Let's Theorize a 5.1 Balance Patch.

[Shurrikhan]

3 Rules:

1. We'll be attempting to match jobs closely to Dragoon rDPS.

   Our implicit goal is to keep difficulty the same for parties that are roughly only half-meta, tuning difficulty more appropriately for the currently overtuned full-meta parties (BLM, MNK, DRG, SAM), and to improved performance for everyone else.

2. Specify your "taxes".

   "Taxes" here refers to rDPS reductions resultant from (1) average inflated in-practice rDPS due to ease of play, positioning, or mechanical involvement or (2) utilities meaningful to rDPS that cannot be quantitatively measured, such as Mantra, Warden's Paeon, Minne, Rescue, Cover, or Verraise. Essentially, these are things attractive enough that a job would still often be taken even if it had slightly inferior rDPS due to the ease of clear they'd bring despite tightening the hard enrage dps check for the party.
   
   For our purposes here, let us assume fairly tight dps checks, future-proofing for Week One in the next tier. These "taxes" therefore should be applied sparingly.

3. Build around intended gameplay improvements first, numbers thereafter.

   If you think Tsubame-Gaeshi shouldn't require use on the immediate next GCD or Yaten-Enpi should be more viable, (1) fix their functionality as necessary first, (2) see what numbers could arise from this improvement in functionality in optimal builds, and then (3) finally tune for the internal balance (relative strength of skill choices, which in turn allow for the breakpoints that guide gameplay) while bringing your job up to DRG rDPS.

Yes, this does mean BLM and MNK will have to be nerfed somewhat. Such is balance without excessive power creep.

[Shurrikhan]

Reserved for notes and top-Liked suggestions.

[etch666]

Yep its time for monk nerfs to happen and heres how-

Remove completely tornado kick and six sided star, removing these lvl 60 and lvl 80 signature skills should help to bring their dps down to mere mortal dps levels!

Remove their OP ability to do 2 true strikes in a row - too much dps!!!!!

Remove fist of earth, they should be dying more.

Leaden fist should actually make you leaden, like you are made of lead - this puts a heavy effect on your character.

Mantra should be negative 10% damage to the group, while only boosting the monks healing.

Riddle of earth should cause the next attack to hit the monk do an extra 50% damage, price to pay for nigh unlimited free positionals.

More to come!

[Kabooa]

Well lets tear off the bandaid then.

Black Mage
1. Enhanced Sharpcast instead guarantees a critical hit of the new FIrestarter or initial hit of Thundercloud.
Adds more windows of movement vulnerability

2. Enochian is reduced to 10% from 15%
Overall 3% damage nerf.

Monk
1. Riddle of Fire reduced to 15% damage bonus.

2. Bootshine no longer automatically crits. (Sorry)

Ninja
1. Bunshin reduced Ninki cost to 40. Cooldown removed.

2. Ten Chi Jin is an alternative Ninjutsu cast that doesn't consume current Mudras. GCD. Damaging Ninjutsu cast this way deal 50% more damage. 45second cooldown, 3 charges.

3. Throw Dagger does not interrupt combos or mudra combinations. Combos from any Mudra for additional potency and faster recast.

Bard, Machinist, Dancer
All see an average pps boost of about 3%.

Machinist
1. Reassemble is a 45 second cooldown with 2 charges

Red Mage
1. Embolden is now 60 second cooldown, 2 charge maximum, 10 second duration, 8% damage bonus to all damage.

2. Manafication is now just +80/80 Mana.

Summoner
1. Energy Siphon instead ends Trances and grants Ruin 4 charges.

2. Egi Assaults are moved to the GCD. Potency is increased. Sourced from the Summoner instead of the Pet.

Samurai
1. Hagakure - Sen converts into Meditate stacks. Cooldown is now 60 seconds.

2. Tsubame Gaeshi - Only usable after Iaijutsu. Grants 1 meditate. 30 second cooldown. 300 potency. Removed from the GCD.

3. Shoha - Scaling changed to 100/150/250/400/600

4. Guren Senei - Cooldown reduced to 60 seconds.

[Raikai]

Dancer

- Flourish (the ability) also forces the flourished abilities to have 100% chance of granting Fourfold Feather, instead of their usual 50% - This would be amazing because it would remove the need of hoarding feathers for the TS burst phase, since you can supply them with this change. I don't think it's an intentional design to spend most of your time treating your Feather gauge as if it had just 1 slot (since you NEED to "save" the other 3 slots for burst phase);

- Saber Dance becoming an oGCD, but having a 5s recast timer. This change would be GREAT for the people that are really unlucky with their Feather procs. The DNC rotation feels extremely dull when you don't have Feathers to weave in Fan Dances;

- Improvisation granting also a 10% DH bonus. It's currently extremely useless mainly because it's just not a reliable source of Esprit. You'd be doing more dps with your normal rotation instead and the moments where there's nothing to attack are very rare. The healing buff is nice, but again at cost of dps and it always seems like overkill.

- Curing Waltz range doubled. It's already a weak ability as it is.

[cactuarzzzz]

Well lets tear off the bandaid then.

