Proposed [6.0] RDM Actions

**GiroIatari** · 06-11-2020 10:23 PM

Hi all,

Giro Iatari here! I’ve seen a couple of threads on the official forums and the FFXIV Subreddit regarding the speculation of skills that jobs will learn in the next expansion. I’ve always had fun anticipating the possibilities of the next set of skills each job would have since [2.x]. I've created a document to present my rendition of what the next actions should be! Throughout the document, I prompt you with questions about my design. Feel free to answer them in your response to this post! In the appendix, I answer a couple of common questions / concerns / suggestions people may want to ask. I will add additional questions / concerns / suggestions and my answers to them in the future. Without further delay:

Final Fantasy XIV: [6.0] LV 90 Red Mage Action Speculation

Warning: The document is pretty lengthy, but I wanted to make sure that my design is as detailed as possible to avoid confusion. I hope it's easy to follow!

**Katie_Kitty** · 06-12-2020 08:35 PM

There's a lot to like here, and without delving too deeply into it, not a whole lot that seems particularly bad about it. I like the idea of using the balance gauge to feed into your enchantment gauge. This would represent a pretty significant expansion of the job's kit, though. Unfortunately, I don't have much faith in the idea of them ever doing anything like this.

**GiroIatari** · 06-12-2020 10:14 PM

Originally Posted by Katie_Kitty

There's a lot to like here, and without delving too deeply into it, not a whole lot that seems particularly bad about it. I like the idea of using the balance gauge to feed into your enchantment gauge. This would represent a pretty significant expansion of the job's kit, though. Unfortunately, I don't have much faith in the idea of them ever doing anything like this.

Thank you! I've gotten a LOT of feedback on the FFXIV Discussion subreddit about the Enchantment Gauge. It seems like the actions themselves are great, but the introduction of them into RDM's simple playstyle is too much at once (Especially the Enchantment Gauge). For now, I'm currently tweaking the skills and actions with their suggestions in mind. (Removal of Schielhau's DoT, Removal of Enchantment Gauge). Thanks again for your input!

**Seraphor** · 06-12-2020 10:31 PM

I do like a lot of this, especially Verwater/blizzard, the way they interact with Moulinet, and Balestra in particular.

However, it does concern me that this is adding a load of additional offensive abilities, and my hotbars are full enough as it is!

I would suggest, that Verwater/blizzard are a upgrade to Contre Sizte and replace it at level 82, but the one that is available is whichever mana is currently the lowest.
This shouldn't be too big a problem because the use of Verwater/blizzard would be via weaving, and Contre Sixte would merely be an occasional thing you double weave in there anyway. Also losing the choice between water or blizzard shouldn't be too big a deal because it already commits you to either an aero or thunder spell upon use of it anyway. As a bonus... the icon remains the same colour, more or less!

Edit: I read further down and found out you already considered this! Well, combining water and blizzard at least.
And you bring up the valid issue of what would happen if your mana was even.

Another solution could be to make Verwater/blizzard into the 'AoE with drop off' kind of skill, so 400 potency to first target and 50% potency to all remaining targets.
This could allow them to replace both Fleche and Contre sixte as they could be used equally for single target or AoE, but their potencies would likely make them more suited to AoE in regular rotation, and have a more limited use in the single target rotation, which I admit I haven't fully worked out yet the implication of this in the single target rotation, it could well be too big a buff.
[Edit2: They could have an effect like "increases black/white mana by 7, + 5 for each additional target struck, up to a maximum of two additional targets" which would lower the mana increase to something more fitting for the single target rotation]
The loss of Fleche and Contre Sixte I think is more than made up with by the additional melee skills, plus these were never strictly melee skills anyway, even if they used aethereal swords in their animations.

In either case, this results in saving not just one but two skill slots.

**Katie_Kitty** · 06-13-2020 04:36 AM

Originally Posted by GiroIatari

Thank you! I've gotten a LOT of feedback on the FFXIV Discussion subreddit about the Enchantment Gauge. It seems like the actions themselves are great, but the introduction of them into RDM's simple playstyle is too much at once (Especially the Enchantment Gauge). For now, I'm currently tweaking the skills and actions with their suggestions in mind. (Removal of Schielhau's DoT, Removal of Enchantment Gauge). Thanks again for your input!

I don't think you should put too much stock into the FFXIV subreddit. These are likely most of the same people who only started playing the job because someone on the internet told them it's good for lazy people who don't want to push buttons. Some additional complexity would be nice for Red Mage and the enchantment gauge itself is a nice idea thematically. These people most likely are going to get their way because square will most likely never add much more depth to the job than it currently has (if they were going to do that, they would have done it in shadowbringers - Instead we got a couple QoL additions and a single spell tacked on top of our melee combo). Don't let them make you change your hypothetical vision for a deeper RDM too.

**Atmaweapon510** · 06-13-2020 05:13 AM

I think something that this rework really needs to keep in mind is skillslot economy. I'm pretty sure people don't want struggle to fit 3-6 new skills on their bars.

