Wondering what to do, honestly...

[Travel]

Honestly, I'll say what I always say - Play what you like. You'll always perform better on a Job you enjoy and have a good feel for.

As for balance - People make WAY too much of a deal over it. While there is one particular outlier (MCH), every other Job is more than functional (even MCH is) and aren't really being denied entry into parties, especially once the content is a few weeks old or more and people have geared up some.

Literally the only time it matters is within the first 1-3 weeks of brand new content, for world first race clears (which are almost always done within 1 week anyway), and MAYBE for Ultimates, where RDM will always be welcome anyway since it's so great at helping push Prog/phases.

So play what you like, ignore the community being a bit TOO hyper-focused on balance and the meta. Nothing's not viable, and people really need to step back a bit from that cliff.

If you enjoy RDM, keep playing the job. The balance with RDM has always gone up and down every expac so it will surely get back to middle of the pack at some point. I've played it since it was introduced in Stormblood and I've continued to play it through all its ups and downs. With MMOs it's important to remember that a job normally won't stay in a bad place forever so I wouldn't avoid a job just because it's not currently doing great. And people are still playing it and using it in end game content, it was actually the most desired caster for the latest ultimate when that ultimate first dropped. (when I was looking for a DSR group I put that I could play NIN or RDM, every single group wanted me on RDM) It's also still being used about as much as BLM in this savage tier, SMN is only significantly above the 2 other casters in representation because it's the one caster that's punished the least for moving a lot.

And fortunately at this point in the tier gear can make up for jobs that are under performing. So unless your plan was to do speed clears or something, RDM will still be able to clear the content. This tier was just a weird one because the dps check for the door boss was unusually tight compared to previous tiers. I don't see that situation happening again any time soon. Obviously I don't think RDM is in a great place, but it's also not worth giving up on a job you like because it's in a rough patch atm.

Apologizes if this sounds rude, gentlemen, but; that's precisely what I'm doing. Like I said in another post; I legit do not give a shit about the meta, and the only reason why I'm grabbing a melee job at all is for the sake of Savage raiding later. Like I said earlier, RDM is awesome, and I intend to keep leveling it as my mage of choice; ironically, I am considering maining another job - that would be Bard - because I like the extra mobility it offers.

I'm just frustrated right now because of the current imbalance at the higher tiers of play; yeah, it doesn't affect most content - and I am damn thankful for that - but since I am going into some of the really higher-level stuff hopefully soon, it's something I'm having to keep in mind; even if it is just to earn a single fucking mount, of all things.