Job Feedback: RDM

[Hyrist]

In short, RDM and BLM comparison is the same issue you just brought up about BLM - LoS comparison. Red Mage has a better Damage window frame than BLM in this regard, which is why the damage balancing tunes it lower.

My concern is people here are citing it as horrible (it's not, at worst, it's under-tuned). I find the kit to be sound, but lacks defensive/recovery utility to balance out the Melee Phase's 'risk', which requires a defensive Additional skill to compensate. I don't think its overall damage needs an increase which seems to be the biggest beef here.

Frankly I find it to be a boon of the class that it's just as if not more effective in its melee phase. It provides a strong chase utility against kiters, and tends to deter dives. People on the forum see it is as massive disadvantage. Perhaps that becomes more of an issue in ranked play than what I'm seeing as I'm new to ranked. I'm not seeing these issues in actual combat.

As far as the idea of 7 seconds not being a burst. Perhaps it's because my secondary is Paladin. I have no trouble locking a caster out of the bulk of its healing capability for seven seconds. (Stun into a silence.) And both the Damage window, and the Lockdown Windows for Paladin and Red mage time up fairly well (Provided the Red Mage takes full advantage of Manfication to bring up the Melee window a second time swiftly.)

Personally I swap out Recuperate and Safegard as needs keep on Bolt for Flee/Chase, use Monochrom defensively (because otherwise, yes, it's a clear indicator as to who to heal) and use the offset damage components to my advantage. Again, CaC and Displacement are OCD damage attacks as well as positional utilities, which I often see underused among other Red Mages. As well as small things like opening with Jolt two when they don't have the mana for both (I can be guilty of that too.) Small things that really do make a difference. I don't see 'the maths' play out the way people depict it here on the forums.

Jumping back a moment about this phrase:

I can guarantee you that a 7750 potency burst delivered in 3 seconds through OGCDs is a lot better than a 9650 one if it takes 7 seconds to go off (realistically, as Praesul said, RDM burst is more the 5750 potency from the last melee step + finisher in two GCDs, meaning Bard burst would be both more potent and doesn't require going into melee range).

This might actually be a good rotational improvement point for Red Mages. If you're going to us that as burst, and narrow the frame, it may be good to hold CaC until after the second hyphenated Melee hit, that'd bring the burst window up to 6500, if we're just counting the last two GCDs being used most efficiently. At that point the balancing question would be "How frequently can you get your burst back up?" I'm not certain of Bard's burst window but RDM can do two combos almost back to back whenever Manification is up. That's something a designer is going to have to balance against, especially if a Bard is waiting on several OGCS and a song to finish up before their burst comes back up.

Anyways, if I was going to go for improvements, ignoring tuning - just for the sake of improving the feel of Red mage - I'd drop Monochrome for Fleche and add some defensive improvements built into the melee combo. That's about as far into the kit I'd change.