Shadowbringers RDM Wishlist

[Archwizard]

Something I was thinking about last night (which may be a bit of a moot point now, but still):

Let's say the devs removed Engagement and the potency from Displacement, and put them all in Corps-a-corps or the melee combo.

Why would we ever want to use Displacement? As it is now, the backstep isn't really worth much, since the escape mechanism is only of use in niche situations. Unlike melee, there's no penalty to casters for being close to the target (aside from the increased risk of death in some instances), and the fact that we can attack from range is considered a reward in itself despite lack of incentive to really do so. As at least one person has mentioned already in this thread, they use Corps-a-corps to get that "sweet, sweet auto-attack damage", since RDM can afford to with its short casts.
{Sidenote, and with full understanding that our auto-attack damage is crap anyway and it's probably just to discourage caster auto-attacking: anyone else find it weird the auto-attack delay on Rapiers is super high? You would think it would be like, really fast but pathetically weak without using abilities...}

Now, without a complete rework to the dynamics of ranged and melee in general, not really much point in trying to tackle that just to give Displacement meaning.

Sure you could toss in a Stun or Heavy, but while that would be useful in some content like the overworld and dungeons, it's of little value in raids.
But at the same time, whatever value Displacement has shouldn't also be intrinsic to our performance, since we literally just removed the damage so we wouldn't feel penalized in situations where we can't backstep without dying.
I would think enmity, but the stance changes for tanks make that a near moot point too.

And then last night it finally hit me: If not for the reduced CD of Lucid Dreaming... what if Displacement somehow played with our MP?

CaC and Displacement each represent subtle transitions between melee and casting, without putting a hard Stance effect on either. While it's not a locked part of the combo, the example we're always shown is to CaC -> Enchanted Combo -> Displacement -> Verfinisher (and soon, add Scorch), the latter of which represent our hardest hits and second-largest period of MP consumption behind Verraising.
What if Displacement somehow marked the target so that your next spell against them restored or cost zero MP, or hits within a small period gave you some other non-damage bonus based on the damage dealt? MP consumption being an issue of little concern for RDM (allowing you to skip Displacement at no penalty), but still adding some personal benefit to using it at that point.

Just food for thought I guess.