I'd love to see an actual parse of THM burst nukes with MP regen after the fact Vs typical physical damage.
After spending a lot of time doing company leves today on various level 50 classes setting the mobs all at the same level. I feel THM is on par with all the other classes in it's own way. The following numbers are purely done by eye (hence why I'd like to see an actual acurate parse) but the logic is sound.
Doing, say, the thunder line of combo spells on a single target, excluding parsimony and excruciate, you can easily pump out 3000 damage in a matter of 15(at most, probably less than 15 seconds but I'm being liberal) seconds or less for 1134 MP. on my THM, this is ~ 1/3rd of my MP. Recovering that takes ~ 19 seconds from the max - 1134.
So to recap, in roughly 34 seconds a THM without using any bonus abilities to assist MP conservation or boosting damage for MP longevity, they can deal about 3000 damage (give or take) for 1134 MP.
Looking at my MRD, I gain 400 TP per swing. it takes atleast 4 (16.8 seconds) swings to generate the TP needed for Brutal Swing > Maim > Godsbane combo. I do roughly 250 damage a swing (no ifrits axe) so that's 1000 damage over 16.8 seconds. Brutal swing hits for usually 400, maim for 500, and Godsbane for 600-750 if I don't include any outside buffs to increase attack power. Total that's about 2500 depending on if all hits from Godsbane lands. Then I can wait another 16.8 seconds to build up TP for another combo (sans Godsbane since it's already been used) which makes another 1000 damage roughly for that second round of TP building. 33.6 seconds not including animation lock, auto-attack delays from abilities and positioning time.
Looking at these very crude numbers, the damage output of both classes are about the same. MRD gets a little bit more out at the same time, but my THM can unleash even more damage without having to wait for MP regen since I still have 2/3rd's of a pool left to use BEFORE regen even takes place. And even then, WS timers get in the way of consistently using the same combo immediately once TP is available. This doesn't include that THM has the edded benefit of being at range and in safe zones from melee range AoE.
Point is. Sure, you can blow a crap ton of MP at one time and it looks like "crap, I can't keep Mp to deal damage for crap", but when it all pans out in a damage over time scenario, you might be standing around regening MP for a bit, but the crap load of damage you have dealt up to that point puts you in serious competition with other Damage dealers, and of course the safety of being at range.
and that's not even touching AoE fire spells, which can pull off 3000-4500 damage in one combo per mob for almost over 1500 MP.
I'd love to get some real numbers, but I think people should seriously think about the damage over time scenario compared physical damage dealers. I think you'll find it's all balanced and proper.
If you don't like standing around waiting for MP back on THM, go play something else. It's a burst DD class.