Quote Originally Posted by Milkbeard View Post
People who are new to Red Mage or following "new-gen" takes are claiming the job is rigid. RDM is not locked to a 2-minute meta. We have the active choice to either Mana Rush or Align.

Choosing to rush depends entirely on your group's projected clear time. For example, with a clear time of 7:30, it is objectively better to use Manafication on cooldown, which desyncs it from the 2-minute cycle. Even in a "Triple Melee" reopener, the first combo isn’t even under Embolden. Please be careful with what you say when jumping into RDM discussions if your only perspective is how the job fits into a standardized meta. Remember: Embolden is for the group; your resources are for the encounter.

You should take the time to understand the complexity you’re missing: learn the difference between mana rushing, standard alignment, and hybrid play during Ultimate phases. "2-minute meta" is just a buzzword for our class—it’s simply when your group needs embolden and that isn't strictly locked to 2 mins either. If you’re complaining about the 2-minute meta, you’re really just complaining about doing a double-melee combo. If you don't like that, you haven’t liked the job for five years and should have switched by now.
No, this wasn't directed at you. However I am appreciating how you are addressing it because you took time research. I don't really want to go through and quote some of the misinformed, kit ragging comments that have gathered in this thread though.

Regarding TOP and Embolden: While selfishly desyncing Embolden can be optimal in specific meta scenarios, it is generally a risky move for rDPS that requires research. We 100% agree

I want focus on Manafication and how mana rushing counters the generic arguments that red mage gameplay is centered around the 2 min windows, or embolden for that matter.

The design of manaifciation is brilliant. It accommodates both strict alignment and on-CD usage, allowing different approaches to produce equally competitive parses depending on fight length and comp. One cannot claim RDM is locked into a 2-minute cycle when its most powerful CD manaifcation is most optimally used off CD leading to being outside of the 2 min window. This is what I meant by burst control. Without Embolden, the 2-minute meta arguments for RDM collapses entirely because emboldens your only move truly locked to the 2 minute cycle. You want at least 3 parts of the sword combo and your oGCDs under embolden, but you literally are just doing your rotation, you can choose to always align manaificaiton, or mana rush, when playing this job and do literally just as well in any content. You can just forget to press manaification for 10 seconds with zero punishment, especially if the content you're doing has no clear time or an unsure clear time because of prog.