Samurai and Red Mage

[Shurrikhan]

So far, most I've spoken to here or in-game consider these two the least powerful DPS jobs (the latter here being considered in post-progression).

SAM falls well short BLM's (or typically even Monk's) raw DPS potential in continuous uptime encounters, despite being equally empty of support.

RDM lacks sufficient contribution once Verraise is no longer of use, even when uniquely able to abuse its mobility compared to others in its party (e.g. if no ranged or summoners).
Similarly, in tight DPS checks, (Ver)raise will often be of little use as it provides too little recovery too late. Lastly, the increased "learning" provided by raise does not contribute to muscle memory of optimizations, as even the speediest possible resurrection can still cause significant desync.

So, how do we buff these two jobs only insofar as is necessary?

In a sense, Monk itself may be currently overtuned and may therefore be relevant in adjusting Samurai, but in all other senses I'd like the changes to stick solely to the classes in question or, at furthest, to general interactions such as how Skill Speed or Spell Speed each work.

My two cents, hidden because I've made this thread to find other ideas more than to promote my own:

General Changes:

Direct Hit

• Direct Hit chance growth per point reduced from 1% per 39.5 to 1% per 40. It therefore now contributes an added 1% of effective damage on average (4% chance of a bonus 25% damage), per 160 points, up from 155. This value, 160, will be the new standard for all secondary stats.
• Determination has been buffed slightly, to 1% of damage per 160 points of Determination.

Speed

• SkS and SpS combined into a single stat: Speed, which now affects Attack Speed, Ability Damage, and Periodic Damage.
• Speed now additionally increases the effectiveness of all healing and damaging abilities, reduced on or exempting those which can already be cast at greater rates due to Speed (such as through the increased resource generation afforded by shorter GCDs, e.g. Shinten/Kyuten, The Forbidden Chakra, Tornado Kick, and Hellfrog Medium, while abilities like Bhavacakra, Guren, and the like are almost fully affected by the bonus; in any case the increase to damage, in total between added rate and %modifiers, should be identical to that of Determination, Direct Hit, or Critical Strike). This allows Speed to be evenly useful for oGCD-heavy classes.
• (Attack) Speed now additionally shortens animation times. What can double-weave at low Speed can now also double-weave at any amount of Speed.
• Speed now adjusts auto-attack rate, rather than auto-attack damage. This will improve its value to Paladin, Ninja, and Dark Knight.
• Speed now has linear returns, decreasing your GCD by 1% of the remaining value for, at SB levels, every 160 Speed, rather than varying anywhere from 1% per 166 points at 2.49 seconds to under 130 by 1.9 seconds and below. This will decrease its power at very high amounts to oGCD-less classes, but should ultimately make it more evenly useful at all class and at all stat levels. This leaves it roughly equal to the value of DHit at 4% added chance to deal a bonus 25% damage, or an added 1% damage on average, per 160 points.
• Speed's damage increase to periodic damage and the rate increase to auto-attacks now identically increase at 1% per 160 points, rather than following a unique modifier. In other words, that portion of contribution works identically to Determination.

Critical Strike

• Critical Strike now has effectively linear returns. Base cost per % of increased critical strike chance or critical strike damage bonus has been decreased, but costs now increase at the same rate by which critical strike chance and the critical strike damage bonus synergize for added returns per point, leaving its damage gains per point roughly equivalent to that of Direct Hit, Determination, and Speed at 160 points per % damage increase.

Role Actions

• Crutch revised. Crutch - 5 yalm range. Support or be supported by target ally, making you and the target unable to fall below normal movement speed if either is at or above normal movement speed and within 5 yalms. While affected, Stuns will instead Silence and Pacify.
• Mana Shift cooldown reduced to 90 seconds. It still reduces caster MP by 20% of their maximum but grants the greater of 20% of the caster's or target's maximum MP, thus increasing its value on targets with greater or lesser maximum MP than the caster.
• Goad cooldown reduced to 120 seconds.
• Drain replaced with Necrogenesis. Necrogenesis - (Ability) Converts a portion of magical damage dealt into HP. 50%. Lasts 10 seconds. 120-second cooldown.
• Second Wind potency increased to 600.
• Bloodbath conversion percentile increased from 25% to 30%.
• Break replaced with Inanition. Inanition - (Ability) Leadens the target's limbs, slowing their movement speed by 40%, decreasing by 10% every 3 seconds. 60-second cooldown.

