Why is there a noticeable gap between Casters and Melees?

[Tex_Mex]

Typically, MMO designers give melee DPS around a 10% buff to DPS output over other classes, because it is assumed that they will not have 100% up time. They are melee, which usually means that they have more mechanics to worry about that will keep them from being in melee range.

That being said, the current FCoB mechanics do not follow this path. They are all very melee friendly, which has lead to the gap between the DPS classes being very VERY noticeable. It is easy to spot this occurring because most FCoB raid compositions are 2 melee DPS, 1 BRD, 1 BLM. In past coils, this was much better balanced.

FCoB has been called the melee DPS coil because of these changes, and if a caster was not required for most of the fights, 3 melee 1 BRD compositions would be all over the place.

[RinchanNau]

FCoB has been called the melee DPS coil because of these changes, and if a caster was not required for most of the fights, 3 melee 1 BRD compositions would be all over the place.

We did every turn w/ a 3 melee + 1 BRD config this past week in my main group. It wasn't really any slower from not using a caster, to be honest. Perhaps this would have been less viable when we were working on actual progression the first few weeks of 2.4, but with the gear we have now and knowledge of the fights it's very simple. Could probably do them all w/ 4 melee too.

[Tex_Mex]

We did every turn w/ a 3 melee + 1 BRD config this past week in my main group. It wasn't really any slower from not using a caster, to be honest. Perhaps this would have been less viable when we were working on actual progression the first few weeks of 2.4, but with the gear we have now and knowledge of the fights it's very simple. Could probably do them all w/ 4 melee too.

haha ya, T11 is definitely tough without a caster. And we still use a caster in T10 for 2nd add phase. But it sounds like your progression group is a bit further along than ours so y'all can skip/avoid mechanics on the basis of higher DPS alone.