Shadowbringers RDM Wishlist

[Shurrikhan]

Ultimately, I'd like to see the whole "red" aspect take on some weight of its own, not as its own element, but some greater-than-sum-of-parts use of white with black and vice-versa. Ideally, this should be based on 'acceleration', however (and the more differently or uniquely the better) RDM can define it.

Apart from that:
- A standardized or diminishing (not counting the MP bonus of Flare) ratio of R-MP to bonus potency over the melee-Flare combo.
- Standard R-MP increments. Either 25 or 20 per cast, rather than 30 for E.Moulinet/E.Riposte, and 25 for the rest. Added frequency and flexibility.
- Manafication limitations removed. Added frequency and flexibility.
- Embolden reworked for added timing and compositional flexibility.

If allowed more significant (well, huge) changes, I'd completely interweave elements into melee work via native Enspelling.

[Archwizard]

Ultimately, I'd like to see the whole "red" aspect take on some weight of its own, not as its own element, but some greater-than-sum-of-parts use of white with black and vice-versa.

I agree completely. Red Mages have a unique vantage point between White Mages and Black Mages, able to wield the fundamentals of each but unbridled by eithers' philosophies. They should be able to cross each type of magic's classical benefits for use in ways that pure White or Black Mages wouldn't dare.

Buffing allies to increase their damage is just the tip of the iceberg there, especially with so many other possibilities: Shielding yourself to inflict damage, crippling enemies to protect or restore yourself and allies, etc. Domination through cooperation, resilience in hand with deviance, learning from both the mistakes and successes of each heritage for more than just direct attacks.

If allowed more significant (well, huge) changes, I'd completely interweave elements into melee work via native Enspelling.

Isn't that kinda what the Enchanted Melee Combo is supposed to do? My main concern with Enspelling, even for oneself, is in determining what the value would be in swapping elements, or even justifying adding as many as 6 different elemental Enspell buttons (not necessarily all in one expansion of course, but just in general).

... Although I did just get a delicious idea that instead of getting Verblizzard or Verwater, we could get Enblizzard (with a small ice damage addition and bonus MP regeneration to all attacks, netting a positive in melee) and Enwater (with partial splash water damage on all attacks for cleave/AoE, turning each target of Scatter/Moulinet into a bomb) as a sort of stance system... though admittedly the ideas I have in mind for this would either be rather passive, or exacerbate our current mana-generation issues.

[Shurrikhan]

Isn't that kinda what the Enchanted Melee Combo is supposed to do? My main concern with Enspelling, even for oneself, is in determining what the value would be in swapping elements, or even justifying adding as many as 6 different elemental Enspell buttons (not necessarily all in one expansion of course, but just in general).

... Although I did just get a delicious idea that instead of getting Verblizzard or Verwater, we could get Enblizzard (with a small ice damage addition and bonus MP regeneration to all attacks, netting a positive in melee) and Enwater (with partial splash water damage on all attacks for cleave/AoE, turning each target of Scatter/Moulinet into a bomb) as a sort of stance system... though admittedly the ideas I have in mind for this would either be rather passive, or exacerbate our current mana-generation issues.

If so, that's like tossing a pebble 20 meters out into the Atlantic and saying "well, it was supposed to hit the other side." Our 4-step melee action does not interweave elements, nor does it work like spellfencing in any way.

I don't mean wholly manual Enspelling as if from a palette or bank of Enspell options, to be clear -- ideally it wouldn't take up more than a single button -- and absolutely nothing that comes down to the painfully silly "elemental wheel" or pure damage. If all it were to accomplish are shades of damage based on arbitrary enemy types, that's not gameplay -- that's bloat.

But, think of it like six different systems, by adjacencies, of resource-reward. Wind taps into something that's not quite what the rest tap into. It gives some reward, which would likely be 'similar' to Fire and Ice, with which it synergizes (in that using Wind does a good job of depositing the sources for one or the other), but the different source makes each far from interchangeable at that point in time. Heck, the reward can technically be mostly the same thing ("acceleration"), but the main thing is moving between them so that you can keep playing off the prior momentum through forking options and thereby potential loops of variable length and complexity. Let's say Fire applies... Heat, which will change Ice to Water, create 'Steam' from water, push Wind (including Steam) magic away from the target, and -- if high enough -- source Lightning directly. Thus a damn good Fire phase almost always makes for a short-lived but incredibly good Lightning phase thereafter (dashing everywhere, skewering everything), while an imperfect Fire phase would probably better be twisted towards Wind AoE from around a focus target or two or three. Technically, Earth can do a fair trick of a follow-up, by maintaining the heat longer for a delayed burst phase while offering a Tempered blade. Water can be off-handedly tossed in to end Fire early and skip to Lightning regardless or open up your Wind options. From Fire you'd want to follow, usually, with Wind or Lightning, but you could also delay the momentum for later. And from Wind, say, you may want to juggle Fire and Ice to maximize Turbulance, ultimately returning to Fire or going to Ice. From Ice you'd want to stay well away from Fire while tapping a bit into Earth for Rigor (though then you'd have to stay clear of needing Lighning utility) and Water for cheaper sourcing, especially at first. So on and so forth. And finally, you can tap into your Acceleration resource to reverse time or elemental effects around you up to some cap (consequent to your resource available at the time) to completely flip things on their head. Basically, it'd be an overarching system of limitations that can be creatively dealt with so that the arsenal, even at any one point in time, feels larger and grander than it otherwise would, all while keeping manageable what would otherwise be OP.

