This whole Meta Party thing is hurting me. x_x

[HaroldSaxon]

Just play what you want, it's why I main red mage and love playing all the healers because I feel comfortable playing them. If you feel comfortable playing a meta job than that's a bonus for you but it's not required by any means.

Good luck finding a group outside of prog with a caster. Good luck finding a group full stop with a BLM.

As a moderator on one of the largest recruitment discords, the amount of groups looking for a caster are very few and far between. Yet the number of casters that are still looking for groups after protracted periods of time is large - tanks/healers/melee's/ranged all get snapped up quickly.

[Lord_Zlatan]

epic post

As someone that just started a static, and as someone who is switching to RDM for the purposes of said static, it is comforting to know that people still understand this concept.

[Lord_Zlatan]

in my humblest opinion, meta only applies to games that have a plethora of options available to you. For example, Magic the Gathering has clear "meta" cards. A game that has like... 15 options, does not actually have a real meta, especially when every one of those options has passed the test of the hardest trial in the game.

[Pastahnak]

Good luck finding a group outside of prog with a caster. Good luck finding a group full stop with a BLM.

As a moderator on one of the largest recruitment discords, the amount of groups looking for a caster are very few and far between. Yet the number of casters that are still looking for groups after protracted periods of time is large - tanks/healers/melee's/ranged all get snapped up quickly.

Then they can find people who take raiding less seriously than people who want full meta teams. If you are someone who raids seriously you are probably someone who can get good at any job in the game and will gravitate towards the meta. I'm speaking from a more casual point of view as that's what the majority of people are and what I'm assuming the OP is as well.

[RainDurell]

As said before, meta doesn't apply to you. In fact it doesn't apply to the vast majority of people. If you're good with your job, you will be a useful asset, whether you are RDM, MCH, SAM.

People make wayyyyy too much of a big deal over meta, just play what you like, and be good at it.

[Nominous]

As said before, meta doesn't apply to you. In fact it doesn't apply to the vast majority of people. If you're good with your job, you will be a useful asset, whether you are RDM, MCH, SAM.

People make wayyyyy too much of a big deal over meta, just play what you like, and be good at it.

Meta applies to everyone, and everyone should care.

Being 'viable' is an incredibly low standard, for starters. If a Job wasn't viable on implementation, it literally means it does not work. That the Jobs work is a base level, bare-minimum expectation of the developers. Yet that's pretty much been the entire defense all these years. It's okay because it works? I don't think so.

The real goal shouldn't be that your game works, that's a requirement. It should be to get everyone as close to the center as possible, while also remaining unique and fun. That goal should remain intact regardless of if a 'meta' has or hasn't formed, or how effective it is.

And that being said, even trying to avoid dramatics, the meta is pretty strong. You're stacking basically some of the best support elements in the game, as well as some of the best damage augments in the game, making your party strong at both survival and offense. There's really no detriment to running the godcomp; It excels at everything. There are very clear, very tangible detriments to dropping any of the meta Jobs for others, however. It's not enough to where there should be riots or anything. You can always make your own party to clear things. It is enough to make the Job feel unrewarding and lackluster though, and I don't think that's fun.

This game didn't get a massive revival because people rolled over and said 1.0 was fine because it 'worked'. They were unsatisfied, and they spoke up. I'd say it's important people talk about this more.

[RainDurell]

By "it works" I don't mean "you can press buttons and it won't crash", I mean it by that it's a viable job to clear ANY content with.
I'm not saying preferable comps don't exist, but the amount of attention your giving it is dumb, it's NOT as important as you think it is. The difference between running a meta comp vs a non-meta comp isn't that dramatic that it completely nullifies "off-meta" jobs, you're all acting as if having a meta comp results is resulting in 2x as fast clears or something.

Tldr meta doesn't matter unless you're running world prog

[HaroldSaxon]

Then they can find people who take raiding less seriously than people who want full meta teams. If you are someone who raids seriously you are probably someone who can get good at any job in the game and will gravitate towards the meta. I'm speaking from a more casual point of view as that's what the majority of people are and what I'm assuming the OP is as well.

Should an entire role be excluded from serious raiding though? It doesn't excuse the current situation.

By "it works" I don't mean "you can press buttons and it won't crash", I mean it by that it's a viable job to clear ANY content with.
I'm not saying preferable comps don't exist, but the amount of attention your giving it is dumb, it's NOT as important as you think it is. The difference between running a meta comp vs a non-meta comp isn't that dramatic that it completely nullifies "off-meta" jobs, you're all acting as if having a meta comp results is resulting in 2x as fast clears or something.

Tldr meta doesn't matter unless you're running world prog

Yes it does matter. It matters socially when looking for groups and it also matters performance wise - running meta comps leads to more raid dps which can be important to hit enrages in lower skilled groups. The old meta comp of MCH + BRD also provided much more mana to the party for lower skilled healers.

This whole "the meta doesn't matter for non world prog" needs to go back to /r/ffxiv and die in a fire because its one of the most idiotic statements to come out of this community.

[Faeon]

Level all jobs, play the job and gear up the current job that is meta at this current tier/patch, if you want to progress in the raiding content if you are running it effectively and within the current cycle before the next level comes out. That is the simplest answer I can give, next tier it might be something different. Jump ship and gear one of the new meta comps.

The above paragraph is plain and simple and blunt. Not a nice answer and I will get flamed but hey it is what it is.

The nice answer would be, forget the meta and find a group that does not worry about such things and runs the content at their own pace and what jobs they choose to run as. I am in the same boat I run with a group that runs the content and tries to clear it even if it takes us longer as long as we finish it and completed it with the gear drops that go with it, in the current cycle that is.

The decision is yours to make in the end. GL to you.

[HaroldSaxon]

Level all jobs, play the job and gear up the current job that is meta at this current tier/patch, if you want to progress in the raiding content if you are running it effectively and within the current cycle before the next level comes out. That is the simplest answer I can give, next tier it might be something different. Jump ship and gear one of the new meta comps.

Which would be a fair enough comment to make if the meta switched up every patch and at least one class of every role is meta. Unfortunately, that isn't the case whatsoever.