The argument"MCH/Bard have utility so their damage should be lower"

[Zophar]

See, I always just thought the lower base damage was the trade off for mobility, and that brds are barely inconvenienced by fight mechanics, not support.

[Ryaz]

See, I always just thought the lower base damage was the trade off for mobility, and that brds are barely inconvenienced by fight mechanics, not support.

Except that it's untrue for the most part. Even ranged classes have to dodge a lot of aoes and I lose casts all the time. It's why Gauss barrel isn't really worth it. True, melee has to run from some melee attacks and without WM/GB Bard and MCH can continue firing while dodging, but the amount of lost damage from melee is minor compared to the overall low dps that these two classes have, which is made worse by the cast times and loss of auto attacks. Not only do other classes have loads of support, but their base weapon damage is higher AND their potencies are far higher. They also aren't reliant on RNG procs.

So, melee has better damage, similar utility and better mobility now that WM/GB are needed to use several of our job abilities. What do the ranged physical dps have over them? Not much.

@Pluvia: Our turrets have no cooldown, but suck our mana dry for that regen and we lose a big chunk of our dps for using them. When I goad someone it takes two seconds to use and I'm back to fighting again. Whether or not it's better than our regen buffs isn't the point-- it's still a great utility skill.

[Zophar]

So, melee has better damage, similar utility and better mobility now that WM/GB are needed to use several of our job abilities. What do the ranged physical dps have over them? Not much.

I made no mention of WB. I'm talking pre WB brd. And, WB makes no difference as it is basically for openers, and AoE situations only. BRD for the most part plays the same as it always did. Also didn't say the damage vs mobility was balanced, just said I assumed that was the reasoning behind it, which makes sense to me.