RDM is great

[Jirah]

Just feels Samey imo, still waiting for it to explore other avenues and mechanics but so far a bulk of its prog kit is literally all evolutionary skills (Jolt II, Impact, Verthunder, Veraero) and “follow up skills” that feels rather tacked on (Verflare/Verholy, Scorch, Resolution) it’s little QoL are good but is this truly what RDM peak? Just it’s 50 base with tarted up visuals and a 1-2-3 in spell form?

[Archwizard]

Just feels Samey imo, still waiting for it to explore other avenues and mechanics but so far a bulk of its prog kit is literally all evolutionary skills (Jolt II, Impact, Verthunder, Veraero) and “follow up skills” that feels rather tacked on (Verflare/Verholy, Scorch, Resolution) it’s little QoL are good but is this truly what RDM peak? Just it’s 50 base with tarted up visuals and a 1-2-3 in spell form?

Oh don't get me wrong, I loathe the fact that every capstone ability we get is just another link in our now 6-part melee combo (7 if you count Verfloly separately), and would be sick of leveling the job if I saw they decided to add an 8th combo attack next expansion or "upgrade" (reskin) the existing ones as the next capstone; that would just show a lack of creativity with a design that (while admittedly quite polished) still has some room for growth, not unlike BLM getting Xenoglossy and then the Hi-2 spells and Paradox.
Granted, it's also unfair of me to assume they would simply leave it at that for the capstone. I can't think of any job where simple reskins come later than +4 levels into an expansion (usually +2), and for what it's worth, Resolution does have a unique relationship to our combo than the other capstones. (Namely being a line AoE, and notably that it was an AoE out of the gate.)

Of course, I'm hopeful that the name "Resolution" means this will be the last addition the combo... knock on wood.

More importantly though, I've learned to accept that the biggest pulls of the job this expansion are not necessarily the addition of new buttons at the top, but the steady revamps to its core gameplay that trickle up – like the ability to pool extra combos for a more opportune window or heavier burst, adding charges to our movement skills so we don't have to pound them on-cooldown, Mana Stacks letting us hold our combo spells, said combo spells becoming part of our AoE rotation rather than a competitor with it...
I mean clearly, the idea that they're just rehashing a combo spell so they "don't fix what ain't broke" is already defeated by the number of changes they made to the job outside the capstone, fixing what they think was broken (or at least could be improved). They are observing, and making iterative changes.

I just hope that next expansion they won't be afraid to shake up our main rotation a bit outside of the combo. Even if it's just another proc, or a timer to maintain, or tools to forcibly imbalance our Mana, or something truly bizarre yet unique to RDM.
And I also hope that they're water and ice themed because I'm basic and easy to please.

[Rongway]

I just hope that next expansion they won't be afraid to shake up our main rotation a bit outside of the combo. Even if it's just another proc, or a timer to maintain, or tools to forcibly imbalance our Mana, or something truly bizarre yet unique to RDM.

I really hope they don't. If the changes would make it significantly different, then they should have just given those mechanics to a new job instead and left RDM alone. Several jobs are in the best places they have ever been, and changing them further will have a high likelihood of either making them worse or making them different jobs all together.

[Archwizard]

I really hope they don't. If the changes would make it significantly different, then they should have just given those mechanics to a new job instead and left RDM alone. Several jobs are in the best places they have ever been, and changing them further will have a high likelihood of either making them worse or making them different jobs all together.

Oh don't be like that. It won't kill us, any more than Paradox made BLM a completely "different job."
Which I know is saying something, since BLM usually changes every 10 levels, but is almost always in "the best place they have ever been" and notably still considered iteration on the same job since HW. The day they actually make BLM "worse" is the day I stop using it as an example for this very argument.

I'm not asking them to reinvent the wheel (which, see my last post, they basically already have), just put the same amount of creativity they put into things like Polyglot and Paradox into us. Little additions sprinkled on top, in a more creatively fulfilling way than "one more spell on the cap".