Casters in FL?

[tinythinker]

You can always swap to another job when you get into PvP. So you can queue as RDM, and if you find it's not working out for you, you can PvP on a different job. You can change anytime you are in spawn and you'll get XP on whatever you queued as. I got BLM to 80 despite barely playing it this way.

True, but I really want to experience all jobs in PvP and find something I like about all of them. I did notice a couple of times that I may have helped push people back from a node on BLM, and I enjoy the visual display for each target hit with Freeze and the sound effect, especially when it was 5 to 10 at a time. I'm sure there will be something redeeming about RDM

{Oh and I like your new signature with a more powerful girl saving the other girl from a beast, but I haven't been able to watch much anime in a long time so I have no idea what it's from.}

[Esmoire]

True, but I really want to experience all jobs in PvP and find something I like about all of them. I did notice a couple of times that I may have helped push people back from a node on BLM, and I enjoy the visual display for each target hit with Freeze and the sound effect, especially when it was 5 to 10 at a time. I'm sure there will be something redeeming about RDM

That's good! And completely valid. You should give them all a chance; while some are better than others I don't think there's a bad job in FL right now. Not a lot of people with familiarity with the game play RDM in FL, so wisdom on the job is scarce right now. That said, it's nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be.

The first of the two major downsides of RDM is the lack of accessible instant casts. The other two casters have spammable instant spells you can throw out on the move, which is really important to your overall contribution, especially on the hunt. RDM can only do that through dualcast or spending metre. The other downside is, as mentioned, RDM's melee while combo powerful can be difficult to use in FL. Unlike actual melee jobs, RDM don't have that 30% DR. Even with the shield on Engagement it's very easy to die extremely fast in FL if a 15k HP squishy gets cheeky.

All that said RDM has a lot going for it. Dualcast helps a lot with its mobility and flexibility. Being able to reposition while you put out your strongest spells is huge, and the ability to proc it with Vercure and stuff is great. Also, the CC RDM gets is amazing at chase. When you get better at the job you start to get an idea of when you can pounce on enemy battle highs when they over-extend or retreat, locking them down for an extended period of time.

While it can be difficult to use the melee combo, it does still come up often enough in small engagements. What is more is you can do the combo sequence on something like a tank or melee that has over-extended, adjust your target, then drop the Verflare/holy and Scorch onto something in the backline; with BH and Phantom Dart this is practically two-thirds of a ranged DPS HP bar just gone. Even when you can't use the melee combo, Enchanted Reprise is a spammable 2k damage 1.5 sec GCD death machine that's great to throw at weakened targets. With how fast you can build Mana this isn't bad at all.

When everything is settled, RDM tends to not perform as well as SMN and BLM in terms of numbers. It's not a bad choice if you want to play DPS but you think your alliance could use a little backup healing or additional lockdown. It's just really hard to play right now to its full potential, and when you do, it's okay but not particularly stellar.

Signature is from the opening of Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl. Fun series.

[BloodRubyXII]

I'm sure there will be something redeeming about RDM

If you're in a small skirmish, you're fine, anything outside of that (and given that they are few and far in between) and you are gimping yourself playing RDM vs any other range option. Actual melees are better than you in melee range, and some of them even range better than you do as well (hey Dragoon). "Yeah but CC and we have the option of both, also vercure!" - yeah 4 vercures is an entire mana bar and heals for less than a ranged HP bar if you use all 4 outside of Battle High; which by the way, is the lowest hp pool in the game further strengthening the case to just not play it unless you're content casting scatter/impact and enchanted reprise all game, removing your two biggest nukes from the equation in the process.

[Esmoire]

If you're in a small skirmish, you're fine, anything outside of that (and given that they are few and far in between) and you are gimping yourself playing RDM vs any other range option. Actual melees are better than you in melee range, and some of them even range better than you do as well (hey Dragoon). "Yeah but CC and we have the option of both, also vercure!" - yeah 4 vercures is an entire mana bar and heals for less than a ranged HP bar if you use all 4 outside of Battle High; which by the way, is the lowest hp pool in the game further strengthening the case to just not play it unless you're content casting scatter/impact and enchanted reprise all game, removing your two biggest nukes from the equation in the process.

That's a bit reductive. I think it is better framed at RDM having good healing, but bad sustain. That is to say, dropping a very fast burst of 6k+ healing is huge, and powerful, since that is often all that's needed to get someone out of a sticky situation. It's obviously not a job that is going to keep the whole alliance topped off, but considering they have a lot of the fundamental benefits of a DPS while having this capability, that's not bad. It is tempting to want to frame it as only having 12k HP on a full tank, but in practical terms that's usually not what's important. You usually don't run out of MP since you are usually done healing before that happens, since you are fundamentally a DPS and you are usually only healing when you really want to help out one of your battle highs that have over-extended or something. If a RDM is having to use their full MP bar in Frontline regularly, they are not playing their job right.

RDM for what it's worth probably has my favourite of the raw GCD AOE options since it's easy to proc the conditions to land those juicy Impacts. I think they are looking a lot better than the way they looked when they tried to streamline their CC. That said, while there are some really great RDM unicorns on Primal and Aether, I would agree with the overall idea that they are the weakest of the mages in Frontline right now, due entirely to their lack of good damage on the move and the inability to regularly access their melee kit. I wouldn't try to knock on their utility since that's the one area they seem to be doing alright in. They could probably use some oGCDs and more instant casts, but adding oGCD attacks to RDM would make their burst in Feast broken, since they share kits across environments.