I'd like more sword play from RDM in the future, melee and ranged

[Duelle]

Aiming for distinction that will ultimately lead to using White Magic as a token effort is not exactly creating a balance of white, black, and sword.

Having something that most of the DPS roster lacks is not a token effort. A cure, even if weak, is better than having no cures at all. Same goes for being able to rez. This part of your post reminds me of the nonsense back in HW when people complained Divine Veil was useless because it didn't have a really short cooldown.

As far as tradition goes you're proposing a job that is not at all traditional

There's a reason I was specific about the job's offensive spells. And all I did was give the job a mechanic to tie sword use and spell use to each other. The single-player RPGs don't usually have room for such mechanics because of turn-based combat working as it does in addition to building most jobs around a singular purpose/ability. Good thing we're playing an MMO, which isn't restricted by that framework.

The melee and range aspect is an important distinction, arguably more so than whether it's a caster or physical.

The current distinction is that melee DPS output is balanced around expected uptime because they have to dance to mechanics, while ranged in theory don't have to deal with that much. I say in theory because groups tend to just stack behind the mob outside of phases where certain people have to stand in certain spots. With this in mind, the only times my design would have anything you could call an advantage over jobs like DRG, MNK, NIN and SAM would be in fights like E2S or Titania, where mechanics or battlefield conditions might lead to them standing outside melee range (though really, that usually happens if you haven't pre-planned who is going to stand where). I mean, if there's more situations where there might be issues, I'd like to hear them (and I'm being serious here).

What you want is a job that isn't the same as what Red Mage is traditionally

What I wrote has black magic, white magic, and a sword. As I said several posts ago, black magic to hurt things, white magic to heal/protect, and the sword to hit and stab. That is what the traditional RDM has on its plate.

My point was that if you remove Dualcast clunky as it is the job would work fine. You could probably tweak some numbers to fit things still.

Calling the result "clunky" is putting it very lightly. It'd take more than a numbers tweak, since you'd have to look at the rate mana is to be generated, whether it's worth it to keep/redesign Jolt (if not, what should it be replaced with), what to do with Verfire/Verstone, how to work out the AoE rotation (or if there should be one at all). The way the job casts magic would need numerous changes if you removed Dualcast.

Red Mages still do wear robes. Better armor to the point of... I don't know, Archer-tier, sometimes happens, but it's not universal. They are better at physical stuff than White/Black/Summon Mages are, but they're still not physical juggernauts who spend most of their time on the front line.

I wouldn't expect RDM to be a juggernaut. I would expect them to be able to at the least pull their weight in a fight.

Even the time they got called a Battlemage they still used Mage armor. They just got to have Shields on top of it.

They do have native access to some heavy armor (heavy armor 8, 9 and 10, though you needed to set Exodus in order to gain access to them).

When I talk about "look at the current system" I'm not talking about Red Mages specifically, I'm talking about the skeleton framework that makes up XIV's battle system in general. How the roles work, how they mix and flow together, things like that. It's why when I say things like "ideal system I'd have melee mages as a category" that's acknowledging the current system doesn't have them. Honestly if I was keeping them in the five basic roles I'd probably have Red Mages be a tank myself, but sadly a DoM tank isn't going to happen either.

My issue with a "melee mage" category is that you don't have much in terms of jobs to put into that category outside of RDM, Mystic Knight (which I'd totally like to see as a tank) and possibly Geomancer if you copy the FFT design for them (despite the challenges that would bring).

A job that spends its time flitting between two different lines at a regular basis just is going to make more problems than not.

Reading this sentence gives me the impression that you're having issues visualizing how I expect my write up to play out.

You combo Quick Thrust into Iron Thorn, which makes the next spell instant. At the start of a fight you can use any of the three elemental spells to start, but once you do that you have to properly react to the rule of three mechanic to maximize DPS. When you cast a spell in this way, you have a 50% chance to proc Dualcast, allowing an additional instant spell (which you also want to cast following the rule of three to maximize DPS). Each spell cast generates Aetherblade, which can be consumed in an enchanted weaponskill combo if you fill the bar completely, or spend parts of the bar on certain spells if needed. Insert oGCD skills where applicable. This, by the way, is expected to be done at melee range.

