Red Mage could use some help.

[Llugen]

Didn’t read the thread but what RDM needs is +magic damage on Embolden and honestly that’s about it. Possibly consider removing the diminishing buff time.

RDM should absolutely be the weakest caster and the best support, so fixing its support should suffice. The biggest issue with RDM is that they overbuffed SMN.

[PrismaticDaybreak]

RDM should absolutely be the weakest caster and the best support.

Why exactly should they be the weakest caster? Verraise? With it's inherent timer on usefulness? Vercure? Embolden? Or because it's easier to play, which they said isn't something they balance off of? The biggest issue with RDM is that it's a DPS loss to use 2/3rds of your utility, and only 1/3rd of it continues to be useful after progression. And after progression you don't bring enough damage (or raid damage) to be worth it. Not that all content isn't clearable, but if nobody is dying there's no reason not to bring SMN for more damage and a faster kill. At this point Verraise can hit the bricks, it's annoying when it's used as an argument token since it's essentially worthless unless you have 4+ deaths within one minute.

[Llugen]

...

Welcome to BLM, friend.

And it's simple: RDM is the "jack of all trades" job in every FF game ever. One could argue that Verflare/Verholy are ALREADY stronger than anything the job should ever have had.

Yep. I don't even think anything else needs to be said about it. You said yourself it is capable of doing the content, it just isn't insanely strong like SMN, but coupled with its simplicity and utility (yes Embolden could use a buff to include magic damage just like I said before), there is nothing wrong with it being the weakest caster job.

Also, losing damage by using Vercure isn't really bad design, it's a perfect niche. What other DPS jobs can do that? None. The ability to save the raid by using 2-3 heal GCDs and netting a marginal potency loss is significantly impressive for a DPS job to have, regardless of rez dispensing ability.

[Dualgunner]

Welcome to BLM, friend.

And it's simple: RDM is the "jack of all trades" job in every FF game ever. One could argue that Verflare/Verholy are ALREADY stronger than anything the job should ever have had.

Yep. I don't even think anything else needs to be said about it. You said yourself it is capable of doing the content, it just isn't insanely strong like SMN, but coupled with its simplicity and utility (yes Embolden could use a buff to include magic damage just like I said before), there is nothing wrong with it being the weakest caster job.

“A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jack_...master_of_none

Let's look at the trades of which RDM is a jack in:
Swordplay, white magic, and black magic.

They're weaker swordsmen than say, Samurai. They're weaker black mages than black mage, and they're weaker white mages than white mage. Their strength, wherein "jack of all trades" comes in, is their ability to combine these various traits in which they are weak, to create an art which compensates the weaknesses of each art separately.

That's my argument against "RDM is a joat and should be weak because of it."

[Llugen]

“A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

*Squints* Soooo you agree with me...? Good.

[Dualgunner]

*Squints* Soooo you agree with me...? Good.

Not really. I edited a bit to elaborate.

Also, losing damage by using Vercure isn't really bad design, it's a perfect niche. What other DPS jobs can do that? None. The ability to save the raid by using 2-3 heal GCDs and netting a marginal potency loss is significantly impressive for a DPS job to have, regardless of rez dispensing ability.

The problem comes when RDM's damage is already tuned around simply having them as skills.

[PrismaticDaybreak]

snip.

1. Don't call me friend, I don't like you.
2. "Jack of all trades" hurr durr. This isn't a classic FF title, we have 3 roles, Healers, DPS, and Tanks. Red Mage is in the DPS role, not the special green and red Support role that doesn't exist.
3. Simplicity != lower DPS, Yoshi said as much in a live letter. Utility is incredibly poor, see other posts and try to read with an open mind instead of the "Well BLM has it worse so there" attitude you've got.
4. Vercure has never, ever saved a party from a wipe unless you count panic Vercures when the entire party is above 80% health. Dualcasting it is a loss of 540 or 570 potency, and you're dealing no other damage during that time unless you have oGCD's up. Also it's very MP inefficient, costing nearly 10% of your mana Dualcasting it.

Everyone on here supporting Red Mage buffs likes Red Mage, we dislike that the job has been reduced to "Progression Babysitter". Nobody said it should be the strongest either, we all just want it to be competitive after progression is over. When your team is making no mistakes or few enough that healers can handle the sporadic deaths, there's nothing special about bringing Red Mage.

[Dyvid]

Didn’t read the thread but what RDM needs is +magic damage on Embolden and honestly that’s about it. Possibly consider removing the diminishing buff time.

RDM should absolutely be the weakest caster and the best support, so fixing its support should suffice. The biggest issue with RDM is that they overbuffed SMN.

Actually SMN should be the weakest and BLM the strong with RDM in the middle. Why? Because as it stands SMN has the most support abilities of the three. SE needs to address caster raise issue as a whole and most likely just needs to do minor potency changes to RDM to bring it up.