Quote Originally Posted by Ruminate View Post
Mystic Knights dealt very high damage. Thats rounded enough for an MMO class. Its not rounded enough for a tanking role, but thats because they were never great at survival to begin with.
魔法剣士/Mystic Knight was basically a black mage that cast their nukes through a sword; that was it. They were so one-dimensional that the concept was converted to sword enchanting and given to RDM in FFXI, which looking at spellswords and sword&magic archetypes, it makes sense. It's testimony to hybridity, not to mention it looks awesome as hell.
In most FF, the RDM's signature skill is Double Cast
Building RDM around double cast would be pointless because then you're obviously making up for a weak spell list. Some form of it may be acceptable (like my suggested "Double" ability), but even then I can admit you'd have PvP concerns over it (which should always be kept in mind because PvP is a part of this game).

The main thing about RDM in an MMORPG is that the melee and magic sides of the job cannot be treated separately like in the console FFs. The abilities have to mesh and combine into a greater whole in order to be a job that can function acceptably within the trinity. I've harped on this before, but outside of the console FF's, RDM's defining traits should be how they apply the stuff they borrowed from Fighter, Black Mage and White Mage. A BLM may use Fire to blow up a door into a room, where a RDM may use their weaker version of Fire to melt the lock. A Fighter can hit someone for really high physical damage, whereas a RDM may ensorcel their sword so that it does the expected inferior physical damage but also make up the difference through the damage by Enfire.