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My Red Mage reviewFollow

#1 Jul 18 2014 at 1:24 AM Rating: Default
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I just recently tried out FFXI for myself to see what it was like after hearing about some changes made.

First off, I'm sorry to say that FFXI is not a game I can really continue playing and experience the endgame of. For someone who jumped on the online gaming bandwagon around 2008, I found that the game itself just lacks too many things that I have come to take for granted, and on top of that, it’s not free-to-play either beyond the first 30 days.

However, if there is one class in the game that I would continue paying for FFXI just to play, it would undoubtedly be the Red Mage (RDM). This thing flat-out rocks.

Once I finally managed to figure out all the technical problems with PlayOnline accounts and other barriers to entry and created my Mithra Red Mage, I knew only a few things to expect: As a RDM you can be a tank, healer, or caster dps, the melee ability of the Job troubles a lot of people (many players have accused it of being weapon prowess for the sake of weapon prowess), the game is very group-oriented, meaning it’s almost impossible to solo level, and the combat system is turn based more similar to single player FF games. As I went through the first few levels, all I really knew was, “this could potentially go many different ways. Literally and figuratively”. When my 30 day trial period expired and the quiet realization that I had just experienced one of the better hybrid classes I have heard of. Needless to say it went the way I was hoping, although I wasn’t sure why.

First of all, was it difficult to solo level? Not at all. Okay, rare spawn monsters, maybe a little bit; and more-so the further in the game you get. It’s not too difficult learning the mechanics of teamwork since you can now hire NPCs to fight alongside you rather than recruiting a party of human players as you reportedly had to do in the past.

For some reason, despite having gone through several updates, there are no maps or indicators of questgivers, meaning that you have to talk to people to find out if they even have a Mission for you. I found myself constantly asking questions like “How do I know where to go next? Where is my inventory? How do I obtain spell scrolls that can’t be directly purchased?” I also had a LOT of problems with movement since I am so used to using WASD and mouse to control my character. In fact, for a newbie coming from newer MMOs such as FFXIV, I’d say this game has probably the biggest learning curve I’ve experienced (even more than EVE Online).

So far the game is only a few minutes in and there are already several critical counts against it. However, once you find a good walkthrough and get used to the basic mechanics, the fun begins.

Honestly, I got up to about Level 60 between my 30 days of trial period, and even I can’t tell you exactly what’s going on in there, at least in a way in which I can picture the entire rotation in my head. However, I did gather enough that I can at least describe a general picture of how the class works for those of you wanting to know. Here’s my take on what a RDM does: throw out Cures to party members when needed, place a Regen on Tank, and use the class’s enfeebling and enhancing spells to buff the party and debuff enemies. If there is any weakness to not being a full-on WHM, it certainly wasn’t to the detriment of your ability to be a support-oriented healer. WHMs reportedly have much stronger healing abilities (namely AoE), but the fact that you have so many support abilities as a RDM really keeps you busy and gets you a spot in the groups from what I hear.

Once I was able to choose a sub-job I picked BLM since you can hire NPC healers anyway, and this gives you access to the –aga line of elemental spells. Wait, what? I thought in most FF games “Fire III” and “Fireaga” were different names of the same spell? Apparently in this universe the -aga suffix refers to an area version of the spell. In FFXIV the second rank of a THM’s spells is used for the AoE version, and while a RDM/BLM can’t put out the insane damage a primary BLM can, the ability to hit multiple targets is always a boon.

And finally, the melee ability of the class. Put Enfire on yourself, and then click your standard attack, to hit mobs with bonus magic damage. Contrary to what I had been warned about, I found the melee dps output was actually pretty good, possibly actually higher than simply standing back and slinging spells.

Alright, so sounds like a pretty cool Job, right? Why do I give it such particular praise? Well, for one, I like the fact that this is a type of Mage I have never seen before and has a completely non-standard sequencing pattern from every other hybrid class. Things like the combination of healing and support, the ability to improve on magic damage or healing depending on your subjob choice, the melee buffs, it all stands out above the competition as having an original bag of trick up its sleeve.

