Wondering what to do, honestly...

[Aikaal]

So here'S the deal. RDM is in a bad spot, it's not doing great and it's main reason to be brough is raise utility.

If your goal is to do week1/week2, the main strat group uses is to bring RDM for the first 3 floor and swap SMN for the 4th one for the DPS check. It is the common world prog strat. You don't bring a BLM unless you run double caster and that meta is dead in Endwalker.

If your goal is to clear eventually, you can stick to RDM. Unless you group with people who constantly log grey, DPS isn't an issue at the end of the day.

[Travel]

Things change here all the time in 14, and P8S is an exceptionally rare circumstance where job balance was a problem in week 1. It's not the norm, and it'll probably not happen again for several years given how much more this game has grown. Heck, back in HW MNK was the garbage job. Now look at it.

I really do hope you're right, man; it's just so common with video game companies in general these days to start fucking with game balance and not doing shit about it. FFXIV, for all of my gripes and complaints and other negative shit, is one of the few games I've played in a very long time that's made me genuinely happy; I hope you'll forgive me for showing what I openly admit is a bit too much concern.

So here'S the deal. RDM is in a bad spot, it's not doing great and it's main reason to be brough is raise utility.

If your goal is to do week1/week2, the main strat group uses is to bring RDM for the first 3 floor and swap SMN for the 4th one for the DPS check. It is the common world prog strat. You don't bring a BLM unless you run double caster and that meta is dead in Endwalker.

If your goal is to clear eventually, you can stick to RDM. Unless you group with people who constantly log grey, DPS isn't an issue at the end of the day.

Early clears are what I was focusing on; with how random my schedule is these days, there might not be any time for me afterwards to do any raiding, so getting something made just in case is a good idea regardless.

[Rithy255]

Do you want me to double the size of the text?
This tier we weren't Minimum ilvl gear and we never were, we had 900 tomestones and 3 floor worth of gear including tomestone weapon.
But even with this, it was the hardest DPS check since Gordias.
Even on a perfect run you could be screwed if your RNG wasn't good.

Your right really the DPS check was harsh, I doubt SE would be even intending for the DPS check to be that much (on min item level), so they changed it, Sure you could buff lots of jobs but also expecting them to buff 5-6+ jobs in two weeks is very unrealistic and the DPS check on min item level would generally be too much still.

I don't know how it's that hard to want balance changes but also realise that every job is viable every job can clear, the value of a job such as Red Mage despite Black mage doing more right now, Red Mage is being used quite a bit more. Despite people saying machinist is "unplayable" people still bring it, but you know I can also want Mch to be buffed, I can still want casters in general to be buffed, Realising that the check was actually a big issue, but we can also look at job balance isn't too difficult.

[CKNovel]

I don't know how it's that hard to want balance changes but also realise that every job is viable every job can clear, the value of a job such as Red Mage despite Black mage doing more right now, Red Mage is being used quite a bit more. Despite people saying machinist is "unplayable" people still bring it, but you know I can also want Mch to be buffed, I can still want casters in general to be buffed, Realising that the check was actually a big issue, but we can also look at job balance isn't too difficult.

Honestly I believe they should've went with both.
The nerf was necessary for min ilvl purpose.

But a first set of buff should've been with 6.21.
Just very slight damage buffs for RDM and MCH.
Just to make them a bit more valuable.

Yes, it's unrealistic to ask to buffs multiple jobs in such a short notice.
The problem is that MCH has been asking for buffs since DSR and anyone would've guessed that the SAM+DNC combo would skyrocket with the crit/dh changes.

[Rithy255]

Honestly I believe they should've went with both.
The nerf was necessary for min ilvl purpose.

But a first set of buff should've been with 6.21.
Just very slight damage buffs for RDM and MCH.
Just to make them a bit more valuable.

Yes, it's unrealistic to ask to buffs multiple jobs in such a short notice.
The problem is that MCH has been asking for buffs since DSR and anyone would've guessed that the SAM+DNC combo would skyrocket with the crit/dh changes.

Machinist should have been buffed really in 6.2 (or eariler) I think machinist was clearly one of the jobs they should have looked at.
I think if red mage would at least be on par with summoner it would be a lot better.

I just don't think they really wanted to change too much in the two weeks, I'm sure small buffs wouldn't have messed with balance to much though, lets hope 6.25 they do fix machinist and some other jobs in general

[Aikaal]

I really do hope you're right, man; it's just so common with video game companies in general these days to start fucking with game balance and not doing shit about it. FFXIV, for all of my gripes and complaints and other negative shit, is one of the few games I've played in a very long time that's made me genuinely happy; I hope you'll forgive me for showing what I openly admit is a bit too much concern.




