Why is RDM invisible right now? Where is the outrage?

[Wayfinder3]

Yes red mage uses black and white magic and enfeebling spells with dualcast and they use a sword. I know this but they are not stronger than a black or white mage.


From the wiki: Red Mages typically cast both Black and White Magic and can also wield swords and equip armor that normal Black and White Mages cannot. They are, in essence, among the more versatile characters of the series. However, their versatility comes at a price: their stats are usually low, and they cannot cast higher level spells or use stronger equipment. They can learn many spells, but not the strongest, and equip some heavy armor, but not all of it though they are often relegated to cloth armor.

The Red Mage is a jack-of-all-trades, but a master of none. In certain games, Red Mages have a special ability such as Dualcast which boosts their spell casting efficiency. The standard Red Mage attire consists of red, black, and white clothing, including a red cloak with white or black trimmings, black boots and a red cavalier hat with a white feather


I know what a red mage is, I play it in FFXI

The problem is in what that says RDM is isn't the same as what the current RDM does.

you can't Tank anything, you'll die to Autos faster than melee
You can't Heal anything, Vercure is too weak to heal Autos, Autos hit for about 15-20k, vercure heals for 10k per GCD. you'll be HP negative everytime you try
you can't DPS much better than any other jobs
your buff doesn't work with casters and healer and your pdps doesn't compensate for that glaring flaw
Verraise is the only thing that makes red mage relevant, NOTHING else.
So tell me, what trades are you the jack of? Necromancy i guess

in 11
RDM could be a tank in niche scenarios
RDM could substitute a Healer very effectively
RDM had potent buffs and debuffs that worked raid wide (refresh being the claim to fame)

im not saying you're wrong in what RDM is, im saying your idea of what RDM should be isn't what it actually is, It's NOT a magical melee hybrid. it's a Casting DPS with an occasional melee range, it's not a enfeebler but it's at least a buffer(albeit limited), it's not a healer hybrid(cure 1 doesn't make WHM a WHM) it's certainly not a tank hybrid. this versatility you speak of doesn't exist because versatility in the holy trinity doesn't work and thats what kills RDM. it could only be a Tank/Healer/or DPS and the same is true of a job like Blue Mage. this is why they made Blue Mage a limited job because it could do way too much for them to realistically make it a DPS/Tank/Healer and RDM feels like it would also be a Limited Job because it's white magic utility is literally 1 cure, raise being on SMN means thats not even healer exclusive utility. RDM shouldn't be a limited job but it honestly feels like the job would've been more faithful as one

[Duelle]

in 11
RDM could be a tank in niche scenarios
RDM could substitute a Healer very effectively
RDM had potent buffs and debuffs that worked raid wide (refresh being the claim to infamy)

The dynamics in XI were very different, though. And seeing how RDM was pigeonholed into healing and buffing, I don't see those things as anything to celebrate. I say that as someone who until about 2 weeks ago was playing FFXI. Where despite the recent buff to Composure that tripled (!) enspell damage, we're still getting shoehorned into healing because there's not enough WHMs around and old habits die hard (the fact RDM is several tiers behind everyone else in terms of melee gear doesn't help).

Also, RDM tanking pretty much died when they nerfed enmity coefficients on enfeebles. Best you can hope for now is get a +enmity set and sub PLD for Flash.

this versatility you speak of doesn't exist because versatility in the holy trinity doesn't work and thats what kills RDM. it could only be a Tank/Healer/or DPS and the same is true of a job like Blue Mage.

The trinity is not why BLU was turned into a side activity. That job came as it did because the "learn spells from mobs" thing was more important to the devs than anything else. BLU was never a tank, and healing was limited to White Wind or something akin to it. What made it stand out is that its spells were monster skills and some were unique as they had no equivalent with the other mages (in FFVI Strago was the only mage that could deal wind and water damage, for example). BLU could have easily been implemented as a DPS caster akin to Strago, while giving it a balanced kit of spells and do the "learn spells from mobs" thing. You wouldn't be able to learn every mob skill under the sun, but that's never been a detriment to BLU's existence.

RDM feels like it would also be a Limited Job because it's white magic utility is literally 1 cure, raise being on SMN means thats not even healer exclusive utility. RDM shouldn't be a limited job but it honestly feels like the job would've been more faithful as one

As I want the idea of limited jobs to vanish and never return, I'm going to disagree here. Designing things for a trinity MMO may require some concessions. Hence why RDM being a DPS with utility is fine with me; the gameplay being spell spam 80% of the time is my main problem with it.