Let's Talk About... Red Mage

[Ilyrian]

Songs in the key of Red:

So let me preface this with a couple of points:
1. I'm new-ish to ffxiv and have just got finished leveling all the casters.
2. I'm an embittered old heroic WoW Heroic/Mythic raider - healer for the last 6 years, DPS before that since too long ago. I only mention this to give a background that I have some - if limited to that game - experience (as a Shadow/Holy/Disc (when absolutely necessary) priest for reference.)

There is a TLDR at the end...


Now, I'm very happy in my new home – by far I like the pace-shift and generally everything going on as it is so far. I leveled my first job as a WHM as I'm a healer at heart, always will be, and I love the fact that I can dps (I play a *very* aggressive WHM). So I set about leveling the casters – I wanted to love SMN and BLM and I do - to a point; the clumsiness of the SMN rotation and the sheer nonsense of the BLM I kind of felt for a bit whilst leveling, but I didn't realize how borked they both were until playing RDM. Without doubt the person that made the RDM class was a new guy to the fold - it is crazy how well it plays, flows, works as a DPS spec in comparison to the other two ranged caster dps.

Reading the forums and seeing the posts about lack of healers; I can honestly see why: RDM is the the only dps caster I can see working as a complete spec - it flows in battle where the other two literally don't. I'm not going to ditch WHM as my main – healing is my thing and I love it in this game - but playing RDM has made me realise how clunky the other casters are.

Now I am no way an authority on anything - and therefore it might just be me - but RDM is one of the most complete and satisfying DPS casters I have ever played in any game.

TLDR: RDM makes the other casters look broken.