Tank Gear's Value for the Future.

[Phoenicia]

EDIT/PS: I used Oppressor information, as 1. it's more-or-less single target and 2. there is a much larger pool and higher skill range of players entering A1S,

Okay, not sure if anyone else pointed this out since I am only skimming through these forums. However, while Oppressor is a more accessible fight, it is VERY "padding" friendly. Classes that NEVER single target as much as others, i.e. SMN and Bard, come out on top simply because of double DoT'ing. Not to mention the opportunities to AoE targets each time adds spawn during Emergency Deployment without breaking rotations. WAR can cheese so much here by replacing a FC with Decimate each time adds spawn. Just like how summoners and scholars can Bane those adds. So Oppressor information should not be a good fight to use as measurement to be frank.

FFLogs in general is a very bad a tool to measure DPS, imo. A lot of the top numbers in there only happen if the whole team agrees to pad a single member's DPS, meaning they come up with strategies that caters that that 1 person's strengths to make sure that they do the most DPS possible at the expense of other people's DPS. Heck, to pad our healer's HPS on Faust for lols, we had the WAR tank the adds while facing them towards the group (getting the group cleaved lol). At the same time, the WAR kept spamming Overpower and I actually used Bane... So much padding opportunities for laughs and kicks.

Take A2S for example, with the way my group does it, no matter how I personally spin my CDs and rotations, or who I DoT first, I never broke the 2030 DPS. Simple because they cater to a more single target DPS heavy group. We run a monk + DRK + MCH, so I don't have Foe's at my disposal either. Mobs are rarely stacked in an optimal way where I can bane from a 5 vulnerability stacked mob to the rest.. And when they are, the other mobs are already dying because everyone's DPS is near the 2K DPS. On the other hand, we could've strategized to prioritize stacking invulnerability while mobs stack so I can DoT first, I could also wait for bombs to spawn before I Bane and/or Deathflare, and I would easily break the 2400 DPS. Actually a few weeks ago, I stopped using SMN in there and started using BLM since our strategy is really more priority target focused than AoE oriented. (Granted I used SMN the last couple of weeks because otherwise I wouldn't use my Gordian weapon ).

TL;DR: FFlogs is not a good indicator for class DPS balance.

As for single target and AoE balance percentages like you posted, I don't necessarily agree. Mainly because I believe it shouldn't be a matter of individual DPS, but raid DPS. You have NIN doing more ST than DRG when NIN brings, by far, the most utility out of DPS jobs after BRD/MCH.

Another problem in your approach to DPS balance, is what if you end up with a group that has only the lowest guys in there? So AST+WHM and PLD+DRK and BRD/MCH/SMN/BLM?

Also on what bases should BLM be lower than DRG and NIN? BLM has no means to increase anyone else's DPS like DRG and NIN do. You basically are asking for BLM to not be competitive at all since all 3 melees are better and the utility of BRD and MCH are indispensable. As it stands, BLM should be doing exactly the same DPS as MNK. Why? Well, MNK can't leave target or he drops stacks, BLM can't move or he drops Enochian. MNK is risky because melee. BLM is still risky because movement (and dodging) hurts DPS. MNK only has some defensive utility, so does BLM. MNK does not increase raid DPS, same as BLM. Raid contribution should remain the same! But then MNK "can" run out TP, BLM can refill MP indefinitely. I guess BLM has to pay a bit of DPS for that as a price.

Imo, if you want DPS balance, you should have a simple rule to follow: If you switch class A for B (or maybe classes A and B for C and D), you still get roughly the same total raid DPS.