Quote Originally Posted by Tulzscha View Post
Does RDM change very much from 65 to 90? I haven't found it terribly interesting but that's as far as I leveled it. I know some jobs change a lot in the later lvls but it looks like all RDM gets are extra bursty spells added onto their melee combo.
A fair amount. You get Verholy and Verflare at 68 and 70, then Scorch at 80, then Resolution at 90. It greatly extends and empowers the melee combo with some very powerful spell follow-ups. Since Verholy and Verflare guarantee a Verstone/Verfire proc, but only if they are the low mana, it introduces an additional element you want to consider before using your melee combo (specifically, ensuring whichever of your manas is lower does not currently have a proc on it). You also need to make sure you're aware of which mana is your low one, and use the proper finisher for that mana. The combination of Verflare/Verholy, Scorch, and Resolution also generates a fair amount of mana (+19/8, 27 total, or an average of 9 per GCD, versus an average of 5-5.5 from your normal generator filler), which noticeably accelerates how often you can enter your melee combo. They also look and feel really good. Resolution (the new level 90 ability) in particular feels very satisfying, imo.

You also gain a second charge of Acceleration at 88, which alters how it gets used (from "on cooldown" to "before it hits 2 charges", and thus giving you flexibility to use it for movement and such). The upgrade to Manafication at 78 is pretty important as well, from a gameplay perspective, as it means you must go into your melee combo immediately after using it (or, in certain edge cases, use it between the melee combo piece and the spell followup piece), because you need the next 6 abilities you use to all be as high potency as possible.

Still, Verflare/Verholy + Scorch + Resolution is the most significant change from 65 to 90. RDM below 68, you basically just use your melee combo whenever it's not actually lethal to be in melee range. After you get Verflare and Verholy, you get some additional pre-requisites to its usage due to the conditional guaranteed proc. And because the melee combo itself gains a substantial amount of potency (those 3 spell finishers together do a bit more than twice as much damage as the 3 melee abilities), it becomes more important to time it around things like raid buffs and important burst phases in the fight. Those spells also do AoE splash (at -60% falloff, but that's still ~800 potency per secondary target across the 3 spells), which makes them really satisfying to use in AoE, and makes Enchanted Moulinet feel better. It also means you want to pool to 60/60 and use 3 Enchanted Moulinets in a row, followed by the spell finishers, rather than just throwing out Enchanted Moulinet whenever you want, as you can while under 68.