*sigh* I meant 4.0, as the patch 4.0. I didn't say 4.x. Apparently you all forgot. In 4.0, BLM was painful to play and did really, really poor DPS. This didn't change before Deltascape, but BLM was still outclassed by SMN in every way even with the bucketload of buffs we got. The only thing SE got right accidentally with that first QoL buff, was that Blizzard IV was actually made optional as the DPS loss of avoiding it isn't big enough compared to how safe the rotation is and how small chance there is to messing it up when you've learned it. And to me, avoiding Blizzard IV made BLM much more enjoyable to play for me while still doing more DPS than the majority of BLMs.

Most of you are also ignoring the fact that Raise is the sole reason to why there will always be a imbalance between BLM and SMN/RDM, no matter the difference in DPS or utility. BLM could have Apocatastasis (RIP you stole it from us), Mana Shift, even a Manaward you could cast on others, and still people would pick SMN/RDM because of their Raise and mostly ignore BLM. I have a few friends who main BLM, and multiple times they got asked, and sometimes even forced into playing SMN/RDM for Savage. Only because of raise. It's ridiculous. And apparently this is OK for this community and SE.

BLM sure does the most DPS right now, but that took 1 YEAR to happen. 4.4 was when SE finally got their ass out and buffed F4/B4 to 300 potency, where it should've been from the start. Mind you, 40 more potency than 4.0 with a reduced cast time to 2.8s instead of 3s. That's how bad 4.0 BLM was. Right now, BLM is where it should be, a clear number 1. Having gone through and calculated potency per second for BLM, there's a 11% increase in DPS. SMN on the other hand, gets a 18-20% increase, or even more, if those Ruin 3/4 numbers stay. Which will make SMN do more damage than BLM, have more utility and MUCH more movement. I am NOT taking this as fact for what ShB will be like, but I honestly doubt SE will do anything about it before launch, and just wait until 5.05. If BLM has bad DPS at launch, people will think that's the case for almost the entire expansion (which was actually the case until as late as 4.5).

This game never had any party compositions that were unviable, and me and my static thinks the same. We started with BLM/RDM/NIN/BRD on Deltascape because that's what people wanted to play, simple as that. We even got our first clear of O4S with BLM/RDM/NIN/SAM, using that as our progression group... If you wanted MNK/SAM/MCH/BLM for Savage at 4.05, that would be perfectly fine, as damage is still mostly dependant on player skill, which people seem to have forgotten. But this increasingly toxic and elitist raiding community has just continuously forced the meta into everything, even going as far as saying there are unviable jobs. Currently, Melee DPS is fixed in this regard. DRG is no longer almost mandatory and NIN lost one of the biggest reasons to pick it. Now SE just has to balance those. For ranged DPS, I hope SE knows what they're doing when removing all damage buff utility from MCH, nerfing BRDs utility heavily and giving all the stuff to DNC. For casters though, as long as Raise only exists on SMN/RDM, it is completely and utterly impossible to balance this to the point where people have no issues taking any of those jobs in and don't even have to think about wanting an extra Raise.

Am I trolling? No, I just want to see SE actually balancing casters now that they've made the needed effort to balance Melee. Raising should either be completely removed, or EVERY CASTER should be given a Raise on a 5-7 minute cooldown and only that as a Raise. Is this an unreasonable request? No. Does removing Raise remove the identity of RDM/SMN? No, they're still very unique to all other DPS. When Raise is removed from RDM/SMN, Healers need to have an easier time raising. I hate having to do all the thinking that SE can't be bothered with, and then being promptly ignored.

I will definitely be looking forward to being right on what the state of BLM vs. SMN/RDM will be when the expansion and next raid tier launches.