Then we could get an additional, BLM inspired utility spell, another burst multiplier perhaps, Spellspeed inspired by Leylines (Verley?), or more magic damage inspired by Enochian (Vernochian?), that costs a similar about of Black mana.

It feels like the majority of our job identity (and many a parity) issues already come back to copy-pasta. Do we really need more, just dressed in vermillion?

[Mansion]

It feels like the majority of our job identity (and many a parity) issues already come back to copy-pasta. Do we really need more, just dressed in vermillion?

Yeah. I'm more in the side of Red Mage identity being built around those 6 offensive core spells (3 White 3 Black), and red magic becoming more proeminent from now on.

And please stop trying to make Spell Speed happen on RDM. As long as we have that poor MP recovery, we can't afford to sneak more GCDs in.

[Seraph522]

Yeah. I'm more in the side of Red Mage identity being built around those 6 offensive core spells (3 White 3 Black), and red magic becoming more proeminent from now on.

And please stop trying to make Spell Speed happen on RDM. As long as we have that poor MP recovery, we can't afford to sneak more GCDs in.

I'm kind of hoping that part of the removal of TP in Shadowbringers will bring about better MP recovery options for all classes, including RDM. Maybe a buff/refresh oGCD of some sort that uses up black and white mana, so you have to choose between continuing to build up to the melee phase or build MP back up. Maybe call it "Charge" like in FFXII? Only danger there is that Verrraise will need to be reworked as well, as the current major limit on spamming that is related to how quickly it drains our MP.

[Leidiriv]

Who says we have to have the entire wheel of En-spells? The way I see it, we only need one black and one white, to maintain parity between the two. Blizzard and Water are probably the best candidates though, so that we can get mirrored benefits. One generates white mana and helps us deal damage, while the other generates black mana and helps us deal damage.

[Seraphor]

I'm thinking that rather than just 'copying' black and white magic, RDM should be able to re-purpose it in different ways.
Enhancing the offensive nature of white magic, which it already does really, and by utilising black magic as party utility instead of selfish dps.
Hence, a party magic damage buff, or magic resist. down debuff maybe. Maybe spellspeed isn't a good candidate, but I was thinking more along the lines of a party-wide spellspeed buff.

I'd also like to echo sentiments of reserving En-spells for another job more aligned with Mystic Knight. It's not really a Red Mage signature, and they already have Enchanted blade attacks, which is what the En-Spells are, En for Enchanted. Without elemental effects... what's the point?

[Leidiriv]

Here's a kinda novel idea I had

Ardor: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 250. Potency is increased by 250 while you are under the effects of Verstone Ready or Verfire Ready.
Additional Effect: Generates 7 White Mana and 7 Black Mana. This amount is increased by 8 White Mana and 8 Black Mana while you are under the effects of Verstone Ready or Verfire Ready.
Additional Effect: Consumes Verstone Ready and Verfire Ready.
Cast time: 2s | Recast time: 30s | Range: 25y | Spell

[Archwizard]

Here's a kinda novel idea I had

Ardor: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 300. Potency is increased by 300 while you are under the effects of Verstone Ready or Verfire Ready.
Additional Effect: Generates 7 White Mana and 7 Black Mana. This amount is increased by 8 White Mana and 8 Black Mana while you are under the effects of Verstone Ready or Verfire Ready.
Additional Effect: Consumes Verstone Ready and Verfire Ready.
Cast time: 2s | Recast time: 30s | Range: 25y | Spell

So... another replacement for Jolt II/Impact you can use every 30 seconds, which synchs up near perfectly with Acceleration anyway.

Honestly, I think I'd rather have a 30-sec DoT at that point and/or just change Acceleration to boost Jolt/Impact.

[Leidiriv]

So... another replacement for Jolt II/Impact you can use every 30 seconds, which synchs up near perfectly with Acceleration anyway.

Honestly, I think I'd rather have a 30-sec DoT at that point and/or just change Acceleration to boost Jolt/Impact.

It's not so much for the purpose of replacing Jolt/Impact, but more for the sake of cleaning up your procs before going into your melee combo. A 30s DoT wouldn't lend itself very well to that purpose, imo.