Lets Talk - Red Mage

[SwordCoheir]

do you understand how class balance works yet? do you see how each of these classes do something slightly different from the others, specializing in different roles and excelling in different situations? so tell me where you see red mage fitting in with this picture while retaining balance in relation to the other classes and also having its own identity.

i'm all ears.

Frankly, there are too few ability slots to actually go into an all out hybrid mage like they did in FFXI, so even on the most conceptual level FFXI or classic RDM in general is plain impossible without making it severely under/over powered or going back into FFXI's classic Backline/Frontline arguements.

I've been thinking RDM's focus should probably be on Magic Weaponskills for damage, combining the Black mage side into the melee side and forcing front lining in order to operate with maybe one or two support spells.

It's primary focus is single target magic spike damage through it's weaponskills, with physical DoT from Auto-Attacks, the TP debilitation preventing constant spammage like BLM's can do, and MP restrictions will limit long-term combat without needing to rest occasionally.

In keeping with the RDM tradition, RDM will lack any AoE moves outside of maybe a 5-15 minute turn single-target to AoE type move (Similar to Sacred Prism but for offense).

Heals, frankly one decent spell that gives roughly .75 the power of Cura, or have the same level of power as Cura but have a drawback like Sacrifice and consume 1/4 of hp for the amount healed. Like Holy Succor though, it will not stack with Sacred Prism to limit it's overall usefulness to main healer.

With Armor they can wear Scale, Cloth, Leather, Harness, Bone, Chainmail, Tabards, basically anything but the heaviest of armor like Haubergeons and Platemail.

Weapons, pretty much Rapier, Epee, Fluent type weapons, with roughly the same DPS and weapon damage as PLD swords. Piercing type.

Accuracy/Magic Accuracy Since RDM will need to utilize both to successfully land the WS move and be unresisted, they will need decent accuracy on both fronts.

HP, RDM will have low-mid HP with heavier armors allowing them to take a hit, but lower HP will prevent them from doing frequently.

MP, being RDM will be in a constant state of combat there will be no regeneration in normal circumstances, so high MP pool will probably be justified so RDM is not resting after just 2-3 WS combos.

Bonus Stats, with MND to help with Magic Accuracy, and INT to assist in WS damage to allow RDM to stay with mage stats and avoid a horrible intangible juggle between physical and magic stats outside of Physical Accuracy.

So Overall.

Stat Levels:
Auto-Attack: Average
Single-Target: Great (especially on magic weak targets)
AoE: None (outside of maybe an 5-15 Minute single to AoE Job Ability)
Heals: Mid
HP: Low-Mid
MP: High (Not being able to regenerate MP without resting, I feel high MP pool is justified)
Armor: Mid-High
Base Weapon Damage: PLD level
Main Type: Piercing
Accuracy: Mid-High
Magic Accuracy: Mid-High
Bonus Stats: INT-MND

I think that's a rather fair way of designing RDM.

It's because most people either:

1. Never played FFXI and will hate on, which is a common trend on these forums.
2. Played FFXI and want XIV to be a unique snowflake compared to it's predecessor even though the game was beyond successful so it had to do something right.
3. Want XIV to resemble XI in no way -- I read in a topic people want "Store TP" and "Rolanberry items" to go away because it was used in FFXI, that's how far the ignorance goes.

RDM was the most powerful job in FFXI next to Blue Mage. I would say Samurai but that job was SE's favorite so it's not counted.

Most people who actually thought RDM was overpowered including SE, tend to generalize RDM's as overpowered due to the exploits of a very few, very talented, extremely well geared RDM's like Avesta, despite the fact many other jobs have proven to trump RDM in the aspect of soloability. Unfortunately people's exploits like Avesta was used as a constant excuse by players who never even touched RDM and SE in general to actually see the plethora of underlying issues with RDM to prevent actually giving it any significant upgrades or anything unique to the job even to this day. Since the level cap rose past 75, many of those issues have come to light by even the general community, however SE has done little to RDM still outside of a few very lackluster spells.

The other half of RDM's popularity was due to lack of content that required anything beyond RDM's level of healing/refresh/haste botting. Which actually falls on SE for not creating unique or decent combat scenarios that require the talents of jobs like WHM, PUP, or SCH.