Ranged DPS role is about to be excluded from all content

[Miralyth]

A repeat argument in this thread is that:

Ranged are unaffected by mechanics.
meaning
Melee/Casters are affected by mechanics.
meaning
It's easier for average ranged players to get higher dps during these times.
meaning
It's harder for average melee/caster players to get higher dps during these times.
meaning
Average ranged players are doing relatively higher dps than average melee/caster, and this should be considered for balancing.

This argument is extremely unfair. It's assuming that average ranged dps are performing perfectly at all times. They aren't. These players still have to perform their rotation correctly, and they are in average rankings because they don't. They make mistakes. They get distracted by mechanics. Getting distracted by mechanics is exactly the same reason that average percentile melee/casters don't maximize their uptime. The potential of a ranged job's rotation to remain unaffected by mechanics (instead of being paused for 1-2 GCDs or saving a mobility cooldown) is not the same thing as potential performance.

Arguments where ranged are framed in perfect scenarios and everyone else is given tons of leeway do not make good cases for balancing ranged tax. Ranged tax should be balanced around potential uptime, which it is currently very far from being.

[plasmacutter]

A repeat argument in this thread is that:

Ranged are unaffected by mechanics.
meaning
Melee/Casters are affected by mechanics.
meaning
It's easier for average ranged players to get higher dps during these times.
meaning
It's harder for average melee/caster players to get higher dps during these times.
meaning
Average ranged players are doing relatively higher dps than average melee/caster, and this should be considered for balancing.

This argument is extremely unfair. It's assuming that average ranged dps are performing perfectly at all times. They aren't. These players still have to perform their rotation correctly, and they are in average rankings because they don't. They make mistakes. They get distracted by mechanics. Getting distracted by mechanics is exactly the same reason that average percentile melee/casters don't maximize their uptime. The potential of a ranged job's rotation to remain unaffected by mechanics (instead of being paused for 1-2 GCDs or saving a mobility cooldown) is not the same thing as potential performance.

Arguments where ranged are framed in perfect scenarios and everyone else is given tons of leeway do not make good cases for balancing ranged tax. Ranged tax should be balanced around potential uptime, which it is currently very far from being.

This "ranged tax" makes sense in other franchises (WoW comes to mind - where blizz had always over-punished melee) , but Square is very, very good at pressuring ranged in this game.

[Miralyth]

This "ranged tax" makes sense in other franchises (WoW comes to mind - where blizz had always over-punished melee) , but Square is very, very good at pressuring ranged in this game.

Yeah, agreed. e.g. For MCH, wildfire comes up a fraction of a second before one of the eyes goes off in E2S. Depending on your sks, you might have to delay it. This kind of stuff is all over the game. Not to mention the extra distance you frequently have to run to accommodate the rest of your group for mechanics (E1S, E3S have lots of good examples). There's a lot of moving ahead of time and then getting back fast for AoE heals, more so than the healers/casters at times.

[plasmacutter]

Yeah, agreed. e.g. For MCH, wildfire comes up a fraction of a second before one of the eyes goes off in E2S. Depending on your sks, you might have to delay it. This kind of stuff is all over the game. Not to mention the extra distance you frequently have to run to accommodate the rest of your group for mechanics (E1S, E3S have lots of good examples). There's a lot of moving ahead of time and then getting back fast for AoE heals, more so than the healers/casters at times.

At the end of the day they balance around the ~60% mark for player efficiency (barring deaths) for this reason (with intentional creeping gear inflation pushing that to the 40% mark).

This entire discussion comes down to psychology:
Nobody likes the creeping realization they have to chug meth to do what a half-sleeping person can on a different class.. at least not without bringing utility that makes a visible difference to them (like ver-raise! the champion of learning parties!)

[Myon88]

At the end of the day they balance around the ~60% mark for player efficiency (barring deaths) for this reason (with intentional creeping gear inflation pushing that to the 40% mark).

I surmised as much that this was the case. The ranged tax basically exists to balance ranged players against average melee and caster (mostly blm) players who lose uptime constantly, say, the assumption that an equivalent melee/blm only has 70% uptime. The problem with this is actual good players on those jobs get 99% uptime in reality since fights are so easy, so the ranged tax loses relevance at high levels of skill. What this means is that,

1. If you play ranged, you basically have an artificial ceiling where even the best ranged player in the world will produce numbers no better than a 60-70th percentile melee. You're being punished because other people out there play badly, there's no way for you to overcome your tax through skill.

2. Conversely, if you're a melee/blm and perform better than this baseline, you are rewarded for your effort because you will produce dps that is literally overtuned.

It has really chilling implications for the health of these roles if that's indeed how they balance them, because who would insult themselves by playing a ranged in that case? Since we have limited jobs now, may as well slap a few labels on the other jobs to differentiate them more. Ranged and rdm can have the 'beginner job' label, and the melees and blm can be called 'expert jobs'. That's essentially how they're being tuned after all, so why not just make it official.