Other Changes

• Animation-lock durations of Surecast and Swiftcast reduced.
  
  
• Spells now always use the greater of Spell Power or Healing Spell Power. A Vercure or a SMN-based Physic are now just as a strong as a Cure, Physic, or Sect-less Benefic.
  
  
• Casts now snapshot their MP costs and meeting of activation requirements such as Verstone, Verfire, Impact, and Further Ruin at the beginning of their casts, identically to snapshots of attack or casting speed. Loss of necessary activation buffs (e.g. Impact, Enochian) no longer cancel the spell, nor can an increase in mana cost work retroactively to prevent the spell from being cast. (Alternatively, casts snapshot all buffs.)
  
  
• Players now enter and reenter (from death) instances with all cooldowns ready and having filled all resources which can be generated by Abilities or Weaponskills that are usable from outside of combat (Chakra, Aetherflow, Ammunition). Until combat first begins, Draw has only a 5-second cooldown.
  
  
• Players are now brought back from death with 12% more base mana.
  
  
• Effects which prevent the user from receiving mana no longer prevent the user from receiving mana-generating buffs, only their individual ticks. These will (continue to) work once the restricting effect is gone.

Monk

• The cooldown on The Forbidden Chakra has been removed.
• Damage of certain abilities now affected by Speed: Shoulder Tackle, Fire Tackle, Earth Tackle, Wind Tackle, Steel Peak, Howling Fist, Elixir Field.
• Purification no longer has a cooldown and will now also cleanse a curable status effect from you. The effects this works on are limited by specific debuffs; it may work on some, but not all, of every status effect type.
• Animation lock of Fists of Earth, Wind, and Fire reduced to almost nothing. Their shared cooldown has been reduced to 80% of one's GCD (2 seconds baseline). Upon equipping the job stone, Monks will automatically assume Fists of Wind. Monks may no longer cancel their Fists of Wind, Earth, or Fire--only swap between them. As there was never any advantage to not using a stance, this merely removes the chance of accidental deactivation.
• Tornado Kick potency reduced from 330 to 320.

  At present, optimal play involves using TK before a Coeurl skill once per 30 seconds in pairing with Riddle of Wind. This seems intended to be an especially viable option only at the tail of cooldown burst, breaking even after Internal Release, pulling faintly ahead with Riddle of Fire, and an obligatory but small skill-gap component at the end of both CDs together, such that Riddle of Wind and Fire both see use. Now that Skill Speed provides an equal effective bonus to Tornado Kick's relative value as Critical Hit, Direct Hit, and Determination, it should see wider usability, but with this debuff it should also see less frequent obligatory rotational use -- lost to none, but made overly repetitive for none, either.

• Brotherhood no longer grants its 5% damage bonus to the Monk himself, but is no longer limited to physical damage. It affects and is affected by all damage types; spells now similarly deal 5% more damage and can contribute Chakra via Brotherhood.

  This is a minor nerf when less proc-lucky, but -- combined with the above -- a minor buff when very lucky. On the whole, it should also ease timing, especially when nearing a Riddle of Fire burst phase with few to no Chakra at the ready by allowing use of Brotherhood a couple GCDs earlier without significant loss.

• Wind Tackle now deals 130 potency and refreshes Greased Lightning. Riddle of Wind now deals no damage and generates no Greased Lightning, but still gives the option for an additional charge and stun. It is available from Fists of Wind for 10 seconds after the use of any form of Shoulder Tackle.

  This should greatly reduce the negative impact of ping on making use of Wind Tackle rotationally.

• Earth Tackle will now instead cause a 10-yalm backstep if the target is immune to knock-backs. Potency increased to 130.
• Riddle of Earth now triggers Earth's Reply upon being attacked, rather than solely when taking damage. Complete shielding will no longer prevent its activation or thereby cause the Monk to lose their GL stacks. Generating Earth's Reply will no longer consume Riddle of Earth; both effects will coexist with additional applications of Earth's Reply will simply replacing the former. Earth's Reply no longer ends when leaving Fists of Earth.
• Meditation recast time now scales with Attack Speed, at 50% of a GCD (1.25 seconds base). Meditation itself now also has a chance to "Critical Hit" and to thereby (have a 50% chance to) result in a second Chakra generated.

