I'm really sorry for your experience and hope you'll manage to find a better group.
I allowed myself to look at your parses and your group clearly could have cleared E8S with practice or replacing the Dragoon with a Black Mage could have been a better idea if they were ready to replace.

As for the ideas:
-Give back casts at the SMN level. 40% free cast, 60% cast. Casting won't change anything as ranged don't move more than 7/8 of the time. Community won't cry about the jobs being no cast/no melee and we will have our rDPS back without anything changing. Honestly, the transition between HW and SB made me feel like nothing changed and "mobility" only impacts learning the fight and the week 1 progress proved that it had a very small impact.

-Shift the utility of the role. Currently, ranged brings nothing outside of rDPS and Tactician/Troubadour/Samba. We need powerfull tools that could help the group to survive, able to compare with SMN/RDM ressing.

-Complexify the rotation. If the ranged's rotation are the hardest, it could actually bring a balance between all 3 DPS roles. That would bring a balance between all 3 DPS roles. Melees have simple rotation but has to be melee, Caster can be ranged but have casting, ranged have "free mobility" but more complex rotation.

The problem with these ideas is that it can't be implemented before 6.0.

Quote Originally Posted by Lastelli View Post
For the hundredth time, you do want a physical ranged dps in your party to maximize damage.
They're not going to fix it, because there's nothing that needs to be fixed.
You're not wrong, but you're not right either.
There is no needs for fixes, balance wise. "Everything can be cleared with a ranged" However, damages impacts the community's view on the role and it can be seen with PF locking double ranged out from their groups while it's the content where DPS is the least required thing.

But what is the easiest to change, the job balancing or the community's mind?