New 2 Hour AbilitiesFollow

A malboro NM? Also, I'm curious if it works on auras...

Well, Fealty lasts a minute, and I'd guess that this would, as a whm 2hour, be allowed to even protect against Death, even if it's not 100%. We'll have to see it in practice, though.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/26191-New-2-hour-Abilities?p=346040#post346040

yes, it's an improvement, but it doesn't change the rest of pup's 2hour from being a steaming pile of sh*t.

Actually, I'm not surprised by this at all. I was actually wondering how an increased effect and duration would play out under Composure, which already triples the duration of everything a RDM can self cast.

It does, to a lesser extent, if AF3 is worn.

They better TRIPLE the potency of all enhancing magic, if RDM new 2H is supposed to be any relevant. 45% haste, 90-100 Phalanx, 80-90 Enspells, 1k Stoneskin, 60% DA from Temper, etc.

That would make solo RDM super-awesome for the duration, and, depending on how many time the 2H is active, could make a party of very hard hitting and durable allies.

Sounds like a Catch-22. If RDM gets a super buff that's self only, RDM is still not as useful as other support jobs. If RDM gets a super buff that can target others, RDMs get up in arms about being forced into a pink mage role again.

Let's face it, RDMs won't stop complaining until they can solo 90% of endgame again.

I don't blame SE for just ignoring them at this point.

I was a 75 RDM that healed merit parties, did Salvage, soloed ZNMs/sky/sea, etc. I'd argue that pink mage and boring things to death (soloing) are the only two substantial roles RDM ever filled. If you think that the difference between a RDM's Tier II enfeebles and a WHM's Slow in level 75 endgame really mattered, I think I may have some news for you. If you think that RDM's higher enfeebling skill really mattered, you needed better WHMs. The largest debuff difference was between Dia III and Dia II.

For a long time RDM excelled as pink mage because:
1) Refresh
2) Access to head refresh
3) MP consumption mattered
4) Dia III gave them an offensive bonus over their competitors

So people are all "boo hoo, if we get a useful buff we'll have to be pink mage again!" But that's the only real party role the job has ever had. Enfeebling was always a fringe benefit to bringing RDM along. I was probably one of the rare few that enjoyed pink maging in difficult situations (sometimes) because you had to match MP consumption against MP recovery perfectly or your were either under-utilizing the job/your gear or causing /healing breaks. That is simply not an issue anymore, because you almost can't spend your MP fast enough to beat out recovery.

For the job's future direction, I would hope to return to a genuinely useful pink mage role, but I'd also hope that they remove the tedium of haste/refresh orders. To that end:
1) Allow all enhancing magic (except Erase) to be Accessioned
2) Allow accessioned buffs to gain the full benefit of Composure for all the targets.

Now RDM would need to do ~4 JAs +spells every ~10 minutes (Enspell, Refresh, Haste, Temper). The rest of the time could be spent on the more interesting and interactive parts of the job, whatever they might be for the situation RDM finds itself in. I wouldn't complain if they also made all of RDM's spells single target instead of self-target, but I don't see it being as necessary as the above two changes. Those two changes would make RDM the best meleeburn and lowman healer for most things.

No no, not quite, get it right. RDMs are complaining because they're forced to solo 90% of endgame since no one wants to bring them to endgame events. Wanting to be relevant is hardly arrogant.

I fail to see what's so silly about a mechanic that's been a part of the job since literally the first game.

But d00d, FFXI is a generic fantasy MMO meant to pay no homage to its predecessors! Nothing prior matters!

A RDM that doesn't melee is called a SCH, or did people miss that memo.

Seriously ... SE took everything that made "Pink Mage" and put it into SCH, then they took everything else that "Mage Mode" RDM's did and put it into SCH (nuking / ect..). It even went so far as to give SCH the most powerful enhancing spell in the game.

RDM's melee capability has existed since 2002, SE just screwed it up so badly and refused to do anything to fix it that the players were forced to find something else to do with the job. Healers were so short back then that we used to force SMN's to /WHM and cure, thus anyone with "Cure" and a MP pool was then turned into a healer. It wasn't till much later that "Haste" spam become common and permanently cemented the idea of a RDMs only job being to support DD's. Kind of interesting to see how the community has lied to itself so often that they've become to believe the lie.

Oh well, it was worth a try.

Edited, Aug 3rd 2012 10:16am by cidbahamut

More info starting on this page: http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/106679-Test-Server-Findings/page212

Seems like NIN 2hr gives 100% parry and SMN is literally bloodpact spam.

More accurate.

Personally, I only wanted RDM to be acceptable on the frontline during XP/merits, and since it works in noob solo, GoV, and Abyssea (i.e. you can melee your way to 99 if you so choose, most alliance leaders are just glad you're not AFK), I'm happy with where it is now. I even have a shiny Almace to CDC stuff if I feel like it.

In endgame, it's not going to compete, but that's why I have BLU PLD NIN DRG (and my terrible THF, which I don't list in my sig because it's pathetic and only used for TH); if I want to get in a mob's face in endgame. Not like there's a lot of reason to bring RDM to endgame these days anyway, since I have SCH WHM and BLM.