My opinion on Red Mage so far

[ArcanoJones]

Although he is a lot of fun to play my 52 Summoner ilvl 115 takes down foes a little faster and is not even half as squishy because of my pet as my 53 Red Mage ilvl 120. Even my 52 Scholar ilv 100 although taking much longer to kill things has greater survivability. Infact my Scholar hasn't died in like forever. The Red Mage loses a lot of health anytime anything gets close to it. And I am pretty sure I am playing the Red Mage correctly altering Jolt with whatever spell I want to cast to take advantage of dual cast..building up white and black mana to about 80 then using all the melee abilities. If your fighting 2 foes close forget it with a Red Mage once you get into Heavensward unless you are constantly moving around because the enemies special attacks will take 1/4 of your health with 1 hit ( about 1500 dmg ). I do enjoy the combat with the Red Mage though. I have 25 -35 hours time with the red mage already I think.

[Canubirt]

everything changes by the time you hit 70. at 60 summoner was in a good spot, its later mechanics that didnt really work in their favor

[Stormblessed9000]

I actually find RDM one of the best DPS classes to play solo. Their healing is incredibly powerful since it is increased by intelect instead of piety like the summoner's heal. The summoner's pet is a great tank for normal mobs, but when you start fighting harder enemies (i.e. solo old primals) or larger pulls, then their healthpool quickly vanishes and you don't really have an efficient way of keeping them alive any more. It looks like you haven't unlocked vercure yet, so I'd hold off passing judgement on the class' durability until you do.

As for the damage, both red mage and summoner are very close atm in groups. Solo fights should actually favor the red mage since lots of summoner damage either takes a long time to act (DoTs), or takes a long time to build up (Bahamut, dreadwyrm), while red mage is far more immediate and hence better suited for short fights. If you are seeing a very large difference, perhaps you just aren't as used to the class as you are with the summoner. I noticed that you didn't mention using the verstone/fire procs, so if you aren't using those properly it would explain why your damage is a bit low.

[ArcanoJones]

Yes I use those procs. I even use the ability that make them trigger all the time every time it cools down. I also use Fleche and all the other abilities available. The Red Mage is just not as good as a Summoner at low 50s levels. You have no way to keep multiple enemies off of you and no way to heal yourself. Summoner has both of these with a pet who gets aggro and a heal spell. One enemy you can kill fast enough. 2 you better do a lot of running around and trying to avoid hits on yourself. Because if you just stand toe to toe with them you will die every time. Plus with the RedMage you can't run from fight to fight because they often have 1/2 to 2/3 health after a fight. You have to pause to let your health return to full. Most of the time my Summoner takes no damage at all since my pet pulls all the aggro. I imagine it gets better like you say after you get a heal spell. Still however when you first start playing the class at 50. RDM is defintelly handicapped in comparison to some other classes IMO.

[Snowelfie]

You actually get your heal at 54 (which is, your next level).

From there your survivability skyrockets. Dualcasting vercure is actually one of the main thing that makes RDM supreme at soloing contents.. you will eventually find yourself playing like a lesser WHT/AST but with much greater dps in terms of soloing. (Won't compare with SCH though.. when I was on my SCH I just let Eos doing all the heals, lol).

[Karshan]

I see you're comparing classes at level 50, to fight monsters in the wild. Yes SMN has the best DPS solo survivability.

But please compare things that matter before issuing an overall judgement of a class. Things that matter being : mono target boss at level 70 with a tank to deal with hits.

And trust me if SMN is a little better on a dummy (if you play it well), only the best ones out rank red mages in actual fights and raids. If you're just good, average, or not so good, red mage is superior (you achieve higher DPS with it without mastery than you can achieve with a SMN you don't master).

[D_C]

You have no way to keep multiple enemies off of you

Aye ya do. While it's useless in dungeons, 'cause all CC is, ya get an AoE bind in Tether from tha start.

Not ta mention Disengage an' Break. Red Mages ain't gonna kite like a bard, but ya definitely have tha tools ta get away, especially since ya can dualcast with 'em.

Yar, summoner gets 'em too. Ye'll never be survivable as one before 54, but yer far from hopeless.

[WhiteArchmage]

See, the thing here is that SMN was created to have its full moveset by lvl 50 (with SB reworked to have its full moveset at 60 then some traits and Demi-Bahamut at 70), RDM was built to have its full moveset at 70, so you can't really compare it to any class below 60. As a RDM main I have a LOT of survivability (I've been soloing Shiva Ex for desynth fodder and WT some times) and utility with Vercure and Verraise. Why do open world content (especially soloing said content instead of a FATE party or something), I'll never understand, but go in a dungeon as a RDM and you'll love the intuitive and fast chaincasting that just flows really well with your oGCDs and melee combo.

Also, very few things can compete with a Scholar for open world survivability (probably only a PLD or WAR), it's not even funny how broken SCH was (haven't played it since SB, can't say if it still is)

[Esp]

Aye ya do. While it's useless in dungeons, 'cause all CC is, ya get an AoE bind in Tether from tha start.

Not ta mention Disengage an' Break. Red Mages ain't gonna kite like a bard, but ya definitely have tha tools ta get away, especially since ya can dualcast with 'em.

Yar, summoner gets 'em too. Ye'll never be survivable as one before 54, but yer far from hopeless.

Off topic a bit here, but I adore this speak coming from this Lala. My new favorite Lala ^_^

Now then, on topic:

Once you earn Vercure, you'll see you survivability skyrocket. Combined with a nice simple rotation for a caster and wonderful mobility, it's one of the best jobs to solo things on. I know I have a blast soloing most Ex Primal like Shiva, Leviathan and the like.

I do wanna try PoTD solo one day when I can.

[Anienai]

My opinion on RDM:

Good-
You guys have awesome burst and epic glamour.

Bad-
You stand out in EBF most of the fight. Are your abilities rng based?

Question-
Do you guys prefer Balance, Arrow, or Spear?