Redmages any good?

[AppleJinx]

OP, RDM has always been a jack of all trades class. Its listed as a range class but can easily be turned into a melee style class with the right materia. RDM also has a good AOE output with Scatter, Moulete, and another skill with helps out a lot in dungeon runs.

Tons of people play RDM "untraditionally" or differently then some of the elite players suggest, but even if you don't focus on the play style they suggest you still put out decent DPS and the AOE always help.
With the right materia an RDM can hold their own with a ninja in melee even before the power up the spells give them. Its a great class for anyone who likes to play their own way. You can literally play three different styles, melee, range, or support healer.

If anything else it never hurts to try.

Damn dude I didn't think someone would be this misguided until I checked your lodestone page.

[Lynesse]

I think RDM is fantastic, but I haven't raided with it yet.

RDM has certain gimmicks that give it carry potential in pugs. I've solo healed bosses when the healer has died. One time, we had to do Bardam's Mettle, but the tank left immediately. I ended up tanking the first boss, and when our healer died, I healed the DRG, who finished it off.

RDM gives you the tools to pull people through lower level content, but I'll repeat that these are gimmicks. They are not utility.

That's the problem RDM is facing right now.

But that's what I find attractive about it. It's true to Final Fantasy. RDM has always been a self-sufficient class in a game where self-sufficiency isn't needed. Because of that, it's impractical late-game, when everyone is powered up and capable of pulling their weight.

It's impractical, that is, unless something goes wrong. And things always go wrong in pugs.

RDM's rotation is fun and easy to learn, but it's deceptively nuanced, with Displacement usage, Embolden timing, and so on. Optimizing RDM -- which mostly involves when to use certain oGCDs -- varies a little from situation to situation, and that makes it exciting for me.

I like standing close to a boss to get in auto-attacks when I can. Little things like this make it interesting and fun to me, but I can see how some people would find it awkward or poorly designed.

[Kleeya]

Hypothetically, RDM is useful in pugs because it can compensate for jackasses running into AoE circles. But in a practical setting my Verraise spell is woefully underused. Yeah, you have your odd healer who thinks the glowing circle gives candy but usually people are capable enough to dodge attacks or avoid drawing too much aggro. I can count on one hand the amount of times that I've used Verraise to rez someone in a 24 man raid and even less times that I've saved a dungeon with RDM.

Its other two utility abilities are Vercure, a 350 potency heal, and Embolden, a 10% up physical damage up buff with a decay. Vercure is even less used than Verraise, as healers rarely don't have it under control.

For my part i have a totally difference experience. I can't count the number of times i did get nearly out of mana despite using lucid dreaming, because people were dying left and right and rezzes are such a mp drain. And i use vercure way more often than verraise, the typical case being healers healing only the tank, letting me at half-life from some group or raid-wide unavoidable aoes, and me being like "uh, a big hit from the boss is coming again... better heal myself before i die".

That being said, with Vorx opening to me a world of new possibilities, i now go putting intelligence materias on my ninja. Because you know, ninjas have magic attacks, so i have good hopes to transform him succesfully into a badass ranged caster

[Neela]

OP, there's plenty of ways to play RDM and it's a fun class, but it is not a replacement melee or healer. It's a caster DPS with progressive utility and a play mechanic that mimics a caster/melee motion.

fun only appears in said content, where the simplicity of the cls supports the situational reaction... leveling RDM is kinda boring cause their base rota won't change or evolve at all - not even with their 70 skill - but yeah its a super handy cls for grinding those mindless "new-age-community" content... bad minds could call it the Netflix-Cls lately - just visit Pagos (or Anemos) to become a part ; p

[Dualgunner]

Said as if leveling in general wasn't boring.

[Lubu_Mykono]

I think it's also important to mention that the core design of red mage is overall important to the game. It fills a specific nice that, although not the best in all content, is important to be of use to the majority of players. You see lots of red mages since you get it at level 50
Even as a caster though, the difference in playstyle is good because it acts as a "safety net" for those casual/roulette instances where the fight might be lost if not for fast acting Red Mage. I hope we get more jobs like this in the future, not ones that can heal/res but those that have unique identities and roles even within groupings like Caster DPS.

[Vorx]

I think it's also important to mention that the core design of red mage is overall important to the game. It fills a specific nice that, although not the best in all content, is important to be of use to the majority of players. You see lots of red mages since you get it at level 50
Even as a caster though, the difference in playstyle is good because it acts as a "safety net" for those casual/roulette instances where the fight might be lost if not for fast acting Red Mage. I hope we get more jobs like this in the future, not ones that can heal/res but those that have unique identities and roles even within groupings like Caster DPS.

There use to be a beast class in FFXI if i remember right that could use its beast as a healer or a tank role. Kinda like summoner has now but with nealy identical outputs.
Plus there is always Mimic to look forward to that can change classes at will while in battle.

[Neela]

I also would love Mimes they were my most favorite Cls in Tactics cause strategys were limitless - sadly but most probably they won’t implement a freaking Fun-Cls like Mimes to 14 in that way how do ever cause of balancing... : /

[Maero]

@ Vorx, everyone here is correct though... Red Mage is the lowest dps in the game. Have you played other jobs even? Not judging but your gear on Red Mage would indicate you are fairly new to Red Mage and you do not have other jobs @ 70.
Also what is reasoning behind adding str materia or even spell speed on your Red Mage? It serves Zero purpose in case you did not know you will want crit, DH and lastly Determination
Ninja is not the highest damage but it brings more damage then Red Mage plus support. (Red Mage support is not worth mentioning in a raid environment)

[channell]