I think its time BRD get some loving

[DoubleD]

DoubleD i think you are confused.

The raw number doesnt matter. All that matters is the % relative to other classes. Thats what dps class balance is.

If a Monk did 10,000 dps and a Bard did 9,995 then thats 5 less still but the Bard and Monk would be doing basically the same dps and there would be a HUGE imbalance.
If a Monk did 10,000 dps and a Bard did 9,000 then thats a 1000 dps difference but it would not be imbalanced at all because Bard would be doing 90% of the Monk's dps which is better than it does now! Mobs have X amount of hitpoints, and you generally want them to die in Y amount of time. The actual numbers DO NOT matter, only the ratios.

You said "say a bard ends up doing 1,000,000 less damage points than a WAR/NIN/DRG 3~4 years down the line." In that scenario, the mob will have BILLIONS of hitpoints and the Bard doing 1 million less overall damage still only equates to several seconds' worth of dps due to stat inflation.

Think of it this way: if Class A does 50% the dps of Class B, it will always take Class A twice as long to kill things. It doesnt matter if their dps is 500/1000 or 44,444/88,888. (unless you are killing the mob in 1 hit, but thats not the kind of content being discussed)

I understand your point. This is easy to factor when you just look at two DPS side by side.
The most common party composition is:

2 Melee
1 Caster
1 Bard
1 Pal
1 War
1 SCH
1 WHM

I'll throw some I guess average #s out there for turn 13. (average - not highest)

WHM DPS is usually pretty much a non-factor in FCOB - but everywhere else it also matters.
SCH - 185 DPS (Their WD is scaling properly)
OT - 230 (Their WD is scaling properly - same as Melee DPS)
MT - 175 (Their WD is scaling properly - same as Melee DPS)
BLM - 435 (Their WD is scaling properly)
MNK - 470 (Their WD is scaling properly)
NIN - 460 (Their WD is scaling properly)
DRG - 450 (Their WD is scaling properly)
BRD - 415 (Their WD is 10% less than melee and tank every patch)

Ok, that's 6 spots in the party that's WD is scaling normally. I'm not sure how to calculate how many percent higher a casters / sch weapon is compared to a bard, but I'd also say 5 or 6% after conversion of magic damage vs physical damage.

Now when you compound this WD percentage x 6 (or 7) other jobs that weapon scales at 10% higher than a bard. It basically compounds to subtract what a bard brings to the table for every fight.

That's 7 spots in the party that's WD is scaling at a higher percentage rate than a bard.

It's easy to say ok Bard, you're going to do 10% (subjectively) less damage than the DRG when the two of you compose the entire party.

But in 8 man raids, 4 man dungeons, this is not the case.


So 1 vs 1 a DRG would do 10% higher.
But when you compound the 6 or 7 other jobs that weapons scale higher, this is what diminishes the bards return every patch.

This is why I feel a Bards WD should be x number WD lower than melee vs 10% lower than melee.

It's not a 1 vs 1 completion.

This is why I feel bard weapon should scale at 5WD less than melee. The other DPS is always going to do more damage.