This should slightly improve Monk's ability to make use of downtime. The skill was previously nerfed by over 40% through the decreased potency of The Forbidden Chakra and indirectly through the addition of Deep Meditation, which did not affect Meditation. By giving it the same relative bonus as all other skills, this nerf has at least been reverted somewhat, returning Monk's ranged/downtime skill alternative from the weakest among all ranged skills towards potentially the strongest, as it was in Heavensward. Such changes should increase the consistency of Monk's parses across a variety of fights.

Samurai

• Kenki Mastery II now increases all damage the Samurai deals by 3%. The trait's graphic now shows the 3 seals, Setsu, Getsu, and Ka, as befitting the numeric buff.
• Damage of certain abilities now affected by Speed: Guren, Shinten.
• Gekko and Kasha potency reduced back to 420.

  This creates far closer parity ppGCD (when including Kenki value) between each combo while taking up the excess of the 3% buff now given by the Kenki Mastery II trait. Note that the previous buff amounted to barely over 2%, and less in perfectly optimized scenarios. This further reduces 40% of that 2%'s contribution, but replaces the total with a 3% bonus, amounting to a larger buff, while slightly increasing available skill-gap. Functionality improvements below should amount to a further buff in practice, upwards of another 1-2% depending on the fight compared to Samurai's current state.

• Yukikaze potency remains at 380, but it now also always "deals damage as if its target were already affected [by Slashing]." This should make it less punishing for a Samurai to open with Yukikaze (i.e. when no one else can provide the debuff).
• Animation locks of Guren, Third Eye, Hagakure, Meikyou Shisui, Yaten, Gyoten, and Seigan further reduced slightly. Each can now be clipped sooner.
• Hagakure cooldown reduced to 35 seconds. This allows for several more breakpoints between minimum Speed and sub-2-second GCDs.
• Meikyou Shisui cooldown reduced to 70 seconds.
• Cooldown of Kaiten has been reduced to 2 seconds. Kaiten cannot be used to override itself, and must be consumed before another queued Kaiten can be actuated.
• Hakaze TP cost reduced from 60 to 50.
• Fuga TP cost reduced from 140 to 120. Potency increased to 120.
• Enpi TP cost reduced from 140 to 120. Enpi potency increased to 140. Enhanced Enpi potency decreased to a bonus of 260, for a total of 400. Base damage now comparable to Piercing Talon or Throwing Daggers.
• Third Eye mitigation effect increased to 15%.
• Seigan potency increased to 210 from 200. (Efficiency: 14, as compared to Guren's 16, Shinten's 12, and Yaten/Gyoten's 10.)
• Merciful Eyes healing potency increased to 400.
• Gyoten may now be used on allies, instantly applying a stacking shield which will absorb damage equal to 200 attack power potency of your damage (therefore affected by your current damage bonuses).
• Yaten may now be used on allies, moving you away from them while freeing the ally from any curable bind, snare, or heavy effects.

Summary:
All this should amount to a little over a 1% theoretical buff beyond Samurai's current state, while amounting to more in certain fights based on functionality improvements through rotational alignment via Hagakure and Meikyo Shisui and mobility through the ally-targetable Gyoten and Yaten. Improvements to survivability and resource-sustainability (previously an issue in fights like O6S for Speed-centric Samurai) should also offer noticeable benefits in certain fights. Positional loss remains an average of 60 potency, but its relative value (and that of Hagakure) has been faintly increased. AoE dps potential has increased faintly past the improvements to that of ST dps.

Why the trait, rather than potency changes?

Any increase to specific potencies adjusts internal balance as well as external balance -- that is to say, the viability of certain rotations, skill choices, or playstyles relative to each other, rather than merely the overall power of Samurai relative to other jobs. Increasing the damage of Kasha and Shipu by the same per skill as Yukikaze, for instance, further decreases the potency per GCD of Yukikaze compared to either other combo, providing just 690-720 potency over 2 GCDs (345-360 ppGCD) as compared to 1110-1150 over 3 (370-383.33 ppGCD). With no buff to Kasha or Shifu, modifying general damage instead, the maximal ppGCD for either combo length would be within 10 of each other, decreasing the need to "shed" Setsu while decreasing the potency loss of opening with Yukikaze if necessary.

