Quote Originally Posted by ElHeggunte View Post
I don’t rightly understand the hubbub about metas. There will always be a meta. If you remove or nerf synergy-based metas you’ll immediately see them replaced with DPS-based metas. You didn’t fix the meta, you only changed who’s in it while also removing any semblance of class identity.

This is a community problem moreso than a design issue. All comps are viable, but players are sheep. They don’t want viable, they want the best. Since we’ll never have roles 100% equal to one another there will always be a “best” meaning there will always be a meta, even if that “best” class is only on top in a vacuum by a painfully negligible amount.
People are not necessarily focused on meta but competitiveness. Summoner doesn't struggle to slot into parties nor has White Mage this expansion. Even Monk after 4.1 has begun to find solid ground, albeit slowly. None of these jobs are meta, though White Mage is valued for prog. What they are is competitive. Contrast that with say, Samurai, which is objectively inferior to any of the three melee, assuming relatively equal skill, and you see the actual problem. Likewise, Bards and Machinists who care to optimize are utterly dependent on a Dragoon or they simply cannot optimize their jobs. Please, go ahead and explain why Physical Range requiring a Dragoon represents anything to do with their respective identity? How about Slash? Warrior, Ninja and Samurai can all apply. What identity do they apparently share? Job identity is little more than an excuse to not make changes which deviant from how the developers want us to play. It's why Yoshida recently lamented Warrior's infrequent use of Defiance. To which I say, "Because you give them no reason to bother with it. What did you expect would happen after implement Shirk?"

I disagree. While the community can overstate how valuable the meta is. The design of this game wholly favours damage above everything else. A pure healer, for example, will spend upwards 60%+ of even Savage content doing absolutely nothing if they refuse to DPS. Likewise, Shirk and Diversion have made Enmity laughably simply, thus what else are tanks going to focus on?