RDM and the Utility Tax

[wereotter]

I personally wish they designed casters like they did ranged physical DPS this expansion. MCH = Low utility high damage, BRD = Medium Utility Medium Damage, DNC = High Utility High Damage. BLM already has zero utility highest damage. I think SMN could use a boost to push it a bit higher than it is. RDM could use a slight boost to DPS, but should remain under SMN, as it has more utility. I actually think SMN and RDM are too close in terms of damage.

If we look at utility, summoner and red mage are pretty evenly matched.

Battle raise? Check. Both can use it. Red mage can just use it more easily, since summoner tends to use swift cast in its rotation.

Damage buff? Check. Summoner, I think, has the slightly better skill here with devotion as it's a straight 5% damage buff for all damage types for 15 seconds. Devotion has fall off on its potency and only buffs physical. However devotion is a 180 second cooldown while embolden is 120 second, so it's close.

Healing? Check again. Everlasting flight is a 600 potency heal for the entire party that gets applied as part of the summoner rotation. Vercure is a 350 potency cure (700 potency if you also use your dualcast) on a single target, and interrupts your DPS rotation to use.

Summoner utility may be less readily used, but all three components are there the same as red mages, and so the two jobs should be doing approximately the same damage, but at the moment, they do not.