Shadowbringers RDM Wishlist

[KaerisKlyne]

I honestly don't think it needs more than maybe a single oGCD dps skill to use when Fleche and Contre are on cooldown, the removal of Embolden's drop-off, and the addition of non-damaging party support in the same way BLMs oGCDs are self-serving.

5.0 feels like a real chance to move away from stringent DPS-check-based encounter design to open party comps that might allow different, equally effective ways to get stuff done, and it wouldn't make the game any easier, just more accessible even at a meta level of play for the tiny fraction of the community for which that matters. Doing something like the above for RDM feels like an interesting way to open the floor for more varied and approachable encounters at all levels of play.

[Shurrikhan]

The devs would have to take the time and resources to address every piece of gear that provides either one, materia, consumables, etc, as well as rebalance classes that would be directly affected.

Except, they wouldn't have to. They could as easily leave it be for all but the next expansion, and it wouldn't be the first time. We already have lingering inconsistencies in stat designs over the different expansions. We have inconsistencies in relative stat pot values, in relative HP pot values, in relative food stats value. They could as easily change the name attached to either stat's tag and simply leave both Quicktongue and Quickarm in place, both as +Speed. It was not a big deal to trade "Accuracy" into "Direct Hit". It was not a big deal to change "Parry" into "Tenacity". These were specifically not done on a gear by gear basis. The tag had a name and an effect, and both were altered without having to touch the individual items.

Beyond that, there are only two items in the game that would be problematic to this design. Aetherial (Pink) items already split between Skill Speed and Spell Speed based on the attached Discipline. That leaves only Relic Weapons with custom stats, which are now pursued or kept only as cosmetics, and while it is possible to end up with "+X Crit, +Y Speed, +Z Speed" and thereby allow for twice that maxima, what would it matter now? There's only potential speedbump we don't yet know they can deal with overnight, and that's collapsing a tag, rather than trading its name or effect. But it'd be completely hidden except when looking at the basis of a few glamours and on Quicktongue/Quickarm materia, which we also know we can replace easily, from as far back as 1.x and ARR, when materia made obsolete were automatically converted into Cracked Materia of the same grade. That was, by their own report, as simple if not simpler than "Find & Replace"; they specifically gave it as a point of comparison with harder replacements such as glamour targets, cross-server glamours (as per using glamours during PvP), or job-based glamours (which we'll likely never get). (By the way, changing gear name and stat maxima -- such as on pink gear, including the retouches on the range of Eureka gear stat RNG -- were given as similarly easy processes.)

Most likely because nobody in this thread is actually working on the design of FFXIV, meaning that suggestions do not need to meet the scrutiny of other players, but of the dev team who ultimately decide what and how to balance and program skills. To get into specifics would only serve to invite pedantic in-fighting, on top of creating attachment and hype for ideas that we ultimately have no control over actually getting into the game.

For this reason, it's more productive to argue the broad merits of suggestions, not the specifics.

Suggestions without any specifics are pointlessly vague. Potencies and durations, etc., may not be directly relevant, but the breakpoints and gameplay they would cause absolutely are. There is a point at which an implementation may meet the basics of a suggestion, yet do so in a way that accomplishes none of what you hope for, i.e...

"We want open world content with cool new progression systems, open world bosses, and gameplay that encourages--but doesn't force us--to move around the map as we face the its hostile elements. Plenty of exploration and secrets to discover! Oh, and actual elements (Fire, Earth, etc)!"

SE: "We're looking to add something along the lines of <above>." -> /cheers

- Alternatively-

SE: "<Eureka>" -> /forewarned feedback attempting to salvage months of underwhelming content creation before it further sullies SE's reputation.

Arguing specifics without also putting forth exactly what you hope to accomplish with something may be folly, since it denies SE or anyone here the ability to note the mistakes between your dream and your actual vision as to catch your blind spots and correct for them, but arguing without specifics altogether is no more than vague gesticulation. When one says "I want a strong leader", I can picture the best possible version and concur, but I don't actually have any way to know whether your vision follows mine or you're imagining a particular angry, fanciful, intolerant, and thick-mustached fascist. When you want some specific, rather than a perverse twisting thereof, it's good to be specific. Test your idea out on the water. Check its merits and demerits. It might not be your job, but very few of us would feel any use possible in being here if SE was already performing that job perfectly.

[Archwizard]

Except, they wouldn't have to. They could as easily leave it be for all but the next expansion, and it wouldn't be the first time.

I can't fathom this response or what you mean to accomplish by it. You don't care if they leave inconsistencies in the design (because "they've done it before") in the course of... correcting what you find to be an inconsistency in the design?