I opted to increase damage universally through the Kenki Mastery II trait rather the damage of individual Kenki spenders primarily because I wanted to retain Samurai's relatively straightforward positional costs at 60 potency per positional and straightforward efficiencies of 16, 14*, 12, and 10 (generally Shinten's 12), and because there was only one relative potency balance adjustment I found beneficial (the relative buff to Yukikaze), while all else seemed harmful. (*Seigan - previously 13.33.)

Black Mage

Currently, BLM badly outpaces SAM in fights that require melee downtime or little caster downtime (from movement) without any of its mobility vulnerabilities being addressed, mostly due to the nominal 20 (effective 46.8, or 36 w/o Magick and Mend II) potency buff to Fire IV. These changes should faintly taper off its maximal damage while increasing its situation-derived damage floor, largely through QoL buffs and a slightly diminished range between punished and unpunished timings.

• Undo the latest Fire IV buff.
• All stacks now use the same system of 20% effect per stack.
• Umbral Ice now uses its own tick rate at 20% of max MP per stack, per GCD, dealt in ticks of half a GCD each, starting a half-GCD after entering UI. This means that a lucky normal tick can still fix a slight overspending on mana, but inversely the longest one would ever half to wait to be able to cast something is half a GCD.
• Astral Fire and Umbral Ice reduce the cast times and mana costs of the opposite element by 20% per stack. (Previously a MP cost reduction of 50/50/75% and a cast time reduction of 0/0/50%.)
• Blizzard III and Thunder II MP costs reduced from 1440 to 1200. Blizzard cost reduced from 480 to 400. Scathe, Blizzard II, Blizzard IV, and Thunder MP cost reduced from 960 to 800. Thunder III MP cost reduced from 1920 to 1600. Thunder IV MP cost reduced from 2160 to 1800. This ensures particular breakpoints in mana recovery and that the modified mana costs across elements will be sufficient for normal rotation.
• Astral Fire now increases Fire damage by 20% per stack. (Formerly increased damage by 40/60/80, decreased mana costs by 25/25/50, and cast times by 0/0/50%.) No longer diminishes base Ice damage.
• Umbral Hearts now diminish mana cost by 60%. This allows 4.85 Fire I/IVs after depleting Umbral Hearts with Fire I/IVs, up from 4.7.
• Potencies adjusted to compensate for the decrease from 40/60/80% Astral Fire bonus to 20/40/60%. Only Fire IV is negatively affected (5% nerf compared to the 300 potency, buff relative to the former 280 value). In all other cases this is merely a buff to Ice spells and slightly to Fire AoE.
• Fire and Blizzard potency increased to 200 (-1.235% to Fire; +11.11% to Blizzard).
• Fire II and Blizzard II potency increased to 100 (+11.1% to Fire II; +100% to Blizzard II). Note that Fire II is still 33.3% more efficient than Blizzard II.
• Fire III and Blizzard III potency increased to 300 (no change to Fire III; +12.5% to Blizzard III).
• Fire IV and Blizzard IV potency increased to 320 (-5.2% <nerf> to Fire IV from current version, +1.6% <buff> relative to former 280 potency; +23% to Blizzard IV).
• Flare potency increased to 300 (+2.56%)
• Freeze potency increased to 120. 20% more efficient than Blizzard II. 11% less efficient than Fire II.
• Scathe now deals a flat 150 potency. Its additional effect has been removed.
  
  Summary: Offers a bit more mobility in the form of less punishing Ice casts and greater stutter-casting, but mostly just seeks to make the stacks far easier to understand. Blizzard IV still situationally skippable but generally more valuable. Output very slightly reduced in perfect turret fights, and increased everywhere else.
  
  One negative side-effect of the change: At present, with a low enough GCD, one could use F3, 6 F4s, and then B3 out before Enochian falls off. (After using F3 from UI3, you have 6.2 Fire I/IVs available, which is enough for a Blizzard III. Here, that would be impossible, as you'd have only 6.05. Due to the change in how UI's MP ticks work, this would force a Transpose and cost you up to 1.1 seconds of downtime if unlucky with the natural MP tick. This can be solved by simply increasing the MP pool by 360, but if a real concern, it may be better just to swap back to 50% and 75% cost reductions. The main benefits of the change will be to the UI MP tick, reduced Ice penalty when forced into ill-timed phases, and a bit more AoE damage outside of Foul, only; the stacks still will be about as needlessly complicated as ever.

