Quote Originally Posted by Duelle View Post
Being a black mage with a sword is not much of an improvement. It's not as bad as the Swordmage from Revelation Online (where the sword is purely an accessory and is there for no reason), but very up there.
Really this incarnation of RDM stays pretty faithful to what a rdm is at it's core. Generally you see RDM take one of two forms. In FF1 it mainly replaced whm. It's sword skills offered more damage than whm could do while still supplying sufficient healing. In other games it pairs double cast with higher end magic usually from a sub job. Basically summons or becoming a double casting blm. So I'd say it's pretty faithful, it's using it's sword and attack magic at the expense of healing. But really in a game with such a clear distinction between healers and dps there's not much they could have done to support both on one class.