The Red Mage Video Analysis and Theorycrafting thread.

[Dynza]

Introduction

Welcome to my lengthy Red Mage Video Analysis and Theorycrafting thread. Although there appear to be other threads that discuss the reveal, I want to get more into the nitty-gritty details on what was revealed and the possibilities how the RDM could designed for Stormblood. As well as providing a bit of info on the history of the Red Mage job in various Final Fantasies.


Video

Right from the start of the video we get a panning push-in shot of the red mage starting right from his shoulder with a black and silver crest. In terms of lore, this crest has - as of yet - no known association revealed to us, however, there's a fairly good possibility that the red mage may have originated in one of Eorzea's past civilizations.

Seconds later, we see the red mage's weapon, a scarlet rapier and a red crystal. The weapon itself may be based off existing Final Fantasy weapons like the Madu. What's interesting here is the crystal ties into the existing lore behind black magic and thaumaturgy. Despite this, however, the video doesn't appear to show anything on the weapons indicating a 'natural' implement needed for conjury. Perhaps the sword is fitted with some core on its hilt or crossguard or pommel?

The video switches scenes and we quickly see a giant enemy scorpion and what appears to be the emote for the red mage's battle stance or /bstance. We know that /bstance differs depending on the gender, so I wonder what will be the female's /bstance be like?

We quickly see how the Red Mage utilizes the weapon(s) they wielding, combing the crystal into the hilt of the sword to form a staff and casting a quick spell. Unfortunately, we don't know what kind of spell this is, but we can assume its a thaumaturgy or black magic spell based on the color of the magic. This is followed by a quick cut to the rear of the red mage and the casting of another spell with a similar cast time. The next spell is an instant cast spell with a white glow, indicating a white magic spell. The spell seems to draw a beam of lighting directly at the enemy, but cut between the spell cast and the next sequence doesn't give us a very clear understanding of what happened.

What we do see, is the red mage holding the crystal, disconnected from the sword, and a beam of light eminating from the crystal to the enemy scorpion. Followed from there, a brief blue flash of light, indicating an instant ability is activated and the red mage lunges straight at the enemy sword, canceling the effect of the beam upon impact and then following up with a weapon skill that appears to show multiple thrusting attacks. A quick cut shows us a brief blue flash. again indicating an instant ability, the red mage back flips backward and at the apex of the jump, slices the air and sends a red arc of energy back at the enemy before landing. Then, reconnecting the sword with the crystal, activates a black magic spell triggering a number large and small explosions around the target.

The video ends after the red mage executes his victory pose emote or /vpose.

Analysis

So there are several things we can take from this, but most of what we saw highlights what the red mage slides have shown. A ranged DPS class with a hybrid of melee fighting and spellcasting abilities. With some abilities using high-speed positioning to quick get into and out of melee range. Capable of dealing massive damage by combing spells with Chainspell.

So to answer a basic question, "Why does the red mage need to fight at a distance?", the answer is fairly simple if you've ever played a mage class, and that's basically to avoid spell interruption. As any mage can tell you, it's much safer to have some distance from an enemy target to avoid melee cleaves and AOEs and auto-attack damage in order to safely cast spells and avoid the issue of interruptions while trying to cast. So the red mage's ability to move in and out through unique abilities gives him an edge in keeping his distance when he needs to cast and move in when he wants to engage the target.

So is the red mage more of a mage or a melee combantant? While the slides indicate that the red mage may be a ranged DPS, this may simply be for classification only. As the video gave us an equal number of ranged and melee abilitie (though one can argue that one of those melee abilities put a large distance between the mage and the target). I suspect that the RDM will have an equal number of both melee and magical abilities, but will be required to utilize both to be effective. I suspect that an effective RDM may start at a distance, and then close in to finish the opponent off, but I also believe they could be flexible enough to do the opposite and be just as effective.

So did the video give us an indication of the Chainspell ability? That's hard to say, but I don't think we saw it. From what was described in the slide, I get the sense that Chainspell may end up being something similar to a Machinist's Wildfire ability in that Chainspell is cast and places a buff on the caster. Then the RDM casts several spells over a fixed duration as "prep" or "storage" and then activates those spells through another ability or through the same ability. Still, I could be wrong.

