It's reflected in the playstyle of the job. Heck, the weapon itself is a rapier that turns into a staff and the job is obviously capable of both melee and magic abilities.
If you wanted a healer/DPS hybrid I don't know why you were waiting for RDM, SCH is already in the game.
I'm not. Black mage is a pure DPS with access to Lethargy, Apocastasis, Physick, Virus and Eye for an Eye. It's capable of supporting the group in some way while being a pure DPS.
For all we know some Red Magic may have multiple properties but the main focus of the job is to deal damage.
BRD and MCH have actual support skills that nerf their damage output.
I have mixed feelings about RDM being a pure DPS class :/
Except RDM is probably going to do meaningful auto attack damage with their sword compared to an AST card cutting or a BLM staff smacking by example. I think that meaningful damage is the difference maker here, not to mention RDM is clearly designed to get up close and personal with melee weaponskills + gap closer so there's that too!
And yeah, MNK, a supposed pure selfish DPS type, has access to Mantra.
NIN has Goad, Smoke Screen, Shade Walker, all very supportive abilities.
DRG's Battle Litany.
SMN's Battle Res + Super Virus, Eye for an Eye.
I'm pretty sure every DPS is designed with some sort of support ability to aid the party in some way.
And for all intents and purposes, BRD + MCH might as well be pure DPS. It's not like their numbers are significantly lower than the other damage classes- they just have 2 AoE MP/TP regens for either downtime in a fight, progression, or if somebody fucked up. So long as the situation never calls for BRD/MCH to play MP TP regens during a fight's uptime, they're pretty much the same as any other DPS. And stuff like Foe's / Hypercharge don't affect their damage, so those might as well be in the same vein as Battle Litany / Trick Attack.
Honestly, the healers might as well be Healer/DPS hybrids considering the huge focus on damage FFXIV has. Being able to heal the whole party + deal as much damage as a tank role is pretty powerful, and DPS checks in this game don't even consider healer damage output- so it's going above and beyond the fight designs as well.
Well if the white damage was any good, a bigger case could be made for a hybrid. I suppose the melee special attacks could all be physical unless a spell was cast in conjunction.
Damage is damage in this game, which was the main point. No pesky resistances to get in our way or cause further divisions in what constitutes a good DPS or not.
I suspect RDM will get a Clemency type spell as a throw back to their White magic capabilities. They might tie it behind an ammo system (ala SCH/SMN), or make it cost massive MP, so you can't purely replace a healer, but will be as effective as a PLD self Clemency-ing itself in insignificant content. Like PLD you may occasionally save the day but those are far and between
I agree with you but there are certain circumstances where the distinction matters like which Hypercharge you use or whether Foe's is up and while I can't recall it being an issue recently there were those mobs in Turn 4 of First Coil that took damage specifically from only certain types of attacks and reflected all others. In fact I wonder if they'll take into account the fact that while pure Physical or pure Magical DPS get the full benefits from their respective debuffs a "hybrid" damage class wouldn't since they deal split damage.
If you have a BRD why would you take RDM over a BLM or SMN since part of their damage won't be boosted by 10% and vise versa for MCH. I suspect damage from RDM will still be purely magical but the "hybrid" aspect will be that a few of it's Chain skills will require you to get close. Auto-attacks won't even factor in since you'll be In > Out before it will matter if the vague job demonstration was any indication.
So then that leaves the previous question, why would you take a Split damage job over a pure damage job when damage specific buff/debuffs exist?
Think you're thinking too outside the box with this. Its FFXIV, Its going to fit into a role that other classes have established. It'll either be a DD with some gimmick-but-not-really-useful thing that'll fill a role similar to MNK/NIN/etc, or it'll be a "Pure DPS" in the same way MCH and BRD are pure DPS.
My guess with this "Pure DPS" nonsense is just poor language barrier and them really trying to get across "This will not be a hybrid Healer class, it will not be a "Support" class, its a DPS and its abilities will reflect that". They're trying to nail in its not going to be a jack-of-all-trades like old RDM, that its a DPS, it will fill a DPS roll. It'll have one-off abilities that make it "feel" RDM, like spell casting and (I guess) battle raise to fill a "White Magic" and "Black Magic" quota to actually fit it being a RDM, but outside of that, DPS.
My guess is It'll probably just be a beefier BRD/MCH to support its needing to be in Melee range sometimes, but will probably be as powerful as either of those with its own unique little "support" options.
Edit: Done clarifying and editing.
Yoshida said somewhere that the 2nd job has something to do with spider webs.
You were likely correct in your prior statement. If Yoshi P said it's a DPS then the question would be, "What kind of DPS?". Using "Pure DPS" removes out BRD/MCH and places the job closer to the MNK/DRG camp. Especially since it's a repeated phrase and not just a one off. They might have a support ability(as in 1/2 major raid CD's) but their primary focus will be DPS.My guess with this "Pure DPS" nonsense is just poor language barrier and them really trying to get across "This will not be a hybrid Healer class, it will not be a "Support" class, its a DPS and its abilities will reflect that". They're trying to nail in its not going to be a jack-of-all-trades like old RDM, that its a DPS, it will fill a DPS roll. It'll have one-off abilities that make it "feel" RDM, like spell casting and (I guess) battle raise to fill a "White Magic" and "Black Magic" quota to actually fit it being a RDM, but outside of that, DPS.
I think they use Ranged DPS for their position clarity. (Ex. When setting up duty finder groups). Generally if they don't call them by the jobs directly, they will call them DPS without any adjectives or Support when talking in reference to the jobs themselves. (Ex. Live Letters).
You have 3 groupings of DPS, ninja is a position of it's own due to having a lower damage cap but still providing significant support.
MNK, DRG, BLM, SMN - Pure DPS
NIN - Hybrid DPS
BRD, MCH - Support DPS
Spider webs....webs...
Strings...
oh god it's puppetmaster