden for a 5/6th GCD lineup with trick (amusingly, at cost to its own personal dps as well), but it won't be another two to three GCDs before it can even start Riposte. I'm lucky and sometimes manage to get a Zwerchhau under trick.

Make Manafy +60/60 instead of double

This is a creative solution to the issue. Even for the opener, by 5/6th GCD I'm usually at ~31/31 procs pending, so an instant boost of 60+ for each would allow me to jump right in with my burst on Trick and get to use my embo to boost the raid and keep the selfish benefits of it. It would also make double verfinishers a lot easier to pull off, as if you went from 100/99 you'd end at 20/19 and then jump straight up to 80/79, where you'd only need 1 (but you'll take 2) GCDs to get right back into it; this means the stronger end of your combo would also be encapsulated in your second verfinisher.

While we’re at it, Embolden is a bit shit as a buff right now. For a non-selfish caster, RDM needs Embolden to have some desirability in a party. I think have a less frequent decay rate is probably the best solution.

There are a few ways to deal with embolden. I wouldn't necessarily like it as a ramp-up buff, because that would complicate timing your melee with it a bit. I'd prefer it to be like overcharge, a flat 6% damage buff for 20 seconds (about its average damage buff now). Whatever is done with it it needs to increase damage in general, not "physical for you, magical for me." That's dumb imo.