All this BLM negativity. ...

[HaroldSaxon]

From what you said to begin with, that mindset will always, always be prevalent. There will always be come classes that simply will pull ahead and will be favored.
That's not particularly the classes fault, but the mindset of the players fault.

It depends on the player. I come from a testing and balance background, and thus like things to be balanced. Just like I advocated a number of changes to SMN last patch.

As to why you would want a BLM over a SMN, because on some fights that have very little movement aspects, a BLM will outDPS the SMN, even with the current changes. The DPS swings differently however when there are phases with heavy movements. SMNs and BLKs scale completely differently too, and alongside with everything else, excel at different points too. It used to be BLM used to excel at AoE and ST when they stood still and SMN did more ST dmg when it was movement heavy. Now, it's the same with ST but the AoE has switched, which can be a pain, I admit.

Yet, the difference in DPS even if the BLM can turret the whole fight isn't much, and even if the BLM can do that all fight with no mechanics, you are better off bringing another melee. Case in point; T8.

As I said, it's too early to see how BLMs truly fare. Let Savage Alex come out, and see how the fights truly are there. If there are insane and glaring problems, they will be fixed. But for the current fights in the game, apart from a few QoL tweaks, BLM dmg is parsing fine and can pull ahead on some areas.

It isn't too early, that is the point. We've had plenty of experience in raids and with the current rotation for all the classes to have a good idea where they are at. Hell, just look at the latest Alexander, where SMN are just better. Sure, easy content, but Savage will be similar fights with harder/more mechanics and checks.

As for optimizing and having to do more to get ahead, welcome to SMN in ARR. Look, if you are not enjoying having to put in a lot of effort into a class to get the most out of it, then by all means, there are other classes out there that may server you better. Let's take a look at DRG pre-buff. Even an average DRG could pull decent DPS, but the truly good ones excelled. And now? Now that it became more complicated, the difference between bad DRGs and good DRGs are even more glaring. If anything it's the same with many of the classes now and BLM is one of them.

That is still absolutely no excuse for a class being sub optimal. Its not about BLM being made more complicated, that isn't the issue whatsoever. The issue is the QoL changes, and the fact that for single target where BLM's are able to turret short of there being a cheese anti physical mechanic, a melee is just flat out better. Sure, people can do a with a bard, a ninja and a dragoon then go "wow look at how big my dps is, blm is fine", yet have lower group dps compared better composed groups

I don't think BLM is dead or in a horrible state, like some BLM users claim. I think all classes that need QoL tweaks and bug fixes need to have them to smooth out the experience in playing those classes. But I think that BLM takes a lot more skill and forethought now than it did before.

And yet, an equally skilled player with equal gear on other classes that can replace a BLM will just provide more to the raid - either by pulling more DPS in a fight and in some cases with more utility.

As for small adds, if the boss is still DPSable, then the BLM and SMN are in the same point really. Let the melee kill the adds and just focus the boss, which I'm guessing is where a BLM will gain a decent DPS boost. Ruin II one of the only choices and but it hits like a wet mop. With adds with more HP, yes, SMN burst is insane right now, and with multi target fights with high HP adds, SMN will always pull ahead in DPS. But that was even the same back in ARR.

Both aren't great, but SMN will still do more if the boss is targeting.

Also: If that was your friend who messaged me last night, with horrible English I may add, and decided to just spew random shit at my FC and told me his BLM in his FC does 1.4k in Alex T4 and that I should fuck off, tell him that as much as I appreciate his comments (as much of it as I could decipher), I think his friend is completely capable of having his own arguments without his input.

If it wasn't someone you knew, then I apologize for the assumption.

I've absolutely no idea who you are talking about; if whomever in the same FC as me, send me a screenshot.