Red Mage

• All potency buffs as of patch 4.4 reverted.
• Damage of certain abilities now affected by Speed: Corps-a-corps, Displacement, Fleche, Contre Sixte.
• Casts of Verfire, Verstone, and Impact can no longer be cancelled by the relevant buff ending before the cast completes. If the requisite activation buff is present when the cast begins, the cast will run to completion and cast successfully so long as it is not cancelled or interrupted.
• Mana cost of all Red Mage spells besides Verraise reduced by one-sixth.
• Attacking an invincible enemy will now consistently still trigger Dualcast.
• With the above change, Dualcast has been revised to assume, server-side, that it has been triggered, and has been made far less susceptible to latency.
• Dualcast is no longer consumed by any action other than mounting (upon completion, not activation, of mount summon). However, it can again be clicked off and aura-cancelled.
• Corps-a-corps cooldown reduced to 25 seconds, down from 35, but potency reduced to 100, from 120. (+17% ppm).
• Displacement cooldown reduced to 30 seconds, down from 40, but potency reduced to 100, from 120. (+11% ppm)
• Enchanted Riposte now consumes 25 Mana, down from 30. A full combo therefore requires only 75/75 mana, down from 80/80.
  
• Impact is now a trait, which when triggered replaces Jolt II until consumed, similar to Enhanced Scatter.
• Embolden effect no longer limited to physical damage dealt. Instead, it increases all damage dealt by (up to) 10%. However, the effect now ramps up, rather than fading down, and the duration of each stage has been reduced from 4 seconds to 3 seconds (total of 15 seconds' duration), while the ability's cooldown has been reduced to 90 seconds. Thus, optimal use alongside a 5th or 6th GCD Trick Attack would be to use Embolden at the beginning or tail the second cast's gap (~2 seconds into the fight), such that it reaches 6% or 8% as Trick Attack starts and remains for all or most of Trick Attack's uptime. This does not change its relative uptime (available a sixth of the time, equal to Trick Attack but averaging half its potency), but it should make it far easier to time and therefore increase its practical output greatly.
• Manafication no longer cancels existing combos. This leaves the RDM free to start a combo, depleting until 50/49 or so, doubling, completing the first combo, and then spending the Flare/Holy and a balancing cast to ready an immediate second combo for tremendous burst over 8-9 GCDs.
• Vercure potency increased to 400. It is now identically powerful to other basic heals.

Summary:
QoL and gameplay improvements which could, in total, lead to significant ppm improvements.

Final Notes:
At present, it is difficult to ascertain specifically how much benefit could come of removing the combo-cancelling component of Manafication. I suspect it would be quite helpful in some cases and hardly at all in others, especially given the change to Reposte, whereby one could potentially exit a combo with as much as 25/25 remaining, with up to 36/46 or 46/36 after a Verflare or Verholy and a Swiftcast. I could use help in mathing out a combo-retaining Manafication's significance over various speed plateaus.

I'd still like to improve the depth of RDM gameplay, especially in its AoE and perhaps through some unique native toolkit advantage which could benefit Role Actions as well (similar to AST's synergy with Role Action buffs), but I believe the improvements listed above should mostly suffice for raid play viability and enjoyment until 5.0.

[Claire_Pendragon]

I dont have much to say about SAM, other than it should be closer to BLMs DPS.

Personally as a RDM, I hear a lot of ppl say how much they like RDM for prog... but no one I know, who isnt a healer doing the prog, agrees.
Once you die, and rez up, you're not really learning how to optimize your rotation based on where you are in the fight anymore, as everything is now thrown off, and are essentially learning nothing.
Only if you're a healer, will you see little to no change in this. (EDIT: as a RDM I'm probably effected the least by this as well, but even then, something as simple as me being the designated Typhon pilot in 6S, then no longer the typhon pilot, changed my rotation enough it took me a few tries to figure out what was the best route to take my abilities. And being the slow learner I am, I still accidentally try to do what i did before, w/o really looking at my UI, seeing Im wasting potential DPS options by holding off like I did when I was still piloting typhon at that point.)

As a similar example, our SMN would ask for a longer countdown for aetherflow.
But the group refused to do it for "prog" since they just wanted to "learn"

Well, once they were ready to start using the countdown,t he SMNs DPS dropped drastically as he wasnt in the same points in his rotation as he practiced, and did or didnt have certain skills to rely on at certain mechanics.
They learned that you need to practice how to do it right, from the start, not later.

