Red Mage is Range Combat? (Discussion)

[Madrone]

LB & shared/unique gear are a really big deal as far as party comp goes. Need to know what they will be to get a better picture of where this hybrid DPS will fit in.

Slashing is covered with WAR or NIN. Blunt is covered by the only one who benefits from it. Piercing debuff is somewhat likely for RDM IMO, unless all its damage dealt is magical. DRG has a monopoly, and it potentially effects more than just the DRG. I'd also be fine with a more tactical/more universal damage taken debuff on a long cooldown though. Either one, or both.


Think of the utility across the board of DPS jobs (minus Ranged). RDM would have a similar degree even though its usually very high in utility, else it will be unbalanced and potentially niche itself into every "good" party comp.
ST= Single target by the way.

NIN: ST Enmity +/-, ST Slashing & All Vulnerability inflictions, ST Bind, ST heavy, ST Stun/Silence, ST TP recovery, ST normal item drop amount increase (4 pretty good things + typical debuffs)

DRG: AoE Crit rate up, ST Piercing Vulnerability infliction, ST Slow, ST Stun (2 good things, and some typical melee debuffs)

MNK: AoE Healing received +, ST Blunt Vulnerability infliction, ST Stun, ST INT -, ST Dispel (nothing all that great/pretty independent)

BLM: AoE Sleep, AoE Bind, ST Slow/Heavy, ST STR/DEX down, ST Magic damage taken -%, E4E, weak Physick (alot of cc and debuffs, and 1 good thing apocatastasis)

SMN: ST & AoE Blind, AoE Bind, ST STR/DEX/MND/INT down, combat Raise, E4E, weak Physick. Pets: ST Stun, ST knockback, weak tanking, weak damage reflection (whole lot of debuffs/flexibility, 2 good things raise/supervirus)

And then they mostly have personal things to mitigate/avoid damage, self hp/tp/mp recovery, drain-on-hit/siphon mp, and various ways to enhance personal speed/damage. NIN, SMN, BLM are on the high side of this spectrum (although caster debuffs/cc aren't that great for pve content), while DRG has less, but what it has is high value. MNK lags behind in utility due to being a personal DPS monster. I expect RDM to be on the high side like its caster brothers and NIN, and 1-2 things would be high value, even if Single Target.


Out of all that, I think RDM would have some of the following:

ST Sleep, Bind, Stun, Silence, Slow (these are pretty commonly attached to skills/spells or stand-alone GCDs/oGCDs)
ST Damage vulnerability infliction (5-10%) of Piercing, Magic, and/or All (debuff cooldowns, and/or delivered rotationally like melee jobs)
Caster/healer cross skills like Cure/Physick, Raise, Stoneskin, Swiftcast + some DPS ones (this whole system is up in the air though)

1-2 of these, and possibly more if they were self-only:
Self, ST or AoE Damage mitigation cooldown (Phalanx) or it could be personal only
Self or ST mp recovery cooldown, (Refresh self and/or party member)
Self or ST Speed boost cooldown, (Haste self and/or party member)
Self or ST party member melee damage boost cooldown (Enspell/Bravery/Faith) <-- could be reserved for a true Mystic Knight/SpellBlade
Self or ST party member damage reflection/absorbtion cooldown (Element Spikes/Reflect/Runic)


I expect RDM to get most of the typical debuffs/cc like stun, heavy, slow, bind, sleep; some kind of self-healing if not a spammable weak spell (possibly better at it than Casters), combat raise, one type of vulnerability infliction (unlike casters), ST/self Refresh, Stoneskin, and at least one variety of party/party member enhancement like but not limited to Phalanx, Haste, Spikes/Reflect, Enspell/Brave/Faith examples. Casters have some debuffs and CC, and those debuffs currently help reduce damage taken by the party rather than increase damage dealt by the party. Hopefully RDM will utility with 2-3 good things.

The problem remains... will RDM sit in a caster slot or a melee slot, or will it wind up so good its monopolizes its own slot? Its not that hard to out-compete casters at utility if you also have their LB.


Just my notes about Physick as used by Casters in general... as gear goes up its relative power level stays the same. So its healing value keeps getting lower compared to max hp. I feel SE should re-evaluate it or base attributes, as its a lot weaker than Second Wind. Though it is spammable, its just terribly under-powered and will be even moreso in 4.0 if nothing is done to adjust it or base MND. I don't think SMN or BLM need a very potent heal spell since its place is that of a general/basic spell learned from an outside school of magic. And yet if RDM had something similar, I would expect it to be stronger or to have a way to leverage it more properly in an emergency (like reverse Cleric's Stance). Caster heal's should do about 8-10% of a DPS/Healer's max hp IMO, RDM's 12-16%. Right now they do around 2% and will be even less in 4.0 without changes.