Melee roles are being gimped in this game

[Enforcer]

This is a fact. Melee roles have it way harder than the ranged roles in this game. Their DPS is substantially lower due to the fact that they have to move in and out of a fight so much without having the more constant or semi constant DPS that ranged characters do.

This is a severe issue which is developing into everyone wanting to reroll a ranged dps instead. I'm seeing more and more people rolling Bards, Summoners and Black Mage because not only are they easier to play, they also put out more damage with less effort put into it.

Right now, the only real reason to pick up a melee dps for a fight is their limit break, which i find to be sad.

If this is a thing that is going to be an ongoing issue i am certainly not sticking to melee.

Melee DPS roles are generally put into high risks when engaging in boss battles in this game, so they should also have a high reward, which unfortunately, is not the case.


Any other thoughts on this?

Melee: Positional requirements for maximum damage POTENTIAL. Often not met due to how boss fights end up.
Ranged: No positional requirements. Can shoot/ cast from any distance, will always connect for same minimum damage at the very least.

Melee: Unsafe, close target for bosses, either through AoE attacks or simple attacks from bosses. Giant knights never cleave bards but melees always get hit. Melees get hit by random boss attacks even if they don't have hate.
Ranged: Safe from AoE that do not show red lines. Safe from AoE with red lines. Safe from virtually all ranged boss attacks. Bosses hardly ever target ranged (unless they steal hate).

Melee: Succesfully avoided AoE but cannot attack boss due to minimum distance requirement. Downtime, resulting in lower Dps output.
Ranged: Never stop attacking. No downtime. All attacks connect, even while running away, facing away from the boss.

Melee: No support role, cannot do anything other than pure dps. More so for Monk than for Dragoon. At least Dragoon get to stun 3 times.
Ranged: Support roles, can cast songs, dots, support heal, support LB.

It is completely out of balance. If ranged jobs are supposed to be support jobs, they shouldn't be even remotely close to top dps.

DRG here, the problem comes down to a simple equation of risk vs. reward. Melee DPS are have higher risk in combat, and thus, should have higher reward. I see two possible solutions to this issue:
1. Greatly increase melee damage output (currently I can spam skills till the cows come home and never steal hate).
2. Greatly decrease ranged damage output (currently they have little risk with equal reward to melee).

The problem is not with positioning, it is not with support abilities, it is simply DPS. Why bring a risky DPS vs a safe DPS if they both do the same damage (and the less risky DPS has support abilities as well)?

Additionally, melee LB are not required for most fights. Contrarily, support / healer LBs are preferred in most end-game fights.

Taken from a Reddit thread:

I want to share my experiences and opinion regarding current endgame from a melee perspective, especially Dragoon. I have relic, i saw up to , and including, turn 4 of Coil of Bahamut and this is my analysis:
Coil is a nightmare for melee. Seriously. Even though i really like raiding in general and like to tackle difficult bosses, it's just tedious for me , at least.
As most of you know, Dragoons have to stay in the flank and behind of enemies to get the damage cycles going. With current class balances, in order to compete with all the other classes in damage, i have to perfectly play and use my cycles of damage, starting with my flank buff, into 2 bleeds, into backstab combo, into thrust combo, repeat as needed while shifting the combos if certain debuffs fall, etc. This is not difficult.
What IS difficult, though, is when a boss has a small red circle and his mechanics require him to be constantly taunted by 2 switching tanks. This is a HUGE problem for dragoons. Why? Because i have to always be in the correct position and when a boss changes his direction and position, one of two things happens:
1: My combo starter lands on his front instead of back, and is treated as a 100 potency attack, which means i have to reposition myself and try to land it again.
2: Boss cleaves me while he's turning. Solution to this would be to back away while the tanks taunt switch, and so lose dps, while the other classes don't need to (monks excluded ofc)
Mechanics in Coil require silences, which cause extreme imbalances in tanks and dps. Groups take 2 BRD and 2 PLD because all of them can silence a target on low cooldown. Excluding the fact that warriors are basically fucked in endgame as they get 2 shot by bosses, even if they have BiS gear, monks are unreliable silencers as they need opo opo stance for it.
On top of everything? I feel useless. Easily replaced. Nothing "special". The only thing i am good at is Disembowel, which buffs the best class in the game: BRD.
I don't hate the other classes. To be fair, i actually envy them. They have it easy and they have fun. I have to read debuffs on bosses, while positioning for combos, while making sure i don't cause raid-wiping tailswipes, while looking at red zones under tank/in proximity to tank, while making sure i don't get cleaved in a taunt switch, while doing less damage than casters/BRD/Monk. Does this seem fair?
I just hope PvP is kind on melee.
I want to raid, and it's fun in its twisted way, but at the same time i don't want to raid because the mechanics give me headaches.
TL;DR: Dragoon headaches at endgame

[rappa]

Other reason is caused by bad melee players. I see like dragoons/monks died several times in combats because the don't know avoid zones, aoe or stay in front of boss eating the breath/cleave, etc.

[Enforcer]

Other reason is caused by bad melee players. I see like dragoons/monks died several times in combats because the don't know avoid zones, aoe or stay in front of boss eating the breath/cleave, etc.

I don't know. I'm currently on Turn 4 in Coil and i wouldn't say that i feel gimped because i'm bad, or don't know how to avoid zones, but simply because you have to work harder while having less damage output as a melee.

While there are bad ones who don't know their class very well or have a hard time dodging mechanics, the better ones shouldn't be put into a disadvantage to ranged classes.

[ChaozK]

Other reason is caused by bad melee players. I see like dragoons/monks died several times in combats because the don't know avoid zones, aoe or stay in front of boss eating the breath/cleave, etc.

That is a good point actually. With ranged dps, avoiding AOE's is a much smaller factor.

I wouldnt put it as harshly as the OP but i do think there need to be some adjustments being made. In theory melees should have always a higher dps because they are losing out by having to avoid AOEs which isnt as big of a concern to ranged dps.

I feel this is especially hurting monk and to a lesser degree dragoon.

[Itseotle]

you have to work harder

Thats why I rolled a melee. Its so much more fun than standing in the back pew pew'ing from relative safety.

[JokingCat]

yea its fun becouse its harder but its not fun where you are the last person who is looking for raid groups becouse your a melee class. right now range classes over melee and then when the party is full they just need a melee for limit break.

and you have 4 dps slots for 8 man raid and its allways something like 3 ranged and 1 melee IF LB is needed, if not its allways 4 ranged dps.

Monks and Dragoons are sharing 1 slot in 8 man party there are almost no partys with 1 monk 1 dragoon inside

[AsukaLockhart]

you REALLY do pick between viability/boredom or poor design/fun haha.

[Shamirah]

I find it easier to dodge things in melee range :x

[Stormsoul]

this is how it is in every mmo, ranged is always more convenient/easier. : /

this game handled it better by at least making it so you NEED one melee DPS for the limit break, in some other games people would just completely stack ranged dps.

personally, it doesn't bother me. i've always mained melee DPS and always loved having to deal with dodging crap and worring about surviving on top of trying to do great damage.

[Korvaene]

Another problem, don't know if this is the case for NA on NA servers, but I'm an NA player that ended up on a JP legacy server. The latency/de-sync is so bad that you have to watch for the red, and as soon as it pops up you have to MOVE. Even if you're out of the red before the red disappears and the enemy's ability fires, you're going to get hit if you don't move as soon as you see red.