i’m not crazy, right?

[Waffles298]

my rdm was my first lvl 80, got it to i440, thought “okay the damage i’m doing doesn’t seem to great, not that much better then when i was 70 in SB”. then i started lvling blm and noticed that even at 72 my blm’s spells hit harder than my lvl 80 rdm. am i crazy or did they literally make rdm the weakest dps in the game for shb?

[MaybeOliverB]

[Exiled_Tonberry]

BLM is the strongest DPS in the game, but even aside from that, BLM spells are longest to cast while RDM can cast twice percast while running around in a circle and throw out utility. It's really no comparison.

[Seraphor]

BLM is top of the DPS chain.
RDM is third from bottom, only ahead of NIN and DNC.

[SaberMaxwell]

BLM is the strongest DPS in the game, but even aside from that, BLM spells are longest to cast while RDM can cast twice percast while running around in a circle and throw out utility. It's really no comparison.

Cast twice per cast? What does that even mean? Every cast takes a GCD, casting two spells still takes two GCDs. It's an unfortunately common misconception that the instant cast is the same as an off global cool down. "Throw out utility"? Addle? Or embolden? Or do you mean raise?

1 the whole caster role has access to. 2 is a 2 minute combat utility which, fair. 3 will bankrupt you so hard you might as well be dead if you abuse it (read, use more than once per minute).

Now as far as BLM damage vs RDM, yes, raise and embo are calculated in. BLM is the strongest caster / dps because it brings no damage utility while Red Mage does. BLM is generally considered less mobile too, but basically it's as mobile as it needs to be. Neither caster likes having to move without preparation.

[Taranok]

Also, the damage difference between i400 and i440 with a 450 weapon is only about +25% (give or take, might be as high as 40%) with optimal play. And considering BLM spells completely wreck RDM spells on potency per cast, this isn't exactly unexpected. Even at 70, a BLM Fire 4 would be doing about 594 potency per cast. Despair is at ~752.4 ppc, and foul 715 ppc.

Meanwhile, over in RDM land, without any short term buffs, your strongest spell at 80 hits for 700. After that it's 600, and after that it's 310. So outside of Scorch, the only parts of your rotation that realistically should be hitting harder than BLM's typical spells are Verholy and Verflare. Everything else is practically doing half the potency of BLM, and as established the difference in DPS between i400 and i440 gear and 10 levels is only about 25%, so a fire 4 should hit about 50% harder than a Verthunder, even though the BLM is only 70/72. And by the time BLM hits 80, that fire 4 should be coming in swinging for nearly twice the damage.

This is normal, the classes are balanced differently. RDM has more damage tied up in oGCDs than BLM does, and RDM also just naturally has a lower potency per second rate than BLM as part of its balance.

[YanderePrincess]

my rdm was my first lvl 80, got it to i440, thought “okay the damage i’m doing doesn’t seem to great, not that much better then when i was 70 in SB”. then i started lvling blm and noticed that even at 72 my blm’s spells hit harder than my lvl 80 rdm. am i crazy or did they literally make rdm the weakest dps in the game for shb?

Dancer does significantly less DPS than RDM, and we can land 120k+ damage hits. It's not about how much individual attacks hit for me, but how all of your kit combines together. BLM is the highest DPS, though, but they also bring 0 utility. Jobs like RDM and DNC that bring raid utility are always going to be lower dps.

[YanderePrincess]

Cast twice per cast? What does that even mean? Every cast takes a GCD, casting two spells still takes two GCDs. It's an unfortunately common misconception that the instant cast is the same as an off global cool down. "Throw out utility"? Addle? Or embolden? Or do you mean raise?

1 the whole caster role has access to. 2 is a 2 minute combat utility which, fair. 3 will bankrupt you so hard you might as well be dead if you abuse it (read, use more than once per minute).

Now as far as BLM damage vs RDM, yes, raise and embo are calculated in. BLM is the strongest caster / dps because it brings no damage utility while Red Mage does. BLM is generally considered less mobile too, but basically it's as mobile as it needs to be. Neither caster likes having to move without preparation.

RDM has more freedom to be mobile, while BLM mobility is more likely to cause a DPS loss and has much longer periods of not being able to insta-cast things. One of their primary combat spells also has a longer cast time than the GCD (Fire IV).

[Dyvid]

I'm wondering why RDM is the bottom of the caster dps list too. Is RDM raise such a good utility that it's damage must be so low? Do RDM's want more dps or more utility?

[SaberMaxwell]

RDM has more freedom to be mobile, while BLM mobility is more likely to cause a DPS loss and has much longer periods of not being able to insta-cast things. One of their primary combat spells also has a longer cast time than the GCD (Fire IV).

I never said otherwise; my statement was "They're as mobile as they need to be." You can't deny that their mobility suite has taken a huge uptick; Xenoglossy (2/min), Triplecast (3/min), Swiftcast (1/min), 30s Sharpcast (2/min optimally), random procs, BtL, Aetherial Manipulation are all abilities that they have that can, used correctly, facilitate far better positioning and motion than Dualcast alone can.

I'm wondering why RDM is the bottom of the caster dps list too. Is RDM raise such a good utility that it's damage must be so low? Do RDM's want more dps or more utility?

I'd prefer more utility, personally, but dps utility. Embo fix to affect all damage, perhaps. RDM's raise, much as I hate it, is a good reason for it to do less than BLM; otherwise you're looking at "Why should I take BLM when RDM is comparable and comes with a safety net?"