The Black vs. White balance bars for Red Mage is kinda pointless....

[maestroanth]

Granted I'm only lvl 55 in this class, but so far the white/black bar casting to me feels like needless complication since it all pertains to just dps. The spells are about the same dps-wise, so essentially it can all be reduced to just a 200 pool of resource of either the verthunder or veraero as the nuke. It's all virtually arbitrary since they just take one nuke spell, call the same thing with two different names to spit the white/black magic labels on it.

Not even the cure spell screws up the white bar which I kinda wish it would to make it more challenging to manage the resources.

Going in newb, I thought the system would have been more like: all utility spells such as cure, protect, raise, i.e. -> white mage stuff gives white resource, and all nuke spells/enchant sword with fire stuff i.e. -> black mage stuff gives black resource, and each can be spent on either a black uber spell or white uber spell every once in awhile. With a few special/blended spells here and there that require both (like give an aoe damage and aoe heal all at once that require resource of each).

As of now the white and black magic spells you cast to gain resource have no separate roles in it and kinda a shitty design...

[ChaoticCrimson]

I'm not sure I understand entirely what you're getting at with this. Are you suggesting that the mana gauges have more complicated ways of keeping balance? If so, what purpose would that serve, other than to provide some form of "challenge"?

[maestroanth]

I'm not sure I understand entirely what you're getting at with this. Are you suggesting that the mana gauges have more complicated ways of keeping balance? If so, what purpose would that serve, other than to provide some form of "challenge"?

Well, my point is it is entirely pointless to have a balance gauge to begin with as they have it now....you might as get rid of veraero, and just call it a black magic bar which increments with verthunder -> it'd equate to the same thing except with less buttons to click....

[dejiko_san]

Well, my point is it is entirely pointless to have a balance gauge to begin with as they have it now....you might as get rid of veraero, and just call it a black magic bar which increments with verthunder -> it'd equate to the same thing except with less buttons to click....

Your balance gauge shows you if you can use Flare or Holy with your current levels when you melee link... And it's a white magic / black magic bar as you can only use "RED" magic when balanced. Otherwise you fall too much on one side and get penalized when you try to use the other.

[NewAgeDoom]

Your balance gauge shows you if you can use Flare or Holy with your current levels when you melee link... And it's a white magic / black magic bar as you can only use "RED" magic when balanced. Otherwise you fall too much on one side and get penalized when you try to use the other.

And to add on to this, you really only get Verholy and Verflare at 68/70, I believe.

Early levels are just there to teach you how to weave your spells properly, use Fleche/Contre Sixte on cd, etc.

[wereotter]

And to add on to this, you really only get Verholy and Verflare at 68/70, I believe.

Early levels are just there to teach you how to weave your spells properly, use Fleche/Contre Sixte on cd, etc.

It's at 80/80 that you can do the melee combo, but you want one higher to guarantee a verfire/verstone proc once you finish.

And yes, it's not a DPS increase, it's a balance you have to maintain else you're penalized with lower DPS as you can't do your enchanted melee combo and cast verflare/verholy without the appropriate amount of mana banked, and if you go too far one direction, the game penalizes you when you attempt to rebalance. It won't be until level 68 that your exact numbers will really start to matter, but it is still important even at level 50.

EDIT: Just realized you meant level 68/70 not mana levels Yes, those are the correct levels

[maestroanth]

And to add on to this, you really only get Verholy and Verflare at 68/70, I believe.

Early levels are just there to teach you how to weave your spells properly, use Fleche/Contre Sixte on cd, etc.

Ah...okay. It sounds like the mechanics differ a bit at 70 then which makes it all make more sense. I'm only 56 still coming from a lvl 44 black mage. I'm gonna go read those spells and see if my original criticism still hold up ;P

[Besame]

Red Mage seemed more confusing and complicated to me than Black so I made her, tried it out, said NO and she still sits at 50. I like to focus on the fight and not keeping gauges balanced, but that's me.

[NewAgeDoom]

Red Mage seemed more confusing and complicated to me than Black so I made her, tried it out, said NO and she still sits at 50. I like to focus on the fight and not keeping gauges balanced, but that's me.

It's not really about keeping it perfectly balanced though, is the thing. You always want to have one a small chunk higher than the other, so you know which of the endgame spells to use at the end of your melee combo.

I understand if it's not for everyone, though. I'm looking at Summoner, and it's start to intimidate me with its opening rotation, even with as far as I've come with it already.

[Mhaeric]

Red Mage seemed more confusing and complicated to me than Black so I made her, tried it out, said NO and she still sits at 50. I like to focus on the fight and not keeping gauges balanced, but that's me.

RDM is currently the easiest dps job to play. There is a lot of leeway in keeping the gauges balanced, and it comes fairly naturally. E.g. Generally you just cast whichever version of the spell you have less mana in or don't already have a proc in. It flows quite naturally. The numbers on the gauge make it seem like you might have to do some math on the fly, but I can assure you that is not the case. There's also no dot or buff maintenance to worry about at all. In short, it is an incredibly straightforward job that is very forgiving of any mistakes.