The only time you'd really want to leave melee range is to get away from a boss telegraph or to react to mechanics. Going back to E2S, if you have to run to one of the black ground marks that is not in melee range of the boss, you can hard cast whichever corresponding spell in the rule of three system (since they have 3s cast times), which has a 50% chance to proc Dualcast for an instant spell to follow up. You can also spend part of your Aetherblade bar to cast Jolt, which is a spell with a 100% chance to proc Dualcast, or perhaps use Fleche to guarantee your next spell has a 100% chance to proc Dualcast. Either or is better than what the melee jobs have in that same situation, which is nothing (MNK), Piercing Talon/Enpi spam (DRG and SAM), or Raiton provided Ninjutsu is not on cooldown (NIN). As soon as the mechanic ends, you can run back to the boss or use Balestra to close the gap and continue combining sword swings with spell slinging.

You're not going to spend time flitting between two lines. If you do, you're not going to deal the job's intended DPS.

You're saying absolutely "It can't be done" and only supporting that with the biased statement, "I don't want it to that way."

As I said, the rotation has no real gaps in it for intrusions. You're either messing with Dualcast (unless the addition in question is oGCD) or intruding upon spellspam, which affects resource generation.

And yes, as a preference I dislike timers, but have already given suggestions in that vein. You could probably do something like the Wildfire window but affecting resource generation in some way. Not a fan of Wildfire, and I wouldn't be a fan of that either.

Without changing the current model, they could still add spells that would increase the rate of Mana generation, which would tacitly reduce the time spent spellcasting and increase the time spent melee comboing.

These sound more like upgrades to existing spells rather than new additions.

If you want more melee uptime in the current model, you either want them to give RDM more/bigger generators, or just cheaper melee skills. The former goes against your philosophy because it means the devs visibly shoring up the magic side, the latter of which they could do with a trait which is a solution you have already complained about.

My concern with higher mana generation per spell is that it necessitates looking at the imbalance threshold between white and black mana. You can't increase mana generated without also removing or increasing the threshold, otherwise the job would go off-balance within the rotation instead of as a result of player carelessness. That, in turn, somewhat diminishes the whole point of maintaining balance.

Now, if you remove the current model as a factor - meaning practical use of some weaponskills are independent of Mana - then we have to ask the question of "When would it be appropriate and satisfying to actually use a melee skill?", which is again, wha the Balance Gauge originally intended to answer.

If I'm reading this right, you're trying to tell me that weaponskills are not satisfying unless its glowy sword swings that are used once every 14-18 GCDs. I'm gonna beg to differ on that one.

Let's say that the rotation is rewritten so you have a melee skill or combo every 15 sec - maybe a skill you generate a charge for on a 15 sec CD that increases the potency of your next spellcast or applies a DoT or something. Suddenly, actually spending any significant amount of time at range as A Ranged DPS Job becomes a stacking detriment on your output, which means the job's freedom of mobility is affected.

Freedom of mobility? People already stack behind bosses for most if not all content. The only place this might create a problem is in dungeons, and even there you're AoEing down everything and can plausibly stand in melee range.

At which point, in a real fight, you just have a stronger answer to Piercing Talon or Knife Throw, with cast times instead of positionals.

Being able to offer some utility is nothing to scoff at. It doesn't factor much if things go perfectly, but the moments when it is useful are fairly satisfying.

Nothing about RDM's current model blocks a Spellblade from being designed under a completely different one.

Call it my being jaded by FFXI, but part of me expects a hypothetical Spellblade to end up being "the thing RDM should have been, minus the heals" instead of its own thing. I already saw this happen in XI with BLU and am not keen on seeing history repeat itself.