Shadowbringers RDM Wishlist

[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?

[Kalise]

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...).

Well, the suggestion wasn't supposed to really impact the AoE rotation. More so to add in a DoT in a way would allow for some extra damage utility, such as increasing damage while movement is required and having a form of passive Mana generation to play with that can aid with increasing the rate at which melee combo's are generated without simply slapping bonus generation onto existing skills.

Adding in more AoE's for the rotation... Is a much different proposition. One that I haven't been able to make a particularly satisfying rendition for. Only thing I've been able to come up with is replacing Enhanced Scatter (Possibly with a Scatter II) with an Impactful II buff that allows the use of an Impact II which is an AoE form of Impact with higher damage and Mana generation than Scatter (II).

A concern was with button space though... However, I suppose that Jolt and Scatter could simply be replaced by Impact and Impact II respectively given that I don't believe there's any reason you'd want to use the base versions over the Impact procs.

A fun little side note is that it would mean that RDM would be one step closer to being a Flower Mage with more flowery Impact casts ;D

Moreover, why aren't Verholy/Verflare AoEs?

I guess because of two reasons:

1) Tying AoE damage behind the ST melee combo is not particularly fun design (It's a similar situation to WAR with their AoE Beast Gauge spenders, whom can only generate Beast Gauge with ST skills so can only use Overpower in AoE situations outside of using Inner Release to bypass Beast Gauge costs)

2) Allowing use of Verholy/Verflare after say, a (New) Moulinet combo would be awkward as they'd imbalance Mana while RDM AoE rotation builds Mana relatively equally given it mostly spams Scatter as opposed to alternating between Black and White AoE skills akin to the ST rotation.

With a possible third reason being to try and signify that BLM and WHM are more potent in their respective schools of magic compared to RDM that utilizes both. So that the RDM versions of these ancient magicks are only powerful enough to harm a single target.