Shadowbringers RDM Wishlist

[Kabooa]

• You mention "consuming the Wound for greater mana returns", but I'm somewhat confused what this means. Wouldn't using a weapon skill consume mana? Or did you mean MP? And wouldn't spreading the Wound mean getting way more mana (or MP) in AoE?

In this regard it refers to Black and White Mana. Unbalanced Black would be the active choice for the Red mage looking to go mana neutral.

Mana Font
Weaponskill
Effect: Deals 100 potency damage to the target and inflicts it with Nexus for 21s. Nexus increases the potency of the next weaponskill used by 30 and returns 1 white and 1 black mana. Nexus increases the potency by 30 and mana return by 1 every 3 seconds. Manafont consume Scatter to apply Nexus to enemies within 5y of the initial target.

Enchanted Mana Font: Extends the duration of Nexus to 45 seconds.

[Archwizard]

Bit of a shot in the dark, but if you look at the state of our rotation...

Shortcasts: Jolt/II, Impact, Scatter, Verfire, Verstone (and Vercure)
Longcasts: Veraero, Verthunder (and Verraise)

It probably shouldn't surprise anyone if we end up getting a new Longcast or two next expansion.

[Seraphor]

Bit of a shot in the dark, but if you look at the state of our rotation...

Shortcasts: Jolt/II, Impact, Scatter, Verfire, Verstone (and Vercure)
Longcasts: Veraero, Verthunder (and Verraise)

It probably shouldn't surprise anyone if we end up getting a new Longcast or two next expansion.

There’s no real reason for another long-cast spell.
The two we have are our main mana generators, one for each colour. The only option for a third would be another ‘balance’ option, which would be redundant.
Of the short-cast spells, three of them are (random) procs, so they’re not really available on demand, and they all serve as Dualcast facilitators.

I think we need a ‘balance’ finisher, something that doesn’t penalise you for having equal mana levels or reaching cap, because it’s supposed to be about balancing them after all. Ardor that I’ve suggested above would be perfect, it suits the aesthetic of the other ‘balance’ spells and being an ‘Arcane’ magic rather than Black or White is ideal. It isn’t ‘better’ than Verholy/Verflare, so you’re not striving for perfect balance, but if you happen to land on say 90/90, you don’t have to squeeze out another spell before you burst.

Then better AoE facility, the simplest option for that is granting more Contre Sixte’s, doesn’t require any new skills so no button bloat.
The only ‘extra buttons’ I’d be happy with really is additional utility, and preferably Black aspected to complement our White utility in Vercure and Verraise.

[Novak_04]

Verultima -- because the salt mines aren't deep enough yet.

I would like to see an AoE finisher... something like:

Each time you use Enchanted Moulinet, you gain a stack of Tectonics. Stacks up to three times.

Quake: 100 potency physical damage to target and all enemies in 10 yalms.
Additional Effect: +100 potency for each stack of Tectonics.

Red Veil: Channeled ability. Gain white and black mana each second. Whichever mana is lower will gain 5, and whichever is higher will gain 3. These values will shift to whichever mana is lower or higher at any given time. Costs 250 MP each second. Moving, to include facing a different direction, will cancel this effect. 60 second recast. [If you black is lower, it will gain 5 mana per second until it is higher than the white mana, then it will gain 3 mana per second]

Vermedica: Heals all party members within 15 yalms for a potency of 200. Costs 20 White Mana.
Verplague: Debuffs the enemy, causing it to deal 5% less damage for 5 second. Costs 20 Black Mana.

[I gave these a gauge cost to really drive home the decision making process. How bad do you need back-up heals (probably never, but if things go awry, it's there)? How bad do you need an on-demand debuff?]

Trait: Red Tempest - Verthunder has a chance to apply a black magic vulnerability up debuff, and Veraero has a chance to apply a white magic vulnerability up debuff causing the target to take 5% increased damage from all sources of black or white magic while the respective debuff is applied. Debuff lasts 5 seconds.

Are these OP? Perhaps...

[Lauront]

Red Veil: Channeled ability. Gain white and black mana each second. Whichever mana is lower will gain 5, and whichever is higher will gain 3. These values will shift to whichever mana is lower or higher at any given time. Costs 250 MP each second. Moving, to include facing a different direction, will cancel this effect. 60 second recast. [If you black is lower, it will gain 5 mana per second until it is higher than the white mana, then it will gain 3 mana per second]

Gah, I'd love that one. But yes, with the MP cost removed as per the below post.

[Dualgunner]

Red Veil: Channeled ability. Gain white and black mana each second. Whichever mana is lower will gain 5, and whichever is higher will gain 3. These values will shift to whichever mana is lower or higher at any given time. Costs 250 MP each second. Moving, to include facing a different direction, will cancel this effect. 60 second recast. [If you black is lower, it will gain 5 mana per second until it is higher than the white mana, then it will gain 3 mana per second]

I like this, but I'd take out the mp cost since it's essentially the same ability as Meditation on SAM.

