Shadowbringers RDM Wishlist

[Leidiriv]

Archwizard's right. Adding phases onto our rotation like with SMN's Bahamut phase just makes death even more punishing, while reducing the relative impact of our Holy/Flare casts because we'd be inevitably balanced around the new capstone. On top of that, it makes the length of our rotation even more variable based on our procs, as each "phase" has approximately a 5 second variance based on how many procs we get. Adding phases for the sake of having more phases just makes a lack of procs even more devastating than it already is.

[Sunako]

Make embolden be like inner release, you can spam melee combo or moulinet without mana cost. Make trait every verflare/verholy reduce Fleche cooldown by 10 seconds and every moulinet reduce Contre Sixte cooldown by 5 seconds.

[Archwizard]

True, but you'll note I didn't say it was "necessary", only that we have an opening for such a tool - the class is playable without one. Such a skill is, by and large, intended to be of situational use.

But, even in a raid setting it's hard to argue against the benefits and uses of such a tool for any DPS in the face of unavoidable hits like Cosmo Memory, debuffs set to detonate on us, or mechanics that need to be soaked by more than just tanks. In the particular case of the RDM, there's the matter of our snap enmity output and, as previously stated, the fact that the peaks of our rotation regularly carry greater risks to our survivability than other ranged classes; the only other melee DPS without a direct mitigation skill is Dragoon, and look where they are without it.

If I could get three things added to the class, it'd be a way to accelerate MP regen without popping LD, faster Mana generation both in single-target and AoE, and an "oh shi-" button.

[XiXiQ]

I really only want 2 things, a DOT (there's room for another CD), and a AOE option of verflare/holy. RDM is quite elegant in its rotation, I'd hate to see it turn into a complicated mess.

[Archwizard]

I really only want 2 things, a DOT (there's room for another CD), and a AOE option of verflare/holy. RDM is quite elegant in its rotation, I'd hate to see it turn into a complicated mess.

As far as the DoT, I personally agree. A shortcast, long-duration DoT would be an excellent way to expand on our existing rotation without forcing us to do more than sub out a Jolt every 20-30 seconds, and to increase the value of spell speed for us. My only requests are for the DoT itself to have some kind of benefit to the caster (similar to how BLM receives Thundercloud procs, especially if casting it means delaying your melee combo by a GCD), and an innate AoE component so I don't feel compelled to fire it at and maintain it on every individual target.
(That or just make it an oGCD cooldown that refreshes if the target dies a la Monomachy, but frankly that's the boring solution, especially since you can only use it on one target at once.)
I am weary, however, of the suggestions to have the RDM gain two DoTs to charge both Mana types over time. Forcing us to maintain more than one at once is frankly just extraneous.

The AoE Verfinisher is tricky though. If we do get one, I hope it triggers from E.Moulinet rather than an E.Riposte combo, especially since a "cleave Verfinisher for two targets" is far too situationally specific in use and more likely a damage loss.
But frankly, I think we need to focus more on how slow our AoE rotation is, given it takes an average of ~7-8 GCDs to build 30 Mana through Scatter; I'd rather not be forced to choose between "spamming Scatter to do more AoE burst now" and "weaving in non-AoEs to get more Moulinets later", especially since the math on the latter can translate to a net loss with sufficient targets.
Increasing the speed of our AoE to allow more E.Moulinets, without sacrificing the AoE burst to get there, would have significantly more impact than tacking a Verfinisher on the end.

[Jonnycbad]

How about a ground placed AoE DoT like Flaming Arrow/Shadow Flare that slowly charges our mana at 2/2 per tick and 3/3 for crits. Or maybe on crits it procs Enhanced Scatter?

[Archwizard]

Not really a fan of GTAoE, especially if it has any value in single-target (which the passive mana generation would probably be worth) since you have to rely on the enemy both being on the ground and staying in the AoE -- and having Enhanced Scatter proc in single-target would feel awkward given how much Mana it provides over Jolt/Impact but how little damage it deals.

[Kalise]

Why not rock the boat and produce the game's first TAoE DoT?

Pick a target, they explode every 3 seconds taking damage and dealing damage to all targets around them. Only one instance can be active at any time.