Suggestions without any specifics are pointlessly vague. Potencies and durations, etc., may not be directly relevant, but the breakpoints and gameplay they would cause absolutely are.

Unless I'm misunderstanding something here, I'm not sure why we're still discussing breakpoints.
If DoTs do in fact increase their ticking speed in relation to time, then the easy solution to breakpoints is just to have them end in a tick of partial damage like WoW does, so that any carryover from being between two breakpoints still translates to full value. (Sure, you lose damage if you refresh before that tick, but... you would lose damage if you refreshed before the end of the DoT anyway, that's literally how DoTs work.)
But, as you've previously stated where the devs have claimed that increasing ticking or swinging speed is actually impossible to the design (partly because of server ticks), then since we're throwing speed out the window anyway, breakpoints are easily addressed by -- as you've said -- just increasing the damage like they theoretically already would.

Second, what you're trying to argue for is a Catch-22. It is impossible to make a suggestion that "adds flexibility or nuance" without adding specifics for that nuance.
I could say "we should have a DoT where the ticks give us a bonus mechanic" and you would respond to the effect of "well then it depends on the type and value of the mechanic," itself a prompt for a more specific suggestion for scrutiny.
If I add "DoT ticks would have a chance to (random example) upgrade one of our Ver-spells into a new spell that gives additional mana and maybe MP", and then the argument would be over the specifics of that suggestion (not necessarily proc-rate or how much mana and MP, but how the DoT would fit into the rotation, whether getting our MP recovery from a proc is good, does just upgrading Verthunder/Veraero's Mana really affect the rotation, etc.), which would most likely get overlooked by the devs anyway.

Because at the end of the day, the only parts of that discussion that matter to the devs are:

• If we are to be blessed/fated/doomed to get a DoT, give us one with mechanics attached to the ticks, not just damage.
• For the love of god don't make us spam individual DoTs in AoE.
• We need innate MP recovery to sustain our rotation.
• We want to generate mana faster so we can combo more often.
• Verwater/Verflood and Verblizzard/Verfreeze plz, don't care how or what they do thx

... at which point about the only things being left out are decrying dull Scatter-spam in AoE and our low survivability as melee-hybrids.

The "how" is, was, and forevermore shall be theirs to decide.

[Shurrikhan]

I can't fathom this response or what you mean to accomplish by it. You don't care if they leave inconsistencies in the design (because "they've done it before") in the course of... correcting an inconsistency in the design?

You've spent two paragraphs two posts ago to the effect that such a change is not precedented in code and would therefore require too much effort to be worth the change despite the work in balancing the stat it would make unnecessary (finicky changes to individual skills and almost inevitably separate stat-to-effect scalars for each job).
I therefore listed out for you how every part in the process has already been done, allegedly with ease. (The only possible issue that could require significant work is a cosmetic one that players would only see if they were to build a level 50/60 Relic weapon. That much, I'll agree, might not be worth the time it may require.)

You mentioned a possible X issue which would make Y change unlikely or unaffordable. I detailed how and why X is not an issue, leaving Y change lucrative and reasonable. I'm not sure what you're having trouble fathoming.

Second, what you're trying to argue for is a Catch-22. It is impossible to make a suggestion that "adds flexibility or nuance" without adding specifics for that nuance.
I could say "we should have a DoT where the ticks give us a bonus mechanic" and you would respond to the effect of "well then it depends on the type and value of the mechanic," itself a prompt for a more specific suggestion.

Yes. That's called granular descent, to an actual answer.

"So there's this funny story."
"Cool. Go on?"
"WHAT?! I HAVE TO BE SPECIFIC WITH THIS? I-owe-you-nothing-and-it-is-not-my-job-to-entertain-you-or-show-that-my-stories-are-funny!"
"..."

Becoming more specific isn't some weird or shocking thing. It's literally just the process of discussion.

Yes, there is a point where the specifics become gradually less worthwhile with each step, but that's why I set the emphasis on breakpoints. Breakpoints, not numbers, are what we actually feel in gameplay. We feel compromises, we feel tracking, we feel modulars, and so forth; they make up our actual gameplay decisions and elements of difficulty. That's why "I want DoTs" gives us nothing while

• If we are to be blessed/fated/doomed to get a DoT, give us one with mechanics attached to the ticks, not just damage.
• For the love of god don't make us spam individual DoTs in AoE.

gives us quite a lot. The prior is just a thing, that can make gameplay better or worse. The latter is a direction for gameplay.

