The state of DPS and why I both love and hate RDM

[Galvuu]

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Preface: I never campaigned for RDM (or SAM) nerfs (though I'm raising my eyebrows at NIN).

The reason why RDM is "easy" is twofold; first, you just can't mess RDM up.
What even is messing RDM up? Getting 100/100 mana? I mean, you still do your melee combo+finisher. You just lose the guaranteed proc (which will probably set your next melee combo back by one gcd). The same is true if the mana is correctly misaligned and you use the wrong finisher (you're at 81/83 and Verflare instead of Verholy). That's like so minimal. One gcd of slightly less damage. You're not even guaranteed to lose a finisher over the entire fight off this. And you still have 20% change that your mistake will be inconsequential anyway.
Second, compounding that is the fact your ogcds are best used on cooldown except for Manafication (which just has you look at a number whenever and then use it when you get 80/80+), you don't even really need to plan ogcd usage in a fight with RDM.
Things are up? Use them. This is for every fight and every mechanic. I just "wing it" with RDM and do fine. The job inherently does not require planning, especially since most cds are best used as soon as they come off cd (except Embolden in a static, you'll ant to align that with the rest, but this is true for any utility tool any job has, so).

This is not true for BLM at all. I need to think about where I'll use which cds. I need Ley Lines down for the Levin Bolts so I can Between the Lines back and forth to the correct side of the arena for Susie, I need Triple up for the cloud+knockback in case I get targeted, I need Swiftcast up for the puddles during the first gaols. In Lak EX, on p2, I need to start with the 3.X rotation because she'll open with Divine Doubt and I won't have time to do the 4.0 one, but then I need to execute a 4.0 after a second 3.0 one so I buy time for the Foul clock. It can't be right away, because I need to refresh my Vril.
There's just layers upon layers of cd usage and rotation planning I have to do, or I'll have a bad time. RDM doesn't have to deal with none if this stuff.

I don't think there's an issue with it, either. Sometimes I'm tired, I'm sick or just had a bad day and pick RDM up. It's plug and play, I don't think much, I do lots of damage, Corps-a-Corpse and Displacement (and Riposte) have some of the coolest looking animations, and I just have a good time all around.
But, objectively speaking, in virtue of the job's design, it is a simple job. Whatever "complexity" I need to deal with RDM I also have to deal with other jobs, but those tend to have layers of planning and decision making tacked onto them if I want to execute them perfectly.
And it's fine, really x)
But it's also unquestionably easier, as far as planning/decision-making goes.

[Pidooma]

Sure, I would like to have a higher skill ceiling possible, but I'm not sure how you could manage it without adding complexity just to add complexity.

My suggestion would be to change something with acceleration like giving RDM a buff depending on which mana bar they have higher. To do that though you'd have to remove some of the RNG from their procs such as proccing both instead of just the white or black mana version of the original cast or give them an ability that allows them to quickly reverse their mana levels. I personally wouldn't mind them reducing our damage a bit if it added more utility to the group like using Acceleration while having Higher black mana equals a few seconds of increased magic damage for the group while having higher white mana increases healing. Obviously it wouldn't be exactly though.

Right now a lot of the simplicity comes from the RNG forcing you into a certain path meaning your only real decision would be which verfinisher to use.

[Draxxion]

I know a lot of people are not a fan of how easy the job is and how it doesn't pimunish you for making mistakes, but that to me means they got work to do on the other jobs. They were able to design RDM and SAM from the ground up and had a totally different as well as effective design philosophy with them that they should be easy to pick up and the abilities should be easy to understand. This is something they are trying to do with the other jobs, but are stuck having to keep them functioning similar to the way they have or end up alienating those who have played said job. As such RDM and SAM being brand new get to be the gold standards of this new design philosophy and the other jobs end up feeling clunky by comparison.

[Nezerius]

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Well yea, Embolden also buffs the RDM's magical damage, but that's the personal part of that CD, which has nothing to do with the utility part of it (which you seem to be talking about).

