Hello everyone, I apologize for making this topic and I realize before even asking that the majority of answers will be "play what you want," but I can't help but feel I need to ask as I still have doubts as I read more posts on various sites.

Ok, so while I really love Red Mage and enjoy playing it, I keep seeing left and right about it being the worst dps or that no one wants it in groups and even in Party Finder I see groups that prefer other dps over Red Mage so I feel like I have to swap jobs if I just even want to do basic content now. At first I was gonna swap to Smn since I finished getting it to 70, but it feels so daunting with all the stuff to keep track of that I doubt I could be able to play it effectively while also dodging boss mechanics, so I conisdered SAM next, but I'm not sure if melee are more wanted than casters or if SAM itself is even wanted.

So, I guess what I am asking is, are melee jobs still desired and is SAM a good melee job to play as over Smn and especially Red Mage?