Alternatively,

• We need innate MP recovery to sustain our rotation.

is sound, but vague enough that some of us would be curious to know how that might go wrong. You've provided examples of how we might implement MP recovery, in this case into the rotation itself, from which I would personally add to my own list,

• We need innate MP recovery to sustain our rotation, in a way that does not feel like we're wasting time in maintenance or filler or take significant cost in our gameplay for our potential strength via Verraise. If there should be gameplay impact, it should only be if and when we're milking our utility for all it's worth.

See? That might not have led us to an exact solution yet, but it gave us a chance to refine what we're individually looking for --or to point out what some of us did not want--, at which point we can talk about these things further or elsewhere with our viewpoint refined however much through inquiry and discussion. Is that not the point of all this?

Let's take that last bit, for instance...

... at which point about the only things being left out are decrying dull Scatter-spam in AoE and our poor survivability in melee.

You may trust that if we were to say "Scatter spam is bad", its replacement would necessarily be better. I'd give it a 50/50 chance, and thus am currently trying to figure out what kind of gameplay I want from AoE and different ways to approach that gameplay as not to chance a Monkey's Paw. I fully expect most of those ideas to be torn apart; if one idea both survives and satisfies the intended gameplay, then that's what I'll put forward thereafter. General statements of desire -- like the basic concept of what Eureka could have provided -- are good, but threshed solutions -- scrapping, fixing, or polishing implementations yet with fundamental flaws -- are just inherently better.

And why wouldn't they be? More work has been done, more problems already averted.

There's no hard line between stating what you want in the vaguest degree and what you want in the second or third vaguest whereby it goes from "our job" to "SE's job". It's been entirely SE's job from the start, but that doesn't mean we don't have a right to work on what we wish.

[Archwizard]

You've spent two paragraphs two posts ago to the effect that such a change is not precedented in code and would therefore require too much effort to be worth the change despite the work in balancing the stat it would make unnecessary

I never said the work was unprecedented, I said it was completely unnecessary. Even if we assume that the differentiation between the Spell Speed and Skill Speed isn't to be able to tune the two stats separately, and that the gap is entirely unnecessary, the point I was trying to make was that it is quantifiably less effort to just address the small subset of affected skills directly, even assuming they were interested in redesigning them at all given they intentionally put them on separate stats in the first place.

But I can see this segment of the argument is quickly becoming circular. Let's agree to disagree and move on to more productive matters.

"So there's this funny story."
"Cool. Go on?"
"WHAT?! I HAVE TO BE SPECIFIC WITH THIS? I-owe-you-nothing-and-it-is-not-my-job-to-entertain-you-or-show-that-my-stories-are-funny!"
"..."

Or if we remove the deliberately unflattering strawman --

"I'm starving right now."
"Okay, what for?"
"I don't know, I just want to stuff my face, someone else pick."
"Well it can't be a restaurant because that's too expensive, and it can't be-"
"Not interested in what I'm probably not eating, I'm interested in what I can and will eat. Don't care what, as long as there's no peanuts 'cuz I'm allergic."

There's no hard line between stating what you want in the vaguest degree and what you want in the second or third vaguest whereby it goes from "our job" to "SE's job". It's been entirely SE's job from the start, but that doesn't mean we don't have a right to work on what we wish.

Yes, but if the point of us discussing "what we wish" is made with intent to get them implemented, then we have to weigh it against how anything we suggest or propose would be received by the dev team, who value realistic input and likely have their own hidden design notes for each class that declare what they can and cannot ever do.

Which, as long as that list doesn't include "no DoTs, ever", means never say never if they find a way to make it work.

[Kabooa]

I think you could make Scatter more fun to spam is that each proc of enhanced scatter also reduced the recast time. Let those enhanced scatter chains just come out the gate like an endless barrage of fireworks.

Then you add an Ability that prevents your VerFire, Verstone, and Enhanced Scatter from expiring for like 15 seconds. Bam. Maybe trait it to Accelerate, where the activation it procs remains usable for 2 or 3 casts. Improved Red Mage AoE and improved Red Mage burst window.

YOU GET A VERHOLY
AND YOU GET A VERHOLY
YOU ALL GET

Shi- I'm unbalanced. How do I fix thi-

Trait Corps a Corps to level you back down to "Red Balance" while gaining bonus potency based on how much Mana was lost.

Man, too many traits. How about some new sp-

VerBlizzard and VerFreeze! Using Verholy grants you unbalanced black until you use Verflare, turning VerFire into VerBlizzard and VerThunder into VerFreeze. These generate more black mana and have 0 MP cost.

VerWater and VerFlood! Using Verflare grants you unbalanced white until you use VerHoly, t urning VerStone into VerWater and VerAero into VerFlood! These generate more white mana and have shorter cast times!

