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I'm not sure what it's like on other servers, but on Seraph there's always an abundance of melee seeking over mages. What's odd is that the combined mages; Whm, Rdm, Blm, Brd, Smn; always out-total the combined whether they're seeking or not. I find it extremely concerning that at any given time we'll have more mages than melee playing, but more melee than mages seeking.
The allure of being a mage job just isn't as appealing as melee. Wearing cloth, casting the same spells over and over, standing in the back. They're all support jobs no matter how you see it. Melee get to swing big weapons, stylish armor, and be right there in the front throwing down huge and flashy weapon skills.
If that's not bad enough, there's only five caster jobs total. White Mage, Black Mage, Red Mage, Summoner, Bard are all you have to choose from, and they're almost always pigeon holed into healing. I don't consider Paladins or Dark Knights to be casters because their main role is to melee. Niether of them can reliably heal or nuke. When we look at the melee jobs we're basically seeing the same job over and over that reaches their damage dealer role differently. Dragoons are mostly DoT, with few semi-strong weapon skills. Thieves are weak while building TP, but can throw out strong weapon skills to make up for it. Monks fight just as well as they throw out weapon skills.
What am I getting at? Diverse mage jobs would attract more people. Currently the only way to heal is to cast Cure, the only way to nuke is to cast an elemental spell. How many people really see that as interesting, fun, exciting? My enjoyment while playing Dragoon in a party is unparalleled, but I can't say the same about mages. All our jobs are repetitive, but to a lesser extent, and melee aren't all the same.
Let me say quickly, that most of my ideas would require magic type weapon skills. Healing and other spells would build up TP, and your Healing or Elemental skill would have a "weapon skill" as well. I'll explain more later, it's something similar to how only Rangers have a ranged weapon skills and you must sub it to use it with other jobs.
Imagine an elemental job similar to Black Mage where the player could summon weapons, each having an elemental attribute, each with an en-spell. It's basically fighting with an elemental attribute, but then they would have magic that instead of just nuking the weapons would pull off an attack that would magic burst if used right. We're reaching the same goal, but a little differently.
Now imaging about what I said earlier, "magic" weapon skills. Elemental magic would build a Blm's TP as he nuked. Once full he'd be able to use his own weapon skill that would basically be the same as a nuke, but with a fancy animation. It's still the same thing, but a little flashier, and that's all players want. White Mages could built TP as they heal, then have access to healing weapon skills or damaging ones. Their first one could be something like Regenga, the second could be an erasega that erases one minor ailment, the third could be a holy hammer that falls upon enemies that could MB on a light skillchain.
No doubt my ideas are way out there, and incomplete at best, but my point is still clear. We need a lot more mage diversity, which is basically reaching the same goal through different means. Does anybody else know what I mean?
The allure of being a mage job just isn't as appealing as melee. Wearing cloth, casting the same spells over and over, standing in the back. They're all support jobs no matter how you see it. Melee get to swing big weapons, stylish armor, and be right there in the front throwing down huge and flashy weapon skills.
If that's not bad enough, there's only five caster jobs total. White Mage, Black Mage, Red Mage, Summoner, Bard are all you have to choose from, and they're almost always pigeon holed into healing. I don't consider Paladins or Dark Knights to be casters because their main role is to melee. Niether of them can reliably heal or nuke. When we look at the melee jobs we're basically seeing the same job over and over that reaches their damage dealer role differently. Dragoons are mostly DoT, with few semi-strong weapon skills. Thieves are weak while building TP, but can throw out strong weapon skills to make up for it. Monks fight just as well as they throw out weapon skills.
What am I getting at? Diverse mage jobs would attract more people. Currently the only way to heal is to cast Cure, the only way to nuke is to cast an elemental spell. How many people really see that as interesting, fun, exciting? My enjoyment while playing Dragoon in a party is unparalleled, but I can't say the same about mages. All our jobs are repetitive, but to a lesser extent, and melee aren't all the same.
Let me say quickly, that most of my ideas would require magic type weapon skills. Healing and other spells would build up TP, and your Healing or Elemental skill would have a "weapon skill" as well. I'll explain more later, it's something similar to how only Rangers have a ranged weapon skills and you must sub it to use it with other jobs.
Imagine an elemental job similar to Black Mage where the player could summon weapons, each having an elemental attribute, each with an en-spell. It's basically fighting with an elemental attribute, but then they would have magic that instead of just nuking the weapons would pull off an attack that would magic burst if used right. We're reaching the same goal, but a little differently.
Now imaging about what I said earlier, "magic" weapon skills. Elemental magic would build a Blm's TP as he nuked. Once full he'd be able to use his own weapon skill that would basically be the same as a nuke, but with a fancy animation. It's still the same thing, but a little flashier, and that's all players want. White Mages could built TP as they heal, then have access to healing weapon skills or damaging ones. Their first one could be something like Regenga, the second could be an erasega that erases one minor ailment, the third could be a holy hammer that falls upon enemies that could MB on a light skillchain.
No doubt my ideas are way out there, and incomplete at best, but my point is still clear. We need a lot more mage diversity, which is basically reaching the same goal through different means. Does anybody else know what I mean?
). What people need to do is start experimenting with pt set ups. I have been told by some older players that at one time mnks were tanking (and this was before nin tanks), counter and against VT mobs with like 3 mages healing but you get my point. 
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