Ranged DPS role is about to be excluded from all content

[Absimiliard]

They can think what they like about the accuracy of fflogs, or the justified-ness of the playerbase primarily valuing damage contribution at the high end of play. But they have to respect that these things impact player behavior way more than their calculations or wishful thinking ever will.

A large part of the playerbase putting so much emphasis on damage output is their fault to begin with. The number of mechanics people are expected to do increases a bit with every expansion, it seems like. Combine the ever-growing number of mechanics (and increased pace/overlapping thereof) with tighter and tighter and tighter enrage timers and you get a bunch of players that want to push maximum damage to the exclusion of almost all else to get everything over with ASAP. The faster it dies, the less likely the raid is to wipe.

Mind you, this isn't one of those lolgametoohard posts. I have no opinion on the game's difficulty as it currently stands. I do, however, believe there is a direct correlation between fight design and the need for greater emphasis on damage. The damage first mentality existed as early as the coils in ARR, I concede, but it wasn't anywhere near as prevalent as it is now. Subsequent changes to encounter design philosophy have necessitated a far more aggressive approach to most fights.