In short, there isnt really anything you need to learn in a savage fight, other than how to optimize your options, and when they will be off CD/ready for what mechanics, and when to hold off as well.
Learning how to dodge a red circle shouldnt be what you're "learning" in a savage fight.

So a RDMs "utility" isn't its raise.
It's the ability to lower its damage to be ranged, but not ruin its dmg (in the case of having 80/80+ mana during mechanics u need to range for a while) and or be in melee range for some mechanics with minimal dps loss in comparison to a BLM, use mana shift rather effectively (more so than BLM/SMN imo, but which ruins your rezzing potential a lot), and mostly Embolden, which isnt that great. (And Embolden is the only one that truly matters honestly, with manashift being 2nd place, but only helps if the healer really is pumping out enough DPS to go through the MP)

[Dzian]

Sam could definitely use some buffs.

Any it gets I'd like to see more on the ogcd side of things. Buffs to shinten seigan and the enhanced empire. maybe guren and agatha.
Maybe tweak meditate so it grants the first 10 kenki instantly.

The problem Sam has is it's base stuff is pretty solid you can 3 sen midare all day long and do "decent" damage. The problem many have is using shintens hagakures all that stuff doesn't really step them up much.

The other problem is that many just don't use half the kit. The amount of times I see them just standing there waiting. In Susan for example when he disappear for the big sword drop you got like 15 or 20 seconds before that comes down plenty of time to meditate 50 extra kenki. And usually depending on how quick they're smashed you can meditate again soon as the second one is smashed...

Sigma 2 is the same thing. Takes like 15 seconds for the boss to even appear. Run in get aggro and meditate. Even though can get 50 kenki before he even decides to start the fight. Yet no-one ever does it. I hardly ever see sams meditate even in the big 20 second windows.

I'd keep any buffs on the ogcd side though definitely. Help those who make better use of hagakure and the like really stand out ahead of those that dont

[Shurrikhan]

Sigma 2 is the same thing. Takes like 15 seconds for the boss to even appear. Run in get aggro and meditate. Even though can get 50 kenki before he even decides to start the fight. Yet no-one ever does it. I hardly ever see sams meditate even in the big 20 second windows.

Hmm. I've been seeing people use modified Jinpu openers when running with WARs in order to get both Higanbana and Guren up asap, or as soon as raid (de)buffs pop.

I'd keep any buffs on the ogcd side though definitely. Help those who make better use of hagakure and the like really stand out ahead of those that dont

I feel like this part may be more than just a SAM-specific internal balance issue. So long as Skill Speed is unavoidably increased -- and one need only fall below 2.44 to lose the best possible sync with Hagakure, taking lesser fits instead only at around 2.32, 2.18, and 2.0, if I recall correctly -- with gear, oGCDs are going to become a smaller and smaller portion of damage, and their lead decreased, as all other stats will affect all damage, but Skill Speed will only affect GCDs and oGCDs with rates directly proportionate to GCD rate (such as filler Shintens).

(Both sides of this are what I've been aiming for with the suggested changes to Speed generally and Samurai specifically.)

[Sawamura]

The other problem is that many just don't use half the kit. The amount of times I see them just standing there waiting. In Susan for example when he disappear for the big sword drop you got like 15 or 20 seconds before that comes down plenty of time to meditate 50 extra kenki. And usually depending on how quick they're smashed you can meditate again soon as the second one is smashed...

That is how you see a good samurai and a bad samurai.
A good samurai will full use all kit to increase as much dps as can. Though sadly most of samurais is........ really sad

[Ryaz]

Sam could definitely use some buffs.

The other problem is that many just don't use half the kit. The amount of times I see them just standing there waiting. In Susan for example when he disappear for the big sword drop you got like 15 or 20 seconds before that comes down plenty of time to meditate 50 extra kenki. And usually depending on how quick they're smashed you can meditate again soon as the second one is smashed...

I'd keep any buffs on the ogcd side though definitely. Help those who make better use of hagakure and the like really stand out ahead of those that dont

Agreed. I use meditate every chance I get. I love nothing more than having a group on Rofacale that kills its Archdemon quickly. I can get a full Meditate charge in while he's just running around the board. I would even squeeze it in on D4 when Exdeath would leave the arena to summon the zombie tree. Even if it's just 15 Kenki, it's something. Hardly ever see anyone else use it, though. I'm actually trying to train myself to use Yaten more to avoid AoEs and use the enhanced Enpi to minimize down time.

