Red mage 7.0 Wishlist

[Milkbeard]

What are some people's thoughts on mana rushing? Do you want to see it continue as a playstyle in 7.0?

For those not completely in the loop, red mage meta leans into popping manaification off cd as a form of optimization (for a lot of fights). This is done to squeeze out additional sword combos through out a total encounter. It can also yield some fight specific buff alignments. Manarushing is done despite the intended design of manaification offering a temporary damage buff that intuitively suggests it should be popped when a boss is targetable.

Here are some pros and cons of mana rushing
Pros
You get more sword combos overall depending on how many 2 minute intervals are in a fight.
It can help guarantee your reopeners have a full 2 sword combos depending on certain fights or phases (its currently our only way of building resource when boss is gone).
It can be rewarding researching fights that you haven't cleared, gauging what your comp's clear time is capable of, then choosing to mana rush.

Cons
Manaification and embolden drift apart from each other. Some fights it is minor, others it can be drastic. Basically you may not be getting a clean triple finisher pot or double sword under embolden in some encounters.
The (5%) damage boost from manaification often means less, or sometimes means nothing, as you are popping it when the boss isn't targetable, or you are popping it outside of standard burst window activation.
It requires more encounter research than anything else for red mage. You can't go into new fights or phases knowing whether or not it is optimal to mana rush, its something you learn from estimating and researching specific encounter durations from those who have already cleared. If executed inappropriately, you will experience a sharp dps loss from personal burst misalignment.



What changes would you make to manaification/resource generation? Would you like to see devs lean into this player designed meta of manarushing? Or make a change to manaification that makes manaification optimal only when bosses are targetable?

I personally do not want the class to continue the mana rushing meta. I just want some way of building resource during down time instead.

[Shurrikhan]

I think red mage should have a DoT or anything to give them more damage

It's generally best to consider damage tools and total damage/relative_potency per minute as two entirely separate things.

You will get on average --across the fights the game is actually tuned toward/around-- the ppm / DPS the devs meant to give you, regardless of your damage profile, specific damage actions, etc.

The individual skills only determine...

1. (with decreasing relevance as fight length increases) what fights punish or reward you for being a RDM and
2. the flow of your combat (your "button-flow", cognitive load, etc.).

All that is to say... if you don't want DoT gameplay, don't ask for a DoT just for its damage. Likewise, if there are other kinds of gameplay you don't want, don't ask for "anything to give them more damage", as you can as likely harm your gameplay as improve it.

Instead, just ask for more damage, which would default to "roughly proportionate increases across all skills' potencies, or as near to proportionate as can be managed without overbuffing the job, such as by increasing only those that would shift RDM's internal balance --and therefore decision-making and/or optimization thresholds-- the least."

And if you do want X gameplay, specifically, go ahead and ask for it even if the given job is already overpowered; the kit's power can be reined back accordingly per the new skill's intended internal balance (as you'll need to do anyways in the case that said job is overpowered).

[Chasingstars]

If they were to get a dot, even if its very very unlikely, it should be instant cast and also off-gcd. It shouldn't mess with the existing flow of the gcds.

[LoadedVirus]

I think Esuna would be cool to have, really lean into the dps support jack of all trades role.

[Kitkat]

I'm still not a fan of how they categorize the DPS of Rdm. I still feel that it is being forced a little too low on DPS given the build of the job. Now, if asking for more DPS is a hard no, then why not give it a little better versatility to make sense of why it is where it is. At least with jobs like Dancer and Brd I can rationalize where it is very easily, but with Rdm I run into conflicts, mainly due to duration of buffs (all of them) and the fact that one of its key points of being lower on the DPS totem ('rezmage') being moot once a group is far beyond the progression stage. The most harm done to rdm actually comes to the player base meta of how well it times up with the 2min, how much damage it puts out over all, and if it fits for building LB3.


I would much rather that manification didn't give a time dependent buff and it was just a straight number buff (IE doesn't wear off after a certain time, and rather from use). This is mainly due to how the job is currently built along with various fights having transitions that cause inopportune down time where other jobs have a way of building up to the fight continuing. Rdm is just sitting there, waiting or wasting manification buff as the transition happens. This means it builds it further to the manarush meta of the job.


Acceleration I feel still should be 3 uses instead of 2 simply because the over all procs are too random which can offset how mana builds up in practice compared to on paper. Can count too many times where buffs are lining up but my mana isn't due to numerous lack of procs. If not another charge, then at least reassess how procs for Verfire/Verstone should occur, or frequency % increase as levels increase. Those screaming "Ugh that increases damage" yes, and no. Even then the minuscule increase in damage isn't so unbalanced it breaks the placing of rdm still. Might make that gap a little smaller, but Smn and by far blm will still out damage the job.



Magick Barrier duration increase. I feel that this, going along the versatility feel of the job, should have a longer duration than 10 seconds, possibly 20 seconds or a dramatic decrease in reuse time as 10 second buff on 120 second cool down isn't all that great when the buff is a -10% magic damage +5% healing recovery. If SE is going to say our DPS is in line with our versatility at least make us feel like we are more versatile beyond just having dual cast and Veraise.

[SieyaM]

Just please no more finishers. Scorch was fine and felt like an appropriate end, with Resolution it feels like we are just throwing out finishers for the sake of it. If we keep this up 7.0 will have us with 4 finishers and by 8.0 five if they just keep slapping them on the end of the combo.

[Milkbeard]

Just please no more finishers. Scorch was fine and felt like an appropriate end, with Resolution it feels like we are just throwing out finishers for the sake of it. If we keep this up 7.0 will have us with 4 finishers and by 8.0 five if they just keep slapping them on the end of the combo.

I agree, Scortch does feel like more of a finisher than Resolution even though it comes before it. Maybe they did that on purpose or something? While writing a story, a resolution should not be as impactful as the stories climax? (lol imagine if scortch was named climax)

[Chasingstars]

Just please no more finishers. Scorch was fine and felt like an appropriate end, with Resolution it feels like we are just throwing out finishers for the sake of it. If we keep this up 7.0 will have us with 4 finishers and by 8.0 five if they just keep slapping them on the end of the combo.

"Welcome 20.0. A new thing we are adding to red mage is... a new finisher! So now you have a 17 hit finisher combo!"

[Vejj]

The Red Mage is currently playing really comfortably and not as sweaty as all the melee classes. What the Red Mage really doesn't need is a new finisher or new OCD abilities. Much more Quality of Life additions like a melee attack that doesn't consume 5/5 mana but instead stacks, and as suggested by someone else, deals more damage when a certain amount of Dark and Light mana is reached. Let it still be 5/5, but they shouldn't be consumed.

I would also like it if the damage from our dashes and jumps were removed, so that they no longer necessarily enter our rotation, and we can really use them as intended - as a combination for our melee finisher.

Otherwise, provide opportunities for us to build White and Dark Mana more quickly so that after all the openers and activation of any cooldowns, we don't completely plummet in damage output.

[kayll]

Fix caster HP, and RDM HP especially seeing as they have no personally mitigation, there is basically no argument's for their continued lower HP pools.
Being the only one to die to unavoidable raid wide damage is getting really old.
The fact that I want the level 100 capstone ability to be a personal shield is depressing.