[PrismaticDaybreak]

The stupidest argument is how RDM needs to be nerfed because playing it doesn't cause a migraine, there's no point in saying "Hey that person over there shouldn't be physically fit because they run on a treadmill instead of free running and jumping on rooftops." A lot of the people arguing for nerfs on that point need to recognize that making RDM less rewarding for less effort isn't going to make the other jobs more rewarding for more effort, you need to be arguing for mechanical changes.

[HoLoFoNo]

Is it honestly hard to understand that RDM is indeed too good at the moment? Not because of how 'simple' it is but because of how flexible it is. No, I don't think a class should be nerfed because it doesn't cause headaches, but I do think a class should be nerfed if you can not only play it with just your forehead but it is also consistently the 2nd most well performing class in fights and also can help the party out.

I think that RDM should retain verraise and vercure because well, its a RDM. It should also keep embolden (preferably make it damage instead of just phys damage). However, I think RDM should lose about 200-300 DPS. For a class so unaffected by the shenanigans that cause other dps to lose dps in fights, it sure can do a lot of damage. RDM is pretty much BRD but with 500 extra DPS. This is the issue. It may not provide as much utility as BRD but it is just as flexible in a fight situation. God knows why they made RDMs ceiling pretty much equal to that of MNK/NIN/SMN because it is much more easy to operate in general and within a fight situation and it has far better utility than 2 of them. Could you imagine if BRD was always about 10% stronger than it always has been? It would be 2.0 all over again. I don't think anyone here thinks that BRD should get a 10% damage increase but don't see the irony in thinking that RDM is completely fine as it is.

[Tsumdere]

-snip-

This. RDM is excellent design. It's easy, fun to play, smooth, and rewarding.
BLM could use some fine tuning as I think it's close to what it should be. Tweak some numbers to beat both SMN and RDM and you've got yourself your big damage, no utility turret. SMN, on the other hand, sucks to play and is a mess. It's bottom of the barrel for caster DPS and the most difficult to play. Unfortunately, nerfing RDM and/or buffing SMN isn't going to magically make SMN fun. It's the antithesis of RDM - unfun, clunky, and unreliable, and will be until they rework it a la BRD. (Please look forward to it?)

Difficulty shouldn't mean you have to break off your fingers to achieve *average* (or below average) numbers. Difficulty should come from optomizing it. Most of all, difficulty should be rewarded and none of the "difficult" classes are.

[Eclipsed]

It just feels this way because they did such a good job with RDM/SAM and well obviously reworked the rest of the classes after a week long bender... All they really did to other classes was make them worse, took away key skills, made other skills useless, and threw in arguably pointless job gauges and couple of skills that aren't really even necessary for the other jobs to do their role. RDM/SAM aren't OP or too easy/versatile, they just completely failed at redoing everything else.

[jamvng]

I don't have a problem with it being "easy"/"simple". That's fine; some jobs can be more complex and some can be easier. I don't think balance should necessarily be done with simplicity as a factor. Being easy just means the skill ceiling is lower than other classes and it'll be easier to play the class at a high level.

The problem I feel is that even at the top level, where everyone is playing each class at near max capability, RDM is just better than the other two casters. They do more damage in fights while having more utility & mobility. They're also the DPS with the least punishment. DPS should be balanced (as Yoshi himself brought up) partly by their susceptibility to mechanics. Being less punishing, RDM DPS is much less effected by mechanics than BLM or SMN. BLM can lose Astral Fire/Enochian/Foul stack from moving for more than a second, or lose a Fire IV; positioning to maximize casts is necessary. SMN needs to optimize all their CDs and Bahamuts to each fight differently.

[Crewman]

BLM can lose Astral Fire/Enochian/Foul stack from moving for more than a second, or lose a Fire IV; positioning to maximize casts is necessary.

See I haven't had a problem with BLM losing it's Blizzard/Fire IV because transpose has a short enough cooldown to keep at least 1 shard active. Eventually it will fall off, but you can take measures to prevent it a little bit. Yeah it's work, but I typically can keep it up long enough for Enochian to reset it's cooldown in case I need to start over.