How can SE make sure in melee Range RDM isnt squishy as a caster?

[RaijinSupreme]

Why wouldn't they make RDM specific gear? I get that the type of damage it does is magic ranged like the other jobs, but it is still a much different job than the other casters.

I actually do believe that RDM will have its own gear set, like how DRG, MNK, & NIN have their own gear sets as well.

[Brightshadow]

I'm fairly certain it won't be an issue since 75% of attacks are cleaves, and 15% full area AOE. Most likely they'll have a spell or 2 for protection. Like Blm manawall, even SMN have titan for protection.

[SomeRandomHuman]

I'm fairly certain it won't be an issue since 75% of attacks are cleaves, and 15% full area AOE. Most likely they'll have a spell or 2 for protection. Like Blm manawall, even SMN have titan for protection.

If you're using titan in group content with a tank then you're losing so much dps.

Also titan doesn't agro rip off you if you switch to him mid fight. He needs time to get agro like every tank and he gives you no boost to defense what-so-ever. Even in the quests the tank pets are said to be "treated like a shield" but they can't shield you if they don't have agro.

[Phafi]

You can alleviate some of RDM's squishyness by giving them VIT to match MNK BRD or MCH, then giving them a trait for the 28% physical defense they're missing off of those jobs. Then their gear turns into a reverse DRG with heightened mDEF and normalized pDEF. [assuming they're wearing INT gear]

[bardaboo]

Plus if the jumping in and out are part of the combo it's not an issue

[Madrone]

Its not terribly risky if jumping in and mostly staying out at range. I think Caster gear's PhysDef is too low for RDM and it'll either have an innate adjustment (trait) or have its own gearset. Leaning toward the latter really in spite of how inconvenient it is to increase the loot pool... but its a better solution for how RDM should look, bypassing glamor restrictions, and getting the right defense ratings. Personal defense cooldowns are fine too, but not really functional when you're talking rotation timing if even a small fraction of your moves are at melee range. They'd have to be really short cooldowns to use them that way and would still compete for rotation placement with your offensive oGCDs. Defense buffs/shields are better served as being reactionary/strategic- i.e pop them when you're taking damage or when you know you're about to.

For that matter RDM could make use of more than one main stat and/or speed substat given its doing melee and magic damage. And while SE is likely to choose the simple option of using just one main stat and one speed, having its own gearset could let it double up if they chose not to do things the simple way.

[Mhaeric]

I think the actual question should be: "How can SE make sure in melee range RDM isn't squishy as a Dragoon" given that there will likely be some sort of animation lock on their 'jump' abilities. Hopefully it won't be a very long one. I.e. that "high-speed positionals" refers to more than just the speed of movement.

[JunseiKei]

I think the actual question should be: "How can SE make sure in melee range RDM isn't squishy as a Dragoon" given that there will likely be some sort of animation lock on their 'jump' abilities. Hopefully it won't be a very long one. I.e. that "high-speed positionals" refers to more than just the speed of movement.

People will just need to learn when to and not do certain things. DRG, NIN, BRD all have moves that will get them killed if they aren't careful (Jump, Repelling Shot and Assassinate). It mostly just stems from lack of knowledge; very few people seem to understand that you can't jump out of AoEs. While you're in the air, the game just sees where you were; your new position doesn't update until you land. In the case of Jump, you're actually in two places at once: where you activated the skill and where your spear hits the ground to land the attack. That and people just don't want to memorize mechanics that will get you killed. I've seen more DRGs die to the first triple landslide Titan does in Extreme.......................

Now that I think about it, it wouldn't surprise me if a MNK's Elixir Field also has this issue.

[Mhaeric]

People will just need to learn when to and not do certain things. DRG, NIN, BRD all have moves that will get them killed if they aren't careful (Jump, Repelling Shot and Assassinate). It mostly just stems from lack of knowledge.

Well, yes, but also no to a degree. Dragoon jumps used to have a longer animation lock than they do even now, iirc. Hopefully the adjustment they made to fix that issue was remembered when they designed the RDM positionals. As long as the animation lock is reasonable, then yes, people will be expected to move out of aoe damage taking into account their abilities' quirks. I'm just pointing out that the quirks need to be at a manageable level.

[Dualblade]

As a few have said, the most obvious way is that SE gives you the skills to move in and out of melee range (as shown in the trailer) and its up to you to make sure you don't stand in the fire. Don't ever jump to the front of the boss for example. Squishyness should only matter in these cases for unavoidable damage, which if you aren't screwing up in other areas shouldn't be a big problem.

On people who think that going into melee is going to be a rare thing: The placement in the trailer makes it seem that jumping into melee and then back out is going to be a big part of getting the big spell off. I wouldn't expect it to be rarely used or that SE will suddenly change RDM to only ranged.