The Remaining Healers

[VanilleFang]

it much better suits a tank role.

What? How? Traditionally Red Mages have had lower maximum HP than Black Mages, and have never equipped anything above light armour.

They have always been decent hybrids, with a better affinity for dealing damage especially with magic. FFXI is an example of an exception, where they make incredibly support mages. When have they ever fit the tank role?

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

They have always been decent hybrids, with a better affinity for dealing damage especially with magic.

SCH is already in the game, we don't need another. Additionally, when people talk versatility, they don't typically think of healers in this game, but tanks. Tanks can cast, tanks can dps, tanks can heal, support, debuff, etc. Red Mage as a healer would just be a carbon copy of scholar, and I'd prefer something much, much more original. Key point though is that, unlike black mages, red mage could take a few hits before snapping. While traditionally they couldn't tank as many as a Warrior could, they still made viable tanks/defenders.

Also? Something people ignore all the time about rdm is it's not purely about spells. It's about using both sword play and spells for maximum effect. A melee healer would just make things even more of a cluster ****.

FFXI is an example of an exception, where they make incredibly support mages.

IMHO, Dark Knight is more RDM than XI RDM. It's never been intended as a pure support.

[FoxyAreku]

Dancer and Chemist are all I can think of.

[Vamelo]

The now permanently ruined LOTRO had a healer/buff class - minstrel. This in keeping with Tolkien's emphasis on songs as magic, rather than traditional elemental magic. (The Loremaster did that.)

Actually, it was quite unique in gaming history to have a toon strum a lute, or tap a drum to get the induction/animation, and the effects were quite original as well adding a sort of charm to what otherwise would have sounded like a battlefront. (Nothing like the constant sound of STONES ... annoying, but I digress.)

[Vamelo]

The music angle aside, what the toon did was buff the group or heal. Mass or individual heals weren't favored, but the preferred heal healed the group in a fabulous green sweep. Other skills would increase a group's induction speed, skill speed, heal rate over time, and of course armor or damage intensity.

The buffs were relatively varied in strength with the ability to crit. They were timed, lasting ten to fifteen seconds per application - however with two group buffs obtained just by having the well-skilled in the group with you...if you stood decently close enough.

The top end minstrel had two nuke heals with a thirty minute cool down (one with a lot of health returned, one with hardly any) and that all important in-combat rez.

[Vamelo]

I've never seen as an effective class as a group healer. And, LOTRO, in its never-ending crusade to fix what isn't broke, finally "reworked" the class so it became something entirely different (causing thousands of long-time players to quit in disgust). And, now, the minstrel is just a memory.

It's not the "race", or what you call it (after all) it's what it does, and in comparison to that minstrel, no game (including this one) has a realistically decent healer. So.....if I were to get my wish........

(you can even make it that damned big-butted bunny rabbit thingy)

PS This forum is ridiculously restrictive in useful areas and surprisingly liberal in the BS department (insert HUGE graphics)

[ErdrickLoto]

What? How? Traditionally Red Mages have had lower maximum HP than Black Mages, and have never equipped anything above light armour.

What red mages have you been using...? They've never been worse than a black mage defensively. They're a hybrid in all aspects, physical and magical.

They'd probably be the best option for a mage-tank, except for, like...blue mage, and the team already said there'd be difficulty faithfully adding it in, IIRC.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

What red mages have you been using...? They've never been worse than a black mage defensively. They're a hybrid in all aspects, physical and magical.

They'd probably be the best option for a mage-tank, except for, like...blue mage, and the team already said there'd be difficulty faithfully adding it in, IIRC.

This guy gets it!

[Docent]

It's likely that instead of Necromancer, we'd get Puppetmaster again (Square tends to shy away from the darker-themed jobs. We're heroes, not villains). That, and mammets are everywhere.

It could be a good healer class too, although the "healer class with pet that heals" already exist from SCH. I'd be interested to know how they manage to give it its niche, but I suppose it would be a good idea to bring another healer that competes with SCH's spot instead of one that competes with WHM/AST.

What? How? Traditionally Red Mages have had lower maximum HP than Black Mages, and have never equipped anything above light armour.

I used RDM as my main tank in the original FF all the time. I'm pretty sure RDM had more HP and much better armor that WHM and BLM in that game?

[Talraen]

I used RDM as my main tank in the original FF all the time. I'm pretty sure RDM had more HP and much better armor that WHM and BLM in that game?

Red mage is a decent tank at the very start of FF1, because they can use the same armor as warriors at that point. However, they have similar HP to black mages (and less than white mages) and the same maximum absorb as both, 51. The three also inexplicably have the worst magic defense (likely a bug). For comparison, knights cap at 74 absorb and ninjas at 60. Red mages do get nice defensive spells like Blink and Protect, but so do knights.

In short, red mage tanking in FF1 is in line with all of their other skills: pretty good at the start, and pretty bad by the end.