How would you make RDM more complex?

[Almandaragal]

Dude. First sentence. 'In the future.' The likelihood of mechanical changes now is very slim at best. I am not dissatisfied with Red Mage as it is currently but there's literally 0 depth, note Red Mage was not advertised as 'starter class extraordinaire' but high speed positioning combo caster . The entire class can be summed up with, 'spell 1 then spell 2 then proc 1 then spell 2 until stab 1 2 3 and boom.' The simplicity is nice to a point but a little extra would be nice. Fitting two combos under embolden is not optimization either unless you're lucky enough (re: not player controlled) to be coming up on 100/100 very close to the same time as Manafication comes off cooldown. The two things you mentioned in your last paragraph are QoL issues at most. They have nothing to do with complexity.

I swear I should've added, 'If you wanted to increase the depth on Red Mage please offer some suggestions, otherwise don't clutter the thread with pointless debate'

Indeed, you mention "in the future" in the first sentence. I suppose the vibe I got from your posts felt a bit more like "the sooner the better", given frustration seems to be pervading your posts, much like the start of your reply here to me. I understand the frustration of people coming in and saying, well, what I did: "I wouldn't", but you did ask a leading question. "Would you like RDM to be more complex, and if so, how would you do it?" is a more "fair" question to ask. The question you posed assumes that all of the readers, or at least responders, want added complexity. It's obvious at this point in time that not all RDM players do, and while some complexity is likely to be added (and isn't necessarily a bad thing), feedback is best representative of the community, at least those willing to post, as opposed to being led artificially in one direction.

Yes, the class is largely simple compared to a number of others that we have available, not that that's saying much with how ridiculous some situations get. That said, in keeping with the way the class currently has lore set up, there isn't a lot that can be done to add layers without going overboard. I'm mostly of the mind that Flare/Holy could get different effects as noted by others. I always kind of wondered why that wasn't a thing, since if you have things set up so they proc, you have to play super catch up with the lower mana color because you start out flirting with the allowed gap distance. Flare could lower mdef/raise magic vulnerability of target, Holy could lower the attack of the target. Or Flare could put a DoT on the target, Holy could put a few second silence.

Or, if we really wanted to have some interesting effects, have Verraise ad an 8s regen if White mana was at 100 at time of casting, etc. Not really sure I like that kind of thing though, because RDM is a DPS, and we don't actually have support classes officially recognized. If such a thing doesn't come about, and I don't see it happening, then RDM needs more damage, not more utility. We already pay a higher price in damage than our utility is useful once people know a given fight at all.

Just to toss another couple of things out there, Contre Sixte could have an X% chance to proc a free Moulinet/Enchanted Moulinet, or give a Y% buff for the next one since a free one might be a bit much if the proc rate was too high.

Still though, while any number of things could be interesting, I'm not sure I'd want to see much more added, and certainly nothing along the lines of vernochian. If I wanted that pain while dealing with mechanics, I'd still be maining my BLM.