Suggestion for: RDM improvements

[Katie_Kitty]

I have a list of things I’d like to see
Aero/Thunder 2 buff to 140 so they work on 2 targets
Flèche is now 30sec at 500 potency
EReprise to 280-300 potency
Manafication allows you use 3 Ewep skills ignorant of gauge cost
Swiftcast spells and Scorch can proc Dualcast
VerHoly/Flare/Scorch all do AoE damage scaling 50% off on 2 targets
Acceleration gets 2 charges and restores 1500 mana each use.
Displacements damage is removed, Engagement is removed entirely
Corp A Corp gets 2 Charges and is buffed to compensate for displacements removal.
Vercure buffed to 800 potency gives a Stone Proc immediately upon use (why not)
Verraise gives a Fire Proc immediately upon use.(community can decide if they want to keep this or not, I’m over it)
Embolden works on EVERYBODY(the fact that it doesn’t is silly)

If we can get these, I’d enjoy RDM much more especially if the damage cap is closed. For 6.0, I’d also consider a bit of a redesign to truly capture that SpellBlade White magic support casting DPS identity that rdm was supposed to be. More melee, More white magic tools, more utility defensively and offensively. None of this needs to equate to RDM being the best caster/job, the job currently feels like a 2.0 BLM clone with a raise

Nitpicking but Remove the magic crystal medium, it’s ugly and I rather red mage shoot magic off the tip of the blade, not out of the crystal like some BLM clone.

Short of adding expanded melee abilities that fit into the rotation or actually useful healing tools, I'd like RDM to get some kind of cooldown that reduces black/white mana cost for melee weaponskills to 0 for just long enough to get two full melee combos + verflare/holy+scorch off before it drops. It can be used for instant burst while at 0 black/white mana and/or for extended periods of forced movement.

[Leidiriv]

I agree that RDM just needs potency buffs for 5.x, but I'd love to see their utility get reworked a bit for 6.0, maybe alongside Raise becoming a role action. As I detailed in a previous thread, getting Black/White defensive utility skills that rebalance your mana and have offensive applications would add a fun bit of depth to RDM's gameplay and fit the hybrid flavor without compromising our role as a DPS.

[Grimoire-M]

Personally I feel RDM needs Embolden to work with everyone to solidify them as the more support oriented caster DPS. Giving acceleration two charges would be fine, but when it comes to Corp-acorps/Displacement/Engagement, I personally think removing Corps-a-corps and replacing it with Engagement, then giving engage/disengage three charges while equalizing their potency would be fine. Let RDM choose which skill they want to dump charges on, they will preserve it for the melee combos in between manafications.

[Shurrikhan]

If we can get these, I’d enjoy RDM much more especially if the damage cap is closed. For 6.0, I’d also consider a bit of a redesign to truly capture that SpellBlade White magic support casting DPS identity that rdm was supposed to be. More melee, More white magic tools, more utility defensively and offensively. None of this needs to equate to RDM being the best caster/job, the job currently feels like a 2.0 BLM clone with a raise

Nitpicking but Remove the magic crystal medium, it’s ugly and I rather red mage shoot magic off the tip of the blade, not out of the crystal like some BLM clone.

Personally, I like RDM to be a caster. Don't get me wrong, I think leaving Checkov's Sword just lying there or relegating it to a generic burst timer is taboo at best (or, licence for execution for those less subtle) -- but, I think the point of the sword should be to make it a better caster, as paradoxical as that might sound.

BLM, for instance, is a caster with significant strengths and (until the last couple expansions) distinct weaknesses. RDM's strength as a caster should be that it has no distinct weaknesses. Its maximal, perfect, theoretical turret-fight rDPS, therefore, isn't quite BLM's, but there should be literally no way for any fight to deny a skilled RDM its contribution. Try to stop their mobility -- they've got the sword through which to channel magics. Force them out of melee range -- well, they're a caster... Try to force desync into their burst-phases -- they have plenty of means by which to realign it. Not because they're a "jack of all trades", per se, but because they're a master of a highly modular toolkit.

Its special benefit, rather than an above-average theoretical peak performance, is simply the byproducts of that toolkit: for instance, it happens, also, to be capable of healing, because healing is one other way for it to never be denied significant contribution. Healing will never be its primary mode of contribution -- but, even if you were to sap 90% of a RDM's damage away under some debuff phase affecting all DPS, it'd still be contributing via healer GCDs freed up in some significant fashion.

