Excalibur Vs. Almace

BLU gives support via spells while fighting on the front lines dealing damage. RDM gives support via spells while fighting on the front lines dealing damage.

Similar jobs in many ways, BLU sets traits that allow it abilities it does not always have access to, that allows many different setups for subjobs, RDM does not have this, instead it has spells like Temper which augment its abilities through spells, and has access to all spells at one time rather than having to choose between them while also keeping their traits they are setting in mind. BLU also has access to the ability to self skillchain with their spells, while RDM has no such power.

I know RDM does not keep up with BLU in DD power, that has been made perfectly clear to me many times, it was a poor choice of words, I should have said in order to attempt to keep up with BLU. RDM's highest DPS comes from /NIN, which prevents /WAR, which would give the attack to RDM that it lacks, which would boost up Req, which is RDM's best WS if Attack is not to bad of a problem. Every problem with RDM DDing could be fixed by adding a DW spell similar to Temper and putting RDM on the light DD sets it has been denied for the last couple years.

What I am saying is not changing the entire job or its style, I never said to give RDM something it has never gotten before, I want it to get some good melee gear again. I want it to be more melee capable, which is not to hard to do or to much to ask for, especially seeing as even if you made those 2 simple changes BLU would end up being a better DD still, and have access to all of its unique things still, which would be just as unique as they are now.

Don't be daft.

We all know the relic Dagger is the best, it was rare so I'm using the most commonly found Blau Dolch.

Right NOW RDM's primary limitations are gear related with a secondary limitation of being forced to /NIN for any melee potential at all. Some form of native DWIII is needed, though honestly a better way would be to create a unique set of self-buffs that enhance your stats. An attack +15~25% spell self cast spell, something on that order.

I think the more interesting discussion would be why RDM is excluded from the best DD gear. I don't think the dev team is blind to the dire position RDM is in on the backline, they've at least implied it ... and people are constantly complaining about RDM's function on the front line? So what's the motivation to continue shafting it?

I'm starting to think RDM has some secret five-point exploding heart technique that the devs are aware of and we just haven't figured out yet.

If you say the best, i figure you meant the best...not the second best thats more common?

I always wanted there to be stat bonuses attached to enspells based on element.

Heck, if they just had the enspell convert your entire melee phase into elemental attacks RDM would have a role.

DW Spell similar to Temper with a side of Bravery & Faith and being included on light DD sets would put RDM from an unwanted job to a great powerful job, though both DW & Bravery at the same time might make RDM out DD BLU, so probably couldn't get both, but at least 1 of those 2 would do good enough to make a large dent.

Ok, RDM could use the second best, and Mandau too, your point being? The situation between the two is no different, just one is much less likely to have been used than the other due to the difficulty of obtaining it.

I always wanted there to be stat bonuses attached to enspells based on element.

Heck, if they just had the enspell convert your entire melee phase into elemental attacks RDM would have a role.

DW as a "spell" is bad because spells wear off. Just leave RDM going /NIN, unlike other jobs RDM actually gets useful stuff from /NIN. The elemental ninja spells have an unresistable -magic evasion effect on them, something like -30 I believe. As long as the target isn't flat out immune, you can land your debuffs pretty easily that way. Also makes for a debuff prior to tossing out a nuke. Then you have Utsusemi which when combined with RDM's other self buffs (Phalanx / Skin / Aquaveil / Spikes) makes RDM pretty difficult to kill.

The key is to make spells overwrite each other, an attack boost / MAB boost / -enmity boost would all overwrite each other so the RDM could only be in one mode at a time. Also even if RDM was on the exact same armor on BLU they would still be a better melee, SL and their wide assortment of abilities and traits guarantees that. It would just close the gap to within a reasonable range.

Having stat boost attached to enspells is generally a bad idea. Firstly it would be a big buff to SCH, and second you should be changing your enspells to match the targets lowest resistance. Many families have a single element their at negative resistance to, targeting that gives a pretty big boost to your average enspell damage. Few people bothered because nukers always just used their biggest nuke, but since enspells are all the same damage you can target the resistance you want. This is another one of those things SE F*CKED up with RDM, Enspell II's are horrible and weaken things in the wrong order. They should of just had the damage apply to every hit and weaken to the element used.

The SCH thing could be easily bypassed by making it main job only (sort of like SCH's regen boosts).

Variation by element doesn't have to be the way to go, but if, for example, enfire gave you an 8% attack boost you'd probably use it regardless of what the enemy's weakness was.

You could always do a broad approach and give like, 5% attack 5% critical hit rate when an enspell is active (I just personally see an elemental approach to be more interesting).

I would be hesitant to make the claim that RDM could keep up even with a melee WHM.

I mean even BRD gets about the same or better gear than RDM does for melee.

BRD has always had strangely good melee options.