ManaFont! A melee weaponskill that leaves a grievous wound on the enemy! This wound lasts for 21 seconds, causing your next Melee Weaponskill to be used against them to gain 30 potency per 3 seconds the wound has persisted. (Handy number on the 'wound' icon for easy tracking). Consuming this wound grants greater mana returns! Enchanted ManaFont extends this duration to 45 seconds!

But wait! There's more! ManaFont consumes Enhanced Scatter to additionally apply the wound to all enemies near the target!

You get a moulinet!

And YOU get a moulinet!

You ALL GET A MOULINET!

Hopefully you all like at least one of those.

[Archwizard]

-snip-

• My main concern with things like having skills with shorter cast times is that they would often replace skills that are often spammed on Dualcast anyway.
• I've actually been thinking about something like that recently. It's not really a high priority (as RDMs are arguably the most mobile casters, and I'd much rather focus on MP/survivability/rotation speed), but as a Black counterpart to having Vercure grant Dualcast, we could potentially receive a cheap Verscathe for movement phases, that instantly refreshes Verfire/Verstone/EnScatter/Impactful timers...
  (Although given how many procs we have, I would understand if extension would be a bit much compared to say, a chance to grant Dualcast instead, or to consume active procs to instantly cast them off-GCD.)
• While I like the suggestion to have Verholy/Verflare grant a buff that swaps between the two, I think my concern with buffing all gains of the opposite type means it's easier to get "too much" of the other mana type and end up just chaining the same Verfinisher over and over. (Plus when I was saying Verwater/Verflood and Verblizzard/Verfreeze, I was trying to go for "one or the other" on Water and Ice spells, not necessarily both.)
• I like what you're putting down with ManaFont in ST -- rush into melee to hit the target with it when you get half-Mana levels (or slap it right after a melee combo if Manafication's up) to buff your next Enchanted Riposte. Or, maybe even use Riposte outside of a combo action and use ManaFont twice as often.
  You mention "consuming the Wound for greater mana returns", but I'm somewhat confused what this means. Wouldn't using a weapon skill consume mana? Or did you mean MP? And wouldn't spreading the Wound mean getting way more mana (or MP) in AoE?

[Kabooa]

• You mention "consuming the Wound for greater mana returns", but I'm somewhat confused what this means. Wouldn't using a weapon skill consume mana? Or did you mean MP? And wouldn't spreading the Wound mean getting way more mana (or MP) in AoE?

In this regard it refers to Black and White Mana. Unbalanced Black would be the active choice for the Red mage looking to go mana neutral.

Mana Font
Weaponskill
Effect: Deals 100 potency damage to the target and inflicts it with Nexus for 21s. Nexus increases the potency of the next weaponskill used by 30 and returns 1 white and 1 black mana. Nexus increases the potency by 30 and mana return by 1 every 3 seconds. Manafont consume Scatter to apply Nexus to enemies within 5y of the initial target.

Enchanted Mana Font: Extends the duration of Nexus to 45 seconds.

[Archwizard]

Bit of a shot in the dark, but if you look at the state of our rotation...

Shortcasts: Jolt/II, Impact, Scatter, Verfire, Verstone (and Vercure)
Longcasts: Veraero, Verthunder (and Verraise)

It probably shouldn't surprise anyone if we end up getting a new Longcast or two next expansion.

[Novak_04]

Verultima -- because the salt mines aren't deep enough yet.

I would like to see an AoE finisher... something like:

Each time you use Enchanted Moulinet, you gain a stack of Tectonics. Stacks up to three times.

Quake: 100 potency physical damage to target and all enemies in 10 yalms.
Additional Effect: +100 potency for each stack of Tectonics.

Red Veil: Channeled ability. Gain white and black mana each second. Whichever mana is lower will gain 5, and whichever is higher will gain 3. These values will shift to whichever mana is lower or higher at any given time. Costs 250 MP each second. Moving, to include facing a different direction, will cancel this effect. 60 second recast. [If you black is lower, it will gain 5 mana per second until it is higher than the white mana, then it will gain 3 mana per second]

Vermedica: Heals all party members within 15 yalms for a potency of 200. Costs 20 White Mana.
Verplague: Debuffs the enemy, causing it to deal 5% less damage for 5 second. Costs 20 Black Mana.

[I gave these a gauge cost to really drive home the decision making process. How bad do you need back-up heals (probably never, but if things go awry, it's there)? How bad do you need an on-demand debuff?]

Trait: Red Tempest - Verthunder has a chance to apply a black magic vulnerability up debuff, and Veraero has a chance to apply a white magic vulnerability up debuff causing the target to take 5% increased damage from all sources of black or white magic while the respective debuff is applied. Debuff lasts 5 seconds.

Are these OP? Perhaps...