First of all, I do not think RDM should never ever be allowed to melee. I'm going to come down hard on the other side of the fence in about thirty seconds here but they ARE on Almace so clearly a bone was tossed to allowing them to fight every once in a while.
Where I draw the line is when people claim that a RDM BELONGS on a front line because of their role in the past. Someone on the official forums or BG or somewhere made a valid point in saying that RDM as a concept works really well in a single player RPG because you're able to make decisions on the fly and make use of your entire party. A RDM in other Final Fantasies can melee on a turn when no one needs healing or dump heals or nukes when they're more prudent.
HOWEVER.
Older Final Fantasies were often much more forgivable in the Area of Effect department. There are no cooldowns, no recasts. Warmech drop nuke on your party? Prepare to spam healing on everyone. Next turn Firaga happens? Drop more Curaga. Next turn Blizzara happens? Drop more curaga.
That doesn't work in XI. If your entire frontline takes damage from an AoE, and it is severe, there isn't a second to look over your party and say "Well damn, I need more ethers" or anything. You don't get to pause the game while you begin planning heals. Your tank is getting his face beat while your WHM is preparing to cast. Adding to the problem is that your RDM, who is able to heal also but to a far lesser degree, is only adding to when Nuke gets dropped by our hypothetical Warmech.
A party of specialists will always be more efficient than a party of generalists. RDM is a generalist job in a game full of specialists, populated by people who want efficiency. Could you have, in theory, gone to sky at level 75 and had an alliance of 18 Red Mages take down a Byakko? Sure, let's entertain it. A RDM tank spamming enfeebles, RDM DD, RDM nukes, RDM healers. It would work, eventually, through sheer power of capability.
It would be slower than any other group with a fair mix, though. That's the problem.
There are far too many jackasses fielding these arguments, too. The furry idiot who seems to always take offense to these things has been saying that SE should stop teasing RDM by giving other people the Fencer trait, and that Sagasinger video that featured a RDM clearly means RDM should be meleeing. He claims that SE should at least clear up the confusion by stating clearly what they expect for RDM in the future.
Hold on, I think I have a hunch.
Vision
Support specialists who excel at transforming their allies from mere mortals into demigods with their enhancements, while rendering once-formidable enemies impotent with enfeebling magic.
We want to see red mages play a more vital role in HNM battles by making enfeebling magic more effective against high-level notorious monsters and their legendary levels of resistance as well as allowing them to better contribute to party member enhancement.
Holy shit, it's as if SE decided to address the uncertain future by clearly outlining what they intend to do with RDM as a job.
Complaints abound about why it isn't right that BLU gets melee gear but RDM, who's AF3 translates into "Swordsman" and had Fencer and Duelist on their armors, dammit, don't get new melee gear. Why, it's as if SE is trying to point out that BLU should be meleeing and RDM should not be.
Allow me to shed some light on the mystery. Fencing is not a valid fighting style unless your opponent is also a fencer. It's all about stance and posturing, positioning, reading your opponent and figuring out the play book. Fencing is a sport, not a technique in and of itself. You do not go into a barfight by wielding a broken pool stick like an epee.
Dueling is a one-on-one fight between people. A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules. It is not a no-holds-barred fight. Again, it is a prepared and obeyed method of combat, specifically hinging on both parties following rules of engagement.
You do not duel a lion. You do not fence with a bear. You do not hunt dragons with a rapier.
I'm getting far afield. SE has been clear in their design that RDM on the front line is not an option. I do not understand this hard-on for it that's sprung up in the community; Every single claim of "RDM melee was serious at 75" has been thoroughly destroyed. Every single cry of "SE wants us to be melee!" is met with nonexistent gear and horrible weapon selection. There are no secret messages. There is no hidden meaning. Red Mage is not supposed to be on the front line trying to apply damage. FFXI is not turn-based, it does not yield to the principle of "We can heal when needed and melee when not" given the mechanic. Is it unfortunate? Yes. Is it the truth? Very much so.
There's so much unrest that "WHM can melee better than we can, and heal better than we can, and SE took our tank tools." I am yet to see a series of threads about WHM being upset they don't get new melee tools. I do not see SAM threads complaining about the lack of tanking tools being added. SAM was, of course, a viable tank in the end of the WoTG generation pre-Abyssea, able to control Ixion and Salvage with a modest mix of gear and job ability. These are things that existed and are gone now.
RDM won't go down, though. There are too many people claiming they need Cure 5, and that they should be given native Double Attack and Fencer and all these new damaging abilities that read like a wish list more than a suggestion list. The vocal RDM community won't be pleased until RDM is able to out-heal a dedicated healer in WHM and keep even with dedicated damage dealers like anyone with a two-handed weapon
SE has been clear on what RDM will be doing. Any further arguments on the subject are just people ignoring the presented facts and holding onto a flawed theory that never existed in the first place.
No comments:
Post a Comment