Shadowbringers RDM Wishlist

[Nalien]

I don't see how it would. A less costly melee combo allows for greater banking which in turn allows greater flexibility. Having more ways to build it, or taking less time to build up to a given combo, is not mutually exclusive with things to do with its gauge.

Simply put... Why not both?

Oh I agree, my disagreement was more with the notion that the focus should be building towards the melee combo faster... That's... Never really the focus... Summoner builds its aether faster now, but would you say that's the focus of it at Lv80? I wouldn't, I'd say the focus is having access to Demi-Phoenix on top of Demi-Bahamut. Same for Dragoon, was the focus needing one less Eye of the Dragon (or whatever that eye mechanic was called)? Nope, it was on getting yet more Nidhogg (EX) skills.

Absolutely we should get more skills to assist in building gauge moving forward (fairly sure I've even suggested a few in this thread before), but they shouldn't be the focus. The focus should be on the new things we can do with that. For 5.0 that's sadly just Scorch (which actually also helps building gauge), for 6.0 I'd hope for something with a bit more bite.

I still miss the imbalanced MP cost reduction bug... That was a surprisingly neat incidental 'mechanic'.

Haha, honestly that was my inspiration for the idea. I remember at the time thinking it would be neat if there was an intentional mechanic that had us throw balance out the window. For the core of the Job? Absolutely balance should be the focus, but for a one-off skill, like a DoT? IDK, I think it'd be a neat mechanic to play about with.

[Archwizard]

Oh I agree, my disagreement was more with the notion that the focus should be building towards the melee combo faster... That's... Never really the focus... Summoner builds its aether faster now, but would you say that's the focus of it at Lv80? I wouldn't, I'd say the focus is having access to Demi-Phoenix on top of Demi-Bahamut.

The "focus" of SMN is reaching the Trances and Demi-summons as often as possible. They need to spend Aether to build their Trances, so faster Aether generation facilitates that.
The "focus" of RDM is reaching the melee combo as often as possible. Faster Mana generation or lower Mana costs facilitate that. Spending Mana in ways that compete with the melee combo... does not.

A more accurate comparison would be adding a mechanic to force SMN to hold its Aether as long as possible, or providing a rotational tool that spends Aetherflow but doesn't generate Aethertrail Attunement or Dreadwyrm Aether, thereby delaying Trances/Demi-summons.

Absolutely we should get more skills to assist in building gauge moving forward (fairly sure I've even suggested a few in this thread before), but they shouldn't be the focus. The focus should be on the new things we can do with that. For 5.0 that's sadly just Scorch (which actually also helps building gauge), for 6.0 I'd hope for something with a bit more bite.

I'm not against adding more ways to spend Mana, I'm against such new methods running counter to our primary mechanic. You want a skill the promotes being imbalanced, fine, just tell me how that realistically facilitates the end goals of our rotation, since as set-up, being too greatly imbalanced slows us down (as does spending extra GCDs to get that way) and we already have tools to benefit from small imbalances.

SMN got a new Demi-summon to pop after Demi-Bahamut, yes, but only after it had its Aether mechanics reworked so Bahamut comes out sooner. If we want to add a few more stories to this tower so it overshadows the heavens, we need to start by reinforcing the foundation so it doesn't topple over. Maybe add an elevator too. I think I lost this metaphor somewhere.
At the very least we need to build both ends to meet in the middle.