Early clears are what I was focusing on; with how random my schedule is these days, there might not be any time for me afterwards to do any raiding, so getting something made just in case is a good idea regardless.

Then you can still go RDM but I'd level SMN in the pocket in case something like this tier happens. It's never bad to know all the jobs of the role you play anyways~ Summoner is extremely easy to play and you basically have the rotation at level 50 lol

[Travel]

Then you can still go RDM but I'd level SMN in the pocket in case something like this tier happens. It's never bad to know all the jobs of the role you play anyways~ Summoner is extremely easy to play and you basically have the rotation at level 50 lol

Thanks for the suggestions; I'll certainly be working on SMN later on. I've also got RPR for melee, and I'm going to be grinding my original job - Bard - to serve as my physical ranged option.

[MilkieTea]

Thanks for the suggestions; I'll certainly be working on SMN later on. I've also got RPR for melee, and I'm going to be grinding my original job - Bard - to serve as my physical ranged option.

To clarify, at level 50 you have the base rotation. Level 90 (iirc, i main SMN but CBA to check levels rn, just know it's late to the game) you get the *very last parts* to your rotation.
In essence, at level 50 it's: Summon blue lego -> spam blue lego skill -> weave energy drain/fester -> summon red/yellow/green lego -> Spam skill -> repeat.
At level 90, this changes to summon blue lego -> Spam blue lego skill -> weave energy drain/fester -> summon red/yellow/green lego -> spam skills A and B -> summon orange lego -> weave energy drain/fester -> repeat

Though generally speaking, honestly and I know you've been resistant to the thought but hear me out: RDM is absolutely 100% perfect for your needs. You *do not need* to switch jobs or level alt jobs to do things like farm for the Eden mount. TBH you don't even need a meta comp to do things at level 90, either. UNLESS your goal is to eventually join WEEK 1 PROG GROUPS you are fine. MCH, considered to be bottom rung right now in terms of balance, is STILL ABLE TO CLEAR THINGS. RDM brings utility as well as roughly the same damage as SMN, if a little more in some edge cases.

[Travel]

To clarify, at level 50 you have the base rotation. Level 90 (iirc, i main SMN but CBA to check levels rn, just know it's late to the game) you get the *very last parts* to your rotation.
In essence, at level 50 it's: Summon blue lego -> spam blue lego skill -> weave energy drain/fester -> summon red/yellow/green lego -> Spam skill -> repeat.
At level 90, this changes to summon blue lego -> Spam blue lego skill -> weave energy drain/fester -> summon red/yellow/green lego -> spam skills A and B -> summon orange lego -> weave energy drain/fester -> repeat

Though generally speaking, honestly and I know you've been resistant to the thought but hear me out: RDM is absolutely 100% perfect for your needs. You *do not need* to switch jobs or level alt jobs to do things like farm for the Eden mount. TBH you don't even need a meta comp to do things at level 90, either. UNLESS your goal is to eventually join WEEK 1 PROG GROUPS you are fine. MCH, considered to be bottom rung right now in terms of balance, is STILL ABLE TO CLEAR THINGS. RDM brings utility as well as roughly the same damage as SMN, if a little more in some edge cases.

Yeah, I talked about this with some other guys earlier in this thread; I am keeping RDM around and I am going to be using it for Savage content, including Eden, but I was also interested in joining those Week 1 prog groups; hence, if the balance is still going to be skewed in favor of melee for Week 1 clears in the future - which I really hope it isn't - then I'll be needing to get a melee job leveled for those specific instances.

That, and leveling alternate jobs helps avoid burnout from playing the same job too much.

[MilkieTea]

Yeah, I talked about this with some other guys earlier in this thread; I am keeping RDM around and I am going to be using it for Savage content, including Eden, but I was also interested in joining those Week 1 prog groups; hence, if the balance is still going to be skewed in favor of melee for Week 1 clears in the future - which I really hope it isn't - then I'll be needing to get a melee job leveled for those specific instances.

That, and leveling alternate jobs helps avoid burnout from playing the same job too much.

All groups, for week 1 comps, will typically do 2 tanks/1 shield heal/1 pure heal/2 melee/1 phys ranged/1 caster. You'd have a place in a week 1 group regardless of if you played your preferred job or not.

Pick a job you like and get good at it, imho. Being "okay" at a bunch of jobs is fine but being amazing at one is even better - a week 1 static will take you if you're an orange parsing RDM god but will struggle to find a reason to take you if you're grey parsing but able to swap roles, for example.

Edit:
Rank 1 group RN for P8S P2 (Current tier final boss) has a comp of: 2DRK/AST/SCH/MNK/SAM/DNC/RDM
Rank 11 comp: PLD/GNB/SGE/AST/MNK/NIN/BRD/RDM