Black Mage
1. Enhanced Sharpcast instead guarantees a critical hit of the new FIrestarter or initial hit of Thundercloud.
Adds more windows of movement vulnerability

If BLM's Enhanced Sharpcast can have a guarantees a critical hit then I want that for SAM's Kaiten too and just increase kaiten recast time.

[Shurrikhan]

...

Ninja
1. Bunshin reduced Ninki cost to 40. Cooldown removed.
2. Ten Chi Jin is an alternative Ninjutsu cast that doesn't consume current Mudras. GCD. Damaging Ninjutsu cast this way deal 50% more damage. 45second cooldown, 3 charges.
3. Throw Dagger does not interrupt combos or mudra combinations. Combos from any Mudra for additional potency and faster recast.

1. Depending on the potency you leave with Bunshin, wouldn't this then be your only viable option? This seems like taking TCJ off the cooldown and then somehow expecting Baha and Frog to compete with it still.
   
   
2. So you build Mudra and then release with TCJ instead of Ninjutsu, incurring a GCD cost but dealing additional damage, or you hit TCJ and briefly convert your mudras and your next (3?) Ninjutsu to partial GCDs?
   
   
3. How do these Mudra-Throwing Dagger combos work?

Samurai
1. Hagakure - Sen converts into Meditate stacks. Cooldown is now 60 seconds.
2. Tsubame Gaeshi - Only usable after Iaijutsu. Grants 1 meditate. 30 second cooldown. 300 potency. Removed from the GCD.
3. Shoha - Scaling changed to 100/150/250/400/600
4. Guren Senei - Cooldown reduced to 60 seconds.

1. That doesn't seem much of a potency buff, and quite unevenly distributed... Worse, it'd still be a potency loss to use. The old Hagakure, for instance, granted what would now be 768 oGCD potency per use. Yours would grant 200 (overcapping; last stack only) to 450 (best gains over last 3 stacks at +100/+150/+200).
   
   A Kasha or Gekko combo average an 405 effective potency per GCD. Kaiten Midare does an effective 944, granting almost 540 bonus potency even when including all its resource and opportunity costs. You would need to beat that to make the skill worth using. To make the skill useful for flexibility, it'd need to be almost exactly equal. For comparison, simply giving it 10 Kenki per Sen would grant a flat 384 bonus potency and giving it 15 would grant it 576, a mere 36 bonus potency that could be easily dismissed in favor of its more impactful benefits such as Sen-shearing.
   
   I, too, would like to see more frequent use from Shoha, but I personally feel like the Kenki itself is far more pivotal to our playstyle and from a much earlier level, and should be prioritized accordingly. Note also that these stacks would do absolutely nothing until level 80, unless Shoha is moved to an earlier position.
   
   
2. This wouldn't be a very significant buff, despite being more convoluted and, to most SAMs, likely less iconic. As you have no other ways to build Meditation in combat, save facing the same lower value per stack issue in Hagakure, you cannot assume that you'll get the full 200 potency of going from stack 4 to 5 each time atop the base 300 potency. With Hagakure at 60 seconds, you'd only generate 58 more potency than the current "trap" iteration of Hagakure, and then 150 and 200 from TG for at best another 950 oGCD potency per minute -- assuming the SAM can end every 30 seconds precisely with an Iajutsu. Keep in mind TG uses apply Kaiten for free, thus a K-Midare is a true 1200 potency, with only the average ppgcd cost against it. It is, therefore, worth 795 oGCD potency, further emphasized by raid (de)buff windows.

Red Mage
1. Embolden is now 60 second cooldown, 2 charge maximum, 10 second duration, 8% damage bonus to all damage.
2. Manafication is now just +80/80 Mana.

That'd be a significant loss to gameplay in the minds of most RDM mains, I'd imagine.

Summoner
1. Energy Siphon instead ends Trances and grants Ruin 4 charges.
2. Egi Assaults are moved to the GCD. Potency is increased. Sourced from the Summoner instead of the Pet.

1. Then what happens to Aetherflow abilities?
   
   
2. Aren't they already sourced from the Summoner? I could have sworn their "200 potency" deals the same damage as your 200-potency double-DoT Ruin III. I'll double check, though.

If BLM's Enhanced Sharpcast can have a guarantees a critical hit then I want that for SAM's Kaiten too and just increase kaiten recast time.

Let's be clear: it'd only guarantee a critical hit on an inferior skill which requires another inferior skill just to proc it. Fire I extends the AF phase, allowing for more Fire IV over time than if it weren't used, though not by any huge amount or to any massive gains now that we have Despair and such a long AF duration. Fire III (Firestarter procs) had likewise become increasingly situational. This would make the Fire III held more worth using outside of movement (especially now that Fire III is always free from UI3).

[AvenoMatt]

I wouldn't know how to nerf certain jobs but buffing I have some ideas.

Red Mage
Increase the damage buff duration from Manafication from 10s to 15s or 20s. At the current moment when you use manafiction for the first few seconds of the buff you are doing your melee combo not gaining any of the benefit from the buff.
Corps-a-corp should have 2 charges.
Displacement and Engagment should possibly have 2 charges as well but atm not sure.
Enchanted melee combo should be buffed. Enchaged Riposte should be as strong as Jolt 2 with a potency of 250. Zwerchhau should be 330.
Embolden should buff all dps and not just melee dps.

