Red Mage "better"??

[Seabhacgra]

Anyone else feel like the potency increases for Red Mage are sad increases? I was expecting more.. disappointing SE...

[StriderShinryu]

Yeah, I agree. While I do like all of the changes, there really are very few of them. I didn't want and wasn't expecting any sort of job rework (I really like the way RDM feels to play as is), but I was hoping for more Oomph. These changes just feel like such small potatoes and not the sort of thing that will get us anywhere near over the hump of being the sad sack caster DPS role.

[Seabhacgra]

Yeah, I agree. While I do like all of the changes, there really are very few of them. I didn't want and wasn't expecting any sort of job rework (I really like the way RDM feels to play as is), but I was hoping for more Oomph. These changes just feel like such small potatoes and not the sort of thing that will get us anywhere near over the hump of being the sad sack caster DPS role.

Exactly .. I play several classes, Machinist, RDM and Dancer are my preferences.. and they all seem to have gotten a "bandaid" potency increase for the gaping wound that is their lack of DPS.. what surprised me was that they increased Dragoon.. it was already in a good place for DPS and yet they incresed it again.. makes me wonder which of the SE senior devs plays Dragoon...

[Taranok]

Exactly .. I play several classes, Machinist, RDM and Dancer are my preferences.. and they all seem to have gotten a "bandaid" potency increase for the gaping wound that is their lack of DPS.. what surprised me was that they increased Dragoon.. it was already in a good place for DPS and yet they incresed it again.. makes me wonder which of the SE senior devs plays Dragoon...

I mean, look at Black Mage throughout stormblood and you'll realize this is par for the course.

First in 4.05, cast time from 3s to 2.8 on fire/blizzard 4, reduced mana cost of fire 1 (to match fire 4), foul made free, triplecast recast time dropped to 60s from 90.

Then in 4.2, Transpose dropped to 8s from 12, Firestarter and Thundercloud durations buffed to 18s, Aetherial Manipulation down to 10s from 30, Fire 4 potency buffed from 260 to 280.

Then in 4.4, Fire 4 bumped from 280 to 300 potency.

My point is, that took them over a year to get BLM where they wanted it, and it wasn't until the second raid tier, 6 months into the expansion, that BLM was actually viable as a selfish DPS class. Up until that point the class was nowhere near the top on DPS charts, eclipsed by classes like Monk or Summoner, you know, supporty DPS classes.

It takes time and they don't like overdoing it because they'd rather buff a class instead of nerf it. I'm already insanely surprised at the relatively major changes they're making to classes like Ninja, Summoner, AST and RDM (acceleration specifically) because the devs have a history of not making drastic changes mid-expansion.

[ForteNightshade]

Exactly .. I play several classes, Machinist, RDM and Dancer are my preferences.. and they all seem to have gotten a "bandaid" potency increase for the gaping wound that is their lack of DPS.. what surprised me was that they increased Dragoon.. it was already in a good place for DPS and yet they incresed it again.. makes me wonder which of the SE senior devs plays Dragoon...

Dragoon was buffed for a single reason: they don't want to nerf Monk.

Both Samurai and Ninja have increased potencies baked into their respective changes. Thus, if they did nothing to Dragoon, it would linger behind. The buffs aren't even that substantial; netting roughly a 1% increase give or take. It'll basically keep Dragoon fighting with Ninja.

[Rivinhal]

It's honestly fine just because the ceiling (BLM and MNK*) stayed the same. They pulled the floor up closer to the ceiling, and that's one of the two things that needed to happen.

I agree to a certain extent (and I hope you're right). But the overall concern is this:
"Did they pull the floor up high enough?"

I hope they did, but... RDM is competing with SMN and BLM. And SMN also got some meaningful changes, and BLM was a literal monster lol.

Either way I suppose we'll see on Monday. I'm pessimistic but hopeful.

Dragoon was buffed for a single reason: they don't want to nerf Monk.

Both Samurai and Ninja have increased potencies baked into their respective changes. Thus, if they did nothing to Dragoon, it would linger behind. The buffs aren't even that substantial; netting roughly a 1% increase give or take. It'll basically keep Dragoon fighting with Ninja.

Yeah.

OT here, but It's funny... In some of the DRG groups I'm in, players are mad they didn't get more buffs (I've seen some literally saying DRG was nerfed lol) because now they're afraid they'll be behind everyone else. On the other hand, I've seen SAM players really upset we got buffs. Meanwhile I'm just sad we didn't get Stardiver animation-lock adjustments lol.

Imo it's just a sign that people aren't really sure how melee will shake out.

[Leidiriv]

Well, the change to Acceleration guarantees that we get the Perfect Proc Opener every time, which gets more damage in raid buffs. The spell buffs work out to be roughly a 600 DPS increase, and the Reprise change is a pretty massive buff to both our rotations considering it's now our highest pps action aside from meleeing (but not quite as quantifiable until we know exactly how Reprise works in the rotation). Along with that, the buffs to our co-DPS end up making Embolden stronger, which will end up being a gain for us as well.

All things considered, RDM made out like a bandit this patch. We got substantial number buffs and we basically got a whole new button for our rotation even!

[Brandedblade]

While the potency increases may seem small, you have to keep in mind you are spamming them constantly throughout the fight. Which means they are most certainly going to add up over the course of a fight. Not to mention, as Leidiriv says, we now have access to the perfect proc opener which means our opening burst is stronger and more consistent.

Personally all I felt RDM needed where potency boosts, so I'm more then happy with what they gave us.

[OneTrueMiqote]

While the potency increases may seem small

but I was hoping for more Oomph.

Anyone else feel like the potency increases for Red Mage are sad increases? I was expecting more.. disappointing SE...

Early rough estimates have the overall damage increase for Red Mage to be 6% to 6.5% (and this is likely to be a minimum as more procs from Acceleration change is not factored and Embolden being slightly buffed due to other physicals being buffed). This is by no means a small increase. In fact it's one of the bigger potency increases this patch and it is certainly enough.

[Tobias_Azuryon]

Well, the change to Acceleration guarantees that we get the Perfect Proc Opener every time, which gets more damage in raid buffs. The spell buffs work out to be roughly a 600 DPS increase, and the Reprise change is a pretty massive buff to both our rotations considering it's now our highest pps action aside from meleeing (but not quite as quantifiable until we know exactly how Reprise works in the rotation). Along with that, the buffs to our co-DPS end up making Embolden stronger, which will end up being a gain for us as well.

All things considered, RDM made out like a bandit this patch. We got substantial number buffs and we basically got a whole new button for our rotation even!

Yeah while I was bummed that ShB didn't bring much to the table in terms of new skills for me personally that I enjoy using, the Reprise changes and Accelerate changes fix a lot of my problems with the opener.

I feel really happy about RDM now, with the slight buffs from the trait and the way accelerate fits into the combos where you still have to think about when you use it due to cast times I'm pretty happy about the new rotation. With Accelerate's change it gives me some interesting things to think about in regards to when I pop it after the opener and/or using swiftcast with it. I like it a lot and the class still feels good to play.