Quote Originally Posted by Mokeil View Post
The avatars, while undeniably having very hefty individualized elemental resistances, all have identical physical stats (Str, Dex, etc) This means that Ifrit does not have higher Str than the others, that Shiva does not hav higher Int than the others, and so on. Carbuncle does less damage than the others because of the way his damage is calculated (which is covered in the first link I provided).
None of the tests show this. All it shows is that Fenrir and Garuda do approximately similar damage and Carbuncle does less than either. Fenrir and Garuda also have roughly equivalent Strength. That is the only attribute that was tested. You are making a huge jump right there. In addition, the testing methodology used completely eliminates secondary attributes, which have a substantial impact on fighting level appropriate enemies.

Having the same damage ceiling does not mean they are functionally identical outside elemental resistances. The person doing the testing even mentions that Fenrir might have a built in attack bonus, since it was the only way to explain why Fenrir was demonstrating higher damage consistently in another test that wasn't just checking the damage ceiling.

They might end up being functionally identical when fighting enemies far below your level because secondary attributes don't come into play anymore, but that's not the same issue. All this test demonstrates is that Garuda and Fenrir use the same damage formula and have approximately similar Strength values. You could say the same thing about Paladin and Dark Knight.