So how will the red mage play in more detail? Is it weapon skillchain oriented like dragoons, ninja, dark knights and paladins? Or do they play more like the casters? My guess is that the RDM may play more like the BRD and the MCH with some mix of the traditonal melee. I suspect they will have one skillchain, but I also believe that their spell-line (and most abilities) will be function with proc-chances with different combinations with triggers that force melee or spellcasting to maximize damage. Keep in mind the FF14 is very much structured under the idea of managing rotations, and/or resources and I don't see the red mage trending too far from that style.

What sort of abilities will the red mage have? I suspect the usual; at least two dots, two to three area effect abilities, and at least two to four utility/defense abilities. Since the red mage will have to engage in melee range, I also suspect some form of health recovery (whether self or free-target), and is a mage, some form of MP recovery. There's a lot here they can work with despite some core necessities.

Legacy/signature abilities? That would depend on what some would define the red mage to be. In the past, when it came to developing and strengthening the red mage's uniqueness, SE often focused on its ability to cast spells, and more specifically, how quickly it could cast them. Red mages were prided not just on their versatility, but their ability to cast several spells at once through abilities like Double-cast or Dual Cast. Whereas black mages could cast a greater number and more powerful versions of spells, the red mage stuck to a limited set of core spells and could weave them together quickly and effeciently. In the time it'd take a BLM to cast Flare or Meteor, a RDM could cast two fires, heal two seperate allies with a single-target powered cure, and have Ramuh and Shiva dishing out Ice-cold lightning. A red mage was prided on the quality of doing a lot with little. And that can translate pretty well into FFXIV.

So I imagine we could see a red mage picking spells like Imperil to give other mages the benefit of Disembowel for casters. I could see the red mage speed casting through Chainspell Magic Burst, Quake, and Water and unleashing that to a small group of enemy targets. I could see the red mage being a good ally to have for speed runs and trials. All in all, I could see the RDM carving its own little niche with many players, but I don't think it'll be a popular job with everyone. And that's okay.

Lore

So we're told the RDM will appear in 2.0 areas and players can pick up the class as early as level 50 (tentative). We don't have much on the lore or the origins of the red mage, but given that the job has historically been a wielding of white and black magic, it makes me think that the red mage originates from one or two places in Eorzea.

That's Nym, or ancient Allag.

We saw that Nym was a victim of the Black Mages of Mhach and we saw the Amdapori had their own empire focusing on White Magic, but Nym, apparently existing at the same time as these two major nations utilized Scholars and Arcanima as their focus of magical study. It led to me to think that maybe Nym did study black and white magics, but under an umbrella coin term of red magic. Red magic may not be a strict form of conjury and thaumaturgy, or black and white magic. What Nymians discovered or researched, to them, may not even fit those descriptions. To them, red magic is similar, but altogether completely different from the black and white magic Mhach and Amdapor knew.

The other possibility, is that red mages are a lost art originating from Allag much like summoners, and researchers are only now discovering its secrets. Allagan research covered a wide variety of study, so it stands to reason they would try to know more about white and black magic and the efforts to combine the two forms.

Another, less developed possibility is that red mages are a relatively new idea of research, study, and experimentation and only know are the effects being studied. Or red mages are just slackers who never bothered to focus on one field of study and just picked up a smattering of knowledge from everywhere and ran with it.

We'll find out someday.

More to come...

[Furiea]

i'm gonna take the lazy and effective route by waiting for the actual game to come out.

[Duelle]

So did the video give us an indication of the Chainspell ability? That's hard to say, but I don't think we saw it. From what was described in the slide, I get the sense that Chainspell may end up being something similar to a Machinist's Wildfire ability in that Chainspell is cast and places a buff on the caster. Then the RDM casts several spells over a fixed duration as "prep" or "storage" and then activates those spells through another ability or through the same ability. Still, I could be wrong.

While this seems likely given what we've been told, it'd probably give the job terrible pacing, since Wildfire at least manages to flow into the MCH rotation (nevermind how restrictive it is and how much I dislike Wildfire). This sort of forces you slow down/stop just to start a Chainspell. Not to mention that dealing with mechanics would make it a pain since you'd have to stop to cast spells.

