Ranged DPS role is about to be excluded from all content

[Connor]

I’m starting to get a little confused now with how exactly this issue would be resolved?

If they buff ranged DPS, and it ended up at like 500 dps, then what’s the point of bringing a Summoner/Red Mage over them? Even Samurai and Dragoon could be in danger if the ranged DPS role gets too close. But then, if they get any less of a DPS increase, even if it’s like 200 DPS would it even move their position in the rankings? It would close the gap between the top and bottom, but it wouldn’t resolve the fact that DPS is the only measure of a jobs contributions because of job design, and thus the lower down the ‘rankings’ a job is the less valuable it will be compared to those at the top, unless the gap becomes so small that it’s negligible, which would invert the imbalanced to be weighted towards ranged DPS because of their apparent convenience. And while I do agree that the mobility isn’t an advantage like it was before, I do think there’s a case for the argument that ranged DPS are very easy to execute at an acceptable level compared to other roles.

Edit: I wrote a paragraph here weighting up the ‘ranged is easier’ argument and whether that would justify where ranged are now. And I eventually concluded that this really only applies to Bards. You have literally 3 GCD abilities that you’ll use like normal GCDs lol; Burst Shot, Refulgent Arrow and Iron Jaws. Procs are always one at a time, there are no utility abilities to managed, songs might as well apply automatically and you have no restrictions on any of your abilities (cast times, positionals, range requirements, mechanical restrictions like the time taken for Steps, resource costs or decision making). I wouldn’t argue there’s much depth in pressing Iron Jaws just before buffs fall off. Dancer at least has the Step system, decision making on when to use Feathers or Sabre Dance, and a set of procs that happen simultaneously (fans and Esprit) rather than one at a time. And Machinist, I’ll admit I’ve not played it in ages but I feel like dealing with squeezing as many attacks into Wildfire as possible is complexity enough lol. So I don’t feel like the ‘theyre easier argument’ applies outside of Bard

If we assume that an ideal ranking is something like: Black Mage, Samurai, Dragoon, Ninja, Summoner, Bard, Machinist, Red Mage and Dancer, then how would they buff the ranged DPS without them moving up from where they should be? If the ranged DPS are higher than any other job in a different role (e.g Red Mage), isn’t that a pretty big blow to said job?

It stands to reason that Summoner and Red Mage will also receive damage buffs, so the amount they’re contributing would go up at the same time as ranged DPS, meaning that while there wouldn’t be a chance of ranged overtaking they, we’d still be in the exact same position but with slightly higher DPS. Isn’t that a really roundabout way of nerfing Black Mage and Monk? I mean, if we really want things to be balanced without changing any aspects of the game itself, wouldn’t nerfing them (maybe Dragoon too?) mean balance is immediately restored without them having to lift a finger to adjust other classes?

I imagine that if ranged just got a flat potency boost, it wouldn’t really mean anything because Summoner and Red Mage are getting them too. In 4.0 most raid groups would gladly push out a caster if they had to choose between that or a ranged for Refresh etc, which isn’t unacceptable. But now they’re competing purely on a personal DPS basis, which means that the only way they can be really balanced is by all having the exact same DPS. Even if say, Summoner was 200 DPS above every other job in the category, wouldn’t that technically make everything below it useful? I mean, when we talk about ‘dps’ we mean rDPS, and I can’t imagine Battle Voice gives more DPS than Devotion consider they have the same cooldown. Embolden I hear is really weak so that wouldn’t make Red Mage worth taking over Summoner. Machinist doesn’t have anything for rDPS, and Dancer must always be at the bottom of the DPS anyway because of its damage buffs.

And I mean, my own wishes aside they couldn’t increase the utility for ranged DPS for the exact same reason (would create an imbalance). So it doesn’t sound like this works as a valid way to balance the role between others anymore. I know the whole post is just going to seen as my way and it makes to try and justify turning ranged into some abhorrent mutant support role, and it’s a fair assumption to make based on my post history I guess lol. But for once, I’m not trying to suggest that utility is ‘the’ way to adjust this, because realistically it’s the exact opposite way of adjusting the balance, at least from the majority of what I’ve seen

If only a small gap exists between these jobs, then there is a balance there, but then we still have the ‘ultimate’ jobs with DPS shooting up the top. If only a small gap exists between these jobs and ones like Black Mage, doesn’t that create a whole other kind of imbalanced ‘meta’? Why take Black Mage if you only do 200 DPS less as a Bard/Machinist for 10% of the effort?

I guess what I’m saying (what I should have said 90 paragraphs ago) is, how could the ranged DPS role get personal DPS buffs without either invalidating other jobs or the buffs being too small to make an actual difference? Surely the most realistic option to create balance in this context in a way the devs can actually do is lower the potencies of the top jobs and not buff the lower ones? Would buffs to ranged personal DPS really solve anything besides making it harder to balance jobs between each other at the lower end?


Like, what would buffs to the ranged DPS role look like to resolve this issue? Potency buffs? Adjusting Battle Voice / Tactician / Steps for rDPS gains? Adjusting the strength of job unique abilities (e.g Queen Automaton, Apex Arrow, Fourfold Feather)?