MCH and BRD also need to get into melee range to do their AoE (a cone). Only casters can do AoE from a distance.
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No.
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/jobguide/bard/
As a bard main, 12 Yalms and 25 Yalms is not "melee" range.
To get the best out of our AOE we actually have to stand a in a certain position to get the best use out of Quick Nock, which may or may not be in melee range depending on how well a tank positions the mobs.
Apex Arrow (25 yalms) is a straight line, not a cone.
Dancer has a 5 yalm radius for a few of their skills. But it is done in melee range 0 yalms to get the best out of it.
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/jobguide/dancer/
I consider it melee if you need to position close to the pile in order to use AoE and hit everything. DRG has a similar range at 10-15y. Not every AoE BRD ability requires you to be up front with the melee but when tanks pull half the dungeon at once, if you’re not in “melee” range, you might not be hitting everything if your angle is off or if the mobs are moving around.
It's just gonna be the way it is when you get a new job, or jobs that use the same stats, there's gear that will look more appropriate for one and not the other. Hence glamour is a thing.
But take something like the Deep Shadow set, which at first glance I thought looked like it'd suit Bard but not Dancer, but I put it on my Dancer and I think it looks great. Like an almost Bloodborne or Dark Souls feel (I didn't have the hat at the time I made the screenshot, so I used something similar).
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...97/unknown.png
So I don't think all of the bard-y gear is unsuitable for DNC, just might not give the same sort of aesthetic people associate to the role.
And actually, thinking on the thread I saw saying DNC is too girly, the above set makes for an edgy DNC rather than playing on all of the expected DNC looks. But then that's the beauty about glamours and the variety of looks in this game, you can customise your look.
Eden stuff? I think only a handful of the actual Eden sets look any good anyway. But then I find that for a lot of raid tier gear.
As for the actual balance. Balance is a long on going argument for the game overall. It is not a snub and I am saying this as a DNC main. Arguably its personal DPS /should/ be the lowest in the game, but both it's aDPS and rDPS rely on RNG more than other jobs in its category and means the gap between the highest achievable DPS and the average DPS is greater and I expect can make it harder to measure how it should be balanced.
That said, the only thing I care about is if DNC is good enough to be invited and clear the content it needs to and to do it well enough. Beyond that, balance to me is not important. I don't care if MCH is in a better place as a DPS than me as long as I can still get to enjoy playing DNC and not be restricted by content (which I've not found I have). Especially as a disgruntled healer, 'balance' has become a swear word because it feels like the emphasis on balance is killing off what made healing interesting after the main thing people complain about is, well, balance. DNC is fun, it can do the content I need it to, I don't care that it's behind.
What I'm saying is SOMETIMES, which is exactly what you're agreeing with.
Dancer's abilities for AOE pretty much are a different animal in needing to be in the middle of the trash pack. This is not the same thing as what you're trying to justify. Basically the majority of Dancer's AOE is similar to NIN's deathblossom, but NIN at least gets Bloodbath as a role skill.
This https://etc.usf.edu/clipart/42700/42...1_42734_sm.gif
vs. https://study.com/cimages/multimages...agecircle1.jpg
I agree with Saefin, some sets look better for dancer than you might first assume. It's easy to think of stuff like the artifact glam but dancers can look good with a variety of outfits not just skimpy ones. The Yorha aiming set and ronkan aiming set I think look good too. (Though just about anything looks good in the copied factor dresses IMO.)