Red Mage

[ManaKing]

It's kind of funny, because they are already abandoning the Egi on SMN in order to focus on SMN as a Caster. I mean it will still be there, but it's pretty obvious they don't like how inconsistent their pet system responds to commands from the player. They gave them no new pet actions that we can see for SMN and SCH get to eat their fairy to boost their healing potency. It's not going to be very far off from what you were talking about since Virus on SMN is one of the few debuffs that really works.

I'm not sure what buffs and debuffs they will actually leave on the table. Interrupts and status effects that interupt are basically not a thing. Mitigation buffs from tanks are generally reliable...except for Hollowed Ground or Holmgang. I'm not talking about their delayed activation time. Just that if the dev team decides that a move or mechanic instantly kills your tank, then these moves aren't going to save. Virus, Storm's Path, Rage of Halone, Trick Attack, and the slashing/piercing/blunt/foes req debuffs seem to always apply to every fight. The only thing I can think of that doesn't stack is the different slashing debuffs from WAR and NIN and that does make sense.

When they add Weapon Break and Mind Shot I wonder if it will stack with Virus/Rage of Halone/Drgaon Kick and if they will be 100% dependable. So far this game has done a good job of making me happy with what can/can't stack. Stone Skin and Galvanize don't make your WHM and SCH redundant. Multiple Regens and DoTs can be on the same target if they are from different sources. They are really trying to not let the jobs step on each other like they did in FFXI and so I'm hopeful. I enjoy throwing Storms Path + Dragon Kick + Virus on Bosses to be able to live through their AOE wipe attacks. I want to be able to throw buffs like Phallanx or magical damage mitigation buffs on tanks or other debuffs and not have them get marginalized or invalidated for the sake of 'balance'. If stacking too much of something is going ruin the balance in your game, then you really shouldn't have put it in your game to begin with. There is nothing worse than having abilities that are really good, but then don't work when you are in a party.

There is already some of this in the game with Stun/Slow/Silence/Pacification/Haymaker and it's downright infuriating that you spent one of your abilities on something that you just won't use in any relevant situation. I used to cross class Haymaker on my WAR because I was being salty, but ultimately it's a bad fit for WAR because of their stack mechanics make it impractical and the slow doesn't work for anything you'd want to slow. And obviously you shouldn't be using it on your MNK because that would imply that you are taking hits.