Secondly, it’s very powerful without ever being a glass cannon. Reportedly it used to be one of the few jobs back in the days that could actually solo most content if played correctly. The era of the game may be a factor, as specialized classes often tend to dominate the line of thinking today, since in a game like WoW before they locked in the talent trees, if you tried to take some healing talents and some DPS talents, you will usually end up bad at both. But they still retained the feel of a classic FF Red Mage, plus the standards of what constituted “overpowered” hadn’t yet been lowered to the level they are today. So it also has all of that going for it, which is generally all I ask from a good class.

But thirdly, and this is what really gave it the extra push over other like-minded designs, is that it knows how to fit properly in a group, and it uses the “jack of all trades” status to its advantage. While some classes pride themselves on specializing in a role to maximize effiency, RDM is wise enough to strategically fit in whatever a group may need most, and throw in some support abilities while at it. It doesn’t come off as a master of none, but more like specs similar to the Druid from WoW. I can always appreciate how much I enjoy both healing and DPS and how I switch roles whenever I get tired of one. The RDM is technically 1 part WHM, 1 part BLM, and 1 part WAR, and no one section outshines the others, and yet they’re all very different and unique. And unlike a character who has leveled all three of those Jobs to 50 in XIV, which requires time and collecting many different gear sets, FFXI’s RDM feels like it’s actually designed to adapt to the situation in whatever way is most desireable for the party.

So in conclusion, I really liked this class once I got over the technical difficulties. I honestly wish SE could have found a way to work it into FFXIV’s lore somehow.

Edited, Jul 18th 2014 3:25am by JFrombaugh
#2 Jul 19 2014 at 1:53 PM Rating: Default
You and me both, though Yoshida has said he is considering Red Mage in the future, though Red Mage may not be the official name.

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#3 Jul 20 2014 at 8:27 AM Rating: Excellent
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Part of me just wants to see how different this review would've been if written circa-2005.

First off, I'm glad you enjoy the job. I do, too. Or at least did when I was playing and not getting told how to play by people didn't want to play the job. I brought up the year above, however, because the FFXI of then is vastly different than the FFXI of now.

1) Trusts did not exist.
2) FoV and GoV books did not exist.
3) Records of Eminence did not exist.
4) Signet did not grant a defensive bonus when fighting EMs or lower.
5) EXP rings did not exist.
6) People tended more toward grinding EXP on IT++ mobs, which meant no meleeing and maybe nuking for MBs if you were lucky.
7) Composure did not exist, with that the Empyrean set bonus and other Enhancing extending stats.
8) RDM's endgame gear selection sucked.
9) Because some RDMs spent an inordinate amount of times soloing things, there was a bit of a stigma to not really help RDMs get things.
10) Related to 9, you didn't have to camp Charybdis for a Joyeuse.

...and I'll cut myself off since some of it will just be bleeding personal experience in. Either way, a lot has changed between then and now. Maybe not so much the job, but the rest of the game. If you were grinding to 60 or so via Trusts and other low-stress environments, then yes, the class' hybrid aspect can be decent. One of the long time gripes myself and others have had with the class, however, is once you start fighting things that really matter, being a jack of all trades effectively means you suck at them all. With a lot of old mobs being outright resistant to enfeebles, this usually mean we were playing the role of wannabe WHM. Doable if healing wasn't too bad, but it also wasn't uncommon for people to over-stress a RDM, resulting in mistakes and passing the blame on the RDMs themselves. Burn out was common, which kind of ties into my snarky comment about people telling us how to play.

And while the game is indeed aged and different enough to throw newer MMOs for a loop, I still believe SE could've handled RDM better. From the sounds of it, you probably would've liked BLU more (Some of us liken BLU as SE learning from RDM's mistakes), but I can understand not having the time for that in just 30 days with no real clue what you're doing. I guess I also hope that maybe one day the game will go F2P so I could peek my head in from time to time and get a bit of nostalgia, but that day may never come.
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#4 Jul 21 2014 at 4:55 PM Rating: Good
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From what I've heard about Blue Mage, it is very similar to Windwalker Monk from WoW or Jedi Shadow/Sith Assassin from SWTOR. Has a lot of cool spells, but is fundamentally a melee dps class.