So how will the red mage play in more detail? Is it weapon skillchain oriented like dragoons, ninja, dark knights and paladins? Or do they play more like the casters? My guess is that the RDM may play more like the BRD and the MCH with some mix of the traditonal melee. I suspect they will have one skillchain, but I also believe that their spell-line (and most abilities) will be function with proc-chances with different combinations with triggers that force melee or spellcasting to maximize damage. Keep in mind the FF14 is very much structured under the idea of managing rotations, and/or resources and I don't see the red mage trending too far from that style.

The demo showed us a total of 7 skills (three casts, Lunge, Million Stab, gap opener, nuke at the end), which is 1/4 of the skills available to a job at lv60 (28 skills, 18 regular abilities and 10 quested abilities), so there's some room for stuff. That being said, something seems to proc when the RDM used Million Stab. I don't know if it's connected with the nuke at the end, but that was the only ability that procced anything out of what that RDM used. Which would mean nothing is proccing off combos (since no combos were shown).

I personally don't think the job would have much in the way of melee, as otherwise the keynotes would have emphasized the job having mobility instead of making up a term like fast positioning and describing the use of the sword as if it were secondary.

Legacy/signature abilities? That would depend on what some would define the red mage to be. In the past, when it came to developing and strengthening the red mage's uniqueness, SE often focused on its ability to cast spells, and more specifically, how quickly it could cast them. Red mages were prided not just on their versatility, but their ability to cast several spells at once through abilities like Double-cast or Dual Cast. Whereas black mages could cast a greater number and more powerful versions of spells, the red mage stuck to a limited set of core spells and could weave them together quickly and efficiently. In the time it'd take a BLM to cast Flare or Meteor, a RDM could cast two fires, heal two seperate allies with a single-target powered cure, and have Ramuh and Shiva dishing out Ice-cold lightning. A red mage was prided on the quality of doing a lot with little. And that can translate pretty well into FFXIV.

This sort of went out the window when they decided to invent Red Magic. They seem to want it to be its own magic school instead of playing on the fact that, as you said, RDM has "less" to work with due to limited access to black and white magic.

I also think the keynotes would have emphasized RDM's versatility instead of banking on the melee-ranged thing.

Lore

Looking at the AF, I noticed something interesting. A sort of dragonish motif in the embroidery on the outfit. The crystal itself also has a similar motif, which for some reason made me think of Hraesvelgr in Sorh Khai ("Dragons fight with both clawsword and spell"). It's certainly a stretch, but yeah.

[Khalithar]

The demo showed us a total of 7 skills (three casts, Lunge, Million Stab, gap opener, nuke at the end), which is 1/4 of the skills available to a job at lv60 (28 skills, 18 regular abilities and 10 quested abilities), so there's some room for stuff. That being said, something seems to proc when the RDM used Million Stab. I don't know if it's connected with the nuke at the end, but that was the only ability that procced anything out of what that RDM used. Which would mean nothing is proccing off combos (since no combos were shown).

Based on the video we saw, my current guess is that the endgame rdm rotation will open with some DoT/debuff spells (debuffs that may or may not increase the amount of damage taken from the rdm's melee attacks) at the very beginning of it's rotation at which point they use their gap closer and get in to use their melee attacks which ends with the leap back/escape move (I think their melee moves will apply some sort of magic damage taken debuff along with the resources built up by using their melee attacks), at which point they switch to casting their big spells as a "finisher" to their combo. Then they reapply their DoTs/debuffs and go back to melee range.

[Radacci]

Based on the video we saw, my current guess is that the endgame rdm rotation will open with some DoT/debuff spells (debuffs that may or may not increase the amount of damage taken from the rdm's melee attacks) at the very beginning of it's rotation at which point they use their gap closer and get in to use their melee attacks which ends with the leap back/escape move (I think their melee moves will apply some sort of magic damage taken debuff along with the resources built up by using their melee attacks), at which point they switch to casting their big spells as a "finisher" to their combo. Then they reapply their DoTs/debuffs and go back to melee range.

i guess you're missing the fact that all RDM skills will be magic, since it's caster job (even the melee skills)
don't expect any mag vulnerability debuffs from combo, like there is with melee jobs...that would make foe req obsolete, and make casters OP as fck, since they already have the highest damage potential; imagine adding another semi-permanent 10% damage boost on top of that.
at most you'll see a bit of potency increase when using spells in order in spellchain combo. Maybe something along the line of Ruin III costing less MP in DW stance.
maybe melee skills cost TP while spells cost MP, so you can swap resources, a bit like DRK. or since apparently in SB jobs will get a new job-specific UI element, at high levels, it will be something new.
I'd say melee skills have stuff like slow/stun/knock

[Khalithar]

i guess you're missing the fact that all RDM skills will be magic, since it's caster job (even the melee skills)
don't expect any mag vulnerability debuffs from combo, like there is with melee jobs...that would make foe req obsolete, and make casters OP as fck, since they already have the highest damage potential; imagine adding another semi-permanent 10% damage boost on top of that.

