Suggestion for: RDM improvements

[Wayfinder3]

snip

I like your suggestions, but here are my reasoning, everything i've suggested is open to input but it's all still grounded in this games combat and what can be expected from this game.

1st. VerHoly/Flare/Scorch being AoE means RDM have a proficient way of using their mana on 2 targets, moulinet doesn't enough damage at 2 targets to warrant expunging mana for it.

Moulinet on 2 targets for 5 gcds= 2000 potency
Melee combo on a single target for the same amount of gcds = 2270 potency


this means RDM in prolonged 2 target scenarios such as adds in ucob or add heavy fights like o7s can only use single target melee combo which puts them behind SMN and BLM who have dots that help with this as well as powerful AoE abilities to spike their damage. while this is a niche scenario, giving rdm this flexibility will help them should they aim to do longer add phases in future ultimates or savage encounters designed around multiple enemies. not every change needs to be groundbreaking, some can be little touch ups and future proofing, this won't change RDM in anyway besides give them more AoE options and if 50% is too strong, we can reduce it to 30% so that E moulinet isn't invalidated at 3 targets.

2nd. giving a fire and stone proc for using raise and cure isn't a true reward, you still lose the 310 potency from veraero and thunder and these are RDMs 2 most potent GCDs over the course of a fight. This is called mitigated losses, it's the same concept behind white mages lily system. Afflatus misery's 900 potency is worse than the 4 glares you alternatively would've had (1200 potency). vercure would be buffed by this but only so far as downtime and this would at least save the RDM some potency on their follow up cast by allowing it to be verfire or stone . the issue you present about using the spells equally wouldn't matter as much because cure and raise give you Procs, not mana, you still have to cast the spells to get the mana and thus won't have to worry about imbalancing.

3rd. Paladin has a very functioning heal in clemency and doesn't pay for it as it's arguably the best tank and the role is so well balanced. taxes are flexible, giving RDM an effective single target heal on the GCD doesn't require the job to be 15% weaker than BLM. if 800 is too much, 500 is fine but i can assure you, a 800 potency cure 1 isn't replacing any healer anytime soon when none of them in optimized play ever cast their cure 2s. Adlo is the exception but thats for a deployed shield. Cure 2, Cure 1, Bene 1, Bene 2, Physick and arguably Lustrate all go unused because 1 GCD on a single person isn't worth the DPS loss. suggesting that it would implies RDM would be able to help the main healer heal up 8 players with this one single target GCD as well as heal through attacks like tumults. If you chose to bring up the AST solo heal thats currently possible, RDM getting an 800 potency heal won't make that main stream largely because again, it's a single target heal and 2, fflogs standard comp metric would make that solo comp pretty much ignored. All this 800 potency would do is allow RDM to recover runs by keeping the tank alive on top of members making it better for prog(what it's currently designed to contribute in the most)

4th. In later implementations, More melee can be handled easily if it's stored nukes like xenoglossy that also add mobility. Personally, i believe the red mage melee aspect of the job would flow better if it were a GCD combo on a cooldown like GNBs gnashing fang combo for a couple reasons. first, It allows us to plan our melee combo without worrying about mana generation, second, it means the job will no longer have a delayed burst which will add a fun layer of optimization. as for additonal melee abilities, you can BW mana build to a strong melee range hit, that can be used every 50 B/W mana and have acceleration immediately give 50.
also, caster rarely don't want to be in at least max melee range and the idea that them not having survival tools ala second wind is a very strange argument to make. if this was a legit concern, they could just give casters second wind or an equivalent, BLM has manaward so survival tools aren't alien to casters. Red mage can easily get more melee as long as its handled properly


more white magic can just be more defensive ogcds, such as a possible AoE regen, a shield to mitigate damage, (it could be a weaker rdm version of temperance as an example) some healer abilities that are nerfed but can slot into a dps kit without turning it into a healer. verraise and vercure are fine defensive utilities but they're too niche in their application which causes the job to feel like that white magic identity is too small. the only BLM utility offered that RDM could've taken was apoc which doesn't exist anymore. frankly, if they added a nerfed blizzard ability that restored mana, that would be a nice Black magic ability to take.

I don't want a spellblade job, i already have one and, that is the Red mage. what i want is for the devs to capitalize on the potential a magic melee job with roots in B/W magic could offer. Red mage won't be a top tier dps like BLM, i don't see the point in asking for that, but i can ask for the job to be close enough to BLM that the dps disparity won't matter unless you want extra saftey or even more damage. Red Mage should do more than just B/W B/W melee combo in my opinion. i don't need a spell blader thats 100% melee with little magic (play paladin if you do) I want a Red mage that specializes in versatility and uses it's magic enhanced sword to support the party as well as it's prowess in black and white magic. This is what red mage has always been, you seem to believe it's not possible to explore the melee dps aspects of RDM, i believe that it is and you simply need to open your eyes to the possibilities. As a caster melee hybrid, red mage is allowed to walk the line between melee dps and ranged because it's not competing with melee. Red mage doesn't need positional because it's also a spell caster and casters have cast times which are equivalent to the melee's positional as a role design choice. I'm not even sure why you think i want them to turn red mage into a melee dps. more melee doesn't mean, all melee and no spells so this argument is very strange.

i'd agree Spellblade was a different job if all of Red mages Enchanted Melee skills weren't fundamentally the same as imbuing swords with magic. the only difference between spellblade jobs and red mage in past games is that they could imbue their sword with any magic, while red mage could just use lower tier B/W magic. this however isn't true for this game where Red mage can imbue magic and use B/W magic of which tiers don't matter. In my eyes, they are the same. If RDM wasn't doing this, explain why their melee combo is functionally and lorewise, doing magic damage. it's because they are indeed a Spellblader.