RDM lost some of its visual identity with the upgrade to Veraero and Verthunder III

[Platinum_Breeze]

RDM's visual type of spell-casting is defined by using rapier and focus in combination to hurl spells at the enemy.

However, the animations for Veraero III and Verthunder III (which are upgrades acquired at level 82) do not fit the hurling motion our character makes. The particle effects, while good-looking, only really appear on the enemy. Nothing is being hurled. The supposed impact suggested by our character's motion falls flat. There is no momentum or sense of direction to these quite frequently used spells anymore and as a result, RDM feels less satisfying to play after level 82.

As such, I would suggest adding parts of the regular Veraero and Verthunder animations to the upgrades, namely the black and blue lightning beam for Verthunder and the wind orb for Veraero.

[SeverianLyonesse]

I half-agree with this. I'm a bit confused why now we need summoning circles for Veraero and Verthunder, I guess to make it look more consistent with Resolution. It feels inconsistent with the visuals for Verfire and Verstone, as well as VA/VT II. I don't mind that the job aesthetic is moving in a different direction at higher levels (like WHM, SMN, for example), but I would like it to at least be consistent. Hopefully 7.0 introduces Verfire and Verstone III, as well as VA/VT IV, which also use summoning circles.

Right now the job feels torn in two different directions and I don't really enjoy playing it anymore as a matter of game feel.

[ReynTime]

They stop caring about job identity after the job is no longer fresh.
Just look at NIN, SCH, AST, etc...

[RdehlikaJenma]

Momentum and sense of direction were never part of the Red Mage spellcasting.

Red Magic uses one's own aether, rather than drawing on the aether of the land, like White/Black Magic. due to this (intentional) downside, Red Magic was weaker, but safer for the land, and other the centuries, as the secrets of Red Magic were discovered, methods were developed to make their spellcraft more and more efficient. Every movement of a Red Magic is a spell component, allowing them to mitigate the aether usage with more and more efficient magics.

You'll notice in the Job action trailer, the Verthunder III casting animation seems close to the Verfire animation, a more subtle gesture, but resulting in a far more impressive blast than Verthunder.

You are becoming more and more efficient with your spellcasting, and producing larger, more powerful effects. Which is the entire point of the entire Red Mage aesthetic, from their less traditional caster clothing down to the rapier they wield along with their focus.

Ver III spells are completely fine aesthetically, as they are showing your mastery of Red Magic.

[Platinum_Breeze]

This is not about lore, only about visuals. Verthunder, Veraero, Verstone, Verfire and Jolt all send magic flying from the focus towards the target with a fitting sort of discharge or hurling/slinging motion. There definitely is momentum involved in that. The new spells also have this character movement (and they have the exact same one as the regular Verthunder/Veraero) but lack the connection of the spell between caster and target which makes these spells feel jarring and emptier than the base versions in comparison, even though the spell effects on the target look very nice and fitting for an upgrade. I am not debating that RDM should not have gotten upgraded spells, it's just that the movement and the particle effect don't work together as well as with the old spells.

It may have looked like that in a trailer but, playing the job, Verfire's gesture is anything but subtle. It is almost a move you would see in a sport like tennis.

[SieyaM]

I find the visuals to be more consistent with our Jolt ability, which also has a crystal within a circle kind of visual. I do hope they upgrade stone/fire also to be more consistent not only in style but also scale, the effects for Aero and Thunder right now also seem much larger than stone and fire.

[SaberMaxwell]

I'll have to agree to disagree with you on this whole "hurling spells" stuff, I never saw that as RDM's visual identity at all.

[Jybril]

They stop caring about job identity after the job is no longer fresh.
Just look at NIN, SCH, AST, etc...

Wait, what's happening with NIN?

[ReynTime]

Wait, what's happening with NIN?

NIN has a relatively low DPS for the melee jobs for a reason. It was supposed to be the closest thing to a "support DPS" role of the melee ones. SE just decided eventually to make them tunnel-vision into pure DPS, and ultimately jutsu mages ShB onwards when enmity management was removed from the game instead of thinking of something else to keep them at that role. Now they're nothing but lower tier melee DPS that has a layer of complexity (pressing a weird combo of actions to do 1 action) with no payoff or anything to justify itself other than "mudras are cool".

[Daralii]

Wait, what's happening with NIN?

Potencies are too low and a lot of people dislike the raiju combo.