Is this what balance looks like?

https://www.fflogs.com/statistics/17...t=99&class=Any

(I am using 95-99% because this gives a rough idea of the max potential of each class without taking into account player skill)

I know at release there was a bunch of doom and gloom over this or that class being screwed. But it's now been weeks since savage content released, and looking at classes being played optimally, all the DPS are within ~10-12% of each other.

SAM and BLM are on top with no utility.

Monk is next with slight utility from brotherhood and mantra.

Summoner is right below with rez utility that's not as good as RDM, but brings pet utility as well as doing very well in the later savage fights and phase changes.

MCH, DRG, and RDM are all high-utility classes with very desired buffs, and are all close together, with MCH and DRG pulling slightly ahead but having slightly less utility.

BRD and NIN, with arguably the most utility, are at the bottom.

Obviously some of the numbers might need a little tweaking and some classes need to be made easier to play with QOL changes, but that's a hard thing to balance because player skill is a huge wild-card.

From looking at this chart, it really doesn't matter what you bring into savage anymore, as long as you build something that synergizes well with each other. Summoners would do very well in a caster-heavy group like BLM-SMN-SCH-WHM, while dragoons would do very well in a MCH-DRG-BRD-RDM group.

For the record, tanks and healers feel like where they should be as well, except for possibly DRK.

What do you guys think? Is FF14 ATM the most balanced its ever been since Heavensward? I feel like once all the QOL changes pass through it definitely will be.

Waiting for patch 4.1 to see how things goes for SMN and MCH, and not forgetting the UI to track buffs/debuffs/procs that Yoshi.P mentioned in the previous live letter.

Thanks for pointing this out. I still see "no SMN" or "BRD only" Party Finders and I wish they can take a look at statistics and numbers.

The two remain unpopular to play, but popularity of playing =/= performance in the raid.

I'm gonna be devils advocate here and say that the average player is more likely at the 50% or lower percentile, not the 99% percentile. That being said, i am surprised at the rankings of the 99% percentile. just goes to show that my skill with summoner (or my gear not being correct with summoner) went to hell with this expansion.

When you're looking only at the players with actual skill, its going to look like that. As far as potential, everything is balanced as it should be. Classes like Summoner or Scholar on the other hand have a very different balancing problem. You should not have to play near-flawlessly to be mediocre. You should not have to play flawlessly to stand out. Some classes are still clunky, over-punishing and just not that fun to play right now. Doesn't mean they need to be re-balanced or buffed or the other classes nerfed, they just need the kinks worked out so that they flow a little better and don't drop your dps to the bottom for a single mistake.

Yes, yes I know, git gud. I don't even play those classes anymore though and can point that out. I feel for them. I can die on my Bard and still put out respectable dps (I don't think I've ever been the worst performing dps in any savage I've run in SB) a summoner on the other hand is never going to catch up if they die. Just doesn't seem balanced. And it isn't like their dps would soar over mine if they didn't die, it'd still be average level for a somewhat utility enhanced class.

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Originally Posted by Canubirt

I'm gonna be devils advocate here and say that the average player is more likely at the 50% or lower percentile, not the 99% percentile. That being said, i am surprised at the rankings of the 99% percentile. just goes to show that my skill with summoner (or my gear not being correct with summoner) went to hell with this expansion.

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Even at 50% the rankings don't really change much, except to reinforce how hard SMN and BLM are compared to RDM. But SMN is still in the upper half, while BLM drops a bit...but we all knew BLM is pretty much the hardest class to play optimally in savage.

I expect that to hopefully be fixed in 4.1 with the incoming QOL changes.

SMN is honestly in a weird spot...while every other DPS gets hurt by long phase changes and periods where they can't DPS, summoner WANTS those periods - they blow their load, then let AF recharge during movement/phase changes while their dots/pets keep doing damage.

I think that's why they do so well during o3s - briars, library, and animal farm all have periods where SMN can keep their dots up and let the pet go crazy while AF is on CD, letting them blow past MNK in damage and match BLM/SAM.

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Originally Posted by Dregenfox

I think that's why they do so well during o3s - briars, library, and animal farm all have periods where SMN can keep their dots up and let the pet go crazy while AF is on CD, letting them blow past MNK in damage and match BLM/SAM.

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Multidot also helps quite a bit.

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Originally Posted by Waliel

Multidot also helps quite a bit.

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using akh morn, death flare, painflare on adds and the boss same time helps as well.

Am I the only one who thinks that tanks being 1k DPS less than the lowest DPS is a bit wrong? And only 2k less than the top dps? They're doing 75% the potential damage of a samurai.

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Originally Posted by Enyalios

Am I the only one who thinks that tanks being 1k DPS less than the lowest DPS is a bit wrong? And only 2k less than the top dps? They're doing 75% the potential damage of a samurai.

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I think this is the right amount for a tank only in offstance, worse then a real DPS job, just as it should be to ballance his hige ability of utility in aggro management, damage reduction and huge HP.

Just in the formula of more utility = less DPS.
The same for healers.