Is SE making more and more anti-melee fights?

[GenericMagus]

This is not the case of just dealing with forced down-time/ temporary dis-engage, but the frequency and the increasing amount of times even normal trials are getting into. An example is trials like Suzaku, where the immediate disengage is far worse for melee, not to mention the constant movement impairs melees as well than anything else, and from there to E8s, which is also heavily melee mechanics in its execution, while even Alliance raids are getting into it for a long time now.

It's often noted how much more frustrating playing melee is, alongside there seems to be a general increase in more and more people going ranged DPS. Including anecdotal evidence of more statics looking for melee as well.

[LittleImp]

This tier in particular has been pretty punishing towards melee, and some of the fights are pretty rude to casters as well. 3 ranged comps are pretty common. The game has been notably crawling with PhysRanged lately, and people have even been caught using third-party software to automate their rotations. >.>

Bring back Physranged castbars!

[Theodric]

Bring back Physranged castbars!

No thanks.

[Doozer]

It's often noted how much more frustrating playing melee is, alongside there seems to be a general increase in more and more people going ranged DPS. Including anecdotal evidence of more statics looking for melee as well.

There's always been a lot of ranged DPS players. Being ranged with no cast times is super safe, and since one was added with the expansion, of course there's going to be lots. I don't think it's that new, it's just more noticeable with each new ranged DPS added.

People seem to generally be afraid of playing melee, so much that even when they are they'll refuse to ever use LB even when there's no reason to save it. I'm not sure how much the fight design impacts how many ranged DPS there are.

[Seddrinth]

I play phys ranged because I lack the skills to play melee at an acceptable level, but the competent melee players have no issues. It takes a certain level of competency to play melee with uptime, positionals but the good players can do it. The last 2 tiers really do a good job of weeding out good and bad melee players.

[Infindox]

The game has been notably crawling with PhysRanged lately

I mean DPS wise it's the safest option for most. Mostly no cast times, can move around freely while attacking, etc.

[Shougun]

No thanks.

I actually liked the idea for bard because I felt it made it more ranger. And I liked the ranger imagery over machine gun bard, but... I had not anticipated how many loved the hyper mobility until they made the change. Like Samurai I think the cast bar can help emphasize oomph and so I don't think it should be a forbidden concept but no way would I suggest again to do it randomly to a job lol (so slapping that onto a pre-mobile job like that shouldn't be repeated again xD). Definitely the value of giving people an accurate representation so they can choose to like it, or not- rather than like something then have it taken away.

Although I think there could also be some additional interesting play in the concept too, like if we imagined a ranger with the cast bar (not bard) or just like Samurai already has. While charging up their attack there could be other moves to use during that action. Besides obvious ocgd you might imagine Samurai while holding their blade in their scabbard also infusing the scabbard with sigils. Almost like a dancer moment. Duration of charge of course meaning it might just be making one choice or interaction- interaction meaning something to do while charging (like dancer) and choice being more like Ninja where you might be able to add a concept to the ability being cast. Like if it was ranger and you were drawing the bow back for a super line attack and you might choose to widen the cone and distance, or work in some biting poison, yet if there weren't going to last the debuff you might just press the option that increases base potency instead for burst, or the tank is taking lots of damage so you work in a distracting effect instead which reduces their damage, etc. Obviously the charge is only going to be like 1 to 3 seconds, so you can't make too many choices in that period but I think it's something that could be done to add to the idea of oomph but also not just 'watching'.

In general I feel like both casting and dead time can be more diversely utilized in the game, like in the transformation thread / geoknight idea sometimes I suggest calling forth constructs that can operate some of your own spells. Like the void mage calling forth a void, like, sphere and then being able to load it up with a line attack as a boss might, but then be able to also move the sphere in it's own attack (like lobbing it to another location causing damage and repositioning the line aoe as a consequence as well). Also allows for a fairly neat way to expand power and even combine spells, like at level 60 they might gain two spheres which means another cast / dynamic, and having those spheres coalesce or influence each other.

Or like if players are incapacitated (so long as it isn't for cutscene / big spectacle boss moves) there might be skills you can use still, like in WoW there are some PvP trinkets you can use to remove stuns from yourself. Here you might have one job be able to shield themselves if stunned, etc, just be careful not to reward getting stunned lol (spell isn't something you purposefully get locked up and into a sticky situation to use). Another example might be a healer having one skill that can work while they're casting, so if they were hard casting raise they might be able to buy themselves a second by slapping down an emergency aoe shield (during cast). Black mage might be able to go to their ley line even while stunned or casting, which could create a sometimes really handy effect (and mean they might start casting sooner even though their circle still has some bad puddle on it).

[Xaphire]

Bowmage can go and stay go. I disliked it enough that I dropped HW for basically its entire life, coming back shortly before Stormblood and switching to NIN. I played melee this raid tier and had a lot of fun with it.

[grinkdaboy]

i dunno, i think bowmage is unique enough that they could make a separate, distinct job out of it (ranged phys with castbars)

and the fights in this tier have been all designed by the z-team who either don't play melee or didn't care. wolex at least is less punishing to melee

[LittleImp]

No thanks.

I mostly jest;

Bowmage was essentially a misguided answer to the fundamental balance issue created by having a set of jobs that don't really interact with fight mechanics on a rotational level.

The most recent answer has been to simply make those jobs do the least damage, though they've also unfortunately decided to reduce the complexity of their rotations as well. I personally think it would make more sense to have unlimited mobility coupled with a really complex kit that's hard to maximize on a purely rotational level.