That's all I have.

[Connor]

Apologies for not being able to format properly (on phone).

Thankfully I don’t play jobs that are having big issues like Ninja or Red Mage, so I don’t think any of the jobs I do play would need any massive chances to be as good as BLM/MNK/DRG

Bard
I feel like if they returned Foe Requiem that would bring its rDPS more in line with the big jobs line Dragoon. It’s already in a good spot all things considered so it wouldn’t take much. Or maybe just reducing the amount of time it takes to get Soul Voice to hit 100 very slightly since I think it’s maybe a little late for new / adjusted abilities lol

Summoner
Would it be too strong if they shortened the downtime between Bahamut and Phoenix? It’s in the same position as Bard where it’s in a pretty good spot all things considered, so it also wouldn’t take much (putting aside the clunky playstyle issues)

Dancer
Probably across the board damage potency increases. Not necessarily big ones, but as much as I love support I think Dancer could really use personal damage buffs, to make it more competitive with both the high performance jobs and others in its role. I do think it needs the most ‘looking at’ of the DPS jobs I play.

I also feel like they could maybe do something to do make Fourfold Feather generate a bit more steadily. Not that having to react and adapt to the rng isn’t fun, but maybe even something like completing Standard Step or using Flourish grants one. I’m not so sure about them touching Sabre Dance, I feel like making it an oGCD wouldn’t give much benefit to Dancer in terms of making it more competitive. I feel like if Dancer got some small potency increases and some kind of steady means to generate Fourfold Feather, then the job would be more in line with others without them having to touch Sabre Dance. And naturally, I don’t have an issue with Dancer being at the bottom in terms of DPS (someone has to be), but I do think the gap could be a bit smaller.

Lastly I have a bit of an issue with Curing Waltz. It’s fun to use, but the potency scaling means it not worth much as a heal. I feel like it’d be better to use if it was a fully scaled 200 potency alone, for a fully scaled 400 potency if used with the Dance Partner in the stack. But with just a heal, it’s hard to argue whether it would close to gap between a Dancer and something like Monk or Black Mage. Maybe if they kept the strength as it is now it could have the cooldown reduced to 30 seconds? That might be too short though

Can’t say much for Ninja since it’s only 74 (so won’t do a whole section for it), but from what I understand besides the playstyle reworks it really just needs more damage across the board? I mean, having a ‘low-damage / high utility’ melee isn’t a bad idea, but it feels they took off running with the ‘low damage’ part then forgot about the ‘high utility’ (not that Trick Attack isn’t good). Surely just being a melee is worth at least being ‘medium’ damage, since there’s already a role providing the ‘low damage / high utility’ playstyle (for 2/3 of its jobs at least, Machinist is more like a melee). I also feel like if they really do the adjust the way it works in terms of how Mudra and GCD are weaved together then resolving the clipping and those kind of issues might help bring its damage output up as well. Unfortunately I don’t know much about Bunshin or the upgraded Mudras (Hyosho Ranryu and Goka Mekkyaku) so I don’t have anything to suggest for those (or know if they are the kind of things that need looked at lol)

Additionally, I unfortunately know little about Monk/Dragoon/Black Mage/Samurai outside of the basics and secondhand experience. So I’m not really able to make an informed suggestion on what to do for them

[Kabooa]

Ninja

Samurai

Red mage

Summoner

Ninja
I'll have to recheck. I assumed it still granted extra Ninki on hit. The idea being that Bunshin becomes sort of a hyper Huton window that you aim to maintain, but spend excess amounts on other Ninki skills.

You build your Mudra, use with TCJ, then use with Ninjutsu as well. TCJ being GCD just alleviates the clipping pressure (and sets up for the ninjutsu use as well).

Ten -> Enhanced Dagger -> Chi -> Enhanced Dagger -> Jin -> Enhanced Dagger. It doesn't serve to make ninjutsu better, it offers ninja some more manipulation tools as well as increased downtime-uptime. It's not necessarily a power buff - it's a usability buff. Not interrupting weaponskills means that if anything forces you off boss midcombo you can still generate ninki without dropping your main combo.

Samurai
Hagakure is meant to be an option, not a straight up use. However it's current implementation is only if delaying Tsubame is a greater offense than losing a Midare. This variant puts varying value between 1, 2, and 3. It isn't meant to be an always use option like previous Hagakure was, it's meant to be compelling choice when the situation arises that's rewarded properly. That said it's directly related to Shoha numbers so meh, you can tweak that for indirect adjustment.

Looks like it can all be number tweaked.

So we could easily just adjust Shoha and TG up and it's all gravy.

Red Mage
I mean, I suppose. I haven't asked all of them.

Summoner
Siphon is the AoE version. They still have Energy Drain. I should have specified that the abilities would be unhooked from each other. What this does is allow a Summoner to pop a trance during a transition window, store up some Ruin 4 for whatever use, but more importantly get the trance window rolling.