Shadowbringers RDM Wishlist

[Archwizard]

That's because caster autoattacks are based on STR.
So are melee autoattacks, so melee autoattacks are a significant portion of their dps, and that's why casters have DoTs to compensate.

But yeah, a mechanic tied to black/white mana would have been cool.

Something like:
Verwater/blizzard, a DoT that increases white/black mana by 3 for each tick for 24s. Shares a recast timer with Verblizzard/water. 45s cooldown.
This could be used to force an imbalance, and to maintain mana regen during downtime from mechanic dodging.

Something I came up with earlier: Have one DoT, but attacking a target with the DoT active grants access to your choice of Verwater or Verblizzard. Each time you swap between the two, the properties of the DoT change, causing it to give mana of the respective type, with a bonus on the first tick to encourage swapping frequently.

All numbers being examples:

[Verbio? Verscathe? Jolt III? Rattle?] (2 sec cast): Deals unaspected damage over time to the target and nearby enemies.
Potency: 30
Duration: 30 sec
Additional effect: Increases both Black Mana and White Mana by 3
Additional effect: Verfire and Verstone casts against an afflicted target have a chance to grant Aether Saturation.

Verwater (5 sec cast): Deals water damage to the target with a potency of 330.
Additional effect: Increases White Mana by 9.
Additional effect: Consumes Void Essence on the target to increase Black Mana by 4.
Additional effect: Applies Pearl Essence to the target, increasing White Mana by 1 every time [DoT] deals damage to the target.
Can only be executed while under the effect of Aether Saturation.

Verblizzard (5 sec cast): Deals ice damage to the target with a potency of 330.
Additional effect: Increases Black Mana by 9.
Additional effect: Consumes Pearl Essence on the target to increase White Mana by 4.
Additional effect: Applies Void Essence to the target, increasing Black Mana by 1 every time [DoT] deals damage to the target.
Can only be executed while under the effect of Aether Saturation.

That, or just take the first half and have Verwater and Verblizzard each apply a buff to you that give a bonus to your next cast of the opposite.

Verwater (5 sec cast): Deals water damage to the target with a potency of 330.
Additional effect: Increases White Mana by 9 and grants Pearl Essence.
Additional effect: Consumes Void Essence to increase both Black Mana and White Mana by 3.
Can only be executed while under the effect of Aether Saturation.

Verblizzard (5 sec cast): Deals ice damage to the target with a potency of 330.
Additional effect: Increases Black Mana by 9 and grants Void Essence.
Additional effect: Consumes Pearl Essence to increase both Black Mana and White Mana by 3.
Can only be executed while under the effect of Aether Saturation.

That way you have to constantly weigh the value of swapping between the two against your Mana needs in the given moment, increasing the risk-reward factor (ie having the bonus for casting Verblizzard up when your Black Mana is already higher).

And then of course advancements can include "VerX has an increased chance to proc Aether Saturation while Y Essence is active", and/or "Casting all three spells of one mana type in sequence has a chance to proc the opposing Verfinisher".
If button bloat becomes a concern, swap Verholy/flare over to occupying Verstone/fire and then just attach these to Veraero/thunder instead.

[Gaethan_Tessula]

What I would have wanted, some having already been mentioned:

1. Ver-assize (what it says on the tin).

2. Reflect/Wall cooldown (Reduce damage to nearby party members, return damage back at boss. Akin to Ifrit's counter shield).

3. Erase becoming RDM only, with a cooldown reduction and either a potency increase or a regen.

4. Chainspell (Presence of Mind + no casting time for X seconds)

5. I'd liked have to kept Mana Shift actually, but seeing as they cut out ALL non-personal refreshes that wasn't going to happen.

6. I'd liked to have kept Tether. Some of us are trying to solo Deep Dungeons or want to ignore obnoxious mobs in Diadem/Eureka Square...

7. AoE changes are fine I guess.

8. Scorch is fine I guess.

9. Engagement could have gone to the cutting floor imo.


I think when a DPS job reaches a good place, what needs to happen after that is supplemental abilities. With Red Mage being lower pDPS than BLM or SUM, expanding its support toolbox would have been the correct direction to go with that. Instead, we seem to be relegated to being "easymode Black Mage with that move that's really good for progression" even more in this expansion. At least in Shadowbringers we had the least opportunity cost to use the supportive role-actions, almost all of which are gone now.

Not particularly interested in RDM getting a DoT. If they did, interacting with the Mana system would be a bare minimum baseline to be acceptable to me over something more interesting.

[PatronasCharm]

Honestly, something that would have been neat is having spells tied to Mana Meter, maybe have a spell like:

Vermedica - AoE Cure that costs 10 white mana

Verwater - High potency Nuke maybe 400 that costs 10 White Mana triggers Verstone automatically

Or

Verblizzard - 400 potency uses 10 Black Mana automatically gives Verfire ready

Would be neat to use our manameters for certain spells.

That was just a thought though lol.

[Rongway]

Edit: nevermind, forgot to account for the cost of not generating 11 mana from a Verslowspell. Maths should be fine now.

better maths

[Archwizard]

Vermedica - AoE Cure that costs 10 white mana

That's the concern I always have with suggestions like this. People have similarly suggested "HoT that costs or generates white mana, and DoT for black mana".

Heals and DoTs are not equally useful to a DPS, meaning such a spell would likely make the average of Verholy/Verflare casts more imbalanced.

And in this case, you haven't even proposed an opposing Black mana skill of equal value -- largely because such a skill doesn't actually exist.

Verwater - High potency Nuke maybe 400 that costs 10 White Mana triggers Verstone automatically

Or

Verblizzard - 400 potency uses 10 Black Mana automatically gives Verfire ready

Would be neat to use our manameters for certain spells.

