Concept for a Magic Melee DPS

[Duelle]

Since you're going with dual-wielding swords, you might as well go all the way with the FF5 references and name the Ultima Blade mode "Spellblade Barrage" and turn it into a machinist-esque heat mode with lower recast times to go with the OCD reset.

Being able to activate the mode before 100% is also essential. It's probably tempting to have a "super god mode" but that doesn't mesh well with party buffs and variable encounter designs that won't let you use it ASAP.

Since you mention MCH, I'm assuming this includes a resource that requires a non-max amount to activate the super mode. I'm not sure how I feel about that, as the MCH super mode has a relatively short duration from what I've seen. Then again, given how some fights are designed with phases where you can't target the boss, a long-duration mode might not be ideal.

Everytime i read these threads hoping for genuine discussions and ideas fleshing out what someone has come up with and was brave enough to put out here for all of us to see. And everytime its just people shitting on even the notion of the idea because (insert something irrelevant here).

Expressing disagreement in a civil manner (which is what I've seen in this thread so far) is not shitting on someone's idea. I'd even venture to say the OP has a good starting point.

Don’t let the “something something RDM” crowd get you down

In light of how RDM was implemented and the current issues surrounding it, that it would be brought up in a mystic knight discussion is inevitable (just like how certain individuals love bringing up mystic knight when the topic of RDM and melee come up). Differentiating the two without allowing one to be tossed to the curb or usurped is pretty damn important. And it is entirely possible for both jobs to coexist even after addressing the issues with RDM's implementation (read: more melee uptime is not going to make mystic knight impossible to implement).

I mean, yes. A lot of jobs would rather fall apart if you didn't do their proper rotations. Dragoon would hardly be a Dragoon if you ignored its rotation and just spammed the ranged attacks. RDM isn't special there.

Nothing in Dragoon's rotation involves Piercing Talon. None of the combos lead to it, and none of its secondary systems (Blood of the Dragon) interact with it.

By comparison, the bulk of RDM's gameplay is spamming spells and in such a design the melee combo is tacked on (as I've argued since this job was implemented). If you were to replace the melee combo with two spells that consume the mana bars to get access to Verflare/Verholy/Scorch, you wouldn't see much change in the gameplay aside from Corps and Displacement not being needed anymore. As Katie said, however, the job is barely a RDM at that point.

Personally all I need in a Red Mage is the mixing of Black and White Magic.

The sword is pretty important to RDM and not something to treat as a decoration. Without it you have just a Sage dressed in red.