Job Balancing 6.08 (still needs work)

Right now I feel if you do not play Reaper you aren't doing decent damage in comparison. Ranged makes sense to do a little less damage since you have a lot more freedom, but other melee shouldn't be this weak in comparison.

Dragoon:
Raiden Thrust > Vorpal Thrust > Heaven Thrust > Fang and Claw > Wheeling Thrust
280 > 280 > 480 > 300 > 300 potency means an average 328 potency per weapon skill

Samurai:
Hakaze > Jinpu/Shifu/Yukikaze > Gekko/Kasha
180 > 280 > 370 (over 8 weapon skill is 2120 / 8 = 265 average potency)

Ninja:
Spinning Edge > Gust Slash > Aeolian Edge
210 > 320 > 420 potency means an average of 316 potency per weapon skill

Reaper:
Slice > Waxing Slice > Infernal Slice
300 > 380 > 460 potency means an average of 380 potency per weapon skill. This doesn't even include Death's Design 10% bonus, the use of off global cooldown Blood Stalk/Gibbet/Gallows and Enshroud when they can do 520 potency every 1.5 seconds for 15 seconds.

Now you might say Dragoon has more AoE, but even AoE combos fall short.
Doom Spike > Sonic Thrust > Coerthan Torment
110 > 120 > 150 potency means 126 average potency per weapon skill

Reaper on the other hand...
Spinning Scythe > Nightmare Scythe
140 > 180 potency means 160 average potency per weapon skill

The adjustments that were made in 6.08 were adding 10-20 potency for most things which I feel still isn't balanced up to match Reaper.

I think the biggest changes needed are making melee classes more unique while adding some potency.

A few examples:
Monk has 20% speed due to Greased Lightning III. Give them 40% attack/skill speed to make them do really fast weapon skills vs stronger ones. This would give a whole new feel to Monk. Going from 2 > 1.6 seconds to 2 > 1.2 would feel much faster and rewarding at the higher levels.

Dragoon is all about Jump so maybe make more damage based off Jump cooldowns. Make a branching ability based off Jump and transition to single target or multi-target to give variety for large group vs boss. Like...
High Jump 400 potency followed by Mirage Dive 600 Single Target Potency
High Jump 400 potency followed by Stardiver 300 AoE Potency

Samurai you could remove the cooldown of Kaeshi: Setsugekka or make Meikyo Shisui reset cooldown of Kaeshi. Another thing is third eye rarely is used and Samurai is a DPS so why not put an offensive aspect to it like adding a mini Meikyo Shisui or add Higanbana effect to next weapon skill.

Ninja I liked Forked Raiju/Fleeting Raiju after using Raiton. Maybe add weaponskills that can be used between ninjutsu with a cooldown so you are rewarded for not doing them all at once. The bunny is funny, but annoying if lag means you mess it up and you can lose A LOT of damage when it happens. You could make the ninjutsu all draw from the same cooldown, but just use the Doton Ability rather than doing Ten→Jin→Chi for example.

1) this belongs in the DPS forums, not general discussion, since all you're talking about is DPS jobs

2) per GCD isn't a good measure when SAM and NIN both run significantly faster (thanks to haste buffs that you should be keeping up 100% of the time) than DRG & RPR (both of which ideally run at 0 additional skill speed)

Averaging potency per weaponskill doesn't make much sense if you don't average it over a set amount of weaponskills.
You're actually describing potency per combo set.

You're also not factoring in any oGCDs.

Cringe feelycraft as usual.

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For speedruns, meta is likely to coalesce around these jobs:

MNK, AST, SCH, BLM, DRK, GNB.

I'm unsure between these jobs. It might boil down to fight level optimization.

RPR, DRG or SAM?
DNC or BRD?

I know for sure DNC+SAM is a combination that has not been fully optimized out yet though, so the current figures should be treated with a grain of salt. SAM aDPS, it being the best dance partner, could push it to the forefront. A full group 2-min buff meta with SCH, DRG, BRD, AST, MNK could also be a thing.

I really don't see either SMN or RDM being meta. A BLM that drops 5 casts and Enochian twice is like 600 rDPS above RDM (based on my personal experience). You can be a BLM who doesn't know what they're doing and still do much better than an optimized RDM.

MCH is a dead job.

That being said, since I'm posting on the forums and not some private raiding discord:

1. If you don't know why this matters, then it does not matter for you.

2. If you think you need the meta to clear any raid in week 4, look within yourself for the issue before blaming meta.

Oh I should also note that MNK was already the top job before these buffs at the very high end (RPR was #1 on all percentiles below 99, but honestly 99 is the only one that matters). So RPR wasn't even the most OP job, because it hits its skill ceiling relatively quickly, but MNK takes more effort for people to optimize and hit the skill ceiling, which is why it takes time for actual balance to be seen from the data.

This is why Square Enix should not listen to people who have not done relevant content on what job balance should look like.

This wasn't a balancing job patch; it was just to address potency levels on some classes. Job changes will follow in a later patch, as it's their normal mode of operation per expansion. Not all of it makes sense, but that could be because of changes later on. Who knows anymore with SE.

This entire topic of conversation is part of the reason why I gave up on chasing charts and "meta" a long time ago. I play games to have fun.

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https://www.darklegacycomics.com/558
Link to the source if people can't open/zoom in on the picture itself to read it.

The only thing that needs help right now is the poor machinist who got buffs to drill, air anchor, and chainsaw. They deserve to get a potency buff on the main combo.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Xander_Diabolos

Right now I feel if you do not play Reaper you aren't doing decent damage in comparison.

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Stopped reading.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Evergrey

https://www.darklegacycomics.com/comics/558.jpg

https://www.darklegacycomics.com/558
Link to the source if people can't open/zoom in on the picture itself to read it.

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Always loved DLC. Hilariously on-point every time.