Integration of the Sword: Red Mage

[Stormblessed9000]

I think part of the problem is with the role system as a whole. If you look at the class tab both on lodestone and in game, there are three tabs for DPS. These are melee, physical ranged, and magical ranged. As role actions are tied to these groups, red mage must fit into one of them. In the current iteration, red mage is in the ranged magical role. This means that it is required to primarily provide ranged, casted magical damage and it's given role actions to support this (e.g. swiftcast, surecast).

I feel that the reason the current red mage has far more caster than melee in in part due to this.

It could be argued that they'd be better off in the melee role, but there are issues with this as well. Firstly, samurai already launched along side it as a melee job, and I believe that they didn't want to introduce two jobs in the same role in the same expansion. There's also the added issue that the mana based role actions are all attached to the ranged magic dps and healer roles.

[dinnertime]

It could be argued that they'd be better off in the melee role

Well, Red Mage is known for being able to use both Black and White magic and their signature ability Chainspell/Dualcast. Them being able to wield melee weapons like swords is more like an aesthetic feature to be a "jack of all trades" job. I don't see why it shouldn't be a caster.

[Maero]

I feel as we progress into Stormblood that more mellee up time should be integrated so perhaps new abilities and what not?
I think RM is almost perfect but can use some improvements to make it more engaging

[PrismaticDaybreak]

I just want to point out quickly that no dev in the history of forever has ever taken inspiration from a "Job Concept" post and ran with that, usually they make all the decisions internally, people can be mad about it if they want, but honestly posting about it probably had 0 effect and I honestly doubt anyone at SE read any of the threads, they brought us "SE presents FFXIV Red Mage" which is fine, it was never going to be "SE presents Poster 1, poster 397 and poster 49823's conglomerated mess of an RDM we shoehorned in to make people happy" anyone who convinced themselves that "My concept was amazing I hope they use it" was begging to be disappointed.

Edit: Not that any of the concepts were bad (although I'm sure some were), it's just extremely unlikely that they would've had an influence.

[Maero]

Well while i do question some decisions they have made on jobs, i do not blame developpers as it is their game after all to make decisions. If it were up to players ideas that could in turn be worst, lol

[CrossSabre]

What if the mana costs for the sword skills were reduced, or mana generation rate was increased? That way, no major chamge would have to happen to the skill set while allowing more swordplay.

[dinnertime]

What if the mana costs for the sword skills were reduced, or mana generation rate was increased? That way, no major chamge would have to happen to the skill set while allowing more swordplay.

Then that means they'll do more damage and would break the DPS Job balance.