Is a melee caster job viable?

[lulunami]

What if say Samurai or Red Mage was a melee caster? Samurai or Red Mage would have to stay stationary to channel attacks. Some attacks would take 1.5s to 3.0s to cast.

If this creates an imbalance, what about turning PLD, WAR, DRK, MNK, NIN, and DRG also into melee casters to balance with SAM/RDM? Thoughts?

[zcrash970]

I don't think it would be a problem, but seeing how people reacted over WM on bards, I dont think the community will take it well

[Remus]

If it increased my DPS I don't see why not.

[dragonseth07]

I think the issue is mob mobility. Ranged casters work fine because if the target moves, they are probably still in range. Melee casting would be a nightmare. Any movement at all would likely blow your targeting.

[Alsbet]

Monks are melee casters already. They always cast Fist whenever they fight.

[Mugiawara]

Making EVERY single body have a cast line would make this game so painfully slow, I think
a lot of people would leave honestly.
I vote nope!

[Balipu]

Well Red Mage will definitely be a melee caster. i mean it's a mage with a freakin sword. Granted it probably won't be entirely melee. Imagine healing in melee range. Uhh. But you will have a whole bunch of melee attacks.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Making EVERY single body have a cast line would make this game so painfully slow, I think
a lot of people would leave honestly.
I vote nope!

Gotta agree here. Melee fighters are about timing, quick executions, and sometimes positionals. Give them cast bars and you may as well just make them a full blown mage in the back of the room. Ranged and caster jobs have charge/cast times because they are out of the brawl and can afford to stand still and fire. Melee fighters don't have that luxury.

[Chalbee]

I saw on another thread ages ago someone suggest that the Red Mage would be a Melee-caster hybrid with a selection of melee skills to charge spell uses (kind of like stacking Aetherial Attunement) and then a set of spells to consume the stacks. The person also suggested that RDM would have a set of augmenting abilities e.g. enfire, enthunder to boost DPS and perhaps add status effects to the melee attacks.

Something like that, I think could work. A class with a casting bar for melee attacks...probably no.

[Rhaja]

SMN can be a melee caster if your brave enough/don't want to use ruin 3, and was pretty good at it in 2.X before the determination nerf.