The trouble is, you would only ever use such skills if you were near cap and wanted to immediately imbalance your Mana so you could cast Verholy and Verflare.
Ignoring for a moment that with these example values, in such a case you'd either effectively cost 1 Mana (for an extra GCD) or double-proc Verfire/stone:
This is a niche that is already covered by Enchanted Reprise, which would let you dump a little Mana when you're near cap to mulligan your values before your next combo.

[SaberMaxwell]

Edit: nevermind, forgot to account for the cost of not generating 11 mana from a Verslowspell. Maths should be fine now.

A Verslowspell is 310 potency, 11 mana, and a 50% chance that your next spell does 20 more potency and generates 3 more mana. Then the expected values for a Verslowspell are 320 potency and 12.5 mana.
Jolt is 250 potency and 6 mana.

In 9.76s (four 2.44s GCDs), your expected output for Jolt/Verfastspell > Verslowspell > Jolt/Verfastspell > Verslowspell is roughly 1140 potency and 37 mana generation.


An Enchanted Redoublement combo takes 10.08s (1.5s+1.5s+2.2s+2.44s+2.44s), spends a net 180 mana, refunds 35 mana, and does 2270 potency.

If we adjust the spellcasting phase for 10.08s, the spellcasting phase generates 38.21 mana and deals 1177.38 potency. The Enchanted Redoublement combo, complete through Scorch, does 1092.62 more potency at a cost of 128.21 mana (generates 180, refunds 35, shorts spellcasting mana generation by 3.21). Then the per-mana potency is 8.52.

A spell that costs 10 mana, does 400 potency, and guarantees a Verfastspell proc has an effective potency of 420 and mana cost of 7. Subtract the 310 potency that you would be doing anyway with a Verslowspell, and that's 110 potency at a cost of 18 mana (spend 10, miss out on generating 11, next spell generates 3 extra), which is a per-mana potency of 6.11.

Spends net 160 mana, unless I'm not considering something. Otherwise it looks like some sound calculations.

I do love talking RDM math though!

[Rongway]

Spends net 160 mana, unless I'm not considering something. Otherwise it looks like some sound calculations.

I do love talking RDM math though!

I had a few derps in the intermediate steps (e.g., I wrote 180 where it should have been 160, but I actually did the final calculation with 160). I'm going to blame it on this fever I developed this morning...

[SaberMaxwell]

I had a few derps in the intermediate steps (e.g., I wrote 180 where it should have been 160, but I actually did the final calculation with 160). I'm going to blame it on this fever I developed this morning...

Oof, yikes, I hope you get better D:

[Archwizard]

Showerthought: It's entirely possible to satisfy the devs' intent for Displacement, while also removing Engagement and keeping players from backstepping off a cliff.

Corps-a-corps (40 sec CD): Rushes target and delivers an attack with a potency of 130.
Cannot be executed while bound.
Additional effect: Action becomes Displacement after activation
Duration: 10 sec
--> Trait - Enchanted Corps-a-corps: Potency increases to 200 if both Black Mana and White Mana are at 75 or more.

Displacement: Delivers an attack with a potency of 130.
Additional Effect: Returns caster to origin point of Corps-a-corps
Cannot be executed while bound.

I've also been experimenting with ideas to combine aspects of Black and White Magic philosophy to create some unique utilities for RDM. For instance:

Ensorcel (2 min CD): Empowers the attacks of nearby allies to deal an additional 5% damage as unaspected damage.
Duration: 15 sec
Shares a recast timer with Embolden.

White Magic enhances but doesn't destroy, Black Magic destroys but is selfish with its elemental power. Combining the two creates not only RDM's very own En-spell but an alternative to Embolden; less maximum potential burst, but able to include caster allies. Sadly Contagion got removed or else adding magic damage would be worth a damn, but maybe we'll see a new debuff or buff for that later.

Phalanx (90 sec CD): Restores 10% HP to self and all nearby party members.
Additional Effect: Erects a magicked barrier which nullifies damage equaling the amount of HP restored
Duration: 20s

Intending to satisfy the craving for an oGCD Medica effect by combining it with Manaward to create a pseudo-Succor effect. Thanks to the barrier and cooldown, you'll be encouraged to save it for when it will be most useful rather than just spamming it to save healers MP.

En-Garde (2 min CD): Creates a barrier that reflects half the damage of one incoming attack.
Duration: 10 sec
Additional effect: Resets the recast timer on Contre-Sixte if the barrier is consumed without reflecting damage.

Combining White Magic's ability to protect with Black Magic's destructive ability to create a counter-based personal defense.

[Gruntler]

That's because caster autoattacks are based on STR.
So are melee autoattacks, so melee autoattacks are a significant portion of their dps, and that's why casters have DoTs to compensate.

No, we have strong potency abilities to compensate. You don't need a dot to compensate for auto attacks, you just need good spells. Seriously, I do not understand why people get a hard on for DoTs for no reason. RDM seriously does not need it. At all. It doesn't fit our kit or gameplay loop.

But yeah, a mechanic tied to black/white mana would have been cool.

The gameloop is to keep them close to each other, not to get whichever is superior and spend it. It doesn't fit the class fantasy and it doesn't fit the job's flow.

Something like:
Verwater/blizzard, a DoT that increases white/black mana by 3 for each tick for 24s. Shares a recast timer with Verblizzard/water. 45s cooldown.
This could be used to force an imbalance, and to maintain mana regen during downtime from mechanic dodging.

Except you have a job based on knowing exactly what your mana is after any spell you cast. You might as well just have a button that says 'Adds 24 white/black mana, 45 second cooldown' and it would accomplish the same thing but be clearer and less clunky.