Ranged DPS role is about to be excluded from all content

[WalxAtNite]

It’s unlikely that BLM will get nerfed. The developers have a general aversion to nerfing things, even when they should—this has been well-established throughout the history of the game.

As for PTR, no. We don’t have anything like that despite repeatedly asking for it to avoid problems much like this one.

They already announced the Range will get "a slight buff" in 5.1. Whether that will be enough remains to be seen.

And unfortunately, no, they don't have a PTR. Which is one reason job balancing can be all over the place sometimes. A bigger problem is they have a tendency to balance around the casual minded players and not the raid scene. Perhaps the best example is back in Stormblood when Yoshida outright said they didn't balance Bard and Machinist with Dragoon in mind despite Dragoon providing two buffs (Piercing and Litany) that made Bard hilariously strong.

I... I am at a loss for words. How does a game like this one not have a PTR?! In their defense, it's a damn good game considering.

Well, I have a ways to go before I'll be ready for any high-end raiding, so fingers crossed that BRD will be half as desirable as BLM.

As far as casual vs. raider... that issue exists everywhere and probably won't ever go away. Casuals make up the majority in most MMOs, so that's *usually* who the devs tend to favor most. Balance would benefit everyone, though. That's a fact.

[HyoMinPark]

As far as casual vs. raider... that issue exists everywhere and probably won't ever go away. Casuals make up the majority in most MMOs, so that's *usually* who the devs tend to favor most. Balance would benefit everyone, though. That's a fact.

Balance would favor all, yes—but it would have to still be done around the high-end. High-end is honestly the only place in this game where balance matters, as other content is simply designed and tuned far too low by comparison. Balancing around dungeons would negatively affect raid settings, where things are done far differently. But balancing around raids will allow said balance to trickle down into the more casual content. One has to think about trickling down—trickling up doesn’t work. As ForteNightshade mentioned, SB BRD was an excellent example of what happens when raid balance is ignored.

[CKNovel]

I... I am at a loss for words. How does a game like this one not have a PTR?!

PTR wouldn't help, PTR aren't used to balance but to test functionnalities and make sure they work correctly as well as collecting feedback.

If SE had a PTR it would probably be located in Japan which would be unplayable. If the PTR also include the story/savage raiding, that would spoil it or give spoilers to trolls.
I'd also point out that back in... May? There was the Media tour where big bois streamer could try the job a good month before anyone else. Everyone pointed with their finger that the Dancer would be broken as hell. Saber Dance was 30% critical and Direct it, which is now 20%.

Dancer is now extremely underwhelming and would probably have been average keeping the old values.
There was also feedback about the MCH Hypercharge and the Queen very slow to boot up. Hypercharge remained the same and is a major problem.