what happened to all the melee classes?

[Jilliebeans]

i barely seen any melee for parties anymore (specially with DRG and MNK) all am seeing so far are range dps (RDM/BLM/BRD). I noticed that the party go a lot slower with too many range dps =/

[Claviusnex]

Less chance to get yelled at for standing in stuff.

[Silver-Strider]

I notice as many melee classes as I do ranged in any content honestly so I'm not sure what OP is on about.

[NovaLevossida]

We're all playing SMN now.

[Karshan]

Well in a dungeon, spending the least possible time on the most boring stuff (burning useless trash that are just here for show I guess) is an objective that makes me choose SMN (which is my main).

On bosses though, not much difference. So it really is just to burn between the bosses.

[Sunako]

If you watch fflogs how many class have cleared savage content last two weeks there is 81k ranged dps and 75k melee dps.

[SpeckledBurd]

Monks have their damage potential kneecapped in dungeons because they require at least 4 physical DPS in the party to get anything out of Brotherhood. In dungeons you're only guaranteed one tank and that's only going to give you 1-2 chakras. It just feels like crap to have my own output hamstrung because my ultimate skill is designed with a very specific party composition in mind. I'd much rather play something that actually can hit 100% of its capacity in a dungeon. Compound this with losing your stacks between packs of Mobs because Riddle of Earth requires you to get hit to work and the sheer number of tanks who like to stand around exactly long enough for them to fall off and it's just a massive hassle for less payoff than say, Samurai.

I'd assume Dragoon wasn't seeing much play in dungeons recently because the huge amount of ramp up time for Life of the Dragon caused it to lose them was irritating. With the recent changes I imagine it'll be seen more in 4-mans. Three-eyes to enter LotD is not just a good quality of life buff, it's also a substantial AOE buff.

[Crux]

Most melee is strong so a lot of people probably leveled them first.

[RenOkamiya]

Less chance to get yelled at for standing in stuff.

I though staying in stuff was BLM 101 ^^

More seriously, it depends if you are running dungeons, primals or something else. The fact that all melee besides ninja is expendable doesn't help with that since a range dps can take a melee spot without downside while the opposite can't be done for obvious reasons. A bard is almost mandatory, as a red mage, letting only 1 spot. BLM is as good as samurai dpswise I think when played correctly, so why bother. Specially now that the only thing tanks think of is "FFLOG PERSONAL PARSE!!!" and take the spot of the last melee with mecanics.

[Thandronen]

As a DRG and MCH 70, I feel like it is a lot more relaxing to play ranged while doing content. There is still the occasional floor mechanic that you have to dodge as ranged but as a melee, it can feel extremely tiresome to have to constantly run from things hitting the floor every 10-15 seconds. DRG is still my main and I enjoy playing it but unless I am hard-pressed for a certain piece of gear, I'll be doing most content on my MCH.