I'm guessing that if and when Red Mage does make it into FFXIV, it will probably be similar to that. Probably a melee Disciple of Magic that uses the same buffs and "spikes" spells as FFXI's RDM, but is unlocked either through maxing WHM and BLM (as lorewise they only existed when Black and White magic were in widespread use) or a new base class such as Fencer (to fit within the Armory system).

Edited, Jul 21st 2014 6:58pm by JFrombaugh
#5 Jul 23 2014 at 1:53 AM Rating: Excellent
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JFrombaugh wrote:
And finally, the melee ability of the class. Put Enfire on yourself, and then click your standard attack, to hit mobs with bonus magic damage. Contrary to what I had been warned about, I found the melee dps output was actually pretty good, possibly actually higher than simply standing back and slinging spells.
This depends a lot on the target you're hitting as well as the level difference between you and them. RDM's innately lower skill with sword works against it at higher levels, and high level/endgame mobs are designed in such a way that meleeing them is not a good idea. Nevermind the fact that actually good melee gear is either non-existent or found in ridiculous and extremely tedious/dangerous places (while other jobs get melee gear handed too them on a silver platter).
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Well, for one, I like the fact that this is a type of Mage I have never seen before and has a completely non-standard sequencing pattern from every other hybrid class. Things like the combination of healing and support, the ability to improve on magic damage or healing depending on your subjob choice, the melee buffs, it all stands out above the competition as having an original bag of trick up its sleeve.
That was the idea behind RDM, if you look at the spells it has access to as well as the gear variety pre-75. You basically picked your role via gear+subjob while having utility as part of your job right out of the box. The design did fall apart for certain reasons, but the intent was there in the job's core design.
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Secondly, it’s very powerful without ever being a glass cannon. Reportedly it used to be one of the few jobs back in the days that could actually solo most content if played correctly.
RDM soloing was looked at the way Divine Shield in WoW was looked at - with general disdain and used as a point against your job. Basically "no you shouldn't get <insert needed adjustments> because you can solo bosses". Replace "you can solo bosses" with "you have plate/bubble/healz" for the WoW equivalent.
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The era of the game may be a factor, as specialized classes often tend to dominate the line of thinking today, since in a game like WoW before they locked in the talent trees, if you tried to take some healing talents and some DPS talents, you will usually end up bad at both. But they still retained the feel of a classic FF Red Mage, plus the standards of what constituted “overpowered” hadn’t yet been lowered to the level they are today.
The era has something to do with it, but not for the reasons you think. Long story short: RDM became a way to sucker people into playing mana-battery for the "real heroes" of the game, which in the case of FFXI's endgame was boiled down to around 6 or 7 jobs with token or flavor-of-the-month exceptions. People that wanted to swing a sword and cast magic in one class couldn't since the game's design doesn't support actual hybrid play (no mechanics that made the melee and magic sides of the job mingle with each other). You were either in the back spamming cure/refresh/haste or playing a different job since the melee on mobs that mattered didn't help anyone.
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But thirdly, and this is what really gave it the extra push over other like-minded designs, is that it knows how to fit properly in a group, and it uses the “jack of all trades” status to its advantage. While some classes pride themselves on specializing in a role to maximize effiency, RDM is wise enough to strategically fit in whatever a group may need most, and throw in some support abilities while at it. It doesn’t come off as a master of none, but more like specs similar to the Druid from WoW.
Not really. Druids' stat values drastically change depending on what form they're in. You can't really compare a RDM to it because the druid can change forms in battle to jump between roles (even then, the druid is mediocre at best in the forms that aren't connected to their spec). A RDM has to come to the fight dressed for the role they want to perform. They have utility to help but can't really stand in for a healer or a tank. RDM is more akin to an enhance shaman or retribution paladin because of that (well, before WotLK's great hybrid revamp that fixed both specs).
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And unlike a character who has leveled all three of those Jobs to 50 in XIV, which requires time and collecting many different gear sets, FFXI’s RDM feels like it’s actually designed to adapt to the situation in whatever way is most desireable for the party.
The issue with this, however, is that it is difficult to justify a RDM's presence in a party when it is a middle of the road hybrid. That's what led to the RDM revamp that turned it into a buffbot. In a perfect world where no one cares about raid DPS it would have worked. In a single-player console game it would have worked. When you factor the results other people expect you to pull to get a boss kill, you start running into problems.
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