But that still leaves another wasted opportunity: at present RDM has access to 4 of the 6 elements, and easily could have access to 2 more for the full set, but if they continue to simply be pairings of the same concepts (combinations of 2 colors and 2 lengths each for B-L, W-L, B-F, W-F), that'd be even more bloated than what we already have.

I also happen to like the MCM, and would prefer that it have a bit more presence, actually, to -- similar to the sword -- make it worth its art assets.

[Katie_Kitty]

Lots of words..

Good post, unfortunately, the FFXIV team seems to be in love with the current design for the job and convinced that they nailed it 100%. I'll admit they got some things right - I really like how they managed to make the melee combo an essential part of the rotation, and I do have a lot of fun playing the class - but it\\'s not so perfect that they can just sit on their hands and never try to do anything with it. Ultimately they played it too safe with RDM in this game and as a result it mostly feels like a gimped black mage with a rez and a melee combo they need to use. Giving it aero and stone and calling them white magic is the least innovative or interesting thing they could have possibly done especially when they made the job\\'s healing tools so underwhelming as well. Having the melee combo is nice at first but when you\\'ve played the class for over two years it\\'s hard not to notice that it\\'s designed in such a restrictive way that we\\'re unlikely to ever see it expanded. It would be nice if they had someone passionate about Red Mage come in and look at ways to improve the job.

[Duelle]

Giving it aero and stone and calling them white magic is the least innovative or interesting thing they could have possibly done especially when they made the job's healing tools so underwhelming as well. Having the melee combo is nice at first but when you've played the class for over two years it's hard not to notice that it's designed in such a restrictive way that we're unlikely to ever see it expanded. It would be nice if they had someone passionate about Red Mage come in and look at ways to improve the job.

To be fair, most of the stuff that's white magic that would normally fall into RDM's kit is not really usable here. Protect doesn't exist anymore. Stoneskin isn't here. Dia might work as a DoT. I guess a version of Regen might work, though I'm personally not keen on it. There's also certain debuffs, though Slowing down a boss or Paralyze proccing before a tank buster would make RDM super OP.

My guess is that they went with that since the writers already established Stone/Water/Aero as white magic. Can't say I agree with it, but it does make sense.

[MPNZ]

Ok....

Reduce cd for manafiction by 15-20 seconds

Reduce cd for acceleration by half

add aserious number of enfeeblements, cleanses, beneficial abilities, and staus effect spells into the usable cross class abilities list for all casters (paralyze, stone, poison, float, dispel, et cetera)

Battle mage stance (45% increase in all potencies/durations, but doubles mp costs of spells for 20 seconds. Cross classed to all DoM)

Pre-charged spell casts (passive) that continue at 50% cast time for up to three different spells as long as the cast bar exceeds 65% of cast time to activate (once active pre-casted spell will begin at 50%, nextcastof same spell will be normal cast time), all DoM. This will allow DoM to prepare for emergencies or begin combat with burst damage.

Chain reaction spell combos (RDM only). Ex: Fire+wind=verfirecane. Vercure+wind=vermedica. earth+thunder=vermagneto. thunder+vercure=verregen (7 seconds)

The Versignal (passive): if Black or white gauge is below 25% at the start of combat: gauge below 25% will start increase to 25%

Um, just pick three or more of these, and it will would definitely increase DPS or any DoM QoL

[alchemi80]

RDM damage is fine. It's a very very simple class to play, and accessible to new players. This has value. I would, however, like to see them with 2-3 mob debuffs, as RDMs have in other FF games. This will further differentiate them from being BLM-lite, along with the cure and rez they already have.

[Wayfinder3]

RDM damage is fine. It's a very very simple class to play, and accessible to new players. This has value. I would, however, like to see them with 2-3 mob debuffs, as RDMs have in other FF games. This will further differentiate them from being BLM-lite, along with the cure and rez they already have.

being the weakest job in the game with a 15% gap between it and the best dps is not good, DNC, DRG, and BRD are also notoriously easy classes as well as WHM objectively being the easiest healer. difficulty doesn't mean anything.

[Katie_Kitty]

RDM damage is fine. It's a very very simple class to play, and accessible to new players. This has value. I would, however, like to see them with 2-3 mob debuffs, as RDMs have in other FF games. This will further differentiate them from being BLM-lite, along with the cure and rez they already have.

How much damage a job does has nothing to do with whether or not you think it's simple to play.