Re-balancing jobs in FFXI

[Seish]

After playing the game for quite a while, I am very disappointing to see that Blu, Sch, and Pup are getting all the love in the updates. Many of the other jobs are left in the dust--perhaps too much. My worry is that this possible issue, to me at least, may not be addressed. And while I have never personally posted on here, I worry also that my opinion may not be taken seriously.

I hope that the readers of this would take my message under consideration before posting. I feel that it is constructive and I feel that the discussion would flush out some of the ideas people have in the way that the current jobs are balanced.

[Vae]

You've got to understand, that at no point, ever, in FFXI history, has anything even remotely resembled "balance". Now, grain of salt, that's partially due to player mentality. But, there has always and will always be a best current job, which BLU is doing DISGUSTINGLY well at being by the way lol.

Sch *needs* immanence taken away, but at this point, there really isn't a point. Pup DESERVES it's time to shine, it's never had the spotlight, and I'm happy automation's finally gets all the love (for those that know how to use it).

The only way there is ever going to be what people want, is static damage.

(Btw whoever changed my main job on this site from THF to BLU, I hope you die in a fire.)

[Catmato]

(Btw whoever changed my main job on this site from THF to BLU, I hope you die in a fire.)

I know this is off-topic, but that's probably due to the closing of the Linkshell Community.

[Urthdigger]

You've got to understand, that at no point, ever, in FFXI history, has anything even remotely resembled "balance". Now, grain of salt, that's partially due to player mentality. But, there has always and will always be a best current job, which BLU is doing DISGUSTINGLY well at being by the way lol.

Sch *needs* immanence taken away, but at this point, there really isn't a point. Pup DESERVES it's time to shine, it's never had the spotlight, and I'm happy automation's finally gets all the love (for those that know how to use it).

The only way there is ever going to be what people want, is static damage.

(Btw whoever changed my main job on this site from THF to BLU, I hope you die in a fire.)

There's always been inbalance, but I don't feel it's ever been as bad as it is now.

[Vae]

oh, yeah, obviously, the balance has never been this far off, this is literally batshit crazy.

[Selindrile]

While I tend to agree that the balance is very strongly off, Blu wouldn't even make the top5 for me, Geo > Blm > Sch > Run > Pld > Blu, in terms of group strength and desirability, at least in the circles I run in.

Blu is better than other non-tank melee at the moment, yes, but that is only due to their ability to cap haste without further support. If it didn't require a Geo buff slot to cap haste on other melees, Dnc, Sam and perhaps even War or Thf would possibly come out ahead, and other jobs would be far closer.

[Nyarlko]

While I tend to agree that the balance is very strongly off, Blu wouldn't even make the top5 for me, Geo > Blm > Sch > Run > Pld > Blu, in terms of group strength and desirability, at least in the circles I run in.

Blu is better than other non-tank melee at the moment, yes, but that is only due to their ability to cap haste without further support. If it didn't require a Geo buff slot to cap haste on other melees, Dnc, Sam and perhaps even War or Thf would possibly come out ahead, and other jobs would be far closer.

You forgot to include the fact that BLU can effectively replicate the job traits of any other job (sometimes better than the signature jobs themselves), has more available survival tools, and CDC seems to hit a lot harder than most other WS. All of those do add to the desirability factor of BLU > other jobs as well.
Can't really complain that the two dedicated "tank" jobs are in demand ^^;; Kinda' need them to do anything that requires a group to begin with. GEO demand is mainly due to pure numbers and the effective need for unique effects like Vex/Attunement. Tweaking certain rolls (like Runist's Roll) for COR, increasing the landing rate for debuff spells for RDM (like Paralyze), and doing a complete overhaul of BRD, so that directly comparable numbers are closer could help loosen the current stranglehold that GEO has on the support slot.

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Personally, it really REALLY rubs me the wrong way that PUP is getting buff after buff after buff, but for some silly reason, devs have dug their heels in on not revising the BST JA nerf. BST has to actually hit buttons to get our pets to do anything, PUP is set/forget for the most part.. Reward should be long range (12-15y should be fine,) Ready midrange (9-10y should be enough that I can at least still command my pet who is on the far side of a "large" target.) That would still leave us w/ the shortest command range of the pet jobs while still stuck inside AOE range for most things, which seems to be where SE wants us -_-;;


If you want to talk about imbalanced jobs tho, take a good look at BRD... T_T

[Oddwaffle]

I agree on Bst range. I find it is exceedingly annoying that I can not move to the other side of a normal monster and use my abilities. What was SE thinking? Is this what they indented? Bst have to stick so close to their pet that they can't even position around the target?

Why do Bst need to stay close to their pet but not Smn?

[Afania]

Dnc, Sam and perhaps even War or Thf would possibly come out ahead, and other jobs would be far closer.

Unless we have fully updated spreadsheet or something that can accurately calculate DD job DPS we can't really know that tbh. DPS hierarchy atm is just words of mouth from whoever plays elite DPS claiming their DPS outparse BLU from their personal experience, while not considering extra DPS from extra DD bubbles and light SC.

[Shyles]

Unless we have fully updated spreadsheet or something that can accurately calculate DD job DPS we can't really know that tbh. DPS hierarchy atm is just words of mouth from whoever plays elite DPS claiming their DPS outparse BLU from their personal experience, while not considering extra DPS from extra DD bubbles and light SC.

Really, I think the distinction between BLU and other DD is as Selendrile and Nyarlko said. Apart from self-capping magic haste, their collection of useful self-buffs are unequaled, and their jp gifts and spells literally let them cherry pick the best of almost every job. Blu was built to be a self-serving job, and it's because they are the most independent DD is why they're so good.

But if we're talking about pure damage output many other jobs can probably outperform BLU on head-to-head parses assuming delay reduction and accuracy is capped and monster weaknesses aren't a factor. In WS spam situations, Well-geared Empy Warriors and Dark Knights have been absolute wrecking balls lately. In self-SC situations, Dancer is practically worth two DDs by themselves. Unfortunately though, it takes a lot more than high damage to get by in today's metagame as a DD..

Would it be that were the case.. It's easy to make these comparisons below CL 130, but it's rare to see melees other than BLU on CLs higher than that. The accuracy hurdles for many jobs are still pretty high. Even if the mob EVA nerf did help a bit, most melee jobs still have to sacrifice so many important stats just to hit the mob because groups are reluctant to bring more support jobs because of the HP scaling..