My desired changes for Red Mage in patch 7.0

[Hanayumi]

Come 7.0 they either need to remove Verraise and Resurrection completely or give one to Black Mage regardless of it not fitting thematically. They just can't seem to balance around it whatsoever, which puts the Casters as a whole in a very awkward position. If it weren't for Black Mage being somewhat intimating to play, you'd never have a reason to touch Summoner or Red Mage. The DPS difference is staggering. Which would be fine... if it didn't make picking Black Mage a clear best choice.

I say both Raises need to go because Resurrection was already nearly deleted this expansion if not for a last minute decision to keep up. It seems a foregone conclusion they'll remove it next expansion which will put Red Mage in an even worse spot if they insist on taxing it, especially if Summoner remains this easy to play.

Yeah, I believe devs mentioned theyre likely to flat out remove rez for at least Smn, they decided not with the rework in case the rework ended up not playing out well or something like that. Now if they do decide to leave Rdm rez, I could at least them bumping up its utility and place it firmly as caster support equivalent to dnc or brd.

[keeper_of_moon]

place it firmly as caster support equivalent to dnc or brd.

If they do this, they should maybe buff mch to a similar level as blm so that blm + dnc/brd is equivalent to rdm/smn + mch but I don't really like the idea of specific comp synergies.

The problem right now is nothing in any of the other roles is going to make up the damage difference of a blm vs smn vs rdm so when you choose one of those jobs over the other 2, you're effectively choosing how much dps your comp has or how 'safe' it is. No other role has to face this decision. I feel like were in this problem to begin with because SE insisted that tight dps checks were fundamental to savage and ultimate although it appears they did back off a little on that this tier. Rdm is supposed to be 'safer' than smn which is supposed to be 'safer' than blm but the 'safer' comp doesn't mean much when you can't meet the dps check anyways.

[Iscah]

And they're Red Mages, no less.

They're also static 2D drawings, which have considerably less technical restrictions than a modular player model here.

Regardless of whether Viera hats could be enabled here or not, it's a whole different level of implementation challenge.

[ThaCa]

Removing heals and Raises from non-healers is the way to go. If they really want to keep them just make them generic out of combat action that anyone can use.

[ForteNightshade]

Yeah, I believe devs mentioned theyre likely to flat out remove rez for at least Smn, they decided not with the rework in case the rework ended up not playing out well or something like that. Now if they do decide to leave Rdm rez, I could at least them bumping up its utility and place it firmly as caster support equivalent to dnc or brd.

They did. Yoshida was apparently very firm on the idea while the dev team was less so. If I recall, he said they put it to a literal last minute vote and Resurrection was kept on their final revision. Which is why I see it being all but guaranteed dead next expansion. Problem is I don't think they can give Red Mage enough utility to balance out keeping Verraise. It already has Magick Barrier which is often overkill more than valuable. What else could they add that wouldn't just be fluff? It's the same issue Machinist but in reverse. They kept insisting it was the selfish Prange but refused to give it enough damage to justify that position. They finally had to relent after Machinist spent two full expansion as the "joke" pick.

Fortunately, Red Mage isn't nearly in as bad a state but the whole it will be if they snap minor utility quirks on it while Summoner gets to be fake Prange and Black Mage does Melee damage. They've basically shot themselves in the foot with Casters right now. Summoner is simply too easy and they can't justify what's essentially a third Melee. The difference is so outlandish right now a Red Mage will mostly BiS will barely keep up with a Black Mage rocking crafted.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

They're also static 2D drawings, which have considerably less technical restrictions than a modular player model here.

Regardless of whether Viera hats could be enabled here or not, it's a whole different level of implementation challenge.

Way to go to point out the obvious, what I was merely mocking here was the severe lack of Red Mage hats available to Viera (RDM hats are quite iconic hence why) due to either lacking knowledge, competence or prioritization. I am more than well aware that the perceived difficulty of this task does not match the actual requirements to pull off giving Viera (and Hrothgar) hats and helmets to wear.

That said, if the reason for the lack of such is NOT them using the head/helmet element for their hair + ears and it is more of a thing of "we don't want horrendous clipping with the ears" then I have zero tolerance for this bullshit given the tails from Miqo and Au Ra clipping through capes they shouldn't, long hair clipping through collars when they shouldn't and god knows what other atrocities exist in that, especially given that modders of all people do a better job of making all of this work when CBU3 doesn't.