Shadowbringers RDM Wishlist

[Archwizard]

The way I see it is, as a ranged or caster, ultimately you have complete control over what range you're attacking from for most of the fight. The devs' ideal is you stand some distance back and use Corps-a-corps and Displacement to quickly alternate ranges, but at the end of the day you could stand just outside melee range while casting and you have enough GCD freedom and instant casts (stutter-stepping and slide-casting aside) to just run in; hell, in some fights healer prefer such grouping. Lately I've had several instances where I stood fairly close for a good portion of a fight (when I felt comfortable that the tank was in control), Displaced out of melee to avoid attacks and Corps-a-corps'd back to my original spot.

Why do I want to use Displacement? To get out of vulnerable melee range and put distance between myself and my target. Biggest obstacles? Enemies chasing after me, rendering the distance moot in under a second. Solution? Hamstring 'em and turn 'em off chasing me. Not terribly hard to cover in instanced combat since the tank will usually cover me, but near any non-melee CC will help when I don't have one.

Why do I want to use Corps-a-corps? To get in, quickly unleash a melee combo, and get back out. Biggest obstacles? Enemies trying to hit me while I'm close, especially with attacks that interrupt the combo. Solution? Don't let them hit me -- CC lockdown.
Heavy and Bind won't help you at that range; Bind is broken by damage so it's bad to pair with the combo (and your auto-attack) anyway. Slow would have to be pretty significant to matter for the 5-ish seconds you're in melee. Spells are the least of your worries while in melee, and I have yet to see a Silence longer than 1 second anyway.
So you got Stun, Blind, and Pacification, and I dunno which ones are least-resisted, but I can tell outright that Stun is the most applicable to an ideal lockdown maneuver.