Is the Ninja nerf really needed?

[Giantbane]

The dragoon changes won't likely earn them a final coil spot from someone who is recruiting unless you have someone who only plays drg and its their only job their groups will still use them. They are giving them survival with more mdef, and easing up on positionals so only damage is effected you still get the buffs and debuffs if you miss them. However now high skilled drgs don't miss positionals now what the buff does is helps out less skilled players close the gap between high skilled players so in the end high skilled players really just getting survivability increase so like they won't have to stack a bunch of vit melds for T13.

They're also talking about damage buffs via reduced cooldowns and/or increased dot potency. I wouldn't be surprised if bfb gets dropped down to 1min to match IR among other things.

[Altena]

They're also talking about damage buffs via reduced cooldowns and/or increased dot potency. I wouldn't be surprised if bfb gets dropped down to 1min to match IR among other things.

Would prefer something a bit more akin to 1.0's Power Surge such as a stacking buff that gives a damage buff every time you use a jump (Jump/Spine/Dragon/Elusive). Give them a mechanic. Currently they don't really have any.

However they won't redesign the class.

Lower B4B CD wouldn't be a buff to just DRG though - would also buff all classes that sub it (basically all physical dps). I expect something more like a lower Jump CD.

[ElHeggunte]

Lower B4B CD wouldn't be a buff to just DRG though - would also buff all classes that sub it (basically all physical dps).

Not necessarily. They could just as easily tie the reduced CD to the improved B4B trait. Unlikely to be sure, but it's one way to boost DRG performance without enhancing anyone else who can use it.

[Altena]

Not necessarily. They could just as easily tie the reduced CD to the improved B4B trait. Unlikely to be sure, but it's one way to avoid boosting DRG performance without enhancing anyone else who can use it.

This is semi off-topic but honestly I expected them to do this with AoE stoneskin - just tacking it on top of the WHM trait that already exists (AoE outside of battle). It baffles me as to why they are adding a whole new skill for this (perhaps for future plans when Stoneskin II will be similar to Succor?)

So I don't know if they will go this route with B4B, however there is definitely a possibility, I mean they are reducing the damage taken reduction so it is entirely possible that they are adding/adjusting the trait.

[Giantbane]

Would prefer something a bit more akin to 1.0's Power Surge such as a stacking buff that gives a damage buff every time you use a jump (Jump/Spine/Dragon/Elusive). Give them a mechanic. Currently they don't really have any.

However they won't redesign the class.

Lower B4B CD wouldn't be a buff to just DRG though - would also buff all classes that sub it (basically all physical dps). I expect something more like a lower Jump CD.

It would be a 3x stronger buff to DRG than anyone else, and it could also just be part of improved BfB if there's concern about how it works cross class. I mean, what else are they going to do to buff DRG via cooldowns? Knocking another 10s off Jump isn't going to make enough of a difference to fix the problem. Besides, it would be better to just drop BfB down to 60s for everyone. 80s is a weird cooldown timer that doesn't work well with any classes skill rotations. It would just make the skill much cleaner for everyone involved.

[Krr]

Skill ceiling really shouldn't be an excuse for one class being more or less desirable than another. All DPS jobs emphasize certain player skillsets over others and Monk's happens to be 'keeping uptime'.

I don't feel MNKs are threatened by the existence of NIN whatsoever. They are still the HC raid meta. They will continue to be the HC raid meta until at *least* Heavensward, because there will be no more HC raids for NIN to even try to compete in until then. Another job threatening to dethrone them from being kings and queens of the HC mDPS meta isn't a 'problem'. That's 'there is now more than one melee DPS being viable in the HC raid meta'. Dragon Kick and traited Mantra are powerful utility and people conveniently forget this when they list DRG and NIN's party synergy skills alongside the 'Pure DPS' that MNK is.

Balancing classes around their skill floors and ceilings is a falsehood. You will only get useless classes if you design around that.