Thread: 6.0 Red Mage speculation

I don't expect to see a lot of expansion to our Melee (like branching combos or anything) -- not without first shoring up our Magic significantly to reduce the 40-second delay between Melee phases. It would be counterintuitive to increase the effective cost of our Melee per rotation by adding more Mana-consuming skills necessary to maximize output, unless we got to a point where we're generating more Mana than we can possibly burn with our normal rotation.
Which, to be fair, does seem to be a theme throughout our leveling experience: Acceleration at 50, Manafication at 60 (and its improvement), the Verfinishers at 70 and Scorch at 80 all are balanced to shave a couple GCDs off that delay on average. It will not surprise me at all when that particular trend continues at 90, well before we become any type of Spellblade hybrid.

With regards to getting an AoE Combo Finisher... maybe? Considering how high level it would be, I expect it would more likely be some kind of proc or cooldown that would be applicable in both single-target and AoE -- like how Foul was a BLM finisher for both scenarios before they got a single-target equivalent, or how SMN and WHM got skills for both like Deathflare and Afflatus Misery. If a proc, maybe something that occurs more often via Enchanted Moulinet hitting multiple targets, as with Thundercloud or Quick Nock. If a cooldown, perhaps something where the timer is reduced by each successful cast of Enchanted Moulinet -- something they could easily do with Contre Sixte now.

There is the possibility of the whispered Raise Tax being "addressed", but I would need to hear more about any plans for Healer changes before I say anything to that. At the moment SMN doesn't pay such a tax for their Raise, and Verraise isn't particularly meaningful in end-game content anyway since most comps would sooner wipe than cast it. I have my own ideas about it, but it remains to be seen whether it's on their radar to begin with.

As far as evolving the job goes, yes we have what could be considered a whole rotation so a lot of naysayers will claim there's nothing more to add, but mechanically we're very simplistic and still have room for additional growth and dev creativity, particularly considering how little change we got this expansion compared to other casters. The AoE changes were welcome, but considering we had 10 Scatters per Moulinet before, it was more "past due correction of a seeming oversight" than truly "growth".

In the barest minimum of terms, I could see at least one of three things happening as an evolution to the job:
1) A new proc effect (a la Thundercloud/Firestarter) -- something like a new instant spell that accelerates our average Mana gain by a couple seconds. Kill two birds with one stone by having it be used in AoE as well.
2) A timer, like a DoT or a buff to maintain through the rotation (a la Enochian, Trances, Blood of the Dragon, Darkside, etc) -- something that might replace every 5th Jolt/Verfire/Verstone, for instance.
3) A tertiary resource that functions as a charge system for a new ability (a la Polyglot, Dreadwyrm Aether, Blood Lily, etc).
Personally I think the first two are more in line with the job (considering our relationship with Mana is already essentially equal to Ninjutsu or the Blood Gauge, so I don't see the devs giving us the same mechanic again). Admittedly the latter two categories seem more likely to have room for actual player engagement, but the first still has potential depending on the nature of the proc, like if it actually prompts a choice (which considering how our Mana already works, seems plausible to implement)... provided it can set itself apart from the two Ready procs we already have, without breaking the system.

Otherwise, largely just damage/Mana traits and new cooldowns. Maybe a personal Lightspeed/Trance/Triplecast-type cooldown to silo out some Veraero/Verthunder/Impacts and get to our melee rotation a little faster, or adding a small Mana boost to Fleche (3/3?) and Contre Sixte (1/1 per target hit?), or putting our movement skills on charges in addition to reducing their CDs so they continue to line up with our melee rotation. There are still ways to safely bulldoze Engagement and push its role onto Corps-a-Corps to clear a little bar space (and they could always just put the melee combo on one button like in PvP since there is no reason to separate it except to chew on more buttons, given how linear the combo is)... not that we necessarily need that much more space, since we're still pretty light compared to someone like SMN even with 3 Opposite Mana Clone pairs.

I'd like AoE to be changed. And I'd love for a true Verblizzard/Verwater appearance.

I echo that Enchanted Moulinet should be used once which then procs AoE versions of Verflare/Verholy/Scorch (maybe like Verscourge and Verbanish to echo 1.0 and add in Ardor from XII). Or maybe make the three spells AoE period and have them be like Afflatus Misery with fall off damage. Or just have Enchanted Moulinet trigger Ardor as an AoE Scorch variant and skip the middleman. It just needs some sort of finisher after melee to feel "right" to me.

I'd like Verwater to be an oGCD DoT that turns into Verblizzard which us used to "freeze" that DoT in place to tick for more damage. Have them only contribute 1 white/black mana each so if you accidentally even them out you can ensure your Verholy/Verflare. 60s cooldown on Verwater which starts ticking even while Verblizzard is ready. Verwater DoT of 15s, Verblizzard functionally extends duration by 15s.