Some views on DPS balance that everyone cares about

[Myon88]

I mean, sure. You can make that argument. You'd probably just have the same result as we have now, just double ranged instead of double caster.

Well, you just made that argument yourself, didn't you? If similarity of 'toolkits' is sufficient to lump dancer, bard, and summoner in the same category, by all rights machinist is due for a blm-tier buff, or blm needs to start looking more like a machinist on the charts.

Personally I don't really see the similarity, not to mention they're completely separate roles. It's popular to view summoner as a pseudo-ranged after its 5.1 mobility buffs, but the fact is the dps/percentile box plots show that summoner has the same skill gap as the melees and rdm. If giving them additional mobility via egi assaults apparently 'dumbed down' their difficulty to physical ranged levels, their box plots would be as short as the physical ranged - they are not. So what's happening? Either they're not as mobile as they seem, or their rotation is complex enough that people are finding plenty of other ways to make mistakes, or both.

Whatever it is, the data doesn't support it being appropriate to compare them to the physical ranged, especially if the reason is 'Well summoner is as easy as a ranged job now'.

What I do agree with though is that the casters as a whole are grossly overpowered compared to the melees and ranged. Like I've said many times, this is a HW ranged situation where jobs within a role get counter-buffed against each other repeatedly until the entire role grows out of scale.

A simple thought experiment, remove summoner from the game completely and what are you left with? Black mage, which is the best dps in the game by far, even outstripping samurai its counterpart in the no-raid-utility category. Oh and it's ranged. Red mage, which brings the same amount of rdps as the non-samurai melees, except it can also rez and it's also ranged. Why would anyone play a melee over a caster? Even with embolden as is, you would lock in blm + rdm in any party even if summoner didn't exist.

The caster role is due for a massive correction and the more people sulk over perceived 1% dps disparities instead of marveling at the fact that it's only 1%, the sooner it will happen. Personally if that day comes, I think it would be appropriate for blm to get a real nerf so it sits alongside samurai, summoner sharing a spot with the other melees, and red mage down at the same level as the physical ranged. I'm not sure how I can explain it any simpler for the rdm and blm 'mains', but if summoner goes down, you guys are coming along for the ride.