The Red Mage could be more fun, my incentives for it

[localman]

Interesting answer.

I'm just more about making the class fun to play, not about builds and effectiveness in a small area somewhere at the very end.

Since I'm not that familiar with the classes, I just noticed how far the Red Mage is basically a missed opportunity.

No I don't want to play a ninja, it's way too hectic and colorful for me as a rogue class.
I'm not a fan of all classes having magic effects anyway, because that's not good for an RPG and it also devalues the wizard classes like the combat classes trying to merge everything.

But especially with the red mage, I have a completely different basic idea of the playstyle.

Yes, the red mage should already make something with his swordsmanship and here you should drill a bit and expand. But still, there should clearly always be the noticeable break in the fight to the caster.

Exactly this mixture would do the red mage good.
Fast graceful rapier thrusts and swings, gladly with a magical flair, like tracing the rapier movement with magic and symbols, and then back and into the magic phase, which is in no way inferior to fencing combat, but still very different.
Magic effects that then also incorporate the image of a fencing master and don't seem absolutely alien suddenly would also be better.

But first of all, this clumsy kind of magic must be corrected in the red mage. It just doesn't play very well, nor is it really motivatingly fun.

Since I'm not a pro here, but rather fresh come in, I also know nothing of the wishes of other players who have apparently already called for more melee.

But just exactly my unconsumedness, makes me completely unbiased. And therefore I can evaluate the red mage also much more neutrally and I say, and feel immediately, that he could be better than he is from the game fun.

I myself have 30 years of gaming experience, certainly 25 of them strongly focused on role-playing games of any kind. So I recognize very quickly possibilities and have a good feel for these things.

The red mage, can be made much more attractive in any case. The gameplay is much too rigid especially in the area of magic. It just seems bad and for it to be the core aspect, it just doesn't achieve the power, but even behaves very conspicuously like a pure battery that generates juice for melee combat, which can then also be drilled up.
There are many possibilities in the red mage, one does not use them.
And the effects of magic, are partly also too little in relation to the class. There is also a much better design, which makes the name of the class all honor and also affects this interpretation as a fencing mage.

I didn't choose the red mage as my class for nothing. I was thrilled with the idea and still am. However, in practice clearly improvable and with a lot of potential.

This is not meant to sound bad. I am on the side of the red mages. All I see is an unfinished somewhat wooden class that contains far more material than it delivers.

[Gruntler]

All I see is an unfinished somewhat wooden class that contains far more material than it delivers.

No, all you see is an incomplete kit.

With all due respect, you've gained only level in the job. We can't have a conversation about how you feel about the flashiness of the finisher for example, because you're missing half the finisher.

And therefore I can evaluate the red mage also much more neutrally

Not without experiencing the job. It's impossible to have an objective (or subjective) view of a job without some understanding of the job's function.

But let's address your specific painpoints:

more reference to a lively melee-magic ratio in a reasonable switching system.

It's a ranged caster by role. In order to fulfill that role it needs to veer more towards the flexibility that ranged brings to the table, rather than try to 'balance' them both. And the focus on magic is in the name: Red Mage.

you can't get around making the melee available faster

This is a fair complaint.

Imagine, however, if your finisher refunded your mana through massive spells. Every time you do a melee attack you get a charge, and when you get 3 charges, you open up a spell combo. That spell combo does a big blap which refunds 11 mana of white or black, then later another blap for 4 of each type of mana, and lastly, a final bloosh which is an AoE line that goes as far as your spell range, and refunds another 4 mana. Suddenly instead of charging 50/50, you're doing a smaller amount, so you can melee more often. And you also have another button that gives you 50/50 immediately.

Wouldn't that solve your problem of not meleeing enough, and also making the melee finisher phase feel more impactful? Not to mention, you're weaving melee attacks when they're up, using Corps-a-Corps and Engagement for them stabs are you not?

Trust me, as a level 90 Red Mage: You're asking for solutions to your problems without considering if those problems are solved through levelling.

I myself have 30 years of gaming experience, certainly 25 of them strongly focused on role-playing games of any kind.

Imagine if you were playing FF6, and you're just starting Locke's Scenario and you were to say

"Man, this game needs more mages. There's not enough magic using characters and Terra only gets a small number of spells. This game suffers for a lack of spells and spell-casting characters".

It wouldn't be a valid complaint, would it?

[Azuri]

The red mage, can be made much more attractive in any case.

Yes, arguably the most popular job in the game right now has to be made more attarctive. Great reasoning there.