As for RDM, I feel they dropped the ball with Impact. It should have been more than just a small Jolt buff.

[WilhelmWhite]

Agreed. I use meditate every chance I get. I love nothing more than having a group on Rofacale that kills its Archdemon quickly. I can get a full Meditate charge in while he's just running around the board. I would even squeeze it in on D4 when Exdeath would leave the arena to summon the zombie tree. Even if it's just 15 Kenki, it's something. Hardly ever see anyone else use it, though. I'm actually trying to train myself to use Yaten more to avoid AoEs and use the enhanced Enpi to minimize down time.

As for RDM, I feel they dropped the ball with Impact. It should have been more than just a small Jolt buff.

I'm never confident enough to use Meditate, and I pretty much never use it in dungeons. I honestly feel like I struggle as SAM to average the same damage as other DPS roles, and it seems like Meditate detracts from my up time too much. The only time I really do use it is during trials when there are situational mechanics that allow me to meditate during party-wide DPS down time. I too am also trying to train myself to use Yaten more for AOE dodging. Even though I've gotten my SAM to 70, I still feel as if I have quite a bit to learn.

[EllieShadeflare]

Someone in my static has suggested the possibility of RDM being made better with the addition of further crit and direct hits.

Otherwise, I do agree with the suggested changes. They're small, but would go quite a ways to improving RDM and its visible viability.

[wereotter]

The interesting thing here is that Samurai was great at launch. It's raw damage potential was huge when compared to other classes when played properly, but Square started buffing other jobs while leaving Samurai alone and now the job is nearing the same murky identity Monk had through all of Heavensward. Square set out a philosophy of what should determine the amount of damage a job should do, and they really need to stick to their guns on it in order to maintain balance. Certain jobs have been over buffed (Dragoon for one) resulting in utility jobs doing more DPS than they should and non utility jobs doing less than they should.

Red Mage is an interesting one since it's one of those low skill ceiling, but low skill floor jobs. It's good enough, and not terribly complicated. It seems the job is being punished on DPS for lack of complexity over anything else as vercure, verraise, and embolden are not nearly as impactful as utility skills compared to a summoner's utility kit, while they also have higher damage.

[Shurrikhan]

The interesting thing here is that Samurai was great at launch. It's raw damage potential was huge when compared to other classes when played properly, but Square started buffing other jobs while leaving Samurai alone and now the job is nearing the same murky identity Monk had through all of Heavensward. Square set out a philosophy of what should determine the amount of damage a job should do, and they really need to stick to their guns on it in order to maintain balance. Certain jobs have been over buffed (Dragoon for one) resulting in utility jobs doing more DPS than they should and non utility jobs doing less than they should.

Red Mage is an interesting one since it's one of those low skill ceiling, but low skill floor jobs. It's good enough, and not terribly complicated. It seems the job is being punished on DPS for lack of complexity over anything else as vercure, verraise, and embolden are not nearly as impactful as utility skills compared to a summoner's utility kit, while they also have higher damage.

At least the quality or quantity at high quality of self-maximizing DPS and the like has increased to the point that if a class really does have raw power, someone will prove it relatively quickly. It took only a week for the buffed Monk and BLM to hit 7.4k in this tier's continuous (save for 2-3 GCDs) fight, O6S. It just scares me that SAM has yet to do so after a month, showing appropriate promise only in 8S. Short of a double-Ranged comp's DRG contribution, RDM, and SAM, jobs do seem to be meeting very even and seemingly intended number relationships. But that's exactly what makes these two jobs' throughput levels so problematic to me. I still think BLM needs to lose a little less damage to forced movement, keeping its lead over SMN even in movement-scattered fights like O7S, but on the whole it does all that a raw DPS turret should.

I'd like to hear from some RDM mains how often they find themselves losing uptime to movement, and at what interval between or under what circumstances, and if those circumstances are viably mitigateable through change in play. It seems especially strange to me how low RDM parses in God Kefka, finally falling well below NIN. One other change idea I've been playing around with may provide a reasonable solution, depending on why and how frequently uptime is lost.