It is funny red mage complain about defensive. You have 10 sec cooldown on charge and back step + flunge that allow kite melees so easily. While I played melee class, red mage was most annoy target kill from caster classes. If we compare summoner that have 0 teleport skills or 0 instant cc skills. Only what you can do use energy drain that heal 1k hp. You can try cast tri bind if you dont die before you finish the cast. I would say red mage have lot more options survive in general.