Red Mage is Range Combat? (Discussion)

[Musashidon]

Please don't become so enamored with your own vision of Red Mage that you deny any other of yourself, other players, and most especially the developers.

the whole reason most debate happens is solely because of this reason.

people who say red mage is mainly magic with some physical or some who say red mage was more physical with some magic.

the person who he was talking to even said

Clearly you can't. You need to understand that RDM is a caster before a melee fighter. Always has been. The strongest of their abilities, in any incarnation of the franchise, has always been what they can dish out magically.

kinda a shame to solely call out duelle and not the other person too.

[Hyrist]

kinda a shame to solely call out duelle and not the other person too.

There's a singular reason for my motivation on that.

Duelle and I have history. For years, he and I form different parts of the community, fought in the FFXI community to better Red Mage and have it added to the front lines of FFXI's scope of game. I understand, fully, where he individually is coming from as I have been there. I also agree with a lot of his sentimentality, but not the conclusion he draws from it. This is why I call out to him specifically as a peer.

I also do not wholly agree or disagree with Gemina's sentimentality. Historically she is correct, albeit she's depicting it a bit more black and white. It's arguable where the 'strongest of their abilities' is. A lot of Red Mage's magic assists physical (though not as a direct cast attack like sorcerer) Temper is a good example of this (though it was bugged in NES version.) as is Haste. And a Red Mage's weapon selection, in it's incarnations were just as powerful as their magical components, making their normal attacks on par with their magical influence, especially when you factor in that their magic assisted their melee.

This is why you can't take a hard line on the Job one way or another, in my humble opinion. And it's this approach that SE seems to reflect. I have a feeling I'm going to be quite pleased - at least that's my tentative impression. It's flatly not how I initially envisioned it, but that's ok. I always leave room in my expectations to be surprised.

[Duelle]

This is why you can't take a hard line on the Job one way or another, in my humble opinion. And it's this approach that SE seems to reflect.

It's peculiar that SE would decide to do that with RDM when a ton of concessions have already been made for other jobs. BRD was turned from a song-spamming non-fighter into an archer with songs. WHM was turned from "Holy only" to "sort of like an elementalist but still heals". DRK was turned from "knight that hurts themselves to deal high damage" to tank. And unlike some people here, I'm okay with concessions as long as there's a general precedent or it "just works".

[GMERC]

WHM was turned from "Holy only" to "sort of like an elementalist but still heals".

How new are you? White Magic has included Aero and Tornado as early as Final Fantasy III.