RDM 7.4 changes and job identity

[StriderShinryu]

Would be cool if SE let RDM's Melee phase remain as it was, and buffed the damage of the Job such that the Melee constraint had a proper payoff (eg, if BLM is '100%' and SMN/PCT are around 93-94%, RDM damage would be around 97-98%). Incentivizing players to take it in a Melee slot rather than a Caster slot (though it'd be able to function in the Caster slot via using a slightly tweaked Enchanted Reprise in place of the Melee Combo).

For example:
Enchanted Reprise

Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 420.
Balance Gauge Cost: 5 Black Mana
Balance Gauge Cost: 5 White Mana

Additional Effect: Consumes a stack of Swordplay if available.
Consuming a stack of Swordplay reduces the recast timer to 1.5s,
negates the Black and White Mana costs, and grants a Mana Stack.

You'd still want to Melee combo if possible, as it'd be more damage overall compared to 3x Reprise, but this would give a way to do the 'burst' from range.

Then, increase the damage of the Melee combo, to increase RDM's damage when it's able to be in the Melee position in raid strategies.

Just needed to jump in and give this post some major kudos.

We already did have a "ranged melee attack" that could/should have been buffed to work within Manafication and essentially replace the melee combo when you couldn't get into melee range to perform it. As said in the quoted post, keep it below melee combo potency so that you're still heavily encouraged to do your proper melee combo when you can but you'd at least have a solid enough option to fall back on when you couldn't. Job done.

I do agree with the opinion that some people have that the job as it stands today is not all that different from how it was before the patch, and that, yes, you can "just do it in melee range if you really want." The real problem is what this change will mean for the future of the job. Right now we're actually in an awkward place with the melee combo sometimes being able to be done at range and some times not, and where you can now perform some/most of your burst at range but not all of it (assuming you do use corps and engage for potency)... and we all know that SE doesn't like awkwardness and doesn't seem to embrace any sort of player side decision making or job friction. So while the job may still be "fine" right now, I have a really hard time believing it will stay "fine." I can very easily see the RDM 8.0 changes being "do all of your stuff at any range just like any other ranged class" based almost entirely on this one change and their history of how they make changes, and I just don't see that as a good thing.