Przeklejka z forum ale warto sie zapoznac. JA dodam ze niestety nie znalazlem topica ktory naprawde chcialem przekleic
I'm a JP RDM Lv68 who has been playing RDMs for about a year and half now, to place some kind of credentials to what I am going to say below, concerning the meleeing topic of RDMs, that has been pretty hot on this board for awhile.
First off, let's define what "MELEEING" in a GROUP SITUATION means. In my opinion, 3 types of meleeing is used mixed in the past threads:
1)Meleeing = activating "auto-attack":
This is just as the word states. When you are facing a mob, you activate your "auto-attack" and you unsheith the sword/dagger/club whatever. You stand in the front-line and hit away. No more, No less.
2)Meleeing = in a sense of a TANK/sub-TANK
This means that you will act as the main person or a secondary person who will act as a TANK, gathering the mob's aggro in the front-line
3)Meleeing = in a sense of an ATTACKER/DAMAGE DEALER
This means that you may not gather the mob's aggro, but you are there to damage the mob with your physical weapon. Participating in WS skillchains are included in this category also.
For the above 3 categories, if you place other meleeing job-classes, it will fall like this (it will vary at lower levels, but please think of this as after Lv60, where each job has full AF):
1) All meleeing classes:
2) PLD, WAR, NIN as main TANK, DRK, SAM as sub-Tank
3) RNG, THF, DRK, SAM, DRG
Now, we all know that RDMs are jack of all trades, that we can melee and buff, de-buff, nuke. And it has been said time and again that our meleeing capability drops, while our job mainly becomes casting. Let's consider RDM's in groups at different LVs.
1-23: RDM/WAR can Tank as well as any other jobs. We can wear the same armor as other melees. We can also deal physical damage almost as well as another meleeing classes, since the skillcap difference isn't all that different at this level.
24-39: This is when you start to see the limits of RDM/melee combinations. Since the RDMs can't where Chainmail, which is the main armor for meleeing, especially tanking jobs, our defense stats will be lower than to those jobs that can wear them. Our abilities as damage dealers/participants in skillchains starts diminish since we have to heal our MPs more, which means diminishing our TP. With out our MP, we are nothing. Also, subbing a WHM will give us JA "sign of goddess" and subbing a BLM will give us JA "sign of spirit" at RDM Lv30, which is a very effective JA to have.
40-: This is when you will feel that you absolutely will have no time doing anything beyond swinging away your weapon as a melee (type1). You will be required to de-buff, buff, especially handing out Refersh to your fellow mages and PLDs is crucial if you are looking for good XP chains. You will need to Convert here and there, which means you don't want to be near a mob when you do this during combat.
Some of you may say, well, even after 24, we may not be the best at TANKING, but we can still TANK. Yes, this is true. But, it is because we are not BEST that the group usually doesn't EXPECT us to, at times even asks us to REFRAIN FROM tanking.
Think of this issue in terms of baseball.
When you are in the little leagues as a kid, sure, you can be a pitcher, and a 4th at bat at the sametime. You can simply be the best kid that plays ball, be an ace pither, the home-run hitter and the fastest kid that steals bases on the team. This is because, at that age, there aren't much physical difference between you and the fellow team mates, which means every kid that plays ball will have this potential.
Now, imagine that you are older now. Yes there are some who can pitch and hit, but sooner or later, you are asked to concentrate on a single job, to be best at one, instead of all-rounder. This is because in order for the team to win, the team neads specialists. And when you hit the Major Leagues, you will NEVER see a pitcher that hits 4th at bat.
This is the same situation in FFXI. After around Lv 24, we can still melee in all the sense I mentioned, from 1-3, but there will be better classes that will perform this, concerning 2 and 3. So then it becomes a question of not whether we can or can't, but whether we can do this BETTER than other job-classes or not. To our dissapointment, our meleeing capabilities in sense of type 2 and 3 will start to be ranked below average after 24, when compared to other meleeing job-classes. This is why we are told often and again NOT to melee in sense of 2 and 3, not because we can't, but because there will be tons of other jobs that will excel us at it.
Now, on priorities of what RDMs should do after 24:
24-40: We should buff, and de-buff with sub-healing curing on the side. It will be OK to melee in sense of Type1, for reasons I will explain later.
41-: Our priority will be Refresh > de-buff/other-buffs > cureing. It will still be OK to melee in sense of Type1 also, but it will depend on the mob.
(Conclusion) SHOULD WE MELEE AS IN TYPE1?
The answer is basically, yes, but it will depend on the mob you are facing. Here are the reasons.
a) In a crowded hunting grounds, where your battle log will get cluttered up with other fights other than your own group, you will need to look for the timing of casting Dispel to the mob visually. It will be better to be upfront doing this.
b) If you have a WHM subbed and can use curega, or you are facing a mob that does nasty special attacks, you want to be upfront and be the one casting Curega or higher cures (cure3, cure4, etc.) so that the aggro stays upfront, not towards your WHM. This is crucial also when the skillchains are going, so that the mob stays upfront and doesn't move, thus assuring the success of the skillchain.
c) You are battling a mob that does AoEs that the damage is distributed to the person within the attack area. Sabotendar's 1000needle attack is a good example. It does close to 1000HP damage, if it is hit by one person. When it is distributed by 4, it will be 250HP damage per each.
d) You don't necessarily be upfront to do this, but unschething your weapon and being in the "battle-mode" is always good insurance to decrease your chances in casting a spell on a wrong mob. When you are in attack mode, your spell casted manually from the list will be defaulted towards the activated target, thus ensureing that you won't attack another non-aggressive mob nearby, which you might accidentaly target otherwise.
WHEN SHOULD WE STAY OFF THE FRONTLINES?
a) When there is a BARD in your group: A good BRD will cast different songs for the frontline and for the mages. They usually will cast accuracy boost songs to the frontline, while MP refreshing songs to the mages. You want to be casted the MP refreshing songs, in this case, so stay back.
b) When the mob has nasty AoEs: By this, I don't mean nasty damage. I mean, AoEs that will give you SLOW, PARALYSIS, SILENCE, SLEEP. In these cases, you don't want your WHM taking time to be casting you status curing spells, which will increase the danger for other melees requireing healing. If you are fighting these mobs, stay away. Also, you should stay away from mobs that does massive AoE physical damage also.
OK, I have explained, what I think in my opinion, the relationship between meleeing and RDMs at different levels and situations. Sorry for the long post, but I hope this might help some fellow RDMs out there. RDMs need to be smart. We need to act flexible. In my opinion, I say, melee in sense of Type1, but please keep in mind your priorities as a buff/de-buff specialist in your group. Goodluck to you all, and happy hunting.
Aenos
OMG, this party SUX. Zazwyczaj w trakcie expowania spotyka jakiegos gracza ktory mu wyjasnia na priv ze paralyze to nie petrify i ze powinien go uzywac a slow nie spowalnia chodzenia 
