Dear Square Enix, please die.

Man am I pissed! Checked out the RDM updates this morning and I was in shock. They gave WHM all that great stuff then game RDM a seemingly worthless update (SMN just got a bug fix). If they had announced the RDM and SMN updates first it probably wouldn't be so bad, I mean pointless updates are Square's forte, but they had me fooled into thinking the bar was raised. The "updates" are as follows:

"In this second half of the announcement on job adjustments and additions planned for the April version update, we present to you a delectable array of changes that are bound to change the way you buff and summon!

Red Mage

The new job ability “Composure” and a new line of En- type magic spells will be added.

- Composure
(Lv.50 Ability Delay: 5 min. Duration: 5 min.)
Increases accuracy and lengthens recast time. Enhancement effects gained through white and black magic you cast on yourself last longer.

- Notes
Activating Composure will impose a recast time penalty upon all magic, songs, and ninjutsu."

*cough* What? It increases accuracy, and makes buffs casted on yourself last longer. That's cool but what is with the increased recast time? It clear that this buff is meant for melee usage. You'll get a higher chance of hitting and your buffs will stay on longer but if you have to wait longer it negates the point. Let's look at this in a party situation.

I pop Composure on myself, cast refresh on myself, then start hasting and refreshing the party. This process alone will take longer due to the recast time delay. Could be as little as 5 seconds or as much as double the time for each spell. Normally in a party, when refresh wears off on me, that's my cue to start the buff process over again. Due to composure however I may not even notice refresh has worn off for a bit if I'm in the middle of casting debuffs. And when I do start casting it again everyone will have to go longer without refresh or haste. Pretty annoying but not too big of a deal by itself. But like I mentioned there is also debuffing to do, curing as well. If I cast paralyze and it's resisted, I can wait a second, then toss it up again. With Composure active, I'm gonna just have to ignore it and try to remember to come back to it later cuz' It may waste too much time. Again by itself not too big of a deal since spells like paralyze, bio, dio, ect have a pretty short recast time. Other spells like gravity and stun are a whole other matter. These abilites take awhile to charge and can make the difference between life or death in a lot of situations, making the the increased delay unexceptable. Let's not forget curing. I toss a cure IV up on the PLD cuz' his HP dropped to red. He tries to cure himself but his casting is interrupted so I cast a cure III on him. All of a sudden the mob uses incenerate and drops his HP back down to the red. I try to hit him with a cure IV or III but I can't due to casting delay. Hooray!

I can't see the benefit from the solo side of things either. Okay, I use composure before I start fighting and cast Protect, shell, haste, refresh, phalanx, stoneskin, enspell, bar element, and utsusmei ni to get myself buffed, then I turn Composure off...that's it. During combat it would only get me killed cuz' RDMs have to cast keep all of those spells going (minus maybe the bar element) to keep themselves alive if fighting a Tough or above opponent. For some of the spells like haste and refresh, composure isn't such a bad deal since you'll have to cast them less. But for spells like stoneskin and utsusemi it's devestiating. The increased delay is pretty much guarunted to get you skilled.


"- En Type Spells
Enfire II (Lv.58) / Enblizzard II (Lv.56) / Enaero II (Lv.54) / Enstone II (Lv.52) / Enthunder II (Lv.50) / Enwater II (Lv.60)
Adds elemental damage to your initial attacks (subsequent blows by characters for whom multiple attacks are possible do not receive this effect). Each successive activation increases elemental damage strength up to a predetermined limit. Reduces the target’s resistance against the associated element.

Example) Enfire II: Adds fire damage to your initial attacks and reduces the target’s resistance against water."

Okay...level 1 enspells deal damage per hit which makes them useful even if only barely so. Level 2 enspells will only activate on the first hit. Meaning unless it does a huge chunk of damage, it will end up being weaker then a level one spell if you are double or triple attacking. The level 2 spells also weaken elemental defense for certain elements, not bad but there are already weapon skill and magic that does the same thing. It'd be great for BLM in your party except you don't want a BLM in your party and you get the spell at 58, a couple more levels and you are fighting colobri who reflect spells that a BLMs cast...

Ugh, I have a bad feeling that this update will be totally useless. I was hoping for a reason to start playing RDM again and this just isn't it. I'm perfectly fine with no buffs that benefited party melee, but with no real enhancements to soloability I'm still better off using my THF or NIN to kill stuff at 75.