[Seraphor]

Verraise: Now costs 5 White mana.

New spell: Verward
Cooldown: 60s
Grants target party member the effect of Verward, decreasing damage received by 20% for 20s, effect reduced by 20% every 4s. costs 5 Black mana.

New trait: Enchanted Moulinet has a 30% chance of resetting the cooldown of Contre Sixte.

New trait: When White and Black mana are equal, Verholy and Verflare both change into Ardor

New spell: Ardor
Same potency as Verholy/Verflare.
Additional Effect: Generates 10 of each White and Black mana and grants the effect of Impactful.


Oh also, remove the damage value from Displacement, add that back in by increasing Corps-a-corps, Ripose, Zwerchhau and Redoublement by 30 potency each.

[Lubu_Mykono]

Just give me a buff that makes it raid relevant.

[Archwizard]

There’s no real reason for another long-cast spell.
The two we have are our main mana generators, one for each colour. The only option for a third would be another ‘balance’ option, which would be redundant.

Not necessarily. For instance, we have no Longcast AoE spells, and there are always opportunities to "proc upgrade" Veraero and Verthunder into other spells (such as Verwater or Verblizzard).

The only option for a third would be another ‘balance’ option, which would be redundant.

I think we need a ‘balance’ finisher, something that doesn’t penalise you for having equal mana levels or reaching cap

These two statements appear contradictory, but I'll deconstruct the latter either way. I previously considered a third Verfinisher myself for exactly the reasons you discussed, but ultimately decided against it for the following reason.

Let's say we have a third Verfinisher representing "Balance" -- Ardor, Verultima, whatever. Now we're looking at two scenarios:

1) The new Verfinisher is ultimately stronger or weaker than the other two options; it either obsoletes them, making the other two buttons clutter and compelling you to try to balance or cap your mana every time, or it is a "better luck next time" consolation prize which becomes an ideal goal of the rotation to never use. Either way the player safely leaves one or the others off their action bar.
(As an aside, Ardor as suggested would end up weaker than the other two, providing both inferior mana and a more readily available proc. The best way to improve it to the level you suggest would be to have it ignore Impactful entirely, and just provide 12-15 of each mana outright as each Verfinisher+proc technically provides 30... but...)

2) As you hope: The new Verfinisher somehow ends up being perfectly balanced with the other two, allowing the user to... safely ignore the balance gauge mechanic entirely. All three being essentially equal, having three Verfinishers is redundant and ultimately serves to clutter the design space, leading to calls to remove one or the others.

I think the takeaway from the "balance" concept isn't that we should be constantly choking our black-to-white casting ratio to be pixel-perfect -- focusing on red spells and only using black to get ahead when we can safely counter with white -- but rather that we always attempt to correct imbalances that may crop up while allowing both to flourish, empowering our white magic when our black magic pushes ahead and vice versa; that's ultimately the goal of Verholy and Verflare, and why our rotation is so proc-dependent in the first place.

To be honest, I think there are ways to make a third Verfinisher plausible by virtue of giving it its own niche (which is ultimately the point of the Red Mage, compared to Black and White), but the trouble is that in order to keep the player using all three, such scenarios would have to be so far between as to make the addition a pointless gesture.
For instance, you could have a third Verfinisher representing "balance" that substitutes mana gain for cleave damage... but then you wouldn't be able to use it with Moulinet, in scenarios where you may actually want cleave damage.
You could have a third Verfinisher that substitutes mana gain for MP gain... but then you'd be losing output from the other Verfinishers, so you'd never willingly put it into your main rotation for maintenance (though I suppose if it fully replenished your MP bar, you might consider it once in a boss fight...), and you'd have to invest ludicrous amounts of MP in order to gain MP back, making it counterintuitive to use when actually needed (ie right after being revived).

[Seraphor]

As I explained, you're currently penalised for having perfect balance, a very common scenario when the goal is to balance your mana levels.
This is very disruptive to your rotation and flow of battle, when you'd like to jump into your melee rotation you'll find yourself discouraged at the risk of losing DPS, so you have to cast another spell before you burst, which delays your burst and again reduces your average DPS.

There's no reason to penalise having a perfect balance. It wouldn't lead you to ignoring the balance gauge altogether, because you'd still need to know if one was higher than the other, or if they were equal, to know which finisher you'll need and which follow up spell will proc.

As it stands, you're paying too much attention to the balance gauge, because you're not just thinking "which one is lowest" you're thinking "which one is lowest, and which spell will not put me in perfect balance, I can either add 9 or 11 and need to ensure the diference between levels isn't exactly 9 or 11" you're forced to do constant arithmetic, which is distracting.

Having a viable option for either scenario doesn't remove any difficulty or result in less attention being required, too much reduction in attention rather, because which of the three options you find yourself using still affects how your rotation progresses.