Which would you recommend: Smn or Rdm?

[Dyvid]

Well, that is a bit of a problem since I don't really know lol. On one hand, I've played Smn and in general the "Warlock" job for years so even now I still feel burnt out on the job, but on the other hand I hear Rdms are no longer wanted and are bad so I feel like I have to level Smn and go back to it. I know I don't play Smn optimally and keep forgetting to refresh dots on time, which lead to them falling off while on the other end, I know I can play Red Mage optimally since it's simple.

Forget Meta, play the job you're good at.

[Llugen]

I'll reassert again, if you want a challenge play SMN and if you want intuitive/straightforward, play RDM.

[Renryuu]

I guess I can at least get Smn up to 70 and see how I feel then before making a more permanent decision on which to play. Though I'd say I'd probably prefer Rdm since it is more straight forward and I'm still far better with it than Smn at the moment.

[NorthernLadMSP]

For me personally, SMN blows RDM out of the water in terms of play style. I find RDM incredible boring and I don't enjoy most of their spell animations either.

But, like people have stated, it's all about personal choice. My FC leader absolutely loves RDM and thinks it's a lot of fun, while I do not.

[Renryuu]

Well I do find Rdm a touch of fun, though at the same time I do kind of prefer a more traditional spellcaster so the melee portion of Red mage, while cool, does have me sometimes wishing I was playing something else that was more inline with a proper spell caster. With Smn, I do quite enjoy the pets and Ruin 3 & 4 are epic looking, I just feel like I'm doing a disservice to the job, perhaps I should just keep trying with it since it has been a long time since I last played Smn and I did find a sort of mini guide to read to help me learn how to go about playing it, so maybe I'll find renewed love for Smn now that I understand it a bit better, but I can't say at the moment lol.

[Draxxion]

As I see it we as a community can give you pros and cons or explain our experiences, but we can't tell you what to play as that is up to you. But, if you give it a try toy may find you enjoy it. The disservice is not being bad at it, but giving up learning to be good at it. You should only not play it if you don't enjoy it. Get both jobs to 70 and try them both out at their fullest potential. Then make your choice as at least you know what they are capable of.

[popotaro]

I find RDM incredible boring and I don't enjoy most of their spell animations either.

I feel the very same concerning RDM. Lackluster gameplay and spell animations. SMN (and BLM despite the fact it needs help) feels more satisfaying to play

[ElonMuskForPrez]

I'd say smthg lire this :
Progress / fight you don't know : RDM (quite easy yet efficient core cycle, several braise in a row). SMN has too many things to watch, add unknown mechanics to watch over and goodbye DPS
Logs runs / farm : SMN has better DPS. But can go RDM if you like it better / have a great compo

This so much. If you prioritize/like to raid/dungeon progress then RDM until you're totally familiar with boss/fight mechanics. For optimal DPS, you need to time your SMN abilities according to fight mechanics, otherwise it's dps loss.

[MidnightTundra]

SMN carries the team harder. Both are pretty fun to me but if you want to be the carry DPS in your group, go SMN.

While RDM is king in prog due to speedy chain raises and an easily accessible kit, the damage ceiling on the class is really easy to hit but it's also really low. People either ditch the class because they're bored with it (Not as flashy as blm/smn, low-skill ceiling, etc.) or it doesn't provide the damage they want.

SMN, on the other hand, greatly rewards your knowledge of your class, the encounter you are in and other jobs' raid buff windows. So much, you'll probably out-DPS everyone else. It takes a bit to master but it is rewarding to play imo.

[Tzain]

I'd also keep in mind that Red Mage is a very 'young' job. It hasn't had time to grow in complexity since the core is still developing while the other magic classes have had 2 expansions to grow in complexity. Plus if I were a developer, I'd be intentionally keeping Red Mage adjusted a bit lower than it might otherwise be. It's a lot easier to scale performance up and have it be seen as a buff, then to scale the performance down and have it be called a 'nerf'.
For me, I like the speed, utility, and freedom of the dual cast system and the fact that I'm not tied to aggressive use of long cooldown abilities or a pet (I'm not a pet class guy normally, personal preference). so for my style, the core of the Red Mage is particularly appealing, I'm sure over time the various rebalancing will move me around the lists as far as 'flavor of the month' goes, but I stopped worrying about that aspect of mmos a decade ago.