There you bypass the need to try and multi-DoT as well as get around any issues faced in ST situations. Whilst also, providing something new and unique instead of Shadow Flare 2.0.

Could then give it Mana per target hit so as to amplify Mana gain exponentially in AoE situations to provide more Moulinet combos. If needs be, put an upper cap on amount of targets will generate Mana to limit how crazy it can get on MASSIVE pulls or something.

As far as a Verfinisher goes... I think an AoE Verfinisher seems awkward. Given that AoE Mana generation is centred on filling up both types of Mana, which would really only lead into having a single Verfinisher. To which it would be kind of awkward trying to pick whether it should be a Black or White spell. Given RDM's ST rotation being appropriately balanced in terms of Black vs White spells.

[Archwizard]

Why not rock the boat and produce the game's first TAoE DoT?

Pick a target, they explode every 3 seconds taking damage and dealing damage to all targets around them. Only one instance can be active at any time.

There you bypass the need to try and multi-DoT as well as get around any issues faced in ST situations. Whilst also, providing something new and unique instead of Shadow Flare 2.0.

Could then give it Mana per target hit so as to amplify Mana gain exponentially in AoE situations to provide more Moulinet combos. If needs be, put an upper cap on amount of targets will generate Mana to limit how crazy it can get on MASSIVE pulls or something.

That could work, though I admit I am weary about how passive such a component would be in spite of its substantial benefits to our AoE. Our AoE rotation would be essentially the same Scatter spam, just with DoT ticks giving nearly as much B/W Mana as our direct casts, if not more -- depending on the limits of the theoretical upper cap, with enough targets you could potentially cast the DoT once and just rake in Moulinets.

I still think the solution to our AoE rotation should involve having another spell or two we can weave with Scatter, if only to make it objectively less dull than the two buttons and a CD we have now.

As far as a Verfinisher goes... I think an AoE Verfinisher seems awkward. Given that AoE Mana generation is centred on filling up both types of Mana, which would really only lead into having a single Verfinisher. To which it would be kind of awkward trying to pick whether it should be a Black or White spell. Given RDM's ST rotation being appropriately balanced in terms of Black vs White spells.

It wouldn't be as hard as you think, all you have to do is pick a "Ver-" spell that's not within either the Black or White arsenals (like, say, Gravity, Ruin, Ultima...), or make some generic brand super-Scatter spell like Ardor or Alterna or "Ver-dict".

[Shurrikhan]

Why not rock the boat and produce the game's first TAoE DoT?

Pick a target, they explode every 3 seconds taking damage and dealing damage to all targets around them. Only one instance can be active at any time.

There you bypass the need to try and multi-DoT as well as get around any issues faced in ST situations. Whilst also, providing something new and unique instead of Shadow Flare 2.0.

Could then give it Mana per target hit so as to amplify Mana gain exponentially in AoE situations to provide more Moulinet combos. If needs be, put an upper cap on amount of targets will generate Mana to limit how crazy it can get on MASSIVE pulls or something.

As far as a Verfinisher goes... I think an AoE Verfinisher seems awkward. Given that AoE Mana generation is centred on filling up both types of Mana, which would really only lead into having a single Verfinisher. To which it would be kind of awkward trying to pick whether it should be a Black or White spell. Given RDM's ST rotation being appropriately balanced in terms of Black vs White spells.

So a Living Bomb / early Explosive Arrow ordeal? Wouldn't that be just as passive as the current spam, though? Such mechanics are also rather frustrating to use, like any other DoT, when enemy mobs don't have much TTK if allies decide to swap to it (the chance of which seems to increase with every DoT thereby wasteable...).

Personally, I'd like to see more weaving. Double points if it can reward mana imbalance or the like in a way that adds a bit more complexity without too much added frustration.

For instance, imagine if Enhanced Scatter were replaced with "Verspiral" or "Verhelix" (or, heck, both with slightly different mechanics), where the mechanic causes your next attack to be spread similarly to Scatter. (If using two mechanics, you can have, say, Verspiral cause the stored damage to be duplicated at portion outward, while Verhelix could have AoE damage duplicated at portion inward.

Moreover, why aren't Verholy/Verflare AoEs?