The Red Mage Video Analysis and Theorycrafting thread.

[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.