1) I think you could just make VerBlizzard/VerWater a stack system like SMN Ruin IV procs instead of a CD which necessitates you to smash it on cooldown which runs contrary to your Weaponskills mastery change. Make Fleche/Contre Sixte give you VerWater/Blizzard ready stacks that alter your next Veraero/thunder II cast. Enhanced Moulinet can just reduce Contre Sixte's cooldown instead. It'll be more flexible that way, letting you quickly build mana on demand while still serving as a buffer for when Ver ready procs aren't going your way.

2) I reworded this since I have a clearer idea of what's wrong with this picture. There is far too much emphasis on the Enchantment Gauge in this design. Secondary gauges enable you to press feel-good buttons that don't get in the way of your main rotation, but in this expansion you'd add 3 different skills that solely revolve around the secondary gauge. Let's keep some other secondary gauges in mind:

1. oGCDs
Heat Gauge-> Autoturret
Esprit-> Saber dance
Ninki-> 50 Ninki spenders
Life of the Dragon-> Nastrond/Stardiver spammer mode.
Kenki/Meditation stacks-> all strictly oGCD abilities. Kenki is all about bleeding excess Kenki, not about carefully managing exact values.

2. Nuke GCDs
Soul Voice ->Apex Arrow, fire at max Soul Voice.
Polyglot->Foul/Xenoglossy, cast AoE, instant ST.
Blood Lily->Afflatus Misery instant cast.

In every case, you have quite a bit of leeway to use these with the main risk being overcapping your resource (you didn't spend it!) None of the secondary gauges involved have you changing your base rotation, they are strictly there to reward you for doing your rotation right. With the Enchantment gauge there is way too much going on between Balestra, Manafication, Chant du Cygne and Schielhau and RDM loses its appeal as a simpler caster with melee flair. Balestra isn't an "I'm doing this right" button, it's an "I have to slow down access to my burst combo" button. Schielhau has a similar problem in that you will only ever be forced to slow down your rotation to accommodate it. You also do not want the possibility of missing a Trick attack which is really the only reason Chant du Cygne has an Enchantment cost. Finally, RDM combo timings aren't ever consistent because of RNG. You do not want people to be fishing for Ver ready procs for Balestra for optimized manafication or whatever, that's just a hassle.

The Enchantment gauge design right now is competing against the Mana gauge rather than enhancing it. Now let's just say that Schielhau is just a melee physical pocket Scorch instead of DoT weaponskill chain, an on-demand nuke that gives you lots of mana and the sole spender of the Enchantment gauge. Maybe you want to save it for when you have bad RNG, maybe you want to unload it during a burst window, maybe you need to move around the boss, maybe one of your oGCDs is going to come off cooldown during a cast. Regardless, you will never run into a situation in which you'd wish Schielhau never existed, you'd be anticipating the perfect moment to hit the enemy with a melee Scorch and in doing so, loop back into your burst combo so you can hit them with more melee Scorches.

**KaerisKlyne** · 06-13-2020 01:23 PM

I really love the idea of the melee combo being different/upgraded while under the effect of Manafication!

**Mansion** · 06-14-2020 05:46 PM

Great write up! Thanks for sharing. I do think your new gauge is interesting, and while I understand it can be worrying for people that like RDM as the simple straightforward job it is, I'm all for real complexity added in RDM. What we got with Manafication CD reduced and Reprise / engagement feels lackluster to my conception of making the job getting a higher skill ceiling.

I like what you did except one thing which already came up here before 5.0 when we were speculating : AoE. I kept my position on this, we don't really need more just for flavour because what we had / have did/does the job. A few tweaks here and there sure, perhaps have better mana gains from verThunder/Aero 2 and Impact/Scatter, and something to make Moulinet-chaining feel better.
But in the end, AoE is so underwhelming in this game I don't really see the point of adding more, because trash mobs will always be trash mobs. If we had actual gameplay tied to mob packs in FFXIV, then perhaps I'd be all in for a proper AoE rotation and resources. But in the current design I don't see the point. Perhaps we could have an upgrade at level X to VerAero II and VerThunder II for potency and even animations (if people want VerBlizzard and VerWater so much).

**Sylvain** · 06-15-2020 05:24 AM

That was a good read
Unless you already knew and still went for it for easthetical reason, you might want to change Rouge Lotus to Lotus Rouge as Rouge Lotus sounds weird in French (as weird as Lotus red does in English).

**Sylvain** · 06-15-2020 05:39 AM

Also good argument on the dot. I'm in general against DoT for the RDM but if it's under specific circumstance as a reward sure why not (although I think I'd just prefer a big hit still xD)

I would however put verblizz/water on the gcd . As an ogcd the whole "mvm tool" disapeares as, unless you're about to move the very next second, dmg ogcd are meant to be used as soon as they're up. You would never hold on it as an ogcd whereas you would if it were a gcd.
Maybe I missed something while reading but I believe this spell as an instant gcd would benefit the whole kit much more and keep RDM coherent.
Oh and I love your blade enchant idea. It's actually really neat and definitely would fix some issue with lingering oroc before finisher / transition !

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