Black Mage

[Kabooa]

There definitely exists some margin by which “greedy” dps like blms could exceed “generous” dps like bards that would make them worth bringing. For instance, if a black mage did literally double the damage a bard or dragoon boasted, the vast amount of damage that ast cards, dragon eye tethers, etc could add would outweigh the benefits of bringing yet another party buffer. The question is, how big is that margin?

You ultimately cannot balance with this philosophy. You either create a scenario where the job is mandatory because the damage advantage is insurmountable, or you have the scenario now, where you might be able to provide more 'baseline' dps, but the margin is so low you might as well bring something else, that not only is in the same damage range, but has more utility to boot.

5% is about the range where it's an insignificant amount, certainly not worth the 'pure cannon' tax on utility and other tools, and 15% is about the point where it starts getting into an unhealthy advantage. Anything in between might balance out with RDPS contribution, but you then still have the issue where the contribution to the bottom line is so close, you might as well just bring the Summoner -because they boost everyone else- or the Red mage because they have unrivaled recovery in bad situations.