Red Mages need some love

[Vorx]

The problem with RDM is not how it plays, it's the low potencies of its attacks and a lackluster raid buff for post-prog.

I'm not so sure about that, without buffs i manage to do over 4k in a lvl 70 run with just melee. Magic attacks get up to about 6k-10k. With my buffs from filly my bars i do a bit more. I might be a little low but i also built my guy as a wide area attacker since scatter gives a bit more boost to the bars then Jolt does.

[Jkap_Goat]

I personally would love more healing spells as RDM and support abilities but ffxiv isnt made that way so i lose the feeling of being a jack of all trades, ffxi RDM manage to scratch that itch for me

[Dualgunner]

In the past my tricks have never been popular among the "Elite" here but the key to drawing out a class's full potential is by experimenting like this. Seeing what works and doesn't work.

You and I disagree very heavily on the definition of "drawing out a class's full potential."

You later state RDM's individual numbers being high as your source for it being a good damage dealer. Its true, in a 5 second parse very few other jobs can keep up. But as the fight goes on, glaring things become obvious: RDM has no way to take advantage of 60 second buff windows. It has no DoTs of any kind so the second it stops casting for any reason, it stops damaging at all. Using the job's recovery utilities cost it a fortune in damage, and embolden is too erratic to focus any synergy on.

When you look at the actual results page for the savage parses, it becomes even clearer that RDM just isn't keeping up the best. The other two casters sit comfortably at the top, while RDM sits near last alongside the likes of BRD and NIN, whom both have infinitely better supports than RDM does.

[Mhaeric]

Funny story, I just did a personal parse test at my house's training dummies earlier today to compare my output with all three casters. I like to see where I'm at with each one, and compare how good their dps is. My RDM is currently ilevel 355 with almost fully melded gear (one accessory isn't) and my smn and blm are both 353 without about 60% of their gear melded. (I use a few of the 350 eureka rdm gear which is what males the difference.) I am much more comfortable playing RDM than the other two, since I main it.

My single target numbers:
RDM:~5700
BLM: ~7300
SMN: ~4600 (This feels low to me, but it's possible I suck at SMN now that it's no longer my main. I've barely played it since 3.0)

My AoE numbers vs. 3 target dummies:
RDM: ~6900
BLM: ~7800
SMN: ~8900

RDM definitely does the least damage out of the three, especially considering it is the one I know the best. In the first 10s of a fight, my RDM blows the other two oit of the water, but it is short lived. I feel it's the most consistent though. Screwing up on a RDM doesn't impact your dps as much as it does for the other two. In a practical situation my parses are much more even, although they still follow the same ranking.

I don't do any savage or have a static, so I personally find RDM utility to be worth it. I can definitely see why the top tier players wouldn't get as much use out of it and why that would be considered a disadvantage compared to the other jobs which have better contributions at that point.

[lulunami]

For me, I wish RDM had more party utility spells like Ninja. I like that currently SMN can buff the party with Devotion and debuff enemies with Radiant Shield and Contagion.

If RDM can be a buffer/debuffer sort of like in FFXI, it would be a lot more thoughtful job to play. Right now it has simple rotation and can chain Raise, but it can be so much more. Buffing personal damage numbers will just make it more meta, but it does not address making it more fun to play.

[Kabooa]

I'm not so sure about that, without buffs i manage to do over 4k in a lvl 70 run with just melee. Magic attacks get up to about 6k-10k. With my buffs from filly my bars i do a bit more. I might be a little low but i also built my guy as a wide area attacker since scatter gives a bit more boost to the bars then Jolt does.

...You don't build something as anything. Red Mage is a Red Mage. There's no AoE scatter variant build.

[Vorx]

...You don't build something as anything. Red Mage is a Red Mage. There's no AoE scatter variant build.

You have to make one. The best thing about RDMs are the ability to invent your own style. No two RDMs play exactly alike. However if you look at a Nin or SMN there is only a few set ways to play them well.

[Mhaeric]

You have to make one. The best thing about RDMs are the ability to invent your own style. No two RDMs play exactly alike.

This is not a thing.

[Dualgunner]

You have to make one. The best thing about RDMs are the ability to invent your own style. No two RDMs play exactly alike. However if you look at a Nin or SMN there is only a few set ways to play them well.

Gonna parrot Mhaeric but no, you're pretty wrong. Or if you follow this logic you can play NIN and SMN vastly differently as well. There are minor differences between RDM rotations, but those are questions of:
Do you prepull with jolt 2 or veraero/verthunder?
Do you double verfinisher or not?
Do you fleche and contra between the first two gcds or save them to match up with trick?

None of this "use the first two melee attacks then displace and jolt" stuff.

[M1551NGN0]

I'm not so sure about that, without buffs i manage to do over 4k in a lvl 70 run with just melee. Magic attacks get up to about 6k-10k. With my buffs from filly my bars i do a bit more. I might be a little low but i also built my guy as a wide area attacker since scatter gives a bit more boost to the bars then Jolt does.

Try doing that in a Savage run and get away with it.