Oh sorry, what I meant in my post was that the debuff applied would be increased damage taken from the individual RDM's spells/abilities or it would be some kind of personal buff like Heavy Thrust.

[LineageRazor]

don't expect any mag vulnerability debuffs from combo, like there is with melee jobs...that would make foe req obsolete,

There is precedent. NIN's Dancing Edge has reduction to slashing resistance, and it did not make WAR's Storm's Path obsolete. I see no harm in adding another potential source to the game for reduction to magic resistance, so you don't feel obligated to bring along a BRD every time you have a magic heavy party. It would open up the game a bit for MCH, who fill most of the same niches a BRD does but don't bring the magic resistance reduction.

[Dynza]

While this seems likely given what we've been told, it'd probably give the job terrible pacing, since Wildfire at least manages to flow into the MCH rotation (nevermind how restrictive it is and how much I dislike Wildfire). This sort offorces you slow down/stop just to start a Chainspell. Not to mention that dealing with mechanics would make it a pain since you'd have to stop to cast spells.
The demo showed us a total of 7 skills (three casts, Lunge, Million Stab, gap opener, nuke at the end), which is 1/4 of the skills available to a job at lv60 (28 skills, 18 regular abilities and 10 quested abilities), so there's some room for stuff. That being said, something seems to proc when the RDM used Million Stab. I don't know if it's connected with the nuke at the end, but that was the only ability that procced anything out of what that RDM used. Which would mean nothing is proccing off combos (since no combos were shown).

I personally don't think the job would have much in the way of melee, as otherwise the keynotes would have emphasized the job having mobility instead of making up a term like fast positioning and describing the use of the sword as if it were secondary.
This sort of went out the window when they decided to invent Red Magic. They seem to want it to be its own magic school instead of playing on the fact that, as you said, RDM has "less" to work with due to limited access to black and white magic.

I also think the keynotes would have emphasized RDM's versatility instead of banking on the melee-ranged thing.
Looking at the AF, I noticed something interesting. A sort of dragonish motif in the embroidery on the outfit. The crystal itself also has a similar motif, which for some reason made me think of Hraesvelgr in Sorh Khai ("Dragons fight with both clawsword and spell"). It's certainly a stretch, but yeah.

Suppose the first spells at the beginning of the combat roll, were Chainspell and the two spells that would be connected to it, and then suppose that the final spell in the roll (the magic burst) was the Chainspell activation. That's sort of how I'm imagining the ability works.

As for the proc-effect on the thrusting weapon skill, I believe the debuff there is heavy or some other debuff.

As for magic vulnerability, as mentioned, there's already precedent. Both the MCH and the BRD have abilities that weaken defenses against spells. The MCH also has an ability that reduces physical defense (or adds physical vulnerability) on enemy targets. So it is certainly possible for the red mage to pick up something similar.

[basketofseals]

i guess you're missing the fact that all RDM skills will be magic, since it's caster job (even the melee skills)
don't expect any mag vulnerability debuffs from combo, like there is with melee jobs...that would make foe req obsolete, and make casters OP as fck, since they already have the highest damage potential; imagine adding another semi-permanent 10% damage boost on top of that.
at most you'll see a bit of potency increase when using spells in order in spellchain combo. Maybe something along the line of Ruin III costing less MP in DW stance.
maybe melee skills cost TP while spells cost MP, so you can swap resources, a bit like DRK. or since apparently in SB jobs will get a new job-specific UI element, at high levels, it will be something new.
I'd say melee skills have stuff like slow/stun/knock

DO casters have the highest damage potential? I thought the ideal group composition was to actually just not take them.

[Vejjiegirl]

I just wanted to point out, the fire skill the red mage is using in the video has the same animation as Flare Star from FF9