Red Mage is Range Combat? (Discussion)

[Valenth]

From what little was revealed in that short clip, I'd say there's going to be some sort of combo system to it (this is guess work). But from the video and what was said, I think they'll use melee to build up their spell chains, jump out to become ranged and then unleash their main-stay damage, then when needed jump back in and repeat.

As said at the presentation it's the other way around. Chain spells building a melee attack or two, then flip back for finish spell, hence their "ranged dps" identifier. Their focus is staying out of melee range and I expect them to spend 75'ish % of their time there.

[Isala]

Why are we debating what a RDM is? Every RDM is different. Every player uses a RDM differently, based on their own strats, even within the same game. Some use it as a primary healer, others, their primary magic DPS. Some use it for the melee attacks, and backup spells. There are two things that make a RDM a RDM.

1. It can use both magic and swordplay. Whether those are of equal power is of no importance, so long as it CAN do both.
2. It looks fancy while doing it.

Everything else is secondary. Every game brings their own flavor to the RDM. Whether it's the NES FFI version that had so few uses of magic you spent 90% of your time in melee, or the GBA FFI RDM that could spam spells all day. Whether it's the FFIII version that dual wielded everything, and went to town on mobs, or the dual casting version of FFV. They were all RDM. Even the FFXI Refresh spamming RDM was still a RDM. Even the Tactics RDM. STILL a RDM. So our incarnation might be a little spell heavy. So? What's wrong with that, even if it does happen? It can still melee. We've seen that. And it obviously casts spells. And that gear set is sexy as hell. I'd say that pretty much makes it a RDM, right there. Swords? Check. Spells? Check. Sexy? Double check.

[VanilleFang]

Some use it as a primary healer, others, their primary magic DPS. Some use it for the melee attacks, and backup spells. There are two things that make a RDM a RDM.

RDM is a jack-of-all-trades. Using it as a primary anything is purposely gimping your party.

[AlphaFox]

RDM is a jack-of-all-trades. Using it as a primary anything is purposely gimping your party.

While true, some just work better that way. Think I ran FF1 with a Warrior, Thief, Blackmage and Redmage, guess who got stuck healing when it was needed? :P

[VanilleFang]

While true, some just work better that way. Think I ran FF1 with a Warrior, Thief, Blackmage and Redmage, guess who got stuck healing when it was needed? :P

That's still gimping your party. You would have even better off using a White Mage. The point I was trying to make is that if you purposely choose a RDM as your primary anything you are not nearly as strong as you would be if you chose a job more focused on that role.

[basketofseals]

That's still gimping your party. You would have even better off using a White Mage. The point I was trying to make is that if you purposely choose a RDM as your primary anything you are not nearly as strong as you would be if you chose a job more focused on that role.

Kind of off topic, but in FF1, there was little to no point of taking WHM or BLM over RDM because the intelligence stat did not work.

[Mimilu]

Kind of off topic, but in FF1, there was little to no point of taking WHM or BLM over RDM because the intelligence stat did not work.

They did fix that in the re-releases though. >w>

[Hyrist]

As said at the presentation it's the other way around. Chain spells building a melee attack or two, then flip back for finish spell, hence their "ranged dps" identifier. Their focus is staying out of melee range and I expect them to spend 75'ish % of their time there.

Actually nothing that specific was mentioned. Only that's classified as Ranged DPS and that it will use Ranged and Melee attacks. Other than that, they stuck pretty tightly to the slides - even went as far as to say that they will reveal more as time goes on.

It was a teaser, nothing more. I'll remind people how 'evasion' was jumped on when Dark Knight was first teased, and illustrate how little that aspect meant anything.

I won't speculate where the damage comes from or what percentage we'll be front/back lining. Honestly this will be a delicate balance no matter how they play it. I'll reiterate that it's good to have the job confirmed finally and bow out before the sour grapes spoil the fun out of the game for me again.