This whole Meta Party thing is hurting me. x_x

[Renryuu]

Ok, so I'm gonna be honest and say this is both a topic for me to vent as well as a cry for help.

When I first came back to SB after having basically missed the majority of HW, my intent was to main Rdm as it seemed really fun. Once I got it leveled up so I could continue where I left off, I was having a blast with the job and was confident in having it as my main. Once I started gearing it up, people started talking about not bringing Rdms at all and that Rdms were worthless, so this had me getting worried. I next leveled up Smn since it was getting buffs and seemed that it would be desired for it's damage and utility. Once I finished leveling it up and gearing it, people were back to only wanting physical dps jobs and wanted nothing to do with casters. So this again got me panicked and I decided that I'd try to level Mch since it was already 60 and try to learn how to do the whole overheat with Wild Fire stuff. Now with 4.2 notes, people are already starting to say that Mch is worthless and a triple melee + Brd party is the way to go and now I just feel like quitting the game entirely.

I just don't know what to do anymore, I'm tired of swapping to another job only for that job to be deemed worthless in the eyes of the community and end up being excluded from potential play. I'm tired of swapping jobs and ending up being mediocre in them all because I haven't dedicated myself to focusing on one and learning it fully. I just want to be able to enjoy the game with people and have fun learning and mastering a singular job instead of constantly gimping myself. I just don't know what to do anymore. x_x

[Elix_Moarbase]

I just don't know what to do anymore. x_x

It's not the community's fault. The devs have just lost all sense of balance in the classes.

People are going to do what is easiest. And, when you make the synergy of most of the classes better than the classes that can only provide DPS, or minimal utility, people aren't going to take the classes that don't have synergy. That's on the devs.

[darcstar62]

Frankly, most of the people that refuse to take jobs not in the meta are not playing at a high enough level for it to make a difference. In most cases, you're better off with a capable player of a non-meta job than you are with a poor meta job player.

Ofc, you're right that most people don't understand this.

[NoctusT]

So there are 2 types of meta really. Progression meta and speedkill meta. RDM will always be a part of progression meta due to the amt of raises you have. So I wouldn't worry about people saying "rdm is terrible".

The speedkill meta is all about ranged dps and melee. Casters don't really have a spot there and that's the devs' problem. Just FYI the speedkill meta only directly affects people who speedkill who are a subset of raiders who are, in turn, a subset of the entire playerbase. So MCH will currently have a spot in the speedkill meta unless the party is running triple melee which brings problems of its own. So it goes something like:
(Player base (Raiders (Speedkillers)))

So the people who think the "speedkill meta" which is what they normally refer to as "the meta" is the be all end all of raiding are actual morons as most of the player base dont play at a high enough level for the meta to be actually relevant for them. Stick to what you like and get good at that job. If people are rejecting you for playing RDM (which is, as I said above, a really good job for progression) you don't want to be raiding with them anyways.

It helps if you remember that most of the people talking in the official forums and reddit are idiots. That said being able to flex more than one job in a raid environment is not a bad thing TBH. Being able to play RDM and MCH at a high level is quite valuable as many players (including me) are one trick ponies. But as you pointed out yourself, learning to play RDM well will benefit you more as I'm guessing that you're new to raiding. You can, of course, learn MCH once you get used to playing RDM.

So TL;DR - remember that most of the people on forums have lower IQ's than baboons. RDM is really good for prog and comes with its own physical DPS raid buff. If you love RDM the most learn to play it well and don't worry about what people say. You don't want to raid with the people who only focus on the meta anyways since they don't understand why those jobs work so well. Being able to play MCH as well is not a bad idea though. But take it slow and get used to RDM first.

I hope this helped. GL for this coming tier and remember to have fun!

[Legion88]

You are overreacting. Take it more easy.
There is no reason to go for META if you are not participating in the world first race.
The META only focuses on high raid DPS and to utilize it you have to perfectly allign the buff windows to each other.

And don't forget a good player is better on a disadvanteged job then a mediocre player on a META job.

Just play what you want and be good with it and you will find a party or static.

[wereotter]

If you're not trying to be world first in clearing the highest raid content available, then any job is viable, and the people who are dismissing you for playing the job you love are probably not people you want to be raiding with anyway. My advise, look for like-minded people and start your own raid group. Really the only thing you'd probably want to restrict if two melee and two ranged on DPS since it has made certain mechanics easier to handle in many fights, and no overlapping jobs.

Once you have that, provided people are playing their jobs well, all parties are viable for clearing at least the Omega Savage raids.

[Alkimi]

It's not the community's fault. The devs have just lost all sense of balance in the classes.

People are going to do what is easiest. And, when you make the synergy of most of the classes better than the classes that can only provide DPS, or minimal utility, people aren't going to take the classes that don't have synergy. That's on the devs.

The vast majority of the playerbase can't even use this synergy properly anyway so it's not worth worrying about in things like pug groups. For example ninjas that use trick attack at random so they're not lined up with anyone else, SCHs that don't use chain at all apart from in a non-optimal way 0.1s after engaging the boss, DRGs that constantly let piercing fall off because their rotation is awful. etc. etc.

Lots of people know what the meta is but most of them have no idea why.

[Renryuu]

I appreciate the responses, it has helped to bring me back down from my worrying. I've been thinking and if I want to play for fun and for myself, I'd want to make a change. Essentially I'd want to make my character mimic as best as possible my favorite characters. Characters such as Mega Man X, Samus Aran (Metroid series), the Doomed Marine from DooM, and other similar characters. Obviously, this brings job selection down to either Mch or Brd, but between the two, I'm not sure which could best mimic them. I was leaning towards Mch since one consistent thing in my whole life is my love for gadgets and gizmos and the whole steampunk gunner type of thing.

[HaroldSaxon]

The "meta" has been pretty much static since 3.3. You haven't had to keep changing classes.

This is the first potential class change since then, and before then the same class that lost its place in early HW is back in contention.

From a personal perspective, I don't have much of a problem with what is meta as long as:

At least 1 class from each role is meta
The role that has two classes in the meta changes every so often
The classes that are meta change every so often
Running 3 Melee, 3 Caster or 2 ranged classes is NOT meta.

Right now, SE just don't care about what is meta. They just want to see casters kicked to the curb.

[zuzu-bq]

There are a few reasons for someone to refuse you as a X job player.

They want to push foward with a better or the best team composition's potential.
They want their players to be able to perform well in multiple jobs for multiple purposes.
They're completly ignorant and just want to copy what seems to be good without accounting player skill or understanding why that is good.

Sadly the later is the most common. But the first two are very reasonable and something you'll stumble upon when you try to play the game in a higher skill level.
SE doesn't seem care about adressing the social issues these things may cause. On top of that, these issues only seem to be heavily present on the western side of the game servers.

They're trying to balance the whole game around pick up groups, while this isn't a bad thing for business, it really hurts many of the pre-made groups' enoyable factors from the game.